 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
All Categories • Continuing Committee • Organized Play • Rules Committee • Deck Designs • Virtual Expansions
Card Extras • Special Events • Tournament Reports • Everything Else • Spotlight Series • Contests
Strategy Articles
Cardassia Takes Command
by Kenny Nguyen
16th March 2010
For as long as I’ve been playing Second Edition, I have rarely heard any positive comments about the Cardassians. In response to this, for the most part, large majorities of my deck building sessions (which occur on roughly a weekly basis) have been directed towards making the most of the affiliation. I’ve always been a fan of trying to design decks around what everyone else passes off as bad, and it is not always easy, but I am going to present you with a list that will (hopefully) sway some people’s opinions on the affiliation's competitive playability.
The Concept
As with all decks, there must be a concept behind its construction. For this deck, I chose pure mission completion, based around the Allegiance card The Central Command. The raw power of this card is undeniable. Come up against Gomtuu Shock Wave? You may be damaged, but you’ll still get through the mission. An Issue of Trust causing you stress? Walk right through it. A lot of dilemmas that were once walls against Cardassians are nowhere near as threatening now because of this interrupt.
To begin with, a large majority of the personnel in the deck will need Treachery or Officer (not such a hard feat for the treacherous Cardassians). Second, the deck needs to be large enough to be able to ensure that the three-card mill from The Central Command isn’t too big to worry about. This problem extends to ensuring that it remains consistent enough to run smoothly and without serious problems.
The Key Cards
The deck’s namesake, The Central Command, is easily one of the most crucial cards in the deck, allowing you to force your way through powerful dilemmas and get ahead quickly. Due to the large size of the deck, Enabran Tain (“Retired” Spymaster) is included to allow you to quickly work through your deck and find the remaining key cards. Ocett (Dogged Rival) will allow you to return any card from your discard pile (which is likely to be quite large because of The Central Command and Ensnared) to the top of your deck, allowing you to make the most of a single copy of The Central Command.
High-Command “Motivation” kills off Enabran Tain (“Retired” Spymaster), Ocett (Dogged Rival) and Evek (Agent of Cardassian Justice) in order to make use of their effects once more, as well as allows you to gain an additional counter each turn (which won’t always make up for the cost of High-Command “Motivation”, but the effects of the personnel surely will). Back to Basics in the dilemma pile will almost always be turned on (unless, of course, you have just used one) and gives the deck more of its own walls against other decks. Telle (Macet’s Aide) is just a powerful personnel in his own right, and can force your opponent into awkward situations.
Strengths of the Deck
The requirements on each of the missions are fairly common among the personnel. You are hardly ever stretched for a skill (the one exception being Programming, which can be a problem, hence the inclusion of some Non-Aligned personnel with Programming), which makes completing missions easier. Commandeer Prototype opens up interesting options for ships to screw with your opponent. Ensnared is a beast against most decks, stripping key personnel away from an opponent. Swagger and Corbin Entek (Undercover Operations Supervisor) are more than enough to handle most irritating and problematic events.
Weaknesses of the Deck
A major flaw with Cardassians is their mediocre personnel, thus mission completion will often fail without six or seven of them. Two powerful personnel, Dukat (Prefect of Bajor) and Crell Moset (Notorious Exobiologist), require the deck to run Non-Aligned personnel, which can lead to Evek (Agent of Cardassian Justice) and Ensnared being a turn slower than desired. As The Central Command is integral to the functioning of the deck, if it gets prevented, this can be quite offsetting and can negate the advantages the deck has. To address this problem, the deck includes Mila (Trusted Confidante). In addition to this, Ocett (Dogged Rival) is able to recur any lost or used copies of The Central Command, giving a form of recovery from discard or prevention. Finally, three of the four non-Headquarters missions have spans of three, which can make it difficult to manage personnel with just a single ship (though this can be offset by obtaining a ship through Commandeer Prototype).
Conclusion
Overall, the deck performs quite consistently and can have draws that are quite insane, where dilemmas are simply overcome with little to no effect. Although it struggles against certain dilemmas without the assistance of The Central Command, it can easily complete most missions in two attempts, and it is common to power through missions on the first attempt off the back of The Central Command. Give the deck a try for something new, and perhaps it will help change your opinions of the Cardassian affiliation.
-djl-
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
Decklist
Back to Archive index