The Effect of the Dominion War on Earth

by Mike O'Shogay, Staff Writer

4th September 2014

THE EFFECT OF THE DOMINION WAR ON EARTH

The one thing the DS9-Earth Headquarters has really not had during the entire life of the game is a solid identity. After this set’s release, this begins to change thanks to a few choice cards. When you take all the cards they get in this set, you really start to see a theme develop. Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President and Promenade School fits really well right into what DS9-Earth wants to do. 

Let’s take a look at the new card Power Loss.  First off: the big drawback…you can only begin a mission attempt once a turn. This is huge, but its ability is pretty damn awesome. You can stop a Treachery Earth personnel to unstop all of your stopped DS9 Icon personnel. This card goes right in line with other cards like Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President and Charles Whatley, Professional Admiral, which want you to balance your Earth Personnel with your DS9 Personnel to get a pretty good benefit.

Before I start discussing the things you can do with Power Loss, let me bring another new card into the mix…Martial Law. Martial Law, again has a drawback, it doesn’t let any ship move to or from your Earth.  This is huge, but it’s a good thing you have access to personnel like Luther Sloan, Man of Secrets, Luther Sloan, Man of Action, and Lance Cartwright, Co-Conspirator. The upside is you can stop a DS9-Federation personnel to draw a card and you can do this up to three times per turn. If you have a fully staffed ship and don’t need to fly home, this card lets you exchange personnel by stopping them for card draws letting you cycle through your deck. 

With Power Loss you can help mitigate the drawback of both Promenade School and Martial Law. Use Promenade School, play an At What Cost? or Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President, then on the execute orders segment of your turn stop your Earth Personnel to unstop those four personnel that you used for Promenade School and use Martial Law to help refill your hand. Another line of play is to stop your personnel for Promenade School and then stop your Earth personnel to unstop those four personnel, so that they can be used on an attempt. 

You can really take the advanced class too and add in a second Headquarters mission for Krim, Thoughtful Tactician to be able to overcome two dilemmas. Add in a Ressikan Flute to be able to recur your events that get destroyed or re-use an At What Cost? You could also add in some dilemma manipulators to be able to get multiple uses out of them. I am sure there are many things you can do with this that I haven’t even mentioned. 

 

NOW FOR THE DESSERT

This wouldn’t be an article of mine without some sort of a deck design to go over. This is a shell of a deck I feel is the essence of new DS9-Earth. Let me start off by emphasizing that this is just an unrefined shell with little testing. The skill matrix could use a little work and it’s a very slim build. With as fast as you can burn through the deck, it could easily go up to 42-45 cards - adding in some meta choices and maybe switching a mission or two. 

This deck really highlights the new and only non-unique Federation-Earth personnel with Treachery… Sparber. Besides being able to use him for your Power Loss his own ability is extremely useful. Did your opponent overthrow dilemmas knowing they would stop you on a mission and drop a Biogenic Weapon on it? He goes right through it. Does your opponent have a Stir Crazy? Now he can’t use it when you attempt your mission. It’s the turn after you played Martial Law and you now want to use those personnel you stopped to attempt a mission: just play him and now you can leave Earth. He’s a swiss army knife belonging to a surgeon.

 

SPEED KILLS

One of the most powerful things you can do in the game is to break the 7 counter rule. Being able to Promenade School into At What Cost? or Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President will give you very explosive turns. Just getting out fast and furious is enough to really put some insane pressure on your opponents. Getting out an early Power Loss will enable you to use your Promenade School and only lose one personnel that turn as opposed to four. After you’ve moved to your first mission, getting out and playing a Martial Law will help you refill your hand and cycle through your deck. Just make sure you have an out to it - letting you get more personnel for your mission attempts with a Sparber, Luther Sloan, Man of Secrets, or Lance Cartwright, Co-Conspirator in hand. 

The deck is pretty straight forward: boasting a pair of Benjamin Sisko, Defiant Captain, which will allow you to find whichever of the three ships in the deck you need at the time. If you are facing a kill pile, U.S.S. Sao Paulo, NCC-75633 will be extremely useful. Need a little extra help powering out a personnel for free? Get your U.S.S. Bellerophon, Conference Host, or if you just need a generic ship that will help you solve missions, then get your U.S.S. Centaur, Patrolling Ship. 

 

POWERING UP THE DECK

There are a few directions you can take to improve on the deck. One is switching to the DS9 Treachery package giving you access to Confessions in the Pale Moonlight and very good skill gaining.  This build, however, makes you a little more vulnerable to Gomtuu Shock Wave and An Issue of Trust.  If you face a lot of kill piles in your meta, a couple Medical Teams or even any of the Julian Bashirs would go a long way. 

Another avenue you can take with a deck is to make it a two headquarters deck and play Mouth of the Wormhole, Deep Space 9 to give you access to Krim, Thoughtful Tactician and the full Vastly Outnumbered team and take the deck in that direction. You don’t even need to go full on split affiliation personnel; just splash a Charles Whatley, Professional Admiral, a couple Quark, Vastly Outnumbered, and a Krim, Thoughtful Tactician with the full complement of Vastly Outnumbered personnel. 

Whether these cards for DS9 Earth are good enough to be competitive remains to be seen, I do think these new cards will have an impact on the tournament scene. [/short poem]

For any suggestions, questions, or concerns please PM. Decklist can be found here.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Decklist

Print Decklist • Print Checklist • Copy Deck • Download Into DeckPADD

Missions Headquarters 1 U 162 •Earth, Home of Starfleet Command Planet 1 U 165 •Evacuate Colony 8 U 62 •Near Polaris, Survey New World Space 21 V 14 •Alpha 5 Approach, Transport Crash Survivor 1 U 186 •Military Exercises

Draw Deck (35) Event 4 R 40 3x At What Cost? 22 V 13 1x •Holding Cell 31 V 17 1x •Martial Law 31 V 19 2x •Power Loss 23 V 19 3x Promenade School 5 P 12 1x Security Drills Personnel Federation 1 S 256 2x •Benjamin Sisko, Defiant Captain 25 V 37 1x Boq'ta 0 VP 73 1x •Elim Garak, Federation Agent 26 V 33 1x •Enrique Muñiz, Dependable Troubleshooter 16 V 35 1x •George Primmin, Starfleet Security 1 C 265 1x Hoya 4 R 139 1x •Jadzia Dax, Problem Solver 23 V 43 1x •Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President 6 P 50 1x •Kira Nerys, Starfleet Emissary 15 V 33 1x •Lance Cartwright, Co-Conspirator 31 V 40 1x •Leyton, Suspicious Executive 1 R 275 1x •Luther Sloan, Man of Secrets 18 V 26 1x •Melora Pazlar, Independent Personality 4 U 144 1x •Miles O'Brien, Repair Chief 26 V 36 1x •Solok, Calculating Rival 31 V 42 3x Sparber 1 C 285 1x T'Lor 17 V 65 1x •William Ross, "Temporary" Ally Ship Federation 17 V 85 1x •U.S.S. Bellerophon, Conference Host 19 V 15 1x •U.S.S. Centaur, Patrolling Ship 18 V 45 1x •U.S.S. Sao Paulo, NCC-75633

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