Timeless, One Month Out

by Ross Fertel, Timed Out

21st February 2023

The latest Second Edition set, Timeless, has been out for about a month and some decks have emerged onto the scene. These eighteen cards, all Archive Portraits, are a celebration of the fifteenth year of the committee. Let's take a look at them.

By far the most popular card in the set is Omicron Theta, Investigate Cybernetics Breakthrough! This mission has found its way into four decks. The first is Adam Bargar's Theres a good chance I may have committed some light assimilation (HoF) As the title implies, this deck likes to take command of your opponent's cards with Locutus, Implacable Scourge and to make that easier and cards like One with the Borg to get the benefit of those personnel. The inclusion of Omicron Theta might be questionable as there are only two instances of Physics in the deck, but the Research Drone and Interlink that skill. This deck also has the Scout Drone and Third of Five, Wayward Drone to keep things going well.

Martin Drake played a TNG Beginner Deck plus cards provided at the event. Three missions from Timeless appear in this deck and as a sealed deck, there is room for improvement, but they seem to work well with the Battleship crew along with some past personnel in the mix.

If Achievement hunting is your jam, you'll want to consider Lucas Thompson's TNG Timeless Release (HOF). As one of the designers of the set along with being an accomplished player in his own right, Thompson know show to optimize the mission selection. As a Hall of Fame deck, there is room to expand this deck with additional cards to optimize and remain eligible for a new achievement that came out with the set.

When looking at Maggie Geppert's No Nerds, No Birds!, you might think it is a random group of personnel put in the deck, but a lot of personnel with gametext in the TNG deck gain a skill through some manner be it attempting a mission, one with a point threshold, being on a specific ship class, etc. Omicron Theta Outskirts, Crystalline Encounter is in this deck as well to get some benefit from going between regions.

Scott Baughman brought Lurin, heartless Profiteer to Crypto Currency, a Ferengi deck with no Commodities. His skills are not entirely necessary for the missions in the deck but he has a lot fo potential for busting through dilemmas offering Geology in the mix. This deck has a few copies of At What Cost? To spend some extra counters along with Rule for Acquisition #18 to get another four. Points are not a huge issue with the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Salvaged Ship.

When Lass, Rejoining the Link was revealed, we all wondered what the optimal number of missions requiring Exobiology would be since Agonizing Encounter is a danger to having four missions with the same skill. The did not bother Nathan Miracle with his deck titled The Laas Train to Clarksville, which has all four non-headquarters missions requiring Exobiology! Laas also provides a dose of Anthropology to help fill out the skills. This deck does not have the optimization you would expect of a deck using Cardassia Prime, Subjugated Planet, The deck also makes liberal use of the Son'a from Heroes and Demons which rely on having personnel in the opponent's discard pile.

The deck also shows that we are far from done with Lass puns in deck titles.

At the one moth mark, there are a half dozen decks that have been tournament tested and are ready to be played. Perhaps inspiration will strike you to use some of the other cards in your deck but the possibilities are out there.

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