"I figured the hard part was over. I'd stepped out on a limb and it hadn't broken. Not bad for my first venture into scientific diplomacy.” – Dr. Beverly Crusher from “Suspicions”
In this series, I will show off some beginner level decks that people have sent to me. Today’s deck is Ken Tufts’ Lean Mean TNG Fed Scientific Diplomacy. The version at the bottom of the article is Shane Briarley’s from the 2015 World Championships.
Missions
While perusing the mission selection the first thing I notice is this deck is right up my alley. I have always enjoyed the TNG episode “Suspicions,” so to see a deck built around it makes me happy. I almost always built science solvers when I played Federation back in the day, so I feel very comfortable picking this up. The deck notes say that this is a two-mission win deck, with Salvage Borg Ship (+ mission specialists) being the lynchpin mission, followed with any of the other space missions. I would probably try to be thematic and attempt Host Metaphasic Shielding Test, but others may want to try out something else.
Other Seeds
One thing that really surprised me about this deck was a lack of Espionage Mission. Having played during the Decipher era, where the only Fed free play engine was Office of the President, I am used to seeing Earth. However, you have more options in the CC era and the free play engines here are Scientific Diplomacy and Attention All Hands. Most of the personnel are Metaphasic Shield related or universal. All those weenies are great to play because you can fill your hand back up with Continuing Mission. Assign Mission Specialists and Assign Support Personnel are there to help get your weenies out faster. The notes say that Sergei is your Support Personnel of choice, because he brings along Helena and can download Nikolai. The mission specialists in the deck are all designed to make Salvage Borg Ship a 55 point mission.
For dilemmas, it’s nice to see that dilemmas in the CC era have made some really nice combos possible. For instance, Denevan Neural Parasites + Hanonian Land Eel was always nice in terms of death and destruction, but adding in Deliberate Tactical Error really kicks up the death and destruction. I mean, really – killing half the away team and then requiring 2 leaders, 2 or 2 [SCD]? Awesome. Of course, some times the old classics (Unscientific Method + Kelvan Show of Force + Scientific Method) are great too. There’s no seeded Space-Time Portal, so opponents are safe from Quantum Incursions.
Draw Deck
People. Lots of People. Get out Finest Crew in the Fleet to play pretty much anyone else who didn’t play for free from your seeds. Handshakes help you get to the things you need. Play more Assign Mission Specialists to get out more weenies and score as many bonus points as possible on Salvage Borg Ship. The biggest recommendation is get people out and GO. You’re in trouble if you meet a battle opponent. You should be outspeeding everyone.
Updating for Today’s Play Environment
I’ve been told that the Q the Referee side deck is not strictly necessary in today’s environment. James Heaney says,
For a deck friendly to new players? You no longer need Ref cards to play a fun, competitive game of Trek. The abuse just isn't that strong, nor is it widespread. You'll want Ref cards in high-level play, but, for new players, the protection they provide is no longer worth the cognitive cost of learning how they work.
So, I would remove ALL Ref cards, change the Civil War tent to a normal Tent, and replace Tribunal with Jol Yichu if they have no AU door, or Quantum Incursions if they do.
That seems pretty straightforward. Now I just need to print this out and give it a go with one of the local First Edition players here in Chicago. I’ll let you know how I do.
Addendum
I almost forgot to add that this was one of two [1E-TNG] decks I was sent by players. Paddy Tye sent me this one. I can only assume the name refers to himself and a certain Scotsman who will be reigning down Anarchy this October at Worlds in Orlando.
