Mastermind Drafting - Tips for the Dangerous Mission draft | openCards

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Mastermind Drafting - Tips for the Dangerous Mission draft

    Long-Small-BannerimageWritten as part of the coverage for the Big-Event "GP 2007".

    This Strategy-Note article was written by openCards user garetjax at Nov 15th, 2007.

    The Dangerous Mission sealed is different from other sealed formats, because you don't get a playable deck supplied, but instead have to get your deck working while drafting the cards.

    So you better pay attention during the draft. To scrab together a deck with winning possibilities you should keep in mind some details concerning the different card types.

    1. Missions
    Since the fixed cards only supply you with one mission, a second mission is obligatory to be able to get to the winning conditions of 70 points and both a space and a planet mission. The planet mission in the Starfleet set can get you 40 points, so you need only a 30-pointer space mission. The other two sets each need another 35-pointer of the right sort. Other missions with more or less points should be ignored, since bonus points are hard to get and additional points will probably not of any use. If you happen to see a headquarters mission, fetch it, if it works with the personnal you drafted.

    2. Dilemmas
    To get your opponent from solving his or her missions you need additional dilemmas. Stoppers like Kolaran Raiders have proven themselves useful in this format. Even better are walls that need several different skills and have the possibility to get back under your dilemma pile. A prime example would be Telepathic Deception asking for three different skills or Telepathy. The opponent’s deck will nearly always have some skill ... in this format and if you hit him (or her) with a wall at those weak spots, you may stop her (or him) long enough to win. Dilemmas that don’t remove personnel from an attempt you should not draft (e.g. A Bad End). Killer dilemmas are also too expensive in most cases to be played effectively.Because dual dilemmas return to your dilemma pile in this format after the opponent solves a mission, these are of additional value.

    3. Personnel
    The problem in the choice of personnel is, that you only know one of your missions in the beginning, and can at the most guess which skills will be needed for the other mission. Therefore it is recommended to draft personnel with many different skills up to the point where you know what skills exactly are needed. This will also help you with possible walls you face later. If you know your second mission, concentrate on those skills (or the ones from the first mission your still lacking). The question of the additional affiliation cannot be answered once and for all. If you see a certain affiliation come up often in those drafted boosters, and those peeps also have those skills you’re looking for, get them while they last. The Federation has a strong advantage because in a DM sealed for the additional affiliation only the affiliation icon counts and you can use TNG, DS9, TOS and Maquis as one big happy family. Personnel that can get additional skills during a mission attempt, should be drafted when possible. A very powerful personnel in this format is Gav. He has six different skills and a Cunning of 7, but he can get an additional skill every time he faces a dilemma. The opponent will get five points every time you use this special ability, but that won’t deliver him (or her) from solving her (or his) second mission with which the needed 70 points should beaccomplished anyway. That’s why Gav’s additional skill is practically for free in this format.

    4. The rest
    With the remaining cards it is only in a few very specific cases useful to draft those cards voluntarily. For example all dilemma manipulation events like Unexpected Difficulties. But even here there are exceptions to the rule like Stir Crazy, because only one planet and one space mission has to be solved. Another type of cards worth drafting are those that supply you with additional skills. All other events and interrupts are practically worthless, since it’s virtually impossible to build an effective battle deck or such. Concerning the ships it depends on the set of fixed cards. Bajor and TNG each have a useful ship you may download to your starting hand at the beginning. Here the use of an additional ship is questionable. With Starfleet it looks different. The fixed Enterprise has a Range of 6 and thus doesn’t even allow shuttle service from a planet mission to your Headquarters and back in one turn. If you see a ship with a range of at least 8 during the draft, take it and use it instead (but remember you can’t download this ship, so a second or third fast ship would be even nicer).

    Bonne chance or (as they say in Klingonese): Qapla'!