The Road to Worlds: Winning Deck Analysis, Week 8, Part 1

by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador

21st May 2015

Welcome back for another season of The Road to Worlds. Around this time every year, we have a three-month stretch where each region of play for the various Star Trek card games gets to have its "big dance." Whether the players of your locale are rated 1800 or don't know their rating, whether your nearest regional attracts 4 players or 40 players, once a year everyone brings their best decks and competes for their regional title. I'm here to celebrate with the winners, ask them what they think, and analyze their decks.

The New Bajor Second Edition Regional in Rotterdam, The Netherlands started off the weekend. It was won by Enrico Evink, but since it was a premiere sealed event I don't have much to analyze about the deck. However, I still had some questions for Enrico, and he had some answers:

Going in to this tournament, did you have much experience in the Second Edition Premiere Sealed format?
As most of our local players do not own a lot of Second Edition cards (and for First Edition we actually have a gentlemen agreement not to include any 2E cards in our decks), we pretty much only play sealed about two times per year.

Were there any key cards that you were able to add to your deck?
Just some good dilemmas (Pursuit Just Behind, Nanite Attack and Bad End; beyond that the rares from the boosters and starter were rubbish/unplayable in the TNG starter deck).

What card would you nominate as the MVP of your deck?
The U.S.S. Sovereign with the range 9 makes it possible to move from a space to a planet mission past your headquarters to either pick up or drop people.

Do you have any advice for anyone who is going to play in a Second Edition Premiere Sealed tournament?
Enjoy yourself, nothing else really.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
Not about the deck but I would like to thank Oscar for joining in so we had four players (even though he had little experience playing second edition)

Koblenz, Germany, in the Vandros IV Region, hosted a Second Edition Regional this Saturday. Tobias Rausmann won a second event this season with a deck called:

Title: Before the Wormhole
Headquarters: Founders' Homeworld, Contingent Refuge
Deck Size: Medium (45-59)
Deck Archetype: Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (30-49)
Dilemma Pile Type: Attrition with Tactical Disadvantage/Gorgan
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.31
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 3%

Tobias had this to say about this deck:

Why did you choose the deck that you used?
I wanted to try some of the Dominion cards from the last set. So I built a Dominion solver with minimal events. I removed all events except Spiteful Strategy and Mobilization Points, because more events would be too costly with Spiteful Strategy in play. I also included the new HQ and the missions where duals are more expensive.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck?
Decks with lots of events, because Spiteful Strategy would hurt them most.

Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)?
I have experience with the old Dominion-Alpha solver, but not with the current Dominion solvers. So the deck was relative new to me.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Spiteful Strategy was really useful against the three DS9 decks I faced this tournament. Not a single Holding Cell was played, because it gets too costly with two or three Spiteful Strategy in play. Another useful card was Shrouded in Light to get another personnel through cards like Personal Duty.

My Commentary:
Well, we've seen several winning Dominion decks already this season, and it is easy to see why. Not only did they get some powerful new tools, but they already had some good old ones, and I can't really blame anyone for wanting to try out the new hotness right away. Many of the usual tricks are here: the Stokoron missions continue to bump up the cost of dual dilemmas, Our Death keeps on blocking those important verbs, and the selection avoidance trio (Remata, Arak, and Shrouded) remain vigilant against the forces of An Issue of Trust/Personal Duty.

This deck does have a very interesting inclusion that sets it apart from the other Dominion decks we've looked at: going all-in on Spiteful Strategy. Dominion decks often like to have events of their own around, so other winning decks have not tried it, but with the only other event being the zero-cost Mobilization points it fits in here. Also, recall, if you will, our discussion on the general layout of large European control decks. They had something in common: a heavy investment in events. Those decks, while powerful, aren't typically fast to start, but are tough to stop once they get rolling. With three Spiteful Strategies here, it's likely such a control deck would be crippled with a hand full of over-cost events.

I also had a follow up question for Tobias - the presence of Spiteful Strategy is not the only uniqueness to his deck:

We've seen several Dominion winners recently, but yours is the first to go without Crippling Strike. Do you have any thoughts to share on why you did not use it? Did you ever find yourself wishing you had it?
My deck has already several interupts and more would have clogged my hand. I have chosen Shrouded in Light over Crippling Strike to solve my missions faster than my opponent. It worked in most games.

Crippling Strike was played against me, but my Battleship had enough range left to fly to its destination.

As I mentioned in the analysis of the Cardassian deck that Al Shaefer used, I agree that it is easy for a mid-sized deck to get hand-clogged if there are too many interrupts (or other reactive cards). Crippling Strike is both an interrupt and reactive - while at the same time being more effective in the mid-early game (while the opponent still has just one ship and cannot afford to discard as much), so I do also see it as a direct competitor with the mission-solving interrupts. I wouldn't say that it's right or wrong to choose them over Crippling Strike, but if I were to make a mid-sized Dominion solver, I too would stick to one or the other.

