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Strategy Articles
In The Cards: "Improbable Cause" and "The Die is Cast"
by Michael Shea, Designer and Volunteer
22nd May 2020
ODO: "I've had enough of your dissembling, Garak! I am not Doctor Bashir and we are not sparring amiably over lunch. Now, you dragged me into this investigation and you are now going to cooperate with me."
GARAK: "Dragged you in? I don't know what you're talking"
ODO: "You blew up your own shop, Garak! Well, I don't think I've ever seen that particular expression on your face. Is it surprise?"
It may be one of the pivotal moments in the relationship between Elim Garak and Odo. It is certainly one of Deep Space Nine's most memorable exchanges. Odo confirms what we've suspected all along - that Garak used the destruction of his tailor shop to get the Constable's attention in an effort to save his own life. But, it also leads to a second, and much bigger reveal. We finally learn that Garak was, indeed, at one time a member of the dreaded Obsidion Order. What follows is a tragic story of temptation and hubris set against a backdrop of a conflict that will sew the seeds of the Dominion War to come.
There are a number of cards inspired by these two episodes. So, this week, I thought I'd try something a bit new and attempt to rate a limited selection of these cards in terms of their fun, power, simplicity, and usefulness. Obviously, the opinions that follow are mine alone, and you may or may not agree. I welcome discussion and debate on any or all of them. In some of these entries, I've also linked decks from other players. You may enjoy copying them, learning from them, or building your own versions of them.
- Brief Reunion. Set: Energize. 2003. This card allows you to download a unique
![[Car]](/images/icons/cardassian.gif "[Car]")
personnel, then place him or her on your Cardassia Prime. However, that personnel is killed at the end of the turn. The idea of getting a unique Cardassian into play for a cost of 2 might be fun, especially since now even non-Cardassian players can do it if they command Cardassia Prime from Omega Directive. However, with the ease of event prevention post-Access Denied, and since that personnel is killed at the end of the turn (unless you can save that personnel with a handy Emergency Transporter Unit) it's not terribly powerful. It's a very simple card to understand and with only 3.5 lines of text is accessible to even a casual player. But, I honestly don't see this card being terribly useful except in corner-case scenarios in which you might be locked out of a skill or have lost a key personnel you really only need for one turn. This card is just too situational. Rating: 2 out of 10.
- Far-Seeing Eyes, Set: Necessary Evil. 2004.For the Romulan player, at the start of each of your turns, you may lose 5 points and destroy this event to examine your opponent's deck and remove two non-ship cards from the game. This card is fun to play, but so much fun to have played against you. In the right deck, it's an incredibly powerful card. If you're generating points with either Prejudice and Politics or Getting Under Your Skin - as Romulan players are want to do - then for the bargain of 5 points you can easily get back you can look through your opponent's deck and remove cards essential to their strategies. While it's got 4.5 lines of text, it's also a pretty simple card to understand. It is sometimes the case that it takes a lot of words in Second Edition to do something pretty simple. This card can useful defensively or offensively, and sometimes the threat of just having the card out and in your core can be enough to throw a less-experienced player off his game. Rating: 9 out of 10.
- Odo, Constable. Set: Second Edition. 2002.This persona of Odo - the first for Second Edition - can prevent opponent's Thieves and Treachery personnel from using their skills or abilities at missions. Like Far Seeing Eyes, this is a fun card to play, not to have played against you if you're running a deck heavy on Thief or Treachery personnel. However, that is mitigated by the fact that I don't think I've ever seen him played for that purpose. He typically shows up in Bajoran high-attribute solvers in which he can enter play with cards like Accession or the Orb of Prophecy and Change thus avoiding his steep 5-counter cost. He's a very simple card to understand. Most of the card's power comes from his non-ability text. His aforementioned 5 cost helps get by The Dal'Rok. He's got a hefty 8 skills, including the rare Law (a defining skill for Odo, which all but his
![[AU]](/images/icons/au.gif "[AU]")
persona has) as well as doubled-up Programming and Security. And, with attributes Integrity 6, Cunning 7, and Strength 8 he's formidable for completing missions, sailing through attribute dilemmas, or engaging in combat. The only thing that keeps this card from rating higher is his relatively low-ish Integrity for a Bajoran high-attribute solver which usually relies on super-high Integrity folks like Opaka, Bariel, or Yassim. However, I can't really ding him for that, because if his Integrity were any higher he'd be too good. Besides, as Odo himself once said, his people care for justice, not honor. Rating 8 out of 10.
