New Card Discussion
When we started planning Nemesis, it was obvious to all of us that there would be a large part of the expansion based around that film. But given how this was to reflect all the TNG movies, it was less obvious how we would include content from the other 3 films. One of the team's ideas was to show the stories from other points of view. Recover Stolen Material shows the story of Lursa, B'Etor, and Soran stealing from the Romulans in Generations, and the Romulans wanting their property back. Today's card, Investigate Warp Signature, tells the story of the Vulcan survey ship passing through the Sol system at around 11 AM on April 5th, 2063: first contact.
This objective seeds on Earth and sets up the requirements for first contact - launching the Phoenix. Launch the Phoenix, from 2011's Resistance is Futile, sets the stage by allowing you to seed Montana Missile Complex, which lets you seed the Phoenix from outside the game. It also gives you a free play each turn for one of the cards native to 2063 Earth, which is handy - but more on that later. Investigate Warp Signature also allows your personnel to attempt any Earth you seed it on using a Vulcan-friendly set of alternate requirements. As a reward, you get 30 points instead of the mission's printed value, or 40 points if you've successfully launched the Phoenix. This is in addition to the 10 points the Phoenix gives you, making Earth an easy 50 point mission!
To go along with this fun objective, the design team decided to create new versions of the First Contact Vulcans. In the First Contact expansion, they were Non-Aligned personnel - which made sense! But now that the CC has introduced Vulcan as an affiliation, we felt some new versions in the "proper" color would be appropriate. Thus, Nemesis brings us versions of Sevek, Solkar, and T'Shonra. (And kudos to all of you who called this when Nemesis was first spoiled!) Have a look:
The original versions were just skilled personnel, although Solkar had a special download of Live Long and Prosper. These versions are sort of the inverse: Sevek and T'Shonra get special skills, while Solkar comes a skill tank only. Sevek lets you draw 2 cards each time the ship he's aboard lands, although it's limited to once per location. That does mean you can land at 2063 Earth, draw cards, and then time travel forward to Earth and do the same again. That's great value! T'Shonra leans into one of the mechanics for the Vulcan affiliation and doubles the regular skills of ships she is aboard. As almost every ship has a built in skill, with the ability to get more, she's going to be very useful aboard those vessels.
This trio does has one other difference between their new versions and their original versions: Mindmeld. As in the originals have it and the new ones don't. Weird, right? When First Contact was released in 1997, we all thought every Vulcan could Mindmeld, thus Decipher gave the skill to every Vulcan. But 5 years later, during Enterprise, we learned that the practice had become stigmatized and was very rare. Thus, when making the Vulcan affiliation in 2017, the designers decided that affiliation personnel only got Mindmeld if they were shown to use the ability (or otherwise admitted to the ability). As that wasn't part of the story in First Contact, the skill was left off these new versions. However, that was also deemed to be a good thing, as it gives reason to continue using the originals.
Attached Deck Discussion
So, we've got a new Vulcan Earth-based objective and some new personnel - how about a Vulcan deck? And since we have the ability to generate a lot of points from Earth, why not a 2-mission win deck? Below, you'll find a version of the deck that I used during playtesting to try out these new cards. It is a Vulcan Syrranite / Kolinahr deck that can win with 2 missions or 3, depending on the game state. Your basic goal is to solve a space mission, head over to Earth to simultaneously discover the Kir'Shara and Launch the Phoenix. But, you don't have to seed the artifact and can download it to any planet mission if things aren't going well - even Vulcan. It's versatile in how to get to 100 points. For dilemmas, this version uses The Squire's Rules and dual dilemmas for ease of use (which is what I typically do in playtesting as well.)
