Cascade Virus

Sometimes you just have to play the villain.

When you go to build your next deck, and you decide it is one of those days when you really just want to mess with your opponent's head, what do you do? Well, you could put on a fake goatee and claim to be the mirror universe version of yourself, but I do not recommend it. (The last time I tried that, everyone just laughed at me.) Or, you could amaze your opponent with your incredible five-headquarters super-discard deck. Then again, you do actually want to win at least one game, if not the whole tournament. So, instead of those two options, I recommend you play Maquis, and use Cascade Virus... but keep the fake goatee. It will help to convince your opponents that you are really evil, as though Cascade Virus is not evil enough by itself.

The Maquis do not get many cards in These Are the Voyages... but Cascade Virus will have you twirling the ends of that villainous fake mustache. Just wait until your opponent plays that critical non-unique or low-cost personnel, then spring your masterfully-planned trap! Just when your opponent thinks he or she has that personnel safely in play, you get to send him or her to the discard pile. (You know you have accomplished your goal if you see clumps of your opponent's hair in his or her hands.)

But each copy of Cascade Virus only works for one personnel. How do you decide when to delve into your evil monologue and use the card? You could simply look for a particularly powerful personnel, such as Morik or Gem. Or, you could look for powerful effects when a personnel comes into play, such as with Annexation Drone or Jean-Luc Picard, Vintner. Since Cascade Virus only checks for the printed cost of the card, the new Federation sub-affiliation based on Star Trek's original series will fall particularly hard against Cascade Virus. Imagine the look on your opponent's face when he or she spends five counters 'upgrading' Gary Mitchell, Godlike Mutant, only to see (almost) a whole turn's worth of counters go straight to the discard pile. Now that one is worth an evil villain laugh!

Not enough, you say? You want to mess with your opponent's head even more? Then combine Cascade Virus with Stalling for Time. A good evil genius could use it to complement Cascade Virus, targeting high-cost unique personnel to hinder the efforts of all the opponent's personnel. But a really evil genius would use it against high-cost non-unique personnel, such as Orfil Quinteros, then use Cascade Virus against that same personnel on the next turn.