Fear Will Keep Them in Line

by Matthew Zinno, Staff Writer

23rd March 2016

A lot of affiliations and factions get new cards in Through the Looking Glass. There are some cards for Ferengi, and Cardassian, and even Voyager!  But the bulk of the new personnel are, true to the set's expansion icon, cards taken from the episode "Mirror, Mirror".  To illustrate some of the abilities that this faction gains in this set, I've built a deck around many of these cards. 

A New Cycle

One of the interesting subgroups in the set is a cycle of personnel, for the 4 series mains from the Starship Enterprise who visited the mirror universe. Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, and Lt. Uhura are here, each with and icons, and native to the Alpha Quadrant. Each of them has the phrase "mirror universe" in their lore, which lets them interact with the new incident, Supplant Opposite. Among other abilities, this lets them report as if they were personnel. (Combined with their other icons, notice that this lets them report for free to the Halkan Council.) But what makes them truly a "cycle" is another special skill that each has: when one is in play, and in the Mirror Quadrant, the next one in the list can report at the same location, and for free. 

Stuck in the Past

This Mirror TOS deck naturally uses the time location, Halkan Council, for many free reports. The native cards here include familiar personnel you've known since the Mirror, Mirror expansion, like First Officer Spock and Security Chief Sulu. There are also newer ones, including Farrell and Haadok, who already have cards in the Second Edition (2E) game. And as mentioned above, the new cycle of Alpha Quadrant cards also count as , and therefore native, when reporting. 

To let them leave the time location after reporting, we have Protect the Timeline, a new incident which allows time travel. It stops the travelling cards unless they have a certain amount of nativity with the time location, which shouldn't be a big problem for this deck. It also grants another free report -- and its restriction, that all free reports must be native, also isn't a problem for this deck. Suppose, for example, you try to use the special skill on Mr. Scott, which says Lt. Uhura may report for free. When you report her, Supplant Opposite lets her do that report as if she were (as long as you haven't used up its "once each turn" clause). Well, if she's reporting as and , then she is considered native to the Halkan Council during that report. So Protect the Timeline doesn't object to her report being free.

And how do we get cards for all those free plays? Temporal Shifting works well in an -heavy deck like this. I've also seeded Study Divergent History on the Enterprise, and two AQ mission specialists to be able to use it early.

Taking Charge

Halkan Council also lets you immediately download a ship; in this deck that would be the ISS Enterprise. And it, in turn, lets you download a personnel; in this deck, though there are many options, you'll want to get James Tiberius Kirk. The reason for this is that this way, you start your first turn with a captain in play -- and once he reaches the normal spaceline, you can use the seeded Taking Charge to download helpful objectives to your missions. One of these, which you'll use for your space missions, is Reap All the Glory -- in a few cases, you need it for the attemptability, and it's always nice to get an extra 5 points for each solve.

The newer objective to grab is Fear Will Keep Them in Line. It grants more attribute boosts, plus Agonizers and Agony Booths. But the largest benefit is, again, bonus points: convert your WEAPONS into bonus points (maximum 15) when you solve. To take advantage of this, we want the attributes on the ISS Enterprise to be boosted as high as we can manage. Chief Engineer Scott, Chief Navigator Chekov, and the TWT version of Mr. Scott (use a persona swap for him) all have special skills which increase the attributes of that ship when they're aboard. And when we seed Imperial Intimidation on that ship, those special skills get doubled. (It also grants several draws through its probe results.)

