Sylvia

A new planet dilemma has been revealed recently, and her name is Sylvia. Sylvia was powerful character in The Original Series, who once used a transmutation device to control the minds of several Enterprise personnel. Her namesake carries similar powers by allowing you to capture two of your opponent's personnel with one dilemma!

First, you must get the dilemma to trigger, which may be challenging given alternate requirements with which your opponent may avoid its ill-effects. The first set of requirements, 2 Leadership, Officer, Security and Cunning > 38, is similar to the requirements for several popular missions, such as Military Exercises. As with missions, one of the most effective ways to keep your opponent from meeting this requirement is to filter several personnel with a dilemma like An Issue of Trust. A so-called "filter/wall dilemma" like this may also be enough to restrict your opponent from meeting the second set of requirements on Sylvia (2 Engineer, Programming, and 2 Science), but you may also want to include specific low-cost, skill-seeking dilemmas like Planetary Survey to help further reduce an opponent's chances.

Against many decks, just playing a filter/wall dilemma like An Issue of Trust may be enough to stop the entire mission attempt, but how much more rewarding would it be if Sylvia follows to capture two personnel? Of course, it's not easy to play all of these dilemmas given Sylvia's printed cost of eight counters, so the special cost-reducing text on Sylvia is very important. Specifically, designing a draw deck that uses several events with the Decay keyword is notable, since each event in your core that holds this keyword reduces Sylvia's cost by two. Many affiliations have special event cards with the Decay keyword, but several also work with many affiliations. One that plays with any affiliation is Quarantine, and this may work with Sylvia very well, because Quarantine could help offset giving your opponents more dilemmas than may technically be needed to stop them.

When designing decks with cards that capture personnel, it is difficult to not think of Cardassians as the affiliation of choice. Indeed, cards and abilities designed specifically for the Cardassians' love of capture and punishment (such as Makbar's text) make Sylvia a natural complement to a Cardassian draw deck. Similarly, capturing personnel via dilemmas is often difficult, because opponents use proven methods to Escape. Sylvia is subject to this problem as well, so including Mila, Trusted Confidante may be wise if playing Cardassians. For other affiliations, tried-and-true methods of interrupt destruction such as Amanda Rogers can be used, or newer options including Grav-Plating Trap may be very effective. Whether you plan to capture or just avoid being captured, get ready for Sylvia, else you'll be left thinking about who, or What You Leave Behind.