"Lore Returns"

A Star Trek CCG deck by Brady Lewis

 

            Heading into the Minnesota Regional Tournament, I knew I had no chance of winning.  I really almost had no interest in winning.  You see, Minnesota is the home of one of the most dominant groups of Trek players in the world.  Collectively, they are known as "The Big Goodbye."

            Anyway, I knew that I would have no chance of winning on their turf.  I decided to have fun, and build the deck I've always wanted to.  This is that deck.

            Rogue Borg.  Perhaps the most nerfed card created, and with good reason.  These little buggers are annoying alone, and deadly in packs.  I have collected this single card since I started playing the game, and I have amassed an army.  However, with all the anti-Rogue Borg cards out there, most people didn’t think you could build a deck around them and be successful.  I wanted to prove them wrong.  My thought processes and strategy will be after the deck list.  So, without further ado, here it is:  Lore Returns.

 

Seed Deck (30)

Missions (6)

Search for Weapons

Search for Weapons

Search for Weapons

Study Cometary Cloud

Reignite Dead Star

Mining Survey

 

Doorways (5)

Q's Tent

Storage Compartment Door

Alternate Universe Door

Temporal Micro-Wormhole x2

 

Dilemmas (6)

Dead End x6

 

Other Seeds (19)

Treaty:  Cardassian/Dominion

Ultimatum

Dominion War Efforts

Defend Homeworld

Q The Referee x4

Assign Mission Specialists

Assign Support Personnel

Quark's Isolinear Rods

Writ of Accountability

Husnock Outpost

Husnock Ship

Holoprogram:  221B Baker Street

Cardassian Outpost

Empok Nor

Spacedoor

 

Sites (6)

Ops

Ore Processing Unit

Docking Pylons

Guest Quarters

Promenade Shops

Docking Ports

 

Q’s Tent (13)

Sulan

Galor

Dukat

Dr. Telek R'Mor

Lore

Remote Supply Depot

Sherlock Holmes

Turrel

Brunt

Process Ore

Enabran Tain

Boheeka

Danar

 

Storage Compartment Door (37)

1 Tribble x15

10 Tribbles x8

100 Tribbles x6

1,000 Tribbles

10,000 Tribbles

100,000 Tribbles

Trouble . . . In the Engine Room x5

 

Mission Specialists

Narik

Dr. Farek

 

 

 

Draw Deck (312)

Personnel (16)

Koret'alak

Daro

Amet'alox

Temo'Zuma

Jasad

Derell

Ulani Belor

Virak'kara

Limara’Son

Telle

Yak'Talon

Lam

Varat'idan

Azet'izan

Jural

Suna

 

Ships (4)

Galor x3

Jem'Hadar Warship

 

Events (7)

Mirror Image x3

Lore Returns x4

 

Incidents (3)

Panel Overload x2

Writ of Accountability

 

Objectives (6)

Reflection Therapy x6

 

Sites (3)

Guest Quarters

Security Office

Infirmary

 

Doorways (1)

Alternate Universe Door

 

Equipment (15)

Medical Kit

Medical Tricorder

Cardassian Disruptor Rifle

Jem'Hadar Disruptor

Cardassian Disruptor

Jem'Hadar Disruptor Rifle

Engineering PADD

Tricorder

Engineering Kit

Engineering Tricorder

Dominion PADD

Cardassian PADD

Ketracel-White x3

 

Interrupts (258)

Distortion of Space/Time Continuum x13

Crosis x25 (!)

Rogue Borg Mercenaries x220 (NOT A MISTYPE)

 

            Yes, that is correct, 25 Crosis and 220 Rogue Borg.  I have that many of both.  This deck is just so interesting to play.  Your opponents will hate you, but still, this is just too strange a deck to pass up.  I consider it the greatest deck I ever made (not the best, the greatest, there is a difference). 

            As I sat down to build this deck, I realized that Rogue Borg had not been played mainly because of Reactor Overload.  This card was just way too powerful against Rogue Borg.  I knew I would have to find away around it.  But it can’t be countered or destroyed in any way, it is an Incident, not an Event or Interrupt.  That’s when it hit me:  They can only use it for as many times as they have Q the Referee, and after that they must sacrifice their card play each turn to play it.  So what if I threw Borg at them in large enough quantities to make them use up those resources, then hit them with more?  An insane idea, perhaps, but I was not to be swayed.  I threw all my Rogue Borg and Crosis into a pile, and the deck had begun.

