Good Card, Bad Card #68

I'm for Worlds in Sydney. I can't say I'm thrilled with it, but I'm not upset like some people are. Maybe it's because I'm still in a post-Worlds funk. But it's not like there's prizes anymore, it's just a 'title'. They Aussies have been lobbying for Worlds for a long time. And unlike Europe, they put an impressive bid in for it. They look like they have their act together. So I say 'what the hell, give it a go'. When this debate was going back and forth years ago I suggested that the CC somehow gave out a free plane ticket for the North American and European continental winners. That way you can still have a true 'world championship'. Sadly, that isn't going to happen. It will be a glorified local, with a few people who can actually afford that kind of trip in this economy. That's in no way me trying to delegitimize or devalue next years worlds. It's just the reality of the situation giving circumstance and geography. I'm going to take two events for this week's GCBC.

Good Card: Extreme Measures

Why: This card falls under the 'hammer' category. It's designed to punish people playing Krudge. Ironically I haven't seen much of Krudge lately, so this card showed up a little late. But you never know when he might show his ugly mug again, so this is a good card to have around. I wish this card cost a little less, that way it was more useful late game. 99% of the time you won't be playing against Krudge (unless you're like me and have to play with DC clowns who can't stop playing Klingon) so blowing up my extra high-cost ship for a few extra counters can help out. And among other reasons, this card has a awesome image. At least something good came out of Search for Spock.

Bad Card: Mudd's Women

Why: I don't know where to begin with Mudd's Women. It's bad on many levels. For starters, I have to pay a cost (discard a card from hand) to maybe get some extra counters. I might not even randomly select the person I name. Sure, some dilemmas like Personnel Duty and An Issue of Trust are sneaky and 'randomly select all but one' and I can help my chances, but that's a stretch. So even if I pop Mudd's Women once or twice and put two cards on it, ready to get my extra 4 counters (forget the fact I paid 2 for it, so once just breaks you even), I have to wait until the start of my next turn. Meaning my opponent has the chance to destroy the event. And if he does, the cards on it get discarded. The first time I saw this card was in a draft event at GenCon a few years back. I'm the first to admit I'm the worst draft player ever, but this card even stunk in that format.

Good Card, Bad Card #67

So apparently playing Trek in Jersey is like the mafia, you can never quit. My fellow players stepped up and took over running the league and I'll just sit back this year and just enjoy playing for a change. I've been in sort of a 'trek depression' since GenCon. Maybe 'trek burnout' is more like it. But Sunday we played the Ferengi Fight Club format and it was a good time. Playing Render Assistance like it's a real card is good cure for 'trek boredom'. The highlight for me was when I used Ferengi whip to get past Mugato. Somehow my 100+ card deck manage not to lose a game. Two timed wins and a draw. Today's two cards come from that event.

Good Card: Falsify Distress Signal

Why: This is good, solid, not-too-difficult mission for Ferengi. I've been saying forever, if you want to make a mid-level affiliation better, give them better missions. Sadly, most of the top-level decks focus on waaaay too easy missions. Rescue Prisoners, Kressari, Restore Errant Moon, etc. This mission is cunning>33, that's fair and above the 32 threshold. My general rule of thumb is: anything below 32 in 2E is abusive. But what makes this mission special is the ability. Sure, it's only 30 points, and you have to sacrifice 5 more to pop the ability, but it's well worth it. An extra turn is huge in this game. Besides, playing Ferengi there's plenty of way to score some bonus points. That's what the Tongo wheel is for.

Bad Card: Borg Queen, Bringer of Order

Why: In Ferengi Fight Club there's the "mercenary rule". You can play non-Ferengi treachery personnel to Ferenginar for +2 cost. I decided to sprinkle some Borg in, maybe using a clutch Adapt when trying to solve missions. The plan was terrible because the deck was so big. I also noticed I could use this Queen to give my Morik any skill. Something that probably would only happen in this format. But this card doesn't do it for me, maybe because the other Queens are better. When playing Borg the ability to 'dial-a-skill' (a Michael Keller old school deck) is more useful then trying to guess what skill you need. Back in the early days of Borg this card wasn't so bad. But now they have more drones with Officer, Treachery, even one with honor, so it devalues this Queen even more. The only skill you can't find is Intelligence. Plus, there's always Ascertain to change skills to programming. This Queen is past her prime and you can just use her for backing on new v-cards.

Good Card, Bad Card #66

This is a bittersweet GCBC this week. After last seasons WCT League Play ended, and leading up to GenCon, I kinda had the feeling that I wasn't going to run another League season. I tried to summon the spirit and give it another try, but after we couldn't pull just 4 players for our season opener I've decided to shut it down. Sadly, the league that started it all is closing up up shop. Not that I'm quitting the game, I've been doing this since the beginning, I ain't going anywhere. But the amount of time I devote to Trek over the last year has diminished a great deal and there's no point in forcing things. Have no fear, I plan on continuing the Good Card, Bad Card series. Unlike 1E, I don't plan on taking all my cards and putting them in the corner and never looking at them again. So since I never got a chance to play my terrible Ferengi Deck, I'm going to take two cards from that affiliation.

Good Card: Kreechta, Prepared for War

Why: I like 'hit and run' ships. The drawback of battle is that you lose a turn attempting missions during the process. The Kreechta is expensive, but you get 9 weapons, so you should have no problem throwing down with any ship. It seems to me that Ferengi are all about the two mission win these days. So I would use the Kreechta to score a quick ten with Call to Arms, then run that 10 into 20 a few times with Ferengi Tradition. After that, a couple of easy missions should win you the game. But what do I know, I suck playing Ferengi.

Bad Card: Krayton, Trade Envoy

Why: I mentioned in the last GCBC that I'm not a fan of cards that require a commander aboard. Too many bad things can happen during a course of a game. And this ships ability only seems good to me early game, when I'm trying to solve a quick space mission (and I have to make a quick trip home and back). There's a good chance I might not have my matching commander out yet. Take away the requirement, and this ability would be fine. And really, if I pitch the 9 cost rule, what the hell am I going to do with 17 range? In 1E that would be awesome, but in 2E it's excessive.

