Vulcan Spies

by James Monsebroten, Staff Writer

19th September 2017

In Season 1 of Enterprise the episode "The Andorian Incident" introduces us to the Andorians, a future founding member of the United Federation of Planets.  During the episode we learn that the Vulcan are spying on their neighbours from a secret spy station underneath of a Vulcan Monastary on P'Jem.  This shows us that the Vulcans weren't just up in Starfleet's business, but in others' business as well.

During the development of Live Long and Prosper we knew we needed to do something related to the Vulcan and their spying nature.  We built a few Espionage cards, P'Jem and its Sanctuary, and The Secret of P'Jem itself, and finally IDIC: Courage of the V'Shar.  These cards together allow you to make a Vulcan spy deck that benefits from spying on their neighbours.

Below is a deck I built to make use of the Spy related cards.

Seed Deck Details:
You will have two locations to report your Vuclans to; P'Jem and Vulcan.  Try to get them close together, if possible.

I chose to run Kolinahr instead of Protect the Timeline for this deck for two reasons:

1. I was limiting myself to all Vulcans because I wanted to use Neuropressure Massage
2. It allows a Vulcan to report for free at any location they can report (P'Jem Sanctuary)

Seed Duck Blind on Rebuild Monastary and for the V'Shar download you get from P'Jem Sanctuary, I recommend grabbing Tavek.

Since the deck is 22 focused it will also seed Finally Ready to Swim which will allow you to get an additional card draw when you play a personnel or ship.

Turn 1:
On turn one you'll want to report at least two personnel to P'Jem Sanctuary.  If you get an Espionage card in your opening hand, play it to draw two cards before you play any personnel.  The personnel you play first can be any Vulcan and should use the report for free granted by Kolinahr.  The second will be after your card play phase via download from Defend Homeworld and should be Sinam (for Anthropology x2).

If you happen to draw Charles Tucker III make sure you play him as one of your Vulcans; if you do not draw him you should use Quark's Isolinear Rods to download him to had to play on turn 2 (once played make sure to use his Special Download to get Neuropressure Massage).  IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use Quark's Isolinear Rods until after you have used Defend Homeworld as this will protect you from Computer Crash.

After you have Tavke, Sinam, and any other Vulcan at P'Jem Sanctuary, use Temporal Conduit to transport them through time to the planet's surface.  With Duck Blind on the planet you will get an additional card draw at the end of your turn.

Don't forget to use Temporal Conduit to download Temporal Investigations, which could end up granting you card draws on later turns.

Other Notes for Future Turns:

1. Your card plays will likely be Ships and Espionage cards (2 card draws and ability to attempt missions).
2. When you complete a mission targeted by an Espionage card your V'Shar personnel can relocate to P'Jem Sanctuary.  This is useful to File Mission Report OR to move personnel down the spaceline.
3. Vulcan PADD can be used to give your V'Shar personnel a skill from your ship.  This will allow them to use File Mission Report with that skill.  My favourite ship to use this wil is Ti'Mur for Geology.
4. Vulcan Nerve Pinch is in the deck for both defensive and offensive purposes.  If your opponent comes to attack your personnel at the Duck Blind you can use it to take out three of their attacking away team members before pairing.  If you want to go attacking your opponent it has a nice side effect that anyone targeted by it will be in stasis until the end of your next turn which means your opponent will not be able to use those personnel on their next turn.
5. Watch for an opportunity to use Space-Time Portal to drop a ship with crew.

 

For more advanced players:
Pay attemtion to the missions your opponent is using.  Using the espionage cards you can attempt your opponent's missions worth 40+ point that are either Non-Aligned, Starfleet, Klingon, or Federation.  Make sure you note what missions you may want to steal before you place dilemmas and remember what you put under those missions.  By using Espionages will will by pass the restriction on HQ: Defensive Measures. 

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Decklist

Print Decklist • Copy Deck

This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:

• Complete

This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:

• Modern
• Open
• Revised
• Warp Speed

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