Why would I want to play in the Delta Quadrant?

Vidiians have:  Free personnel without a Headquarters, a way to download any personnel you want without a Nor, free hand weapons, a way to eliminate opposing personnel without initiating battle (that means no need for a leader, no counterattacks and you're not stopped after killing their personnel so you can play a hit-and-run strategy), really big ships, and the ability to get help from any other affiliation.  The Kazon also have many free personnel, even more free weapons, bigger ships, and a way to steal opposing ships and get 20 points while doing it.  

OK, so the new affiliations are cool, why would the old affiliations want to play in the Delta Quadrant?

There's the Caretaker's Array, which lets you drop 4 cards for the price of 1, a seedable Traveler in the form of Ancestral Visions, and Delta Quadrant Spacial Scission, which lets you stack lots of copies of a personnel you need and get use from the extras.  Oh, I almost forgot the most important part of the game, the missions.  DQ missions are extremely easy and have very high point boxes.  It's certainly profitable to send AQ personnel there to solve them.  And both the Vidiians and Kazon can work with the other affiliations, so it's easy to play a half-AQ/half-DQ deck.  

How do I get those Alpha cards to the Delta Quadrant?

Caretaker's Array is an easy way, all you need to do is seed that and seed a Badlands Mission.  Wormholes are a great way to move between spacelines, and they're very flexible - you can get help with Cytherians, avoid opposing Armadas, hop over to Aid Fugitives to pick up your Medical personnel, etc, etc.

If you don't want to use 2 spacelines and move around, you could simply report AQ personnel in the DQ, if you can find a way around the quadrant restrictions.  Anything other than using a facility will work here. Yes, Spacedoor and Assign Mission Specialists require an Outpost, but since they don't require the Outpost's built-in ability to report cards there, they can be used for AQ cards.  Once you have a ship, playing Home Away From Home gives you a DQ Romulan Outpost, or Bajoran Outpost or whatever.  Crew Reassignment works for a smaller set of personnel, and it's nullifiable, but you can download it with Ready Room Door and save a card play.  Assign Support Personnel gives you a way to report to a ship, too.  Temporal Micro Wormhole and Devidian Door are OK, the downside is that it takes 2 cards for one personnel.  Vulcan Lander and The Emissary will allow select personnel to report in any quadrant. Caretaker's Array and Space/Time Portal will let you report personnel while reporting ships.  And don't forget Hidden Fighter.  

How do I get back?

Wormholes.  (see above.)  The only problem with Wormholes is that you need to be prepared with a lot of card drawing to keep getting them. However, that's not a problem if you build your deck with that in mind. Barzan Wormhole works, too, but the mission you have to seed makes that a really weak strategy.  And don't forget to stack Operate Wormhole Relays, in case you didn't PLAN on that trip to the Delta Quadrant.  

I'm used to being in the same quadrant as my opponent.  What should I be aware of when facing a deck in another quadrant?

First off, be careful with any strategy that relies too much on direct interaction.  Battle and Capturing is going to be a problem if you have to move everything to another Quadrant.  Using ships that you can carry will help you conserve Wormholes.  Using a 2-affiliation deck that can operate in either quadrant is a good idea, but then you're at half-strength until you bring the other half of the deck over.  The best idea is to be ready to battle, but don't make your whole defense rely on it.  Focus a little more on dilemmas and other forms of interaction, like Scanner Interference downloads and Kal'Toh.

Second, realize that there are strategies you will have a hard time countering from another quadrant.  Stack It's Only a Game and Reactor Overload in your DQ deck, since it will be hard to oppose VCM and Ore Processing.  Stack Wake of the Borg for Colonies.  Make sure you can delay the opponent from getting Empok Nor since you can't get over there to blow it up.  Stack Uxbridge in your Tent in AQ decks to nullify Ancestral Vision, and take advantage of the fact that DQ decks will have a hard time getting to your Q's Planet in the AQ.  On a similar note, don't bother using Cytherians anymore, since it's a very short trip for an opponent on a 6 mission spaceline.  (On the other hand, Conundrum basically eliminates an entire ship.)

Lastly, take comfort in being immune to certain strategies in another quadrant.  This has all the advantages of hiding far on the opposite side of the spaceline from the opponent, or playing a Dominion "turtle" deck that hides in the Gamma Quad.  You can ignore things like extra ships and hand weapons, using card plays to be more aggressive going after missions.  DQ decks are immune to Hero of the Empire (though you may have to worry about the opponent getting those extra points).  PNZ decks would love to see an opponent in another quadrant.  Basically, if you're not going out looking for interaction on the spaceline, just be aware that part of your deck will be more useful against an opponent in the same quadrant as you, and other parts will be more useful against opponents in different quadrants.  Stacking cards like Obelisk of Masaka (and Masaka Transformations) and Mutation will help you recycle those less useful cards for more useful ones.  eg, Mutate away those extra hand weapons if the opponent isn't going to come battle you.

In summary, 2 simple rules:  Be aware of what your deck can and can't handle.  And keep a little variety to prepare for everything.
Email Chris "Rom" Brennan