So, You're New to the Dominion?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

15th February 2018

Odo: You are the Founders!

Female Shapeshifter: Ironic, isn't it? The hunted now control the destinies of hundreds of other races.

Odo: But... why control anyone?

Female Shapeshifter: Because what you can control, can't hurt you.                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                      - from “The Search, Part II”

The Dominion have a few different flavors available to them.  They have access to good combat and engagement cards.  They can infiltrate with the Founders, which is a more advanced deck archetype.  Their new homeworld gives them a new flavor – cutting at their opponents piece by piece.  I’d like to thank Justin Ford for suggesting that I write about his “2017 BC Regionals” deck.  I didn’t really have any decks prepped for this week and his unsolicited suggestion is a real gem.

Missions

The Strange Bedfellows expansion saw the introduction of a new homeworld for the Dominion.  Founders’ Homeworld, Contingent Refuge gives you an advantage when you stay in the Gamma Quadrant.  You can make your opponent lose five points whenever you complete a mission.  The drawback to this headquarters is that you can’t play personnel and you can’t have any other headquarters.  The first mission you want to attempt is Stakoron Strait, Patrol Shipping Lane.  This space mission makes your opponent’s dilemmas cost +1.  Your Jem’Hadar should have no problem getting Strength > 40.  In the same region is Stakoron II, Mine Miszinite.  It has the same penalty as the Strait and the same strength requirement.  Finally, finish it out with Teplan Prime, Subjugate Planet for the last 30 points.  Justin says that the reward of doing Stage Covert Fleet isn’t big enough for the difficulty of the mission.

Draw Deck

The key to making the Stakoron missions work are the two equipment cards that came out in the same expansion, the Coil Spanner and the Hyperspanner.  The former gives your Officers the skills for Stakoron Strait and the latter gives your Engineers the skills for Stakoron II.  These pieces of equipment suddenly make Tozara’Kesh the hero of the deck.  He has Engineer and Officer and strength of 8.  I was wondering why use Stage Covert Fleet and not put in a meta mission like Alpha 5 Approach, then I saw that Crom, Open Minded was in this deck.    He requires you to have four strength missions to use his download.  I’d probably grab Odo, the Great Link’s Savior and Luaran, Cautious Inspector along with Tozara’Kesh.  There aren’t very many non-Jemmie personnel to choose from.

This deck is also very heavy on interrupts.  The chief among these is Crippling Strike.  This card reduces the range of your opponent’s ship when they are about to move, which could be huge against a 5 Space Voyager deck, or anyone trying to go to their third mission late in the game.  Our Death Is Glory to the Founders is a versatile Event/Interrupt prevention strategy.  Explicit Orders allows for some skill sharing.  Finally, when you’ve used your spanners, you can blow them up with a Grav-Plating Trap.

 

Dilemma Pile

This is a standard attrition pile, very similar to the one I showed you during Maquis Week.  Justin has a few variations that weren’t in mine.  He has included two of my favorite wall dilemmas, Breaking the Ice and We’ll Never Know.  This pair of dilemmas requires three of fairly rare skills (Geology in space or Physics on a planet) or two non-Hand Weapon equipment cards.  Distress Call shows that he lives in an area that sees regular Voyager play.  Finally, Dignitaries and Witnesses is another good wall that also bounces back to the dilemma pile.

Final Thoughts

I have a little more advice for all you beginners out there - don’t be lazy with your dilemma piles.  I know they’re the hardest part of every deck to build.  I also know it’s easier and more convenient to swap them between decks, but you do have to do some tailoring for each build.  For instance, it’s probably a good idea to take out the 8 cost dilemmas (Whisper in the Dark and Tsiolkovsky Infection) when you’re playing a deck with no core events.

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Dominion Player
• Unbroken I
• No Crutches I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• No Crutches II
• Strange Bedfellows Release
• Our Own Dominion

Decklist

Print Decklist • Print Checklist • Copy Deck • Download Into DeckPADD

Missions Headquarters 33 V 26 •Founders' Homeworld, Contingent Refuge Planet 33 V 29 •Stakoron II, Mine Miszinite 33 V 31 •Teplan Prime, Subjugate Planet Space 26 V 26 •Stage Covert Fleet 33 V 30 •Stakoron Strait, Patrol Shipping Lane

Draw Deck (42) Equipment 33 V 6 1x •Coil Spanner 33 V 7 1x •Hyperspanner Event 25 V 16 1x Tacking Into the Wind Interrupt 33 V 23 3x Crippling Strike 5 P 19 2x Explicit Orders 12 R 37 2x Grav-Plating Trap 3 R 74 2x Our Death is Glory to the Founders Personnel Dominion 4 C 125 1x Amar'itak 16 V 34 1x •Arak'Taral, Suspicious Second 26 V 28 1x •Crom, Open-minded 26 V 29 1x •Draz, Overeager 3 R 155 1x •Ikat'ika, Honorable Warrior 25 V 32 1x •Inglatu, Tulaberry Merchant 6 P 47 1x •Ixtana'Rax, Honored Elder 4 U 128 1x •Luaran, Cautious Inspector 3 S 162 1x •Martok Founder, Poison of the Empire 3 S 163 1x Noret'ikar 3 C 164 2x Odera'Klen 14 R 72 2x •Odo, The Great Link's Savior 4 R 130 1x •Odo Founder, Adept Imposter 7 R 62 1x •Omet'iklan, Steely Disciplinarian 3 C 165 2x Rak'tazan 3 R 166 1x •Remata'Klan, Unit Leader 3 C 168 3x Tozara'Kesh 3 C 169 1x Varen'agor 3 U 172 1x •Yak'Talon, Deadly Patroller Ship Dominion 6 P 60 3x Dominion Battleship 3 C 203 3x Jem'Hadar Warship

Dilemma Pile (35) Dual 29 V 1 2x Adopted Authority 10 R 2 2x An Issue of Trust 14 U 4 1x Chula: The Chandra 6 P 2 1x Dignitaries and Witnesses 4 C 15 2x Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? 28 V 2 1x Ingenious Jury-rig 26 V 4 1x Intimidation 14 C 7 2x Moral Choice 18 V 5 1x Polywater Intoxication 4 R 27 1x The Dreamer and the Dream 31 V 11 2x The Weak Will Perish 2 C 25 2x Timescape Planet 6 P 6 3x Hard Time 10 C 12 1x Necessary Execution 3 U 25 3x Rogue Borg Ambush 15 V 9 1x We'll Never Know 4 R 30 1x Whisper in the Dark Space 15 V 1 1x Breaking the Ice 12 R 4 1x Distress Call 3 R 12 2x Gomtuu Shock Wave 1 R 42 3x Personal Duty 4 R 28 1x Tsiolkovsky Infection

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