The Power of 2: Vidiians

by Ross Fertel, Unphaged

9th August 2024

The Continuing Committee is focusing on the Bell Riots of 2024 with their Organized Play Promos. For Second Edition, they all focus on personnel with a printed cost of two. We've been taking a deeper look into each affiliation/faction and see how these personnel can improve play. With the release of Phage, there are more such personnel around, so let's see how the latest group goes along with this theme.

Disclaimer: While Benjamin Sisko and Julian Bashir are key cards in several decks, this series will look at all the cards for the affiliation/faction. Note that your mileage may vary. Also, this series tries to take popularity into account, but that is hard with these newest guys to be released. So, we'll go over all eight personnel in the set.

The Vdiiians are better earlier with a lot of their text making them worse as the game goes on. This is very much on display with Bridon. He is a non-unique who gives everyone plus one attributes all around as long as you do not command a completed mission. Unlike hand weapons, it does not require a personnel to be in battle and works for all attributes. You can try a mission that has a harsher climb for attributes at first knowing you will have an edge.

Another personnel you want fairly quickly is Dereth, Justifying the Means. A cheaper version than Dereth Determined Honatta, if you get him out early enough, you can download Mortura. The three coster Eminent Sculptor is the only that exists as of this writing, but he has a bonus both when there are no missions solved, increasing the skills he has, or when two are solved which increases his attributes. Saving counters is always a good thing as is getting a bang for your buck and these two cards cover that fairly well.

By their nature, the Vidiians are ready for battle if it comes down to it since quite a few people will share their spare, yet few are willing to part with both. Nadirum, Grim Reaper will download an Assault or Maneuver if you have completed a mission. You'll generally need your opponent to be out and about before digging into the fighting of it all, so that is not a huge hurdle to overcome, especially since you can hold off on playing him until you are in such a state. After all, they do no good if your opponent nullifies them before you can initiate the brawl.

The non-unique Maleth helps get around a drawback of battling by unstopping his crew and ship afterwards, freeing them to go around and attempt missions. No need to worry about heading to another quadrant as he will restore the range. You cannot do more fighting during the turn, but can go about knocking missions out and so forth.

If you want something to do with your purloined goods, Sulan, Chief Surgeon offers an opportunity to cycle two cards in order to retrieve a single Capture or Punishment for each completed mission. You'll most likely get a maximum of two out of the deal, but this is far enough into the game where you know what will and will not be good for your hand. Unlike some other cyclers, you can pick what you get. The best part of all is that it is an Order, meaning you can do it several times, not just when he is played. It is also helpful that it can be done multiple times, limiting you only to the cards in your hand, which will run out but they are put under your deck so you will get them back.

In the mix are Dilanum and Losarus, two good vanilla skill horses. They have no gametext, but offer some good skills to the mix, including Dilanum's Acquisition. They have skills to complete missions and burst through dilemmas without relying on outside cards. As you look through your deck at the holes you need filled, these two will come in handy.

One card you will likely see outside Vidiian decks is Denara Pel, Loving Life. A Hologram, she can play right to the Doctor, becoming Non-Aligned as a result. You can play her to your Vidiia, Locus of Infection, for a slightly different skill matrix than her Ethical Hematologist version. To Hologram and Voyager decks, she brings some good medical related skills that the core personnel lack.

The newest affiliation around, the Vidiians are no slouches when it comes to personnel who cost two, several of whom you will want to keep around long enough to be of use and reap the rewards.

Let us know in the thread below how well the Vidiians fare with the 2024 Organized Play Promos.

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