- The Die is Cast. Set: Strange Bedfellows. 2015. This card is the key to an entire deck-type: the Romulan Gamma Quadrant Solver. Sure, Cardassians can use it too, but for some reason it just works better with Romulans, maybe because deck-building for Romulans lends itself to a lot of event use on account of having so many powerful and useful events to choose from to support all kinds of strategies. The Die is Cast allows a Cardassian or Romulan player to discard the top two cards of their deck (or an event from hand) in order to prevent one of their personnel being stopped at a Gamma Quadrant mission. Combined with the Stakaron missions and the Romulans that can already avoid stops this is a powerful card indeed. By itself, there's nothing un-fun about this card, but combined with all of the above anti-stop mechanics Romulans already had access to and the Stakaron twins, the kind of deck this card tends to be the center-piece of can be frustrating to play against. The card is straightforward and easy to understand and its usefulness can be plainly seen. Rating 10 out of 10.
- Elim Garak, Agent of the Obsidian Order. Set: Second Edition. 2002. Everyone's favorite Cardassian antihero is heavily featured in this two-parter, and this card captures part of what makes Garak such an interesting character. While you're attempting a mission with Garak, you may discard a personnel from hand to give him one of the discarded personnel's skills until the end of that mission attempt. Combined with a card like The Enemy of My Enemy, this is a very powerful ability indeed. In fact, many have argued that discarding a card isn't actually a cost for Cardassians, and in many cases they're right. A cost of 2 for that ability plus good Cunning and Strength and a useful array of skills, including the rare Intelligence which can also pump the Keldon Advanced (perhaps the best non-unique ship available to the Cardassian player) makes this card a bargain. His ability text is clean and simple to understand. And, while there are more powerful versions of Elim Garak available to the Cardassian player, this Garak is certainly no slouch. Rating 8 out of 10.
- Enabran Tain, "Retired" Spymaster. Set: Reflections 2.0. 2004. Like The Die is Cast, this card inspires an entire deck-type: the Cardassian Intelligence solver (note: this linked deck used a pre-errata version of Casualties of the Occupation so if you want to build a deck like this now, you'll have to either omit this card or use Bajor as a second headquarters). This version of Tain lets you draw up to seven cards if each of your non-headquarters missions requires Intelligence. Unfortunately, he doesn't work with Stage Bombardment (how I hate modal missions) but there's no shortage of good Intelligence missions for the Cardassian player to choose from. Cards like Seska, Pragmatic Agent; several personae of Elim Garak; the Keldon Advanced; and a backbone non-unique Rogesh this deck really gets off the ground. I also like to throw in a copy or two of High Command "Motivation" and kill Enabran Tain or Seska to get extra counters and then play them over again and do it again the next turn. Who needs At What Cost, I ask you?This card is simple, fun, and powerful but also well-balanced because using this particular Tain means forgoing so many great meta missions. Rating 10 out of 10.
I hope you've enjoyed this walk through a few select cards from "Improbable Cause" and "The Die is Cast". Below, you'll find a fun deck I've thrown together that incorporates many of them. The deck might not win many competitive tournaments, but it's fun to play and thematic too. Feel free to copy it or alter it and use it as you will.
And, speaking of play, the ongoing pandemic doesn't mean we have to give up our shared hobby. There are a number of online events happening over the next several weeks. I hope to be playing in my first online event this Saturday (time and technology willing). Perhaps I'll see some of you there.
For more general information on online play, see these articles. If you have questions about Second Edition online play, you can probably also get on the forums and ask questions - any number of players will be happy to answer your questions. Dates and registration links for each event are as follows:
Live Long and Prosper.
- Michael Shea, The Prefect
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