However, there is a catch, so consider this a warning if you choose to play this deck. Because we have the ability to free play cards to Montana Missile Complex, we don't want to use Protect the Timeline for a free play. Instead, we're using Kolinahr. That allows us to include some Vulcan personnel as extra skill tanks, notably Team Spock. It also means we get up to 3 free plays a turn: 1 to 22nd-Century ShiKahr, 1 via Kolinahr, and 1 to Montana Missile Complex via Launch the Phoenix. However, Kolinahr restricts you to only Vulcan personnel, either those that are Vulcan species, like Tuvok, or affiliation, like Charles Tucker III. It does not include Zefram Cochrane or Lily Sloane, the essential personnel you need to actually staff the Phoenix. Once you play either of them, Kolinahr will be discarded and you will lose one of your free plays. You'll also use your all-Vulcan treaty, so your Vulcans won't worth with your personnel any more. Thus, you ideally want to play them the last turn of the game. At that time, you should have enough people in play to complete Earth and win the game. If you end up needing more time, your deck will still function, so it's not a death knell if you don't solve that turn. Just be aware of this when you play the deck.
A few other tips: the deck, on paper, is a little light on card draws. However, in practice you should be just fine. IDIC: Wisdom of Surak lets you draw a card each time you use your card play on a dissident. You want to use your card plays on turns 1-2 to download ships (if you don't draw any), but after that, you should be able to hit the dissident draw every turn. Once you have 2 ships in play, Vulcan Database is good for 4 card draws. On Turn 1, use Quark's Isolinear Rods to download Tucker from your Q's Tent. Make sure to play him on Turn 2 to get Neuropressure Massage out for another card draw. Finally, you can use the new Sevek to land the Vulcan Lander for several card draws through the game. You've also got 2 long-shots that you can't always rely on: Excalbian Surak can net you 3 draws if he dies, and Live Long and Prosper gets you some card draws if an opponent's Vulcan dies.
Finally, here are a few suggestions for ways to tweak the deck:
If you do decide to try out this deck or one of the many other versions of it, remember the most important thing: have fun! I had an absolutely blast when playtesting this card, and I'm looking forward to playing it again after Nemesis is out. Which, by the way, is tomorrow - Friday, February 10th! Thanks for reading, and may all your first contacts go smoothly.
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is legal in the following Card Pools:
This deck is legal in the following Rules Sets:
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
Mission (6) | ||||
Mission | ||||
36 V | 1x Examine Disappearance Site | |||
22 V | 1x Mourn Victims | |||
30 V | 1x Observe Ritual | |||
16 V | 1x Protect The Escapees | |||
P | 1x Reported Activity | |||
36 V | 1x Research Devastating Attack |
Seed Deck (30) | ||||
Dilemma | ||||
1 V | 1x A Fast Ship Would Be Nice | |||
4 V | 1x Chula: The Dice | |||
255 VP | 1x Chula: The Game | |||
2 V | 1x Experience Bij! | |||
5 V | 1x Faux Pas | |||
124 VP | 1x Female's Love Interest & Garbage Scow | |||
