Beginner Deck: Voyager

by Lucas Thompson, Designer

15th October 2021

"We're alone in an uncharted part of the galaxy." Voyager was a different kind of Trek show, and this is a different kind of deck. The first thing to notice about it is it does not include a headquarters mission. That mission type that every other beginner deck has? This one doesn't have one - instead, the crew reports directly aboard the U.S.S. Voyager, which is your home away from home.

That makes this article a little more essential to successfully piloting the deck than the other beginner deck strategy articles: before shuffling and playing, it's important to figure out how to get the ship in play:

• If you draw the Voyager in your opening hand, that's great: just play it to Caretaker's Array, per its gametext.
• When you do so, be sure to follow the rest of its text and drop a couple Voyager personnel from your hand aboard the ship. Because the text says "place" instead of "play", you get to do that without paying the costs on those personnel. Pretty handy.
• If you didn't draw Voyager in your opening hand, that's where Plasma Storm Depths, Search for Missing Vessel. As per its text, since each of your other missions is a Delta Quadrant non-headquarters mission, you can discard three cards (or two personnel) to download the Voyager to your hand. Do that, and now play that ship so you can play your other cards! Generally, you'll want to discard two personnel (rather than three cards) to make it happen - since you'll be starting at Caretaker's Array, try not to discard personnel with Biology, Diplomacy, or Science.

There's something else special about this deck: you also don't have any planet missions. That's not a mistake: Alsuran Sector, Utilize Abandoned Relay Station allows you to win the game if you have 100 points and four completed Delta Quadrant space missions. That's more missions than usual, but your opponent is going to be feeling the pain of drawing useless planet dilemmas more and more often as the game progresses.

You've also got some powerful tools to help you get to that fourth mission, such as Homeward Bound. Once you finish your first mission, you can start using that to unstop your stopped personnel and take another swing at a mission you've failed. Careful though, you need three unstopped Voyager-icon personnel to be able to play them, so you'll want to keep them safe on a second ship: the Delta Flyer.

Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is loosely based on the deck that Robert Dawson used to win the 2017 Australian Continental Championship. You may take inspiration from that deck list, or consider these cards:

Finding Another Way Home
- Caretaker's Array allows you to download Finding Our Way. That's a cheaper way to get Voyager early, but won't work until turn two. If you go that route, you'll want to add some events that you can play to your core (like Running a Tight Ship) in the event that you don't have a turn one Voyager. Another advantage of Finding Our Way over Plasma Storm Depths (besides cost) is that it is reusable: if you're hunting for the Delta Flyer later on so you can use your Homeward Bounds, just pitch a card (any card) and get it.

Break Some Champagne
- If you want to expand the size of your deck without reducing the chance of a turn-one Voyager (which is a nice speed boost), consider Christening. It's basically like adding up to three more copies of Voyager to your deck (with the small risk of it being expensive if you have draw a Delta Flyer and no Voyager).

Seek Out New Worlds
- You don't have to only do space missions with Voyager! Reestablish Neural Cooperative, Locate Fuel Source, and Instruct Advanced Drone are three popular 40-point missions that pair well with the 20-point Caretaker's Array. And, if you're already using all those 40-point missions, you might consider using these powerful dilemmas.

General Use Cards
- Some cards can just go in any deck - and often do because they're so useful. An extra counter per turn from Surprise Party wouldn't go amiss. And once you've played a few games, you'll see how the reboot from Unexpected Difficulties can be game-changing. Alvera Tree Ritual is subtler - you basically play it for free, and not only does it protect you from any dilemma pile manipulation, but it can also be used offensively. If you keep track of which dilemmas you don't use, you can proactively use the Ritual to shuffle your dilemma pile at opportune times.

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Unbroken I
• No Crutches I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Crew Quarters: Voyager
• No Crutches II
• Alone in the Uncharted

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 30 Space 5 (17%) Cost 2 1 Cost 3 4 Planet 5 (17%) Cost 2 2 Cost 3 3 Dual 20 (67%) Cost 0 1 Cost 2 8 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 6 Cost 6 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 88

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 35 Event 2 (6%) Cost 5 1 Interrupt 3 (9%) Personnel 25 (71%) Cost 0 1 Cost 1 6 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 11 Cost 4 4 Ship 5 (14%) Cost 4 2 Cost 6 3 Total Draw Deck cost 92

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 0 5 1 6 Archaeology 0 2 2 Astrometrics 3 7 1 8 Biology 2 6 1 7 Diplomacy 2 7 7 Engineer 2 6 1 7 Exobiology 0 5 1 6 Geology 0 4 4 Honor 1 7 7 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 2 2 Leadership 1 8 8 Medical 0 4 1 5 Navigation 2 7 1 8 Officer 1 7 7 Physics 0 7 7 Programming 1 7 7 Science 1 9 9 Security 0 3 3 Telepathy 0 1 1 Transporters 0 8 8 Treachery 0 4 1 5 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 9 36.00 % Staff Star 12 48.00 % Faction Icons Voyager 23 92.00 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Commander: Delta Flyer 1 Commander: U.S.S. Equinox 1 Commander: U.S.S. Voyager 2 Consume: 3 1 Gatherer 1 Infiltrator 1 Nebula 1 Region: Badlands 1 Thief 1