The Expendables

by Niall Matthew, Staff Writer

20th June 2014

When I first saw this new Dilemma for The Maquis, I opened a beer. I opened a beer to celebrate a new way to kill my opponent's personnel on a potentially grand scale.

Deliberate Tactical Error is a unique twist on the 'filter/wall' formula which has appeared quite often during block format, but the greatest difference between this and other dilemmas is that this one kills, and there are few ways to avoid it.

It targets your universal personnel (round down) to instantly die. This will petentially change how a lot of players attempt missions in block format. In the last block tournament I played, I found myself and my opponent holding back on attempting missions for a few turns, then sending down large away teams to planets in the hope that we can clear through all the filters and solve next turn. This Dilemma can cause great damage to away teams that use lots of universal personnel (especially TNG decks) and cause them to lose key skills like Geology, potentially locking the away team out of the mission with a follow up wall like Captain's Holiday.

The next part of the dilemma is a requirement which you need in order to get past and continue the mission attempt. Once your personnel are selected and killed, you will need either two leaders, two command stars, or two defense (red) Borg to continue. If you cannot get past, the dilemma returns under the mission, to be attempted again. If a player were stopped by this card, that player would likely reattempt with no universals, so why not follow up with a unique personnel - related card like The Arsenal: Separated .

Speaking of OTF format, remember when I said that there are few ways to save the personnel? If Borg is hot in your area, this is the perfect filter to take out some key universal drones. Being able to kill Borg personnel during their scouting attempt can help wonders in your favour.

I expect to see this card crop up in certain decks in OTF format. But in block format, this will be a must have in most decks, as kill related filters don't come as brutal as this in block.

There's one week to go now before First Edition gets its latest expansion, and it's shaping up like a very exciting one so far.

So until then, stay sexcellent to each other.

Discuss this article in this thread.