So, You're New to Deep Space 9?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

15th November 2017

The Deep Space 9 faction of the Federation has a lot of different options when it comes to crafting a deck.  A number of their people can turn treacherous and use Confessions in the Pale Moonlight.  They can play out The Siege from season 2 with their Vastly Outnumbered team or they can celebrate the diversity of affiliations who sport the icon using the trilogy of common cards.  They are also quite good at exploring the Gamma Quadrant, having several cards that get bonuses for going there.

Missions

All four non-Headquarters missions are located in the Gamma Quadrant, which is useful for several cards in the deck, most notably.  Exploration is easier for than any other affiliation, since you don’t have to add 2 to the span to go from Mouth of the Wormhole to any missions.  All the other missions require high levels of cunning, which is the easiest attribute for to have in high levels.  The first mission to attempt is probably Survey Star System.  This science-heavy mission gives you a nice little 5 point bonus for having Acquisition, Diplomacy or Treachery personnel in the solving team.  Then you probably want to attempt Fulfill Temporal Paradox.  This deck has a lot of non-Humans in it, so they are all attribute +1 when attempting.  The boost is why there’s a relatively high cunning requirement (>35) for a 30 point mission.  To finish things out, you probably want to do Access Relay Station.  This will bring you to a round 100 points for the win.  Investigate Rumors is here for the gorgeous picture (hey Ross, shiny promo soon???), since its span of 4 is pretty high for most decks.

Draw Deck

This deck has a couple of bonuses in it for using all missions.  The first is the U.S.S. Defiant, Repurposed Warship.  When you play it you get five more counters to spend.  If you’re worried about staffing this bad boy, fear not.  I have stocked Nog, Communications Relay to turn all of your personnel into .  He also happens to be a Ferengi Engineer for Keevan.  Another card that will benefit the all-Gamma strategy is Bejal Otner, Wormhole Theorist.  Each mission could possibly net you five points for using one of his skills to complete it.  Similarly, Paxton Reese, Stellar Cartographer downloads a personnel and puts them in your discard pile when he uses one of his skills to complete a mission.  Finally, Distant Exploration will also net you extra points for traveling to the Gamma Quadrant.

I’ve shown you a couple of ways to score bonus points in this deck.  I’ve also included Promenade School in this deck.  I specifically tailored my personnel selection so that I have as many different species of personnel as possible to make it easier to get people to attend class.  With all these bonus points available, you might just be able to pull off the two-mission win, but I have found those to be elusive with this style of deck in the past.  If you don’t think you can pull together 30 bonus points, you might want to spend some of your extra points on Krim, Thoughtful Tactician.  Are you seeing a lot of Hard Time or The Weak Will Perish in your local area?  Use him to get them under your completed mission.

This deck also stocks one of the most powerful protective events in the game, Holding Cell.  This card initially takes someone into custody.  Be careful that you know the exact name of the personnel you want to target.  One of my local players called Cunning Drone on me for Holding Cell.  Needless to say, I didn’t let him take my Computation Drone.  After that, you basically two free interrupt preventions before the Decay: 3 kicks in and the card is destroyed.  The cards on Holding Cell then get discarded.  Like I said, it’s powerful!

Dilemma Pile

This pile is built around Tragic Turn, but is a little more benign than the more popular All-Consuming Evil iteration.  The basic idea is to get TT out on the mission as soon as possible, and then play a lot of low-cost dilemmas that will always trigger it.  I’ve stocked it full of the 1 cost “do or die” dilemmas like Pillage and Plunder or Covert Extraction.  These dilemmas are great against people who prevent stops like Chakotay, Bridge Between Two Crews or T’Pol, Overbearing Observer.  If they prevent the stops, then someone gets killed. I’ve also stocked three copies of Skeleton Crew, since TT consumes 2 to start, it’s imperative that your opponent can’t microteam your missions.  Finally, I’d like to point out one of my favorite underused dilemmas in the game, Contaminating a Culture.  This one is a little expensive for the deck at a cost of 3, but it’s a nice random kill.  Just make sure your opponent hasn’t played any equipment.

In Conclusion

There are so many places you can take a deck.  I hope this deck serves as a good jumping off point for all of the great ways to play them

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Deep Space Nine Player
• Unbroken I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 31 Space 7 (23%) Cost 1 6 Cost 2 1 Planet 7 (23%) Cost 1 5 Cost 2 2 Dual 17 (55%) Cost 0 6 Cost 2 5 Cost 3 6 Total Dilemma Deck cost 45

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 46 Equipment 3 (7%) Cost 1 1 Cost 2 2 Event 8 (17%) Cost 0 2 Cost 1 2 Cost 2 2 Cost 4 2 Personnel 30 (65%) Cost 1 6 Cost 2 11 Cost 3 6 Cost 4 7 Ship 5 (11%) Cost 5 2 Cost 7 3 Total Draw Deck cost 124

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 0 7 7 Archaeology 0 3 3 Astrometrics 3 11 11 Biology 0 5 5 Diplomacy 0 7 7 Engineer 1 5 2 7 Exobiology 0 4 4 Geology 0 2 2 Honor 1 4 1 5 Intelligence 1 2 2 Law 0 1 1 2 Leadership 0 5 5 Medical 0 3 1 1 5 Navigation 2 9 9 Officer 1 9 9 Physics 0 4 4 Programming 1 8 8 Science 3 11 11 Security 1 4 1 5 Telepathy 0 1 1 Transporters 0 3 3 Treachery 0 1 1 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 10 33.33 % Staff Star 17 56.67 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 28 93.33 % Earth 2 6.67 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Admiral 1 Assassin 1 Cadet 1 Cloaking Device 2 Commander: Talnot 1 Commander: U.S.S. Bellerophon 1 Commander: U.S.S. Defiant 3 Consume: 2 3 Decay: 3 2 General 1 Genetically Enhanced 1 Host 2 Nebula 1 Persistent 4 Region: Bajor System 1 Shape-shifter 1