Rogue Borg Ambush
Submitted by RedDwarf on Thu, 03/20/2008 - 19:09
This Deck article was written by openCards user RedDwarf at Mar 20th, 2008.
Rogue Borg Ambush
Deck listing:
Missions:
Dual: 16
Equipment (6):
Event (26):
Interrupt (4):
Personnel (11):
Ship (4):
Hints & strategie notes for this Deck
First published on Continuing Committee 29th Februar 2008
Remember the good ol' days when virtually everyone played decks with three copies of Party Atmosphere and Running a Tight Ship? You didn't need to have many personnel in your deck because you weren't going to face dilemmas at space missions, so you only needed enough personnel to make it through your one planet mission. Event destruction wasn't as common in those days, so the game became a race to see whose deck worked the gameplay script better. Ah... the glory days of Trek.
This deck is designed to bring a taste of that experience to any new players who may not have played the game during that era. It probably won't win you a world championship. It probably won't even win every game it plays, but it is something different that may shake-up your local tournament scene for a week.
The first thing you'll notice is that there are only four playable personnel in the deck. That's all you're going to need to complete three missions! The reason that this is possible is because of the ability on Goval, Follower of the One. While he is attempting a mission you may discard an equipment or event card from hand to make him attributes +2 until the end of turn. At this point you should look at the proportion of equipment and events in the deck (over 60%) and realize that you're going to hear the phrase "Goval is a beast" a lot.
By combining Goval with Data, Loyal Brother you have all the skills you need to complete Survey New World. You can either discard nine equipment/event cards from hand to boost their combined Cunning up to 32, or you can send Lore, The One along with them and only have to make four discards.
The same trick can be used for Feldomite Rush. Goval and Lore (The One) provide the skills. Once again, you then have the option of discarding seven equipment/event cards, or adding Data (Loyal Brother) to the team and only discarding three cards.
Space missions are slightly different, as you need three personnel to staff the Fortune. By using Running a Tight Ship, you can include Arctus Baran, Mercenary Captain in the attempt without giving your opponent an additional dilemma to draw and/or play for him. You can then use Goval, Lore and Baran to complete Amnesty Talks with only nine discards, while Goval, Data and Baran can complete Elude Federation Forces with only seven discards.
So that's how you complete your missions. Now you need to know how the deck gets you to that point of the game. Obviously, the majority of the equipment and events in the deck are never meant to be played. D'Arsay Archive and Optimism have been included to help you cycle through your deck during the first couple of turns. While you search for the four personnel in the deck, it is probably worth keeping the Fortune in your hand. The ship can download a Non-Aligned Archaeology personnel when played. That means that you have the choice of either Goval or Arctus Baran depending on who is already in play. As you approach the stage where you're ready to attempt a mission, you'll want to be using the Interrupts to destroy (or return to deck) any event your opponent may have in play that will help him or her with their dilemma selections. Finally, don't forget to play one copy of each equipment card, just in case your opponent actually draws a playable dilemma from the two you're allowing them.
The turn you plan to attempt your first mission (Amnesty Talks), you need to spend your counters drawing cards so that your hand is filled with equipment/events. The following turn, you can then draw even more cards (remember that you only have to discard down to seven in hand at the end of your turn), so that you have at least nine equipment/event cards in hand. Then you can play Running a Tight Ship and make your move. If everything goes as planned, you can turn Goval into the aforementioned "beast" and complete the mission. If not, then you want to use Optimism to place those extra cards back under your deck before the end of turn. You'll then need to repeat this process for both Feldomite Rush and Survey New World (ideally, completing both in one turn.)
The one card in the deck that you hopefully won't need to use is the Baxial, Salvage Ship. This ship is your emergency backup, in case you get the Fortune stranded without staffing. This is the only situation where it should leave your headquarters. You do not want your opponent catching you with both ships, or all four personnel, out in the open. If he or she can kill enough personnel, you could end up stranded and it will be game over for you.
The final part of this deck to talk about is the dilemma pile. Any pile will do, as long as it can slow your opponent down long enough for Goval and chums to go about their business. The dilemmas below are focused on Tragic Turn and the multiple stops and/or kills you can achieve with one dilemma. Don't be afraid to give up an extra dilemma or two if you think that you might get extra kills. Just do what you can to slow your opponent's progress.
If you want to customize the deck yourself, you could easily add one or two more personnel. Mouth of the Wormhole, Deep Space 9 has only been included in the deck because it has a lower span than almost every other headquarters. By switching headquarters, you'll be giving yourself access to other personnel who could improve the deck. How about adding James T. Kirk, Original Thinker to avoid dilemmas, or Founder Architect for additional attributes? The possibilities are endless.
