Beginner Deck: TNG

by Lucas Thompson, Ambassador

21st February 2020

"Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise." The crew must work together to overcome obstacles, supporting each other to achieve more together than they would individually. Many of your personnel gain benefits by being with other personnel with a cost of 4 or more - for example, when you play Jean-Luc Picard, if you have two other personnel with a cost of four or more, you can download any card you want.

The card Disadvantage Into Advantage (which can be downloaded by Lwaxana Troi) allows you to play your expensive personnel at a discount. That's important because the average personnel cost in this deck is higher than any of the other beginner decks, and without something to mitigate that cost, you'd be at a significant speed disadvantage. Something to keep in mind is that the effect of Disadvantage Into Advantage is symmetric (that's an important part of the Next Generation faction's flavor), but few decks stand to benefit from its effect as much as this deck does.

The other beginner decks avoid using too many personnel with powerful effects when you play them. This deck, however, uses many such personnel. The only new card in this project, Shelley, can reduce the cost of the next unique personnel you play - your personnel are expensive, and getting more than one out for a low cost each turn can be a huge advantage. And, as I mentioned, Troi can download Disadvantage Into Advantage; in turn Spock can download her. That chain of downloads can get you up and running quickly.

The dilemma pile, while largely identical to other beginner dilemma piles, contains one dilemma that is specific to this deck. Polywater Intoxication stops personnel without being overcome (and placed beneath the mission), which is a powerful effect on its own. It has a printed cost of zero, but if (at the time it is revealed) there are six or more personnel facing the dilemma, it becomes much more expensive. This dilemma is great to put at the end of a stack, or if your opponent is attempting with the bare minimum.

Once you're comfortable with this deck, you might want to personalize it. It is loosely based on the deck that Jason Tang used to take third place in the 2018 Minnesota Masters - only his seventh recorded Second Edition tournament. You may take inspiration from that deck list, or consider these cards:

Mission Accomplished
- Many decks attempt to win the game by completing three missions. With additional copies of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, other Commanders like Edward Jellico or Beverly Crusher, and the event Mission Accomplished, you could aim to win the game with just two missions.

War Without End
- Another way to reach that two mission win would be to embrace the Alternate Universe theme of this deck, and switch to the Battleship Enterprise. Using that ship, if you shoot at an opponent twice with War Without End, that's a full thirty points. Call to Arms can give you more bang for your battle by giving you ten more points each time, and the personnel cost requirement should be very easy to reach with this deck.

At What Cost?
- Guinan is one of the easiest non-mission ways to accumulate five points outside of a mission attempt. Use her (and perhaps some U.S.S. Enterprise-D points) to fuel cards like At What Cost? and Field Studies. A whole turn's worth of counters or a couple free overcome dilemmas is a steal at the low cost of five points.

General Use Cards
- Some cards can just go in any deck - and often do because they're so useful. You have plenty of ways to get extra resources in your deck, but an extra counter per turn from Surprise Party wouldn't go amiss. And once you've played a few games, you'll see how the reboot from Unexpected Difficulties can be game-changing. These Are the Voyages is a general-use card that shines in a deck like this one, since you're getting a big discount on the high-cost personnel that the card benefits from.

Discuss this article in this thread.

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

• Next Generation Player
• Unbroken I
• No Crutches I
• No Crutches II
• Good Casting: Spiner (Data)

Decklist

Hide Deck Stats

Dilemma Deck Total Dilemmas 30 Space 5 (17%) Cost 2 1 Cost 3 4 Planet 5 (17%) Cost 2 2 Cost 3 3 Dual 20 (67%) Cost 0 2 Cost 2 7 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 6 Cost 6 2 Total Dilemma Deck cost 86

Draw Deck Total Draw Deck 35 Event 3 (9%) Cost 1 3 Interrupt 2 (6%) Personnel 25 (71%) Cost 1 5 Cost 2 6 Cost 3 3 Cost 4 9 Cost 6 2 Ship 5 (14%) Cost 4 3 Cost 5 1 Cost 6 1 Total Draw Deck cost 100

Skills Count Skill # Missions # Personnel 1x 2x 3x Total Acquisition 0 1 1 Anthropology 0 5 5 Archaeology 0 2 2 Astrometrics 2 6 1 7 Biology 0 7 7 Diplomacy 0 3 2 5 Engineer 0 6 2 8 Exobiology 0 8 8 Geology 1 6 1 7 Honor 0 5 5 Intelligence 0 0 Law 0 1 1 Leadership 0 6 6 Medical 0 6 1 7 Navigation 1 6 1 7 Officer 0 8 8 Physics 3 6 1 7 Programming 0 5 2 7 Science 3 7 7 Security 0 7 7 Telepathy 0 1 1 Transporters 0 2 2 Treachery 0 1 1 Icons Count Icon # Personnel % Personnel Staffing Icons Command Star 10 40.00 % Staff Star 9 36.00 % Faction Icons Earth 2 8.00 % Next Generation 20 80.00 % Temporal Icons Alternate Universe 10 40.00 % Past 3 12.00 % Keyword Count Keyword # Cards Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise-C 2 Commander: U.S.S. Enterprise-D 2 Consume: 3 1 Genetically Enhanced 3 Region: Sector 001 1 Smuggler 1