Beginner Decks

by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador

22nd July 2022

Welcome to the Beginner Decks project. Born out of a desire to have easy to grasp decks for new or returning players to Second Edition, these decks are built to be accessible, modular, and competitive.

Each deck has a strategy article to go with it: this article highlights some of the key cards in the deck, explaining the cards that it is most important that you grasp before shuffling and playing. When possible, personnel with simple text were preferred, and each deck has just as much star power (Kirk, Picard, Etc) as possible.

As you become more comfortable with the decks, you may want to customize them. Each article also has suggestions for different sets of cards that you may wish to use to personalize your deck. For example, maybe you like Cardassians, but the beginner deck isn't cruel enough for your tastes. Well, that deck's article suggests a suite of different capture and punishment cards you might want to add to your deck.

Even if you don't want to customize the decks, they are designed to be as competitive as possible with the simplicity and size constraints. Each is based on a deck that has done well at a major event, and, once you get to know the deck, it should treat you well. The strategy articles also link to the predecessor decks, in case you want to drink straight from the fire hose.

These decks have been tested against each other in solo and live games, and are relatively balanced against each other. If you don't have a local group near you, print out a couple and get some friends to play with you.

While the decks are roughly balanced, they aren't equally simple. We've given each deck a complexity rating:

(To print a deck, follow the link to the deck and click the "Print Decklist" link above the list. From there you can generate a pdf including all the cards in the deck by clicking the "Print" button at the bottom.)

Released alongside these decks is a set of nine promo cards. Eight are reprints of existing cards that are used in the starters, but are printable at the highest quality for the first time now. Additionally, the Next Generation deck uses a new card, that was designed by the community: Shelley, who becomes tournament-legal in one week on February 28th. Thank you to the art, proofreading, and programming teams for bringing these cards to life. And thank you to the beginner decks team (particularly Fritz Meissner and Maggie Geppert) for tireless playtesting and thoughtful feedback.

So what are you waiting for? If you need to find out how to play, here are some learn to play videos. If you're looking for people to play with, here are the tournament listings and here's a link to the Dojo (discord) where you can find online games to play and discuss the game. If you're looking for the links to the decks and their articles, you passed them, they're just above this paragraph. And if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a private message (edgeofhearing).

Additional Strategy Articles:

• Dilemma Pile Customization
• Dilemma Pile: Teching Against Your Opponent
• Dilemma Pile: Making It Work With Your Deck

Discuss this article in this thread.