Defending the Federation's Turf

by Maggie Geppert, Staff Writer

11th November 2020

When Salvaged Attack Ship, Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and Benjamin Sisko, Resourceful Captain came out in Far Beyond the Stars, I was intrigued by their flavor being tied to being at a mission. I thought that was a clever way to shake up mission selection and created the possibility of a whole new deck type. This mission theme for an [ES9] deck was further expanded in The Omega Directive when we got Bajoran Sector, Engage Enemy Forces and Reese, Grizzled Survivor. Apocalypse Rising brings us new cards to expand this theme of your and personnel working together and benefitting from being at missions.

The deck I bring to you today goes for the two-mission win, using Bajoran Section and The Siege of AR-558 in conjunction with a bonus point strategy to bring me over 100 points. (Note: I could have put in Signal for Rescue at 45 points, but there's such a thing as theme!) Joseph Sisko, Creole Chef, Hollow Hospitality and the Salvaged Attack Ship boost my personnel's attributes for the big missions, so I didn't feel the need to stock the U.S.S. Enterprise-J.

There are a couple of ways I plan to get the 10 bonus points I need to got around the corner of this strategy. The first one is quite old, and I was surprised to find it. The U.S.S. Enterprise-C, Yesterday's Enterprise, which is a ship I don't remember seeing until I was looking for bonus point strategies for this deck will net me an extra 5 points if it is at a mission when I complete it. Nearly all my missions also sport a icon, so it feels like a natural, if non-thematic, fit for the deck. My other two strategies come from this new set. Yesterday our social media outlets revealed the new card Valuable Real Estate. With this card, I can dare my opponents to abandon what they're doing to come prevent me from scoring 5 points at the beginning of my next turn. And if they do decide to try to settle on my planet, I have just the thing to remove their presence: Nadia Larkin, Dutiful Soldier can begin combat and kill one of my opponent's personnel if she wins. She is complemented by today's cards of the day, Vargas, Shell-shocked. When you win a combat involving him, he scores you 5 points. Nice!

So, what if your opponent won't come and play? This is where my dilemma pile comes in. When I don't have Valuable Real Estate out, I plan to use Arena and Hippocratic Oath to bring people over to AR-558 to duke it out for those bonus points. I have stocked my pile with some attribute-reducing dilemmas like The Clown: Bitter Medicine and A Living Death to make sure Arena hits and brings someone to me. Otherwise, this pile is a pretty standard attrition pile.

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Decklist

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Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 40 Space 6 (15%) Cost 1 1 Cost 3 5 Planet 7 (18%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 1 Cost 3 2 Cost 5 1 Dual 27 (68%) Cost 0 8 Cost 2 7 Cost 3 5 Cost 4 6 Cost 6 1 Total Dilemma Deck cost 91

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 53 Equipment 1 (2%) Cost 2 1 Event 11 (21%) Cost 0 2 Cost 1 6 Cost 2 1 Cost 4 2 Personnel 36 (68%) Cost 1 6 Cost 2 16 Cost 3 8 Cost 4 5 Cost 5 1 Ship 5 (9%) Cost 4 1 Cost 5 4 Total Draw Deck cost 129

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 0 8 8 Archaeology 0 7 7 Astrometrics 1 6 6 Biology 0 6 6 Diplomacy 0 6 6 Engineer 3 8 1 9 Exobiology 0 5 5 Geology 0 5 5 Honor 1 5 2 7 Intelligence 0 3 3 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 4 6 6 Medical 0 3 1 1 5 Navigation 2 8 1 9 Officer 2 11 11 Physics 1 5 1 6 Programming 1 9 9 Science 0 9 9 Security 3 11 2 13 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 7 7 Treachery 0 1 1 2 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 13 36.11 % Staff Star 19 52.78 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 22 61.11 % Earth 11 30.56 % Temporal Icons Past 1 2.78 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Admiral 2 Assassin 1 Chef 1 Commander: Salvaged Attack Ship 2 Commander: U.S.S. Bellerophon 1 Commander: U.S.S. Defiant 1 Consume: 1 1 Decay: 3 3 Genetically Enhanced 1 Host 1 Paranoia 3 Persistent 1 Region: Cardassia System 1 Region: Sector 001 1 Smuggler 1 Species 8472 1