Well, my Romulan Anti-Nor has been limited in its power ever since The Dominion was released. Specifically, the Sisko Subroutine keeps you from making a first-turn take-over unless you do something really funky with your deck (it would involve a Fed/Rom treaty, and perhaps a HQ and a lucky draw). So, let's move on to another kind of Nor commandeering: Empok Nor. This Nor was designed for the Feds, Rommies, and Klingons. However, the Feds can't benefit from Ore Processing, have enough redundant skills to make Ops downloading a bit inefficient, plus will have a difficult time of getting the Nor if you opponent gets it first. The Rommies can use it well, but they're pretty efficient as it is, plus they have redundant skills as well. However, such a Nor will be a help. But the affiliation that best makes use of Empok is the Klingons.
So, what's with this Klingon deck? It's a mission solver, and it does it very well. I've played it in two tourneys. In the first one, I finished third in a very close tournament, losing only to Qume. And this was despite the fact that I totally forgot about the Ops downloads - since I spent about 5 turns every game waiting to draw a specific skill, the saved time would have made a load of difference, espeically in my game against Qume (the next turn I would have solved a mission, getting me enough points to win the tournament overall). In the second tournament, however, I remembered the downloads. I went undefeated, only allowing my opponents to score a total of 5 points. Not bad...
But can it battle? Yes, without much difficulty. In the first game I played with this deck, I got three ships with WEAPONS of about 15 or so each without really thinking about it. However, if you're on a roll solving missions, just forget about the battling - it's even faster than a Romulan space deck when you build it correctly. But if a combo or two snags you, then go for his ship or outpost. Otherwise, just Process all the Ready Room Doors.
Facilities / Doorways (6)
Klingon Outpost
The Great Hall
Empok Nor
Spacedoor
Alternate Universe Door
Q's Tent
Sites (6)
Ops
Security Office
Promenade Shops
Science Lab
Ore Processing Unit
Docking Pylons
The Pylons are there for your Vor'chas to dock with. The Ore Processing Unit is pretty obvious. The Promenade Shops is there for personnel such as Lore to report to, plus allows you to download K'chiQ (just remember to move a male Klingon there the turn before). The Science Lab is there for your Geology personnel to report to, plus it lets you scan the bottom seed card under Mining Survey every turn. Security Office lets you download the likes of Worf Son of Mogh, and gives your hand weapons a place to download to when you take over the station.
Other Seed Cards (4)
HQ: Secure Homeworld
Assign Mission Specialists
Fair Play
Mirror Image
Qo'noS is very easy to solve for 35 points with the Klingons that report to the HQ for free, so the Secure Homeworld is very useful. AMS lets you grab the necessary Computer Skill and Klingon personnel before the game starts, all you need to do is provide the transportation. Also, it's very useful given the mission selection - see below. All the missions are protected by Fair Play, and will often get you 40 points with mission specialists. The only exception is Mining Survey, but considering you need a Nor with an OPU there to attempt it, you can pretty much feel secure that it won't be taken. As for Mirror Image, well, why not? It's way too useful not to use.
Missions (6)
Reported Activity
Distress Mission
Gault
Survey Mission
Mining Survey
Expose Covert Supply
Bontanical Research (Best replacement candidate)
Military Exercises (Best replacement candidate)
Notice anything about the missions? Yup, the two space missions are rather easy, and both require Physics, which I recommend starting with as your Klingon mission specialist. The four planet missions are also pretty easy given their requirements, and all four of them require at least one Honor; I included two Honor speciaists in my deck, and always had at least one in play before I went mission solving.
Dilemmas (20)
Dilemmas are totally up to you. No strategy in this deck depends on your dilemmas. Just go with your best 3-card combos, with an occasional 4-card one.
Draw Deck (47 - 2 for AMS)
Ready Room Door x3
Q's Tent x4
I.K.C. Bortas
I.K.C. Maht-H'a
I.K.C. Hegh'ta
I.K.C. Rotorran
I.K.C. K'Vort
Worf Son of Mogh
Martok
Morka
Kurn
Gowron
Kahless
Governor Worf
Kurak
Bo'rak
Nu'Daq
Kitrik
Divok
Kromm (Starting AMS)
Vekma
K'chiQ x2
Lore
Zef'No
Roga Danar
10 and 01
Retaya
Altovar
Dr. Reyga
Vekor
Narik (Starting AMS)
The Traveler: Transcendence
Red Alert!
