Allegiance: Kirk and His Enterprise

by James Hoskin, Staff Writer

11th December 2009

It's the end of Motion Picture spoiler week. Before revealing the final two cards, a quick reminder that Hikaru Sulu and Leonard H. McCoy were spoiled in text form a few weeks ago. Willard Decker and Ilia were then spoiled on Monday, and Spock and Montgomery Scott were also spoiled on Wednesday. Now that you're up to speed, let's spoil some more cards:

7 •U.S.S. Enterprise (Where She Belongs)

Constitution Class
You may play this ship at cost –4 to ignore its ability. When you play this ship, you may download a personnel who has a cost of 4 or more and play him or her at cost –4 aboard this ship.
"Admiral, this is an almost totally new Enterprise."
[Range 8] [Weapons 6] [Shields 6]

Assuming the current artwork is final, it shows the Enterprise in spacedock above a planet (presumably Earth). Most importantly, the image shows the front of the ship, and not the back. The camera is in line with the deflector, tilted slightly up so we can see the underside of the dish. Oh, and there are two groupings of lights on the edge of the dish - both identical - so we know the movie's special effects department did some cutting and pasting there.

4 •James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander)
Human
•Honor •Leadership •Officer •Programming
[b]Admiral. Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise. You may play this personnel at cost –2 to ignore his ability until the end of this turn. When you play this personnel, he and each personnel present who has a cost of 4 or more cannot be randomly selected by dilemmas until the end of this turn.
"All decks, this is the Captain. Prepare for immediate departure."
[Integrity 7] [Cunning 6] [Strength 6]

Assuming the current artwork is final, it shows Kirk in his white uniform, from the chest up, standing with his hands on his hips looking to the left of camera. The shirt has a convenient slit in the front so that he can show off his chest. The toupee shows no sign of age, even though Kirk's face is beginning to. His expression could be described as a frown, or maybe he is just constipated. He is standing in front of some nondescript grey wall with a door in it. Oh, and the circular light above his head could almost be described as a halo.

As with Willard Decker, Kirk's ability has been worded so that if you do decide to play him at cost –2, you can still make use of his keywords on subsequent turns.

Much like in the film, James T. Kirk is going to take center stage in this deck. His ability only works for one turn though, so all we need to do is find some way to keep playing him over and over again, and we have a good base with which to build our deck from.

The first method to keep playing James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) makes use of Willard Decker (Executive Officer) and Pavel A. Chekov (Young Navigator), both of which let you return a Original Series personnel to hand when they are played. Once you have played either or both of these personnel, they have served their purpose, so you should send them to attempt Survey New World by themselves. Failing to complete that mission will cause them to get placed back under your deck so that you can play another copy when you need to.

The other method to keep playing James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) requires a Multidimensional Transporter Device and a copy of James T. Kirk (Original Thinker) in your hand. The equipment lets you exchange a personnel in play with a personnel in hand provided that they have the same card title. The two-turn sequence of play goes as follows: play Experienced Commander Kirk and use his ability that turn. On your next turn, swap him out for Original Thinker Kirk, and have him be part of a mission attempt. During that attempt, use his ability to return him to hand. Voilà, you can now play Experienced Commander Kirk again.

With 51 cards in the deck, you are going to need some help drawing through it to find the cards you need. These Are the Voyages, Fajo's Menagerie and Sarek (Vulcan Delegate) will all help with this. Fajo's Menagerie will also help you find more copies of Multidimensional Transporter Device should you need them. Even with all this card drawing, you may still struggle to find the single copy of James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) in the deck. Fortunately, when you play the U.S.S. Enterprise (Where She Belongs) you can download any Original Series personnel costing 4 or more, and play that personnel at cost -4 directly aboard the ship.

