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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 12:41pm | IP Logged
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I decided to try making a 100 card Vektrean deck. Let me know what you guys think, I tried to play to some of their strengths (command points).
Ships (28) 1x S1 Vektrean Patrol Ship 1x S2 Vektrean Frigate 1x S3 Vektrean Destroyer 1x S4 Vektrean Light Cruiser 1x S5 Vektrean Heavy Cruiser 3x S6 Vektrean Spy Cruiser 3x S6 Vektrean Battlecruiser 1x S6 Companion Games Flagship 3x S6 Independent Pirate Ship 1x S6 Police Cruiser 3x S7 Vektrean Dreadnought 2x S8 Ship of the Ancients 1x S8 Pirate Battlecruiser 2x S8 Lone Wolf Battlecruiser 2x S9 Pirate Dreadnought 2x S9 Lone Wolf Dreadnought
Terrain (24) 1x T1 Helix Crystal 1x R/T2 Asteroid Shield 1x T3 Alternate Universe 1x T4 Small Planet - Reactionary World 1x T4 White Dwarf 4x T5 Galactic Trade World 1x T/B6 Vektrean Asteroid Station 3x T7 Fantasy System (2 proxy) 1x T7 Phillipovis 1x T/B7 Vektrean Asteroid Carrier 2x T8 Chronos 2x T8 Neumannia 1x T9 Vinciennes 2x T/B9 Vektrean Asteroid Starbase 1x T10 Intergalactic Void 1x T10 Mayfair System Galaxy Express 999
Crew (13)
1x R/C1 Super Model
1x R/C2 Science Officer
1x C3 Media Personality
2x R/C4 Marine
1x C5 Quartermaster
1x C6 Cyber Mage
1x C7 Tactical Officer
1x C8 Spiritual Leader
2x R/C9 Temporal Engineer
1x C10 Spiritual Leader
1x C10 War Prophet
Occurences (12) 1x R/O1 Time Skip 1x R/O2 Partial Regeneration 1x R/O3 Crinkled Timeline 1x R/O4 Repair Delivery 1x R/O5 Stolen Technology 3x O6 Technological Breakthrough 2x O7 Surprise Attack 2x O8 Technological Breakthrough
Equipment (8) 1x R/E1 Terrain Attack Shuttle 1x R/E2 Repulsion Beam 1x R/E3 Shroud Web Device 1x R/E4 Multi-Purpose Phasers 1x E5 Antimatter Mine 3x R/E6 Vektrean Fighter
Luck (5) 1x R/L1 Lucky Crew Action 1x R/L2 Phaser Malfunction 1x R/L3 Unlucky Targetting 2x R/L4 Miscommunicartion
Monsters (5) 1x M1 Research Defiler 1x M2 Planet Gouge 1x M3 Research Mandator 2x R/M9 Luck Demon (exceptions)
Agenda (5) 5x G1 Time Manipulation
The idea is to get lots of ships into play fast with the tech breakthroughs, surprise attacks, and fantasy systems. The Void will be good to get a ship turned on for free each turn. I have the Spiritual Leaders to help me fight monsters, and the Luck Demons to help shut down luck cards. I figure the 5 agendas are basically free "draw 3's" because everybody runs time cards. The War Prophet is one of the bets crew ever if you plan on winning by ship power alone, so he had to go in. The Vektrean Fighters are there so I can make my Vek ships into the basis of stacks, so a lot of cards won't be able to target them.
I realize the deck is kind of weak to stolen technology and possibly hazards + occurences, but I like to think I have shut down monsters and luck cards against it, and with a War Prophet out I may be able to force my way through to victory.
What do you guys think? This is my first crack at a "small" deck. I do realize I didn't use much equipment, and that is a Vektrean strong point, but I think I'm better off stocking more ships than a few cards that do nothing unless they're on a ship.
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Lobo IRC
Joined: 04 July 2007 Location: United States Posts: 533
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 1:44pm | IP Logged
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-Howdy and good afternoon. As i run smaller decks often (despite the decks i have built now in attempts to break that mold) i can tell you the strength in smaller decks is the draw percentage. Instead of mushrooming all the categories, stock 4-8 copies of the same card in a category for consistent drawing, pounding, and effect. Case in point: Luck cards.
