Each time a new set comes out there is a hope that a card will inspire a new deck or two. Bajor, Blessed of the Prophets is such a card; a new headquarters. This is the first in hopefully a new series of Headquarters missions for the lesser competitive affiliations. Obviously they must have looked at my blog entry dated June 2, 2013 for inspiration. Let’s take a look at this new headquarters.
This will definitely add a lot of spice to Bajoran solvers. Let us first take a look at the current Equipment Artifacts that already exist in the game.
· Horga'hn in a Big Bajoran Integrity solver looks amazing, as it can allow multiple mission attempts in a single turn.
· I could see The Stone of Gol being put in as a one-off in the Bajoran Resistance deck to help get a little disruption from combat
· In addition to that if you need even more of a strength boost, The Sword of Kahless in the Bajoran Resistance deck gives Strength +2 to 8 different Bajoran Resistance personnel.
· Besides Horga'hn, I see the Tox Uthat being the next most used of the old artifacts. Facing down a Where No One Has Gone Before and you don’t have the skills - just end the attempt, then reattempt. If you can mill through your deck then you can draw this each turn since it goes to the bottom of your deck after use.
· As far as Bajoran Resistance builds, it allows you to play the Earring of Li Nalas without solving a mission first, so that it can have an immediate impact.
This set provides new Equipment Artifacts in the Orb of Prophecy and Change, Orb of Contemplation, and Orb of Time.
· Orb of Prophecy and Change gives them a lot of resilience to skill surgeon piles. If you lose a Bareil Antos, Esteemed Vedek or another of your big guns, you can give up a cheaper personnel like Shandor to get them back. Another option is using some of their self-milling cards like Days of Atonement, Bareil Antos, Escort, Kira Nerys, First Officer, or Invocation of the Kosst Amojan for a more offensive use of the orb.
· Orb of Contemplation gives Bajorans something they were missing before…Stop Prevention. This doesn’t just prevent stops, it also prevents kills just by bouncing to your hand. When you can attempt with 5, complete with 4, having a stop preventing tool is very powerful and puts a lot of pressure on your opponent’s dilemma pile.
· Again in a deck where the plan is to microteam, Orb of Time lets you overcome an additional dilemma when you’re facing a non-skill dilemma with 3 cost or more also putting pressure on your opponent’s dilemma pile.
Just looking at some of the cards to help in your new Bajoran Artifact deck are definitely cards like Fajo's Managerie which helps you cycle through your deck and dig up any Equipment Artifacts.
Winn Adami, Renegade Priest actually is potentially the lynchpin of a new deck on her own, although not necessarily at Bajor, Blessed of the Prophets. With Evil Bajorans using Prophet cards along with the new Orbs, she will let you cycle your way through your deck. When she teams up with Greasy Dukat she can become a mega-attribute personnel on a regular basis.
One of the best Bajoran cards printed is in Return to Grace. Accession is a house. This card will be used in every deck that can muster some Anthropology Bajorans and a way to fill your discard pile. With current rulings, this Interrupt is played after your personnel are counted for dilemma numbers, so the personnel you add to the attempt doesn’t give your opponent more dilemmas. In a perfect situation you can attempt a mission with one Anthropology personnel (Assuming Transport Crash Survivors and no other dilemma buffs are on the board) you can drop 3 of these adding 3 personnel to the attempt and your opponent only draws and spends one for dilemmas.
Bajorans and good ships aren’t usually mentioned in the same sentence. There are shades of Vedek Assembly Transport in Orb Transport Vessel. This gives them a second option and one for the self- milling deck. Hitting the obligatory 8 Range is very important for every affiliation. You need to be able to fly to your headquarters from your attempting mission and back each turn, and this ship can pump to a 9 range.
It would be a complete failure not to mention Metron Arena, Resolve Standing Conflict. Bajoran discard pile shenanigans needed a way to deal with Greasy Dukat. Along with Metron Arena, Resolve Standing Conflict they have Benjamin Sisko, Man of Two Worlds to do so. Now with Opaka, Healer they have one more personnel with a DS9 icon to be able to play Holding Cell, yet another way to deal with Greasy Dukat.
Stay tuned as my next deck design article will tackle the new Bajorans.
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