Cyberbiologists- Dont call us Borg

This Deck was build by Jason Drake and was published first on "The Continuing Committee (trekcc.org)" at Aug 16th, 2014.

This Deck was used in the following tournament:
Winner Deck (1/8) - Worlds 2014 - Day Two (Indianapolis/United States of America)

Cyberbiologists- Dont call us Borg

Deck listing:

Hints & strategie notes for this Deck



This deck was built specifically to play in a bracketed tournament. Any win advances a player in such a format, even from a few bonus points without having solved a mission (see: Kenneth Tufts' 2012 Championship Deck). Thus anticipating lock-down strategies, the deck is slightly bulky but very well defended:

Running six planets eliminates the threat of ship battle following space mission attempts (typically paired with Mission Debriefing). It also avoids the Federation-killing use of Quantum Fissure lockdown, something that can be achieved with the help of What Does God Need With a Starship, or, even more easily, with the errata version of Wormhole that can be played during an opponent's turn without meeting requirements for normal movement.

The primary outpost is enhanced by Strategic Base, raising its defense total to a smug 65 against armada decks. Double landing protocols, if needed, will allow a ship to take off and land in the same turn, avoiding exposure to attack in the most cowardly manner possible (hence the deck cannot use Worf, despite his valuable skills and free report). This also provides guaranteed safety against the most aggressive anti-beaming decks, because the Blue Alert cannot be nullified.

The Blade of Tkon can fetch a mission or relocate the main outpost, as needed, to allow planet-hopping or movement from outpost to outpost without exposure.

Half the unique personnel will be Bluegills (STRENGTH +5 and un-stunnable); universal personnel will have STRENGTH +2 (from Lower Decks) and include a number of androids, making away teams well-protected from attack after missions. A very large away team of enhanced personnel should eventually be able to overwhelm a quartet of 16-STRENGTH Borg (Undetected Beam-in + Eight of Nineteen X 3 + First + A Change of Plans + Post Garrison), but nullifying that dilemma with Shelby is preferred.

Hiding at the bottom of the game text on Access Denied is the ability to download Fractal Encryption Code from the Q's Tent (which will work with any of the androids), thus invalidating a lone undocked ship as a target for Outgunned.

There are no treaties (vulnerable to The Devil) and no Headquarters (vulnerable to Homefront). And finally, the deck does not lean on any nullifiable Event cards (Regenerate, Isomagnetic Disintegrator) for recycling. The deck has at least two of everything that's vital (including Dr. Soong, landable ships and tractor beams) and contingency for adding skills late in the game (Suna + Reflection Therapy and reprogammable Lal). Eight androids and one ship can all be recovered by other means (Cybernetics Expertise and game text on the Stargazer), and three copies of Dig (one by way of Vash) can recover another vital card or two without crippling the card flow (use of the first function on Dig will also provide two card draws if Vash or Jean-Luc Picard is present).

Missions and Self-Seeds:

Mix it up a bit. Six missions belonging to the same player on one side of the spaceline can help your opponent's interactive/attack deck, because they'll be able to station their patrols in easy range of all your missions. And any opponent who is willing to seed a double-solo spaceline is probably running a speed deck, and you don't want to make their job any easier.

And of course, it's easier to relocate and solve an underseeded mission with the Blade of Tkon if you have one that's obviously isloated from the rest.

With James T. Kirk (5 points for helping solve a mission) and Biology/Exobiology mission specialists, the missions have the following potential values:

Control Plague: 50
Genesis Planet: 50
Evaluate Terraforing: 45
Aid Clone Colony: 45
Surgery Under Fire: 45
Save Stranded Crew: 35

Sarjenka, Odo's Cousin, and Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease are all self-seeds for an additional (potential) 20 points. Sarjenka is best in front of Barclay's, because it's a guaranteed stop. Try to keep the requirements of Barclay's in reserve (without mission requirements) so that when you hit Sarjenka, you can also collect 10 points for Barclay's on the same turn, then collect mission points on the immediately following turn without undue delay and without losing anything to In The Zone.

(Also beware of Shades of Gray: Brutality, which doubles the requirements of Barclay's. Send double SECURITY, SCIENCE, and MEDICAL if possible; if not, include as many androids as possible, to minimize potential loss).

