Before We Begin

I'd recommend taking a look at the Daniel Jackson SG-1 Deck. This will let you know the starting point from where this adventure begins.

The Team

First, we're going to look at our team. We've got Balinsky (Insightful Archaeologist), Cameron Mitchell (Eager Adventurer), Daniel Jackson (Trained Fighter), and Vala Mal Doran (Probationary Member of the SGC). This adds up to a measly 14 points. This is way too low for us. We're going to need to beef up the experience on our team.

But first we need to choose a goal, are we going to make a fun deck? a tournament deck? go for experience? or glyphs?

I think we're going to start with an experience deck. The goal is to score culture and ingenuity missions with high experience points, as quickly as possible, So to do this, we're going to need to change our team around a bit.

Let's start off by both increasing our experience, by replacing Daniel Jackson (Trained Fighter) with Daniel Jackson (Linguistics Expert). He can easily be picked up for 1 EP on /ptrade, (or we can trade 4-5 uncommon cards for him) So he's going in. Since we don't need to worry about combat missions, we don't need the combat bonuses. Plus this new version of Daniel will allow us to pick out the mission we want to complete - Since in an experience deck you only complete about 1 mission a turn. (for 4 exp each, hopefully).

Next, we've got to replace Cameron Mitchell (Eager Adventurer), he's going to be fighting for the Orion Glyph with Daniel Jackson (Linguistics Expert), and he's got way too low experience. I think Svetlana Markov (Brilliant Scientist) will do the trick. She provides a solid 2 skill in both ingenuity and culture, plus she can back Daniel up in science.

Now for the last member of our team, we're going to drop Balinsky (Insightful Archaeologist), since he's not strong enough in our skills of choice. I recommend using either Jacob Carter (Man of Two Worlds), George Hammond (Front Line General), or Harold Maybourne (Ally of Opportunity). They all have a solid 2 ingenuity and 2 culture. My personal pick is Jacob Carter (Man of Two Worlds).

So our team is

• Daniel Jackson (Linguistics Expert)
• Jacob Carter (Man of Two Worlds)
• Svetlana Markov (Brilliant Scientist)
• Vala Mal Doran (Probationary Member of the SGC)

Skills: 9/4/2/9
Total EXP: 18

Note: if you want, you can switch to the other Vala, for an extra 1 EXP total, putting you at 19. This is recommended, but not necessary

Starter: 1, Uncommon cards: 1, Ultra Rare: 1, Rares: 1

Missions

We want to make sure we've got the highest culture and ingenuity missions, so we need:

• Retrieve Artifact (Sam starter)
• Pursue the Harcesis (Daniel starter)
• Establish Communication (Jack starter)
• Wormhole X-Treme! (Teal'c starter)

ouch. Well it looks like we're going to have to do some trading. In the meantime we can use any of the following, as replacements:

• Relocate Advanced Civilization (Daniel starter)
• Seek and Capture (Jack starter)
• Locate Renegades (Sam starter)
• Defeat Ashrak (Daniel starter)
• Uncover the Stargate (Teal'c starter)
• Cultural Exchange (Teal'c starter)
• Infiltrate Summit (Jack starter)
• Seek Assistance (Daniel starter)

OK, so the missions will take a little work, but if you buy the Teal'c starter to go with Daniel (remember, I said 2 starters and 3-4 boosters) then you've got most of the missions you need, and the right culture glyphs. You should be able to trade for the rest. With the Teal'c and Daniel starter, your key missions are as follows:

• Culture
  • Pursue the Harcesis (Daniel starter) (Triangulum)
  • Uncover the Stargate (Teal'c starter) (Orion)
  • Cultural Exchange (Teal'c starter) (Triangulum)
• Ingenuity
  • Wormhole X-Treme! (Teal'c starter) (Libra)
  • Relocate Advanced Civilization (Daniel starter) (Triangulum)
  • Defeat Ashrak (Daniel starter) (Libra)

Hero Cards

OK, With the team and missions out of the way, We've got to start looking at our Hero deck.

In general, most people use a smaller hero deck then a villain deck. I tend to agree, for the most part. But this entirely depends on the power cost of your hero and villain cards.

To start out, I've found trading commons and uncommon cards to be extremely easy. Using /ptrade (Posted Trades), offering an uncommon plus a common for your choice uncommon, or offering 2-3 commons for the common you need will get you the cards you want within a day or two. So I'm not going to restrict to starter only commons.

First of all, the must have characters we want.

Ocker (Tok'ra Operative)

solid 2 ingenuity for 2 power.

Garshaw (Grand Councillor)

2 culture for 3 power, but while not assigned will give the opponent a tough time during ingenuity missions as well.

Nyan (Bedrosian Archaeologist)

a great culture boost, and when you win, the next mission is easier to complete.

Nicholas Ballard (Outcast Scholar)

don't let his culture fool you, he's 3 culture for 2 power.

Paul Davis (Pentagon Liaison)

5 power for 2 points might look bad, but he helps with the 2nd mission, giving you 2 missions in a turn is a great help.

Drey'auc (Of the Codai Plains)

she costs 1 power most of the time, for 2 skill, that sticks around.

Gairwyn (Cimmerian Ally)

she only provides 2 ingenuity, but I play her in decks that don't even score ingenuity missions. She's in!

