Playing The Borg: Downloading

by Evan Lorentz, aka "Mot the Barber"

In my first article, I discussed adding speed (through probing) to your Star Trek CCG Borg deck. Here is a second method for adding speed to your deck that's almost as important as probing.

MOT'S ADVICE ON THE BORG NO. 2: DOWNLOADING

Downloading is the Borg's speciality. Other affiliations can download, but none do it as well as the Borg. It is a very powerful ability to be able to search your deck (Q's Tent, hand, or Zalkonian Storage Capsule) for a card and immediately play it without it counting as a card play. It's like turning your whole deck into a Q's Tent.

Downloading lets you include fewer copies of specific cards in your deck. If the primary element of my Borg strategy is to rig probe draws with an Orb of Prophecy and Change, I'll need the Survey Drone in order to acquire that artifact. In a conventional deck, I would have to include several copies of such a necessary card, so that at least one was available in time for my first scouting attempt. With downloading, I can simply go get that drone when I need him. I can play an Activate Subcommands on turn one, and immediately go get the card that is most valuable to execution of my strategy.

You might at first hesitate at stocking only a single copy of a vital personnel, even knowing it can be downloaded when needed. Well, don't forget about the special ability of the Bio-Med Drone. The Bio-Med can "reabsorb" one just-killed Borg per turn into your draw deck if present. Even when you lose a vital card, you don't have to lose it for good.

So by now, it should be obvious that the Borg Queen is the card to have. With her in hand, you can download a drone or A Change of Plans in place of a card draw. That doubles your ability to report personnel in a turn, or gives you a way to draw an objective or change out one that is going badly. I firmly believe you could build a Borg deck without a Queen, but I'm certainly not yet skilled enough to try it. :-)

Activate Subcommands and Awaken are also great cards. With Activate Subcommands, you get three Borg personnel of your choice reported in one turn. For the privilege, you sacrifice your card draw, but it's worth it. As for Awaken, why should you stock a card that lets you download one drone. when you could instead stock the drone itself? For one, Awaken has all three Borg subcommand icons, where a drone will have only one. Don't forget the importance of probing! Also, smart players know that the best way to stop Borg opponents is to initiate personnel battles against them. Awaken gives you a great way to respond to this. You can look all innocent with only one Assault Drone on board your Cube, and when they come calling with their phasers and disruptors, immediately download two more Assault Drones in response.

Don't forget that you can download to your hand in most cases, not just into play. Why would you not want to play a free card? As I mentioned in one of my "Useless" Reviews, you can use Zalkonian Storage Capsule to rig your probe draws. If you don't have the right icon for your objective on any card in your hand, you could download one there using your Queen to complete the trick.

A word of caution on downloading: just because you can download so much when playing Borg doesn't mean you should. Remember, probing is your livelihood. If there aren't successful probes in your deck, you cannot win. So don't download more cards than you need (or at least, not many more). You'll thank yourself later for not over-indulging when you're trying to score points.

I've focused mainly on the Borg ability to download personnel. Here are a few final notes on other very important forms of downloading:

The Procurement Drone with Borg equipment. Currently, that's just the Assimilation Table -- but what an important card to many Borg strategies. Don't worry about not having the Table when you need it... my formerly Bolian friend will get it for you.

The Quantum Drone with Alternate Universe Doors. I can't stress enough the importance of stocking at least one AU Door in a Borg deck. It will get you past Q-Nets in a pinch. It'll hold Rift-happy opponents in check. Most importantly, it nullifies Revolving Door, which many players are gonna try and do to your Transwarp Network Gateway before you can get into the Alpha Quadrant.

The Transwarp Drone and Transwarp Network Gateways or Transwarp Conduits. You don't have to worry about how long it will take you to move to the Alpha Quadrant once you get that Cube staffed, not with this drone to help you go when you're ready.

Finally, let me address the ability of objectives to download other objectives. Most Borg objectives let you download another when you complete them. This is great. You can get away with stocking only as many Objectives as you really need, since you'll just be daisy-chaining them along on your way to victory. No need to worry about whether they'll come up or not. Just seed one such objective to start the game, and you're off to the races.

You'll note I've left out one major way the Borg can download...and download a lot. I'll save that one until my next article, in which I talk about Retask.

(I always welcome questions, comments, and suggestions -- but especially on this series, so let me know what's on your mind.)