Section 1: The Cards:
Aftermaths:
Approval of the Grey x2, Crisis of Self x2, Grievance, Negotiated Surrender
x2, Personal Sacrifice, United Front.
Total
# of aftermaths: 9
Agendas:
Power Politics, Peace in Our Time x2, Support of the Mighty
Total
# of agendas: 4
Characters:
Delenn, Dhaliri, Durlan, Draal, Hedronn, Minbari Aide x2, Rathenn, Shakat,
Warleader Shakiri.
Total
# of Characters: 10
Diplomacy
Conflicts: Non-Aligned Support, Affirmation of Peace x2
Total
# of Diplomacy Conflicts: 3
Intrigue
Conflicts: None
Total
# of Intrigue Conflicts: 0
Military
Conflicts: None
Total
# of Military Conflicts: 0
Enhancements:
Isolated x2, Shunned x3, Upgraded Defenses
Total
# of Enhancements: 6
Events:
A Good Bluff x2, Affirm Alliance, Diplomatic Blunder x2, For The Common
Good, Level the Playing Field x2, Support Babylon 5 x3.
Total
# of Events: 11
Fleets:
None
Total
# of Fleets: 0
Groups:
None
Total
# of Groups: 0
Locations:
Minbar x2
Total
# of Locations: 2
Total # of cards in deck: 45
Section 2: Strategy
Opening Hand: Delenn, Non-Aligned Support, Upgraded Defenses, Power Politics
Opening Strategy: Play Non-Aligned Support first turn. If you don't win, you're screwed. If you play this deck often, replace Upgraded Defenses form the opening hand with Popular Support. After that, you can run through the opening as normal. Hope for a character, build to 10, play Power Politics. Non-Aligned Support should be the only conflict you play while still building your power structure.
Midgame
Strategy: When you start your first Power Politics conflict, that's
the mark of movement into the midgame. At this point you should have
at least one of the cards which reduce diplomacy to 1 (I include Shunned
in this category since after Upgraded defenses, you are subtracting 5..
and Babylon 5 influence grows quickly after that.) You want to remove
any threat of losing your diplomacy conflicts by using these cards.
There are some things you have to watch out for. FI is a constant
danger, of course.. so it's a good idea, especially against the Centauri,
to pack the couple Isolateds in the deck - not only to increase B5 power,
but to keep their Intrigue in the range that you can either A Good Bluff
or Level the Playing Field your way in to winning the conflict. Rather
difficult, actually. For this reason, an additional Power Politics
is useful.
War conflicts should
be dealt with by use of Negotiated Surrender. Sure, you lose 2 influence,
but in the long run I think it's worth it. If you can't, don't worry..
if you have the Homeworld out, you should be getting 3-1 influence per
turn while they get on average 2 influence per turn (with a homeworld)
The endgame should save you here. The real reason you don't like war is
a war conflict targeting your homeworld.
Use the Crisis of Self
to take care of the characters you missed when you don't have Shunned.
Oh, one last thing - don't play these modifiers on charcters until they
rotate to oppose.. if your opponent isn't going to do anything to oppose
you, wait until you can make the best use of the cards - but keep enough
influence on had to do so, obviously.
Endgame
Strategy: Here, the intended method is to use Peace In Our Time
to gain the extra 4 or 5 influence you need to get 21 or 22 total power.
If, for some reason this fails (it hasn't happened yet, but should it happen),
the Power Politics method should bring you through far enough to play Support
of the Mighty to get an extra 3-5 influence.
Weaknesses:
Some of these have been outlined already above in the Midgame section.
It strikes me that there are 4 major weaknesses: 1st, the ultra-fast destiny/doom/MtP
deck.. unfortunately, I have no new insight to give on this.. my only consolace
is that in general, the destiny decks tend to have a portion of diplomacy
to them - you can oppose there.
2nd, war decks.
