Ever since Voyager released, Warp Speed sealed has been one of the most popular Star Trek formats; its popularity only increased once The Borg came out and players were allowed to trade during tournaments.  Generally each player recieves one Voyager starter and two or three Voyager or Borg boosters; an alternate format is six boosters plus some commons.  Either way, the Open Trading format allows more focused decks than is usual for sealed deck tournaments.
    Although all non-Borg affiliations may freely mix in Warp Speed, the best decks tend to be built around the Vidiians or the Hirogen, as they have the easiest free reporting.  Obviously, for either one, you'll want the corresponding incident (Vidiian Sodality or Hirogen Hunt); preferably you'll also have the outpost to download it so it doesn't take up a seed space.
    Vidiians tend to have the most free plays, as there are a number of common medical-classification Vidiians, not to mention the Vidiian Harvester.  However, they suffer from generally low attributes, so are very vulnerable to some popular Voy/Borg dilemmas, such as Spatial Rift.  For this reason, Lower Decks is a must-have; it won't help with dilemmas that look at printed attributes, such as The Weak Will Perish, but it'll save you from Spatial Rift, Sabotaged Negotiations, and Flash Plasma Storm, among others.
    The Hirogen are in an interesting position: any Alpha can report for free with Hirogen Hunt, but all of the Alphas are rare.  The solution is to get one Alpha (trading as needed) and seed him at your outpost; then include as many personnel who name him as possible so you can report them for free with the Hunt.  You'll want to stock lots of ships as well, as you can download one free each turn.  Remember that you can download from your hand, so there's no reason to let them clutter up your hand if you happen to draw them!
    Whichever affiliations you use, you'll want to have a few weapons handy.  Few things are more annoying than losing a game because you can't get past The Clown: Beneath the Mask!  I find that the best weapons are the Vidiian Harvester (which gives you lots of Medical as well as adding strength) and the Hirogen Disruptor Rifle, which enhances both strength and cunning.  Just remember that those two affect your Vidiians and Hirogen only!
    No matter what you play, you should make sure you have exactly 10 seed cards, plus your three missions.  If you can't trade for enough dilemmas, misseed; you can't steal missions anyway, so there's no point in letting your opponent know which ones will be easy to solve!  Seeding a hidden agenda isn't a bad idea either; Villagers with Torches will keep your opponent from sending down one or two people to mess up your dilemma combos, and any hidden agenda may make him nervous.  While I wouldn't take out a dilemma for it, The Next Emanation can be annoying as well, preventing your opponent from recycling his best people.  Finally, try to have at least three females and two law; Matriarchal Society and Implication can otherwise stop you dead in your tracks!
    If at all possible, you should seed four dilemmas under your opponent's most important mission (his planet mission if he has only one planet, his space mission otherwise).  Remember, if he can't solve that mission, he can't get a full win!  Seeding your outpost at your most important mission is often a good idea, so you can go after it right away.  Once play starts, throw your people at your missions as soon as possible; speed is essential in this format, and if someone dies you'll get him back once you exhaust your draw deck.  Warp Speed, as the name implies, was created to be a fast format; once you try it, you'll discover that it's also a lot of fun!

This article originally appeared in issue 49 of Scrye.