Good Card, Bad Card #65

So last week we went 'old school' and had a couple of cards from back in the day. This week we go 'new school' and take a couple of cards from Tacking into the Wind. Each time I say that  name a want to cry. Seriously, it's the worst name of any Trek set ever. Terrible, but I like the set. If I have to trade a terrible name to get a good set I'm willing to do that. This set finally gave people some cards they've been clamoring to get. The Enterprise-B finally makes a 2E appearance. We also got the Starship Defiant. This set focused on ships, and that was a solid idea. Ships are one of the coolest parts of the game. The trick is to make a cool ship without putting a wall of text on it. Remember the Queen's Diamond ship, or whatever it's called? That's why it was a "bad card". Sadly, we still get another 'team', this time Cardassians. I haven't seen it in action yet so I can't judge, but just from looking at them I can tell I won't be a fan. It's involves a new Kira, so I'm going to be a hater right from the door.
On the way back from GenCon I got an epiphany. A new format called Ferengi Fight Club (you can find the rules on the trek.cc boards). I kinda regret it already. Not because the format will suck, in fact I think it's going to be awesome. But after trying to make Ferengi decks for the last month I've realized I'm no good at it. I'm going to be in for world of pain this Sunday. But I should have at least have some fun doing it. I didn't play Dabo!, now I wish I made a deck with it. I hope somebody does.

Good Card: Duty Schedule

Why: I like 'hammers', cards that punish players. This is a great hammer for punishing players who use ships with one staffing icon. All those Non-aligned ships with one gold star can get you into trouble now. My only complaint is that it should cost one. When I suggest 'hammers' to Charlie, at GenCon or when I harass him in text messages, I'm extreme with them. Most of the time he's the voice of moderation, where I'm looking to really shut down abusive strategies. The only time I've seen a big 'hammer' is Transport Crash Survivors. But at least this dilemma is might make someone think twice. The only drawback is that it cost more than 1 and doesn't require a skill.

Bad Card: Executive Commission

Why: I'm not a fan of most cards that require a matching commander aboard a ship as a cost. Bad things can happen during a game and you can find yourself without your captain. If it's a big reward, like Deploy the Fleet, then maybe, since that's a game changer. But this card is as bad as Salvaging the Wreckage. Sure, this one is cheaper, but I could find myself unable to play it. And I never understood what putting a couple of dudes on the bottom of my deck is going to do for me later. If I'm in that bad of shape I'm probably going to lose the game anyway. And the worst part is, all my opponent has to do is play Greasy Dukat and rape my discard pile to make it a useless card. I'll stick with In the Mirror, Darkly if I'm going to play a 'reboot' card.   

Good Card, Bad Card #64

Hiatus over. After nearly a 2 month absence we're back to praise and poop all over 2E cards. I'm not sure why the hiatus began, a combination of starting a new job and being exhausted with the 'dork drama' that goes with this game sometimes. Thankfully, that seems to be in the past. I know why it continued after Worlds, I just needed time to decompress. GenCon was actually a great, exhausting time. I think I only slept a combined 12 hours the whole con. As for the Championship, I think having two ties in the Final is a miracle compared to the "Peak Performance Disaster" in Germany. My most memorable moment of the trip didn't happen in Indy, it was on the way. Driving with Phil, going through Wheeling, WV (check previous GCBC's for that terrible place) we decided to stop and kill a couple hours since it was early. No poker games going yet (since it's a sad, terrible casino), so we hit the dice table. It's all a blur now, but Phil made a guy over $12,000 while he had the dice. After some '*cough*, *cough*, aren't you glad we stop by on the way. Gas is sure expensive.' comments by me the guy threw Phil a black chip ($100). I mean, it's a tiny percentage, but free gas is free gas. Anyways, I really wasn't in a hurry to get back to GCBC. I figured once the WCT League got going again in late Septemeber I'd get the creative juices flowing again and it would happen on it's own. But the other night I get a text from an old school all-star named Brian Sykes. He told me I was lazy and to get back on it. Since I never like to disappoint my fans I gave in to the peer pressure. Since Brian hasn't been seen at a major event in 47 years I told him to nominate 2 old school cards and I would use those for the next GCBC. So here you go:

Good Card: Stricken Dumb

Why: I agree completely with Brian on this one. This is a very underused card that people should give another look. People can't ever stop playing Personal Duty and An Issue of Trust, so this cheater is useful against 90% of the dilemma piles out there. Here's another little trick I like with Stricken Dumb, at Worlds I was shocked at how much I saw The Caretaker's "Guest" being used. I used to play this dilemma a ton when it first came out, but it's just fell out of favor in our meta. Well, with Stricken Dumb, you can use the cost as a defense. Toss and money personnel in your discard pile and get him out for free. In the famous words of Brian Sykes.... "that's mad tech."

Bad Card: Rescue Prisoners

Why: At first Brian nominated Kressari Rendezvous, and I told him I already did that. Turns out I didn't, but I think I covered how bad Kressari is when I did Bat'leth and Ruling Council as bad cards. So instead he went with Rescue Prisoners. Here's the thing, this mission isn't bad, and Kahmis (the guy with all the skills) isn't bad. It's the combination of the two. In fact, you can say this was the first 2E Design fail in Premiere. Having one personnel with all the skills for a mission is very 1E-like, and that's what we wanted to avoid with 2E. It got worse as they made more and more 8 strength Klingons. Once you get three of those big boys with Kahmis you can solve Rescue Prisoners with four personnel. And we've all realized after all these years playing 2E that easy ass missions make this game suck. That's why I'm in love with the new dilemma Insurrection. Man, whoever designed that dilemma is a friggin' genius.....

