So, You're New to Cardassians?

by Maggie Geppert, Vice Chairman

7th December 2017

The main theme for Cardassians in Second Edition is capturing their opponent’s personnel.  They can use those personnel in a variety of ways to get an advantage over their opponents.  Cardassians are also a wasteful affiliation, as seen in how they stripped resources from Bajor during the occupation.  We see that in the game via lots of discarding.

Missions

All four non-Headquarters missions require Intelligence as a skill.  You get a great advantage for that in terms of Enabran Tain, “Retired” Spymaster.  He’ll net you a lot of extra card draws, but in keeping with the wastefulness theme, you have to discard some of them.  The other downside to this is that Agonizing Encounter is in the current Excelsior pool and will stop four personnel.  Now, let’s get back to mission attempts.  I recommend attempting Farius Prime, Approach Criminal Organization first.  Korinas, Observer from the Obsidian Order has all of the skills for this mission, so she’s my MVP for this deck.  It also has a range of two, which gives it the advantage over Extract Defector.  After you complete this mission, leave a random jobber behind for Labor Camp (more on this below) and go do a space mission.  Whether you choose Intercept Renegade or Abduction Plot pretty much depends on which personnel you have in play. 

Draw Deck

The biggest advantage this deck has is the event Labor Camp.  This card will net you 10 points at the beginning of each of your turns if you have a captive in your brig and a personnel on the planet.  This allows you to do a two-mission win with this deck.  In fact, if you make use of Broca, “Leader” of the Cardassian Union, you only need to have a captive for Labor Camp for two turns.  Now, you may be wondering how you’ll get ahold of a captive?  In terms of cards in the draw deck, you can use Arrest Order to capture an opponent’s personnel if you are willing to send a Security personnel over to your opponent’s missions with a Cardassian Phaser Pistol.

The other clutch card in this deck is The Central Command.  Remember that Agonizing Encounter I was talking about before?  The Central Command will let you prevent the stop of any number of your Officer or Treachery personnel for the cost of discarding three cards from the top of your deck.  Given that this deck has 19 Treachery personnel and 11 Officers, I think the odds of preventing a good number of folks from being stopped is high.  Oh, and if someone tries to prevent your Central Command?  Just Mila them. 

Dilemma Pile

This dilemma pile is designed to capture personnel for you.  My personal favorite is Inequitable Exchange.  This dilemma costs 6 if you don’t have anyone in your brig, but it guarantees you get to capture a personnel of your choice.  I’m also a fan of Restricted Area as a surprise hit.  People don’t play this style of family of dilemma very often, so you can really get someone who decides to megateam (attempt with more than 9) against you.  Finally, once you get a captive, it’s great to use Broken Captive against your opponent, especially if you can get your hands on someone who has a rare skill like Acquisition, Intelligence, Law or Telepathy.  That dilemma also pairs nicely with the event Psychological Pressure.  Your opponent has to discard cards to use those skills.

Excelsior

This deck is compatible for the Excelsior format that is currently in development.  It pulls cards from Version 0.3 of the restricted card pool and rules document.  Feel free to print this deck and give it a try at your next WCT League event.  Even though they are unrated, Excelsior playtests are eligible for league points.  And look out for the full roll-out of the Excelsior format starting in January 2018!

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Cardassian Player
• Unbroken I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Good Casting: Armstrong (Danar)
• Good Casting: Warner (Madred)

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 34 Space 8 (24%) Cost 1 3 Cost 2 2 Cost 3 2 Cost 5 1 Planet 8 (24%) Cost 1 2 Cost 2 3 Cost 3 2 Cost 5 1 Dual 18 (53%) Cost 2 8 Cost 3 6 Cost 5 1 Cost 6 3 Total Dilemma Deck cost 94

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 45 Equipment 3 (7%) Cost 1 2 Cost 2 1 Event 5 (11%) Cost 1 3 Cost 3 2 Interrupt 4 (9%) Personnel 28 (62%) Cost 1 4 Cost 2 12 Cost 3 8 Cost 4 3 Cost 6 1 Ship 5 (11%) Cost 6 5 Total Draw Deck cost 113

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 0 Anthropology 0 4 4 Archaeology 0 4 4 Astrometrics 0 4 4 Biology 0 3 3 Diplomacy 0 5 5 Engineer 0 3 3 Exobiology 0 5 1 6 Geology 0 4 4 Honor 0 1 1 Intelligence 4 10 2 12 Law 1 4 4 Leadership 3 5 5 Medical 0 5 1 6 Navigation 1 5 5 Officer 3 11 11 Physics 0 3 3 Programming 0 3 1 4 Science 0 4 4 Security 3 8 1 9 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 2 4 4 Treachery 3 13 6 19 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 16 57.14 % Staff Star 9 32.14 % Faction Icons Voyager 1 3.57 % Temporal Icons Alternate Universe 1 3.57 % Past 2 7.14 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Capture 2 Chef 1 Cloaking Device 2 Commander: Aldara 1 Commander: Bralek 1 Commander: Reklar 1 Commander: Rokassa 1 Commander: Trager 1 Dissident 1 Glinn 4 Gul 7 Hand Weapon 2 Infiltrator 2 Legate 3 Persistent 1 Punishment 5 Region: Cardassia System 1