So, You're New to Relativity?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

25th October 2018

When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it's only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it's two hours. That's relativity.

                                                                                    - Attributed to Albert Einstein

Relativity decks are a variant on the no-headquarters deck.  Today’s deck is from Justin Ford (Resistance-is-futile).

Missions

The essential mission for this deck is Prevent Historical Disruption.  This mission allows you to get a Temporal ship like the U.S.S. Relativity, Federation Timeship, which is your play engine.  I like how the mission has you spend 4 counters to get the ship, but then the ship itself costs 0.  You can now play Fed personnel and equipment to the ship on the first turn.  I think this is a better mechanic for the no-HQ deck than the more cumbersome Voyager/Caretaker’s Array method.  Sometimes with Voyager, you’re stuck if you didn’t have it in your opening hand.  It also gives your ship a place to go if you get hit with Where No One Has Gone Before or other cards that may say to move your card back to a headquarters.  The Relativity does have a drawback, which is it puts non- personnel in your discard pile at the beginning of each turn (more on this later).

I don’t recall seeing people attempt Prevent Historical Disruption very often, as the Cunning > 36 requirement is pretty steep for a 35 point mission.  In this deck, I suspect that it is completed as the first mission, just by looking at the skill matrix of the personnel in the deck.  Avert Danger is usually one of the first missions done, because Data, Lucasian Chair has all the skills for it, including double Science to get the 5 point bonus.  I would probably go for Metron Arena, Resolve Standing Conflict for the third mission.  It also has the double bonus of protecting the personnel in your discard pile from Duket Pah-Wraith Puppet (AKA Greasy Dukat).  I would think that Deliver Evidence would be a risky choice, since there is no Intelligence and only 3 Archaeology available to you.  Finally, I don’t see the Relativity trying to Destroy Transwarp Hub, but there are good reasons for it to be in the deck (see dilemmas below).

Draw Deck

The most important event in any Relativity deck is Temporal Transporters.  This card allows you to place personnel from your discard pile onto your unique Temporal ship.  With this card you suddenly have access to all of the Federation, not just a particular faction.  You’ll often see personnel like James T. Kirk, Original Thinker, B’Elanna Torres, Straightforward Engineer or Geordi LaForge, Chief Engineer to the deck.  In fact, if you decide to use the Replicate text on the card, you can discard two personnel you may want to use and then grab them with the Temporal Transporter.  There is a limit to the usefulness of these non- personnel, because they go back to your discard pile at the beginning of your next turn.  This slim build then functions as a very fast mission-solver.

Dilemma Pile

This is a fairly standard attrition pile.  There is one important dilemmas tailored for a Relativity deck (or any non-HQ deck, more generally) in Well-Prepared Defenses.  This dilemma is a benefit because you will likely have more missions worth points that your opponent does, unless they are also playing a no-HQ deck, so it’s likely you’ll get a choice kill for a cost of 2. 

Final Thoughts

I really love the Trek sense of Relativity.  You recruit people from the past (the discard pile) with Temperal Transporters to help you solve a problem in the future.  Then they go back to past once they solve the problem. Neat!

Discuss this article in this thread.

Tournament Record:

• Constructed - American National (2017-04-08): 6th place
• Constructed - Regional (2018-06-02): 2nd place

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

• Future Imperfect
• No Crutches I
• No Crutches II
• Relativity Player

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 35 Space 8 (23%) Cost 2 2 Cost 3 5 Cost 9 1 Planet 5 (14%) Cost 3 4 Cost 5 1 Dual 22 (63%) Cost 0 3 Cost 2 9 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 6 Cost 6 1 Total Dilemma Deck cost 102

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 42 Equipment 2 (5%) Cost 1 2 Event 8 (19%) Cost 2 3 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 2 Interrupt 2 (5%) Personnel 27 (64%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 9 Cost 3 5 Cost 4 5 Cost 5 5 Ship 3 (7%) Cost 0 3 Total Draw Deck cost 106

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 2 5 5 Archaeology 1 3 3 Astrometrics 1 5 2 7 Biology 0 6 6 Diplomacy 0 6 6 Engineer 1 9 1 10 Exobiology 1 4 4 Geology 0 3 3 Honor 1 6 3 9 Intelligence 1 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 2 9 9 Medical 0 2 1 3 Navigation 2 8 8 Officer 2 13 13 Physics 2 9 9 Programming 1 5 5 Science 3 9 2 11 Security 3 7 7 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 3 3 Treachery 1 1 1 2 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 11 40.74 % Staff Star 12 44.44 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 2 7.41 % Next Generation 5 18.52 % Voyager 9 33.33 % Original Series 3 11.11 % Temporal Icons Future 23 85.19 % Past 3 11.11 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Admiral 5 Commander: U.S.S. Defiant 1 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise 3 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise-D 1 Commander: U.S.S. Pasteur 1 Commander: U.S.S. Relativity 2 Consume: 1 1 Genetically Enhanced 1 Infiltrator 1 Nebula 1 Persistent 2 Region: Bajor System 1 Replicate: Discard two cards from hand 3 Temporal 6 Thief 1