News From The Front

"Relax, we're just sitting here enjoying each other's company." – Kira Nerys

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you've done it all before? Ever have one of those games when you feel like you've done it all before? Well, if your Star Trek CCG sessions are all starting to run together (hmm, look... Tragic Turn into Whisper in the Dark...I'll play Escape...ho-hum), then your friendly neighborhood feature writer, Jake Sisko, Reporter Behind the Lines, has a few suggestions on how to spice up your nightlife at good-old Terok Nor.

Everyone knows that to win a game of Star Trek CCG, you've got to be the first player to score 100 points and have completed both a planet mission and a space mission, right? Wrong! You can also win this game if you have the most victory conditions attained and/or points scored when both players' draw decks are empty. Check it out, it's in the Call to Arms rule book (page 21). Now, with this little gem of information, Jake-o becomes a bit more interesting, no? Well, I think so anyway.

But, like any good strategy, this deck doesn't work with just one card. It doesn't even hinge on just one or two affiliations. No, to really make the double deck-out win work, you need to bring together all kinds of pieces of the puzzle – just like a diligent reporter.

Make sure to note that, when all players' draw decks are exhausted, a player with a mission completed will defeat a player with no missions completed, even if he or she has scored more points. To make this deck work, you'll want to focus on getting rid of your opposition's deck(s) before any missions are scored.

This deck utilizes Mouth of the Wormhole, Terok Nor as the headquarters of importance, because that's where Jake plays. But it also uses Cardassia Prime, Hardscrabble World and Romulus, Seat of Power. Yeah, you have three headquarters... wild ain't it? This deck definitely qualifies you for "thinking outside the box." Now, I know what you're thinking: all those dilemmas that key off of how many headquarters you have are going to hose this deck mercilessly. Fear not; if everything goes well, you aren't going to be attempting missions.

Check out all the events that will be scoring you non-mission points. The trick to playing these events is commanding three personnel of the appropriate affiliation. One way to guarantee you'll have what you're looking for is to use Allies on the Inside and Kira Nerys, Iliana Ghemor. They'll make sure your MVPs (not to mention Jake-o) don't get stuck in the draw deck.

For the Cardassian contingent of the Dissidents, we have Kotra. Since your opponent is going to be flipping cards off the top of their deck anyhow, you might as well try to score some points off of them.

Of course, Romulans are the kings of non-mission points, and this deck does not ignore that. There's a Dissident Senator in Tal'Aura, Impatient Senator, who pulls double duty as both flipping fodder and an activator of Prejudice and Politics. There's also the accompanying Getting Under Your Skin, which is useful for a one-two punch. You're almost guaranteed to get 5 points a turn once you get these two on the table together.

And finally, because being an underground rebel is about respecting your allies, no matter how big their ears are, the Ferengi brothers in this deck have their own non-mission point mechanic to bring to the table. Tongo: Confront may not seem very reliable in this deck – after all, many Dissidents have a cost of one or even zero – but note that Tongo makes everyone discard from the top of their deck. Sure, your opponent might get points out of it, but that's another card gone. And hey, if it was a personnel, you might score points off of Kotra. That's what we like to call synergy, boys and girls.