K&HSD #3 : Behold the power of cheese!
(Personal Note: the idea - and inspiration - behind this particular
installment comes from a Stage 1 RTF I played in where 2 players used
abusive strategies and ruined the fun of the game for me and most players.
This is an attempt to explain and understand the use of those strategies. It
is in no way directed against players that choose to use those strategies.
Well, at least that's what were saying officially ! Hugh)
Cheese: Mozzarella, Ricotta, Swiss, Blue, Gruyere, and Goat. It's a staple
in Italian food, but crosses all ethnic and cultural boundaries. For all
but the lactose intolerant and strict vegans, cheese rocks. But this isn't
an installment of the cooking channel (although our debates WERE formed over
a cheesecake recipe!) this is a strategy debate for the card game we all
enjoy. And for better or worse, cheese is a powerful ingredient in the many
cards we use to make our decks. We bring to you an analysis of cheese !
First, what is it? When discussing abusive strategies, Major Rakal has
stated that it is much like pornography--tough to define, but you know it
when you see it. I think we can offer a bit more concrete definition:
"cheese" is any deck strategy that revolves around cards that, without the
correct counters and used in abusive quantity, take the opponent out of the
game. ST:CCG devolves into two-person solitaire. These cheesy strategies
are mostly related to interrupts that are usually used in multiples. Since
examples often do help define the course of discussion, for the purposes of
this debate we are going to focus on the most common ones: Rogue Borg
Mercenaries, Wormholes, Temporal Rifts, Brain Drains, Thine Own Self, and
Barclays' Transporter Phobias.
These have all been used as abusive strategies. This is, by no means, meant
to be an exclusive list: Black Holes, Anti-Time Anomalies and holograms,
dedicated PNZ's, unbalanced space lines, AMS + Q-bypass, armadas, and others
have all been called "cheesy" from time to time--but we are simply going to
focus on the six main interrupt based ones listed above. Our format will be
as follows: 1. We'll look at the general use and abuse of cheese; 2.
We'll examine the sick six individually; 3. We'll discuss methods of
countering cheese. We hope that you'll offer your feedback. Comments,
criticisms, insults, and compliments are most welcome.
Part One: Strategy. (We pasteurize the milk at 165 degrees F for 18 seconds.
An enzyme called rennet is added. Once all of the ingredients are added the
milk starts to set up like custard. It is then cooked for about 30 minutes
at 104 degrees. While the milk is being cooked the curd that is forming
inside the vats is constantly being cut by blades that are built into the
vats…)
The general purpose of these interrupts is to hinder your opponent and give
you an edge. But, used abusively, they literally blow him out of the game. They
range from the annoying, a round-by-round "ping" of a lone rogue borg, to
downright insidious, a swarm of rogue borg doubled by Crosis and doubled
again by Lore. Cheese has been SO prominent that certain deck "archetypes"
have been built around them: field trips, phobias, and rogue borgs. The new
Return to Farpoint tournaments revealed a crucial fact about cheese: the six
interrupts in question are limited to the premiere set and the Alternate
Universe Expansion! Decipher has, admirably, taken much time and effort to
reduce their power and frequency. Each expansion has introduced additional
counter measures (Operate Wormhole Relays), issued errata (AMS), and rules
clarifications (the definition of an "Away Team"). These have been extremely
valuable to increase the playability of the game and reduce the fear of
games digressing into two-player solitaire.
On the other hand, additional strategies HAVE emerged in later expansions
that have seriously enhanced the power of cheese. Ore Processing! Ore
Processing takes cheese to a Velveeta like consistency--use a rogue borg,
"ping", process it and get it back! Worse, the card drawing capacity of ore
processing, and Renewal Scrolls, allow for a player of these interrupts to
get more of them in his hand quickly--and to use them with more veracity and
impetuosity. Empok Nor helps expand Ore processing to the Klingons,
Romulans, even the Dominion. More Ore Processing means more potential for
cheese!
But why is cheese so popular? Easy, it's versatile and always hits the
spot! But, IMHO, the best cheeses are usually the ones that stink the most.
And serving that kind of cheese could very well cut everyone else's
appetite. The question is, why continue serving that kind of cheese when
you know it ruins others enjoyment of the moment. I would much rather eat a
nice simple Gouda in good company, than go for a strong blue cheese and end
up all alone. Right now, there is way too much emphasis put on solitaire
enjoyment of very strong cheeses. We need to tone this down and work on
improving every player' enjoyment of the game. But more on this later.
The use of these "cheesy strategies" has been both a bane and a blessing to
good ST:CCG players. We'd like to address some metagaming issues to using
them. There used to be time in gaming (oh, say the DS9 expansion) where I
was a firm believer in the 80/20 rule. Out of any deck construction 80%
should be cards that directly help you score points--people, ships,
equipment, palor-toffs, etc. 20%, on the other hand, should be cards that
either counter your opponent's strategies or directly stop THEM from scoring
points. It's in that 20% where "cheese" fits in. A forty card deck, for
example, would contain 8 cards designed to stop your opponent. For an
armada strategy, that would be two or three extra ships and the appropriate
leaders. Eight cards could, however, be a combination of temporal rifts,
thine own selfs, or phobias! Combining a few self-seeded Cytherians,
wormholes take on both a productive AND destructive use. The 80/20 strategy
has its flaws: that 20% is all I allow for counters. Do I want an extra
Kevin or Amanda? That is a cost in determining my deck construction. But
this is the metagame! And the endless possibilities are one of the reasons
this is such a great game!
Nonetheless, decks are built around "cheesy" strategies. To facilitate your
best possible deck--let's look at the specific interrupts.
