Well, The Dominion is now out, along with the Dominion itself. Just like when First Contact came out, a lot of players are trying to find what kind of deck strategies work best. I've seen a number of people ask questions on the BBS and mailing list about what kinds of Dominion decks work. I've been asked this question a lot, especially since I won a tournament with the Dominion only a few days after the set was released. Anyway, here are some...
This is the type of deck that I used to win at a tournament a few days after the set was released. In this issue, Neral's Decks on a Budget features a very similar deck. His uses mostly common and uncommon cards, because that's what the deck is based around. You'll see that the mission requirements for this deck are essentially "Vorta + 4 Jem'Hadar", so a common Jemmie will do just as well as a rare one.
Of course, there are a few variations that you can throw in to make your deck a little more efficient...
I'll throw in a few words about Neral's deck here. First of all, though he's right that you don't want to be caught without any White, I think he went a little overboard. I had four White in my deck, and rarely used up one. Second, and related to the first, the Attack Ship is a good ship to include along with the Warship. You could seed a Depot at a Survey Star System located right next to a Colony Preparations. Each turn you can load all your "used" White on the ship with one Jem'Hadar (or Vorta, if you have one to spare, to be safe), fly it to the outpost to refill it and pick up any personnel you reported that turn, and return in time to not affect your Colony points in any way. Sure, you could use the Warship here, but if the ship gets hit with a Rogue Borg, you lose only one point on the following turn. Either way, because of the short Gamma spaceline, you'll rarely be more than a turn away from a Depot. As for the necessity of protecting White from Disruptor Overload, well, I can't say for sure. My tourney was only a few days after the set was released, so they probably didn't include any Overloads expecting the Dominion. In fact, I often had to show them every card I played because they didn't have the set yet. ;-)
Yes, the Dominion is rather tricky to play at first, primarily because of their need for White and the fact that they start in the Gamma Quadrant. However, with a little practice, you'll find that they can be a force to be reckoned with, especially in DS9-only tournaments.
Jolan tru,
Alidar Jarok
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