[spiderjelly]

Hey guys! I got a good deal on some Premier, Alternate Universes, and Q-Continuum boxes, and I'd like to build a deck for each affiliation, but I've been through all the pages of this forum and didn't see any recommendations for building decks from only this card pool. I understand that Klingon and Romulan decks can be underpowered vs Federation in the early sets. Can anyone recommend a few deck ideas that can be easy to learn but still offer some complexity? I'm dead set against printing cards, for aesthetic reasons, but I'd be willing to buy a few singles from later sets if they didn't alter the PAQ rule set. Also, why are first contact boxes so expensive, and is there any way that I can add a borg affiliation on the cheap?

[jadziadax8]

For Borg stuff, look at The Borg expansion. They reprinted a lot of important objectives and drones in that one. I don’t know how expensive boxes of it are, though.


Sent through Subspace from the Starship Enterprise

[SudenKapala]

Hello Spider! Welcome!

That's great, another dedicated Traditional fan. (Traditional = Decipher-produced cards only; i.e., no printed Virtual cards.) We don't have many of those people -- but I'm certainly one of them.

So, while I totally have your back, I don't have any specific deck ideas ready now. I could look through my deck lists and see if there's any with its bulk of cards coming from PAQ. However, I don't think those decks of mine are worth copying.

If I'd want to give help right now, it would be pointers about how to structure the deck-building process from the vantage point of your personal card pool. Here goes.

I'd say, for simple "solver decks", either start with the missions you want to accomplish or the personnel you'd really like to use. Then, find personnel or missions that go well with your choice. From there, you can go any which way

For themed decks, first see what you want to do and which cards you need for that. Next, check if there are -- unexpected -- card types that may help you in that endeavour; ships or personnel, or even missions, that have something to do with the mechanic(s) you chose. If any of the latter two card types, you have a beginning for the "solver"-part of your theme deck, too.

Perhaps this is all known to you already? In that case, ask away. We'll try to help.

(P.S.: If you want to lift off slowly, I -- and others, around here -- do have some ideas on how to build training decks that are less complicated. But if you feel comfortable with your cards, of course feel free to dive right in.)

[spiderjelly]

Hey, thanks for the reply. I'm in the middle of finals week, so sorry that it's taken me a few days to get back to you. I'm actually new to the star trek CCG. I'm primarily a magic player, but I've been on a kick lately of retro CCG games and wanted to get into this one, as it's well reviewed. I've played mythos, which seems to share a lot of similar elements to this one, and it looks fun. I guess what I'm looking to build are solver decks, sure. I'd love some input on card selection. Which missions offer the best balance of fun and difficulty? Should I include certain cards from later sets? Is there a general deck building guide that works well with the PAQ rules?

[SudenKapala]

Well, it's really up to you. As far as the PAQ-era goes -- I would reckon -- it's just what you think works. And that, in turn, may be determined (when looked at most simply) by the missions and/or personnel you have available.

Let's start from the personnel POV.

Put the personnel that you have, or like most (if you care more about that than winning -- like I often do), in a deck list by using the amazing Online Deck Builder (did you find and use it yet?) and generate an overview / analysis. (Or count everything in e.g. a spreadsheet, if you feel old-fashioned. ) Now, you can easily see which, and how many, skills you have in that batch of personnel. You can choose missions to go well with those statistics.

A hypothetical mission that asks, say, Honor + Music (which you each have 2x) might sound easier than one that required Treachery x7. But if you're working on a Romulan deck, you might find you want to solve the Treachery mission, because you find that almost all personnel have that skill.
(Unrelated tip: Always insert some extra "personnel types" such as OFFICER, MEDICAL, SCIENCE and SECURITY -- or generate them later, with appropriate equipment. You'll need them to help get through dilemmas. You'll also find that Diplomacy and some other skills are handy -- depending on the dilemmas you use for your other decks.)

Now for some slightly more advanced choices, coming in from the mission POV...

You can normally win by doing, say, 3 missions of 30+35+35 points -- if you don't lose points! There are strategies that try to win with only 2 missions that generate 45 and/or 55 points; and/or with added bonus points from self-seeded dilemmas (under your own missions) like Sarjenka; or from "noun" cards such as Particle Fountain. You can usually spot them easily by the point boxes. But some personnel, e.g. Mordock, mention bonus points only in a special skill.
If you choose this line of strategies, you'll look at missions and then find personnel which can help do them.

You can divide missions in many categories -- two of which, are stealable vs. untouchable missions. Are there other affiliation icons on the mission? Do you really want to run the risk that your opponent can do your mission? If not, in later sets there are cheap cards that can prevent that (Fair Game). But you can also try to seed as many one-affiliation-only missions as you can, so that opponent cannot easily attempt them.