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
Mission (6) | ||||
Mission | ||||
R | 1x Explore Dyson Sphere | |||
39 V | 1x Host Metaphasic Shielding Test | |||
C | 1x Repair Mission | |||
P | 1x Reported Activity | |||
44 V | 1x Salvage Borg Ship | |||
3 U 107 | 1x Study Rare Phenomenon |
Seed Deck (30) | ||||
Dilemma | ||||
2 R | 1x A Fast Ship Would Be Nice | |||
4 U | 1x Chula: The Game | |||
U | 1x Dead End | |||
2 V | 1x Deliberate Tactical Error | |||
60 VP | 1x Denevan Neural Parasites | |||
C | 1x Friendly Fire | |||
8 V | 1x Gomtuu Shock Wave | |||
11 R | 1x Hanonian Land Eel | |||
C | 1x Hazardous Duty | |||
P | 1x Hippocratic Oath | |||
14 C | 1x Implication | |||
10 R | 1x Kelvan Show of Force | |||
12 P | 1x Male's Love Interest & Plague Ship | |||
6 V | 1x Medical Crisis | |||
19 VP | 1x Personal Duty | |||
C | 1x Scientific Method | |||
R | 1x Strict Dress Code | |||
4 V | 1x The Arsenal: Divided | |||
10 U | 1x The Clown: Guillotine | |||
P | 1x Unscientific Method | |||
Doorway | ||||
93 VP | 1x Q's Tent: Civil War | |||
Facility | ||||
Federation | ||||
C | 1x ❖ Federation Outpost | |||
Non-Aligned | ||||
P | 1x ❖ Husnock Outpost | |||
Incident | ||||
21 V | 1x Attention All Hands | |||
22 V | 1x Continuing Mission | |||
29 U | 1x Q the Referee | |||
30 V | 1x Scientific Diplomacy | |||
2 VP | 1x Tribunal of Q | |||
Objective | ||||
C | 1x Assign Mission Specialists | |||
39 C | 1x Assign Support Personnel |
Draw Deck (43) | ||||
Doorway | ||||
P | 2x Space-Time Portal | |||
Event | ||||
17 U | 1x Isomagnetic Disintegrator | |||
U | 3x Kivas Fajo - Collector | |||
47 VP | 3x Wall of Ships | |||
Incident | ||||
25 V | 1x Finest Crew in the Fleet | |||
62 U | 3x Handshake | |||
Objective | ||||
C | 3x Assign Mission Specialists | |||
Personnel | ||||
Federation | ||||
54 V | 1x Beverly | |||
R | 1x Deanna Troi | |||
59 V | 1x Dr. Christopher | |||
67 R+ | 1x Edward Jellico | |||
R | 1x Geordi La Forge | |||
R | 1x Jean-Luc Picard | |||
R | 1x Katherine Pulaski | |||
R | 1x Keiko O'Brien | |||
R | 1x Leah Brahms | |||
62 V | 1x ❖ Lian T'su | |||
63 V | 2x ❖ Lopez | |||
64 V | 2x ❖ Martin | |||
U | 1x Riva | |||
71 C | 1x ❖ Sam Lavelle | |||
65 V | 1x ❖ Seth Mendoza | |||
C | 1x ❖ Sito Jaxa | |||
U | 1x T'Pan | |||
C | 1x ❖ Taitt | |||
R | 1x Worf | |||
Ferengi | ||||
26 V | 1x Dr. Reyga (Life From Lifelessness) | |||
Klingon | ||||
R | 1x Kurak | |||
Non-Aligned | ||||
U | 1x Jo'Bril | |||
46 V | 1x ❖ Morik | |||
Romulan | ||||
38 V | 1x Agyer | |||
Ship | ||||
Federation | ||||
39 V | 1x U.S.S. Enterprise (Chain of Command) |
Q-Tent Side Deck (13) | ||||
Equipment | ||||
C | 1x Federation PADD | |||
C | 1x Starfleet Type II Phaser | |||
Event | ||||
U | 1x Lower Decks | |||
U | 1x Metaphasic Shields | |||
Personnel | ||||
Federation | ||||
U | 1x Alyssa Ogawa | |||
C | 1x ❖ Christopher Hobson | |||
C | 1x ❖ Gibson | |||
C | 1x ❖ Mendon | |||
U | 1x Nikolai Rozhenko | |||
32 V | 1x Sergey and Helena | |||
U | 1x Soren | |||
Non-Aligned | ||||
R | 1x Roga Danar | |||
Ship | ||||
Federation | ||||
C | 1x ❖ U.S.S. Nebula |
Q the Referee Side Deck (12) | ||||
Event | ||||
17 V | 1x General Quarters | |||
5 V | 1x Mirror Image | |||
20 V | 1x You Are a Monument | |||
Incident | ||||
10 V | 1x Containment Field | |||
15 V | 1x It's Only a Game | |||
18 V | 1x Q the Referee | |||
19 V | 1x Reactor Overload | |||
Interrupt | ||||
24 V | 1x Oof! | |||
25 V | 1x Scorched Hand | |||
26 V | 1x The Juggler | |||
27 V | 1x The Wake of the Borg | |||
Objective | ||||
28 V | 1x Defend Homeworld |