Good Card, Bad Card #63

I saw this hat up on my "Wall of Shame" (Where I keep all my 'not winner' STCCG trophies. Plus other keepsakes, like my Schloss Picard wines from Worlds in Germany) today and it made me think. Many years ago I called a group of MN players a bunch of "Random Jobbers". So when I showed up to Worlds that year, I think it was '03 or '04, I see a bunch of guys wearing Orange Hats. They took the 'insult' I gave them and turned it into their team name. It was actually very clever (even made Trek sense if you think about changelings). After Worlds, a MN player, I can't remember who, gave me a hat as a souvenir. There was no actual bad blood, and everything was in good fun. Believe it or not, back then, MN players had a sense of humor. I know, it's tough to believe. Sure, there have always been some prickly guys in that group. But overall, they were just like everyone else. They didn't go nuts anytime somebody talked some smack, made a comment on a message board, or made crazy threats of lawsuits. Those regular guys are gone. All that's left now (at least online) are a few unhinged characters who take things way too serious. They try to blame me for players they've lost or have 'left the scene'. But the Random Jobbers I don't see at Worlds anymore are the ones that used to have fun, have a sense of humor. The ones that I would have a beer with after they beat me (it's a tough sell saying I'm a sore loser when that happens). What's more likely, those people stop playing because of a guy they saw once a year, and didn't take seriously, or their prickly locals who have reality perception issues?

Today for GCBC we'll stop at the random set of These are the Voyages. I had the MACO virus for about two weeks. I kept thinking MACO's were the truth and Tier-1. I just couldn't crack the code.

Good Card: Swashbuckler at Heart

Why: Sometime back I said "Every dilemma pile should have at least one The Dreamer and the Dream". Well, now you can include Swashbuckler in that rule. There are a lot of cheaters out there. But the good ones are really good and the rest are just ehh, ok. Knowledge and Experience, The Central Command and Bridge Officer's Test are going to see lots of play at Worlds. Sadly, against K&E all it'll do is make your opponent burn one copy to save his others. But at least it's something. Also, this dilemma can really screw up a Terok Nor deck. Oh, I didn't mention the two bonus draws. I've used that bonus to beef up Excaliban Drama. In less you're playing a ton of interrupt prevention, this card is a 100% must in your dilemma pile. Why else is it "Good Card"? Sulu with his shirt off. Oh my.....

Bad Card: Richard Daystrom, Influential Scientist

Why: He's a poor man's Kirk. Everything else is fine with Daystrom, but he's got the evil words on him.... "prevent and overcome". That alone will get you on the "Bad Card" list. The Kirk errata helps a little bit, when these two guys were tag-teaming around it was pretty silly. A really abusive deck can play Daystrom 2 or 3 times in a game. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's either a quick solve or plenty of extra dilemmas overcome. The +2 doesn't really mean much. TOS is really just OT Kirk, this guy, and a bunch of really cheap personnel.

Good Card, Bad Card #62

I was wrong. For some reason I thought Kira Nerys, Ih'valla was in the set Peak Performace. It was in Extreme Measures. I just assumed, naturally, that anything broken must be from Peak Performance. And with so many Kiras it's just fucking impossible to keep track of them all.

So it's Day 3 of my exile from the CC message boards. The "Dork Wars" rage on. But I'll try to spare you any of that in today's GCBC. Unlike them, I have Worlds to prepare for. I played my "C" Deck and "D" Deck Sunday with mixed success. My Android deck couldn't stop the Borg Beast, even with Romulan interrupt hate tossed in. My experimental Starfleet NX Prototype Battle Deck went 1-2. Losing to Klingons and BenHosp's clever two-mission win deck. It was a fun deck to tryout. Guess that's why I don't have a 2000 rating like Australian players can get. I'm sorry, but it says nothing good about a country when a guy can run off 40 straight wins. I know the kid is good, but that would never happen in any other meta. We need to all start chipping in for a plane ticket for the Australian Continental winner to come to Worlds. It makes the rating system a fraud when one person is over 2000 and the next rated player is 1930.

Good Card: U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Diplomatic Envoy

Why: BenHosp had a big comeback on my Sunday with his two-mission win deck. I blew up this Enterprise with a NX Prototype, then two turns later a spooky "Ghost Enterprise" showed up and was solving missions. The lame part is this ship will be combined with cadets and their 2 range (range, not span since it's the same region) space mission. This is a good card because it brings some new freshness to TNG. All the other Enterprise-D's kinda suck. The 'future D' is kinda ok, but it cost 7 and is a pain to staff. Hell, it made somebody play Picard, Genial Captain for the first time. That's gotta count for something.

Bad Card: Unfair Comparison

Why: This card is definitely from Peak Performance. And it's been seeing lots of play lately. I tried it once a couple months ago, and I didn't like it. Why? It's a glorified 'crapshoot' dilemma. That's my term for dilemmas that 'might' do something. Dilemmas like Racial Tensions, Chula: Echoes, etc. Sure, you can build your pile up so the odds are big in your favor. But I've seen this dilemma miss too many time for my liking. Also, it's not immune to stuff like Archer, Reyga and Donatra, since it cost more than 1 and doesn't require a skill. To support this dilemma you need to play high cost dilemmas, which requires you to play 8-costers, which requires you to play events. If your opponent doesn't have much event destruction, you're in great shape. If they blow out your events, you're in big trouble.
_________________

Today's Pic: The new logo of the CC.

Good Card, Bad Card #61

So I can cross another thing off my Bucket List. I finally got banned from the TrekCC message boards. A 36 hour ban it looks like, which is kinda more insulting. I received this when trying to log in:

Making personal attacks in the thread about personal attacks? Really? Take a couple days off, come back next week and try to play nice, or the next one will be longer.

I like the threat on the end. After all these years, that's supposed to scare me straight? A moderator with a Napolean complex? Nah.... that's working under the impression that I need to be on the CC boards. These Midwest clowns want me banned more then I want to be around. Why else would I feed them red meat?

