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Firestorm by William Springer Since the beginning of time (or, at least, of ST:CCG) fans of Romulan Archaeology decks have hated Firestorm. Wiping out any personnel with INTEGRITY less than 5, they were in danger of loosing half their personnel to the dilemma. As most players used all space in tournaments, however, planet dilemmas were mostly limited to a few very powerful ones such as The Sheliak. First Contact brought us balanced spacelines, but players weren't eager to use a dilemma that would likely have little to no effect on three of the four affiliations. But now, between the growing popularity of the Dominion, and another dilemma in Rules of Acquisition, Firestorm returns... Firestorm / In The Pale Moonlight Firestorm still won't do much against the Federation, the Bajorans, or the Borg, but it's the perfect setup dilemma for In The Pale Moonlight, which requires a personnel with INTEGRITY<4, a Federation personnel with Treachery, any Garak, or a founder. Federation personnel tend to be fairly high in INTEGRITY, and they could pass the combo with Admiral Leyton or Michael Eddington, but other Federation personnel with Treachery have low INTEGRITY or are seldom seen in tournament decks. Except for the little-seen universal Founder, all of the founders will be wiped out by firestorm, as will any other personnel with INTEGRITY less than five. The most likely method for getting past this combo will be with a Garak (any affiliation except Borg can use the Cardassian/NA version) or by reporting another founder. Powerful two-dilemma combos are necessary for many decks these days that, in order to seed more hidden agendas, go with 17 or fewer dilemmas. But is there any way to make this combo more powerful? Drumhead would be a nice addition, if it wasn't space-only. Any wall, such as Lack of Preparation, would help either before or after the other two dilemmas. For an ending dilemma, how about Chula: The Door? To pass this wall, two personnel must contribute one attribute each to total 5 or 21. With Firestorm taking out the low-integrity personnel that could make up a 5 (Lore or The Albino, for example, combined with most founders and young Jem'Hadar), most players will need to discard a Q's Tent to get past this one. The exception, of course, being the Klingons and the Dominion, who can make it with STRENGTH, and the Borg, who can use an adapt. So our combo is: Firestorm / In The Pale Moonlight / Chula: The Door This combo will likely devastate a Dominion or Romulan away team, and the Cardassians may not be much better off. Like most dilemma combos, it'll fall to a scan, but what are people more likely to be prepared with when attempting an unscanned mission: Temporal Vortex or Thermal Deflectors? William "Spock" Springer spock6@ix.netcom.com