Yes, in this article I intend to defend that one personnel who is the butt of every joke, Mr. Put-upon himself, Stefan DeSeve.  And, not only will I show how he is useful, I plan to enlighten you and show how he is necessary for any self-respecting Vulcan Deck.

   First off, let’s review the different classifications that the Vulcans possess.  There’s plenty of Science, and a decent number of Medical and Security (what with Tallera and Tuvok).  There are even a fair number of Engineer Vulcans (plus Taurik is easily grabbed with Assign Mission Specialist).  But what about Officer?  Well, Premiere gave us Satelk, First Contact gave us Solkar, and most recently Voyager gave us Tuvok.  Well, Solkar and Tuvok are highly useful personnel (Though Tuvok can be difficult to include in an Alpha Quadrant deck), but Satelk is iffy at best (However, I will delve into his uses in a later article).  So unfortunately the Vulcans have quite an insufficient number of Officer personnel.  And with Maglock, Crisis, Punishment Box, and Hazardous Duty, any self-respecting deck is going to need a healthy dose of Officers to survive. So this is where Stefan DeSeve (along with Spock, and First Officer Spock) steps in.

   All three of these personnel offer that classification that the Vulcans so desperately need, Officer.  But not only that, they have Officer in their skill box something that should not be overlooked.  Because, when playing Vulcans, you have to play to their strengths and their greatest strength is that they don’t need a high degree of skill overlap.  And why is that?  It is because every Vulcan can Mindmeld and share skills.  So any regular skill in the skill box automatically becomes a skill that every other Vulcan can use.  Think of them as Borg, except without all those rash-inducing implants.

   So how about an example of Stefan in action?  Lets say your group of Vulcans are going down to attempt Diplomacy Mission.  So you’re sending Sarek, Dr. Selar, Spock, Stefan DeSeve, and Solkar.  However, with a well-placed Full Planet Scan you notice that your opponent has seeded the ever-familiar Punishment Box + Crisis + Hazardous Duty combo.  Thinking quickly you put Solar back on the Vulcan Lander in orbit and play Vulcan Mindmeld on Stefan.  Boom, sudden Officer-laden away team.  You smile as you break the combo with ease and score the points.

   However, I already know your next question.  Why should I use Stefan DeSeve when Mr. Spock and First Officer Spock give you that same Officer in the skill box, plus plenty of other good skills?  And that is indeed a good question, because both of those Spocks are undoubtedly better personnel than poor old Stefan (and they are actual Vulcans to boot!).  So am I blaspheming by recommending a lowly Romulan (albeit distant cousins of the Vulcans) over two excellent half-bred Vulcans?  No.  Obviously, if you own Mr. Spock or First Officer Spock then by all means use them (though throwing in Stefan for good measure couldn’t hurt).  But First Officer Spock is Ultra-Rare and Mr. Spock is a popular character, so both are reasonably difficult to obtain.  Stefan DeSeve on the other hand is obscenely easy to get, (I have no doubt that many people would give him away) so he is much more reasonable to obtain.  Maybe you should think of Stefan as a poor-man’s Spock.

   There is one more reason to consider Stefan DeSeve (well, two if you’re interested in using the Kurlan Naiskos).  If you are trying to play a “Reunification Theme Deck” (a Federation/Romulan treaty deck that uses Romulan dissidents and Vulcans) then Stefan DeSeve would fit much better into that deck then, say, First Officer Spock.  Though Stefan was not from the Episode “Reunification” he was a Romulan dissident so it is easy to justify his existence in such a deck.

   Or maybe I’m just grasping at straws.

Qapla’
General Chang

Next Time: Flying the (Not-So) Friendly Skies