Unsavory Connections

In this installment, going to focus on a particular decklist.  No, this wasn’t a playtest deck that defined the metagame.  This was a hastily thrown together additional demo deck to display the flexibility of deck construction after building more focused demo decks.

:  Beowulf Free Trader

The Scout already had a demo deck focused around  and .  The Beowulf has a decent number of  slots for all of those Unsavory , and the cost reduction ability makes the primary – Class X, Startown Bar – cheaper.

Adventure Deck

2x  Calibrated Electronics Delivery // Larger than in the Photo

1x  Charted Psionic Research // Back Taxes

2x  Corporate Contraband // Friends from Before

2x  Employee Relocation // Makeshift Accomodations

2x  Flex Ticket // A Favor Returned

2x  Foreign Luxuries // Squabbling Crew

2x  Home One Last Time // Inoperative Amenities

2x  Rhal’Kais Commission // Luxury Tax

2x  Showing the Flag // Buccaneer

2x  TAS Inspection // Old Debts

1x  Zhodani Science Expedition // Unexpected Booking

Avoided , except for TAS Inspection – an otherwise good fit for the deck, which in the initial metagame would have advantaged a Scout opponent.  Included one , Showing the Flag, which lacks synergy with the rest of the deck and would not normally be included.  In here, it was to show how important getting the LSP Multi-Phased Array could be to having a deck produce additional capability tokens.

 

In terms of , Friends from Before should routinely give you a second option for resolution, while A Favor Returned could be resolved by giving up a Class X, Startown Bar late in a game or when you have another copy to play that will be free with the Beowulf discount.

 

Captain’s Deck

1x  Aunt Crow, Bartender

2x  Class X, Startown Bar

2x  Sophont Worker’s Union

 

Aunt Crow already has a zero cost so not cost savings from the , but I expect it to be a popular choice in many decks for its ability to filter your Captain’s Deck without speeding your way to bankruptcy.

 

Class X – only two copies?  Well, it was what was on hand when we were in the middle of doing demos with the other decks.  Obviously, a more tuned deck would run three.

 

Sophont Worker’s Union both synergized with the  ability and with running various non-humans that we wanted people to see and/or were additional Unsavory .

1x  Aminah Darzi, M.D.

1x  Aokhyuh, Discreet Scholar

1x  Deshaun Jasso

2x  Dezihdhodhunde Mehro

2x  Fatimah Noori

2x  Flint

1x  Gisgo

1x  Imlaii Ergarsuu

1x  Jeeves

1x  Liach, T’zen and Giiar

1x  Mahmoud Czenik

1x  Prof. Isaacs, Cyberneticist

2x  Siobhan El-Amin

1x  Voypa

1x  Wabapawap, Speaker of the Tree

 

High  density.  Because of the  search ability, it’s easier to get a particular Unsavory  into play.  Decent number of non-humans to go with Sophont.  Wabapawap is interesting in this deck for bouncing your own Unsavory  who may have value being replayed later.

 

A lot of .

2x  Anonymous Insertion

1x  Crash Course

1x  Glancing Shot

2x  Inhuman Persistence

1x  Overextended

1x  Predatory Tactics

1x  Strategic Serenity

1x  Targeted Removal

2x  Unearth

 

Anonymous Insertion has a bit of extra value in this deck.  While you can’t search for it with Class X during the resolution phase after  are revealed, you could search a copy out early in the game and either hold it or use it for the 2 .  If you do get stymied by a Transport , you can search it out the next round to make sure the  goes away.

 

Is card drawing that good in Traveller?  This is a question that has come up several times in our discussions, though I pretty much always like having Unearth in hand.  Not only do I think it’s a solid card (and far less powerful than similar effects would be in other card games), it’s possibly my favorite piece of art.  The full image shows even more background.  If you look close, you can see a lot of detailed work.

3x  Alien Pathogen

1x  Babel, TL-11 Translator

2x  Honor Blade

2x  Neural Gun

1x  Panacea Autojector

2x  Realms of Rampage

1x  Xenopoison

 

Another theme in this deck is Hindrances.  Then, also showing more exotic weapons.  A skilled medic on an opponent’s board may be able to clear the Hindrances quickly, but the Neural Gun will require other tactics to deal with.

1x  Diverse Dynamics

2x  Lost and Found

2x  Psychic Theft

1x  Sabotage

2x  Snickers and Slanders

 

Unsavory?  Check.  Should be pretty easy to have the requirements for these ?  Check.   is intentionally rare in the game, currently, but this deck has a reasonable ability to get a into play.

1x  LSP Multi-Phased Array

1x  Luxury Suite

1x  Smuggling Hold

1x  Specialized Habitat

 

These are kind of random, as they were what I had handy when building the deck.  Smuggling Hold shouldn’t be that useful given the large amount of  in the deck.  LSP Multi-Phased Array is worth additional copies for when facing (currently) a Scout deck or (in the planned future) oriented decks.  

If I were building a better version of this deck, I would definitely run more  and more ways to gain additional capability tokens – in addition to the difficulty generating ,  a Subsidized Merchant deck is likely to run contracts that require more , , or  tokens than the Beowulf can natively generate.

 

I hope this article helps give an idea of what it’s like to build a Traveller deck, both in terms of what might be effective and what might be ineffective.  Unsavory has gotten a lot of attention in the initial card pool, but our hopes is we can keep publishing more content that adds more depth to more traits.