Generosity Not Withstanding

by James Cream, Staff Writer

29th September 2016

For most of last year, Fizzbin ruled the Tribbles tournament scene. And while it has been neutered a bit by errata, it is still a powerful power. In those days, games were decided by Fizzbin and I built one of my most successful decks as a means to both counteract Fizzbin and benefit from it.

Thus began the Renegade deck. The first few iterations of that were built around a few powers. Utilize, to capitalize on decks that run a lot of big money tribbles. Masaka and Draw to bring players who are about to go out back from the brink. Then Ante + Qa'pla as well as Toxin for their extra point potential. The deck was good and consistent at scoring lots of tribbles, but it paled in comparison to the numbers that Fizzbin could pull.

After tooling and retooling the deck, I finally realized that the issue was not so much the build as the way in which I was playing it. It is quite natural for a player to focus on their own ability to go out and to want to prevent anyone else from going out in order to increase one's own chances of doing so. But what made the deck begin to win events was the decision to build in methods to help other players go out. The strength of a Utilize deck is that it can score a lot without ever going out and it does even better if you can manage to go out in one round, but it will lose to those players who can go out for big totals, like: Fizzbin, Battle, and Rescue.

What I had realized was that the trick to winning is to help other players go out, but to specifically help those who has few total tribbles in their play piles and/or the player who has the lowest score at the table. Thus, the deck added in more Ante and a whole lot more Party. Once successful, I began playing different iterations of the deck which qualified for novel achievements, playing each iteration until it successful pulled down a win.

As a Tribbles playtester, I was able to see the Star Trek 50 cards well ahead of the release date and, as soon as that file came my way, I latched on to the new denominations of Ante and Party. Now, there are even more opportunities to help the other players go out. The deck worked well in those playtest games and I wonder if we are not seeing the beginning to a new era of successful generosity!

Qa'pla! 

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

• Tribbles, Klingon Style
• Generous Player
• Maximum Trouble

Decklist

Print Decklist • Print Checklist • Copy Deck

Draw Deck (156)
1
73	V		8x 1 Tribble - BaH!
19	V		4x 1 Tribble - Clone & Reverse
39	V		5x 1 Tribble - Go
75	V		8x 1 Tribble - Party
3	V		6x 1 Tribble - Replay
10
92	V		5x 10 Tribbles - Ante
4	V		4x 10 Tribbles - Copy
24	V		4x 10 Tribbles - Toxin
61	V		18x 10 Tribbles - Utilize
100
26	V		2x 100 Tribbles - Clone & Skip
124	V		5x 100 Tribbles - Party
80	V		8x 100 Tribbles - Qapla'
81	V		2x 100 Tribbles - Replicate
63	V		11x 100 Tribbles - Utilize
1000
49	V		4x 1,000 Tribbles - Discard
64	V		14x 1,000 Tribbles - Masaka
83	V		4x 1,000 Tribbles - Qapla'
51	V		4x 1,000 Tribbles - Rescue
10000
18	VT		14x 10,000 Tribbles - Advance
85	V		6x 10,000 Tribbles - BiJ
100000
131	V		8x 100,000 Tribbles - Ante
8	VT		12x 100,000 Tribbles - Clone

Value Count Value # % 1 31 19.87% 10 31 19.87% 100 28 17.95% 1,000 26 16.67% 10,000 20 12.82% 100,000 20 12.82%

Keyword Count Keyword # % Advance 14 8.97% Ante 13 8.33% BaH! 8 5.13% BiJ 6 3.85% Clone 12 7.69% Clone;Reverse 4 2.56% Clone;Skip 2 1.28% Copy 4 2.56% Discard 4 2.56% Go 5 3.21% Masaka 14 8.97% Party 13 8.33% Qapla' 12 7.69% Replay 6 3.85% Replicate 2 1.28% Rescue 4 2.56% Toxin 4 2.56% Utilize 29 18.59%