The Long Journey...Away?

by Kevin Jaeger, Staff Writer

11th February 2008

As I discussed more than a month ago, What You Leave Behind offers a bounty of new strategies and ways of making existing ones a heck of a lot easier. Some of these strategies are certainly more obvious than others. Today, I'm going to talk about one of the more obscure (albeit riskier) strategies that just got a lot easier. That strategy is The Long Journey Home.

When played on your Caretaker's Array, The Long Journey Home allows you to win the game if you have completed four missions and you have 100 or more points; it requires you to command three personnel to play it. Previously, Voyager players, and to a lesser extent Maquis players, were the only ones able to easily get three personnel into play. Everyone else had to really struggle using The Play's the Thing with The Inner Light (for non-Borg ) and assimilation for Borg. The resources required to pull it off hardly made it worth trying, but for those of you who've wanted to achieve success, Tuvix (Symbiogenesis) is the card you've been waiting to get your hands on.

The combination of Tuvix (Symbiogenesis), Kes (Curious Ocampa) and Neelix (Morale Officer) now opens the door to getting three personnel into play without the need to use any other cards...well, except for having to remove two other personnel from the game as per Tuvix's game text. Another great thing is that together they provide twelve different skills. Armed with my three personnel, the only major question I have left to figure out is which headquarters I want to use. For that, I feel the need to give a little backstory.

The other day, my friend and fellow Trek player Aaron and I were sitting in the local card store playing a few games of Trek. He had been working on a Captain's Log Deck for awhile and was getting it to where he wanted. He was fairly happy with it, but with the new set out, several of the new cards were causing it problems. So he asked me, "How can I make this deck better? How can I make Captain's Log more efficient?" I mulled it over for a minute and responded, "Do more space missions? Avoid planets altogether?" To which he responded, "How can I do that? I have to do a planet mission to win." I thought about it for a second and replied, "Well, I've been trying to figure out the best way to exploit The Long Journey Home. You could use Kes, Neelix and Tuvix." We had our idea, now we just had to modify his existing deck to make the strategy work and work efficiently.

Now, I understand I'm not the first person to write about a deck focusing on Captain's Log, but part of designing a truly competitive deck is identifying weaknesses in prior incarnations, and trying to find ways of shoring-up those weaknesses without clogging the deck. One of the weaknesses of a Captain's Log deck is that it typically packs multiples of the corresponding Commander(s) in order to guarantee drawing them and having replacements. This results in a lot of dead draws. The solution: Optimism, These Are the Voyages and If Wishes Were Horses. With the first two, you have the option of putting the cards in the discard pile in order to out maneuver an opponent using The Caretaker's "Guests" or under the deck and netting a replacement card... thus, turning a "dead" draw into a more "live" one. As I mentioned in my previous article, These Are the Voyages has the added function of allowing you to search through your deck quicker. If Wishes Were Horses will allow you to search for Captain on the Bridge, Optimism, The Long Journey Home or Captain's Log. In this deck, you absolutely need to be able to get Captain's Log onto the table early before you begin completing missions. In the mid to late game, you will need to be able to drop Kes, Neelix, Tuvix and The Long Journey Home.

Another weakness is effectively dealing with a more aggressive opponent, or at least his or her dilemmas. Since your crew will be out in space on your ship, in the delta quadrant, you will be very vulnerable to attack from the Borg, the Hirogen, the Kazon, the Vidiians, the Krenim, the Bo'mar, the Swarm, other hostile aliens... you get the idea. How are you going to deal with it? Simple, use the U.S.S. Defiant (Patrolling Warship) to handle space battles. You should always have a Commander on board, so utilizing its game text should be no problem.

Yet another weakness, given the tight personnel grouping, is the difficulty in dealing with certain "problem" dilemmas. Back to Basics, Distraction, Secret Identity, Shocking Betrayal, Gomtuu Shock Wave, Distress Call, Fesarius Bluff, Gorgan, Tactical Disadvantage, Center of Attention and Counterinsurgency Program will all provide hard stops or will remove personnel you may need and can't replace. To combat this, you will need Krim (Thoughtful Tactician). Staring down Kaiser's Optimism plus Back to Basics combo? No problem. Complete Caretaker's Array and spend five of your extra points to place any copies he/she may have under the mission. Unless your opponent is playing with the Phoenix (Risen from the Ashes), you should be able to Krim twice and still have 100 points.