Here, the Negotiated Surrenders will slow them down (especially if they
thought to only put one declaration of war in) Fortunately, as I
said in the Midgame section, your influence gathering will at least match
theirs, and you should be able to pull ahead with the agendas and the delay
from surrendering (although, if by some term of bad luck, they have another
declare war readily avalible for the next turn.. I'm sorry.) If you
want to modify the deck to solve this problem, add Refugees - these will
let you step ahead far enough.
3rd, High-diplomacy
Human decks. These aren't as bad as they seem, as that you can disable
some of the major characters.. generally, you want to save Crisis of Self
for Luis Santiago or Fredrick Lantz (although, remember his text when you
play Affirmation of Peace!). Again, here, the agenda switch in the
end should be enough to let you win.
4th, Shadow/Vorlon decks.
Of the two, the vorlons are worse for you - for either of them, you can
beat their power growth of the switching one influence per turn.. it's
the Vorlon ability to cancel conflicts that you should worry about.
Generally, since you're playing Minbari, you shouldn't run into a vorlon
deck quite yet (who knows with the Shadows expansion?). If they don't
have Kosh, you're saved if you're initially greater than them in influence
(Just count the vorlon marks.. that's how many turns you have to wait before
you can start your conflicts again.)
Section
3: Variations
Most variations stem
from what race you're playing against: For Humans, keep the anti-war,
put in a couple more characters, and take out the anti-Intrigue stuff.
For Centauri, I think this deck is about right.. although adding another
A Good Bluff can't hurt (or Isolated). Against the Narn, you definitely
need the Refugees.. You may want to throw in a couple of cheap fleets just
to suck up a turn or two of war conflicts.
You probably noticed the lack of the card "Censure" in this deck. Personally, I don't think the card is as useful as Shunned or Isolated. Generally, fleets for the Humans, Narn, and Centauri are numerable and cheap (with a few exceptions) since this deck doesn't use fleets, it can't take out the smaller ones to make the use of the card Censure on the large fleets worth anything. It does raise B5 influence, which I like, and it can keep them from winning /as much/, but the slot fot the card seems better served by Negotiated Surrender.
In the end, as I said
in the summary, this deck shows why 2 player B5 is rather unfair.
Please don't run any 2 player B5 tournaments.. if you encounter one, show
them what I mean by playing this deck (or MtP)
One
thing you forgot in your weakness section, if the oppontant is human and
playing AoR, then you are in for a ride... a very long and hard ride, one
in which, with the speed I have seen AoR going at is most likely not going
to end in your favor;-)
>Really, this deck is part of an illustration to show why 2 player B5 was Not Meant To Be.
Agreed.
>Aftermaths:
Approval of the Grey x2, Crisis of Self x2, Grievance, Negotiated Surrender
x2, Personal Sacrifice, United Front.
>Total
# of aftermaths: 9
Two
more Grievances are recomended.
>Agendas:
Power Politics, Peace in Our Time x2, Support of the Mighty
>Total
# of agendas: 4
>Characters:
Delenn, Dhaliri, Durlan, Draal, Hedronn, Minbari Aide x2, Rathenn, Shakat,
Warleader Shakiri.
>Total
# of Characters: 10
A nice mix of characters. I would add Lennier as well. He's another cheap character, has intruige, and can protect Delenn.
>Diplomacy
Conflicts: Non-Aligned Support, Affirmation of Peace x2
>Total
# of Diplomacy Conflicts: 3
Since this deck is based on the Non-Aligned Support conflict, I would have three in this deck. Not only in case the first one fails... but in case someone ELSE is playing a similar deck. Non-Aligned Support doesn't become an enchancement for your faction. Whoever was the last person to succeed in a NAS conflict has thier vote. So, while you may have the Leauge's support NOW... there's always a chance someone else will have it later. You need to win them back.
Also,
I would add a Rally The People. This deck can probably gain 2-3 influence
from it without worrying about opposition.
