Mercenary Draft - There is no loyalty in the universe

This Strategy-Note article was written by openCards user thsch and was published first on "STCCG-Turnier (stccg-turnier.de)".

By Thomas Schneider 

Let's start with the rules: Mercenary Draft will be played using the Dangerous Mission Draft rules (using one Starter without Rares and four packs of Reflections 2.0) plus some small, minor additions:

1. Every personnel gets the additional game text: "When this personnel is stopped by a dilemma, choose an opponent and place this personnel at his or her headquarters mission, That opponent now commands this personnel.
2. You own every card in your deck, hand, discard pile, dilemma pile, core, under or above your missions, every dilemma that you are facing and every personnel, equipment and ships you currently command and damage markers on your ships. After the game you keep all cards you are currently owning.
3. Cards which are placed in the discard pile are placed in the opponent's discard pile.
4. Every affiliation icon on every card is replaced by . Every mission can be attempt by .
5. After the game, each player sorts out all not (printed) personnel he or she currently owns that could be played at the opponent's headquarters mission. Starting with the winner, each player chooses three of the personnel sorted out by the opponent that way to add to his or her deck. Those players now own that cards. Ownership of the other cards is not changed.
6. Banned cards: Quarren Labor Shortage (1U47), Information Drone (3C130) and all headquarters missions not included in your starter deck.

To make it clear: Yes that means if you are hit by a Gomtuu, the good news is that you now own the Gomtuu (and if you manage to repair your ship, you even may be able to fire it back at your opponent), but the bad one is your opponent now owns your personnel. Or using the words of Tjark Ott, one of our play tester to whom this happened at his first mission attempt: „Ouch!“. Let's face it, walls are bad if your opponent has them. So that brings us to

„Useful hint for drafting 1“: Grap every wall you see!

But even if you are not hit by a wall, during an average mission attempt you will lose two to four personnel, so it may become a problem to bring your ship back home, which leads immediately to

„Useful hint for drafting 2“: Ships with easy staffing requirements are good!

OK, during the game you will get personnel from your opponent, so staffing (at least at your Headquarters mission) should never be a problem, but mission skills may become one, if you are not able to choose which cards your opponent stops. So here are

„Useful hint for drafting 3“: Opponents choice stoppers are really useful!

and

„Useful hint for drafting 4“: Get additional personnel which have your mission skills!

Do not forget that you can play personnel of every affiliation, but the risk of losing them permanently is higher if they are not from your „original“ affiliation since you are only allowed to take back that kind of personnel after the game (see rule 5). But playing Mercenary Draft is not only about drafting, you need to play with the cards you draft so make sure to follow

„Useful hint for drafting 5“: Reread every card, especially the one you think you know already!

Due to the changed ruled the effect of some cards is drastically altered. For example cards that target your stopped personnel are, let's call it not so effective in a Mercenary Draft. And since you are not owning the dilemmas under your opponents missions Manheim Effect is not worth the counters needed to play it. But there are also cards that become much more useful than they used to be. Remember all this „unless you have a personnel with two skill x, your opponent chooses one personnel with skill x to be stopped“ dilemmas? Read them again: „ your opponent chooses“! Remember „Useful hint for drafting 3“? And read the next sentence: „If your opponent cannot, all your personnel are stopped“. Yes, it is a wall. Or as our second play tester Marco Pülsch has expressed it when he did not find the needed Biology or Medical for Recurring Injury: „Ouch!“.

As you may have noticed already Mercenary Draft is a little bit strange (some may even call it crazy). Do not take anything as given. Your deck will be different in every game. Marco's Klingons became half Klingon, half Romulan after one game and one third Klingon, one third Romulan, one third TNG after the second. Playing a second ship early (maybe even before your first mission attempt) and save enough personnel to staff it is more important than ever. If you can choose between a stopper and a killer dilemma, chose the stopper. And most important:

„Useful hint for drafting 6“: Do not take it seriously, it is not!

See you in Celle!