The Andoria Region has been busy lately; their sixth Regional tournament was held in Fargo, North Dakota the day after the fifth. This was a Second Edition tournament, and was won by a proud North Dakota resident by the name of Matthew Hayes. The deck he used goes by the name:

Title: As a fellow player has often said, "The points don't matter." I'll paraphrase him with an addendum, "Except when you lose them!" v.2-V
Headquarters: Founders' Homeworld, Contingent Refuge
Deck Size: Medium (45-59)
Deck Archetype: Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (30-49)
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.3
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 52%

Matt had a great deal to say about his deck, and has generously shared it with us:

Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
Well, after much deliberation, particularly regarding that our Second Edition Fargo Regional for the past seven years has had victory claimed by a non-resident each time, I wanted to use something with teeth that had the best shot at changing that status. As this event was Virtual Format, I had to adjust a small number of my Standard 2E decks to fit the mold when looking at my options. I was originally going to run a 47 card Relativity solver (which had to eschew some of the key personnel, notably Captain Beverly Crusher-Picard, Wistful Admiral Riker, Retired Engineer Geordi, not to forget to mention some of the key standard Temporal recruits i.e. Remarkable McCoy, Legend Kirk, Relic Scotty, etc. that I had been testing at home for the past two months. I also had my current iteration Terok Nor dilemma milling shenanigans deck in its V format edition (losing out on Useful Adjutant Damar, Mavek). And earlier in the week I had hit upon a pretty cool idea of a deck I may hold for Winnipeg (or Trek Masters Chicago), so I'll leave that one a secret for now.

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck?
Actually, I was up for just about anything. With the format being Virtual, there were some creative limitations placed on any decktype/affiliation/subfaction and therefore we wouldn't be seeing the same old same old, if you know what I mean?

Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)?
Yes, yes I did. I've been greatly enjoying playing Dominion on the 2E side of things for something like 3 or 4 years now. The problem, in general, has always been that most of their best personnel are 3 or 4 cost and therefore usually get outraced by pure speed 1 and 2 cost personnel decks. Yes, they've got a number of non-unique 2 cost Jemmies, but, those get slapped by In Development, Personal Duty (as most of said personnel are either Leadership or Officer) and the like, whereas weenie decks of most other affiliations have a better mix of the Engineer-related (Astrometrics, Engineer, Physics, Programming), Science-related (Anthropology, Archaeology, Geology, Science), and Medical-related (Biology, Exobiology, Medical) skills that don't get hurt equally by AIoT and PDuty as the standard Dominion solver does, unfortunately. Design has tried a previous attempt to solve this issue with a card like Audacious Assault, but, that didn't quite do the job. Until now. Mobilization Points is a fantastic card, but, you'll notice I didn't have a single copy of it in my deck and that was due to the format only having three (if I'm not mistaken) unique Jemmies available; Amat'igan, Arak'Taral, and Toman'torax, so it wasn't worth stocking here. I love the card for Standard decks though. The point loss 'theme' introduced on Contingent Refuge is a neat way to go. While some players my gripe that losing points is a negative experience, the thing that should be considered is that this new Dominion decktype doesn't prevent players from completing missions and earning points towards victory as the lockout decks do, it just makes you work harder or smarter to get around such. I believe it subconsciously (if that's the right word here?) promotes the 40 point missions once again, it promotes the use of round the corner point scoring events/abilities across the board, etc. etc.

Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time?
Yeah, V Format is pretty fun, but, you do have to have the right mix/ratio of skills. In one of my games, I couldn't draw into an Astrometrics personnel (I had five in the deck) or my lone copy of Coil Spanner fast enough and Ben's TOS deck nearly pasted me because of it. I finally got the Founder Architect out around the sixth turn, after bluff attempting Stakoron Strait at least twice, if not three times by that point. On the following turn, I was able to trek to both Stakoron II and Torga IV with my Battleship and crew and nabbed both missions on first attempt, iirc. Ben had been sitting at 70 points from two of his missions (Investigate Destruction and Track Survivors, with its bonus). So, I went from either 0-100 (or 35-100) in two turns and thereby dropping him to 50 points. He had been plugging away at Transport Delegations, double teaming it while my Timescape hid in the dilemma pile. Had it gone another way, and he had held me up at Stakoron II, it would have been a Mod Win for him at 95 to my 35, otherwise, with him needing to complete his fourth mission, the second space one I can't recall atm, for a FW. Whew. That was a knock down drag out fight, as they say.

Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations?
Not really, but, at last minute, I had decided to include one more card, either a copy of Surprise Amity or Shrouded in Light. I couldn't decide, so before we left my house for the venue, I shuffled both face down and had Justin pick one at random. He chose SiL (a card I hadn't yet used) and so in it went. I told him before the gig, if it made even one ripple positively in my favor during the course of a single game, I'd thank him and give him credit. Well, it did. In my game with my nephew, Ryan, he got some lucky breaks with a few v-related dilemmas you don't usually see all that often. I think it was Echo Papa Attack in one instance and I used SiL to protect a Jemmie who only had one of a critical mission skill present at the time from the selection of death, which allowed my away team to nab the mission, if not on that attempt, then on the next turn, without having to go home and pick up reinforcements of that skill.

Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again?
No, I don't think so. Everything seemed to have its place. Again, particularly in this format.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Contingent Refuge and to a little lesser extent, Crippling Strike. That bought me turn against Justin, which admittedly helped to keep him from getting anything more than his first mission in the way things played out. With Ben, it got him to discard five cards, an action that overall didn't seem to hurt him significantly to the best of my knowledge. I know players are already complaining and clamoring for errata to CS, but, it's a game-related choice. Choose not to move or give up five cards. I suppose if Design/Errata truly feel that it is too strong, then might I suggest 'that ship is Range -3 until the end of the turn. That opponent may discard three cards from hand to prevent this' (or Remove this card from the game) otherwise.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
I have enjoyed playing this point loss shenanigans decktype about three or so times now, and this version was both fun and challenging, as well. At heart, I think Phase II is doing quite well on fleshing out the different mechanics each affiliation is supposed to have (or can have, if not previously defined as such.) Keep it coming, CC.

My Commentary:
I definitely agree that Dominion was an excellent choice for the virtual format; The biggest things you lose are Remata'Klan (I am eventually going to be able to type that out and not switch to the decklist tab to make sure I spelled it right) and Explicit Orders/Dominion Hierarchy. Fortunately, Shrouded in Light has decreased the necessity of including Remata specifically, and, while Matt opted to forgo solver interrupts altogether (in favor of Crippling Strike), there are some good alternatives like Infinite Combinations in this card pool.

As I believe the event that this deck won will be the only virtual format event of the season, and Matt is particularly well known to me as someone who enjoys variety in his dilemma piles, I had some follow-up questions for him:

You are notorious for doing well with dilemma piles that have a great deal of variety (and making me add a lot of lines to my dilemma popularity spreadsheet). Are there any dilemmas that you used but might consider hidden gems? Are there any that stand out in virtual format in particular?
Thank you, I'll take the 'notorious' nod as a compliment. Well, it's pretty straightforward, the majority of my dilemma piles use only one copy of any given dilemma of choice, which is primarily because I don't want Borg opponents Adapt-ing or Two of Two-ing with abandon and thereby getting mileage out of such cards. That also makes abilities like Krim's and My Patience Has Limits cost more (if they only get one removed per cost paid/card used). The exceptions to that ('my') rule, are when I run a Legacy pile, an Unfair Comparison pile, a Chula pile, the Persistent/Frozen/Flare pile, or the Species 8472 pile, you know, the newer offered dilemma pile options. Where's the Clown pile, CC?

Most of what I used here, you'll often find in about 60%-80% of my dilemma piles, so no real standouts that I'm not familiar with. Although with having said that, I did throw a couple of things just to try. I've dabbled lately with It's Only a Paper Moon in some of my 4 cost-centric decks and Shared Hallucination as a cheaper Dreamer. The Causal Recursion is a must with this deck as it synergizes well with the HQ. I thought of including a second copy, but, decided against it at the last minute and it didn't seem to detract. Historical Curiosity is one I've shuffled in and out of a few of my post-XX Anniversary decks because the Savage Curtain is one of favorite TOS episodes (in fact, right behind Mirror, Mirror, actually) and while it hasn't yet proven itself a top tier dilemma, I like the potentiality it has against TOS, Starfleet, Equinox, and Maquis decks regarding the ship aspect, at least.

Definitely, I'd consider "notorious" to be a compliment; there's a reason why I track who is responsible for a dilemma's only appearance in my dilemma popularity data. I have a great deal of respect for those who are willing to take a chance on less popular options in order to get a jump on the competition though unpredictability. Many of my favorite games have been against cards and decks I've never seen in action before. For example, Sean O'Reilly may have destroyed me with his Bajoran Combat deck at the Orlando Masters, but we still had a blast in part because it was so cool to see those cards in action!

