Card Extras Remastered - Armus: Sticky Situation

by Daniel Matteson, Writing Team Manager

1st July 2021

Note: During the release period for Official Tournament Sealed Deck Remastered, we thought it might be fun and nostalgic to take a look at some of the Card Extras articles written for these cards on the Decipher site, and compare the original uses for these cards with some more modern uses. Please enjoy these Card Extras Remastered articles, releasing daily between June 30th and July 7th.

Armus - Sticky Situation
By Richard Hallquist (rrhallqu@colby.edu)

On the surface, Armus - Sticky Situation may not seem like that powerful a card. After all, it only kills a single personnel, you don't get to choose who dies, and it could very well simply stop that person, as a Diplomat with Cunning > 7 isn’t that tough to find. However, in combination, this card breathes new life into a rarely used dilemma: El-Adrel Creature. Seed the Armus - Sticky Situation so that it will be encountered first, and then follow it with the El-Adrel Creature. This will mean that the highest strength on the away team will either be killed or stopped, at which point the rest of the away team will hit the El-Adrel Creature, and probably lose another high strength member. Finally, conclude with the common Malfunctioning Door, and watch as your opponent scrambles to find the necessary strength.

As Soong-Type Androids become more and more common, Armus - Sticky Situation is an excellent way to pick them off, as their Strength tends to stick out like a sore thumb. Especially if you have the room to seed a set-up dilemma to pick off their Diplomat (Zaldan is the obvious choice, although Yuta is a safer bet), you have a very good chance of eliminating the Android, angering your opponent (no one likes losing an Android), and circumventing the problem of Soong-Type Androids passing right by the Malfunctioning Door.

Decks based around Assign Mission Specialist in great number will also have a tough time coping with this combination. More than likely, unless the deck is based around Diplomacy, they will lose their strongest personnel to Armus - Sticky Situation, then their second strongest to El-Adrel Creature, and finally be confounded by the Malfunctioning Door, as all the Strength 6 personnel in the universe won’t get you past it (much less strength 5 or 4).

Finally, this is the ultimate dilemma for thwarting your opponent’s attempts to send down only one personnel to clear out the dilemmas (commonly called “red-shirting”), as it is only discarded when someone remains. If you opponent sends down only one personnel, they will hit Armus - Sticky Situation, that personnel will die, but the dilemma will wait patiently for the next victim. When used properly, Armus - Sticky Situation can be an effective way of picking off dangerous personnel.

While used mostly as a one-stop filter dilemma in limited play, this simple one-person stop can easily become "kill your strongest Away Team member" with cards that can filter out Diplomacy (Blended or Tense Negotiations) or reduce their CUNNING (The Clown: Bitter Medicine). And, of course, this dilemma becomes even better when doubled by All-Consuming Evil, potentially killing two personnel instead of one.

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