[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: Not Drafting That!
11-22-22 Well, That Didn't Work
11-16-22 A Worldly side of Second Edition
11-9-22 Oh Give Me a home, Where the Hologram Roam ...
10-26-22 Pitch Me a Trip
10-19-22 Room for One More?
10-12-22 Don't be Draft, Man!
10-5-22 Worlds 2022 Mini Draft
9-28-22 September 2022 Grab Your Deck Results
9-21-22 It's September 12022, Grab Your Deck!
9-14-22 Moving the Needle on Khan
9-7-22 The Menagerie of Madness
8-31-22 UnderDissident
8-24-22 Last Week Today!
8-17-22 Euro Continentals 2020 Mini Stockwatch
8-10-22 The Menagmiss
8-3-22 In Honor of Nichelle Nichols
7/27/22 The Menagaboost
7-20-22 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

Last week was German Masters. While I do have a fairly detailed look planned, I want to do a little exercise with the winning deck, Falling Toward Apotheosis by Benjamin Liebich.

We'll call it Give Me a Hand. I've set up the first turn with the deck and want your help walking me through the first turn, and only the first turn. You'll see the missions from the deck along with the opening hand of seven cards and the top seven cards of the draw deck, though those are hidden. Go through your first turn and clicking each card only when you draw a card. Once you have spent your seven counters, look at them all and tell me what you would consider your optimal play for the first turn. Let us know how your first time goes along with the optimal setup.

Missions:

54 V 5•Cardassia Prime, Hardscrabble World
1 U 149 •Access Relay Station
1 U 163 •Eliminate Harvesters
3 S 101 •Rescue Prisoners of War
14 U 52 •Sector 21396, Commandeer Prototype

Opening hand:
44 V 1 The Enemy of My Enemy
14 R 68 •Crell Moset, Notorious Exobiologist
33 V 18 •The Die Is Cast
46 V 35 Alliance Galor
1 U 229 Ari
46 V 33 Errol
1 R 248 •Ocett, Dogged Rival

Deck:
Top Card:

33 V 11 •Expedient Opportunity

4 U 120 •Mila, Trusted Confidante

30 V 43 Tajor

13 C 37 These Are The Voyages

5 P 33 •Benjamin Sisko, Outlaw

17 V 83 •Rokassa, Tampering Vessel

Seventh Card:

24 V 25 •Damar, Ambitious Glinn

Thanks for giving me a hand and let us know how it went your first time and what sets you up for success later.

[Armus]

Um... it's Tuesday, bro...

[Armus]

Hell, I'll play along...

Draw 1. Play Expedient Opportunity (2)
Draw 1 (3). Play Ocett (6). Play Ari (7, -1 because Ocett is a Gul).


This is a bit situational, as I'm assuming my opponent will have event prevention... I'd DEFINITELY play it this way if I saw 50 point missions to minimize the chances of a Reprimand.

If I wasn't as worried about prevention and more about destruction, I'd just play people and drop the Expedient when I actually needed to make use of it.

[jadziadax8]

Now that it's Wednesday, I'll jump in.

This is an unfortunate opening hand. I would prefer to have Ocett mid-game, but oh well.

I'll play her for 3, not activating her ability.

I'll then play Ari at cost -1, since Ocett is there, so I'm at 4.

I'll draw a card for 5. OK, that's Expedient Opportunity.

I'll draw a card for 6. That's Mila. I can't play her now.

I'll drop the Expedient Opportunity for 7.

[monty42]

I would play The Die is Cast for 0 (0); Ari for 2 (2); draw for 1 (3); play Expedient Opportunity for 1 (4); draw for 1 (5); play Mila for 2 (7).

Why you ask?

Ocett has come in clutch in so many games, allowing me to retrieve an extra Central Command, that I would not squander her ability in the early game just to get a discount on Ari.
I would rather keep her in my hand to play her later or more likely recycle her with TATV.
I don't hesitate to play my events early. Event destruction is not something you need to fear with this deck. While those events are helpful, they don't make or break your game.
I usually start my missions with Commandeer Prototype to get the Phoenix out early. That means once I'm staring to attempt GQ missions, I usually have a second ship in play and there's no need to rely on Expedient Opportunity.
As far as The Die is Cast is concerned, it's certainly more cheese on top of the usual Cardie unstopping cheese but between Dukat and The Central Command there's no need to heavily rely on it.
Furthermore if both copies of The Die is Cast should get destroyed, I could even go to the far easier Eliminate Harvesters as my third mission, scoring the missing 5 points with Broca.

The deck is very versatile and you can adjust a lot of things on the fly depending on the situation you're in.

[The Ninja Scot]

Based on the decklist, I'd go with draw 2, play Crell, Expedient Opportunity and The Die is Cast. This gives me two stop prevention options, a four cost personnel for a future TATV, smart Cardassian and plenty of options for Turn 2.

[monty42]

Based on the decklist, I'd go with draw 2, play Crell, Expedient Opportunity and The Die is Cast. This gives me two stop prevention options, a four cost personnel for a future TATV, smart Cardassian and plenty of options for Turn 2.

Yep, scrap my version and go with this cuz MvB is a much smarter player than I am.