Hank Landry (SGC Commander)

I know, he's a rare. But we've got to have him. He's going to set up our next mission. Plus with our Cultural Exchange he works really well.

OK, and the other non-character hero cards we want.

Antiquity

We've got Jacob, we want this one.

Keep in Check

If we're playing the Tok'ra we want to use this card. for 2 power, we can return an opponents 4 power assigned adversary, which is a great advantage.

Quick Study

SGC, ingenuity based deck, Got to run the studies.

R and R

Default in almost any 2-skill based decks.

Tabloid Research

Not too many people use this one, but before we've got all the glyphs on Daniel. If we're getting hit by an early science mission, we might as well make sure we've got the missions we want coming up for the next 2 turns.

DHD

Again a rare, but like Hank, we're looking to set up only 6/12 missions to complete. So we need this one.

Dialing Computer

there is nothing worse then watching Pursue the Harcesis go to the bottom of the mission pile.

Writings from Heliopolis

This card takes out Repeating Time, it's worth running a copy.

OK, so what have we got so far?

Culture: (6)
Antiquity x2
Writings from Heliopolis
Nicholas Ballard (Outcast Scholar)
Garshaw (Grand Councillor)
Nyan (Bedrosian Archaeologist)

Ingenuity: (5)
Quick Study x2
Gairwyn (Cimmerian Ally)
Ocker (Tok'ra Operative)
Drey'auc (Of the Codai Plains) 

Both: (2)
Hank Landry (SGC Commander)
Paul Davis (Pentagon Liaison) 

Utility: (5)
Keep in Check
DHD
Dialing Computer
R and R
Tabloid Research

I doubled up on Quick Study and Antiquity already, as they are absolutely great. We've already got 4 Uncommon cards and 2 Rares (plus the 1 Uncommon and Rare in our team characters) so we have to make some tough decisions. I think we're going to run 1x of each Gear and 3x Ill-Gotten Gains. (It's almost like running 4 copies of the first gear you want, 3 of the next, 2 of the third.)

We're also going to throw in a Hazard Suits, since we don't have much science. And Double up on a few Events.

Hero Side: (25)

• Antiquity x2
• Quick Study x2
• Hank Landry (SGC Commander)
• Paul Davis (Pentagon Liaison)
• Gairwyn (Cimmerian Ally)
• Ocker (Tok'ra Operative)
• Drey'auc (Of the Codai Plains) x2
• Nicholas Ballard (Outcast Scholar)
• Garshaw (Grand Councillor)
• Nyan (Bedrosian Archaeologist)
• Keep in Check
• R and R x2
• Tabloid Research x2
• Ill-Gotten Gains x3
• Writings from Heliopolis
• DHD
• Dialing Computer
• Hazard Suits

Commons: 19, Uncommon cards: 4 Rares: 2

Now that looks much more like a constructed deck, and we've got a good amount of help in both our skills, and good mission set up. Obviously if you have more cards, it's good to use more copies of some of the characters. You could technically run 3x Garshaw (Grand Councillor), and 3x Gairwyn (Cimmerian Ally), They both cost 3, and have great synergistic abilities. You don't have to worry if they get destroyed, if you have more copies. What you would drop for the extra copies, is up to you.

Villain Side

Well, we've used 3 rares and 1 UR along with 5 uncommon cards already, so we're left with 4-7 uncommon cards. The rest have to be common!

Let's choose our Uncommon cards, and work from there. I'm leaning towards making a Nirrti deck. She's not that easy to trade for, but it would give us a solid villain side.

We're looking to make a 30-35 card villain side, to compliment our Hero side. Since we're basing our villains on Nirrti (Goddess of Darkness), we can base the complimentary villains on Lord Yu (The Great).

Let's put in the ingenuity/science obstacles, along with the combat/culture ones. Since Nirrti is going to kill off the support characters, we don't need to worry about having nasty failure texts.

Giving us

Adversaries: (6)
Nirrti (Goddess of Darkness) x3
Yu (The Great) x3

Obstacles: (18)
Interdimensional Creatures x3
Team Compromised x3
Cloaked Ashrak x3
Botched Rescue x3
Fire Rain x3
Disadvantaged x3

That's 24 cards so far. 11 to go. We need some gear removal, so let's get Ja'din (Servant of Cronus) and Sabotage, along with a Historic Writings and Out of Your Depth to get them back. Let's also add in Lack of Experience and Serpent Guards to compliment our current obstacles. No deck is complete without a copy of Anubis (Banished Lord) to take out the opponents 5 cost support characters.

So here's what we've got.

Villain Side: (35)

• Nirrti (Goddess of Darkness) x3
• Yu (The Great) x3
• Ja'din (Servant of Cronus)
• Anubis (Banished Lord)
• Interdimensional Creatures x3
• Team Compromised x3
• Cloaked Ashrak x3
• Botched Rescue x3
• Fire Rain x3
• Disadvantaged x3
• Sabotage x3
• Historic Writings
• Out of Your Depth
• Serpent Guards x2
• Lack of Experience x2

Starter: 1, Uncommon cards: 3!, Commons: 31

Totals: 76 cards (60 card deck, 12 missions, 4 team characters)
Starter: 14, Uncommon cards: 8, Ultra Rare cards: 1, Rares: 3, commons: 50

And that's the end of this edition! Give it a try against the AI, and modify it how you see fit to your liking... and come catch me in the Casual Lobby, to try out a game or two!