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Strategy Articles
So, You're New to Voyager?
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by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman
31st May 2018
Mortimer Harren: We never should have left Voyager.
Captain Kathryn Janeway: I've got news for you, Crewman. Voyager isn't exactly a safe haven. We've been chased across the quadrant by far worse than whatever is out there - the Vidiians, Species 8472, the Borg... But I guess, if somebody's hiding down on deck 15, they may not be aware of it.
- from “Good Shepherd”
The only Voyager deck I have ever built is a Species 8472 deck, which I didn’t want to review again. I decided to turn to the Voyager experts this week for help and today’s deck comes from Stefan Slaby, who is well-renowned for playing that faction. This one is built around the 5-Space Voyager (5SV) deck archetype that came out in Lower Decks. Before I look into the specifics of this deck, I’d like to walk the beginner through a typical first turn of a Voyager deck.
1. Draw your seven cards. Look at hand. U.S.S. Voyager, Home Away from Home, which allows you to play personnel and equipment, is not there. Sigh mightily.
2. Start your turn by using Caretaker’s Array to discard a card from hand to download Finding Our Way. This is the card that lets you play Voyager (and lets you put Voyager back somewhere if it gets hit by Where No One Has Gone Before).
3. Spend one counter on Finding Our Way and then spend the rest of the turn drawing cards and hoping you have playable events.
4. During the Order phase, download Voyager.
5. At the start of your 2nd turn, play Voyager with two personnel aboard.
This doesn’t always happen this way. At my last tourney, my buddy Brian had Voyager, Tuvok, Chief of Security and Chakotay, Steadfast Commander in hand first turn. I sighed mightily.
Missions
As you can see from the above, Caretaker’s Array will appear in every Voyager deck. The key to the 5SV variant of Voyager is playing with Alsuran Sector, Utilize Abandoned Relay Station. As you can see, this mission sets up an alternate win condition for anyone who’s willing to risk not commanding any planet missions and can get three ![[Voy]](/images/icons/voyager.gif "[Voy]"){kind=icon}
icon personnel in their deck. If you can Repair Null Space Catapult, you can use it to get to another mission on the same turn. Orlitus Cluster, Astronomical Survey works well with all the low-cost personnel who populate the 5SV decks, see below. Finally, Alpha 5 Approach, Transport Crash Survivor is here to tamp down on players trying to attempt with fewer than six personnel. This will also hurt you as well, since you can’t then microteam Caretaker’s Array.
Draw Deck
The 5SV theme also revolves around the weenie personnel from the episode Good Shepherd. These personnel all have a very low cost for their skills and attributes. Their cost will go up for each planet you command. Mitchell has a nice little Easter egg in his lore. Mortimer Harren, Reclusive Genius will allow you to exclude corresponding commanders from random selections, an ability I have come to appreciate lately when playing Dominion. Tal Celes, Imprecise Analyst boosts herself in the presence of a corresponding commander. And speaking of those corresponding commanders, we got new personae of Janeway and Chakotay in Lower Decks. Chakotay, Steadfast Commander will help you power through that fourth mission late in the game, as he reduces attribute requirements of a mission by two for each completed space mission you command. Kathryn Janeway, Mindful Keeper can keep your weenies from being stopped by dilemmas, again, helping you power through multiple missions in one turn. She also commands the Delta Flyer which is pretty cool. With all those space missions around, it’s nice to have a second ship around to split up your crew.
I didn’t mention William Telfer, Misguided Hypochodriac previously because he needs a bit of attention on his own. For the cost of 5 points, he can download any interrupt once per turn. This download really powers the 5SV model because it allows you to get out Homeward Bound. Unstopping stopped personnel at a ![[DQ]](/images/icons/delta.gif "[DQ]"){kind=icon}
mission is very powerful, because you can move on and attempt additional missions with a full complement of personnel. This is actually what got both Billy and Homeward Bound in the sights of the Errata Team. Completing three missions in one turn is a bit above the power curve, after all.
Dilemma Pile
This dilemma pile appears to be a pretty standard attrition pile with a touch of Chula and a bit of murder. The draw deck features a large number of low-cost events like Thirst for Knowledge and Exceed Engine Output, so the 8-cost dilemmas Whisper in the Dark and Tsiolkovsky Infection are likely to have a large part of their cost reduced. I can also see from the pile that Stefan was expecting to see a lot of other 5SV decks around, because he has packed three copies of Moral Choice as well as many more space dilemmas than planet ones. I particularly find the inclusion of Alternatives to Fighting intriguing. I haven’t seen this dilemma in play before. I wonder about its hit rate.
Final Thoughts
This is a big deck. I didn’t mention that before, but it may be intimidating for a new player. I would suggest to a new person that if you want to try out 5SV with a smaller deck, you could probably remove the engagement cards, and copies of some of the other events that have three copies in the deck.
Discuss this article in this thread.
Tournament Record:
- Constructed - European Continentals Day One (2017-07-15): 1st place
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
- Voyager Player
- European Style
- How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
- Crew Quarters: Voyager
- Good Casting: Combs (Shran)
- Battle Drills
- Alone in the Uncharted
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