If i'm only running 5 luck cards, i'd stock 4 phaser malfunctions or 4 warp engine breaches. Gives the deck consistency. Miscommunications i won't comment on, but only 1 out of 50 draw chance isn't the best set of odds. The better your reliability of drawing cards, the more comfortable you'll be with what your deck can do.
Second suggestion: Terrain. 4 Galactic Trade Worlds used to be staples in my decks until i read the card again. It says Hazards and Occurences cannot *damage* terrain. Doesn't prevent them from affecting it otherwise. I'd throw out three of them and stock one more T9 Vinciennes and a couple more Reactionary Worlds or two others of your particular flavor choice.
Third suggestion: Ship choice. S8 Ship of the Ancients is worth it if you go equipment heavy due to their ability. With limited equipment, there are better choices. A couple more S6 Police Cruisers or drop Lone Wolf and go with Infected (no crew get onboard to TNB) or Council of Six (no occurrence = help in that area of perceived weakness) that have sufficient compliment to stock 7-10 strength ships. Plus, even using their S7s instead of the Ancients gets you more command points available. Again, playing to the strength and consistency of the draws.
That's all from me, good luck with it, have a good day.
Lobo
Edited by Lobo on 11 December 2008 at 1:45pm
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MogwaiSC IRC
Joined: 20 January 2004 Location: United States Posts: 903
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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I agree with the big generic ships... throw in 2x S8 Ship of the Ancients,
2x S8 Lost Pirate Ship, and 2x S9 Renegade Ship if you have them. The
Renegade ship is particularly handy because your opponent has to pay
the command point for it, and even though it's particularly expensive to
engage (4 economy as part of its cost), even if you don't power it up,
your opponent will still shoot it first to save himself the command point.
Not meaning to throw a wet blanket on your work here, but bases are a
particular Vektrean strength, and can be stocked as T's so you don't
need other B's in your deck to support them. Throw in a couple of the
T/B 9's; you'll get another command point each from them, and if you
drop a C7 Tac Officer on them, they'll protect your SHQ as well.
It might be worth going to 125 to get those T/B's, Tac Officers, more
big ships, and a couple extra cybermages as well. Plus you'll get another
entity, which you could use for a Flagstar (if you have one that I guess I
should add). I myself am particularly fond of the Galactic Trade World
as it adds 2 to the strength of any crew on it. That's great for
Cybermages, Cyber Programmers, and Prophets.
Edit: Oh, and if you have a couple more of the S6 police ships, put them
in and pair them up with the Fantasy systems; the police ships have to
be played to a terrain, so why not play them for free to the Fantasy
systems? If you also add the other big generic ships, you could take out
the S6 pirates; you'll be trading them up for larger ships that have about
the same engagement cost.
Edited by MogwaiSC on 11 December 2008 at 2:35pm
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 2:39pm | IP Logged
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I actually thought of almost all of those things as I was stocking the deck, here's why I did what I did.
Terrain: We limit ourselves to 1 Reactionary World in my group or I would have four. I could cut 3 of the T5's for another T9, but I'm not sure what else to use. If I had some Gor's Planet, I would probably run that. I'll see what I can come up with.
Luck: That's a good idea, I think I'll switch it to the Phaser Malfunctions. It's just the power of the Miscomm is so tempting. :)
Ships: I would run more S6 Police Ships if I had them, same with Council of Six (i only have a handful of Co6). The Vinciennes, Lone Wolves, and Infected are the only tribes I have enough cards from to stock a decent amount at higher levels. Why do no crew get onboard Infected to TNB? I run the S8 because it's relatively cheap to turn on for the amount of phaser fire you get, but I'll see if I can find anything better.
What do you think about my draw strategy? Are 5 tech breakthroughs, 5 Time Manipulations, and some assorted crew enough to get my ship machine going?
Thanks for all the feedback!
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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Ah, I was typing as you posted, Mogwai. I am trying to keep the deck at 100 cards, otherwise I would definitely expand in the direction of more T/B's. I do run about four of them right now.