So how did this nonsense flare up again? I posted this, just a random response to another player, at the time I didn't think much of it. Then Charlie made it the prime example of a personal attack:

prylardurden wrote:

Or are you just saving your 'broken' deck so a MN player can win Worlds? /semi-joking response

KillerB wrote:
I doubt Waso here represents the best MN has to offer these days. Good god I hope not....

I guess the usual suspect cried to Charlie to have my head. After it was clear I wasn't going to be banished, the usual Minnesota passive/aggressive response:

Lore wrote:

 Change the rule today?!? What are you talking about? In this article, posted in February 4 months ago, Chris was pretty clear. The fact of the matter is, no serious action has been taken against any of the offenders. You know what? F this... I'm out.

I committed the cardinal sin of responding to Kris on the boards. Pointing out the 'I'm taking my ball and going home' bluff they pull every time they don't get their way. Kevin Jaeger did it, Kris has done it in the past. Apparently pointing out passive/aggressive behavior is a "personal attack" on the TrekCC boards. Then I was banned.

 

 

The kangaroo court has judged me, and so be it. For over a year now, whenever I say something to shake their fragile emotions they cry to Charlie. When Charlie doesn't give in to their demands (You should've saw Kris demands when he threatened to sue the CC) they threaten to quit the game, and that others will quit the game. This is a tactic that works with Charlie for some reason. But, they're still here, and you can't name one person who's not around because of me. Sure Kevin 'quit' for a month, the same time he took the role of 2E Rules Liaison (opps! did I just out him? Sorry), then he was right back. Same with Kris, and now this next Minnesota wierdo who's on the boards all the time. I'll give it 2 weeks before he is back. These are the same people who cry favoritism and that Charlie is a puppet for Neil when it comes to Trek decisions. All this bullshit and stress for people WHO DON'T EVEN GO TO WORLDS. Wow, even if they weren't bluffing about quitting, what would we really lose? A couple of crybaby, emo kids who are too afraid to attend Worlds because their egos couldn't handle any kind of failure. All they do is sit back and shit on anything anybody ever does. Well, unless 24 jobbers show up for a Minnesota tournament once a year. Then it's the greatest thing in that's ever happened to Trek.

 

 

Let's talk cards instead of Blood Feud. To 'release my pain' I'll take my agression out on Peak Performance. It's the set that keeps on giving.... broken cards and headaches...

Good Card: The Text of the Kosst Amojan


Why: This is a great example of how retrieval should work. A unique event that plays on table. So you can only do it once each turn and it can be destroyed by an opponent, fair enough. Stopping a personnel for a cost. That a whole lot better than something goofy like losing 5 points or beginning a mission attempt. And to get exactly the card I want I have to have two copies of it in the discard pile. That's something not easy to do. Plus, the other removes from game. That eliminates any kind of loops that can lead to 'counterfeit' games. So hopefully Design learned something for broken Kira. Don't put retrieval on personnel. Put it on events that play in core and make in an order.

Bad Card: Exchange Program

Why: The card itself isn't the worse thing ever. The problem is logic. Going into Peak Performance, just like now, the best two affiliations were Borg and Klingon. So what do they put in Peak Performance? Two nasty interrupts for both. Exchange Program is nowhere as bad an Unrelenting, but it's just something that Klingons didn't need. Now after I get ass raped by Krudge I'm going to lose one or two guys at my HQ. In 2E you're supposed to be safe at your HQ. This is a 1E lesson forgotten by the 2E Design team. Borg and Klingon are above the others because set after set they kept getting another card. Then all of a sudden, you combine x,y, and z and you have something that's way over the power curve. Design isn't all that hard in the conception phase. That is, if there's a Tier-1 presence on the Design team. You ask yourself, "what affiliations are too strong, and what affiliations need a boost?" Instead of trying to come up with silly teams, maybe it's best to get back to basics?

Good Card, Bad Card #60

"Get to Know Your Trek Players"
*these are not intended to be factual statements*

Name: Steve Rotz
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Resides: Columbus, Ohio
TrekCC Handle: YeahToast
Trademark: Shaking his head with a sad look
Occupation: *Top Secret* FBI Assisstant Director, Ohio X-Files Division
Favorite Deck: What Charlie makes him play
Favorite GenCon Activity: Twilight Imperium with BenHosp at 3 am.

Fun Facts: Founded the Ohio Tea Party; Doesn't like to talk about his job; Hetero-life mate of John Corbett (had civil union in New Jersey); Keeps Charlie's kidney stones in his basement

We going to use the hot button topic in trek right now as today's Bad Card. With the main theme being 'retrieval', being able to get cards back from your discard pile. This was supposed to be a theme for the Bajoran affiliation. We learned from 1E that being able to get things easily from the discard pile (Palor Toff, etc.) was bad. So most of the Bajoran stuff in 2E is tame compared to that. The problems in 2E pop up when Bajoran retrieval is mixed with other affiliations, especially the stall theme of the Maquis. When this happens you see decks that 'counterfeit' the game usually in the form of personnel denial. I'll steal a poker term here (when you're two pair turns into crap because the other card pairs on the board) for this, because it kinda gives me the same feeling when it happens. "Counterfeiting" in Trek is a game where you never had a chance to win, no matter what. This has only happened a few times to me. Berlin Wall years back, and Terok Nor/Weyoun last year. From the reports of our Aussie friends, it sounds like we have another one of those situations.

Good Card: Souls of the Dead

Why: Here we have the original Bajoran retrieval card. It's an order, so the card you retrieve can't be played the same turn. That's good. Also, the card you retrieve goes on top of your deck. This means you have to spend a counter to draw for it, which is a fair cost. More important, it only allows for one card to be retrieved, that way there's not much you can do to abuse it.

