Standard Cardassian Punishment

This Deck article was written by openCards user Jaglom Shrek at Mar 20th, 2008.

This Deck was used in the following tournament:
Rank 13 (13/14) - Landesmeisterschaft 2008 (Hessen) (Kassel/Germany)

Standard Cardassian Punishment

Deck listing:

Missions: •Investigate Stalled Ship (8 U 57) •Kressari Rendezvous (1 U 184) •Advanced Combat Training (7 U 46) •Evacuate Colony (1 U 165) •Cardassia Prime, Hardscrabble World (1 U 153)

Dilemma pile (45): Space: 11 / Planet: 9 / Dual: 25 1× Agonizing Encounter (8 R 1) 2× An Issue of Trust (10 R 2) 1× Back Room Dealings (4 C 6) 1× Blended (1 U 11) 1× Chula: The Chandra (14 U 4) 1× Command Decisions (1 S 17) 1× Cultural Differences (8 C 8) 1× Dangerous Liaisons (1 C 21) 1× Distress Call (12 R 4) 1× Excalbian Drama (12 C 5) 1× Fesarius Bluff (12 C 6) 2× Gomtuu Shock Wave (3 R 12) 1× Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (4 C 15) 3× Hard Time (6 P 6) 1× Heart to Heart (7 C 6) 2× Inferiority (14 U 5) 1× Kolaran Raiders (1 S 33) 1× Maglock (1 R 35) 1× Magnetic Field Disruptions (1 C 36) 2× Moral Choice (14 C 7) 1× Necessary Execution (10 C 12) 1× No Kill I (12 R 14) 1× Nose to Nose (10 C 13) 2× Old Differences (14 C 10) 1× Outclassed (8 R 13) 1× Outmatched (7 C 9) 1× Personal Duty (1 R 42) 1× Picking Up the Pieces (2 U 17) 1× Racial Tension (2 C 20) 3× Skeleton Crew (3 U 28) 2× The Caretaker's "Guests" (11 PF 6) 1× The Dal'Rok (13 R 20) 1× Triage (1 C 57) 1× Warp Bubble Mishap (8 C 19) 1× Where No One Has Gone Before (7 R 15)

Draw deck (40): Event (8): 3× Machinations (2 R 49) 2× Quantum Incursions (5 P 10) 3× The Play's the Thing (5 P 17) Interrupt (6): 3× Comfort Women (1 U 123) 3× Standard Punishment (13 U 43) Personnel (22): 1× •Damar, Cardassian Liberator (13 U 52) 1× •Danar, Irascible Gul (1 U 232) 1× •Dukat, Prefect of Bajor (5 P 24) 3× •Elim Garak, Crafty Underling (13 R 53) 1× •Evek, Attaché to the Demilitarized Zone (1 R 239) 3× Gaard (12 C 99) 1× Goran (6 P 45) 2× •Kira Nerys, Starfleet Emissary (6 P 50) 1× •Lemec, Posturing Negotiator (1 U 244) 1× •Macet, Skeptical Commander (10 R 58) 2× •Mardel, Overseer (13 U 54) 1× •Odo, Impartial Investigator (4 R 121) 1× •Oran, Irritable Gul (12 U 49) 1× •Rusot, Proud Nationalist (4 U 122) 1× •Silaran Prin, Between Darkness and Light (14 U 69) 1× •Toran, Ambitious Brute (4 R 124) Ship (4): 1× •Aldara (2 R 170) 2× Galor (1 C 384) 1× •Prakesh (1 U 387)

Hints & strategie notes for this Deck

It took me some time before I came to the conclusion. But finally it was a simple one: The only way to motivate myself to build a new deck for last Saturday's tournament was to try something I've never seen before on a tournament in my area - and on the same time something that was not meant to be a pure fun deck but also a solid winning opportunity.

A certain card had appeared in my mental view again and again over the course of the previous month whenever I thought of being creative: Elim Garak, Crafty Underling. Ironically I never really tried to build a deck around him but became interested in the Cardassians by a new personnel found in STCCG's final physical set What You Leave Behind. Silaran Prin, assassin and his picture well known from its 1E counterpart, made me scheming a Cardassian theme again. So I began to search for cards that could be combined for maximum effect in completing missions and found both the classic interrupt Comfort Women and the newer Standard Punishment. What I needed for my deck now were Guls and they were easy to get together because over the years 2E got filled with them in most sets. Originally their greatest disadvantage was the cost of greater than two but now this showed to be the basis for my combo: I planned to use The Play's the Thing for my personnel to be converted into rough and punishable men from the Alterne Universe.

To speed up the drawability of my deck I chose Quantum Filament which created additional synergy with Elim Garak, Standard Punishment and The Play's the Thing. Now I could replace my hand with cards from my drawdeck in order to find the next The Play's the Thing in time before it counted down. Some Guls and support personnel later (and not to forget suitable ships with good range) I had my deck ready to play its first match - and suddenly found out that I mixed up all the things I had in mind when building the deck. Especially as my first opponent was a Maquis player with Biogenic Weapon and Strange New Worlds. I sent Elim to early mission attempts not recognizing he himself had both the needed Anthropology and Law and discarded my other Law personnel for killing some Maquis guy with Toran. Next game was not better but even worse: Again I sent Elim into senseless mission attempts (where he got killed, of course) and put Oran into action without realizing his effect only lasted till the end of the turn ... To sum up I guess my deck was a lot better than my playing abilities that day. Probably it might see another tournament as it had an excellent moment that shouldn't be forget: In my final game against Europe's vice-champion Tobias Rausmann (who played Dabo without the slightest luck in our confrontation) he managed to destroy all my The Play's the Things. So I already though the three Standard Punishment I had on my hand were useless. It seemed to become even worse when two Comfort Women joined my background forces. I will never forget Tobias' look when he was sure I couldn't complete my mission when playing all these five interrupts at once made the difference - with only one Gul and one AU personnel remaining in my attempting team! :)