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Strategy Articles
Beginner Deck: Cardassian
by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador
21st February 2020
"A true victory is to make your enemy see they were wrong to oppose you in the first place. To force them to acknowledge your greatness." The Cardassian affiliation is characterized by powerful effects that produce waste - they spare little thought for the future or the past. The key card in this deck is Enabran Tain, the "retired" head of the Obsidian Order. His ability perfectly represents the affiliation's strength - a huge amount of draws for free in exchange for needing to discard afterwards.
The Central Command is possibly the most powerful interrupt in the game - most of your personnel have Officer or Treachery, so any time a dilemma is about to stop multiple of them, prevent that with this card. However, this card also generates waste, and will start to discard your deck pretty quickly. Since you'll need a deck to discard in order to pay its cost, judicious use of Tacking Into the Wind is essential for playing this deck effectively (though you may often find yourself using one Tacking to blow up a troublesome event too).
The other beginner decks avoid using more than one copy of a unique card - cards with a dot in front of their title are ones that you can only have one of in play at a time. However, because Enabran Tain is so important to the function of this deck, you have three copies of him. That means that, when you're discarding cards due to his ability, it's usually pretty safe to discard extra copies of Tain himself, since you won't be able to play them unless he subsequently dies.
The dilemma pile, while largely identical to other beginner dilemma piles, contains one dilemma that is specific to this deck. Cardassian Processing hints at another aspect of the Cardassian affiliation - they're the best at taking prisoners, which in this game is a fate worse than death. Captured personnel remain in play on your side of the table (in your "brig") and your opponent's cards cannot affect them unless they specifically affect captured personnel. This dilemma has reasonably strong requirements for only two cost, but you're still going to want your opponent to face it last (the bottom of the dilemma stack) so that you're most likely to take that captive.
Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is based on the deck Kris Sonsteby used to take second place at the 2017 South Dakota Masters. You may take inspiration from that deck list, or consider these cards.
Cardassian Justice
- Take a page from Cardassian Processing, and throw your opponents in jail! There's a different version of Evek (Agent of Cardassian Justice) from the one you have in your deck that is a pretty easy way to net some captives. I'd recommend also checking out Ensnared, though you'll definitely need to make your deck bigger and use another Tacking Into the Wind to pay its cost in addition that of The Central Command. Once they're in your brig, you can use those captives to score points with Labor Camp, or make your opponent have fewer counters to spend with Tribunal Sentencing.
Incomprehensible Power
- Instead of hindering your opponent, consider using another powerful interrupt: The Enemy of My Enemy. Enemy turns the "cost" of discarding your own deck into an advantage by using those discarded cards to push through mission attempts. In conjunction with The Central Command, you'll be nearly impossible to stop. Additionally, to build on the raw power that Enabran Tain builds to this deck, you could consider using a couple copies of High Command Motivation. Using it on Tain allows you to play another copy of him, and using it on Seska can give you a bunch of nearly free counters to spend.
Back to Basics
- The dilemma Back to Basics can not only reverse the discarding from cards like The Central Command and Enabran Tain, it can turn it into an advantage by stopping an opponent's crew on its own. You can count the cards in your discard pile, so you'll always know if it will hit. Consider supplementing your deck with some of the cards suggested above (like Ensnared or The Enemy of my Enemy) in order to make Back to Basics more reliable.
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. It's even easier for you to use that card (and/or another ritual like Code of the Ushaan) since one of your missions (Kreetassa) can download it at the beginning of the game.
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
- Cardassian Player
- Unbroken I
- How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
- Good Casting: Armstrong (Danar)
- Good Casting: Warner (Madred)
- Beets Are a Very Misunderstood Vegatable
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