boromirofborg wrote: ↑Mon Jul 29, 2024 8:28 pm
@BCSWowbagger Ugh. having looked at your deck I am dismayed to see it's similarity to a DQ borg battle deck I built my son, and then I made the mistake of showing him your deck. I blame you for the ink and paper that shall be spilled before worlds. 
TIPS for playing this large deck:
1. Don't.
2. (Or play it in Lackey.)
3. With opponent's permission, queue your downloads. Once you've taken your EOT card draw, immediately start downloading not just your Awaken (for opponent's turn), but also your WATB/Awaken downloads (for your turn), plus equipment, implants, or objectives you plan to download with mid-turn or end-turn card draws. As long as your opponent's turn lasts at least 2 minutes, you can usually minimize the clock drain, because you've effectively done the downloads while opponent is on the clock.
4. Don't lose the cards you've queued! I placed an Assimilate Counterpart face down on the table in one game, forgot where it was, and searched the deck for it again, hunting for it when it was already on the table, face down. This search was the longest of the whole day, because I searched the ENTIRE deck TWICE for it before bumping into it on the table, and was a very annoying clock-burner to watch.
5. If you have failed and are still looking for your downloads during your turn, allow opponents to help you find cards you are trying to download. (You brought a 250-card deck, and you failed to complete timely downloads, so you have forfeited any moral right to deck privacy.)
6. Obviously, know your downloads. My first game (the one that was on camera) was somewhat slowed because I had not played the deck in several years, and I had forgotten some of the details. This means the deck demands some practice in a fishbowl.
7. It is impractical to shuffle the entire deck after each download, or even to
reassemble the deck after each download. If in a rush, select a random chunk of cards (or invite your opponent to do the same; it's fairer), shuffle it, and call that the top of your draw deck (for purposes of drawing cards this turn / effects like Getting Under Your Skin).
8. If you are on your opponent's turn, look for Cranial Transceiver Implant and Procurement Drone in your draw deck. It is
slightly more efficient and
slightly reduces the risk of a bad probe when you do Assimilate Species. However, if it is your turn, stop looking for them in your draw deck and just download the backups from your Tent. (You have two copies of each because they are such critical cards.)
9. Since you are essentially ALWAYS downloading (because using opponent's turn to perform/queue your own downloads), you will run a high risk of losing track of what opponent is doing. @The Ninja Scot's tournament report mentions two places where I lost track of fairly obvious things: Strategema and his lack of a space mission. That's just a cost of playing a deck this large and involved, and you have to price it in at the start of the event.
*. Oh, also, there should be a Bajoran Wormhole: Mirror Universe in the deck (downloaded with First Stable Wormhole), but I forgot to include it, and that was nearly a very costly error.
Obviously, it is not my place to say whether or not watching me deal with my Tower of Power was a miserable, dull experience or not. I tried to make it as pleasant and smooth as possible for my opponents (although I made a few errors).
(The real misery of it was playing against the Aggro Borg, of course, as they murdered everyone for points. Hopefully being on the other side of the table while I did the messy downloads was not TOO miserable.)
Rules Manager | Official Rulings in
blue. All else opinion. |
Rules Archive
"We pledge our loyalty to the Glossary from now until death."
"Then receive this reward from the Glossary. May it keep you strong."
~Iron Prime
- By Psionic Hobo
- By Professor Scott