Posted: 04 January 2008 at 7:51am | IP Logged

-Howdy all. In response to a thread below, i'll kick start a discussion about Psy/Vis decks to make them viable. Now i know most here do not play regularly in duels, but if you are to post comments/strategies/designs/etc. make sure to give mention to both formats of play for us folks that have no groups (or no duels, for that matter) to play.

I have recently played against a psy deck and can say that the promo terrain my opponent stuck them on made them darn hard to kill without an overload of command points. In a duel, you just cannot field enough ships sometimes to blow those terrain out without more command points than you even put in your deck. So, although this is supposed to be a Psy thread, i guess my only contribution is:

"if yer playing against a psy deck, bring your ships and some good ol' fashion terrain destruction/hosing cards".

So, what else ya got?

Lobo 

Posted: 04 January 2008 at 2:14pm | IP Logged

I think Geko summed up the issues with Psy clearly. There are simply too many ways to attack them and they are too slow to develop.

I don't think they are workable in multi-player at all - at least not in a standard, competitive environment.

In a duel, if you customize your deck to inhibit/slow the opponent on the first few turns then you might be able to get ahead and stay ahead. If the game goes long then I think the Psy's are at a serious disadvantage because a balanced/prepared deck will eventually find the 'right' answer.

With that thought in mind I think you need stuff you can play aggresively against the opponent during his first turn. I'm looking for stuff you can get out in reaction to his first turn terrain play. I'll have to look at the cards (its been a day or two) but there should be several reaction cards you can use to 'go off' in the opponents first 3 turns.

What are the rules for aggresively muliganning?

J--

Posted: 05 January 2008 at 12:20am | IP Logged

Time Kinghts would be an interesting bolster to a Psi deck.  It would work OK if a case could be made that as psi cards are a type of crew, you could have 1 knight for each 4 psi's in the deck.  Roll cybercysts to get around that little command point issue and you have a bit more beef both offensively and defensively.

Even if you had to run a full complimant of crew there are a lot of psi complimentary crew cards you could use.  Only problem I see would be where to put them all!  Promo terrain would be vital.

Posted: 05 January 2008 at 12:30am | IP Logged

My other thought for bolstering a psi deck is to use an extreme amount of hazard, luck, or occurance cards the put your opponents cards temporarily or permanently out of play.  H1 Time Warp, R/O1 Time Skip, H9 Dimensional Portal, H9 Tuforeous Dead Zone, L4 or L6 Navigational Error, L8 Vacuum Effect, so many more. 

I figure if you can limit your targets each turn you might stand more of a chance.  This strategy would only work in a duel environment but if you stock enough cards that can aid you in getting rid of ships, even say H1 Divergent Anomoly just might get you enough shots at your opponents sector HQ for a quick win.

Posted: 09 January 2008 at 8:41am | IP Logged

-There's a F1 field i think that is a terrain destruction field. Combine that with occurrences like Comet Impact, Sun Spot, Shipping Delays, etc. for resource denial. The F1 fits nicely into the reserve or the deck proper as you can stock 8 of those things, making drawing one a bit better odds.

If you are worried about needing counters, the lack of Time Skips could be made up by using Luck cards. You would have access to Temp Correction, Twist of Fate, etc for defence, but also could incorporate cards such as L5 Ice Age for furthering the resource denial them.

Just a thought.....Lobo