94 VP | 1x Ferengi Infestation | |||
5 V | 1x Forsaken | |||
7 V | 1x Misinterpreted History | |||
6 V | 1x Poor Quality Workmanship | |||
8 V | 1x Quantum Leap | |||
2 V | 1x Row, Row, Row your Boat | |||
14 V | 1x Rules of Obedience | |||
256 VP | 1x Scientific Method | |||
23 C | 1x Spatial Rift | |||
11 V | 1x Thasian Powers | |||
8 V | 1x Tricyanate Poisoning | |||
12 R | 1x Your Galaxy Is Impure | |||
Doorway | ||||
7 V | 1x Spacedoor | |||
15 V | 1x Temporal Conduit | |||
Facility | ||||
Federation | ||||
34 V | 1x ❖ Federation Outpost | |||
Incident | ||||
77 P | 1x Kolinahr | |||
61 VP | 1x Quark's Isolinear Rods | |||
Objective | ||||
18 V | 1x Assign Mission Specialists | |||
26 V | 1x Assign Support Personnel | |||
28 V | 1x Defend Homeworld | |||
26 V | 1x Investigate Warp Signature | |||
27 V | 1x The Squire's Rules | |||
Time Location | ||||
61 V | 1x 22nd-Century ShiKahr | |||
R | 1x Montana Missile Complex |
Draw Deck (45) | ||||
Incident | ||||
78 P | 4x Vulcan Database | |||
Interrupt | ||||
34 C | 2x Live Long and Prosper | |||
285 VP | 2x Vulcan Mindmeld | |||
Personnel | ||||
Federation | ||||
38 R+ | 1x Captain Spock | |||
49 V | 1x First Officer Spock | |||
C | 1x ❖ Lojal | |||
23 V | 1x Spock | |||
64 V | 1x T'Lar | |||
34 V | 1x Tuvok (The Maquis) | |||
138 R | 1x Vorik | |||
Non-Aligned | ||||
R | 1x Lily Sloane | |||
72 V | 1x ❖ Selot | |||
80 VP | 1x Zefram Cochrane | |||
Vulcan | ||||
31 V | 1x Ambassador V'Lar | |||
80 P | 1x ❖ Delvok | |||
34 V | 1x Koss | |||
36 V | 1x Minister T'Pau | |||
38 V | 1x ❖ Sedis | |||
47 V | 1x Sevek (Nemesis) | |||
40 V | 1x ❖ Smolek | |||
41 V | 1x ❖ Sodor | |||
48 V | 1x Solkar (Nemesis) | |||
42 V | 1x Soval (Live Long and Prosper) | |||
84 P | 1x ❖ Strom | |||
46 V | 1x Syrran | |||
47 V | 1x T'Les | |||
48 V | 1x ❖ T'Mer | |||
86 P | 1x T'Pol (Pre-Warp Pack) | |||
49 V | 1x T'Shonra (Nemesis) | |||
51 V | 1x Tavek | |||
53 V | 1x V'Tal | |||
87 P | 1x ❖ Valrik | |||
55 V | 1x Yuris | |||
Vulcan/Non-Aligned | ||||
52 V | 1x Excalbian Surak | |||
Vulcan/Romulan | ||||
52 V | 1x V'Las | |||
Vulcan/Starfleet | ||||
48 V | 1x Crewman Soval | |||
33 V | 1x Jonathan Archer (Live Long and Prosper) | |||
Ship | ||||
Vulcan | ||||
9 B | 1x ❖ D'kyr | |||
58 V | 1x Ti'Mur | |||
54 V | 1x ❖ Vulcan Lander (Nemesis) |
Q-Tent Side Deck (13) | ||||
Artifact | ||||
1 V | 1x Kir'Shara | |||
Equipment | ||||
71 P | 1x Vulcan PADD | |||
8 V | 1x Vulcan Tricorder | |||
Event | ||||
15 V | 1x Fal-tor-pan | |||
6 V | 1x Neuropressure Massage | |||
Incident | ||||
14 V | 1x The Katra of Surak | |||
78 P | 1x Vulcan Database | |||
Objective | ||||
29 V | 1x Seek Hidden Reliquary | |||
Personnel | ||||
Starfleet/Vulcan | ||||
42 V | 1x Commander T'Pol | |||
Vulcan | ||||
43 V | 1x Stel | |||
45 V | 1x Surak | |||
Vulcan/Starfleet | ||||
32 V | 1x Charles Tucker III (Live Long and Prosper) | |||
Ship | ||||
Vulcan | ||||
9 B | 1x ❖ D'kyr |
"Outside the Game" and/or Seed-Phase Downloads (5) | ||||
Incident | ||||
12 V | 1x IDIC: Wisdom of Surak | |||
Objective | ||||
9 V | 1x Launch the Phoenix | |||
Personnel | ||||
Federation | ||||
C | 1x ❖ Taurik | |||
Vulcan | ||||
81 P | 1x ❖ Sanye | |||
Ship | ||||
Non-Aligned | ||||
58 VP | 1x Phoenix |