Part two: fondue, marinated, on bread, or simply eaten plain--cheese is
yummy!
A. Rogue Borg. The rogue borg strategy is evil because it doesn't rely on
quantity to be effective: if you're experiencing a Rakal shuffle, you go for
the RBM ping strategy; if all you get in your opening hand is RBM, go with
the swarm. A "pinging" strategy relies upon dropping one borg onto a
ship--causing an inevitable personnel battle--and stopping that ship, and
it's crew, cold for that turn. A stopped ship means no beaming, no mission
attempts, no probing. This can be coupled with other strategies--stopping a
ship at a location with a Dal'Rok to increase the carnage. The swarm
consists of, well, swarming a ship with a number of them. Worse, since
rogue borg increase in power geometrically, and there are TWO methods to
double their strength (Crosis and Lore) three rogue borg, a Crosis, and a Lore
in play result in an invading force of strength 16 each. Even the mighty
Dominion led by the extra ordinarily strong Jem'Hadar will be hard pressed to
get rid of them. When attacking en masse, the rogue borg remain and battle
at the start of EVERY players turn. A super crew of 10 or 12 people can be
reduced to Swiss cheese in just a few turns.
B. Wormholes. Using wormholes as cheese relies upon sending your
opponents' ships to someplace where they can solve no missions and basically
do nothing: either Montana or the Gamma Quad. Farpoint Rounds II-IV should
feature this strategy quite frequently! This strategy has been seriously
dampened by the release of Operate Wormhole Relays--which offers the victim
a means of keeping the wormholes open and returning to safer places. Other
recent rules clarifications have also limited this abuse--i.e. undocking is
not a wormholable movement. Wormholes are also more costly than most cheesy
strategies--they require two to use (or one and a Space-Time Door), but
still are a viable and powerful force. Why? Not everyone will stock a OWR!
C. Temporal Rift. The rift strategy uses considerably fewer cards to pull
off than either rogue borg or wormholes. One rift, and the ship and crew
are lost for two full turns. This is particularly damning when played
during your opponent's turn. Since the rift does not reappear until after
two full turns, one card has stopped a ship for effectively THREE turns.
Plenty of time to draw another! This was one of the classic defensives to
protect a PNZ deck as a ship in the rift cannot protect the Neutral Zone.
Unfortunately, an Alternate Universe door will nullify a rift--AND that door
does not get discarded--so a single door can stave off an infinite number of
rifts. The metagame here is whether or not your opponent will have an
available AU door.
C. Thine Own Self. Despite Scan cards, anti-Red-shirt dilemmas, the new
Headquarters and the recent rule clarification there still is great
potential to abuse this card. Sure, it attacks only one or two person away
teams (originally conceived as an anti-red shirt card). But away teams are
often filtered down, people lost, and it is likely that there will be one or
two person away teams that you can do nothing about. In that case, TOS is a
fate worse than death: until the mission is completed, those people are
gone--lose your critical mission solving player, and you may never solve
that mission! This is absolutely devastating against the borg since borg
ONLY scout planet missions as an away team of one (barring a few other
tricks) and since they NEVER complete missions those borg are usually gone
for good. This card is also an extremely useful counter to the popular Visit
Cochrane Memorial--since a lone human engineer (an away team!) will often be
left to probe.
D. Barclay Transporter Phobia. Phobia decks can be particularly
devastating. People who can't beam (or dimensional shift (whatever THAT is)
or go through Iconian Gateways) can't really solve planet missions, leave an
outpost, or beam back from a mission. This can be another fate worse than
death--Data, stuck on your outpost, can't provide that third Engineer to
cure the Duonetic Field Generator. Phobias, unlike the new ruling that
affects TOS, ARE a great counter to the free plays at a
headquarters--without a landable ship (and how often do you see them!) a
player reported to the Great Hall can be infected with the phobia when
trying to beam OUT of the great hall! Phobia's do have a few inherent
disadvantages: the effect is random--which won't do you much good against a
super crew; although not cumulative, if you played a handful of them on a
super crew during beaming, EACH phobia has to find a target separately. In
other words, Data might get hit by three phobias sparing Geordi or
Montgomery Scott to nullify the field generator. I do, however, expect to
see a few more phobias cropping up (no Invasive Beaming for YOU thank you!)
E. Brian Drain. Brain Drains are great! A specific person can be targeted
(sorry Kirk--you will NOT be helping the federation attack my outpost on
that Kurlan Naiskosed Future Enterprise). And it has a built in natural
nullifier. This seems to be an inherently balanced interrupt. It can,
however, still be used en masse and with devastating results. For example,
since it removes skills (and special skills) it can be used to set up a
computer crash even if the Bynars are in play! How? Brain Drain the
Bynars, then reveal that computer crash. It's great against the borg: on
no, your interlink drone seems to be malfunctioning! Worse--Fightin' Words
+ Cosmic String Fragment (YES, when was the last time you saw THAT card out
of your binder!!) and a brain drain or two will normally result in a
destroyed cube! It can also be used to make people previously "immune" to
Common Thief like a woman with an open purse (remove their cunning and they
won't meet the immunity standards!). Not to mention simply removing the
skills necessary for person to overcome a dilemma or solve a mission.
Hippocratic Oath + Common Thief + Barclays' Protomorphosis Disease is a LOT
tougher to overcome (even on a ship with a lot of normal medical people)
when people are brain drained between dilemmas.
Part B is following ...................
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Keevan & Hugh's Strategy Debates #3 - Part A ... Keevan & Hugh ... [3/25/99 17:37]