I like to focus my crew on T8 Chronos because that gives them the most protection from the spot removal that could take them out for a turn or discard them, so not too many will get put onto the Trade World. I stocked four because it provides a great deal of economy, which is exactly what I need.
If I had other big generics, I would stock them over the S6's.
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Lobo IRC
Joined: 04 July 2007 Location: United States Posts: 533
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 4:01pm | IP Logged
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-Check out eric's rules site for the Infected class rules and why crew don't go there without protection (ie automaton or battle suit).
"All Infected class cards belong to the Infected Indirigan Tribe. - Infected locations CANNOT be the target of boarding actions by non-automaton Crew cards. - Infected locations cannot perform boarding actions with non-automaton crew against non-Infected locations (prevents the disease from spreading, you see...)."
Good luck
Lobo
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 11 December 2008 at 4:59pm | IP Logged
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Interesting... does this mean if I play one of my crew to an Infected ship, that crew is now "infected"? Does that stop it from moving to a location with others of my crew?
I think I may change things up a bit.
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Gekonauak IRC
Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 1595
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Posted: 12 December 2008 at 11:09am | IP Logged
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I would swap out the Galactic Trade Worlds all together. If you aren't running 4 Reactionary Worlds in that slot, put in a Dark Mountain, this way anytime your opponent draws a card outside of the end of their turn, you get to steal one.
Why are you concerned about moving your crew around?
Take out the E3 - E6, and just run 4 Repulsion Beams.
I'd take out the O2 Partial Regeneration for a O2 Dream State, it is a reactionary way of dealing with opponent crew. And, use the R/O4 Temporary Insanity instead of the O4 Repair Delivery for the same reason.
I cannot stress the importance enough of being able to deal with opponent crew.
And, while we are talking about crew...
Why are you running two C4 Marines? One would suffice. You are really just filling the slot. It isn't part of any sort of theme. I might use the C4 Science Officer, C4 Temporal Engineer or C4 Cyber Mage instead of a C4 Marine.
The C1 Model is a waste without anything to boost her strength. Are the Spiritual Leaders there to do that? If so, great, if not, a C1 Science Officer would probably be better. He doesn't need help to battle monsters.
And, the C7 Tactical Officer can only help on one of the T/Bs? How about using a C7 Noble Thane or the C7/3 Time Knight?
I'd throw in the other two Miscomms if you have them. They are too useful.
And, if Eric's site were working, I would give you more input on the Terrain and, more importantly, Ships.
But, let me do it anyway.
For terrain, I agree to add in the other T9 Vinciennes. Other than what I mentioned above, the rest appears to be fine.
Although I wouldn't use the T10 Mayfair System. One less card means that you will be drawing a ship that much more frequent. You don't have to stick to 100 cards, 99 or 98 would work just a little better.
I disagree about the S8 Ship of the Ancients only being useful if you are running equipment. It costs two research to engage and it has 8 weapons. One of the keys to running a bunch of ships is to power them all. Whcih leads to my next point. I would stock the bigger independants because of their engagement to weapons ratio. Stick to low cost and high result ships.
I wouldn't use the S9 Renegade because while it does eat up an opponent command slot, he needs to have an open slot for you to play it. Of course the idea would be for you to soot his ships opening a slot, but killing a ship doesn't always accomplish that.
Edited by Gekonauak on 12 December 2008 at 1:01pm
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 13 December 2008 at 7:28am | IP Logged
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Sadly, I don't have most of those cards you mentioned, or I might run them. Dark Mountain sounds pretty cool. I cut 2 of the Trade Worlds and added 1 Infected World and the other T9
The R/E6 is there to make my Vektrean Ships the basis of stacks. If someone tries to Vaccum Effect, Crinkle, Twist of Fate, etc. them during the Weapons Fire Phase, I can respond with the fighter. This comes up a lot in my usual playgroup, so it seems like a useful play. Do you think just sticking with the Repulsion Beams would be better than using the E6's for this purpose?
The R/C1 is a total waste, but I have no other good C1 cards. I don't think I have a Noble Thane either. The only cards besides Universe, Primary, Time Gates, Piracy, New Empires, and PoTM that I have, I had to trade for. So I wouldn't have many commons/uncommons/rares from those sets.