That, for now, should probably be the basis of your deck building. Play a few games and you'll start seeing new possibilities. Or -- stay here, first, and ask more, until you feel comfortable that you can go and buld the deck you have in mind. Just be patient with yourself and with the game.

[SudenKapala]

And remember...

A beginning is a very delicate time.

So just keep asking us, if you need additional help with something, or if I was unclear somewhere, or whatever.

The PAQ-era is not generally seen as a go-to environment, but I'm thrilled that there's new players out there, who are interested in playing the game with the physical cards -- as I do -- and even in such an early state. So I'll be here to provide support!

For more generic rules or card questions, I'm sure other players will also chip in.

To be competitive in today's climate, you would have to start using Virtual cards. And if playing at the level of Decipher's last stretch with the game, indeed you'd want to add cards from later sets (which I could point out; but for now, you consciously chose to stick with PAQ mostly, right?)
But if you want to play casual with your decipher-era (Traditional) cards, then you don't need to feel forced to do anything.
For a long time, I just played casually with my friends, using only my decks. So, my card pool and my game level would determine what the game environment looked like. And that's perfectly OK.

And hey -- how did you take notice of the game's rules? And which version rules were those, exactly?

Mythos -- that's a Living Card Game, right? H.P. Lovecraft -- I love his stories (At The Mountains Of Madness is my favourite). I once wanted to start that. Oh, wait -- there's also Call of Cthulhu and also Arkham Horror card games... now I'm mixed up. I researched one of the three, and it was an LCG and its expansion sets dealing with ATMOM were either sold out or very rare and expensive, so I abandoned the idea and returned -- as always -- to STCCG. But I also play old-school, old-layout Magic TG.

And if you've time... check your inbox for the semi-generic welcoming PM I sent you. There's some links to other people's topics that I like, and/or where you can socialize. And (if you like) tell us even more about yourself. (You can read about me through the links in that PM, and through those in my signature below.) Very nice that you already told us something about how you got into STCCG. How did you come across / choose the game, exactly?

Also, of course, feel free to find your own way hereabouts...

BTW, good luck with your finals!

[UncleMorty]

Hey guys! I got a good deal on some Premier, Alternate Universes, and Q-Continuum boxes, and I'd like to build a deck for each affiliation, but I've been through all the pages of this forum and didn't see any recommendations for building decks from only this card pool. I understand that Klingon and Romulan decks can be underpowered vs Federation in the early sets. Can anyone recommend a few deck ideas that can be easy to learn but still offer some complexity? I'm dead set against printing cards, for aesthetic reasons, but I'd be willing to buy a few singles from later sets if they didn't alter the PAQ rule set. Also, why are first contact boxes so expensive, and is there any way that I can add a borg affiliation on the cheap?

I find most of trouble with tribbles plays well with those sets, so that set on the cheap might help fluff up the klingons and romulans a bit, in addition to giving you alternate ideas for federation decks. Also, the boxs are hella cheap.

I appreciate the traditional mindset. I am a mostly tradiional player myself. I only have a few printouts of certain cards I just couldnt afford to spend cash on.

[Ensign Q]

since i tried to build 2 decks from my collection recently i think the best strategy for klingons is mass ships and go combat. blaze of glory helps there, though. i guess.
not sure about romulans, but iirc they played kinda similiar to federation in the early sets and their cloaking devices were pretty strong.

the main question is/was. will you play the card as printed or the current version. i will play the original because everything else would be silly in a learn2play environment.

[SudenKapala]

Hey guys! I got a good deal on some Premier, Alternate Universes, and Q-Continuum boxes, and I'd like to build a deck for each affiliation, but I've been through all the pages of this forum and didn't see any recommendations for building decks from only this card pool. I understand that Klingon and Romulan decks can be underpowered vs Federation in the early sets. Can anyone recommend a few deck ideas that can be easy to learn but still offer some complexity? I'm dead set against printing cards, for aesthetic reasons, but I'd be willing to buy a few singles from later sets if they didn't alter the PAQ rule set. Also, why are first contact boxes so expensive, and is there any way that I can add a borg affiliation on the cheap?

I find most of trouble with tribbles plays well with those sets, so that set on the cheap might help fluff up the klingons and romulans a bit, in addition to giving you alternate ideas for federation decks. Also, the boxs are hella cheap.

I appreciate the traditional mindset. I am a mostly tradiional player myself. I only have a few printouts of certain cards I just couldnt afford to spend cash on.

