What other cards do you have?

If you don't have anything else to put in your deck, you're going to have a hard time changing things. There are a number of ways to acquire new cards. Some players buy a few packs at a time, and then trade things in and out of their deck as they can. Other players, normally those with more money, will buy a box of cards (either starter or expansion packs). This gives them a much larger selection of cards to choose from, as well as many more options, and strategies, to try out.

Decipher's Collectors Tin is a complete set of the Star Trek Customizable Card Game: The Next Generation Premiere edition cards. This is a great educational tool. With every card at your disposal, you can quickly learn the positive and negative effects of each card. (Note: While the silver border cards of the Collectors Tin have recently been okayed for use in sanctioned tournament play, Decipher has stated the ruling is provisional. The cards were not originally intended for this use, and Decipher reserves the right to re-evaluate the ruling at a later time).

You can also trade some of the cards you have, for some of the cards you want, or even buy individual cards. Many card shops buy, sell, or trade individual cards, referred to as singles. And, theoretically, if you've been playing, then you should know at least one other person you can trade with!

Of course, you don't have to part with your valued cards or money, just to see if you want to keep the card. On the Decipher web site, in the Star Trek Product Library area, Decipher has a picture of every Star Trek card they've made and printed. You can look through all of them, and see what you can use to help your deck.

If you find a card you like, then you can test it in your deck using a "proxy." A "proxy" is a card you have right now, that is temporarily acting as a stand-in for another card. After playing with the "proxy" of a card, if you like what it did, go get the card and throw it in.

What you'd like to fix, or how you want to modify your deck:

One thing to keep in mind is that you don't only fix a deck that doesn't work anymore. Seriously, just because you've been winning games, doesn't mean your deck is perfect. Maybe there are some things you just can't get to work right, or maybe you just saw your opponent do something cool that you want to add. Here are some way to go about find what you need to change and how to change them . . .

I barely score any points before my opponent wins the game:

This can be solved in a couple of ways. The first way is to add more personnel who can contribute skills to the solution of your missions. Another way is to even, or overcome, the speed gap between the decks. If your deck is playing really slow, Red Alert!, The Traveler: Transcendence, and Fajo can all help speed you up.

If you're playing along at a decent speed, but your opponent is going much faster than you, Yellow Alert, Klim Doakchim (AU), Static Warp Bubble, Q-Net, and even Telepathic Alien Kidnappers are cards that will slow them down.

I can't keep my personnel alive long enough to solve the mission:

There are a few reasons this could be happening. One is the Dilemmas. One solution is to take a look at what the dilemma does (e.g. its requirements, how it kills people, what exactly it does). If you can add personnel that can help you overcome the dilemmas, that could help (of course, this is assuming your opponent doesn't change his deck!). Another way to fix the problem is to "red-shirt" the missions. "Red-shirting" is when you have one or two people attempt a mission, in order to clear the way for the rest of the personnel to finish it off. Basic strategies like this will be covered more in-depth in the next article.

My opponent keeps playing annoying cards, and I can't stop him:

Most of the non-dilemma, annoying cards can be prevented, or even destroyed, but only by a few cards. The Traveler: Transcendence will nullify Static Warp Bubble. Intruder Force Field will cause your opponent's Telepathic Alien Kidnappers to affect themselves. Most annoying Event card can be nullified with Kevin Uxbridge or possible Kevin Uxbridge: Convergence (AU). You can even nullify most of those annoying Interrupt cards using Amanda Rogers.

Of course, there are even more fun cards that will really annoy your opponents back, you just have to look for them. As for those mean things your opponents have done to you, that you want to use against them... Just thinks about what they did, and what they used to do it, and throw them into the deck.

Your opponent plays a "patterned deck":

If you've started to notice a pattern in the type of cards in your opponents' decks, you could be pretty annoying by throwing in cards that would have some fun effects on them.

For example, all your opponents have been playing Klingon decks that rely heavily on Red Alert! and The Traveler: Transcendence. You have a few options. You could throw in Yellow Alert to cancel their Red Alert! and there's a dilemma that works against The Traveler: Transcendence called Thought Fire. Of course, you could always throw in however many Klingon Incoming Messages as you have, and for real fun, play a Klingon deck of your own and use Klingon Civil War!

Ooops! One slight problem... You should only have 60 cards in your deck. How many do you have? 73? 89? Well, it looks like we're going to have to weed out a few of those extra cards. When taking out cards, you have to watch what you take out, and make sure your deck is still well balanced. That doesn't mean that it has to have a specific number of each type of card, but you don't want a deck with 6 mission, 1 outpost, and 53 personnel. Generally, you'll want as many personnel as you'll need to complete the missions (That includes people to overcome dilemmas). You don't want too many events. If you have loads of events, your deck will slow down by bunches.

So generally take it kinda light on those. You'll want enough ships to be able to normally get one within the first 5 or 6 turns, so you'll want to do a little bit of math. Pretty much, you'll want one ship for every 10 cards in your deck (Takes into consideration the whole uncertainty thing) You might want to add another outpost, as there are some ways of losing your first one. Interrupts are handy additions, especially because the don't count to your one card per turn limit. Of course, there are some cards that change all this around, but we'll talk about those in a later article. One thing for you to keep in mind is that you can't solve missions without people, and it's really hard to score 100 points before your opponent without missions.

Finally, since you've been playing for a while (right?) throw out any cards you couldn't use in your last few games. If you've been stuck with a specific interrupt in your hand for the last three games, waiting for your opponent to cloak just so you could play it, and he hasn't, that says something about the value of that card in your deck.

Conclusion:

As you become more comfortable with the cards, and the game, you'll develop an understanding of what the cards can do, and how you can use them to your advantage. For now, just try new things out. After a while, decks will get old, and you'll want to change them anyway. Think of it this way. When you try things out, who knows what you can think of, and how many ways you can earn the respect, and hatred of your opponents. Until next time!

Next time at Starbase One...

Hmmmm... You've got the cards, you've got a deck, and it plays pretty well. What can you start thinking about now to improve your play of the game? How about strategies!