Two Marines are there to give me some way to defend my crew. I figure I can deal with most opponent crew by being able to destroy the location they are on, but if there are better ways I am open to suggestion. C3 Media Personality is good for opponent crew, but I know it's bad to just rely on one card out of 100.
The T10 Mayfair is in there because it is one of the best terrain in the game. If I could it, it would be to add a T/B10 or a Primordial Warrior or some other useful entity.
About ships, if I had better generics I would probably consider running them.
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ceejee Acolyte
Joined: 03 March 2008 Location: United States Posts: 21
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Posted: 13 December 2008 at 9:00am | IP Logged
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A small thing but i would replace the S2 frigate with the T/S2 Vektrean Asteroid freighter, for 2 reasons it's played engaged and it take heavy weapons to destroy. It can also go in the T2 spot.
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MogwaiSC IRC
Joined: 20 January 2004 Location: United States Posts: 903
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Posted: 13 December 2008 at 3:37pm | IP Logged
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RobPro wrote:
The R/E6... Do you think just sticking with the
Repulsion Beams would be better than using the E6's for this purpose?
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It's always useful to have an empire fighter in your deck... they
pay for themselves many times over. It's also a good idea to consider
putting it or one of them in your reserve.
RobPro wrote:
The R/C1 is a total waste, but I have no other good C1
cards. |
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Do you have an C1 Sys-Ops? They're one of if not the
most useful C1's in the game. The R/C1 isn't a waste if you have an
R/A9 Accidental Evolution to go with it.
As for CeeJee's suggestion, if you have two of them, use both; one for
the T2 spot, and the other for the S2 spot. Put as many of them in as
you can, they're great little ships. Two economy and two phasers free
every turn.
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 14 December 2008 at 10:12am | IP Logged
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Sadly, I don't have any of those ships.
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Gekonauak IRC
Joined: 10 May 2006 Posts: 1595
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Posted: 15 December 2008 at 8:51am | IP Logged
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This is a dueling deck. I don't think you should worry about Crinkles and such affecting your ships.
In any case the Repulsion Beams can do the same thing. Also, since they are played to your ship and then activated against an opponent, they cannot be Temp. Corrected.
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 16 December 2008 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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So I made this deck in an attempt to get my friends to start playing. I've put together 3 other 100-card decks (Mechads, Argonians, Vinceinnes) that I'll try to post when I get a chance. I just got power back yesterday, and I still have no Internet at home (posting from school), so I'll do it when I can.
Somethings they told me they don't like: *War Prophets - They don't think its fun when he hits the table, even though a few of my decks have them and every deck has ways to kill him. I've decided to cut him from my decks. I replaced him with a Privateer in this deck. *T/B's - They don't seem to be having much fun when one person manages to throw a few of these down. I might just run 1 T/B9 if they're still not having fun.
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Lobo IRC
Joined: 04 July 2007 Location: United States Posts: 533
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Posted: 03 March 2009 at 7:55am | IP Logged
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-I'm necro'ing this to post a bit about my Vek base deck experience yesterday and reserve the space to put my deck list down here. The T/B thing can be a bit daunting if the game goes on for several turns, but i made my version of this deck primarily for multi-player. Perhaps i made myself an easy target, no?
I can see, in theory, player's points as to certain cards being no fun. I think that's why Galaktische has wisely steered us away from using terrain destruction themes in decks as well as avoiding using his Time Knight army against me. Later this week i'll post what i came up with for a Vek/Base deck in a separate post so we can yell at each other as to what works, what doesn't, etc.
Tranoans hate these decks, by the way, as they don't have heavy weapons.....Lobo
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RobPro IRC
Joined: 10 May 2004 Location: United States Posts: 835
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Posted: 03 March 2009 at 12:29pm | IP Logged
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Well, there are certainly ways to make this deck more "competitive" or "better," but I am trying to keep them all balanced relative to each other. This is another deck I'm using alongside my Vinceinnes and Mechad decks.
The fourth one is a deck I'm still working on... I was hoping to use Scorpead, but I don't have enough of their empire-specific cards to make it worthwhile and I don't have enough Indirigans to make another deck fully stocked with ships. I'm on the lookout for either Infected or Council of Six ships, or more Scorpead goodies.
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