So, You're New to Romulans?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

21st September 2017

“So, Captain, how long shall we stare at each other across the Neutral Zone?” – Tomalak, “All Good Things”

The main theme for Romulans in Second Edition is manipulation of their opponents.  This often takes the form of going through an opponent’s hand or deck or messing with their mission attempts.  I would consider that sort of interference to be an intermediate to high level sort of deck, which isn’t very friendly for new players.  The designers of Project Excelsior must have thought the same, because many of those cards, such as Far Seeing Eyes and Secret Conspiracy, have been left out of the pool.  There is a little bit of manipulation left in, just so you can get a taste.

Missions

All four missions are located in Region: Neutral Zone.  This is a big asset for a Romulan deck because when you move between two missions in the same Region, you subtract 2 from the range required to move between them.  Romulan ships tend to have slightly lower range, so this means you can go back and forth between two missions in one turn.  I would probably attempt Collapse Anti-Time Anomaly first, followed by Nelvana III, Compelling Threat.  Nelvana III does show off some of the Romulans’ manipulation power, bumping attribute requirements of your opponent’s missions by your ship’s weapons.  I’d finish off with Patrol Neutral Zone. I really only have Iconia Investigation in here to make PNZ worth 40 points.  The requirements of 2 Archaeology and 2 Programming are pretty steep.

Draw Deck

I seem to be pathologically unable to build a Romulan deck under 50 cards, and this deck is no exception.  There are also several small ways to show off how Romulans manipulate an opponent’s mission attempts.  Most Romulan shenanigans require you to be at your opponent’s mission, and Escaping Detection helps with that.  It allows your ships and personnel to be “at” a mission even if you aren’t physically there.  This card works well with a couple of the ships which have some sort of ability to mess with your opponent.  The T’met will let you draw and spend three more on your opponent’s mission attempt.   The Trolarak will make your opponent discard two cards to attempt a mission.  The Deranas is in there to get an attribute boost from being in the Neutral Zone, which is nice if you’re playing against Klingon battle or Borg assimilation.  The D’deridex Advanced gets a boost from your Intelligence personnel.

The personnel are chosen to do missions and get through dilemmas.  I sort of have a hodge-podge of folks, neither bad nor good – Dissidents and bad guys are both represented.  I love that the Stooges are all in the Excelsior pool.  This is a quartet of personnel from Necessary Evil who can all prevent themselves from being stopped by discarding an event from hand.  You especially want Relam out early for is Astrometrics.  Another great duo of personnel who will help you with stop and kill prevention are Karina and Ruwon, both Hindering Analysts.  Ruwon also has all the skills for Nelvana III.

I have also included Getting Under Your Skin (GUYS) in this deck.  For the most part it is considered an auto-include for any Romulan deck.  It gives me some flexibility in how I may want to attempt missions.    The three missions I plan on doing net me 110 points, so that’s a safe bet. I can use the extra 10 points with At What Cost? and not have to worry if I get GUYS out and if it will hit.  GUYS can help me out with a two-mission win, as I can get 75 points for PNZ and Nelvana III.  If I can get GUYS to hit five times (or three if I can get Sensing a Trap to work) then I will have the points for a two-mission win. 

Dilemma Pile

The dilemmas for this deck show off a skill filter style of dilemma pile, revolving around Security.  The most obvious combo is Full Security Alert (why isn’t Security in bold on this dilemma?) + Center of Attention.  If you’re at a planet mission, you can add in Kolaran Raiders to take out more Security.  One of the nice things about trying out a limited card pool is that you start to consider dilemmas you would never look at otherwise.  That’s why Mutinous Guests is in the pile.  I never realized that it would pair so well in a Romulan deck.  If it hits, you can move an opponent’s ship to a planet mission.  That seems very thematic with Romulan manipulation.

Excelsior

This deck is compatible for the Excelsior format that is currently in development.  It pulls cards from Version 0.3 of the restricted card pool and rules document.  Feel free to print this deck and give it a try!  The next public playtest for Excelsior will take place at the World Championships in Orlando in October.

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Romulan Player
• Limited Resources
• Overused Problems I
• Unbroken I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Overused Problems II

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 34 Space 8 (24%) Cost 1 1 Cost 2 1 Cost 3 5 Cost 4 1 Planet 8 (24%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 2 Cost 3 2 Cost 4 1 Dual 18 (53%) Cost 0 3 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 9 Cost 4 3 Total Dilemma Deck cost 84

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 52 Equipment 1 (2%) Cost 2 1 Event 12 (23%) Cost 0 4 Cost 1 1 Cost 2 6 Cost 3 1 Interrupt 2 (4%) Personnel 32 (62%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 18 Cost 3 5 Cost 4 5 Cost 5 1 Ship 5 (10%) Cost 5 1 Cost 6 4 Total Draw Deck cost 126

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 0 6 6 Archaeology 1 6 6 Astrometrics 2 5 5 Biology 0 6 6 Diplomacy 1 6 1 7 Engineer 1 7 1 8 Exobiology 0 5 5 Geology 0 5 5 Honor 0 2 2 Intelligence 1 9 9 Law 0 2 2 Leadership 2 8 1 9 Medical 0 5 5 Navigation 0 4 4 Officer 0 6 6 Physics 1 6 6 Programming 1 9 9 Science 0 7 1 8 Security 2 8 8 Telepathy 0 2 2 Transporters 0 3 3 Treachery 1 12 2 14 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 19 59.38 % Staff Star 10 31.25 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Assassin 1 Cloaking Device 5 Commander: Deranas 1 Commander: Khazara 1 Commander: Scimitar 1 Commander: Trolarak 1 Commander: Valdore 1 Dissident 5 Infiltrator 3 Praetor 2 Q 1 Region: Neutral Zone 4 Region: Romulus System 1 Senator 1