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Strategy Articles
Favor the Caretaker's Array
by James "RedDwarf" Hoskin, Staff Writer
17th April 2009
The world championships are fast approaching. Are you tired of playing "serious" tier one decks? Do you change a card or two and then play the same deck week after week? Is your hairline receding? Does your opponent know what you'll be doing as soon as you lay out your missions? Are you reading this aloud in a boring monotone?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you need a "fun" deck. Exclusively available through this site, and for a bargain price of, um... nothing, you too can see the look on people's faces when you tell them that you'll be completing the same mission over and over. Not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times in the same game. If the thought of that doesn't bring a smile to your face, then you should seek help from a qualified professional.
Completing the same mission four times in the same game is all possible thanks to a card released in the most recent expansion, Raise the Stakes. At a cost of 5 points, Favor the Bold returns all dilemmas beneath a completed mission to their owner's dilemma piles and then "un-completes" that mission so that you may attempt it again. Caretaker's Array is one of the easiest missions to complete in the game, so it is a natural choice when looking for a mission to use with Favor the Bold.
Raise the Stakes also introduced a new version of Kathryn Janeway. This version, Regretful Leader, has all three skills (Biology, Diplomacy and Science) required by Caretaker's Array, so you only need her and three other personnel to complete the mission. Once completed, you can play Favor the Bold - downloadable by Janeway when you play her - and start the process all over again. Completing the mission four times will only net you 65 points though. Fortunately, Aid Maritime Sovereignty is worth 35 points and will put you over the finishing line.
The sharp-eyed among you will have noted that Janeway has all three skills (Diplomacy, Leadership and Science) required by Aid Maritime Sovereignty, so preventing her from being killed (or even stopped) will be of the utmost importance when playing this deck. To aid you in that task, Janeway should never go anywhere without one or more copies of the Emergency Transport Unit. As a back-up, Revised Chakotay (Imposturous First Officer) can be used to prevent personnel from being stopped or killed by a dilemma. A further back-up is Weyoun ("Defective" Clone), who can jump in front of a dilemma's random selection should Janeway or any other personnel costing four or more get selected. The final back-up is The Doctor (Emergency Medical Hologram), who can be used to prevent dilemmas costing three or more from killing your personnel. It should be noted that the draw deck is not very big, and won't be able to handle discarding the two cards to use his ability very often. Hopefully, as a third back-up to protect Janeway, you won't need to use The Doctor very often.
With the exception of Chakotay (Bridge Between Two Crews), the remainder of the personnel in the deck provide back-up mission skills and additional attributes to help Janeway complete the two missions. Chakotay has been added to the deck purely to be discarded by the Revised version of himself - you don't want to play him unless absolutely necessary! Cluttering Irrelevancies can help you gain a skill needed to overcome any dilemma that you might face. Rescue Captives lets you rescue Janeway (or anyone else) from an opponent's brig, should your personnel get captured. Hindrance can be used to draw and play additional dilemmas to slow down your opponent - although you will need to kill either Janeway or Revised Chakotay to use it, so caution is advised. The final card to highlight is Ohhhh! Nothing Happened!. Due to the way that Favor the Bold is worded, it only removes dilemmas from beneath the completed mission, and not those placed on the mission. As such, you could end up in big trouble if your opponent manages to play a dilemma like Tragic Turn on Caretaker's Array. Ohhhh! Nothing Happened! should be used to reduce the risk of that happening.
That covers most of the deck-building basics. All that remains to be covered is event destruction and engagement protection. In an effort to keep the draw deck to a manageable size, both of these factors are covered by the dilemma pile. Barrier's Effect, Interphasic Effects and Gangster's Welcome can all destroy events; and Unorthodox Tactics should be able to raise Voyager's Shields high enough to prevent an opponent from beating it in an engagement. You just have to make sure that you command more ships than your opponent when you play Unorthodox Tactics. Those ships don't even need to be staffed; you just need to have the Baxial (Salvage Ship) and the Delta Flyer (Innovative Vessel) in play. They also have a secondary use, as you'll need somewhere to put any leftover personnel when you are attempting Caretaker's Array with just four or five personnel.
With a small draw deck such as this one, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong. Should the unforeseen happen, you don't absolutely need to complete Caretaker's Array four times. You could just complete the other missions like a regular deck - but where would the "fun" be in that?
Final Thought: Don't forget to use a pen and paper to keep a track of your score. There is nothing worse than having an argument with your opponent over whether you have completed Caretaker's Array three or four times!
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-djl-
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
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