Bad Card: Kira Nerys, Ih'valla

Why: Here we have a playtest fail, but it's easy to always blame the playtesters. It takes a sick mind to come up with these abusive decks, and not everyone thinks like that. I certainly don't. I'm too busy trying to figure out how to get to 100 points first, not put cards X,Y, and Z and break the game. Some people think like that, and there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, after the Berlin Wall incident I've been saying those are the types of people that need to be playtesters. Anything that has 'retrieval' has to be examined, and playtested, more than any other cards. These cards are Suspect #1 to be abused. We didn't learn the lessons on Vedek Assembly and now here we are again. Also, retrieving personnel and ships are one thing, but retrieving events and interrupts are another. Almost nothing but NPE's can result for being able to retrieve events and interrupts easily. One good thing can come from this though: No more Kira's! Please, it was cute in the Decipher days, but now it's just annoying.

Good Card, Bad Card #59

I got hustled into finally creating a facebook page. I clicked on a link to see something posted on facebook one night and I didn't know that just 'signing up' created a page for you. So I figured since I was already duped I'd might as well join the 21st century. I like the thing where it suggest friends you might know. It had Kevin Jaeger and Kris Sonsteby on it. I wonder if they would accept my friend request.....

Today's bad card is the last card to be released by the CC. And what surprise it was. I invited the Chairman to write a "good card" section for it since he was defending the card to me. I sort of mini-debate. He declined. I'm going to call him out on politics on this one. I don't think he wants to offend any Midwest players out there by hanging out with good ol' KillerB on his blog. No big deal then, there won't be any defense of Surprise Party, just me crapping all over it.

Good Card: Odera'Klen

Why: He's my favorite Jem'Hadar. Cheap, has two skills you always need, and let's you do missions with 4 or 5 peeps. What's not to love? It always makes me sad when I have to kill Odera'Klen with Our Death is Glory to the Founders. But... it's not my life to give up... and it never was.... Anyways, I guess this is the opposite of today's bad card. Here we have a nice, simple non-unique. And there, a card that breaks the very fundamental structure of the game.

Bad Card: Surprise Party

Why: Did you read that last sentence? I'm starting to become like Worf, and hate surprises. This card came out of nowhere, I wasn't a fan of that. I remember the last surprise, Peak Performance, one month before the World Championships in Germany. Broken Terok Nor was a great surprise after spending all that money to fly to Europe. I'm not just kicking the dead horse of Peak Performace, but it's kinda the same feeling. It's the issue of "auto-includes" in decks. Non-unique Rituals were a terrible idea. Everyone packing this same card is the same thing. Besides the gameplay reasons, it just looks bad for the game. It reminds me of Q Referee cards in 1E. Let's get to the gameplay reasons now. I'm no math whiz, just a junkie with a monkey from Jersey, but if my opponent gets this card out Turn 1 and I don't for a few turns, I only have 87.5% of the counters he does. Here we are running a 100 meter sprint and I'm spotting him 12.5 meters, that makes my chances of winning pretty slim. The cost on this card is also misleading. You get one counter back the turn you play it, so it really only cost 1. Have a Party Atmosphere out, and it's free and raining extra counters for future turns. The game is simply based on 7 counters a turn. Only a few cards change that, and they're hard to get off. 1E was a doomed game because it had no costing mechanism. It was really "One or Free", that's what it turned into. So 2E came along and learned from that mistake. 7 counters a turn, and everything is costed based on that. Even screwing with it by one changes the game completely. It lets decks do things that they normally couldn't do. So when one player has it out and the other one doesn't, it puts someone at a serious disadvantage. When both players have it out, we're playing a whole new game where cost is different. I remember when 1E "jumped the shark", when DQSS came out. From that point it was all downhill. I don't know if Surprise Party means 2E "jumped the shark", but I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that it does.

Good Card, Bad Card #58

I had an idea the other day when building a deck for my daughter, "Is it safe to go back in the water?" By that I mean, is it ok to build 35 cards decks (or any small deck) again? I guess we won't really know if the Tragic Turn monster has been slain. I'm thinking it'll be like Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and come back to torment us in the future (don't worry, no picture of Pennywise, I promised after the Legacy errata you'd never see him again). I mentioned in my interview with James Hoskin, on the CC site, that Jersey was a "culture of speed", or used to be anyway. For the first years of 2E, you never saw a deck over 50 cards. For the past 3-4 years I haven't seen one under 50. Now Tragic Turn is still feasible I think, but it's good that it'll be most likely only played in bigger events. I hope....

We finished our trip back through time, going through every 2E set, wrapping up with Premier in the last GCBC. So let's fire up the Delorean, kick that sumbitch up to 88mph, and go back to the future. Here's a couple cards from the last expansion, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President

Why: He made a pretty lame HQ playable. I can't recall playing Earth, Home of Starfleet Command much in the past. Maybe a lame cadet deck, trying to snag some League HQ bonus points. But now Jaresh-Inyo plus Promenade School give this HQ a legitimate build now. I can't say it's quite Tier-1, but it's damn solid. What I like better is that the personnel is not only crucial for his ability, he's also the 'backbone' of the deck. I use the term 'backbone' for personnel that provide mission skills. Jaresh gives you just about all the skills for every mission in that build, and his high integrity helps. He's got doubles of key skills. Double Honor for Honorable Pursuit, a popular dilemma these days. And double Leadership, we all know by now what to do with that.

Bad Card: Donatra, Honorable Commander

Why: New Rule: No more Kirks! After playing against, and losing to, some Donatra/Assess Contamination cheese the players said, "Well, at least Romulan is winning now." First of all, Romulans were always a solid affiliation, but they were really hard to play. That's why you didn't see them much. Second, at what cost? (pun intended) Is giving an affiliation a Kirk-like personnel the way to go about making an affiliation Tier-1? No, it's not. I'm confident that we'll never see "prevent and overcome" on a personnel again. I'm sure Design knows that it's no good for the game in the long run. Let's just hope Donatra is the last of her kind. Hopefully, years from now, we'll look back at these types of personnel like a VCR and say, "They still make you?"

