By now you may have heard me talking about the Non-Aligned, and my Non-Aligned deck. Also even before the TTWT I was talking about the Big D having all the Delta Quad Races being Non-Aligned with a Non-Aligned Outpost or two that's in the Delta Quad. Of course now we’ll have the Kazon and Videans be affiliations making it harder to do an Alpha/Delta Non-Aligned deck  Now the most common use for the Non-Aligned is to fill in Skill Gaps, or to provide an extra 'dude' that can be sacrificed on a mission attempt. Now how often have you seen a Non-Aligned Deck in a Tourney? Most likely you said never, but it is viable to Play Non-Aligned in a tournament. Even in the Return to Farpoint events I played NA as soon as I could, and I faired pretty well. About the time I started using Non-Aligned was the time my skills in STCCG went up. It does require time and maybe some patience to build a Non-Aligned deck, but it can be done. The Non-Aligned had a wide selection of skills to choose from even though they might not have some of the rarest of skills (IE Tal Shiar, Section 31 etc.). Suna, however, could fix that with his wonderful download of Reflection Therapy. The Non-Aligned would then have all the skills they needed once you stocked a Reflection Therapy or two (maybe one in a Q's Tent). They can also make use of most weapons, allowing you to choose a flavor (IE Maquis using Klingon and Fed weapons or Mercenaries using various weapons). If for some strange reason you can't pass Zeldon with Exobiology or 2 Treachery then the Disrupters will just blast him into tiny pieces.  There is one mission that only NA can attempt and any Aligned Personnel who beam down are in stasis making it a great base of operations. Also that mission (QUALOR II RENDEZVOUS) can have the skills for  solving downloaded via AMS by either downloading Amarie or the two skills needed. Also, the Non-Aligned have some really nice ships. The Husnock Ship, Tama, Fesarius, and some other ships fit the bill nicely when choosing ships. The Edo Vessel has a 50% chance of being hit by an attack; now like the Husnock ship it has a low range, but that is easily solved. One of your missions should be Test Propulsion systems, this will increase the range on your ships by 2 giving the Husnock Ship a range of 8, and Edo Vessel a range of 7, Throw a plasmadyne relay or another Test Propulsion systems in and you have another +2 range. Also under Qualor II you could see a Kurlan Naiskos so only you could retrieve it. Now imagine a range 18 or 24 Husnock with 27 Weapons and 36 Shields running around, or a range 30, weapons 36, shields 54 Fesarius running around and you know it's fun. The Husnock outpost also allows a Husnock ship to be seeded allowing a fast deployment. Also more then one Outpost may be seeded so it you wish seed another one (with another Husnock ship if you want) preventing Sheliak from Gobbling you up right away. Also, unless you're using the Fesarius, you have no attack restrictions allowing you to maraud around the spaceline if you have time. Also the Husnock ship can handle an encounter with a Borg Ship Dilemma and survive. It wouldn't hurt to stock a Plasmadyne relay in the deck (+2 Range is always a welcome bonus… and +2 shields as well makes it better.). So the NA are both Fast and can quickly be turned into a war machine using the ships that are used in the speed deck.  Also with the Fesarius, let alone a Kurlaned one, the Non-Aligned can go Borg hunting even though the deck has a focus on speed, and a Kurlaned Husnock Ship could go Borg Hunting with little fear of losing its staff. So all in all a Non-Aligned deck can easily be focused on speed, and be used as an offensive or defensive weapon if one wishes.  Now go build a Non-Aligned deck!

Sela's Son is an advocate for Non-Aligned decks and
has titled his Non-Aligned Deck "The Maquis Mercenaries of the First
Federation"