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Strategy Articles
Look at the Havoc We Have Wrought
by Charlie Plaine, Director of First Edition
15th April 2020
Infiltration has always been one of those fringe decks in Second Edition. One of the decks that seems like it might be good, but you never get around to putting together. Or you do, but it's got so many moving pieces that it gets overwhelming. At the same time, it feels like a deck that's out there and a danger - a looming threat. Wait, am I describing Infiltration decks or the Dominion itself? It's fitting the two are married in Second Edition.
My most successful deck in Second Edition, winning a North American Continental Championship, was a ![[Dom]](/images/icons/dominion.gif "[Dom]"){kind=icon}
Infiltration deck. I recall spending months working on it, refining it, often changing a single card between iterations. It used Infiltrators to cause chaos at mission attempts, making them more difficult with Founder Trap and scoring bonus points from Tenak'talar. At the same time, the Infiltrators were causing attribute drain with Bashir Founder (Nefarious Saboteur) and Misdirection; when combined with dilemmas like The Clown: Bitter Medicine and Chula: The Dice, mission attempts were often dead in the water. This lets you build up your own crew to solve missions and get ahead of the opponent, if not win outright, before time is called.
I hadn't really taken a look at Infiltrators in a very long time, in spite of some very cool cards being made for that deck. But Earth (Conduct Espionage) in The Omega Directive really caught my attention. This new mission rewards you for playing Infiltrators by giving you a two-card advantage: your opponent loses a card, and you draw. Since it's a fifty (50) point mission with beefy, but Infiltrator-friendly skills, you will probably trigger this text multiple times. Ideally, you'll do this last for the win and be able to trigger it multiple times each turn (aside from an opponent's Skeleton Crew.) The high Strength requirement isn't a problem for Jem'Hadar, since most of them have a Strength of 8; this helps offset the lower strength of the Changelings and Vorta you'll need to get the mission skills.
Discovering New Gems
So with this new Earth mission inspiring me to take a fresh look at an old deck, I dug into building a new Infiltration deck for the modern game. My Infiltration decks always focused on attribute drain and using Founder Trap to stop mission solves, once they had built up enough overcome dilemmas beneath their missions. You need a lot of Infiltrators to do this - at least one at each planet, and one aboard each of their ships (or aboard your own ship at their missions). The more, the better - especially now when battle is more common. Lovok Founder (Effective Changeling) helps a lot with this, because he can't be assimilated, captured, or killed if he's alone. Kira Founder (Curious) is also a big help with getting more coverage, because she can "drop in" to an attempt in progress.
A bigger problem was the limit of only having three (3) Founder Traps, since they remove from the game when played. Founder Instigator (Unmasked) effectively doubles that count, as his text is identical. You can even "double up" by plying a Founder Trap targeting him, and then removing him from the game to require two copies of his skills - 4 Intelligence is no easy ask. The trick then is to find a way to get him back into play, but that's why you end up running lots of ships - to ferry people around.
I think Founders' Homeworld (Contingent Refuge) might be one of the best new additions to this deck's arsenal. While it's true you can use some ![[NA]](/images/icons/nonaligned.gif "[NA]"){kind=icon}
cards in an Infiltration deck, I've always found them to be of diminishing returns. Khan Noonien Singh (Genetically-Engineered Nemesis) seems like a obvious choice, but hitting the opponent with a 5 or 10 point loss in a game (depending on how it's going) can be much more devastating - especially if you end up sending them to a 4th mission. You are slow and steady, so the longer you can hold them off, the better you'll be.
But ultimately, this deck needs to be big. You've got a lot of moving pieces, and you'll need to be willing to play the longer game to play Infiltration attribute-drain. And since you're running a big deck, you'll want to find ways to do lots of downloading, reduce costs, and draw cards. With lots of duplicate copies of unique cards, Optimism is a great choice; so is Indebtedness. The new Earth is a Strength mission, so you can use Crom (Open-minded) to grab three key personnel when you play him; Gelnon (Accurate Estimator) should absolutely be one of them! He'll give you a download of an Infiltration card each turn, which will be invaluable. You might also want to grab Founder Leader (Forbidding Judge) or O'Brien Founder (Agent Provocateur), as both can download other cards you'll need.
How to Play
This is a big deck, so you'll want to do everything you can to steadily play personnel and to draw and cycle through the deck. To help, you've got three copies each of These Are the Voyages and Miracle Worker, which will net you a card and cycle duplicates through your deck. Keevan (Conniving Liar) will generate a ton of cards draws if you get him early, giving both you and your opponent a draw each time you play a Jem'Hadar.