A Note of Empathy

Thinking about Quantum Incursions? There's plenty of in the deck, but no Empathy. No matter -- it can be gained. Supplant Opposite can grant it to one of the "mirror universe" AQ personnel for the turn when they're reported. If I get two of them with Transporter Mixup, they can each gain Empathy -- and if not, I can share the skill to a second personnel using a Classic Communicator.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Decklist

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Modern
• Open
• Revised
• Warp Speed

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

• Empire Player
• Highlander

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemmas
Total Dilemmas		17
[P]		3 (18%)
[S/P]		13 (76%)
[S]		1 (6%)

Seed Deck
Total Seed Deck		30
Dilemma		17 (57%)
Doorway		3 (10%)
Facility		1 (3%)
Incident		4 (13%)
Objective		4 (13%)
Time Location		1 (3%)

Draw Deck
Total Draw Deck		45
Artifact		1 (2%)
Event		4 (9%)
Incident		2 (4%)
Interrupt		4 (9%)
Objective		2 (4%)
Personnel		28 (62%)
Ship		4 (9%)

Q-Tent Side Deck
Total Q-Tent Side Deck		13
Equipment		5 (38%)
Event		1 (8%)
Incident		1 (8%)
Interrupt		2 (15%)
Objective		3 (23%)
Personnel		1 (8%)

"Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads
Total "Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads		3
Doorway		3 (100%)

Skills
Acquisition		0
Anthropology		4
Archaeology		3
Astrophysics		4
Biology		10
CIVILIAN		1
Computer Skill		6
Cybernetics		0
Diplomacy		3
Empathy		0
ENGINEER		11
Exobiology		5
Geology		5
Greed		1
Honor		3
Law		1
Leadership		8
MEDICAL		9
Music		1
Navigation		5
OFFICER		7
Physics		3
SCIENCE		5
SECURITY		6
Smuggling		1
Stellar Cartography		3
Transporter Skill		7
Treachery		10
V.I.P.		0
Youth		4
Rare Skills
Barbering		0
Cantankerousness		0
Guramba		0
Mindmeld		3
Miracle Worker		0
Orion Syndicate		0
Resistance		0

Skill			On # Missions	Skill Dots	Classifications	Total
Acquisition						0
Anthropology			1	4		4
Archaeology				3		3
Astrophysics				4		4
Biology				10		10
CIVILIAN					1	1
Computer Skill			1	6		6
Cybernetics						0
Diplomacy				3		3
Empathy						0
ENGINEER				4	7	11
Exobiology				5		5
Geology			1	5		5
Greed			1	1		1
Honor				3		3
Law				1		1
Leadership			1	8		8
MEDICAL				3	6	9
Music				1		1
Navigation			1	5		5
OFFICER			1	1	6	7
Physics				3		3
SCIENCE				1	4	5
SECURITY			3	1	5	6
Smuggling				1		1
Stellar Cartography				3		3
Transporter Skill			1	7		7
Treachery			2	10		10
V.I.P.						0
Youth			1	4		4
Rare Skills
Barbering
Cantankerousness
Guramba
Mindmeld				3		3
Miracle Worker
Orion Syndicate
Resistance
Intelligence Skills
FCA
Intelligence
Klingon Intelligence
Memory Omega				1		1
Obsidian Order
Section 31
Tal Shiar
V'Shar
any Intelligence				1		1

Traits
Card group
Captains Order		1
Infiltration-related card		1
Vulcan-related interrupt		1
Dilemma group
female-related dilemma		2
male-related dilemma		1
MEDICAL-related dilemma		3
SCIENCE-related dilemma		3
Tamarian-related dilemma		1
Equipment group
ENGINEER-related equipment		1
hand weapon		1
MEDICAL-related equipment		1
phaser		1
SCIENCE-related equipment		2
Mission region
Bajor Region		3
Mission trait
Asymmetric mission		3
Homeworld		1
Personnel gender
Female		6
Male		23
Personnel group
Mirror universe-related personnel		4
Terok Nor-related personnel		2
Personnel trait
any Scotty		3
Bodyguard		4
Captain		2
Mission Specialist		2
Nurse		2
Support Personnel		4
Ship equipment
Tractor Beam		3
Ship trait
Federation ship		4
Interceptor		1

Icons
Era
		31
Faction
		5
		26
Quadrant
		26
Special
		1
		34
		3
		1
Staffing
		7
		19