[Sharp4a9]

Hey all, I'm new and I've been messing around with different ideas in deckbuilder for a while. This is the first deck I've built that I kind of, sort of, feel good about. I'd love to get your thoughts on it.

https://www.trekcc.org/decklists/index. ... ckID=10585 (I think I made it public...)

Draw Deck:

The basic idea is that Inyo alone has the skills necessary for Mediate Peace Treaty and Track Survivors (plus two-of-three for Aid Maritime Sovereignty). Due to the new-hotness that is Insurrection, I tried to find missions with an Integrity requirement >32. It didn't really work (TS), but it shouldn't be that bad as long as I don't do that mission last.

The personnel fall into three categories:

(1) Have all the required skills of a mission:

Kira Nerys (MPT, TS)
Alynna Nechayev (MPT, AMS)
Jaresh-Inyo (MPT, TS)
Jean-Luc Picard (MPT, TS)
Kathryn Janeway (AMS)
William Ross (MPT, AMS)

(2) Provide extremely helpful gametext

Krim (after one mission he nukes An Issue of Trust....that seems HUGE)
Ezri Dax (kill prevention)
Guinan (5 points)
James T. Kirk (I'm pretty sure you know)
Julian Bashir (kill prevention)
Luther Sloan (event destruction)
Lwaxana Troi (the engine)
Quark (the download)
Dukat (why wouldn't I include this beast?)

(3) Weenies

Cadets (just here for the attributes and dilemma skills)
Anneli, Paulson (just here for the attributes, and Science insurance for AMS)

Hopefully this set-up will allow for multiple attempts each turn. For example: Picard, Guinan, and 4 others attempt MPT, then get stopped. Then Inyo and 5/6 others give it a shot. It should pretty reliably only take me two turns to solve a mission....right?

The events are:

The Rituals (They're free and might even be useful)
Endangered (Something to do with 5 extra points if I can't think of a second dilemma for Krim)
Holding Cell (insurance against cheater interrupts)
HWYLaTtR (help to get out Ent-D/Picard faster)
Security Drills (huge against certain dilemmas, also a cheap event for Sloan)
TAtV (to get what I need)

I feel like the deck is too big, and I don't know what can be cut. Hopefully you guys can help me out!

The Dilemma Pile:

I've read on the forums that a good dilemma pile is a tough thing for newbies to get...and I'm beginning to understand why. This first dilemma pile I've made is mostly a stop pile (since I should be solving nice and quickly myself, I just need to slow the other guy a little). I have a million little questions:

Do I have enough skill-dilemmas to not get crushed by Assess Contamination/Donatra? I feel like most of the best dilemmas aren't skill dilemmas...walking that line is tough.

The Caretaker's "Guests" vs. Secret Identity: I feel like, with Dukat, "Guests" lets me place a valuable personnel back on the draw deck with minimal risk that a good personnel will be there to replace him/or, while Secret Identity is a HUGE risk, especially since it doesn't look like there's any text that prevents him from replacing the personnel with a personnel with the same title. Am I right about all of this?

How can I focus my pile more? Looking at it again I feel like Code 47 or Distraction might fit well with the "stop" theme, and Kelvan Show of Force, In-Fighting, and Trabe Grenade don't seem popular with other decks.

Picking Up the Pieces plus Dangerous Climb seems like a reliable all-stop. Is it?

I obviously have more questions and thoughts about why I built the deck this way, but at this point I should just thank you for reading my novel and sit back and listen to people who know what they're talking about.

[Foreman]

Hopefully this set-up will allow for multiple attempts each turn. For example: Picard, Guinan, and 4 others attempt MPT, then get stopped. Then Inyo and 5/6 others give it a shot. It should pretty reliably only take me two turns to solve a mission....right?

Just watch out for timescape it helps to have enough range to go do another mission instead if this shows up.

Endangered (Something to do with 5 extra points if I can't think of a second dilemma for Krim)

One that I like for that is Conflict since you don't have to lose 5 points to play it.

50 cards is not to bad for a deck with a lot of throughput (these are the voyages) a good idea is to play it as is, and then find the cards that you always seem to draw but not play.

The Dilemma Pile:

Do I have enough skill-dilemmas to not get crushed by Assess Contamination/Donatra? I feel like most of the best dilemmas aren't skill dilemmas...walking that line is tough.

I'm still working on that as well. One thing I've realised is that space only dilemmas don't need skills quite as bad as planet only. You have a few zero costers in there which is good too.

The Caretaker's "Guests" vs. Secret Identity: I feel like, with Dukat, "Guests" lets me place a valuable personnel back on the draw deck with minimal risk that a good personnel will be there to replace him/or, while Secret Identity is a HUGE risk, especially since it doesn't look like there's any text that prevents him from replacing the personnel with a personnel with the same title. Am I right about all of this?

If you can get dukat out reliably then i definately prefer caretakers. I would say 90% of the time I use secret identity it gives my opponent a better personnel.
You can't replace a unique personnel with a copy of himself with either of these two dilemmas because of the way they are worded there is a split second where the two personnel are in play at the same time, so it would be illegal to have two of the same guy in play.

