Where Kahless Leads, Shattered Mirror Follows

by Charlie Plaine, Shattered Mirror Designer

7th December 2018

It's release day today for Shattered Mirror, and I know you're all excited to dig into the thirty-six (36) new Second Edition cards. But before we're done with articles, I'd like to share a deck I've been tinkering with for awhile. You see, since the start of Second Edition, there have been Klingons without staffing icons. These Klingon "civilians," as they've come to be called with to the Department of Second Edition, often represent children, clerics, diplomats and the elderly. In the games first expansion, Energize, we saw more such Klingons that referenced Kahless, the historic hero of Klingon legend. The "cult of Kahless" has never really been something that's been mainstream for Klingons, in spite of the addition of some pretty nice tools like Worf (Desirous Disciple). Finally, with new cards in Shattered Mirror, the "Klingon Civilian" deck might finally have teeth.

Boreth (Place of Questions) is a huge help for these decks. For the low, low cost of using Qo'noS as your homeworld, you get to download Kahless at the start of your first turn. I'm partial to The Greatest Warrior of Them All with his built-in Warrior's Birthright, but if you're feeling bloodthirsty, The Unforgettable is a good option; either one will trigger the gametext of his followers. The planet's skills, 2 Anthropology, Biology, and Honor are Klingon staples, so it shouldn't be hard to assemble the requirements. In exchange, you get 35 points, access to the hero that turns on your bonus gametext, and a mission that will allow you to play The Sword of Kahless once completed. The only equipment in Shattered Mirror, The Shroud of the Swordnot only boosts your Klingon's Cunning, but can help you get that famed weapon.

Shattered Mirror comes with new Klingons aplenty, including "civilians" like Gorvil and a new version of a familiar face: Ba'el. She makes her second appearance in Second Edition, this time in Klingon red instead of Romulan green. This new version, Ba'el (Reconciling Differences), not only comes with useful skills for this deck, but a premium card advantage ability too. Second Edition has made several people that scan the top four (4) cards of your deck, let you keep one, and put the rest on the bottom, but Ba'el takes that power up a notch: you get to keep all of the civilians you reveal! But a more powerful ability comes with a more powerful cost, as any other cards you reveal get discarded. Cards like this reward skillful deck builders, as they can build decks with the optimum ratio to get the most reliable hits from her ability. Of course, if you get unlucky, then you can recover some of your staffing from the discard pile with Kortar (who also lacks a staffing icon.) And if all else fails, cards like The Promise can give you bonuses from those discarded Klingons - with the added bonus of some card draws courtesy of K'rad.

The deck attached to this article is modeled on many of the Klingon solvers from days past. I've played it in some test games a few times, and it's in a pretty good place, though it's far from optimized. I almost always get to use Ba'el to draw two personnel, and with the low staffing requirements of the K'vort-class ships, I never ran into staffing issues. Of course, the low Range of those ships means you'll want to get two ships out early. Though the original Kang (Honored Warrior) can help with that, he ended up not making the final cut. Feel free to adjust the ratio of ships to your comfort level.

You can pair this deck with any dilemma pile, but I decided to lean on Infestation. Each copy of this dilemma will cost 1 and stop two personnel, with the option of upgrading a stop to a kill with Arne Darvin ("Hero of the Empire"). To give the dilemma pile some more stability, I've paired it up with Chula: The Game and a handful of some of the more effective Chula dilemmas to trigger it. Hopefully, your deck is moving quickly enough to get ahead of your opponent, so this attrition based dilemma pile can hold them off while you claim victory in Kahless' name. If that's not your cup of tea, then feel free to customize the deck or the dilemma pile to your liking.

I had a lot of fun working on Klingons for this expansion, and I hope that you will find them equally fun to play. I want to thank everyone that worked to make this expansion what it is, from my fellow designers, our design director John Corbett, to all of our rules, creative, art, and testing volunteers. Your work is invaluable and very much appreciated.

Shattered Mirror is available for free download today, and will be legal for play in most formats in one week, on Friday, December 14th.

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Klingon Player
• Nonlethal Force
• Anywhere You Go...
• Overused Problems I
• No Crutches I
• How About a New Mission, Admiral? I
• Overused Problems II
• No Crutches II
• Chula: Not a Game
• Shattered Mirror Release

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 23 Space (0%) Planet (0%) Dual 23 (100%) Cost 0 3 Cost 1 2 Cost 2 14 Cost 3 2 Cost 4 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 44

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 47 Equipment 3 (6%) Cost 1 2 Cost 2 1 Interrupt 4 (9%) Personnel 36 (77%) Cost 1 2 Cost 2 20 Cost 3 12 Cost 4 1 Cost 5 1 Ship 4 (9%) Cost 4 3 Cost 5 1 Total Draw Deck cost 108

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 4 13 13 Archaeology 0 6 6 Astrometrics 0 2 2 Biology 3 6 6 Diplomacy 0 6 2 8 Engineer 0 1 1 Exobiology 0 6 6 Geology 1 3 3 Honor 2 15 3 18 Intelligence 0 2 2 Law 0 4 2 6 Leadership 0 3 2 1 6 Medical 1 6 6 Navigation 0 5 5 Officer 0 9 9 Physics 0 7 7 Programming 2 4 4 Science 0 4 4 Security 0 10 1 11 Telepathy 0 0 Transporters 0 1 1 Treachery 1 4 2 6 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 11 30.56 % Staff Star 8 22.22 % Faction Icons Next Generation 1 2.78 % Temporal Icons Alternate Universe 2 5.56 % Past 6 16.67 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Artifact 1 Assassin 1 Chancellor 1 Cloaking Device 4 Commander: I.K.S. Lukara 1 Commander: I.K.S. Qam-Chee 1 Commander: I.K.S. Qel'Poh 1 Hand Weapon 1 High Council Member 1 Infiltrator 1 Region: Qo'noS System 1