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Strategy Articles


What if the Dominion Never Left the Gamma Quadrant?

by Matthew Zinno, Staff Writer

23rd January 2015

Reward from the FoundersWhat would it look like if the Dominion stayed in the Gamma Quadrant? Imagine them in a form that didn't focus on war or battle, or even establishing a foothold, but just solving missions … locally.

Using some of the new Dominion tools in The Gamma Quadrant, I've attempted to do just that. The central new card is Reward from the Founders, a [RC] card for the Dominion that lets you play Vorta for free, grants a card draw when you do so, and also downloads Ketracel-White for you (to keep your Jemmies safe from White Deprivation, or to enable rationing for Obedience Brings Victory). It's got some limitations as well, to prevent you from stacking too many engines together. You're limited to DS9 personnel, because you need to keep the [DS9] icon in play. You're limited to only reporting one Jem'Hadar each turn (and that includes downloads, such as Assign Support Personnel). You can't start a battle with multiple Jem'Hadar. And if you want that card draw, you can't be using Dominion War Efforts. (In complete, you probably want to keep DWE and forgo this draw, since with Deyos you get a draw *and* the personnel.)

Another is the Dosi Trading Post, a [GQ] station with SHIELDS of 20. It seeds on the "Dosi Planet", which is familiar as the location of the mission Tulaberry Wine Negotiations from the Rules of Acquisition expansion. There's also a new version of that mission persona in the current set, Further Tulaberry Talks. And like many modern facilities, it allows certain personnel to report for free. It doesn't give you any of the most frequently seen [GQ] species: Changeling, Vorta, and Jem'Hadar. Instead, it focuses on the merchants and hagglers: the Dosi with whom Quark initially negotiated over Tulaberry Wine (3 personnel, all universal); the Karemma with whom he traded later on (2 personnel, one unique); and any other [GQ] personnel with Greed or Acquisition (3 [NA] personnel, one of whom you'll see next week). Note that they still have to be [GQ] personnel, since any reporting abilities of facility and site cards come with quadrant restrictions. Vash can report there because of her own text, but she won't report for free. Interestingly, because it is a station and not an outpost, it does not allow any other cards to even report. For example, no ships.

Dosi Trading PostThose cards bring this deck up to three free report engines: Dosi/Karemma for free at the Trading Post, Changelings for free at The Great Link, and Vorta for free (generally, wherever they report; in this deck, that's only at The Great Link). Add to this a download of a Jem'Hadar every turn from ASP/DWE (granting a Deyos draw), and we might get quite a few personnel in play each turn, aside from the card play. To feed those plays, the main draw engine is Handshake, to redraw a new hand of seven when when you've played a few for free but could use a different hand. And since that will end up discarding several cards which you might need later, Isomagnetic Disintegrator is here to get them back.

On the turns when you don't use your card play for Handshake, you might use it for a ship. The ones in this deck are all generally fast to begin with, and you get a range reduction from The First Stable Wormhole (and the Things Past Battleship is very fast, now that we're actually using Vorta.) If you don't draw a ship quickly enough, you can get one with Call for Reinforcements. With no outpost, it's also the only way for you to repair your ships.

The deck's plan is generally to stay in the Gamma Quadrant and solve missions with all those free personnel. Hopefully, you'll have the 5-mission spaceline all to yourself. (And Hanok's 35th Rule will give you draws if that's true.) To help ensure that, don't even download the Bajoran Wormhole when you seed The First Stable Wormhole. Just solve your missions in possible isolation, and you might use your fast ships and your span reduction for some quick Cytherians points. If your opponent does force you to come to Alpha with You Are A Monument, then Talak'talan can download Ultimatum to get the wormhole.


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Decklist

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This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

Mission (6)
Mission
C1x ❖ Construct Depot
9 V1x Destroy Iconian Gateway
22 V1x Further Tulaberry Talks
34 V1x Intelligence Operation
34 V1x Reopen Trade Discussions
35 V1x Salvage Wrecked Ship
Seed Deck (30)
Dilemma
3 R1x Astral Eddy
R1x Cytherians
2 V1x Dangerous Climb
60 VP1x Denevan Neural Parasites
4 V1x Devastating Communique
R1x DNA Clues
4 R1x Executive Authorization
6 V1x Flim-Flam Artist
6 V1x Founder Secret
8 V1x Gomtuu Shock Wave
P1x Hippocratic Oath
14 C1x Implication
U1x In the Pale Moonlight
16 V 81x Let Them Worry
8 V1x Magnetic Field Disruptions
13 V1x Picking Up the Pieces
10 V1x Precision Piloting
6 V1x Recurring Injury
Doorway
1 V1x Q's Tent
15 V1x The First Stable Wormhole
Event
18 C1x Dominion War Efforts
Facility
Dominion
10 V1x Dosi Trading Post
22 V1x The Great Link
Incident
23 V1x Call for Reinforcements
18 V1x Q the Referee
108 VP1x Reshape the Quadrant
Objective
26 V1x Assign Support Personnel
28 V1x Defend Homeworld
30 V1x HQ: Secure Homeworld
Q Dilemma
16 V1x My Ship, My Crew
Draw Deck (37)
Doorway
12 V1x Bajoran Wormhole
Equipment
C1x Ketracel-White
Event
3 R 381x Building a Bridge
16 V2x Isomagnetic Disintegrator
Incident
6 VP3x Handshake
Interrupt
5 P 191x Explicit Orders
R2x Going to the Top
39 U1x I'm a Doctor, Not a Bricklayer
35 U2x Obedience Brings Victory
C2x Victory Is Life
Personnel
Dominion
31 V1x Administrator Kilana
32 V1x Administrator Weyoun
R1x Deyos
36 V1x Founder Leader
R1x Gelnon
50 V1x Hanok
51 V3x ❖ Inglatu
R1x Kira Founder
R1x Lovok Founder
63 R1x Luaran
R1x O'Brien Founder
37 V1x Odo (Homefront II)
R1x Omet'iklan
39 V1x Science Advisor Borath
R1x Talak'talan
Ship
Dominion
33 VP1x ❖ Dominion Battleship (Things Past)
U1x ❖ Jem'Hadar Warship
78 V1x ❖ Karemman Vessel
105 R1x Weyoun's Warship
Q-Tent Side Deck (13)
Doorway
12 V1x Bajoran Wormhole
Equipment
U1x Jem'Hadar Disruptor Rifle
C1x Ketracel-White
Event
23 U1x 35th Rule of Acquisition
Incident
U1x Ultimatum
Interrupt
25 V1x Shape-Shift
Personnel
Dominion
C1x ❖ Azet'izan
C1x ❖ Koret'alak
50 C1x ❖ Lam
38 V1x ❖ Retana'var
C1x ❖ Temo'Zuma
C1x ❖ Yak'Talon
Non-Aligned
104 R+1x Mr. Sisko
Storage Compartment Side Deck (1)
Incident
17 V1x Reward from the Founders



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