[Faithful Reader]

It's Wednesday! We're more than halfway through the week. Since we are over the hump, let's look at a question!

Last week: Androids Vs. Romulans
7-13-22 A Menagerie of Benefits
7-6-22 Classification Civilian: Questions from Bob
6-29-22 Mission Condition
6-22-22 There But for the Grace of Main
6-15-22 Starcorder
6-8-22 Forever a Thief
6-1-22 Handful versus individual
5-25-22Masters May 2022 Mini Stockwatch
5-18-22 Mad-Lib a Number
5-11-22 Fifty underdogs
5-4-22 Fighting NeuNeuDominion
4-27-22 Mad-Lib a Card
4-20-22 The Middle of a Man
4-13-22 Committee Follow Up
4-6-22 Sub-Optimal
3-30-22 Consistently Inconsistent
3-23-22Twenty-Twenty First
3-16-22 Clash of Classification: Civilian Final
3-9-22 Clash of Classification: Civilian One Two and Three
3-2-22 Hall Of Fame 2022 With a Twist ... of Fate!
2-23-22 Classification: Civilian Page Wars Final
2-16-22Classification Civilian Page Wars One, Two and Three
2-9-22 Yakety yak
2-2-22Civilian vs. V.I.P.
1-26-22 When is a card not Picard
1-19-22 Staffing Concerns
1-12-22 Consistently Inconsistent
1-5-22 First Things First

This week we have a new expansion to gush about! Based entirely off suggestions for the community, there are five decks that get some cool stuff to play with in The Menagerie.

Which group gets the biggest boost form these cards? Vote in the poll above for a week and post your thoughts below. Who benefited the most from this set?

[Danny]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this might simply be a numbers exercise:

Androids - 9 cards
AU TNG - 3 cards
Bajoran prophets - 7 cards
Cardassian Dissidents - 10 cards
Genetically Enhanced - 6 cards

Of the Cardissidents cards, there's an HQ/attemptable mission, 2 Events, and 7 personnel (incl. 4 non-uniques). That's a fairly substantial boost however you slice it.

[Armus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this might simply be a numbers exercise:

Androids - 9 cards
AU TNG - 3 cards
Bajoran prophets - 7 cards
Cardassian Dissidents - 10 cards
Genetically Enhanced - 6 cards

Of the Cardissidents cards, there's an HQ/attemptable mission, 2 Events, and 7 personnel (incl. 4 non-uniques). That's a fairly substantial boost however you slice it.

You can have a giant pile of cards and end up with a shitty deck.

You can have a small pile of cards and end up with a Worlds winner.

In other words, Quantity != Quality.

[GooeyChewie]

Androids are in contention for getting the most. If nothing else, they get a lot of personnel with the species, making it easier to have teams which can complete missions in play while still holding on to three Androids in hand. I would say they got the most straight-forward "boost."

AU TNG got a small handful of personnel. They're pretty good, especially Ogawa, but probably not as dramatic a boost as the other themes in the expansion.

I'm not sure I'd call the Bajoran Prophets theme a "boost" so much as a new theme. At the same time, Sisko might be the single most impactful card in the expansion, and you don't need a lot of support in your deck to use him (just a handful of Prophet cards).

I think it remains to be seen whether it's worth running Storm the Castle or if Cardassian Dissidents will be better off with a more flexible gameplan. The new slate of non-unique personnel help a lot, but they work just as well at "normal" mission as they do on the flipped HQ. Still, the Storm the Castle plan seems like a ton of fun, and I'll play if for that reason even if it turns out not competitive.

In the end I voted for Khan. I have to consider not just the new cards, but the pending change to Ceti Alpha V. I never enjoyed playing them without an HQ since Joaquin was such a single point of failure. Patching that point of failure makes me want to try a Ceti Alpha V-Regula-Genesis Planet deck. And fixing To Rule in Hell (which, my understanding is that it was always meant to be 100) while simultaneously giving Khan ways to spend those extra points makes me want to build a 4-planet deck. Running them from an HQ might still be the "right" play in terms of competitiveness, but at least I will try out Ceti Alpha V now. I would say going from "would never consider playing" to "am excited about trying two decktypes" is a huge boost, and that's why they get my vote.



Honorable mention: AQ Borg, specifically with Population 9 Million - All Borg. Saturn and Jouret IV check a lot of boxes for that decktype. Saturn directly helps Pop 9M, while Jouret IV qualifies for the Queen/Locutus protection. Combine with Earth for 100 points, letting you spend what you get from Annexation Drone (or have it protect against point loss). Plus now we have enough missions to let Implacable Scourge cheapen your Maneuvers. Oh, and the icing on top? Rishon Uxbridge protects Pop 9M.

[Danny]

In the end I voted for Khan. I have to consider not just the new cards, but the pending change to Ceti Alpha V.

Had the original question been phrased slightly differently (rather than "Who benefited the most from this set?"), Khan (for the reasons given) would've got my vote.

I still think I'll go Cardissidents - such an infusion (personnel, two support events, an HQ and an attemptable mission) takes them from being a few random personnel with a shared keyword to being a playable sub-affiliation (they now have almost the same number of personnel as Khan's crew). That's quite the boost.