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Strategy Articles
Beginner Deck: Dominon
by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador
21st February 2020
"We all serve the Founders and we will all make whatever sacrifices they deem necessary." While the Federation might think that we should all work together to overcome obstacles, the Dominion also thinks we should work together - in exactly the way that the Founders want us to. So Dominon cards often take that goody-goody Federation symmetry, and give it a sinister twist (see: Spiteful Strategy).
The Dominon also has a very strict hierarchy: the Jem'hadar serve the Vorta, and everyone serves the Founders. As a result, a card like Our Death is Glory to the Founders allows a Jem'Hadar soldier to sacrifice himself for the cause. Likewise, both Arak'Taral and Remata'Klan allow you to alter random selections in order to protect your more important personnel. After all, with Martok Founder permitting you to use Strength in place of Integrity, you won't want him to get picked off with some pesky random stop before you can use him to pass Gomtuu Shock Wave.
The dilemma pile, while largely identical to other beginner dilemma piles, contains one dilemma that is specific to this deck. Know Thy Enemy encourages you to hold some of those very high strength Jem'Hadar in your hand. Even just two of them with eight strength means that most opponents will need four personnel of average strength in hand in order to pass it. Hand size is public knowledge too, so if you're considering using this card, feel free to ask your opponent how many cards they have in hand.
Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is based on a number of different Dominion solver builds; one recent one you might draw inspiration from is the deck Jeremy Benedict used to win the 2019 American National Championships. You might also consider these groups of cards:
Crippling Strike
- Crippling Strike, if used at the right time, can sometimes buy you a whole turn. While they're more useful in the early game, before your opponent has had a chance to play multiple ships, more copies of this interrupt can still be quite overwhelming. For more torture, consider using A Long Road to pull copies of Crippling Strike out of your discard pile and keep striking.
Mobilization Points
- Instead of torturing your opponent, you could speed up your own deck. Mobilization Points can really speed up your troop deployment, and interrupts like Shrouded in Light, Dominion Hierarchy, and Explicit Orders can help you blast through dilemmas.
Explore the Stakoron System
- There's another mission in the Skakoron System: Stakoron II, Mine Miszinite. Even better news: that mission also has the incredibly powerful text that increases the cost of dual dilemmas. The catch is that the skills are much more difficult for Dominion decks. Fortunately, the equipment card Hyperspanner (not to be confused with the Coil Spanner) will get you most of the way there if you have enough Engineers present.
General Use Cards
- Some cards can just go in any deck - and often do because they're so useful. You have plenty of ways to get extra resources in your deck, but an extra counter per turn from Surprise Party wouldn't go amiss. And once you've played a few games, you'll see how the reboot from Unexpected Difficulties can be game-changing. Alvera Tree Ritual is subtler - you basically play it for free, and not only does it protect you from any dilemma pile manipulation, but it can also be used offensively. If you keep track of which dilemmas you don't use, you can proactively use the Ritual to shuffle your dilemma pile at opportune times.
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
- Dominion Player
- Unbroken I
- No Crutches I
- How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
- No Crutches II
- Good Casting: Combs (Weyoun)
- Our Own Dominion
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