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Strategy Articles

Guinan (Bartender) Tweet

by Johannes Klarhauser, Ambassador

11th December 2011

Guinan (Listener) has been a staple in many Federation decks. Her high Integrity of eight is useful for many popular missions, her Cunning isn't too shabby either, and her ability to give you an instant five points can either jumpstart a deck with an early At What Cost? or provide the missing points for a round-the-corner strategy (e.g., currently popular two-mission cadets).

True to the sub-affiliation theme, old reliable Guinan had a downside – your opponent also received five points, which made playing her risky in certain situations (do I really want to give a Romulan player who has a Far Seeing Eyes on the table the fuel to use it?).

Enter Guinan (Battleship Bartender). This version hails from the alternate timeline shown in the classic episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", and therefore her gametext is in line with the other alternate universe TNG bridge crew: these guys are trying to survive in a universe of war and cannot afford to hand out gifts like bizarro Ferengi. They are here to get things done.

Alternate Guinan costs no less than a whopping six counters to play, which puts her in a league with a select few personnel (such as her alternate timeline buddy Data (Battleship Officer) or Lore (The One)), so she had better have a useful ability (her skills and attributes are actually worse than those of her previous three-cost version).

Once per turn, Guinan allows you to play an personnel at a discount of -2. This may not sound like much, but if you manage to get Guinan in play early, she can potentially yield more than just one turn's worth of counters. The crew is specifically excluded from using the ever-popular Energize to reduce the cost of playing personnel; instead, they had to rely on cards like Common Ground, Disadvantage Into Advantage, or VIP Welcome, all of which allowed your opponent to benefit too. This new Guinan puts an end to that.

Combos:
Common Ground + Guinan: play some cheap personnel like Rixx or Mot (The Barber), then place Guinan on your headquarters mission and instantly use her ability.

Guinan + The Play's the Thing: name to increase the number of personnel that can be played at a discount. Orfil Quinteros, Katherine Pulaski (Chief Medical Officer), Montgomery Scott (Relic) and Leonard H. McCoy (Remarkable Man) are just some examples.


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