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Biogenic Weapon

by Justin Beal

Rule of Acquisition #033: War is good for business.

All through the seven years of Deep Space Nine, 'business' must have really been hopping. There was conflict with the Dominion, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and at times, even the Bajorans. But before most of that, there was the Maquis... and the Maquis represented a unique situation for an enterprising 'businessperson'. The Federation and Cardassians were 'officially' stocking up just in case fighting broke out, and both sides of the DMZ were stocking up to fight their own little war, without the permission of the government. But even with all the torpedoes, ships, phasers, and other explosives, nothing was more devastating than when the Maquis unleashed cobalt diselenide into the atmosphere of a Cardassian colonized planet. This made the planet uninhabitable to Cardassians for generations. In response, Sisko balanced the scale and made a Maquis world inhospitable for humans. This eventually forced the Maquis to capitulate.

Such a monumental event in Star Trek should be represented by a very powerful card, and this one fits the bill. Basically, Biogenic Weapon prevents your opponent from attempting a mission until all others are solved. For a balanced deck this is not as much of a problem. But who plays decks like that anymore? Every player is looking to squeeze as much efficiency out of their decks as possible and that normally means an easy 30-point mission in the mix somewhere. Take a look at the current Klingon Decks; they are playing TWO easy 30-point missions! Slap this event on Brute Force and you have just forced your opponent to solve all four of their missions. Most Klingon players have trouble solving that fourth mission, and at the very least, they have to spend an extra turn to do so.

So with an event this powerful, there has to be a drawback, right? WRONG! Two [Fed][Maq] personnel is hardly a requirement and at two cost it is reasonably cheap. So what are the best ways to play with this card? Try playing it after your opponent has attempted a mission the first time. This way, they have expended resources in attempting there, and now they cannot attempt there for the rest of the game (or until they have solved all other missions).

Alternately, you can preemptively play it on a mission that forces your opponent to attempt all 4 missions, or to dictate the order in which missions are solved. You can force an opponent to solve all of their missions if they have a drastic point value differential or if they are packing three of one mission type and only one of the other (3 space and 1 planet for example).

Still another option is as follows: Play it on mission A. Then, after they have abandoned solving mission A, use Luther Sloan to destroy it and place a second copy on Mission B. When you do this, you could force them into two missions of your choosing. When you get to choose which type of mission they have to solve (planet or space) you can build your dilemma pile accordingly.

If you weren't packing event nullification after Necessary Evil, this card might just make you reconsider that strategy. No doubt about it, Biogenic Weapon is a new power card for the Maquis. I am of the opinion that this card, with all the other manipulation cards they have available to them make them... (You might want to sit down first)... A TIER-1 affiliation. Go build a Maquis deck and have fun, because they have finally arrived and are here to stay.

December 2, 2004