So, yes, Matt, keep doing what you do :)

The Kazon Collective Regional in Burwood, Australia closed out the weekend with a victory by Steve Hartmann. He used a Terok Nor deck that looked like this:

Title: The end is only the beginning
Headquarters: Mouth of the Wormhole, Terok Nor
Deck Size: Medium (45-59)
Deck Archetype: Control Solver
Dilemma Pile Size: Medium (30-49)
Dilemma Pile Type: Standard Attrition
Average Draw Deck Card Cost: 2.46
Agonizing Count: 2
Odds of Passing a 3-Skill-Dilemma Legacy: 14%

Steve had some interesting thoughts to share on his deck:

Why did you choose the deck that you used? What other decks did you consider using?
Terok Nor dilemma mill. I chose to use this mainly for defensive purposes. It has good defense vs.

• dual HQ (using Provoke Interstellar Incident)
• small dilemma piles (dilemma mill)
• Dominion point loss (using Tenak-talar)
• loss of personnel from Assault decks and Tragic Turn (it has lots of cheap personnel, lots of mission skill redundancy, and able to solve missions with five or fewer personnel)
• Integrity micro-teams (using Transport Crash Survivors)
• Events in play (using Dukat)
• Above the curve personnel such as Dominion Odo (using Weyoun)

Other contenders:

• Bajoran Resistance Assault
• Dominion Jem’Hadar Assault
• Deep Space Nine Gamma Solver
• TNG Cadets using Wolf 359 and Matthew Dougherty
• One other super-secret deck ;)

What sorts of decks were you hoping to face while playing your deck? What decks did you hope not to face?
I was expecting to see Voyager, Dominion Assault, Dominion ship battle, and Cardassian Capture. Also Tragic Turn kill dilemma piles. I was most concerned to face combat-oriented decks. Starfleet might have been a problem with Lustful Distraction and Grav-Plating Trap.

Prior to this tournament, did you have much experience playing this deck (or decks like it)? Did you learn anything new about it when you played it this time?
I played the Terok Nor dilemma mill deck at the release tournament and managed to win with it. I have found the deck pretty much builds itself but did make a few changes for the Regionals event. I gave Inevitable Triumph a go in the place of Our Death is Glory to the Founders. I was worried about the dilemma mill impact on my own dilemma pile and decided to fill it with lots of big filter dilemmas like An Issue of Trust, Personal Duty and Chula: The Chandra.

Did you use any situational cards (cards that you wouldn't expect to be useful in every game)? Are there any whose usefulness exceeded your expectations? Were there any that you wouldn't include if you played the deck again?
I’d replace Inevitable Triumph with Our Death is Glory to the Founders. I’d add a lot more straight up wall dilemmas to my dilemma pile like Outclassed, Tactical Disadvantage, Gorgon, etc. I’d swap Founder Leader Intergalactic Warlord for Beguiling Teacher and add Bridge Officer's Test.

What would you nominate as the MVP card from your deck?
Ruling Council is really strong late game. Across all five games it probably gave me 10 free turns.

Do you have anything else you'd like to say about your deck?
It’s a fun deck to play.

My Commentary:
We previously saw a Terok Nor deck back in week two. Both decks were mid-sized, both included a similar ratio of personnel to interrupts to events; and I classify both as control solvers. However, I imagine both decks play differently, likely playing to the strengths of the player. For example, Nathan's deck leans towards the solver end of the spectrum, with things like At What Cost? for speed and hand weapons to help with dilemmas.

Now, here in Steve's deck, we see more of a push for control. Speed events like Surprise Party have been dropped in favor of the dilemma milling events. Milling your opponent's dilemma pile is a rare form of control (only Terok Nor decks can do it en masse), but I would definitely classify it as a control tactic; you're blocking a way that the opponent could have chosen to interfere with you. I like seeing Shran pop up here in a slower deck; he can definitely buy you some time with his ability, and he's got good skills for the popular Penetrate Enemy Lines.

To wrap things up, I had a couple follow-up questions:

Did you have any difficulty using Undermined Defenses with a medium-sized deck?
I think I only used this ability once all tournament. I have found it is normally only active on my third mission attempt and at that time probably a third to half of the deck is still available to discard. I found triggering its game text once was normally enough to force a mission solve. Just having it available for use was probably enough to mess up my opponents dilemma selection.

I was curious if there is a story behind your deck title?
The original deck title “Terok Nor dilemma mill” was dull. Most of my deck titles are quotes from film or TV or in this case a tagline from the film “The Butterfly Effect”. I played two games where on my final mission attempt my opponent had fewer dilemmas available than they should have drawn. “The end is only the beginning” is meant to represent the start of bigger problems once their dilemma pile runs out.

That's all for today, check back in tomorrow for a look a the winning First Edition decks.

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