So, You're New to the Alternate Universe?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

1st March 2018

Capt. Picard: Who is to say that this history is any less proper than the other?

Guinan: I suppose I am.

Capt. Picard: Not good enough, damn it, not good enough! I will not ask them to die!

Guinan: Forty billion people have already died! This war's not supposed to be happening! You've got to send those people back to correct this.

                                                                                                - from “Yesterday’s Enterprise”

This deck was originally built to for the old Academy format in 2E.  I originally wanted a deck that had lots of mains who could fit in that rarity restriction.  I hit on the TNG Yesterday’s Enterprise crew as a good candidate for that.  There’s a lot of good cards out there supporting the “cost 4 or more” theme of that cycle of cards.

Missions

Feds are mission solvers, so I picked fairly straightforward missions for them to solve.  There isn’t really any fancy mission text, except for Alpha 5 Approach.  Everyone plays to Earth, Cradle of the Federation.  Necessary Execution is a thing, so I usually attempt Eliminate Sphere Network first.  I follow it up with Geological Survey and then Salvage Borg Ship.  I have Alpha 5 Approach in here because it’s only a good thing to attempt with 6 or more with New Life being a thing.

Draw Deck

The card you want in your opening hand is Guinan, Battleship Bartender.  As I mentioned before, the Battleship Enterprise crew has a theme of “cost 4 or more,” and they all do.  Guinan can be stopped each turn to provide a cost reduction of 2 for an personnel.  There are plenty of great personnel you’ll want to get discounted.  Jean-Luc Picard, Battleship Captain will let you download any card.  Geordi LaForge, Battleship Engineer can get you where you need to go, which has saved my bacon on several occasions.  Beverly Crusher, Battleship Doctor can save any of your personnel who cost 4 or more from death.  Finally, Wesley Crusher, Battleship Helmsman is probably the best of the crew.  Not only does he gain skills when he’s present with a personnel who costs 4 or more, but he boosts your ship’s attributes by 1.  I just wish that the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Battleship was more in the theme of the deck.  I would love if it scored points when a personnel who cost 4 or more used a skill to complete a mission, rather than when you win an engagement.

There’s some good support in this deck for the cost 4 or more theme and also cycling through your deck.  The first one is Always Welcome, which is a good draw engine when you have those personnel in play.  That card pairs well with One Man Can Summon the Future, which will let you rig the draw on the Always Welcome.  Both of those cards trigger at the same time, so you can choose to do the rearrange first then the draw.  Finally, another card that helps you cycle through your deck is One Man Cannot Summon the Future, which requires you to play a mix of and non- personnel.  You can get stuff out of your hand that you don’t want quite yet. 

Two cards in this deck go along with the “sharing is caring” theme, where you and your opponent benefit from a card.  Any player can make use of VIP Welcome to draw a card when they play a personnel who costs 3 or more.  Finally, the big monster support card for this deck doesn’t play off the cost of your personnel, rather how many you attempt with.  New Life allows a player attempting with 6 or more personnel to draw a card and then you draw one.  This amounts to two draws for you on your mission attempts.  This is great for drawing into interrupts that might help you during a mission attempt.

Dilemma Pile

I built this deck for an Academy event.  I had no idea what kind of pile to build for it, so I tied for a basic attrition pile.  Looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking.  I would have included more weenie hate than just Curt Reprimand.  In Development seems to be mandatory for a format that only allows C, S and V cards, but I didn’t include it.  I do have some hefty walls, like Conflict of Interests, Eugenic Transformation and Breaking the Ice.  There’s really not much rhyme or reason to it, otherwise.

Final Thoughts

Academy was a fun format to play, but we will be bidding it adieu soon.  This deck can be beefed up with the inclusion of a variety of uncommon and rare cards.  My personal favorite is Predicament, which gives you a +3 to play and draw dilemmas, all for a cost of 3 and a play requirement of 3 personnel.  I’ll take that all day long!

