Virtual Starter Decks II: Ferengi

by Matt Zinno, Guest Writer

29th August 2011

Last week, I showed you two starter decks made almost entirely of virtual cards (or cards which are legally printable for other reasons, like errata). As starter decks, they avoided many cards for which you need to know more advanced rules of the game. In this article, we add a new affiliation to our library of virtual starter decks, and some new game mechanics -- primarily, downloads and homeworlds!

For trying these decks, go ahead and print the whole thing. Most of the cards can then be used in any game. Some others will need to be replaced with physical equivalents, or other cards that you choose to replace them with.

Downloads and Free Plays

First, a quick introduction to the concept. When you "download" a card, that usually means you get to look through your deck and hand, and put that card into play. In some cases, you can put the card into play at a specific location -- this happens when you use the special download icon (), or when the card that allows the download says so. Otherwise, you need to play the new card somewhere it could normally play, like an outpost.

(In the fuller game, there are some other places you are also allowed to look, but those places only exist if you use cards that aren't in this deck. However, one of them is pretty commonly used: Q's Tent.)

In this deck, during the facility phase of seeding, you will seed a few cards which allow downloads:
* Defend Homeworld, which you can use after play starts to download one of your SECURITY personnel, or HQ: War Room.
* Writ of Accountability, which you can use after play starts to download one of your FCA personnel, either Brunt or Krem.

Here are the other downloads allowed by the cards in your deck:

* Captain Nog downloads Ready Room Door, once per game. That card, whether you download it or simply play it, also gives you a download: either Straight and Steady, or one of your commanders (Krem, Ulis, Malik) to his ship.
* Allamill downloads, immediately into play at his spaceline location, either Carol Marcus or David Marcus.
* Harrad-Sar downloads a slave girl immediately into play at his spaceline location. There are three in the deck: Navaar; Neras (who can use her special skill immediately even if downloaded); and Vina (who cannot use her special skill when reported, she must wait until the start of your next turn).
* Dr Reyga downloads Metaphasic Shields, to a ship at his location.
* Grand Nagus Gint downloads the 45th Rule, and it will download Gold-Pressed Latinum.
* Gint also downloads Bribery.
* GPL, at the homeworld, can download your phasers. Note that they are usable as long as there is a Non-Aligned personnel present.
* Muk can download Krem, Ulis, or Grish.

Besides the downloads, you will sometimes get two cards into play at the beginning of your turn. You have a normal card play, but also some personnel (Quark Son of Keldar, and 2 Ferengi V.I.P.s) who can play for free to the Headquarters, one per turn.

Homeworlds and Hidden Agendas

Homeworlds actually have very few special rules. You aren't allowed to seed or build outposts there, but that's about it. But like many concepts in this game, special things can happen based on other cards that use the concept. This deck includes the Ferengi homeworld, as well as:
* A Headquarters facility that seeds there, where you can report your personnel, equipment, and ships;
* An Objective that seeds there, allowing your Ferengi to attempt the mission though there is no Ferengi icon there;
* An Event you can play there which will boost some of your personnel;
... and more!

Some of your cards have a "Hidden Agenda" icon () on them. This means that they seed face down, and you can flip them when you're ready to use them. You might be able to give your opponent a nasty surprise!

Personae and compatibility

Even though Nog and Captain Nog both represent the same character from the show, you can have both of them in play at the same time. If you want to explain it within 'Trek sense', you can tell yourself that Captain Nog came back in time to the era of his younger self -- much like Admiral Janeway did in the Voyager finale. However, this is not the reason you can do this within the game. The game has specific rules convering this situation, and sometimes they're a little different than what you might expect from show logic like this. The reason that it works, according to the game rules, is that the card titles (and boldfaced names in the lore, if there are any) don't match. Nog and Captain Nog are different card titles (and neither is overruled by a boldfaced name in their lore), so there are no restrictions against them being in play at the same time, any more than there would be for Nog and Garak.

For an example of a boldfaced name in the lore, look at Quark Son of Keldar. He has the name "Quark" in bold in the lore. This deck doesn't have a card named Quark, but if it did, then you wouldn't be able to have that card and Quark Son of Keldar in play at the same time.

All your cards are compatible with each other if you treat each of them as Ferengi or Non-Aligned. However, note that Ferengi and Non-Aligned personnel can't attempt the homeworld mission without using the special objective HQ: Secure Homeworld. And when they do attempt it by using that special objective, they use its requirements instead of the ones printed on the mission card.

Dilemma Strategy

The earlier starter decks provided general dilemmas without grouping them, allowing you to freely choose color-based patterns. Experienced 1E players generally select their dilemmas to occur in particular combinations ("combos"), with each chosen to feed into the next in a way that makes them more powerful and effective. For example, the first combo listed below decreases attributes, and then punishes for attributes being low. Of course, if you prefer, you could mix and match your dilemmas, or even replace them with other combos of your choosing.

As before, remember to only put space dilemmas under space missions, and planet dilemmas under planet missions ... while space/planet dilemmas can go under either.

Card Availability

All of the cards listed are legally printable (meaning that printed copies of the cards are legal in tournaments), except for the common (C) ships (there are three).

This deck includes Scan and Full Planet Scan. (These are not legal in OTF tournaments, but printable for other tournament formats.) There are also cards in the deck which will counter or punish an opponent if they play these cards. Those counter cards are here partly so that you can use them against an opponent, but also partly to warn you of what your opponent (if they have those counters) can do to you for playing your scans.

Decklist

Ferengi decklist (also available in Deckbuilder)

Missions
Deliver Message
Feldomite Rush
Gunrunning
Purchase Moon
Search for Weapons
Study Cometary Cloud

Dilemmas (arranged in planned combos)
Distracted by Thoughts of Home / Firestorm / Clan People
Damaged Reputation / Zaldan / Dignitaries and Witnesses
Linguistic Legerdemain / Restricted Area / Dead End (the Ferengi image combo)
Oh No! / Chula: the Chandra / The Arsenal: Separated
Vastly Outnumbered / Personal Duty / Friendly Fire
Gomtuu Shock Wave / Dal'rok / Ankari Spirits

Other seeds
Space-Time Portal and Temporal Micro-Wormhole (before the missions)
Ferengi Outpost
Tower of Commerce
Strategema
HQ: Secure Homeworld
Face down, since they are Hidden Agenda cards: Panel Overload, Q the Referee,
Scanner Interference, Defend Homeworld, Writ of Accountability

Draw Deck
Ready Room Door x3
Gold-pressed Latinum x8
Starfleet Type II Phaser x3
45th Rule Of Acquisition
HQ: War Room
Metaphasic Shields
Handshake x2
Full Planet Scan
Scan
Straight and Steady
Bribery
Cold Warriors
Diplomatic Contact
Isomagnetic Disintegrator
Kasidy Yates
Brunt
Dr. Reyga (Life From Lifelessness)
Grand Nagus Gint
Grish x4
Krem
Muk
Ulis
Captain Nog
Nog
Prot
Quark Son of Keldar
Allamill
Carol Marcus (Life From Lifelessness)
David Marcus (Life From Lifelessness)
Harrad-Sar
Malik
Navaar
Neras
Rishon
Vash (Life From Lifelessness)
Vina
Zon
Garak
Daniels
B'rel
D'Kora Marauder
D'Kora Transport
Quetsivoo
I.K.S. Nguq'Yab

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