Mot's Advice on the Borg #31: Seven of Nine ... Mot the Barber ... [3/ 7/99 13:51]

Of all the enhancements Borg decks have picked up in recent releases,
I've saved arguably one of the best for last. I'll conclude this round
of Borg articles with a look at:

Mot's Advice on the Borg #31: Seven of Nine

This preview card found in the Dominion is unique, and I don't mean just
in the game sense of the word. With a number of regular skills, two
strong special skills and all three subcommand icons, there's no other
drone like her. She even gives some of the counterparts some serious
competition.

Let's start with a look at Seven's more conventional skills. Her first
listed skill is ENGINEER, which is most likely provided by the
Countermeasure Drone in your current strategy. If you're running an
Assimilate Counterpart strategy, then you probably also have the
Procurement and Transport Drones. You aren't likely to want to cut any
of these from your deck, thus Seven of Nine becomes a nice back-up in
case something bad should happen.

Next on Seven's skill list is Stellar Cartography. At present, your only
use for the skill is against Navigational Hazards, for which the
Transwarp Drone performs admirably with both required skills. And here
again, the Transwarp Drone has a special download you may already be
using him in your deck for. It depends on what your strategy is, and how
many Transwarp Network Gateways are in your deck; Seven may be a
replacement for the Transwarp Drone, or more likely, a reinforcement of
his skills.

Computer Skill is Seven's next skill. The Borg were never really at a
shortage for it, and now that the Complink Drone has arrived, you'll
rarely be missing it. As for Physics, no dilemmas require the skill as
yet, and until one does, it does nothing for you. So thus far, Seven of
Nine isn't coming out looking too great, with an array of skills that
are either of little importance or readily available on other drones
you're probably already using.

Of course, we all know it's not the regular skills that makes Seven of
Nine worth using. Unique among drones, Seven has all three subcommand
icons. Unique among all personnel in the game, she can contribute
multiple icons to ship staffing. Your Borg Cube can now move with only
five personnel aboard, rather than seven. This is an advantage, but one
that must be used cautiously.

What can you do with a Cube with only five Borg on it? Scouting space
missions is virtually out of the question. That's too many Borg to be
putting on the line as you might a Scout Vessel and its typically tiny
crew, but not enough Borg to expect to have the skills it would take to
overcome dilemmas. Scouting with five Borg could put you at risk to a
wide variety of nasty dilemmas, particularly combos including things
like Tarellian Plague Ship, Aphasia Device, Barclay's Protomorphosis
Disease and Strict Dress Code. If you're determined to rush out and
start working your objectives, planets are the way to go, as only one
Borg is at risk at a time. Even so, that one drone would be able to
overcome a lot more planet dilemmas if you wait to get an Interlink
Drone and a wider variety of skills on your Cube.

So if mission scouting looks to be a less-than-tempting proposition,
what about playing "Enforcer?" Get out there and threaten your
opponent's ships. Again, you run into a problem having only five Borg
aboard the Cube; you're presenting an appealing target. Your opponent
can beam over to your Cube and easily gut that tiny crew in battle with
little danger. In this case, your role as Enforcer probably needs to be
proactive. You strike first, using Eliminate Starship to destroy your
opponent's ship before its crew can beam over to battle. Alternately, if
you have access to Cloaking Device technology from Tomalak of Borg or
assimilation, hide your short-staffed Cube. It need only make an
appearance when it is time to strike; the rest of the time you can keep
it safe from intruders by cloaking it. Add in Engage Cloak to increase
the range that Cube can effectively enforce, and you're in business.

Seven of Nine's strongest skill was saved for last, however. She may
draw a card in place of a normal card play. The applications for this
skill are nearly endless. Players who have been using the Borg for some
time have probably noticed that after around five turns of constantly
playing cards in the early game, you often stop playing any altogether.
This is particularly true of Cube decks; once you've staffed a Cube with
a wide variety of drones, what else is left for you to play? In other
words, when playing Borg, it isn't uncommon to forgo your card play on
half of your turns or more.

Now that card play you don't need can become the card draw you might
need with Seven of Nine. Added to your regular card draw, you're now
twice as likely to draw into resources that are useful in scouting:
Adapts to respond to interference, Transwarp cards to more easily move
around, or perhaps some of the non-Borg cards you sprinkled in your
deck.

Of course, any card draw can be easily converted into a download by the
Borg, and that's where Seven of Nine becomes even stronger. Now in place
of your card play, you can download a Transwarp Network Gateway and move
your Cube. Or download an Adapt to use this turn against a dilemma that
stopped you last turn. Or pair up with the Borg Queen to staff your
ships twice as fast. Seven turns your card play into a draw, and the
Queen turns that into a download of a Borg drone (in addition to your
end of turn draw which the Queen also converts).

Two Borg of your choice each turn is great, but it's not the best you
can do. Consider the recent addition of We Are The Borg. With that,
Seven of Nine, and the Queen in play, you can now download three Borg
drones each turn. It leaves you with no actual card draws, but that is
exactly what you get when you use Activate Subcommands. It even does
that useful Borg event one better, not requiring you have a card in hand
to use, and not restricted to one drone of each subcommand. With We Are
The Borg, Seven and the Queen, you could perhaps download two
Communications drones and one Defense drone, or any other combination
that suits your purpose.

Best of all, since Seven herself is a drone, the Queen can download her
to get all this rampant downloading off and running. (She can also be
retrieved with Awaken and Activate Subcommands.) Assume you seed a
Complink Drone and start with a Queen in your opening hand. Play her,
and download Seven and the end of the turn. Now all you need is two more
drones (which can be downloaded in a single turn) and a Cube to be off
and running if you wish -- in just three turns. Add in We Are The Borg,
and you can fill a Cube's normal staffing requirements in the same
number of turns.

As great as all this sounds, let me stress: you don't absolutely need
Seven of Nine to build a strong, winning Borg deck. You can easily forgo
her skills and her staffing ability, while her second card draw is
duplicated precisely by We Are The Borg, or even The Traveler:
Transcendence. She is powerful because she provides all this on a
personnel card, and in a form that is cumulative with the other methods
of drawing extra cards. Nevertheless, any one of these methods of
drawing extra cards is strength enough to make a fearsome Borg deck. You
don't need them all. If you aren't fortunate to own a Seven of Nine,
don't worry about it. Use something else instead. Toss in a few Awakens
or Activate Subcommands and you probably won't even notice the
difference.

Secondly, if you do own a Seven of Nine, don't feel compelled to acquire
more. If you want to use three Seven of Nines in your deck, that's your
business. Again, it is not required. Play responsibly with the one you
have. Download her early, protect her with a Bio-Med Drone, and don't
scout planets with her unless you are truly done using her and willing
to risk losing her. Keep her alive, and you'll never need a second Seven
of Nine.

In other words, Seven of Nine is an incredibly useful tool. But she is
just that, a tool. In Star Trek, no Borg drone is more or less valuable
than any other, and in the game this extends even to Seven of Nine. If
you have her, use her. If you don't, so what? Either way, resistance is
futile.

And that brings to a close my analysis of Borg strategy in this
Renaissance era that is Enhanced First Contact and The Dominion. If
you've never tried the Borg before, hopefully you've seen something now
that may persuade you to get them a shot. If you aren't new to the Borg,
I hope you've found suggestions to improve your strategy. So, until
things change again with Blaze of Glory...

- Mot the Barber