Good Card, Bad Card #57

"KillerB, we miss you!"  I get an email with this title about every week from the Minnesota Trek Player's message boards. Telling me I've been inactive and inviting me "back to join the fun!" I tried to join the fun, a few weeks back, and was quickly banned. I didn't really say anything, but I guess I'm not allowed in Sonsteby's "happy place." Those boards are the 'KillerB Safe Room' for Kris. I thought it was funny that their site was taunting me and didn't even know it.

So we finally stumbled to the finish line and back to where it all started, Premier. Well.... where it started for a second time anyways. I would do a 1E GCBC, but would probably end up in an asylum if I did.

Good Card: Captain's Holiday

Why: An oldie, but a goodie. If Len dies before me, I'm going to put a copy of this dilemma in his casket. I don't love it as much as him, but I pack this dilemma from time to time. The obvious combo is putting Picking up the Pieces (previous good card) in front of it. Unless they can make someone lose a skill (or gain one) they won't have the geology. And archeology is a pretty easy skill to track. It's just a good solid skill dilemma that, if you're a good player, you can stop your opponent easily if you're tracking right. This is a lost art form is 2E, too many non-skill dilemmas and too many easy ways to pop skills. In the early days, skill tracking is what separated the best from the best at Worlds. Now it's who can turn the most dilemmas into 'blanks'. Back to the card, did I mention it usually craps all over Klingon too? It does, most of the time. Those are two skills the Empire doesn't care much about.

Bad Card: Alien Gambling Device

Why: Every time I almost had the balls to throw one or two of these in a deck just for fun I punked out. They're just too damn expensive. Shit, Vascular Pad unstops a person and it only cost 4. This is just going to let me spin the wheel one more time. I always wanted to see a personnel who made this card cheaper. This terrible El Aurian on the image, from the DS9 episode, I forget his name. Every time I almost packed this equipment I thought about how sad I would be if someone played Equipment Malfunction. Now somebody could steal it with Stem-Bolts. That would really piss me off. Downright rude.

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Today's Pic: You can find everything on EBay. Just something I picked up for GenCon. Big things planned for this year, big things....

Good Card, Bad Card #56

"Get To Know Your Trek Players"
*These are not intended to be a factual statements*

Name: Jared Hoffman
Resides: Mount Vernon, Ohio
TrekCC Handle: Mugato
Motto: "Would you like a snack?"
Motto #2: "Going to the bathroom? I'll come with you."
Occupation: Serving The Lord
Family: Wife, Barbara; Wife, Nikolette; Wife, Margene; 14 children
Favorite Deck: Borg/Back to Basic cheese, Klingon/TT
Fun Facts: Graduated BYU, Did 3 years of missionary work in Southeast Asia (missionary work is also how you end up with 14 kids). Was sent home for violating Rule #71 of 167 'Do not sleep in the same bed as your companion' (those 167 Mormon rules are real), Owns 340 acres of land in Utah


I'm writing today's GCBC from my porch. I was in the kitchen, then I thought about how nice it was outside. This reminded me once on a Sunday, while watching football, I see my buddy going into the bathroom with his laptop. I said, "What are you doing?". To which he replied, "What does it look like? I'm taking a sh*t."  Genius this guy I thought. This was an epiphany for me. Up until this point my brain hadn't adapted to wireless Internet yet. I was a free man now, free to surf the Internet while doing #2. God bless America! So instead of being in a warm kitchen sweating like a fat guy, I'm out enjoying the air on a nice, cool summer evening.

Two sets to go. Here's Energize. Things are starting to get foggy on me now. It's tough to remember the impact of the first expansion in 2E. I remember the first 2E Worlds, where I needed to win in the last round (No bracket that year, just a final confrontation) where I attempted, and my opponent got two to draw/spend. He had to stop one. I was playing Klingon and had a Relentless, so I thought I was golden. Back then, there wasn't much that could've stop me. Then my opponent play Chula: Pick One to Save Two and I became a sad, sad person.

Good Card: Picking up the Pieces

Why: This card saw tons of play back in the day. TNG speed, with geology missions, was 80% of the decks in my meta back then. This dilemma would pretty much seal the deal on one attempt. Even today, I find myself dusting this baby off and finding it still works great. Hell, against Klingons sometimes you can use it as a wall. Unless they have that dirty bastard Duras hanging around....

Bad Card: Assassination Plot

Why: Still waiting on somebody to use this card in a tournament. Come on, somebody step up to the plate and do something with this card. Speaking of never played cards, at the Richmond Regional (also where Neil had that Duras) a kid played the Borg Diamond ship. I gave the kid some credit for being the first person I ever see use the ship..... then proceeding to beat him 100-0.

Good Card, Bad Card #55

On today's episode of "Blood Feud Weekly", On Monday, when I got back from the Regional in Worcester, a closet Ohio fan I have pointing me in the direction of this from Kevin Jeager's CC Blog, which was written before said Regional:

"Voldemort takes home his first regional win in 2 years when there is no one from the top 50 in player rating there to challenge him. A couple of valiant efforts by some up and comers with potential will scare for a second but ultimately, Voldemort wins but still proves nothing."

You're hating on me for winning the Regional before I win it? Wow, that's taking player hating to a whole new level. You should get a future icon for that kind of hate. Sad part is, Kevin's 'prediction' was spot on. Voldermort, I get it. Funny, I refer to my exwife as "she who shall not be named". Better part was somebody replying to the blog thinking that it was so clever not actually mentioning my name. Buddy, I'm not Beetlejuice, if you say my name three times I won't show up at your house. Or will I.....

The only thing more sad than Kevin's blog is the back-and-forth between Kris Sonsteby and Neil Timmons. Neil sounds like a Nazi sympathiser trying to explain all the 'atrocities' I've committed. The only good part was this from Kris, speaking about his 'threats' of legal action:

"Because his and my economic situations are not the same, it didn’t make sound business sense for me to pursue further and I instead elected to be adult about the situation and abstain from further altercations."