>Events:
A Good Bluff x2, Affirm Alliance, Diplomatic Blunder x2, For The Common
Good, Level the Playing Field x2, Support Babylon 5 x3.
>Total
# of Events: 11
Once again, a good mix of cards. Just add 3 Meditations.
>Total # of cards in deck: 45
53 after suggested modifications.
>Section
2: Strategy
>Opening
Strategy: Play Non-Aligned Support first turn. If you don't win,
you're screwed.
Another reason to have 3 Non-Aligned Supports in your deck.
>If you play this deck often, replace Upgraded Defenses from the opening hand with Popular Support.
A good move. It will guarentee NAS passes with 9 support.
>Midgame
Strategy:
>
At this point you should have at least one of the cards which reduce diplomacy
to 1 (I include Shunned in this category since after Upgraded defenses,
you are subtracting 5.. and Babylon 5 influence grows quickly after that.)
You want to remove any threat of losing your diplomacy conflicts by using
these cards.
Or by having another Grey Council member in play. That's 6 or more diplomacy. Along with Delenn's 7 (after Power Politics), not much should worry you.
>There are some things you have to watch out for. FI is a constant danger, of course.. so it's a good idea, especially against the Centauri, to pack the couple Isolateds in the deck - not only to increase B5 power, but to keep their Intrigue in the range that you can either A Good Bluff or Level the Playing Field your way in to winning the conflict. Rather difficult, actually. For this reason, an additional Power Politics is useful.
Actualy,
with the countermeasures included in this deck, Force
Impairment
can be beaten. It will be a race to see who has the higest
Intruige
vs. Leveled Diplomacy. Then again, in a two player B5 game, it
is
always a race to the finish line.
>War conflicts should be dealt with by use of Negotiated Surrender. Sure, you lose 2 influence, but in the long run I think it's worth it.
Absolutly. You'll be giving your opponent 2 influence, sure, but you'll also be cutting off thier supply line of further influence. While you continue with Power Politicts, they'll be waiting to get the war started again... if they can!
>The real reason you don't like war is a war conflict targeting your homeworld.
Not too much of a problem. Minbar has a huge military. By the time your opponent has enough fleets to take it on, you should have been able to stop the war.
>Oh, one last thing - don't play these modifiers on charcters until they rotate to oppose.. if your opponent isn't going to do anything to oppose you, wait until you can make the best use of the cards - but keep enough influence on had to do so, obviously.
A very good point is made here. In any CCG, cards are the most valuable resource. Don't use one unless you know it's going to have a positive effect. If your opponent is going to let you win your conflict anyways, there's no need to waste a card. Or, even if they are opposing, and you're still going to win, save the card for when you'll need it! I've seen people waste Accidents and Hire Raiders to finish off a fleets with 2 or less Military left when they had a ready Minbari Telepath on the table! A huge waste of a card!
>Endgame Strategy: Here, the intended method is to use Peace In Our Time to gain the extra 4 or 5 influence you need to get 21 or 22 total power.
Note: You only need 20 to win.
>If, for some reason this fails (it hasn't happened yet, but should it happen), the Power Politics method should bring you through far enough to play Support of the Mighty to get an extra 3-5 influence.
Peace In Our Time can also fail if a Babylon 5 Unrest is on the table. Though easily taken care of with the massive Diplomacy in this deck, it still might be a rather annoying bee sting.
>there
are 4 major weaknesses: 1st, the ultra-fast destiny/doom/MtP deck.. unfortunately,
I have no new insight to give on this.. my only consolace is that in general,
the destiny decks tend to have a portion
of
diplomacy to them - you can oppose there.
The doom decks can still be hurt by It Will Be His Undoing. They lose all thier Doom Marks and an equal amount of influence. IE: Reset button.
Destiny decks now have to rely on means other than agenda switching since As It Was Meant To Be is a Major Agenda. You can outrace them.
Maintain The Peace will hurt you very very badly. You will lose very quickly against it. Either play with Forced Impairments, or add some fleets and Crusade.