When it comes to attempting missions, U.S.S. Enterprise-J means that you only need six personnel to complete either 50 point mission:

Pegasus Search can be completed by 1. James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) 2. Spock (Experienced Officer) 3. Hikaru Sulu (Dedicated Helmsman) 4. Sarek (Vulcan Delegate) 5. Valeris (Co-Conspirator) and 6. Montgomery Scott (Confident Engineer)

Hunt for DNA Program can be completed by 1. James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) 2. Spock (Experienced Officer) with a Science PADD 3. Hikaru Sulu (Dedicated Helmsman) 4. Sarek (Vulcan Delegate) 5. Valeris (Co-Conspirator) and 6. Leonard H. McCoy ("Drafted" into Service)

It is probably best to attempt the missions with a couple of additional four-cost personnel so that you can afford to have one or two stopped by dilemmas and still complete the mission. While you can bypass a lot of dilemmas by avoiding random selections, it is the one-cost classics that are going to hurt. Dilemmas like Command Decisions, Neurogenic Field, Triage and Warp Bubble Mishap will all stop one personnel. The trick to these dilemmas is to use Stricken Dumb. If you don't have either of the particular skills required by these dilemmas, they randomly select one personnel to die. But wait... you can avoid random selections thanks to Kirk, so no one will die after all.

Another potential hazard you may face is Secret Identity and The Caretaker's "Guests". These dilemmas can be used to remove James T. Kirk (Experienced Commander) from the attempt, so we need some way to get around them. The trick here is to use both Gem and Ohhhh! Nothing Happened! to strip those particular dilemmas from your opponent's pile before he or she has a chance to use them.

All that remains to mention are various cards that you may or may not need, depending on how the game plays out. Should you end up discarding important cards before you can play them, then Ilia (Finest Navigator in Starfleet), Mark Piper and the U.S.S. Constellation (Dead Hulk) can all be used to retrieve cards from the discard pile when they are played. If your opponent captures any of your personnel, then Number One (Reputable Officer) can break them out of the brig when she is played. Montgomery Scott (Confident Engineer) and Matt Decker (Vengeful Commodore) can remove from the game or destroy (respectively) an opponent's event when they are played. It is worth remembering that, with the exception of the ship, all of these cards can be returned to hand or placed under your deck. If the need arises, they too can be played over and over again.

The draw deck has absolutely no support for the dilemma pile, so it needs to stand by itself. It contains the usual mix of stoppers and killers, and approximately one third of the dilemmas will have an effect against a deck (like this) that avoids random selections. The only combo you need to be aware of is Psychokinetic Control and It's Only a Paper Moon. The former prevents your opponent's personnel from gaining attributes, while the latter turns into a really big wall when you reveal all the non-ship cards costing 4 or more from your hand. If your opponent does try to "cheat" around your dilemmas with an interrupt, then Benjamin Sisko (Command Staffer) will come to your aid and prevent him or her from doing so.

Final Thought: This deck should have no trouble playing one personnel (Kirk) over and over again. It should also make a lot of mission attempts at one mission (Survey New World) without ever completing it. Lets see who can set the biggest records?

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-djl-

This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:

• Original Series Player

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 36 Space 5 (14%) Cost 2 1 Cost 4 2 Cost 6 1 Cost 9 1 Planet 7 (19%) Cost 2 2 Cost 3 2 Cost 5 2 Cost 6 1 Dual 24 (67%) Cost 0 7 Cost 1 3 Cost 2 7 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 3 Cost 5 1 Total Dilemma Deck cost 94

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 51 Equipment 7 (14%) Cost 1 7 Event 8 (16%) Cost 1 8 Interrupt 5 (10%) Personnel 26 (51%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 5 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 12 Cost 5 3 Ship 5 (10%) Cost 3 2 Cost 7 3 Total Draw Deck cost 127

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 0 4 4 Archaeology 1 2 2 Astrometrics 1 5 5 Biology 2 3 3 Diplomacy 0 7 7 Engineer 3 4 2 6 Exobiology 0 3 1 4 Geology 1 0 Honor 1 8 3 11 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 1 9 9 Medical 0 3 3 Navigation 2 6 1 7 Officer 1 16 16 Physics 1 2 2 Programming 1 4 4 Science 2 6 6 Security 1 5 5 Telepathy 0 5 5 Transporters 0 2 2 Treachery 2 1 1 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 13 50.00 % Staff Star 9 34.62 % Faction Icons Deep Space Nine 2 7.69 % Earth 1 3.85 % Original Series 21 80.77 % Temporal Icons Past 24 92.31 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Admiral 3 Assassin 1 Cloaking Device 1 Commander: U.S.S. Constellation 1 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise 5 Consume: 1 1 Q 3 Region: Great Barrier 1 Region: Sector 001 1 Temporal 3