Odo's Cousin can be used to stop a depleted/filtered away team from prematurely solving a mission (without Kirk or Mission Specialists). The five points can be tagged on in the same turn that the mission is solved (if appropriate) and can be ignored completely if you fear a Writ of Accountability (as this would potentially bring you up to 20 points from your own dilemmas).

Blade of Tkon seeds at your primary outpost. Make sure that a second mission within easy range (maximum of 4, so that the main ships can fly out and return in one turn) is worth 50 points, distributing point dilemmas as necessary, in case there's a Dead End under your primary mission. If arranged thusly, the Klaestron Outpost can seed at Genesis Planet. If you cannot arrange a 50-point mission within such a range, then put the Klaestron Outpost at a mission within 7 or 8 range so you can relocate operations in a single turn (and never be left vulnerable traveling across the space line on your opponent's turn).

Copies of all unique personnel can be kept on hand for Bluegill Infestation (which is not a side deck, but acquires them from "out of play") and selections can be made at the start of each game. Most highly-recommended Bluegill candidates are Dr. LaForge and Alyssa Ogawa, because they are guaranteed to be in play (and you'll want them protected from a Mission Debriefing + away team battle combination); Prot, who can switch to Ferengi mode and join your non-aligned androids to initiate an away team battle if opportunity arises; and Data, who's 12 base STRENGTH plus 5 for being a Bluegill will give you a 17-STRENGTH champion (18 with Strategic Base) to help rough up any Posted Garrisons.

Card plays and downloads:

Shuffle thoroughly. The first two card plays should ideally be Dr. Soong and Handshake, in any order.

If you cannot draw into a Handshake (even with Mutation, The Power, and a few Continuing Mission card draws), burn the Masaka. With two exceptions, you shouldn't worry about burning good cards with an early Handshake, because the deck has redundancy and it's more important to get the card draws going. The first exception is that if you draw a lot of Vash and Dig, you might consider playing Vash so you don't limit your options for recovering cards from the discard pile later on. The second exception is Hidden Fighter; it's best to have a ship out when you begin attempting missions, so that the away team can beam from one location (e.g., the Outpost) and not infect your reserves (aboard your docked ship) in case of Alien Parasites.

Most of the time, you should download the Runabout and simply chuck the Type VI Shuttlecraft with a Handshake, because the shuttlecraft is vulnerable to Loss of Orbital Stability (and the Runabout is not). The Type Sixer can be recovered with Dig (or played/downloaded early on) if your opponent is using anti-beaming cards, because in that case you will want a spare lander for easier commutes. The shuttlecraft can also be useful in cases where you need to reach a mission up to 14 span away in a single turn; Blue Alert will allow the Shuttlecraft to be carried aboard your Stargazer or U.S.S. Nebula.

If you can't draw into Dr. Soong, Doctor Bricklayer can be used to fetch Juliana Tainer to allow free reporting of androids. The first Holodeck Door should be used to download Admiral Picard from the draw deck (saving Commander Troi for later, as her Anthropology, Empathy, and feminity may be required for busting a wall; exception: If you lost both Going To The Tops playing Handshake already, then save Admiral Picard for later so you don't run short on Leadership). Prot can be downloaded with a Holodeck Door or Doctor Bricklayer, whichever you have left over. Suna should be left in the Q's Tent until his special skill is needed, unless you happen to get Going to the Top early and don't have enough command stars in play.

The Ready Room Door, James T. Kirk, and Sam Lavelle can all be used to fetch Lower Decks. It's best to get this out as soon as possible (preferably with Lavelle or Kirk, so as not to waste resources) because your opponent is far more likely to block it with Computer Crash than to nullify it with a Kevin or Quinn.

There are two copies of Lopez to download the Federation PADD. This download should not be used until needed. Executive Authorization can be paired with Disruptor Overload if the PADD is idle; but if downloaded in the middle of a mission attempt, Disruptor Overload is not a valid response.

Androids

A little slip of paper in each of the univeral androids will allow easy tracking of their classification and gender. They should be named Seungyeon, Gyuri, Hara, Nicole, and Jiyoung. This is not optional.