>3rd, High-diplomacy Human decks. These aren't as bad as they seem, as that you can disable some of the major characters.. generally, you want to save Crisis of Self for Luis Santiago or Fredrick Lantz although, remember his text when you play Affirmation of Peace!).
With the rather large amount of anti-diplomacy in this deck, you shouldn't have to worry too much about a human Dip Deck. You might want to concider adding a couple Accidents to go along with the Diplomatic Blunder to take out Santiago, Lantz and Hidoshi.
>4th,
Shadow/Vorlon decks. Of the two, the vorlons are worse for you for
either of them, you can beat their power growth of the switching one influence
per turn.. it's the Vorlon ability to cancel conflicts that you should
worry about. Generally, since you're playing Minbari, you shouldn't
run into a vorlon
deck
quite yet (who knows with the Shadows expansion?). If they don't
have Kosh, you're saved if you're initially greater than them in influence
(Just count the vorlon marks.. that's how many turns you have
to
wait before you can start your conflicts again.)
Order Above All and You Are Not Ready are absolutly not a problem for this deck! Since your main influence source is Power Politics, niether can target it. They can only take out conflict cards (or war conflicts in the case of Order Above All).
>You probably noticed the lack of the card "Censure" in this deck. Personally, I don't think the card is as useful as Shunned or Isolated. Generally, fleets for the Humans, Narn, and Centauri are numerable and cheap (with a few exceptions) since this deck doesn't use fleets, it can't take out the smaller ones to make the use of the card Censure on the large fleets worth anything.
Very
true. Why take out Military when its not a problem for you?
>In
the end, as I said in the summary, this deck shows why 2 player B5 is rather
unfair. Please don't run any 2 player B5 tournaments.. if you encounter
one, show them what I mean by playing this deck (or MtP)
As
it is stated in the rules given to Rangers: "Try to set up four or
three player matches. Two player matches are not desirable."
>>If you play this deck often, replace Upgraded
Defenses from the opening hand with Popular Support.
>A good move. It will guarentee NAS passes
with 9 support
Nothing is guaranteed on the first turn. One Diplomatic Blunder in your opponent's opening hand and so much for that conflict with or without Popular Support.
>>Characters: Delenn, Dhaliri, Durlan, Draal,
Hedronn, Minbari Aide x2, Rathenn, Shakat, Warleader Shakiri.
>>Total # of Characters: 10
>A nice mix of characters. I would add
Lennier as well. He's another cheap character, has intruige, and
can protect Delenn.
Agreed. Lennier is a big bonus, especially if your enemy is a Narn intrigue deck. Give Tu'Pari a little cash and Delenn is out of it for a LONG while considering that Lennier isn't there to take the damage, and he isn't in the inner circle to heal her. Keep him close, Delenn, or you're out of a job.
>>You probably noticed the lack of the card "Censure"
in this deck. Personally, I don't think the card is as useful as
Shunned or Isolated. >>Generally, fleets for the Humans, Narn, and
Centauri are numerable and cheap (with a few exceptions) since this deck
doesn't use fleets, >>it can't take out the smaller ones to make the use
of the card Censure on the large fleets worth anything.
>Very true. Why take out Military when
its not a problem for you?
Military could be a problem though. If someone's sitting on a
stack of Border Raids, Limited Strikes, Gunboat Diplomacy, Raid Shipping,
etc... you could be in for an unpleasant ride. Limited Strike would
be particularly nasty. Not only does your opponent gain 2 influence
with a homeworld) but you'd lose two. That'd put your enemy
up one for the turn assuming a successful Power Politic-ing. On top
of all those, there is still the lingering wars that could break out.
I'd say the Grey Council Fleet would be a wonderful addition. That
way you can have
a fleet in the inner circle. Then have some Planetary Defenses
for Minbar and you're all set.
But that's just my opinions, I could be wrong (Dennis forgive me).