Catching Up With the Cardassians | openCards

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Catching Up With the Cardassians

    Niala, Intelligence AssetDamar, Martyred Outlaw

    (3) • Niala, Intelligence Asset

    Cardassian Cardassian icon Ship Ship (Attack Ship Class / Standard Equipment )
    Staffing reqirements: Command Staff Staff
    To play this ship, you must command three Cardassian Dissident personnel. When you play this ship, discard two cards from hand. While you have a Cardassian Dissident aboard, this ship is attributes +1.
    RANGE: 7 WEAPONS: 8 SHIELDS: 7

    "Our priority should be to free Cardassia from the Dominion, not do Starfleet's dirty work."
    We're all in this together. By helping Starfleet, we're helping ourselves."

    Characteristics: Cardassian affiliation, enhance your ship attributes (this card), discard a card from hand.
    Requires: Cardassian affiliation, Dissident.

    Card logging info: First edited by Telak at Jul 28th, 2018. Please support openCards and validate game text of this card!
     

    (1) • Damar, Martyred Outlaw

    Cardassian Cardassian icon Personnel Personnel of Cardassian species.
    Icons: Command
    Red Dot 2 Leadership  
    Commander: Niala. Dissident. Legate. When you play this personnel, discard a card from hand. When this personnel is killed by a dilemma or in combat, you may place up to three Cardassian Dissidents from your hand at your headquarters mission where they could be played.
    INTEGRITY: 7   CUNNING: 6   STRENGTH: 6

    "With men like you on our side, how can we fail?"

    Characteristics: "relocate" personnel cards - place from hand into play, Cardassian affiliation, discard a card from hand, Commander, Dissident, Legate, Cardassian species.
    Requires: combat, kill your own personnel, Cardassian affiliation, headquarters, Dissident.

    Card logging info: First edited by Telak at Jul 28th, 2018. Please support openCards and validate game text of this card!
     

    This Card-Review article was written by Nathan Miracle and was published first on "The Continuing Committee (trekcc.org)" at May 21st, 2018.

    “I want you to give a message to the Federation. Tell them they have an ally on Cardassia.”
    -Damar, Strange Bedfellows

    About two-thirds of the way through the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the story turned almost exclusively to the war between the Dominion and the Federation, Klingons and Romulans. A critical turning point came when the Dominion forged an alliance with the Breen without informing the nominal leader of the Cardassians, Legate Damar. As part of the agreement, the Dominion promised to turn over several Cardassian territories to the Breen. This insult helped Damar realize the Dominion was only using the Cardassians as a means to an end. Damar left his post and formed the Cardassian Liberation Front, a dissident movement designed to remove the Dominion’s influence over the Cardassians.

    With the aid of Commander Kira Nerys (Kira Nerys, Starfleet Emissaryimage), Damar’s dissidents discovered a way to strike a blow against the Dominion by helping out their enemy, the Federation. As part of their alliance, the Breen brought the Dominion a new energy dampening weapon. With the help of loyal Cardassians like Vornar, Damar led a small team onto a Jem’hadar Attack Ship, commandeered it, and turned it over to the Federation for study. The intelligence gathered from this ship allowed the Federation to resist the Breen energy weapon and helped turn the tide of the war. These events inspired today’s cards from Far Beyond the Stars: Damar, Niala and Elim Garak.

    “There’s a Cardassian repair facility in the Kelvas system, right?”
    “Yes. I take it you have something in mind?”
    “It won’t be easy, but if we can get onto the bridge…”

    -Kira Nerys and Garak, Tacking Into the Wind

    How do you make a ship feel like a Dissident? That question guided us in the creation of Niala, 2E’s version of 1E’s old Stolen Attack Ship. First, it needs to play well with Dissidents. Aside from needing to have a few Cardassian Dissidents on hand to obtain the ship, the Niala also receives a nice attribute boost for having Cardassian Dissidents aboard. This boost brings the Niala’s Range up to 8, enough to take a round trip back and forth between Cardassia Prime and most planet missions. It also makes the Niala’s Weapons high enough to meet the requirements on  Outclassedimage. But the thing which really solidifies the Niala as a Dissident is the cost. As with other Dissidents before, not to mention the new Damar and Elim Garak, the Niala has a low printed cost and forces you to discard cards from hand when you play it. As a result, the Niala not only plays well with Dissidents, but it also feels like a Dissident itself.

    I would like to give a special kudos to the Creative Team for naming the Niala. Although she was never named in the show, Niala is the name given to Damar's wife in a couple of short stories. This naming convention fits alongside the Napremimage, which Dukat named after Tora Naprem, Tora Ziyal's mother.

    “Actually, they don’t really believe you are dead. Oh, you should hear the stories. Damar is alive. My cousin saw him on Kelvas Prime. He faked his own death. He is plotting a new offensive from his secret mountain hideaway.”
    -Mila, Dogs of War

    In the penultimate episode of Deep Space Nine, the Dominion claimed to have killed Damar. They intended to crush the hopes of the people, but the blatant lie had the exact opposite effect. The people rose up to support Damar’s cause and overthrow the Dominion. Damar’s ability helps you create an uprising on Cardassia Prime, Hardscrabble Worldimage when an opponent kills him with a dilemma or in combat. While you will have little control over when you can trigger Damar’s ability, the fear of giving you three free personnel can influence your opponent’s dilemma play. This version of Damar is fully committed to the Cardassian Liberation Front, so he forsakes all other skills in favor of 2 Leadership. Since most Cardassian Dissidents do not have Officer or Treachery, Damar can use Bridge Officer's Testimage as a substitute for The Central Commandimage. Between the threat of becoming a martyr and the threat of pushing forward his existing followers, Damar can become quite a thorn in your opponent’s side when choosing dilemmas.

    “For Cardassia!”
    -Garak, What You Leave Behind

    The Interrupt For Cardassia!image does not require Dissidents of any kind, but it does require personnel who cost 1 or less. Many Cardassian Dissidents fall into this category, including the new versions of Damar and Elim Garak. The latter downloads the liberation cry, which can help your Cardassian Dissident deck focus on 30 point missions. You can use the extra points gathered by For Cardassia! to bring yourself to 100 points using three 30 point missions, or you can use them to fuel the ability on the Cardassian Dissident Kira Nerys (Kira Nerys, Iliana Ghemorimage). But as a versatile operative, Elim Garak knows that sometimes a hokey battlecry is no match for a good phaser at your side. In that case, you can instead download a Hand Weapon, likely as a bargaining chip to use during a Kressari Rendezvousimage.

    “With men like you on our side, how can we fail?”
    -Damar, What You Leave Behind

    The attached deck focuses on 30 point Integrity missions and cheap personnel. Most of the personnel cost 1 or less, so you should have no problem triggering For Cardassia! to score the necessary 10 points to get around the corner. Several of the cards in this deck force you to discard cards from your hand or deck, so it includes three copies of Tacking Into the Windimage and two copies of Back to Basicsimage to recycle your personnel. I hope you enjoy playing a Cardassian Integrity deck!

    See corresponding deck "Catching Up With the Cardassians" here!

    by Nathan Miracle, Staff Writer