For me, the fun -- and frustration / anticipation -- is in not always having every card. As a collector first and gamer second, I still seem to emphasize the 'trading/collectible' part of the game type; nurturing the desire and search for new cards.

I'm of a mind to, one of these days, start a topic -- or write an article -- about the experiences and choices that my play group has made concerning Traditional gameplay. I'm working on formalizing a rules set, and/or game format, that sticks as close as possible to the original Decipher-era rules. It's where my heart lies. (As in 'lay', not 'lie'. That seems confusing, for me as non-native speaker.)

the main question is/was. will you play the card as printed or the current version.

i will play the original because everything else would be silly in a learn2play environment.

As such, we solve this issue by using the errata as fielded by Decipher until the CC took over (so theoretically <2009, but in practice no later than 2003).

That being said (as said before), the game was flawed in that state. Many people who are here now -- perpetuating it -- didn't like it then, because lots of stuff was broken. They worked hard and did an excellent job improving the rules and making better and more cards! It's much more balanced and "finished", in a way, now -- with the 'Modern' (official, current) rules and the Virtual card additions. So the Traditional game, especially with what I call the 'Vintage' rules, is played at own risk.
But in my 90-odd games since 2014 (but played in very casual settings, I'm obliged to add), we've had nothing but fun. Part of the lack of frustration may be due to some gentlemanly, and lady-like, choices we've made concerning hampering the opponent. I.e., we don't ban cards, but we don't overdo horrible strategies, either. And, moreover, we lack a lot of cards that might be horrible to use, anyway.

Still, I think a 'Vintage' variant with Traditional cards should, at least, be considered as an archaic and niche alternative to the currently popular game (with 'Modern' rules and the Complete card pool). But playing such a variant must be a very conscious decision. If you don't know what it is you want, exactly, OR you assume to be playing official tournaments in the foreseeable future, then at least do stick to the 'Modern' rules.

[Discovery suxs]

I know you are against printing cards. Just pay less than a sandwich and get about 10 cards.

You can make all the paq decks.

Continuing mission incident
Equipment replicater incident
Legeitmate leader of the empire incident
Finest crew in the fleet incident
Always a chess game incident
New arrivals incident

If you want to go further for romulans.

Drone control room time location (corrponding mission is romulas. So I know you have it.
Spires of Romulas incident ( You can play all your tng universial romulans for free)

I was dead set on not printing a year ago. The game is dead so only buying cards is really hard. I printed 18 bojarian wormholes the other day. Since there really hard to find these days.

Reasons for those cards

Finest fleet: anybody with uss enterprise lore plays for free.

Empire leader: you get gowron free turn. Klingons report for free to him

Always a chess game: any romulan except tai shair, civillan and something else can report for free.

New arrivals: you draw a extra card and can report universal personal for free. You can't report more than one for free each turn. The card has to say free so there is ways around it.

Equipment replicater: in place of a card draw you can download a non weapon equipment.

Those are the best few cards that will make any paq deck better. If you are playing with red alert banned I don't know alot of options in paq decks to speed up the game. A game where you draw 1 and report 1 would take a very long time.

[SudenKapala]

I know you are against printing cards. Just pay less than a sandwich and get about 10 cards.

You can make all the paq decks.

Hi Disco,
Was this meant for my benefit? Or for another (or the original) poster? If the former: never mind! If the latter; thanks! But I don't know what you mean, yet. Can you help me out explain a bit differently?

(For instance, is there a package with those cards you listed, physically produced by TCC? Or do you mean that printing is cheap?)

Either way,

Oh, BTW -- if you meant me -- I am certaily not against printing cards in general. I just don't like to have them present in my gaming environment, myself. But I do like them and the efforts and quality assurance that goes into them.

[Discovery suxs]

I know you are against printing cards. Just pay less than a sandwich and get about 10 cards.

You can make all the paq decks.

Hi Disco,
Was this meant for my benefit? Or for another (or the original) poster? If the former: never mind! If the latter; thanks! But I don't know what you mean, yet. Can you help me out explain a bit differently?

(For instance, is there a package with those cards you listed, physically produced by TCC? Or do you mean that printing is cheap?)

Either way,

Oh, BTW -- if you meant me -- I am certaily not against printing cards in general. I just don't like to have them present in my gaming environment, myself. But I do like them and the efforts and quality assurance that goes into them.

It was for the topic creater actually. It could be for you too. Yes I'm saying printing is cheap btw. Office depot and staples self service printers are 59 cents for color pages. So that is 9 cards for 59 cents.

If you want a package then just print all the tng block sets. You could also just add those cards to the deck builder and print to pdf.