Wrong Door
Kevin Uxbridge
Q2
Full Planet Scan x2
Palor Toff - Alien Trader x2
Scan
Q's Tent (13)
Alternate Universe Door
Q's Planet
Horga'hn
Process Ore
Regenerate
Defiant Dedication Plaque
Bynars Weapon Enhancement
Intermix Ratio
Captain's Log
Arbiter of Succession
The Devil
Full Planet Scan
Klingon Disruptor
What's with this deck? Seed Empok Nor at Mining Survey, and seed your outpost as close to your Nor as possible. Don't be too concerned if it's at a planet - even if it is nuked by the Sheliak, you can still report to The Great Hall, and repair at the Docking Pylons if necessary. However, I almost always complete the two space missions first anyway. Well, on your first turn, play (or download) a K'Vort, move it to Empok, and commandeer it. Second turn, download Ore Processing and move Kromm over to the OPU. After that, you can take it from there. I would suggest that you report a SCIENCE person to the Science Lab to scan. I almost always find a Lack of Preparation/Borg Ship/Maglock there, so send in Vekor and Kurak (downloading Kurak, if necessary) and an ENGINEER, then you can download Morka and use him with Kromm and a few others to solve the mission for the 45 points.
The second mission I often go for is Survey Mission, because it's very easy. Again, Kromm and Morka will net you 40 points. Now that I think of it, it might be a good idea to include a File Mission Report, and use it on whatever SCIENCE person you used to solve Mining Survey. This will give you 50 points, enough to pass any Dead End, plus solving Survey Mission will net you 90 points. Just Tent for an Arbiter of Succession to give you the win. This happened twice to me, but I got the 5 extra points through opponents' dilemmas like the Plague Ship.
It would be helpful to get out Q's Planet and the Horga'hn as soon as possible. Place it between two universal Space missions as a Black Hole defense if it's there. Otherwise, well, I've noticed that recently people haven't been stocking dilemmas in their Tents, and that The Devil is getting less and less common. Plus, Fair Play protects your Q's Planet from your opponent, so he can't get the Horga'hn no matter what. This will allow you to trample your opponent, but it's by no means necessary - I only did this in my second tourney, and even then it was nullified twice. But even one extra turn is worth it, plus it prevents your opponent from getting a cheap artifact grab or Colony location as well.
The draw deck might seem a little large at first, but it's not all that bad. Plus, you'll draw it quickly using Ore Processing. The Red Alert is there to report the personnel after a number of turns of Ore Processing, if you find it necessary. That, plus you could just feed off of your opponents' - I think I used Red Alert in three of my four games last tourney, and I never even played mine.
You do have two Honor specialists in the deck, but no way to download them. My original deck did have an extra AMS in the Tent, but I took it out in favor of the Q's Planet combo. I just never found the need to get it in the first tourney, because I often drew at least one of the two specialists. Besides, Kahless reports for free to The Great Hall, and you'd normally draw at least one after a few turns with Ore Processing and possibly The Traveler.
The Klingon Disruptor is there for you to download when you commandeer Empok Nor. You might want to include a Disrputor Rifle of your choice (there's enough Non-Aligned personnel to ensure that you could use it) as a second to overcome Berserk Changeling, but I often have enough SECURITY to get past it (Worf alone helps a lot). They can also be used to discard to Common Thief, but it's easier, IMHO, to scan the mission, then redshirt with a personnel whose total CUNNING and STRENGTH is greater than 14, or just to throw away an unneeded personnel.
As I mentioned above, this deck can battle if you get stuck by a combo or two, but it's generally easier to solve your missions quickly than to go hunting your opponent. You can Ready Room Door for a Captain's Log, use the Bynars to download the Weapon Enhancement, and use Martok's ability (plus Worf and Gowron on the Bortas) to assemble an impressive fleet. If you're up against a Borg Swarm deck, you can easily place a Hegh'ta on one end of the spaceline and the Rotarran on the other side, giving you WEAPONS of 10 or 12 or so to pick off the scouts. But otherwise, just process your RRD's to draw your scans and mission solvers.
Well, that's about it for this deck. Remember, some skills that are commonly found on wall dilemmas, like Exobiology, aren't found in a great abundence in this deck. In this case, use K'chiQ wisely - position a male Klingon in the Promenade and download on your next turn. There's also not a ton of MEDICAL in this deck, but the only real reason why you'd might need MEDICAL is to pass Hippocratic Oath - you can redshirt through the other MEDICAL dilemmas if necessary. Just position a male Klingon on the nearest planet and give K'chiQ MEDICAL if it's necessary. Who needs Reflection Therapy when you have a few K'chiQs? :-)
Jolan tru,
Alidar Jarok
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