Did he just call me poor? I think he just called me poor..... Well, I can't be mad about that, I am poor. Working poor, but poor nonetheless. At least I'm not alone, 30% of America is in the same boat as me. I'll give Kris his delusion of even having a case for a second. But even then, only after realizing that I have nothing he could sue me for he decides to be an "adult"? Wow, that's real noble of him. Kris, you're the model of integrity my friend. This reminded me of The Dark Knight, when Batman was beating up The Joker in the holding cell. "All your strength, yet you're so powerless."

I digress, let's get back to GCBC. Three sets to go now, and today we have Call to Arms. Which introduced Borg and Dominion into 2E. One is, arguably, the most powerful affiliation in the game. The other, not so much.....

Good Card: Sensing a Trap

Why: Romulans have some fun cards. This is one of them. Forcing Their Hand, Brainwashing are others. Problem is, cards like this sometimes find their way into your Romulan decks, but when it's time to cut 3 or 4 cards this ends up being one of them. But sometimes I play Sensing a Trap because it can 'lock out' your opponents from playing a certain card, unless he wants to pay the toll. It's like the movie Goodfellas. You playing Kirk? F*ck you, pay me. You're playing Terok Nor? I name Tenak'talar, f*ck you, pay me. TNG speed? I name Excelsior, f*ck you, pay me. Cardassian? I name Central Command, f*ck you, pay me.

Bad Card: Psycho-Kinetic Attack

Why: What's the difference between 'Psycho-Kinetic' on this card and 'Psychokinetic Control'? Why are they spelled differently? I really am curious about that. Is it because one sucks and one doesn't? Because this dilemma is pretty bad. I know, it's a starter card, so it's not supposed to be fantastic. But come on, 3 cost, with easy requirements, just to kill one guy? And what if there's not a security person present (or somebody played Stricken Dumb, people used that back then)? Then I might not even get a kill. It's not all bad, at least the image on this card is pretty sweet.

Good Card, Bad Card #54

You ever find a pack of Star Trek cards in your freezer? I would guess no you haven't. I did last night. The one-armed drunk midget somehow got on top on my table, pulled out one pack from a OTSD box I keep unopened packs for prize support, and then, for whatever reason a toddler has, decided the freezer was the proper place for it. The pack was from the set To Boldly Go, so maybe even he knew nobody wants that for prize support. If you were wondering why he's a 'one-armed' midget now, it's because he lost a bet to me and didn't pay up. Just kidding, don't call the cops. I've seen this kid take full headers off chairs onto the floor, cry for a second, then get right back up and start playing again. This time when he was playing with his sister on the couch, he just fell back a little bit, but his arm was behind his back and he managed to get a tiny fracture in his elbow. He'll be fine, just a cast on it for a few weeks. He was only slowed down for a day or two before he adapted and went right back into 'baby rampage mode'. He's like a tiny little Borg, he's relentless, resistance is futile.


We'll take a tiny step back on GCBC and look at the Tenth Anniversary Collection. A little promotion with nine ships and their matching commanders (a theme you'll see again soon). Overall is was a great idea. Except for the Dominion Defiant part.....

Good Card: Gowron, Sole Leader of the Empire

Why: Klingons have always been good in 2E, but before they were insanely good Gowron was a nice addition. He has 8 strength that can make missions broken, and the usual Klingon skills (leadership, security, blah, blah, blah), but his ability is money. He's kinda like Dukat, Prefect (a.k.a. Pimp Dukat), an ability that forces your opponent to overplay dilemmas. This Gowron is like fine wine, getting better with age. Reflections gave him Klingon High Council, so he can be downloaded. V-cards gave him Bridge Officer's Test to key off his 2 Leadership. Life just kept getting better and better for the Empire. I would've listed his ship too, but it's a over-costed big piece of crap. Who would pay 6 for a Klingon ship?

Bad Card: Naprem/Dukat, True Cardassian

Why: Our first 'bad card' combo. I don't know who came up with the Cardassian Infiltration idea, but that wasn't his best. The ship is bad because it only works on planet missions. Dukat is bad because, I believe this is the first time they tried this engagement/unstop ability, sure he unstops everyone involved, but the ship's range doesn't get restored. Great, I unstopped all my people.... but I got 2 range left. So the ability was a giant fail, and they should've put some errata on him so he actually works. But even then, nobody would play him. Trying to 'cross-pollinate' affiliations rarely works. Infiltration is a Dominion thing, Capture is a Cardassian thing, etc. Sometime you can try, like Romulans should have better capture (because it makes trek sense), most of the time it's just a gimmick that doesn't work.
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Today's Pic: So exhausted from all the havoc he's cause, the drunk midget can't even finish his dinner before passing out.

Good Card, Bad Card #53

I was bugging Charlie for some spoilers from the next set (due to release at Worlds) and he sent me a reprint instead. He said since I was onto the set Necessary Evil on GCBC it was perfect timing. Actually the 10th anniversary cards were next, but we can just skip those. So we get the beast-mode ship U.S.S. Valiant. This card played tricks on my eyes when I first looked at it. I said to myself, "Where the hell is the ship?" Then my eyes adjusted and I realized what I was looking at. I like the image, showing it compared to the massive size of the Dominion Battleship. You know what was the best part about the cadet episode? They all died. Well, except Jake, Nog and Dorian Collins. Would've been my favorite episode ever if they died too.

