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Strategy Articles
Beginner Deck: Maquis
by Lucas Thompson, Designer
7th September 2024
Updated September 7, 2024
"Next stop Athos Four, a grim little fogbound piece of rock in the middle of nowhere." In the other beginner decks, when you look at Federation-affiliation personnel, you're (for the most part) looking at the good guys. Not this time. This time you're looking at the scrappy rebels, the terrorists fighting for their homes.
The Maquis aren't the big bold mission solvers you find in other Federation decks. But they're also not glory-seeking Klingons shooting ships for points or Borg drones assimilating the opponent's personnel into the collective. On the outskirts of the Federation, away from paradise, you'll engage in guerilla tactics. You'll deplete the opponent's resources with Cascade Viruses or Stolen Defiants. You're still in the mission-solving game, you just go about it by hindering the opponent. Look for opportunities to fly the Defiant to an opponent's mission on your way somewhere else and.
Biogenic Weapon is the most potent interference card in the Maquis arsenal. Strategic use of this card is often the difference between winning and losing a Maquis game. Wait until your opponent has spent some time making progress on a mission, then strike before they solve! The effect will often be equal to making the opponent complete four missions, assuming they don't have a way to deal with the weapon.
That's not to say you're toothless when it comes to mission-solving. Defiant Reprisal is quite a handy mission-solving tool. Additionally, the attribute boost from Kasidy Yates, Conflicted Captain can allow you to sneak in some mission solves with a very small crew.
This deck was updated in 2024 to use a dilemma pile that focuses on killing your opponent's personnel. The Clown: Guillotine is the centerpiece of this pile, but it can be challenging to use for a beginner, since you need to name a skill for it. I recommend picking a skill that is required by the mission that the opponent is actively attempting - most of the time, they will have at least one copy of those skills when they're attempting. That goes for All-Consuming Evil too, which is a dilemma that does nothing when you face it. But when Guillotine (or any of your other dilemmas with the Consume keyword) places it under the mission, you get to kill a personnel... for free! With this dilemma pile, you'll often put many more dilemmas under the mission per attempt, but that's okay - ideally your opponent will have a harder time completing the mission because you've removed so many of their personnel.
Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is very loosely based on the deck that Geoffery Peterson used to take second (on tiebreakers) at the 2011 Championship. You may take inspiration from that deck list, or consider these cards:
Embrace Villainy
- Maquis have a large number of other interference tools, like Alarming Rumors and Stalling for Time. Stocking up on those cards can really hinder the opponent's plans.
Maybe Not That Evil
- If a killing dilemma pile is not your style, you can try switching to the type of pile that the other beginner decks use. Maquis stalling tactics can still be very effective even if you're not killing off all the opponent's personnel. A dilemma you might want to try that isn't in the typical beginner pile is The Caretaker's "Guests", which helps advance the Maquis's stalling plans.
Or Just Hide
- The Maquis have an alternate headquarters mission that they can use, Quatal Prime, Quiet Mining Colony. That mission encourages a strategy that revolves around playing events on missions - the virtual expansions A Time to Stand and Allegiance include some good cards to use with that strategy. (Also, Quatal Prime is a Demilitarized Zone region mission, which makes Shankar easier to use.)
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.
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This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
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