Finally, another glaring weakness is that you will have to complete four missions. Even though you are likely going to be able to bypass most of your opponent's dilemmas, you should still assume you will get stopped. You must assume a bad draw where you are not out and attempting until turn five or six. The solution: a solid dilemma pile. You must buy yourself the time to make up one to two missions on your opponent. For simplicity's sake, and the fact that it's a proven dilemma pile, we'll use the same dilemma pile we used for the last deck I wrote about. Since I wrote about it last time, I'll save the analysis.

Now that we have the weaknesses shored up, let's move on to some of the other tools and weapons of the deck... to help make the deck better and further its goals. Captain on the Bridge is there to help lower costs and provide the means of getting Thomas Riker (Defiant Leader) and Kudak'Etan (Arrogant First) into play. How Would You Like a Trip to Romulus? will help you get your Commanders easier. Aluura (Nice to Everyone) will get you free card draws and set you up to peek at the top card so that Mardah (Quite a Writer) can help you recycle key cards that get put in the discard pile. Mardah could also distract your opponent with her amazingly...huge...talent...for writing. Moving on. ... Miles O'Brien (Repair Chief) will help you protect key events and allow you to have them on the table without paying for them a second time. A pair of Bat'leths will help you get past Center of Attention ? a dilemma for which you have no other answer. Lastly, a single Flaxian Scout Vessel provides emergency back-up in case you need to get personnel to or from your headquarters, and can provide a place for some extra personnel to hang-out while you micro-team a mission.

Lastly, even though we've done the best we can shoring up weaknesses, there are bound to be some that can't be helped. Speed is the primary one for this deck. With high-cost personnel, the need to get key events on the table, and little in the way of cost reduction, you will be lucky to get out to your first mission attempt on turn five or six. That is why I suggest that if this deck tickles your fancy, feel free to modify it to your liking and let me know what you've come up with!

Regardless of its strengths and weaknesses, you now have a deck you can momentarily shock-and-awe an opponent with! Imagine the facial expression that will register on your opponent's face when you spread out your mission set and reveal four space missions and no planet missions. Even if I lose, I know I'll find that first expression worth it.

Kevin Jaeger will return in... "From Bajor With Love"

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

• Deep Space Nine Player
• They Make Virtual Cards Now?!
• Unbroken I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 30 Space 9 (30%) Cost 0 1 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 2 Planet 7 (23%) Cost 0 1 Cost 2 2 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 1 Dual 14 (47%) Cost 2 6 Cost 3 2 Cost 4 5 Cost 5 1 Total Dilemma Deck cost 83

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 50 Equipment 2 (4%) Cost 0 2 Event 17 (34%) Cost 1 9 Cost 2 2 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 3 Interrupt 2 (4%) Personnel 27 (54%) Cost 0 1 Cost 1 1 Cost 2 5 Cost 3 13 Cost 4 7 Ship 2 (4%) Cost 4 1 Cost 7 1 Total Draw Deck cost 123

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 2 2 Anthropology 0 2 2 Archaeology 0 0 Astrometrics 2 6 6 Biology 1 3 1 4 Diplomacy 1 7 7 Engineer 2 8 1 9 Exobiology 1 5 5 Geology 0 3 3 Honor 0 10 2 12 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 1 11 11 Medical 0 1 1 Navigation 1 7 2 9 Officer 1 13 13 Physics 1 2 2 Programming 0 7 7 Science 1 7 7 Security 0 5 5 Telepathy 0 1 1 Transporters 1 3 3 Treachery 0 5 3 8 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 14 51.85 % Staff Star 7 25.93 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 11 40.74 % Maquis 2 7.41 % Voyager 3 11.11 % Temporal Icons Past 6 22.22 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Alpha 2 Cloaking Device 1 Commander: Baxial 1 Commander: Talnot 2 Commander: U.S.S. Defiant 11 Dabo Girl 2 General 2 Genetically Enhanced 3 Hand Weapon 2 Host 2 Nebula 1 Region: Bajor System 1 Shape-shifter 3