[MidnightLich]

What cards just have to go in all of your decks?

-crp

[Se7enofMine]

Q's Tent: Civil War
Tribunal of Q and/or Q the Referee
Ref cards: access denied, white deprivation, the juggler, oof, couple more I'm not remembering at the moment.

That goes in every deck. I would presume that *most* decks have those, with a few exceptions.

[BCSWowbagger]

I haven't stocked a Civil War Tent since March 12, 2016*, and oh my goodness does it feel good. (Of course, Villagers With Torches is now making a comeback in my meta, and I expect Fightin' Words will soon follow.) With less Ref nonsense, OTF is better than ever.

On the other hand, I am finding Battle Bridge Door completely indispensable, and I'm using Duck Blind almost everywhere that I'm not using Ancestral Vision. I'm still putting an original flavor Q's Tent in most of my decks... but won a tournament this weekend without one, so that was fun.

*('cept that one time I played Borg and stocked it with no Ref cards, just as a bluff, because Borg don't care)

[Armus]

Q's Tent: Civil War
Tribunal of Q and/or Q the Referee
Ref cards: access denied, white deprivation, the juggler, oof, couple more I'm not remembering at the moment.

That goes in every deck. I would presume that *most* decks have those, with a few exceptions.

I'm curious: In what situations are you finding the new Access Denied to be of use?

[Se7enofMine]

Q's Tent: Civil War
Tribunal of Q and/or Q the Referee
Ref cards: access denied, white deprivation, the juggler, oof, couple more I'm not remembering at the moment.

That goes in every deck. I would presume that *most* decks have those, with a few exceptions.

I'm curious: In what situations are you finding the new Access Denied to be of use?

To be fair, not many. Considering the OTF rules, at any rate.

I figure I can put up to 13 QtR cards. There are, imo, only about 10 or 11 that are really useful (at least from my limited experience and knowledge level). So I throw the last one or two in, just to have 13.

[KazonPADD]

What cards just have to go in all of your decks?

-crp

Khan! is useful in pretty much every deck.
Same with I'm A Doctor Not A Bricklayer.
Original Q's Tent
Some form of Alternate Universe Door / Space-Time Portal / Temporal Conduit

[sexecutioner]

You're asking this two weeks before Worlds?

Nice try Lao Che.

[Caretaker's Guest]

Tribunal/Tent Civil War,
unless I play an interactive deck that needs certain cards to be fetched e.g. like QSD or Tachyon.
Why the hate on the current Ref-system?
I think it's fair and adds a strategic decision to it. Will you play it or risk to play without it.
I remember times when you could be overwhelmed by cheese and had to stuck multiple refs: Sheliak, Borg Ship, Revolving Door, Scanning, Fighting Words, being Wormhol-ed to nowhere and and and... THAT was annoying. Current Ref-status with the included rules of some former Ref cards seems fair to me.
Don't make this game too easy...

Cards that let you seed and or play peps,
like Paddy

AMS,
unless forced to, I always try to include it, jumpstart and possible extra points against point-loss, refetchable and replayable (thanks beloved Nanoprobes )

some -peps and Empathy or skill cheating for getting Empathy,
yep, thanks Quantum Incursion...

seeds that let you draw, draw deck cards that let you draw,
one or more of those: Duckblind, Study Divergent History, Process Ore Mining as appropriate
Shifting, Kivas, Handshake as appropriate

[prylardurden]

Borg Queen

[Se7enofMine]

Tribunal/Tent Civil War,
unless I play an interactive deck that needs certain cards to be fetched e.g. like QSD or Tachyon.
Why the hate on the current Ref-system?
I think it's fair and adds a strategic decision to it. Will you play it or risk to play without it.
I remember times when you could be overwhelmed by cheese and had to stuck multiple refs: Sheliak, Borg Ship, Revolving Door, Scanning, Fighting Words, being Wormhol-ed to nowhere and and and... THAT was annoying. Current Ref-status with the included rules of some former Ref cards seems fair to me.
Don't make this game too easy...

Personally, I dont hate the Ref-system at all. Its actually pretty cool. Its an optional counter balance.

The bolded: cheese decks seem to be a little less common, primarily due to QtR. Creating a cheese deck is risky given the high stocking rate of Tribunal / QtR. Which will have/has a strange effect. As less and less cheese decks are created, less people will feel the need to stock Trib/QtR.... which will cause a return of cheese decks, which will cause .... etc, etc.

So as you say, its definitely a strategic decision to stock them. Its also a strategic decision to build a cheese deck.

