So, You're New to The Original Series?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

8th February 2018

If Species 8472 attacks Earth, the Federation won't have any defenses against them.

                                                                                    - Kathryn Janeway, “In the Flesh”

The idea behind the Original Series Federation faction is that they are by default a beginner-friendly affiliation.  Very few of their personnel have abilities that are used in the middle of your turn.  Rather, nearly all their abilities happen when they are played.  If you choose to use their abilities, you pay an extra cost for the personnel. 

Missions

The folks also have a big advantage in the form of their headquarters.  Earth, Lush and Beautiful Home allows you to draw two cards for one counter after you play an personnel there.  Speaking of card draws, Agricultural Assessment gives you an advantage there are well, as long as you pay the cost of having a staffed ship at that location.  Most of the ships have low staffing requirements, so you only need to keep two personnel in reserve for those draws.  This mission is not to be attempted unless something goes very wrong in your game because the real path to victory with this deck is in the Delta Quadrant – Terrasphere 8, Starfleet Command Recreation.  This is the first look we’ve had at alternate win conditions in Second Edition.  This mission allows you, after it’s complete, to win the game if your opponent has eight or more Species 8472 dilemmas in their core.  I’ve played this kind of deck before (Voyager in my case) and find that it’s useful to do Northwest Passage, Contact Extradimensional Species first then move onto the Terrasphere.  That mission places a Species 8472 dilemma in your opponent’s core at the end of your turn, which will make the Terrasphere win easier.  Finally, Alpha 5 Approach rounds out the mission selection.

Draw Deck

One thing puzzled me when I first started seeing this pairing of affiliation and dilemma pile was why you would choose an affiliation to do Missions.  After all, it costs you two extra range to move between quadrants.  As I said before, I chose Voyager when I first played S8472 because they’re right there in the .  Well, the answer to that question is Coordinated Counterattack.  This is one of the very few support verbs for and it is very powerful because it prevents your opponent from gaining skills.  Most of the Species 8472 dilemmas require your opponent to stop a personnel with two of a skill.  Coordinated Counterattack keeps your opponent from using cards like Security Drills, Elim Garak, Agent of the Obsidian Order or William T. Riker, Exchange Officer from getting you two of those needed skills.  Another important verb for this deck is Combined Attack, which also places Species 8472 dilemmas in core.

This deck also has some power personnel who really help you bust through the two missions.  The first one I want to look at is Helen Noel, Enterprise Psychiatrist.  Not only does she have 2 Anthropology, which is essential for Terrasphere 8, she absolutely hammers non-skill dilemmas.  Leonard H. McCoy, Chief Medical Officer has the Exobiology you need and can slow down your opponent by returning your dilemmas from beneath their missions to your dilemma pile.  Benjamin Sisko, Command Staffer is probably one of the most powerful cards in the game with respect to interrupt prevention.  He plays to your ship, which is nice when your hopping between quadrants.  Finally, Haadok is a nice skill horse, with three out of the four required mission skills for winning with this deck.

Dilemma Pile

I think that most Second Edition players treat the dilemma pile as sort of a necessary evil in the game.  I personally find that it is almost always the hardest part of the deck for me to build.  This makes Species 8472 piles interesting because those dilemmas are the deck and the way to win.  If you don’t have Coordinated Counterattack out, then Unusual Simulacrum will do the job of preventing skill gaining.  Dubious Decoy, On Guard and Charismatic Mimic are the suite of dilemmas that require you to stop a personnel with two of a skill or place the dilemma in core.  Commanding Presence is an excellent wall.  Most of these dilemmas don’t end up in standard dilemma piles, with the one exception of The Weak Will Perish.  This dilemma is powerful because someone is always going to die.  The requirements of Telepathy or Strength > 7 only prevent the dilemma from going to core, rather than under your mission.  Since these dilemmas all go to core, you can keep your opponent from completing missions a little while longer, if you can follow them up with a good wall like No Kill I.

Final Thoughts

Brian notes that if he were to play this deck again, he would remove the two copies of Self-Replicating Roadblock and replace them with two copies of Expedient Opportunity, which makes cross-quadrant travel much less expensive.

Discuss this article in this thread.

Tournament Record:

• Constructed - Trek Masters (2014-12-06): 4th place (Tournament Report)

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

• Original Series Player
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Good Casting: Combs (Shran)
• Dubious Decoy
• Good Casting: Lenard (Sarek)

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 42 Space 7 (17%) Cost 1 3 Cost 3 4 Planet 7 (17%) Cost 1 6 Cost 2 1 Dual 28 (67%) Cost 0 3 Cost 2 16 Cost 3 7 Cost 4 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 84

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 50 Equipment 1 (2%) Cost 2 1 Event 12 (24%) Cost 0 4 Cost 2 6 Cost 3 2 Interrupt 1 (2%) Personnel 30 (60%) Cost 0 1 Cost 1 6 Cost 2 14 Cost 3 2 Cost 4 5 Cost 5 1 Cost 6 1 Ship 6 (12%) Cost 3 5 Cost 7 1 Total Draw Deck cost 113

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 1 8 1 9 Archaeology 1 4 4 Astrometrics 1 8 8 Biology 1 5 5 Diplomacy 0 6 6 Engineer 0 7 7 Exobiology 1 7 2 9 Geology 1 4 4 Honor 1 2 3 5 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 0 10 10 Medical 0 8 8 Navigation 0 7 1 8 Officer 0 13 13 Physics 0 1 1 2 Programming 0 5 5 Science 0 5 1 6 Security 1 10 2 12 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 2 2 Treachery 1 1 3 4 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 13 43.33 % Staff Star 11 36.67 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 4 13.33 % Original Series 23 76.67 % Temporal Icons Alternate Universe 7 23.33 % Past 24 80.00 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Admiral 1 Commander: Kumari 1 Commander: U.S.S. Constellation 1 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise 2 Commander: U.S.S. Exeter 1 Consume: 1 1 Consume: 3 1 Decay: 5 1 Genetically Enhanced 1 Host 1 Region: Sector 001 1 Ritual 1 Species 8472 18