Discuss this article in this thread.

Tournament Record:

• Academy - Online Event (Subspace Series) (2020-07-31): 3rd place

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

• Next Generation Player
• Uncommon Quality
• Common Problems
• Overused Problems I
• Unbroken I
• Overused Problems II
• Good Casting: Spiner (Data)
• Chair's Challenge 2019: Assimilate This!

Decklist

Print Decklist • Print Checklist • Copy Deck • Download Into DeckPADD

Missions Headquarters 1 S 161 •Earth, Cradle of the Federation Planet 1 S 171 •Lapideas System, Geological Survey 3 S 103 •Salvage Borg Ship Space 21 V 14 •Alpha 5 Approach, Transport Crash Survivor 43 V 13 •Sector 39-J, Investigate Annihilation

Draw Deck (51) Equipment 4 C 32 1x Emergency Transport Unit 1 C 65 1x Engineering PADD 1 C 72 1x Tricorder Event 49 V 12 2x Change of Venue 35 V 7 2x •New Life 14 C 36 1x •One Man Can Summon the Future 13 C 30 1x •One Man Cannot Summon the Future 13 C 37 1x These Are The Voyages 2 C 69 2x Unexpected Difficulties 4 C 81 1x •VIP Welcome Interrupt 1 S 131 2x Mission Briefing 16 V 26 2x Reprogrammed Personnel Federation 24 V 30 1x •Benjamin Maxwell, Misguided Maverick 13 C 59 1x •Beverly Crusher, Battleship Doctor 13 C 60 1x •Data, Battleship Officer 1 C 260 1x Davies 7 C 65 1x •Dr. Leah Brahms, Holographic Representation 1 S 262 2x •Elizabeth Shelby, Formidable Presence 17 V 60 1x •Geordi La Forge, Battleship Engineer 25 V 38 2x •Guinan, Battleship Bartender 13 C 64 1x •Jean-Luc Picard, Battleship Captain 28 V 29 1x •Jocelyn LoPresti, Coming to Grips 46 V 22 1x •Julian Bashir, Visiting Colleague 13 C 68 1x •Lwaxana Troi, Extravagant Ambassador 35 V 26 1x Martinez 27 V 10 1x •Miles O'Brien, Conn Officer 22 V 37 1x •Morgan Bateson, Confident Commander 35 V 28 1x Richardson 32 V 13 1x •Sito Jaxa, Undercover "Terrorist" 47 V 9 1x •Vash, Duplicitous Damsel 13 C 82 2x •Wesley Crusher, Battleship Helmsman 13 C 83 1x •William T. Riker, Battleship First Officer 1 S 290 1x •Worf, Security Detail Leader Non-Aligned 38 V 34 1x Ah-Kel 26 V 41 1x Dath 48 V 16 1x •Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance Man 1 C 339 1x •Pran Tainer, Atrean Seismologist 21 V 19 1x Sumek Ship Federation 13 C 117 2x •U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Battleship 1 C 393 3x U.S.S. Excelsior

Dilemma Pile (35) Dual 29 V 1 1x Adopted Authority 4 C 6 1x Back Room Dealings 40 V 1 2x Bread and Circuses 41 V 2 2x Dereliction of Duty 4 C 15 1x Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? 17 V 6 1x He Wasn't Nice 21 V 3 2x In Development 24 V 6 1x Insurrection 26 V 4 1x Intimidation 14 C 7 1x Moral Choice 28 V 3 1x Overburdened 31 V 11 2x The Weak Will Perish 2 C 25 2x Timescape Planet 1 C 13 2x Captain's Holiday 37 V 5 2x Pillage and Plunder 38 V 10 2x Surface Defense 38 V 11 2x Underlying Influence Space 38 V 2 2x Covert Extraction 23 V 9 1x One Step Ahead 38 V 8 2x Pattern Loss 31 V 10 1x Pest Control 46 V 5 1x Threading the Needle 38 V 13 2x Vanishing Act

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