The Most Intelligent Card

by Ross Fertel, Unintelligent

17th April 2025

One of the card's revealed today came in a roundabout manner. Note: We will get into spoilers from Social Media. if you want to remain unspoiled, this is your warning!

It all goes back to the newest headquarters, Orias III, Hidden Base. This lets you play Cardassian and Romulan Intelligence personnel. They are an impressive lot, certainly enough to build a deck around. Looking at the lists, you will notice a varied skill selection. There is a lot of Officer and Security, but some of the other skills are lacking.

Take Geology. None of the personnel have Geology, printed or otherwise. That does not mean they are entirely locked out of the skill. A Tricorder will give your personnel with Science the skill of Geology. Though that is pretty much Selveth, Tal Shiar Pilot. How bad is this of a skill hole? Well, they don't really have the strength for Dangerous Climb and while the other dilemmas have alternative means of getting around the requirement, it would be better to just give them Geology.

Enter Chief O'Brien. A non-unique hologram with Geology, he fills the hole while enhancing the affiliation overall, even discounting Nothing to Lose by being the first hologram for either affiliation. His ability gives a boost to your Assassins though there are only two in the Orias III deck. One is the Elim Garak, Cold-Blooded Mastermind and the other is Retaya, Chemical Agent, both of whom may or may not appear in your deck. Thankfully, there are a few more Assassins for the Romulans and that only grows when looking at Non-Aligned.

You will want to be prepared for a deck chock full of intelligence, because your opponent will surely. There is an exception on some cards going all the way back to Counterinsurgency Program, meaning you will never be penalized for not having one of the 'rare' skills in your deck, for the most part, but there are still vulnerabilities.

Should your opponent know all your personnel have Intelligence, All Consuming Evil, Face to Face, Head to Head and The Clown: Guillotine are all much more lethal while Joint Operations Drills, Overindulgence and Side by Side will get you stopped. Also, The Clown: Bitter Medicine gives you a disadvantage on attributes. On the other hand, Unwanted Guests will more than likely stop an unintelligent deck, possibly targeting Intelligence ahead of time.

For a card not in the original iteration, the deck has grown to something with its own set of inherent weaknesses with quite a few advantages as well. One card made all the difference in the viability while helping the affiliation and other decks overall.

Let us know in the forum thread below what you think of Chief O'Brien's existence both in the deck and outside.

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