Your goal is to get early coverage by Turn 4 or 5 at the latest. To do this, you want to beam down infiltrators on both opponent's planet missions (assuming they're running the standard two-two configuration), and then have an Infiltrator aboard their ship. (Of course, if a ship isn't showing up, you can use Anything or Anyone to spread Infiltrators around the galaxy.) Not only will this enable you to use Misdirection (or Set Up for a key kill or stop), but will also enable Founder Trap to stop mission solves. Additionally, if you've got Leyton Founder over there, you get a discount on your Infiltration cards. Undercover Resource will give you extra counters, as well.
For extra coverage, assuming your deck has drawn well, you'll want Tenak'talar (Weyoun's Warship) at the mission they're attempting - but any ship with another Infiltrator will do. Play Bashir Founder (Nefarious Saboteur), giving him to your opponent, as soon as possible. Ideally, you can earn 20-30 points from Tenak'talar before your opponent solves their first mission. And the whole time you're getting coverage at missions, you should be building up a crew of high Strength personnel to go out and attack one of your space missions. Go for whichever one you have the skills for, because it doesn't really matter. You're aiming for a two mission win (with bonus points from Tenak'talar), so just get one space mission before bringing most of your personnel to Earth for multiple attempts - hopefully for the win.
Dilemmas are a more difficult matter, and one of personal taste. But the core of your dilemma pile for this deck should be dilemmas that require attributes to pass, and stop the crew if they can't. Classics like Gomtuu Shock Wave and Chula: The Dice work well Chameloid Chicanery is a great filter for this deck, giving you both a stop and a kill. Filling out the rest of the dilemma pile is largely a matter of taste, but you don't want for options. You have high Strength people, high cost cards, and big Weapons ships, so you can put in Know Thy Enemy, Gorgon, and Tactical Disadvantage respectively. Anything that bounces and drops people out of the attempt will also come in handy, because you can stall mission attempts for longer if you don't put many dilemmas under. It's largely a matter of taste. I've provided an example dilemma pile, but I suggest removing some of the options and giving it a little more focus before playing the deck. Your goal is to play one dilemma under each mission attempt, because your infiltrators should be lowering their attributes by -2 across the board.
Fine Tuning
I recognize that one hundred and twenty five (125) card decks won't appeal to everyone, and that's okay. There are a lot of extra copies of personnel in the deck, and by thinning them out, you can thin out cards like Optimism and Indebtedness as well. Mobilization Points is a bubble card that can stay, or go, based on your taste. You can pretty easily get this down to ninety (90) cards or less, but keep in mind you have a lot of moving pieces here. It's never going to be a small, slim deck if you want to Infiltrate. But if you're looking to cut cards, there are also some one-off personnel that you can leave in the binders.
Another option is going with the smaller ships, just to save on counters. Of course, if you do that, you'll want to cut Miracle Working. And you'll probably want to up the number of ships overall, because you'll need more in play to do some ferrying around. If you want to add some more tools, there are options. Adding Pseudopod lets you return a Kira Founder to hand (with a probable bonus kill), and then reply her on the opponent's next attempt. If you can find room for either Shocking Revelation (to deal with a troublesome personnel your dilemmas couldn't) or Orbital Weapons Platform (to make a mission attempt very difficult), those can add depth to your strategies.
Of course, while I used this article to revisit an old favorite deck, it's really about the new Earth mission. You could put this mission in a more traditional deck - after all, it's an ![[AQ]](/images/icons/alpha.gif "[AQ]"){kind=icon}
mission if you prefer the original Gelnon (Aloof Tactician) to grab a Jem'Hadar. And of course it's a Strength mission, as mentioned above, so you can use Crom. But it's not a great fit for a pure Jem'Hadar deck, because you need Intelligence and Treachery in multiple. And when combined with the card draw for having a Founder, that just screams Infiltrators.
I want to thank Michael Van Breemen (The Ninja Scot) for taking the time to look over the deck. He made some great suggestions, which I either incorporated into the design or posted here for your consideration. And I also want to thank the Department of Second Edition for making Earth (Conduct Espionage) and The Omega Directive, which really inspired me to take a new look at an old favorite deck.
No matter what you decide to do, I hope that you'll find a way to wreak some havoc of your own with Earth (Conduct Espionage). This mission, along with all the other cards in The Omega Directive, release on Friday, April 17th and will be legal in all formats that allow virtual cards on Friday, April 24th.
Discuss this article in this thread.
Tournament Record:
- Constructed - American National (2020-07-04): 16th place
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
- Dominion Player
- European Style
- Tacking Into the Wind
- Enemy in Your Midst
- Unbroken I
- How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
- Good Casting: Combs (Weyoun)
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