The Four Cornerstones of the Bajoran Integrity Solver

by Ben Liebich, Prophet

25th November 2017

When I first started playing 2E I was fascinated with the Bajorans high Integrity and their ability to utilize the discard pile. But in the Decipher days I felt those things weren't fleshed out enough. It took until the release of cards such as Metron Arena and furthermore until the release of Return to Grace that the Bajorans started firing on all cylinders. However since the release of Return to Grace I feel the Bajorans have become a household name amongst front running decks at high level events and also maybe the greatest success of Phase II.
So without further ado let's take a look at the four cornerstones of the Bajoran Integrity solver.

Choice of Missions
The choice of missions is paramount for the Bajoran Integrity solver.
First of all you have to be clear that there are only three mission slots available to choose missions for since besides your HQ, Metron Arena is already a lock. As the strategy of Bajoran decks relies heavily on utilizing the discard pile, you don't want to give your opponent the chance of messing with it using cards like i.e. Dukat, Pah-Wraith Puppet. Therefore Metron Arena is an absolute must.
Up until today there have been three distinct solutions:

• 20 - 40 - 40 The Maggie* solution as played in decks like this: https://www.trekcc.org/decklists/index.p ... ckID=36745
  In this version, to get to your 100 pts, you're using the easy space mission Denorios Belt to get going and then take the slightly harder route compared to the other versions by using the two 40 pt planet missions. I call it the slightly harder route because not only do these missions require a higher Integrity to complete, but they also require a skill set that doesn't come "naturally" to the standard Bajoran Integrity big guns. However recent sets have tried to deal with this problem by introducing cards such as Sorad.
• 30 - 20 - 35 The Josef solution as played in decks like this: https://www.trekcc.org/decklists/index.p ... ckID=36575
  

  

  I've personally enjoyed this version the most. In this mission set up you're sporting the three easiest possible missions for Bajorans to complete. However they do not get you to 100 pts. This version relies on Kira Nerys, Pious Major and Solbor to score you the necessary bonus points to get to 100. This version is very fast but also quite risky because if your bonus point guys get captured or killed you are forced to complete your fourth mission.
• 30 - 35 - 35 The Ben solution as played in decks like the one seen below.
  This is currently my personal evolution of the Josef solution in which you are not reliant on bonus points. In this version you're setting yourself up with a harder space mission (Amnesty Talks) but the two easy planets which means you're going to start the game a bit slower but have the chance to finish stronger.

Discard Pile Management
Proper discard pile management is the key to a successful Bajoran deck. As we all know the Bajorans rely on bringing their high cost personnel into play from the discard pile. But first of all you have to get them there and sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds. I've seen versions of decks where people actually stockpiled three copies of all of their personnel in order to just discard a bunch of their deck but in my opinion that just makes the deck clunky and takes away the agility you need in a fast paced solver. There are also some generic cards like Indebtedness that help feeding the discard pile. However there are several ways to very precisely get exactly the cards you need into your discard pile without a lot of blind discarding.
Starting off with my personal favorite Days of Atonement. It's almost instantly playable since most of your personnel have Anthropology, it allows you to discard the exact card from hand that you want to have in your discard pile and as the price for that you get two free card draws. They are also reusable by using cards such as Souls of the Dead and Ranjen Koral to get them back to your hand. It's a lot of bang for very little buck.
Another great one is Bareil Antos, Opaka's Protector who allows you to download the card and then place it in your discard pile. However as a downside if you're using him, you can't use Bareil Antos, Esteemed Vedek who is by far the better mission solver.
There are a bunch of additional cards such as Invocation of Kosst Amojan, Destined To Be and Peldor Joi that have similar effects to Days of Atonement but are in my eyes a little overcosted and therefore underused.

Microteaming
Microteaming (completing a mission with the least amount of personnel possible) has almost become a bad word around the community. Some love it. Some hate it. However you feel, the fact is that since the release of Accession in Return to Grace, Bajorans have become the undisputed masters of microteaming. I personally feel that Accession should be limited to once each turn. The possibility of attempting a mission with one single personnel, then throwing three copies of Accession to fetch Opaka, Healer, Bareil Antos, Esteemed Vedek and Benjamin Sisko, The Emissary of the Prophets and be able to complete whilst giving your opponent the chance of drawing only one dilemma has to be looked at as at least borderline overpowered.

Versatility in Mission solving

Apart from the Microteaming, Bajorans have an extraordinary amount of arrows in their mission solving quiver which range from gaining skills to gaining attributes to even unstopping. So starting your mission attempt first of all you get to switch out one of your attempting personnel with a personnel from your discard pile using the Orb of Prophecy and Change, preferably switching a one coster for a five coster of course. One of the most often used and possibly one of the best "cheater" interrupts is Covenant. Not only does it allow one of your Treachery personnel to gain all the skills and attributes from a personnel in your discard pile, but it also allows you to keep those skills and attributes until the end of the mission attempt! Which can of course be of great help, if your opponent has taken away one of your key skills or reduced your attributes below of what you need. Speaking of Treachery there are two that are absolute "must haves" if you are looking to cheat your way through mission attempts. Dukat, Anjohl Tennan and Basso Tromac. Their ability to manipulate attributes to wherever you need them is unparalleled as both of their abilities also last until the end of the mission attempt. Finally, a card that Josef has taught me to cherish is Leap of Faith. It is applicable on a lot more occasions than I'd have ever thought and it's just priceless in making your big guns virtually unstoppable.

These four points are probably the most important to take into account when playing this type of deck or even more important when playing against this type of deck.

Trust the Prophets!

*Editor's note: Maggie got this deck from Oliver Thust.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Tournament Record:

• Constructed - Regional (2017-04-29): 1st place
• Deck Lottery - Nationals Side Event (2017-06-24): 2nd place

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

• Bajoran Player
• Nonlethal Force
• Unbroken I
• No Crutches I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• No Crutches II
• Chula: Not a Game

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 30 Space (0%) Planet 3 (10%) Cost 3 3 Dual 27 (90%) Cost 0 10 Cost 1 1 Cost 2 5 Cost 3 6 Cost 4 3 Cost 6 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 62

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 38 Equipment 1 (3%) Cost 2 1 Event 6 (16%) Cost 0 3 Cost 1 2 Cost 4 1 Interrupt 9 (24%) Personnel 19 (50%) Cost 1 5 Cost 2 6 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 2 Cost 5 3 Ship 3 (8%) Cost 5 3 Total Draw Deck cost 72

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 2 15 1 16 Archaeology 0 3 3 Astrometrics 0 0 Biology 0 1 1 Diplomacy 3 4 3 7 Engineer 0 0 Exobiology 0 1 1 Geology 0 1 1 Honor 0 6 6 12 Intelligence 0 1 1 Law 1 5 1 6 Leadership 4 4 3 7 Medical 0 2 2 Navigation 0 1 1 Officer 1 1 1 Physics 0 1 1 Programming 0 4 4 Science 1 2 2 Security 1 4 4 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 1 1 Treachery 2 1 1 2 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 7 36.84 % Staff Star 3 15.79 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 7 36.84 % Maquis 1 5.26 % Temporal Icons Past 1 5.26 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Artifact 1 Bajoran Resistance 1 Host 1 Kai 1 Orb 1 Pah-wraith 1 Prophet 3 Prylar 2 Q 1 Region: Bajor System 1 Region: Demilitarized Zone 1 Region: Sector 500 1 Shape-shifter 1 Temporal 2 Vedek 3