Playing The Borg No. 10:
Borg Dilemma Strategy

In previous articles I've covered all the major points of building a Borg deck. Time for the finishing touches. In this article, I'll focus on Borg Dilemma Strategy.

If your Borg deck gets a bad shuffle, or your opponent is playing a very fast strategy, your dilemmas may be all you have to hold the Alpha Quadrant until you can arrive on the scene and begin assimilating. While it's possible to get fully staffed Borg Cubes in play by turn two or three, there are also times this may take longer. Choosing the right dilemmas is very important if your opponent starts attempting missions before you can provide any direct opposition.

Many players favor dilemma combos where the first dilemma is designed to remove a key personnel. It's then followed by a second dilemma that will kill the rest of the Team (or most of them) for lack of the key skill. Examples of this are Yuta/Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Shot in the Back/The Sheliak/Q, REM Fatigue Hallucinations/Cytherians, and Strict Dress Code/Nagilum. These are all well and good, when they work. Sometimes a Team can survive even these nasty combos. And sometimes your opponent will "redshirt" their way around them.

"Wall" dilemmas (dilemmas which simply may not be passed until a certain condition is met) are thus very important to a Borg deck. Things like Alien Labyrinth, Ancient Computer, Dead End, Lack of Preparation, Maglock, Radioactive Garbage Scow, and Shaka When the Walls Fell all have conditions for overcoming them. It may take a few extra turns for your opponent to gather personnel to meet those conditions. Either way, it will force your opponent to gather a more sizable Team to face your dilemmas. All it takes is the few extra turns these wall dilemmas will buy you to get to the Alpha Quadrant and start Eliminating Starships.

You should also put some dilemmas in your deck that you can overcome easily yourself. Given the time and sacrifice often required to scout missions, it is probably a good idea to at least steal one of your opponent's. Because the Borg ignore dilemmas related to points and gender (among others), there are a number of good cards that will hurt your opponent, but have no effect on you.

The complete list of worry-free dilemmas for the Borg: Anaphasic Organism, Android Nightmares, Bendii Syndrome, Borg Servo (against a non-Borg opponent), Borg Ship (if encountered by your own Cube, this will only stop you; it won't even damage you), Chinese Finger Puzzle, Dead End (will stop you only the first time you encounter it), DNA Metamorphosis (if you have a Cyber Drone), Don't Call Me Ahab (so long as your Queen isn't an OFFICER), Edo Probe, Female's Love Interest, Firestorm, Male's Love Interest, Maman Picard, Matriarchal Society, Outpost Raid (you won't have an outpost anywhere you could encounter this dilemma), Parallel Romance, Quantum Singularity Lifeforms (so long as you don't seed a Scout Encounter in front of it), Rascals (if Locutus or another Counterpart isn't around), System-Wide Cascade Failure, and The Higher... The Fewer.

A whole lot more dilemmas are not at all dangerous if your Queen has the right skill at the right time, or you are otherwise prepared to encounter your own seed cards. Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease, Cardassian Trap, and Coalescent Organism are among the dilemmas easy to overcome with the right Borg.

So, for example, say you plan on stealing one of your opponent's planet missions. Seed a wall dilemma there, followed by say a Parallel Romance and a Borg Servo. Or at a space location, how about a Radioactive Garbage Scow? If you get there first, it's no problem. If your opponent should beat you there (or come to snatch the mission after you've cleared out the dilemmas), they will still have to tow the Scow. Just beware of going too extreme on stocking dilemmas the Borg can easily overcome -- you might just wind up playing a Borg opponent.

A few words on three very important dilemmas to the Borg:

Borg Servo. I'm not seeing Cybernetics much these days. Even those playing it in their decks won't always have it out in play, since it's not a very common skill. So you can usually count on this dilemma taking out an opponent's personnel -- best of all, they become yours to control.

Borg Ship. Still as tough as it ever was. Now you can Retask it, too. I did challenge the validity of a heavy Retask strategy in an earlier review. Nevertheless, in some decks, with certain players, it does work. Certainly, you have little to fear from using it.

Scout Encounter. The Borg and the Romulans are currently the only affiliations with Scout Vessels. This can be a great way to jump-start some extra cards into play. It's also one of the best ways the Borg can deal with the Patrol Neutral Zone deck. With Launch Portal in play, Borg Scout Vessels can land on planets. Land on a Neutral Zone planet, and the PNZ deck is shut down.

Of course, the other element of dilemma strategy is how you will deal with your opponent's dilemmas when scouting your own missions.