Are you tired of seeding missions with 40+ point boxes? Are you worried about your opponent stealing those missions? Are you fed up with having to score an additional 40 points to win? Do these things keep you up at night? Well, I have the pleasure of introducing a card in the latest expansion which will help alleviate some of these concerns.
Homestead - “a person's or family's residence, which compromises the land, house, and outbuildings.” Well, not exactly. Within the context of this article, the Homestead in question is the Delta Quadrant itself.
Until today, if you wanted to play a DQ only deck, you were forced to play high point missions because you needed 140 points to win (or slinker on over to the AQ). But, we have been given a gift (see what I did there?) which now provides an alternative. Homestead reads “if you have completed at least 3 missions (including one planet and one space), you may ignore any effect that requires you to score an additional 40 points to win.” Hallelujah. Gone are the days of being forced to see Restore Victims and Cure Deadly Virus. Of course, it does come with a restriction: “You can not seed any mission showing more than 30 points.” Ugh, you say? Well, fret not folks. Let us break this down, using the Federation as an example, to see where that brings us.
With the help of our good friend, the Card Search Engine, we find out that Homestead opens up five more missions, 1 space and 4 planet, that fall under the threshold of the printed point limit: Aftermath II, Contact Resistance, Establish Settlement, Tak Tak Negotiations, Explore Micro-Wormhole, Investigate Alleged Murder (though, these last two are 2E missions and 2EBC is coming to an end soon). This doesn't include Liberation that is already seeded in many DQ decks. Now you may notice the imbalance in the space / planet. Perhaps there may be additional “gifts” that will make themselves known in the very near future.
In any event, the missions that have now been opened up are legitimate options. By using Assign Mission Specialists, most of the newly opened missions will be worth more than their printed values. They can all be worth 35 or 40 points with ASM. The other DQ affiliations don't have Mission Specialists but we can hope that the CC is working on that (hint hint).
Now, granted, it's not ALL good news. Even with this new card, a 2 win DQ deck is still a bit tricky. Using two (30) point missions, each with two mission specialists, brings you to 80 points. You will need to find another bonus point mechanism or two (Reunite Legends, maybe?). Either way, we have opened up some additional options and if there is one great thing about 1E, it's the abundance of options. This, like many newly released cards, is merely another tool in the toolbox.
I hope this first article by yours truly meets your satisfaction. If not, I'm sure I will hear about it :)
Until next time.
Se7enofMine
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