The Doctor: I'm not like you. I wasn't programed with killer instinct.
Iden: You have no right to judge us. You don't know what it's like being prey. Maybe if you did... you'd realize we're more alike than you think.
- from "Flesh and Blood"
There are a lot of options if you want to play an all Non-aligned deck in Second Edition. You could choose to build a deck around Thieves. There are a wide variety of Smugglers who complement a Thief deck. You could try an android deck, if you like skill gaining. You could pair your androids with Borg personnel and try out the new League promo, Assimilator. Today I’m going to look at a (mostly) faction that has its own headquarters, Holograms.
Missions
Grid 296, Holographic Training Facility is the headquarters mission that really pulls the hologram faction together and allows it to have some coherence. Prior to the introduction of this HQ, people usually played their holograms to Athos IV, as this allowed you to play the personnel and most of the Revised Voyager crew. You actually don’t have this option any more, since Athos IV was errataed to remove the ability to play Treachery personnel there. Another great thing is that this HQ is in the Delta Quadrant, so it’s easier to get to the two hologram missions, Liberate Photonic Servants and Settle Holographic Colony. The text on Settle Holographic Colony is very important to this deck. Use this mission every turn to draw a card. Once you get out some Holoprograms, then you will want to the rest of its text to put holograms on them. Depending on what skills you get out, you’ll probably want to complete Aid Maritime Sovereignty after Liberate Photonic Servants, as its ability to take a dilemma back is a nice little bonus. Finally, Alpha 5 Approach is here in its usual role of preventing microteaming.
Draw Deck
Holoprograms are the key to this deck and the key to Holoprograms is getting three cards on top of them. This is one of the reasons Settle Holographic Colony is so important. Holodeck Arch is here to download them. There are only two Holoprograms currently available to us. Photons Be Free gives a cost -2 discount to the first hologram played each turn. Hunters’ Training Program will beef up your wimpy holograms, giving them attributes +1.
There are a number of personnel who interact with your Holoprograms. Iden, Lustrous Demagogue is the most powerful, as he gets to place Holograms on them and then draw cards for free. If you have more than three cards on your Holoprogram, you may want to consider using The Doctor, Brilliant Template to play your Holograms from on top of them. Weiss, Glaring Tactician will save your Holograms from being erased and puts them back in the holodeck. Kejal, Radiant Mender will protect your Holoprograms from event destruction. Finally, James Moriarty, Awakened Nemesis will allow you to gain skills from personnel on your Holoprogram. He also has Leadership, which is a skill in short supply on Holograms.
Holograms also have some of the best support cards in Second Edition. Cluttering Irrelevancies is so good it’s already received errata. Choosing any skill to gain during a mission attempt AND getting an attribute bump is clutch, even if you have to return that personnel to your hand at the end of the mission attempt. Deleted Subroutines is a great way to get all your Revised personnel around An Issue of Trust. Finally, Not Easily Destroyed is kill prevention you can use over and over again.
Dilemma Pile
This draw deck is a little more advanced than some of the other decks we’ve looked at in this series, so I thought I’d make the dilemma pile super simple, and you don’t get any simpler than a Chula pile. Chula: The Game is the setup. Once it’s on your opponent’s mission, you stop a personnel automatically whenever a Chula dilemma is revealed. Chula: The Chandra will always stop at least two personnel. If you’re worried about needing some skill dilemmas, The Precipice and Trickery both require them. And for a little non-Chula fun, I decided to put in Intelligent Design. I generally hope I can’t stop someone so I can get the attribute boost for my Holograms.
This dilemma pile does have a few drawbacks. If your opponent is playing with either of the Stakoron missions, you’re in trouble because all of them will be cost +1. It also has some trouble playing against the Chuckles Brothers, since there’s no drawback to unstopping personnel from these dilemmas. It’s also easy to whiff on dilemmas or use too many, so I’ve included Heightened Perception in the draw deck to help out with this. Essentially, you can give out one dilemma at a time until you’ve stopped enough personnel to kill the attempt. At cost 4, many people believe that this event is too expensive, but Holograms are pretty cheap, so you can afford it for this deck.
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This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements: