There's thing about playing the Russians in Stargate, well in any game I suppose: they don't do well until they start to fail. Once they do, they seem to get the "gumption" to do twice as well.

Then there's the lack of culture. You see, in SG: TCG, each team character has base skills in one of four areas: culture, science, combat and ingenuity. The Russians are lacking in culture. All of those years as the USSR, I suppose.

And their support characters are highly specialized meaning that they have skills in only one area so the expense is great and building a good support team is tough. This is the team I had:

[More:]

This is the team I've decided upon:

What makes this a much more effective team is Vallarin's ability to easily earn a boost if you choose to pass on the first mission in a turn (and often you will) and Tolinev. She's a unique character in both SG-1 and System Lords.

Tolinev's stats don't boost, the experience earned from a mission is increased if she completes a mission with the glyph (glyphs indicate a common characteristic in the mission) that her fellow team members have. She's young, ambitious and quick to learn. She has the highest possible ingenuity - unique for Russian characters but then she's the youngest - and if you read her history text you'll see that she changes careers based upon interest. She likes to learn. This explains why she gains a bonus on mission completion.

Just to give you a feel of exactly what the Russian support cards are like here are the Gear Cards:

...

Yep, the Russians have no unique and special gear to contribute to missions.

Some of those specialized characters I mentioned?

Chekov, being an envoy to the SGC, is unique in giving a bonus for success. It's in his best interest to see that things go well. But, you'll notice that other than contributing to science missions (and very poorly at that), our cosmonaut friend is a boon only when we've failed. He sets us up for success in our next turn by allowing the opportunity to determine what mission is "hopefully" played first.

And finally, Russian events. Events are cards that have a one time play (unless otherwise stated) and are used to succeed at the mission at hand. There are only two Russian events and they VERY much carry the flavor of the team:

Resilience once again shows the propensity to succeed only after failing. Play this card when you have glyphs on Markov and Vallarin and you have two of the most powerful team members in the game from very little card manipulation and effort.

Stoicism is a tricky but amazing card that has very little cost for what it does and shows the Russian cultural unity. Most of the team members derive a bonus from the same glyphs. This encourages you as the player to build mission packs that use the same glyph. During your turn, you play approximately 2-4 missions. (Unless you're Russian, then it's more like 1-2.) Once a team member has been used on a mission, they are stopped until the next turn unless you have an event or support character that allows you to ready them.

The ability to ready the team as a group after they've been stopped doesn't exist for any other specialized team. These cards play as a group - but damn, they are hard!

Now, on to the Jaffa - an entire society with no science and very little ingenuity. *sigh*