Adam Bargar (abargar7510) Tournament Report - 2E - Online Event (Return to Farpoint) 2023-01-09 - 12:00 AM Borg Reflections Introduction With Borg Queen, Guardian of the Hive and Locutus, Voice of the Borg in my pool, Borg are the least unattractive option available to me. I’m not thrilled about playing Borg, but Klingons were the only other even remotely viable option with my card pool, and they would’ve been even tougher to make work. I suspect my deck will not have enough skill diversity to compete against the other affiliations. My plan (if you can call it that) is to play as many personnel as I can as quickly as I can, and then play a couple of events to my core to fuel Tsiolkovsky Infection, and hope that at least some of my opponents remember that back in this era you should go to your planets first. Round 1 Daniel Matteson FL (-65) I attempt Battle Reconaissance first due to skill mix. He hits my exobiology hard with Microbrains/Recurring Injuries, I get bogged down, and he's well on his way to victory by the time I'm able to get a little more of that skill out. I draw Tsiolkovsky too early to be able to use it. His skill diversity really limits what I can do with my dilemma selections. Round 2 Joseph Wisniewski FW (+30) Joseph gets a head start, but I’m able to get Locutus out first turn which really hamstrings his dilemma selection after I score 10 points passing Inside Collaborators. Changing my solve strategy to go after Hunt Alien first seems to pay off, as I have more skill duplication with enough range from the Cube to get reinforcements. Meanwhile, while Joseph is at his last mission, I get lucky with a Tsiolkovsky Infection hit and then a key stop using a Full Security Alert/Dangerous Liaisons combo for a bit of a come from behind victory. Round 3 Maggie Geppert MW (+1) Terrible skill mix to start out with. Limited exo means I can’t go to my better missions, no Programming without using BQ, Bringer of Order and no Anthro means Antedean Assassins keeps hitting until I can get enough Programming to use Borg Queen. Maggie’s up 70-0 with two planets in the bag by the time I get my first (planet) mission done. I go to Battle Reconnaisance and get it done pretty easily to tie it up having two strength drones out by now when time runs out. I went first though, which means she has one last chance to pull out the full win, two if you count her two ships. I get Tsiolkovsky Infection to hit on the first attempt (4 events out and 4 to spend), and then burn Endangered on the second one. Neither attempt is successful and I pull out an extremely unlikely 65-70 MW. Round 4 Markus Eberlein FW (+35) I added another BQ, Bringer of Order to my deck for this match. This was a fairly even match, the difference seeming to be me getting better dilemma selection than Markus. Not sure if having Locutus and using BQ, Bringer of Order for Anthro before each attempt was hampering his selection or not. The range boost from Transwarp Drone really helped me in being able to get to my last mission before he could solve his last one. Closing Thoughts This is a tough deck to play with, and I got better with knowing how to use it every game. Locutus and Seven of Nine seemed to be the keys to its success, with Locutus hamstringing dilemma selection and Seven providing valuable skills and attributes. I used BQ, Bringer of Order's ability much more than BQ, Guardian of the Hive in this dilemma environment. It can win, but some amount of luck or experience playing with it is needed. I’m pleasantly surprised that my Tsiolkovsky strategy worked pretty well.