Nowhere to hide. A deck for the advanced players.

by Niall Matthew, the Cybernetic Sexecutioner

11th November 2017

So as we round up Borg week, there have been articles about their beginnings and how to take those baby steps into playing them. Here's a deck for all you who have spent years fine-tuning your assimilation abilities.

 

The development of this deck began with the First Edition set Resistance is Futile. Before then, it was only possible to win the game by scouting missions. However, Resistance is Futile released a card which would change the way Borg can be played; Contingency Plan.

 

This Dilemma plays on the opponents ship. Once assimilated, the ship is worth 35 points. 35 points is the average mission value needed to help win the game, and with the OTF rule of up to two Dilemmas under missions, that is 70 non-bonus points right there.

 

The aim of this deck is to build up your forces. Instead of scouting missions, you go directly for the opponents personnel and ships. The opponent will likely get key personnel out within the first couple of turns to fuel their play / draw engines. Target them first. Once you have assimilated the first wave, focus a turn on setting up your draw engines. Late in the game, you will likely need to change your strategy multiple times, and many of the cards require a download in place of a card draw.

 

The remaining points can be acquired by using Add Distinctiveness. This Incident is worth X points, where X = the number of skill dots on personnel you assimilate as Drones. There are multiple ways you can assimilate personnel. I need to keep punting Defrosted Menace from Broken Bow, the set I helped design. You can use Assimilate Species to take the fight to the opponent. You can also use Intruder Alert! to take care of any intruders not just on your cube, but on a newly assimilated ship.

 

The opponent may have defenses like Ablative Armor or Transport Inhibitor. These equipment can not only be bypassed, but stolen. I have included Determined Assault as the Tactic of choice. It doesn't do too much damage, but the damage marker allows you to steal equipment from the opposing ship, making way for your drones to invade.

 

Also note the lack of Counterpart in the deck. There are multiple homeworlds in the deck which are quite common these days. Use Assimilate Counterpart to gain anything from 5 points to a whopping 45 points. If you're lucky, you can use that Counterpart to assimilate a homeworld you seeded for another 40 points. Another Objective to note is Reassimilate Lost Drone. This one is very rare as the opponent may not stock Borg. This can be worth up to 30 points if you grab the right personnel.

 

One of the oddball cards to make the deck is Memory Wipe. This changes the affiliation of a ship to non aligned. Note that the crew and most importantly, the ships away teams, are also Non Aligned. There are a couple of uses for this.

 

- It prevents the opponent from attempting missions with an affiliation specific icon.

- You can bypass nasty battle restrictions from cards like Defend Homeworld and Strategema.

- This is the fun one. The Kazon Collective states 'your Kazon affiliation are immune to assimilation...' So by playing Memory Wipe on a Kazon armada, you can move in with Assimilate species and get yourself some Kazon drones. Note that once you abduct a unique Kazon male with Assimilate counterpart, his affiliation will revert back to Kazon. So even though you have acquired an abductee, you will be unable to assimilate him.

 

Once you have assimilated the majority of the opponents cards, it's time to finally go for a mission, unless the opponent stocked a thousand personnel of course. Remember the OTF rules:

 

-You need at least 140 points to win if you choose not to go for missions.

-All Borg Objectives are treated as standard points, including Assimilate Counterpart. Add Distinctiveness is the only card in the deck classed as bonus points.

-You need more standard points than bonus points in order for the excess bonus points to count. So you can go for a combination of the following...

 

Assimilate Starship + Contingency Plan - up to 70 points

Assimilate Counterpart - up to 45 points

Reassimilate Lost Drone - up to 30 points

Any of the standard Objectives - up to 40 points

 

This deck is not perfect, I've had my few share of losses as well as wins. But it sure is a lot of fun, especially when you want to try something other than attempt missions. So print this deck, assimilate away, and either be confused or in awe at the complexity of a Borg deck.

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Decklist

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

• Borg Player
• One Trick Pony
• Good Casting: Armstrong (Two of Nine)

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