How can I focus my pile more? Looking at it again I feel like Code 47 or Distraction might fit well with the "stop" theme, and Kelvan Show of Force, In-Fighting, and Trabe Grenade don't seem popular with other decks.

A hard thing to figure out is that some dilemmas are put in/taken out because of a players local meta. If you expect to see a lot of borg or klingons, I would add a copy of A Pattern of Lies. Distraction is dangerous, because the opponent can choose to stop everyone, and then any other dilemmas in the stack are automatically overcome. Trabe grenade can often kill a klingon if you are expecting a lot of that. I havn't use kelvan show of forace very often, probably because for the same cost I could play He Wasn't Nice. That being said, one big advantage of kelvan show is that you get to see the away team/crew, whereas he wasn't nice might name someone not even in the attempt especially in the late game.

Picking Up the Pieces plus Dangerous Climb seems like a reliable all-stop. Is it?

That will pretty much work every time unless the opponent is playing the super strong klingons. Although you can sometimes catch them with no programming or geology at all, and then picking up the peices stops them all.
One card to keep in mind when playing a wall dilemma is Bridge Officer's Test

I'll give you my rule of thumb for building a dilemma pile. I should be able to stop any number of personnel in an attempt with only 2 under. If I have to put 3 then I'm losing ground, but if I can get away with just one under that is ideal. Of course a good draw may get zero under.

[Sharp4a9]

Thanks for the input!

Your criterion of stopping the mission attempt with (at most) two dilemmas put under makes a lot of sense to me. That's a big reason for the lack of Consume dilemmas. Of course, I've seen a lot of tournament decklists with a lot of consume dilemmas (even after the TT errata). Just another thing I guess I don't get for now.

Also, what dilemmas should I try to nuke with Krim? An Issue of Trust is pretty obviously necessary. But what else?

I'm also uncertain of the most basic idea of the deck: I have six personnel that have all the mission requirements, and then everyone else on the mission attempts is completely interchangeable. My assumption is that by having those 6 power-personnel I'll be able to more quickly assemble and attempt. Is that accurate? Or is it usually faster/more reliable to have the necessary skills scattered everywhere? (I have the necessary skills scattered around as well, but that was more-or-less unintentional)

[Foreman]

Your criterion of stopping the mission attempt with (at most) two dilemmas put under makes a lot of sense to me. That's a big reason for the lack of Consume dilemmas. Of course, I've seen a lot of tournament decklists with a lot of consume dilemmas (even after the TT errata). Just another thing I guess I don't get for now.

The idea behind these dilemma piles is a little bit different. They are focused on killing personnel. If you kill enough personnel, it might take the opponent 2 or 3 turns to build up a new crew. This is basically the same as stopping the mission attempt for 2 or 3 turns.

Also, what dilemmas should I try to nuke with Krim? An Issue of Trust is pretty obviously necessary. But what else?

I think that will depend on what deck your opponent is playing. The 8 cost dilemmas are getting more popular. If you got hit with tragic turn on the first mission, you can go with that. There was a post somewhere in the 2e gameplay forum recently where the stats of the most played dilemmas were listed.

Ah found it.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=13712

I'm also uncertain of the most basic idea of the deck: I have six personnel that have all the mission requirements, and then everyone else on the mission attempts is completely interchangeable. My assumption is that by having those 6 power-personnel I'll be able to more quickly assemble and attempt. Is that accurate? Or is it usually faster/more reliable to have the necessary skills scattered everywhere? (I have the necessary skills scattered around as well, but that was more-or-less unintentional)

I think that this should work out. The best possible scenario when attempting a mission is to have any 5 personnel be able to complete the mission no matter who is stopped or killed in the attempt. This is very difficult to do though. Your strategy should work if you draw those personnel, but every deck has to draw into certain cards to work.

[Helmp]

Nice deck. There have been attempts to build a similair deck with DS9/Earth, but with biology missions to be able to use Jean-Luc Picard, Vinter to download Guinan and others to jump-start even more. Might be an idea to consider..

[Triumph]

Oh wow. Jaresh AND Vinter? And if you've got DS9 anyway, maybe you can fit in Charles Whatley too for the trifecta?

[Sharp4a9]

Thanks for the replies!

Just did a little playing around with biology missions...I can see how it could work, but it's not what I'm looking for. I would need to completely start from scratch. Although, the potential of attempting missions with a team of Alyssa Ogawa, Beverly Crusher, Julian Bashir, and Katherine Pulaski makes me giggle when I think about kill piles.

Also looked at Whatley and, comically, I think he actually slows the deck down. Sure, he can get Inyo if I don't draw into him early, but then I need to find another quick 5 points! Promenade School seems like the best option, but that means adding T'Lor and Hoya, and hoping that I draw into them, and then stopping them for a turn. If I don't get Inyo and Guinana early, I think my best bet is to play a 3-cost personnel that I did draw and play an inefficient TatV.

Getting Inyo and Guinan quickly is the main reason that I'm apprehensive that the deck is 50 cards. I'm tempted to drop a couple Cadets, one Ezri, one TatV, HWYLaTtR, endangered, and an Excelsior. That would drop me down to 43, but at the cost of losing kill prevention and redundancy. I guess this is the point where I just have to playtest it and see what works best!

[macgyver221]

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