The only "issue" I have (for lack of a better word cause its not really an issue) is ... why ban cards in OTF? I think it would be a better idea to create more / update ref cards. This way.. you wanna make a cheese deck? Ok, sure. Go ahead. BUT .. you may get nailed by QtR. The flip side to the coin is making a decision to NOT stock QtR, then you may get cheesed. Such is life.

Dont get me wrong, I understand WHY cards are banned. Im just not necessarily sure I agree with it (which is largely irrelevant ).

[BCSWowbagger]

The only "issue" I have (for lack of a better word cause its not really an issue) is ... why ban cards in OTF? I think it would be a better idea to create more / update ref cards. This way.. you wanna make a cheese deck? Ok, sure. Go ahead. BUT .. you may get nailed by QtR. The flip side to the coin is making a decision to NOT stock QtR, then you may get cheesed. Such is life.

The game went down this road from 2000-2010. It... just didn't work. There was too much cheese for cards to hold in check. And cards themselves (although they are finally well-balanced) aren't actually fun. Revised Format was a really serious attempt to get the game working again without bans, but OTF (which combined the best of Revised and X-List) was (I think) a clear step forward.

The ban list also gives us a temporary "holding area" for problem cards that we can access quickly. Writing, testing, and producing a card to counter a cheesy strategy takes a minimum of six months; bans are never more than a month out of reach.

[Se7enofMine]

The game went down this road from 2000-2010. It... just didn't work. There was too much cheese for cards to hold in check. And cards themselves (although they are finally well-balanced) aren't actually fun. Revised Format was a really serious attempt to get the game working again without bans, but OTF (which combined the best of Revised and X-List) was (I think) a clear step forward.

The ban list also gives us a temporary "holding area" for problem cards that we can access quickly. Writing, testing, and producing a card to counter a cheesy strategy takes a minimum of six months; bans are never more than a month out of reach.

A fair point. I wasn't around during most of that time frame so I err to your good judgement, sir

Again, I absolutely understand the need for the ban list. Just seems strange to me. But given I wasn't around when there wasn't one, that makes sense.

[Armus]

The game went down this road from 2000-2010. It... just didn't work. There was too much cheese for cards to hold in check. And cards themselves (although they are finally well-balanced) aren't actually fun. Revised Format was a really serious attempt to get the game working again without bans, but OTF (which combined the best of Revised and X-List) was (I think) a clear step forward.

The ban list also gives us a temporary "holding area" for problem cards that we can access quickly. Writing, testing, and producing a card to counter a cheesy strategy takes a minimum of six months; bans are never more than a month out of reach.

A fair point. I wasn't around during most of that time frame so I err to your good judgement, sir

Again, I absolutely understand the need for the ban list. Just seems strange to me. But given I wasn't around when there wasn't one, that makes sense.

Before the banlist, 1e was a total shitshow. There's a reason I took a full decade hiatus and didn't even plan on returning until TNG OTF demonstrated that 1e was fun again. Ever since then I've been all in.

What I find amazing is that in a universe of thousands of cards, the elimination of a few dozen degenerates makes the difference between total shitshow and awesome game. And given the quality cards put out in the last five years, banning a few degenerates a trade I'd make any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

As for the Q stuff, I generally play Civil War tent to have easy access to Strategema (if I'm running a Homeworld) and Defend Homeworld (for basically any deck). However, as reluctant as I was about the whole OTF-ifying of Ref Card text, I think the results demonstrate that it was a good decision. The fact that the remaining ref cards are good enough to merit consideration but not so good or essential that they need to be an auto-include strikes me as optimal. Give the players choices and see where the meta goes. THAT'S what makes the game worth playing.

[OKCoyote]

Getting back on topic. I haven't played much this year but I've done a little casual testing and paid attention to recent decks, and here's what I came up with (these may have been already mentioned):

1. Quantum Incursions. One of the top "dilemmas" in the game since its release and showing no signs of slowing. Tough requirements, a random factor, can't be Adapted to, just a strong, strong wall.

2. Answers to Quantum Incursions. If there is one card everyone has to think about when putting together their personnel skill matrix, this is it. Did I bring Empathy? Did I bring people? Cards like Gem and Gareb, that meet multiple requirements, get a lot better.

3. Temporal Conduit. Even if I'm not running a deck with time travel, the once-a-game download of Temporal Investigations is a great way to keep pace with all the Starfleet, Vulcan, and other Broken Bow block archetype decks currently roaming the field.

[SirDan]

Defend Homeworld. No matter what deck, a free personnel is always a good decision.