The first two androids should likely be MEDICAL and SECURITY, depending on other personnel in play. The deck is leanest on those two classifications, and MEDICAL in particular will shield your lower-cunning, higher-skilled personnel from Hippocratic Oath.

Throw as many as possible into mission attempts, because they have great attributes and can be easily recovered if killed. Just make sure that, when including a lot of Unnies, you also have provision to pass Deliberate Tactical Error so time and deaths are not wasted.

It's best not to risk Dr. Soong, even if you have another in hand, because of the potential for capture or Male's Love Interest.

Winning

In theory, the deck can score 100 with just two missions by managing the Mission Specialists, James T. Kirk, bonus point dilemmas, and Unstable Matrix (which will convert Genesis Planet to a space mission after solved).

Balancing Act is the obvious danger, but it's far from a complete disaster. Against an interactive/delaying opponent with a slower deck, the Cyberbiologists should have no problem solving 3 or 4 missions for a total of 150 before an opponent reaches 100. Balancing Act is most likely to come out of a Dilemma Side Deck via All Available Personnel, so if your opponent seeds a Dyson Sphere Door then mission attempts should be as aggressive as possible. The androids are very well-equipped to beat the planet dilemmas that go with a dilemma side deck (Chalnoth, Nausicaans, Microvirus, Shore Leave + Matriarchal Society).

Genesis Planet should be solved last so that you can blow up the planet even if all your personnel are stopped (e.g., by Mission Debriefing) after solving. It's worth solving even if your opponent seeds four, five, even six dilemmas underneath. That's because your opponent might have six valid dilemmas to seed there, but probably does not have a good six-dilemma combo. In any case, it's much faster to bust six dilemmas at one mission than it is to bust three each at two other missions (which can involve travel delays and management of scoring to accommodate In The Zone).
Dilemma Pile Strategy

Base Combinations (3 and 3):

P: Forsaken + A Good Day to Lie
P: I'm Not Goint to Fight You + The Vengeance Factor
P: The Vengeance Factor + Dead End (reverse if suspecting Borg)
S: Virus + Emergent Life-Form
S: Ferengi Bug + Cytherians
S: Ankari "Spirits" + Chula: The Game

In addition to the basic combinations, there is a Kobayashi Maru Scenario, All-Consuming Evil (to download an Armus dilemma), and Access Denied (not strong with these combinations, but can enhance Armus: Energy Field).

If your opponent is running just two planet or just two space, target one of these with the Kobayashi Maru and plan to target the other with an Armus download.

If your opponent is perfectly balanced at 3 and 3, try to identify the "odd man out", a mission which is unlikely to be attempted because of location or point value; then plan the Kobayashi & Armus-enhanced combos at the other two missions of the same type. This way, your opponent will have to overcome at least five dilemmas (counting Kobayashi) to meet the victory requirements of one space and one planet mission.

If your opponent hits The Vengeance Factor with a smaller away team, seed Microvirus to be encountered first (for a selective kill) and follow with The Gatherers for a good "stop". If your opponent is using Ocular Implants, seed The Gatherers to be encountered first and follow with Yuta, so that they are unable to peek at the last seed card.

Kobayashi Maru invites large crews/away teams (so as to bust dilemmas with fewer mission attempts). It works well with any space combo, because they're all designed to "stop" a large crew or force ship movement. At a planet, it works well with I'm Not Going to Fight You + The Vengeance Factor. If your opponent brings a mega-team to pass the Fight You downloads (Chalnoth, Nausicaans), you can still filter out 2-3 personnel with the built-in function of I'm Not Going to Fight You and Yuta, so they should at least be "stoped" en masse by enhanced Gatherers.

If your opponent plays Borg, then Kobayashi Maru has no effect. You will likely have to concede a planet or two, and should use the All-Consuming Evil download for Armus: Energy Field to get the maximum effect out of the anti-Borg space dilemmas. Don't panic and overseed Earth for fear of Assimilate Homeworld ("Cards of that affiliation (except cards) may not report to any outpost for rest of game."). Eight non-aligned personnel and three AU Federation personnel can still enter play, and the Fed androids Data, Lal, and Tainer can still report directly to Dr. Soong. So if barely half of the 13 non-seeded, non-android, non-AU Feds are in play at the time, you will still have access to 23 out of 29 personnel to be going on with.