Realm of Fear: One Month Out

by Ross Fertel, Out of It

27th May 2025

The most recent set for Second Edition, Realm of Fear, has been out for roughly a month. Let's take a look at decks that came out from this latest release.

One of the more obvious directions is solving Klingon attemptable missions with your Original Series personnel, something in the works for years. TOS Deck for an Achievement by Martin Drake does so but does not use every card in that arsenal. This deck may appear simple with only three events and equipment in the deck, but TOS has the upgrade mechanic, getting effects out on your turn while giving orders. This helps enable strategy on your part while playing. Even though the US.S. Enterprise-A, Olive Branch is there, Spock, Statesman is nowhere to be found in lieu of the Trainee Instructor.

If you want to go more the assassination route with TOS, check out Joseph Bazemore's Putting the Ass in Assassination (Or, The Dilemma Pile is a Disaster). There is no overlap in the non-headquarters missions of these two decks, and this latter one has not one but two flip missions, including Neutral Sector from Realm of Fear! There is a lot of verb support in this deck including Let Them Die and The Killers Are Here along with the two of the newest Assassins for maximum carnage. You will want to be careful when playing because once Klingon-Occupied Outland, Enact Poetic Revenge flips, you no longer command four non-headquarters missions with the Klingon attemptability icons making the Enterprise more expensive and negating Spock's download!

Also learning in the battle direction is Maggie Geppert's We Want Peace, or Do We? This deck boasts a trio of Enterprises and some basic battle permission cards so fighting is an option but not relied on. Although with Delta Pavonis, Secure Expansion, that is not always an issue. The Assassins Burke and Samno are there but not their support verbs.

The newest headquarters is on display with Michael Van Breemen's New HQ, New Achievements. Taking advantage of Orias III, Hidden Base, this deck is light on the verbs. The obvious candidates are there and in multiple no less; useful for The Die is Cast to not require a discard. It's a little too early to declare a trend, but by choosing this headquarters, you lose out on several 'meta missions,' though Argratha, Rehabilitate Convict might float to the top of the list. If you want to try out the newest deck, this is a fairly streamlined version.

The rest of the decks we'll look at are all based on Cadet Paranoia. The first out was Richerd New's Paranoia Extravaganza v2.0. With the biggest draw deck of those we'll look at today, card management will be key. With three attemptable missions in Sector 001, the relatively low range of the runabouts U.S.S. Rio Grande, Built to Last and U.S.S. Yangtzee Kiang, Modified Transport is less of an issue.

Paranoia took such a hold on Ted Reebel that his Im Not Paranoid I Just Already Know Everyone is Out To get Me deck is entirely devoid of Interrupts! Although with all the Paranoia management, there are plenty of ways to turn effects on and off during turns while giving orders. The three copies of Riley Shepard, Smug Saboteur make more certain the likelihood of having key skills ready.

Sean O'Reilly also went this route with The cadets are paranoid. A subtheme of Infiltrators will help with a good mix of missions. Still, the deck has multiples of key Paranoia events to make sure the proper card is out when it counts.

Of course, no release is complete without achievements, and this set is no exception. You can get achievements for a cadet-based Paranoia deck, DS9 Bluegills and the newest headquarters. Find out more in the achievements section! Some are still awaiting gold.

Let us know in the forum thread below what is your favorite deck thus far from Realm of Fear.

Discuss this article in this thread.