            I realized that I needed a good card-drawing mechanism to fuel this deck; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep throwing Borg at the opponent.  Mirror Image would help, but only in they played with the cards listed on it.  Then I thought of Sherlock Holmes, and realized that he would be perfect.  I would practically empty my hand every turn by dumping Borg, then I could refill it every turn with however many cards my opponent had in hand.  The only way for them to stop the supply of Borg would be to have no cards in hand, which is bad for them anyway.

            I would need Sherlock out right away, so I needed to seed a holodeck of some kind, and Baker Street on it.  So, Husnock Outpost and Husnock Ship were added to the seed deck, and Sherlock went into the Q's Tent.

            Now that the main strategy of the deck was ready, I went to work on the hard part:  how to make the deck win.  That was the tricky part, as the draw deck was already 245 cards with only Interrupts.  How was I going to get what I needed to win?  The answer came to me as I was looking through my Dominion deck:  Dominion War Efforts.

            Dominion War Efforts was the answer.  If I used the Cardassian/Dominion treaty, I could use all of their support personnel and have a decent base to work with.  All three went into the seed deck, as did a Cardassian Outpost and Spacedoor for an easy ship.

            15 personnel just weren’t going to be enough.  I decided to use Empok Nor to help get the more advanced personnel into play.  Not only could I use it to download skilled people, but I also got a lot of equipment as well.  Not a bad deal.  I also saw that I could use Process Ore for even more card drawing.  Plus, if the opponent used Reactor Overload to stop my 2-for-1 card drawing, he would leave himself open to Borg!  It was all coming together!

            I would need White to keep my Jem'Hadar happy, so Ultimatum was added to get a free outpost, as well as the White. 

            I also threw in Storage Compartment Door in the hopes that I could cover the field with Tribbles and stop my opponent even more.

            After most everything was in order, I was looking through my seed deck when I realized that I didn’t have much room for dilemmas.  I thought about that for quite a while.  I thought to myself that I don't need many dilemmas, as the opponent will get on a ship eventually, and then I can Borg him.  But I should have some; otherwise he can just take missions should my plan fail.  So I compromised.

            Dead End was what I decided on.  If I put one under each mission, the opponent will hit the first one, no matter what.  That first one will most likely be encountered at their outpost, where they didn’t use a ship.  Therefore, they will then be forced to get on a ship to go to another mission.  They get on the ship, then I can Borg them.  Simple.

            That is how I built this deck.  Now, here’s how to play it.

            The premise of the deck was described above, but here it is again:  draw cards, throw down Borg, draw more cards, etc.  But to win, here’s how you get your personnel.

            First turn, you should have Narik and Dr. Farek from AMS.  ASP will get you any Cardassian support personnel.  All of these should be at the Husnock Outpost.  Your card play will be to download Sherlock Holmes to the Husnock Ship.  Secure Homeworld will get you Lore, THE KEY TO THIS DECK.  WITHOUT HIM, YOUR BORG WON'T DO ENOUGH DAMAGE.  Temporal Micro-Wormhole, when combined with Quark’s Isolinear Rods, will get you Sulan.  Commandeer Empok Nor, download everything you can to it, then use the Writ to put Brunt into a Guest Quarters, and have him download the other Writ onto himself.  Let him sit there the whole game to manipulate card draws and keep your opponent out of trouble.  That should be your first turn.

            Next turn, you can get another support personnel, preferably a Dominion with Engineer, so you can set up the Ultimatum and get the Depot and White.  Card play should be used to download Process Ore.  Micro-Wormhole R'Mor into play as well.

            Continue playing like this, building up your personnel, one each turn by downloading them from your Tent to the Nor.  You should stop your opponent with Borg, and you don’t really lose your end of turn draw because of Sherlock and Ore.

            When you are ready, go get some missions.  Dukat can do the Search for Weapons by himself, so protect him.  Also, if you need a skill that you don’t have, Reflection Therapy is quite useful.

            Other than that, use Storage Compartment Door all the time.  Don’t forget about it.  It can be quite useful.

            So I did eventually play this deck at the Minnesota Regionals.  Here's the real shocker, though:  I went 3-3-0 with it.  I went .500 in the hardest region with this deck that was entirely theoretical.  Two things that happened that I thought were funny:

  1. I played against a guy who used mainly holograms.  He couldn't use Reactor Overload on his ship without killing off all his holograms.  Neither side could kill each other, since holograms don’t die and can't kill.  He was stuck in an endless battle, and I won 100-0.
  2. The night before, I played against the 3rd place player and won 100-0.  His quick Dominion deck just couldn't fend off the Rogue Borg.  He placed 3rd, and I beat him.  This deck is better than its record.

So that’s all I have for this deck.  Quite amusing, and guaranteed to piss off your opponent, provided that you can find 220 Rogue Borg Mercenaries.

 

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