Counters Corner #1: Attack Decks

By Captain Barclay

    The Counters Corner series will be a series of strategy articles telling you how to get by many types of popular tournament decks. For those of us who have that strange feeling Trouble with Tribbles won't be out on time, let's look at an article purely on countering the hated attack deck.
    Attack decks have proven to be devastating. Get ships out, followed closely by personal, attack, and then mop up points. You may think many attack decks run out of cards in their draw deck. Not so, this type of deck has a huge draw deck, sometimes well over 45 cards. And with this comes downloading.  So how do you counter this?
    Incoming Message- Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Dominion, Ferengi. Incoming Messages are an oldie but a goody. By putting these in your Q's Tent you have a strong backbone against attack decks. Once their armada forms, and is on their way to your Outpost, choose their strongest ship (remember all enhancements, some may be tricky to spot as an opposing player, such as Gowron and Worf, son of Mogh, on the Bortas). This is somewhat risky however, as if you play an Incoming Message, and they have no Outpost (an unlikely event once TwT comes out) the Interrupt is void. You'll also note that I have omitted the Federation Incoming Message. This is because Federation attack decks need so many others things to work that the rest of this article takes care of it. This also saves space in your Tent for other cards.
    Nutational and Metaphasic Shields. If you remember the old guide, at least one of these were listed as being one of the top 50 cards in the game. After so long, they still rank up there. The ability to increase your shields is important in any deck, much less defending an attack deck. By using strong Engineers and Scientists these really become a plus. Geordi LaForge, Montgomery Scott, and Dr. Reyga all work well with these.
    Kevin Uxbridge. Everyone knows of this interrupt, which nullifies any events, except treaties, and any artifacts played as treaties. This works not only when the event comes into play, but afterwards, also. This means you shouldn't feel shy about putting Kevin in your draw deck if you need to free up Tent Space. What specific events that help out attack decks? Bynars Weapon Enhancements, Captain's Log are just two of the many. Federation attack decks may have a Wartime Conditions, while Dominion attack decks may have an Invasive Beam-In, all of which can be nullified with Kevin. Finally the second part of Kevin Uxbirdge's text comes into play. Quite a few attack decks revolve around one ship, getting Kurlan Naiskos and blowing up enemy ships. Use Kevin here also to rid yourself of that over powerful opponent. Remember, you may want to stock multiple Kevins, or even stock just one if not expecting an attack deck. This is an extremely underrated card in today's tournament play.
    The Devil. This is one you might not think of, but it's vital for stopping Federation attack decks. Because the three-way treaty takes away all affiliation attack restrictions, the Feds are now able to go beat up whoever they want with their powerful ships. Also suggested in correlation with this is a Palor Toff- Alien Trader, very simply if they have the Treaty out with Open Diplomatic Relations, they'll get it back and you'll only have made them discard two card from their hand. That second nullification is very important.
    Asteroid Sanctuary. A Tournament Level card that deserves at least a Tent consideration. By being able to significantly delay your ship from being attacked this turn, you can set up any final things you need to properly defend yourself, more engineers for Nutuational Shields, etc. This also forces your opponent to give you another turn. This works great if the score is 75-35, your lead, and all your personal are on one ship. Want to super crew, this card works great just for that.
    Emergency Evacuation and Escape Pod. Really afraid of attack decks, you might consider seeding this hidden agenda. Whenever your ship is destroyed, this event let's you do one of several things. These include placing your entire crew under an Abandon Ship dilemma. This works great if your opponent is simply trying to capture your personal before they go hunting. Or, to download Escape Pod. This method works best, as the Pod is unseen by enemy ships, and will keep your crew safe until the next ship comes along. As long as your opponent isn't carrying an Amanda Rogers, you'll be best off this way. If you know that your opponent does have an Amanda (life form scan anyone?) then the final function is for you. You may relocate entire crew to a planet at that location. This comes in as the worse of the two options, as your opponent can then beam down and start battling you, which is simply delaying the enviable.
    Computer Crash. "Playing Ready Room Door to download Captain's Log and protecting it." Now instead of glumly hanging your head, say "no" confidently and reveal your Computer Crash on them. Prevent their download, and then wait for them to get out the Log itself. Play Kevin Uxbridge on it as described earlier, and they will idealy have comanders on all their ships to look good. Hopefully this will also prevent the download by the Jupiter, and stop them there, also. With as large a draw deck as discussed briefly earlier, the less of their main cards they can get out, the better.

    As the intended purpose of this article is to provide meaningful counters, let's look briefly at a list of your Tent cards as described in this article.

  1. Incoming Message- Klingon
  2. Incoming Message- Romulan
  3. Incoming Message- Cardassian
  4. Incoming Message- Bajoran
  5. Incoming Message- Dominion
  6. Incoming Message- Ferengi
  7. Nutautional Shields
  8. Metaphasic Shields
  9. Kevin Uxbridge
  10. The Devil
  11. Asteroid Sanctuary
  12. Emergency Evacuation
  13. Escape Pod
    In The draw deck....


    Seeded Cards...

  •     Computer Crash (works great even if not with attack decks).
    •


        That fills up a Tent just on attack decks. Look as articles go more along the line for me to stop and put them all together for one balanced set of 13 cards to counter almost anything.

        This ends Counter's Corner #1- Attack Decks, and using this information may you live long and prosper. 1