Discuss all of your questions, concerns, comments and ideas about Second Edition.
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Second Edition Playtest Manager
By Faithful Reader (Ross Fertel)
 - Second Edition Playtest Manager
 -  
Continuing Committee Member - Retired
#562098
It's Wednesday! We're more than halfway through Since we are over the hump, let's look at a question!

Last Week: Justify Your Existence!
9-1-21 Civilian, Justice & Shackelton
8-25-21 What affiliation/faction have you played the least?
8-18-21Ross is Rong 2019 Edition
8-11-21 What personnel do you want?
8-4/21High Cost Dilemma Promo Vote
7-28-21 Kill a deck
7-21-21 Let's get person(el)l
7-14-21 MCU Draft
7-7-21 Let's Get Dangerous (Missions)
6-30-21 Episode Untouched by Human Hands
6-23-21 More Keywords? More keywords!
6-16-21 We Want You as the New Recruit
6-9-2 1Most Underrated Personnel
6-2-21 Pop-Up Edition!
5-26/21A Protected Voyage
5/19/21: Mission ... Unknown!
5-12-21: Favorite theme from Heroes and Demons
5-5-21: Most Favoritist Errata Ever (May 2021)
4-28-21: Region(al) love
4-20-21: Shiny New Toy!
4-13-21: Mission: The Good, the bad and the powerful
4-6-21Change this Dilemma now!
3-31-21Which affiliation should get an HQ next?
3-24-21What keyword needs some love?:
3-17-14Which are your favorite and least favorite keywords?
3-10-14 Where can you play Trellium-D?
3-3-21Balance Team Focus
2-24-21Ding Marry Kill: Apocalypse Rising
2-17-21Cardassia Prime: Subjugated Planet Survey


This week, we're still thinking about decks. Specifically, what kind of deck would you recommend/give to someone a few steps past beginner? Presume that they know how to play, are familiar with the rules and have a couple 'starter' games under their belt. They are getting a feel for how the game 'works,' so to speak, and want to try something else. They are not necessarily familiar with all the cards, and will probably have to go through them one at a time when looking through the deck but will not have to constantly refer to the rulebook.

My initial thoughts are DS9 Speed or High cost TNG. Both have a good number of 'star power' and explore the mechanics of the game. High cost TNG will not move too quickly allowing time to plan and DS9 Speed offers a quicker method to victory.

What would you recommend to a just-past-beginner player?
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Second Edition Design Manager
By The Guardian (Richard New)
 - Second Edition Design Manager
 -  
2E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
#562111
TOS isn't a bad idea either. Usually, you can focus on two or three personnel to upgrade and tell a new player they can ignore the rest. That makes it easier to grasp and they spend less time reading their cards.
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
 -  
Regent
Community Contributor
#562115
Fritzinger wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 2:21 pm The current brown speed build is pretty good... Not bad for a beginner and the tricks will become understandable after not too many games.
"Pretty good"

Uh huh. And a Lamborghini is "pretty fast"
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By Gorgo Primus (Benjamin Rostoker)
 - Delta Quadrant
 -  
#562174
Relativity is probably still really easy to understand and pilot compared to a lot of other decks. Might turn off some new players due to being based around awful episodes, but that never stopped a deck from being fun to play.
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Director of First Edition
By MidnightLich (Charlie Plaine)
 - Director of First Edition
 -  
Prophet
#562177
I think your next level of deck, after learning the basics, is to teach you the flavor of each affiliation. Any deck (and every deck) is going to want to solve missions, so just making different colors of solver is boring. A level of deck like this should help people figure out what kind of mechanics they like, and teach them which affiliations and sub-affiliations have those mechanics. With that in mind, this is what I'd suggest:

  • A Bajoran swap-a-roonie deck, leaning heavily into Orbs, Borum, etc. Light microteaming.
  • A Cardassian moderate interference Capture deck, with a dilemma pile that captures and cards that punish.
  • A Ferengi commodity trading deck.
  • A Jem'Hadar personnel battle deck with Bred for Battle.
  • A Klingon ship-battle deck with Ja'chuq and lots of kills.
I'd also make sure you have "upgraded" versions of the six (6) starter decks in this same vein. So if players had a favorite starter, you can give them the upgraded version to teach them their favorite affiliation's / sub-affiliation's mechanical themes.

-crp
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 - Beta Quadrant
 -  
#562179
Starfleet beginner upgraded with Trellium-D stuff has served me well along this line.
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Executive Officer
By jadziadax8 (Maggie Geppert)
 - Executive Officer
 -  
2E North American Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
ibbles  Trek Masters Tribbles Champion 2023
2E Deep Space 9 Regional Champion 2023
#562199
I think once someone gets used to the basic gameplay style, the next step would be the no-HQ decks. Five Space Voyager comes to mind, as it's pretty basic to play and wins a lot.
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Second Edition Art Manager
By edgeofhearing (Lucas Thompson)
 - Second Edition Art Manager
 -  
Community Contributor
#562300
Armus wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:01 am Didn't @edgeofhearing do this exact exercise last year?
My read on what Ross was trying to say is that he was looking for decks to give the players after they're beginners. The beginner decks have deck customization options, but not all just-past-beginner players want to have anything to do with deck customization.

Most of the time, I feel like the just-past-beginner player wants a dilemma pile that's more interesting than the beginner pile. The beginner draw decks keep working fine, but they're interested in doing something like a kill pile or an Unfair Comparison pile (like @Brak_ keeps hitting them with).

The beginner decks article also links to articles dilemma pile customization options, but it the Article is buried in the archive. I just checked out the New Player page for the first time in a while, and it looks like the beginner decks (and learn-to-play videos) are at least now linked in the "I’m new. Where can I access decks and materials that are friendly for new players?" section.

There will be a pair of new beginner decks to go with the next 2e set.
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