So, I'm a New/Old First Edition Player, Romulan Edition

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

19th September 2017

Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Commander, how is it that we were not informed of the presence of the second Romulan on Galondon Core?

Commander Tomalak: A simple misunderstanding, Captain Picard. I was obviously misinformed as to the size of the craft. I assure you, I intended no deception.

                                                                        –from “The Enemy”

In this series, I will show off some beginner level decks that people have sent to me.  Today’s deck is Matt Hayes’ Romulan Chess deck.

Missions

Romulus is here, along with HQ: Secure Homeworld.  The only Neutral Zone mission to work with Always a Chess Game is Iconia Investigation.  Scoring an extra 5 points is always nice.  Genesis Planet is also here with Unstable Matrix seeded on it to turn it into a space mission. Investigate Sighting II allows you to access an additional outpost. Quash Conspiracy is always a great Romulan mission, since you can complete with any one Tal Shiar person. Finally, Study Lonka Pulsar is the last space mission.  If you want to go all planet you can complete Romulus, then Iconia Investigation.  You can use the 5 points from Always a Chess Game to Convert Genesis to space.

Other Seeds

Continuing Mission is present to give everyone the TNG icon.  The seeded free report engines are Attention All Hands for personnel, the Continuing Committee for Tal Shiar and Office of the Proconsul for a variety of bigwigs.  The Nexus is an intriguing addition to this deck.  I assume it is supposed to be self-seeded so that you can get Dr. Tolian Soren to the far end of the spaceline and score those 20 points. With mission specialists and these extra points, I think it’s possible to get a two-mission win with this deck. It might also be fun to put in Amargosa Observatory, which came out since this deck was built.  That would make Trilithium Raid really cool (see below) as a self-seeded dilemma.

I don’t really have any dilemma combos to share this time, but I did want to point out some of the great synergy between the seeded dilemmas and the draw deck.  First off I’d like to highlight an old favorite, Scout Encounter.  This classic from First Contact will allow you to get a Scout Vessel and two personnel.  Given that this ship only has weapons and shields of 3, I would probably choose to move away, rather than battle.  Next I’d like to look at Undercover Agent.  This dilemma will fetch Selok (a Treachery mission specialist!) from your Q’s Tent.  After that, it’s a great wall.  Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to Trilithium Raid.  Be careful where you seed this dilemma, because you want to be able to get your personnel on a facility at this location.  It’s especially good if you’re playing against an opponent with a Nor, since you can download six personnel to a station!

Draw Deck

Tomalak appears to be one of the key personnel for this deck.  He can download any Captain’s Order.  Get It Done appears to be the chosen target for the download.  This is a very flexible card, allowing you to boost attributes of personnel or range of your ship for the cost of a couple of TNG personnel.  It also allows you to get back things from your discard pile.  Ambassador Spock, Data and Picard are also important personnel for this deck, bringing excellent skills and big attributes to your mission attempts. 

Looking elsewhere in the Tent, I spy Space Boomer, which gives my ship a range boost.  This tells me I need to do Genesis first and do that conversion to space.  I also see The Art of Diplomacy, which is downloaded by Proconsul Neral.  I like that he extends its use to personnel.  It might not be a bad idea to put in his other download, Live Long and Prosper, to use for its drawing capabilities

Can anyone tell me how to get Always a Chess Game out of the Q’s Tent?  I can’t figure it out.

What I’ve Learned from This Deck

Dilemma combos aren’t everything.  This deck seems to have some flexibility to what you put where.  I didn’t see any obvious combinations, but there are plenty of filters and walls to be had.  I really like the new picture for Blended, BTW.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Decklist

Print Decklist • Copy Deck

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Open
• Revised
• Warp Speed

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Romulan Player
• Three Stops Me
• Highlander
• Good Casting: Sloyan (Alidar Jarok)

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