Patrolling the Neutral Zone in a Blaze of Glory
by Mathew Woolaghan
In Blaze of Glory Decipher has brought out yet another ‘magic bullet’ card. This one is designed to put a stop to Colony decks and to Patrol Neutral Zone decks. The card is of course The Wake of the Borg. I think this card will be seen a lot in Tents as there are so many decks that grab 60 or more points, then get to 100 with a Colony. This card could completely phase out Intermix Ratio from Tents, perhaps paving the way for a return of the Flute decks, but that’s not what I’m going to talk about. I’m going to show you one way to tackle its other function. Because of the large number of people who will stock it to stop abuse of Colonies, it poses a great danger to one of my favourite arch-types, the PNZ deck. A well timed card play of The Wake of the Borg will almost completely shut down your average PNZ deck, so obviously something needs to be put in to stop this. So that’s what I’m doing, my ‘bullet proof’ PNZ deck.
Seed Deck (36)
Doorway Phase
Q’s Tent
Space-Time Portal
Mission Phase
Patrol Neutral Zone x6
Dilemma Phase
Lack of Preparation + Borg Ship Dilemma + Maglock
Lack of Preparation + Borg Ship Dilemma + Berserk Changeling
Lack of Preparation + Unscientific Method + Yuta + Barclay’s Protomorphosis Disease
Lack of Preparation + Unscientific Method + Yuta + Barclay’s Protomorphosis Disease
Duonetic Field Generator + Harvester Virus + Dal’Rok + Founder Secret
The Sheliak + Chula: The Chandra + Q
Facility Phase
Romulan Outpost
Neutral Outpost
Spacedoor
Assign Mission Specialists (Tallus and Palteth)
HQ: Defensive Measures
Access Denied
Scanner Interference
|
Draw Deck (35)
Ships
T’Pau
Science Vessel x3
Personnel
Sirol
Lovok
Tallera
Parthok
Vakis
Dathon
E’Tyshra
Lore
Anya
The Albino
Interrupts
Temporal Rift x4
Isabella x2
Palor Toff: Alien Trader x2
Doorways
Q's Tent x5
Events
Kivas Fajo - Collector x5
Reaction Control Thrusters x3
Q's Tent (13)
D’deridex Advanced
Dr Telek R’Mor
The Sisters of Duras
Suna
Salia
Marouk
Soong-Type Android
Ready Room Door
Yellow Alert
Regenerate
Reaction Control Thrusters
Defense Systems Upgrade
Reflection Therapy |
Seed Deck:
Doorways:
A Tent is just too good to leave out (and quick helpful to the deck strategy) and a Space-Time Portal is usually useful, although there are no Alternate Universe cards in this deck.
Missions:
Fairly standard. I know that this set-up leaves the deck open to Balancing Act, but I think it’s worth it. It means that about 1/3 of their dilemmas will be useless, and I have never seen anyone stock more than 2 copies of Balancing Act.
Dilemmas:
Any 21 dilemmas can be used in this deck, as the strategy does not rely on them in any way, but these are the combos I find most effective.
Facility Phase:
The actual outposts are standard, and Assign Mission Specialists and Spacedoor should be seeded on the Romulan Outpost. HQ: Defensive Measures is there in case your opponent also builds a Romulan Outpost in the NZ and leaves a ship docked there, you’ll need a way to attack. Using 6 space missions against a Borg Thief deck would be deadly, so Access Denied is included, and Scanner Interference just makes the dilemma combos tougher. Tallus is in as a mission specialist so you are ready to attempt first turn, and Palteth will be explained later.
Draw Deck:
Ships:
There are enough ships in to make sure you can attempt your missions as often as you want, while also ensuring (along with Defense Systems Upgrade and the D’deridex Advanced) that you have sufficient weapons to take out docked ships in the NZ.
Personnel:
Plenty of Leadership in the mix along with all the skills you need to pass any wall dilemmas you might encounter.
Interrupts:
The Rifts and Isabellas are there to keep your opponent out of the NZ, while Palor Toffs can be used to retrieve whatever you want.
Doorways:
The tents are your only option of getting most of the cards from your Tent. If you need more than 5 cards from your Tent then just use Palor Toff to retrieve them.
Events:
The Kivas’ just help you draw quickly, ensuring that you’ll usually have the card you need when you need it. The Reaction Control Thrusters are for getting past The Wake of the Borg. You will have Palteth out straight away using AMS, and plenty of other ENGINEERS in the deck. When The Wake of the Borg is played you will have one full turn before it strikes. Assuming Palteth is
the only ENGINEER you have at the Outpost, play an ENGINEER (Tent for one if necessary) and play Reaction Control Thrusters, which plays for free (Tenting for that if necessary, but obviously you can’t Tent for both). Move your Outpost to an adjacent NZ mission, and when The Wake strikes you’re safe.
This isn’t a sure fire way of getting past The Wake of the Borg, but it has got a good chance of doing the job. With the numerics in this deck you’d have to be pretty unlucky not to have the right card at the right time. If your opponent doesn’t use The Wake of the Borg then the Control
Thrusters aren’t a waste. Play it for free, move your Outpost to another location (with your ship docked there) and then fly away, this can certainly help deal with the large range of the PNZ missions.
So, all things considered, this PNZ deck is quite similar to pre-Blaze of Glory decks. All you have to do is not get caught up in The Wake of the Borg.
Mathew Woolaghan