Necessary Evil was one of the few sets I had to actually pay cash for. Those Decipher Dollars were good for something at least (they beat me for my last couple hundred). I remember when I went to the store to buy it (ironic, I live 1/2 mile from it now but drive an hour to play trek in DE) and the guy charged me full retail. He always gave me a deal and I remember being pissed off and calling somebody, maybe Len or Alex. Then they told me the set was in limited print, or something, and that was all there was going to be of it. So this set is 'special' compared to any other Decipher set. Cards from this set are a bit more rare than others. That's why you see alot of archive portraits and alternate images from this set, so people can have a copies of hard-to-get cards. Which kinda makes me think of the argument of making all cards printable, which I'm not a fan of. I won't rant on it, but I'll just say I don't think it's a necessary evil (worst pun ever) we need yet. Plus, I think it'll make the game look shitty. Maybe it's my OCD, but I can't stand it when somebody has shitty prints of v-cards. I remember how terrible Star Wars CCG looked when they first went to v-cards. I remember thinking, 'who wants to play a game that looks like shit?' How can we expect people to take Trek serious if they look at it and see black-and-white printouts or a bunch of ugly paper-cards? The only reasons v-cards work now is because they almost look like a real card. Most games you never even realize the difference. So much for not ranting about it.....

Good Card: Riley Shepard, Confident Cadet

Why: I'm gay for Riley Shepard. I have no problem saying that. I used to say it alot back in the day. Blue was played alot back then, and if you did (in non-cadet decks), this guy could save your ass. First, he was Kirk's bodyguard (this is the days before OT Kirk, I still can't believe they made a worse Kirk). Tons of people played Kirk, tons of people played Charged-Particle Precipitation to filter him out. Since Kirk only had 2 skill dots he usually got snagged. Hence why I would sneak Riley, and his sexy non-skill dot having ass, and he would do the noble thing and take the bullet. Other than bodyguard duty Riley Shepard had the money skills. Biology and Security, plenty of dilemmas required those. And, mostly at Origins and Gencon, some Ohio fool would try to play a Quantum Filament pile, and Mr. Shepard would whip out his 2 navigation. The only knock on Riley, and I mean only knock, is that he had programming. Which means he would get stopped by Picking up the Pieces, a super popular card in my meta back then.

Bad Card: Weyoun, Warship Commander

Why: I forgot all about this Weyoun. Hell, I had to check my binder to make sure I even had a copy of this one in it. A shame really, Weyoun was such a cool character in DS9, but all his 2E cards are either lame or broken. So this one is basically just a cheap copy that is the matching commander of the Tanak'talar, since they forgot to add that keyword on both Call to Arms versions of him. I understand the token engagement ability (which is the best ability in our multi-player 'battle royal' format), I just don't get why a non-Terok Nor icon person needs the Cardassian ship part. That doesn't make any sense. I guess that is money for your dual-HQ Dominion/Cardassian deck that you never made, or never will make....

Good Card, Bad Card #52

                                         "R.I.P. Michael R. Keller 2007-2011"

I'll save my words on the former CC Head Judge/Rules Master/Words Lawyer and just dance on his grave.

Some serious errata hit the fan yesterday. Tragic Turn, OT Kirk, Mara and Navaar all got a yellow card for playing dirty. I'm agreeable with all the errata. The ironic part is, that out of all four of these 'bad cards' Mara was the lesser of the four evils, but got the most drastic errata (though it's well deserved). I would've came down harder on the other three, but the CC was afraid of the backlash if they nerfed TT and OT Kirk too much (I think 99% of people want Navaar to be nerfed). These cards are a crutch for some people, and are the few people you see crying about the errata. Trying to justify that Tragic Turn, and mass murder in 2E, is a good thing for the game. These are the people who didn't play 1E and don't remember how absurd it was when an entire away team would get wiped out by one dilemma.

For GCBC we can almost see the finish line on our journey back through the sets. We're at #5, Fractured Time. I've heard the phrase "Fractured Time saved Trek", but I think it's mostly a myth. Sure, Fractured Time was a financial success for Decipher, and people credit that for Decipher deciding to keep the license. It was a great idea, and package (because most people bought 3), and people spent their money. But what else was Decipher going to do? Star Wars ran it's course, and the LotR well was just about to run dry. And we all saw the other 'great ideas' Decipher had in the pipeline.... WARS, Young Jedi, Fight Klub. That's a sad list of fail right there. I highly doubt Trek was going anywhere at that time. Any set they released would've sold and Trek would've been safe for the time being. Sad part is, Decipher was a messed up, terribly ran company, but the thing they were supposed to do, design and sell card game, they were pretty good at. They just had a doofus owner who ran his company in the ground.

Good Card: Medical Teams

Why: This was already a solid defense against Tragic Turn. I used three copies of it last weekend at the Richmond Regional (Tragic Turn's last hoorah) and it was a smart call since I faced four (the TT virus spread to the Norfolk meta) TT piles. The only thing that slowed it down, like other kill prevention, is that you couldn't save stopped personnel when they were killed (since they lose the DS9 icon). But hello Mr. Errata, and now Med Teams becomes a really great defense if somebody goes "Tea Party" with Tragic Turn and 'wants to take their country back'. It's not just a TT meta card. You can always use some kill prevention against other piles. Overwhelmed and 8-pointers, Necessary Execution (if you get cute and go planet first), etc. Plus, if people drastically stop playing TT, design might start being able to make kill dilemmas again without being afraid of the TT Monster.

Bad Card: Kira Nerys, The Intendant

Why: I decided to go a different route on chosing the Fractured Time 'bad card'. There's already some previous ones, and some obvious choices. Fracture Time did a lot of stupid things, and we all know what they are. So I went with the sexy little she-devil that is The Intendant. She's 'bad' because nobody plays her. That's because she doesn't fit in any Bajoran deck build. She has no integrity and isn't in the Resistance, and those are the only two Bajoran decks I can think of. There's a million other versions of Kira to choose from (another stupid thing I won't get into now), so the Intendant always gets passed over. This card is why if I ever had to see a new HQ I would want a Mirror Terok Nor. Let me 'dream card' for once: non-Fed yellow icon personnel can report there, and non-unique Klingons and Cardassians. It doesn't make any trek sense that the mirror universe people can't play at the same place. I always thought a mirror affiliation would be kinda neat. Probably a rules/gameplay nightmare, but fun.