Beginner Deck: Androids

by Lucas Thompson

22nd July 2022

"I realized... that it was possible to continue Dr. Soong's work." Androids in the Star Trek universe are rare and special... until you encounter an entire planet of them. In this deck, Dr. Soong's dream of artificial life has been fully realized, and Earth has been practically overrun by them. There are certainly more than Bruce Maddox can handle.

In this game, many Androids have tied together by a mechanical theme; their abilities require you to reveal three Androids from your hand. You don't necessarily need to play a lot of them since they offer few bonuses for being present with other androids, but it's useful to have them on hand. (This deck is one that intends to both play a lot and have a lot in hand, that's just not the only way to do it.) Noonien Soong's ability to download Androids when you play them is very valuable for keeping Androids in your hand. Since he also allows you to play Androids to his location, he's a very important card in this deck.

Several cards, such as Ira Graves, Noted Molecular Cyberneticist will ask you to discard Androids from hand for a powerful effect. You need those Androids in your hand, but stop and kill prevention, which is already a powerful mechanic, becomes even more powerful when the personnel who isn't being stopped has 10 cunning. That's the main reason why the ability on Rayna Kapec doesn't get used much: not only is it more expensive than Graves' ability, you also care a lot less about your non-Androids being stopped.

That said, there's one thing to keep an eye out for that other beginner decks don't need to care much about: you need a personnel whose affiliation matches the ship you're trying to fly in order to fly it. With only seven Federation personnel, you'll need to be a little careful with them so that you can fly your ships (and attempt your planet missions).

Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is not based on any specific deck, but here's a US Nationals-winning deck that you might find some inspiration from. Also, you might consider these cards:

More Androids
- With Noonien Soong's ability, you can expand the size of your deck pretty easily and still get what you need. So stock a couple more copies of him, and some more copies of the best androids (like Lore and Data).

Bustling With Activity
- This deck uses Earth, Cradle of the Federation to use the handful of Android-related personnel with a TNG icon (including the new Picard). The traditional Android headquarters of choice is Mouth of the Wormhole, Deep Space Nine due to its one span and because Androids are mostly Non-Aligned. Bonus for using DS9: you also get to use Bustling With Activity and give yourself even more access to your personnel.

The One
- If you're sticking to Earth, consider adding a some Non-Aligned Borg and using Assimilator, Rogue Borg Vessel. That rare 10 range allows you to fly from a 3-span space mission to a 2-span headquarters mission and back in one turn. That's very valuable on its own, but it can also see a significant discount and allows you to play Non-Aligned Borg and Treachery Androids directly to it.

General Use Cards
- Some cards can just go in any deck - and often do because they're so useful. 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:

• We Can Rebuild Him
• Unbroken I
• No Crutches I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• No Crutches II
• The Menagerie Release
• Good Casting: Spiner (Noonien Soong)

Decklist

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Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 30 Space 5 (17%) Cost 2 1 Cost 3 4 Planet 5 (17%) Cost 2 1 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 1 Dual 20 (67%) Cost 0 2 Cost 2 7 Cost 3 4 Cost 4 5 Cost 6 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 87

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 35 Equipment 1 (3%) Cost 2 1 Interrupt 3 (9%) Personnel 26 (74%) Cost 1 4 Cost 2 8 Cost 3 8 Cost 4 4 Cost 6 2 Ship 5 (14%) Cost 3 2 Cost 4 3 Total Draw Deck cost 92

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 1 7 7 Archaeology 2 8 8 Astrometrics 0 0 Biology 0 2 2 Diplomacy 1 7 7 Engineer 1 7 7 Exobiology 0 4 4 Geology 0 2 1 3 Honor 0 3 3 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 0 5 5 Medical 0 1 2 3 Navigation 0 2 2 Officer 0 5 5 Physics 0 3 3 Programming 2 8 3 11 Science 1 10 10 Security 0 3 3 Telepathy 0 1 1 Transporters 0 0 Treachery 0 6 1 7 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 8 30.77 % Staff Star 8 30.77 % Faction Icons Earth 2 7.69 % Next Generation 5 19.23 % Temporal Icons Past 11 42.31 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise 1 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise-D 1 Commander: U.S.S. Phoenix 1 Consume: 3 1 Genetically Enhanced 1 Infiltrator 2 Region: Neutral Zone 2 Region: Sector 001 1 Species 8472 1 Thief 2