Good Card, Bad Card #37

So a couple of things popped up on my radar today. First an article titled "Contender or Pretender" on trekcc.org about world championship deck building. I'm sorry to see I wasn't invited to be on the expert panel. Years ago, the old KillerB would've gone apeshit over this offense. Now, when I see a name like Mike O'Shagay and not mine, I just chuckle to myself and enjoy the jibberish I read. I read the beginning, then my mind got numb and skipped to the end. The ironic part is, the only person who even made a little bit of sense was Kris Sonsteby. If my man had his head on straight he might be able to actually play this game. Then for more trekcc.org disrespect James Hoskin picked a local to win the Norfolk, VA area Regional this Saturday instead of me. Man, I can't get any love from that website. The next thing to catch my eye was the new Organized Play Guide. More importantly the new tiebreakers. Differential finally got invited to the party, but only at the very bottom. Something I never heard of, called cumulative victory points has taken the place behind SoS (I call it Trek BCS). After figuring out what it was I was struck with another dose of hypocrisy. For years I battled while a member of the CC to get differential as a tiebreaker. All that time people argued that it rewarded beating a lesser player. Problem is, cumulative victory points rewards winning in the early rounds. You usually play the better players in the later rounds. That means you play the lesser players in the early round. So.... how is this anything different? I don't know, I guess I'm glad the problem of the old tiebreakers being useless in a round-robin regional is fixed. But I'm going to give the cumulative victory point thing a hard look before I make up my mind. For GCBC today we're on to the set This Side of Paradise.

Good Card: Number One, Reputable Officer

Why: There's alot of "ok" in This Side of Paradise, but not alot of "good". Considering I made Polywater Intoxication a Good Card in #14 I had to look hard and deep to find another one. I picked Number One because she gives an affiliation something no other one has, a "Get Out of Jail Free Card". No other affiliation has a built-in defense against capture. With Capture becoming a strong Tier-1 strategy, that makes Number One more valuable. Even if you don't run into capture, Number One is a pretty sweet deal. 2-cost for 5 skills and 6-6-6 attributes is a bargain.

Bad Card: Anastasia Komananov, Russian Seductress

Why: I'm not being objective on this one. If you put "Russian Seductress" in a subtitle you have to know I'm going to hate on it. Besides my own personal issues with Eastern European women, Anastasia just seems odd to me as a card. She does bring a hologram back from the dead when you play her, that's ok. Other than that she does nothing for me. She has four oddball skills that don't go together. Her attributes (not physical ones) are average. She doesn't seem worth her 3 cost to me. Unless your taking advantage of her species or keywords, which requires other cards, she's nothing special. So remember guys, stay away from the Russian Seductress or YOU will end up in the brig. :(

Good Card, Bad Card #36

For the 15th anniversary of Star Trek: The Customizable Card Game the CC released Legacy (remember when that word didn't make you sad?). A little 15 card set designed to 'give old cards new life'. I'm not sure how all that worked out, but the set itself was solid.

Good Card: Evek, Agent of Cardassian Justice

Why: This card alone took Cardassian Capture from a deck type that was kinda ok, and could win to Tier-1. I rode Evek all the way to 3rd at Worlds last year in Germany. If it wasn't for broken cards that came out 2 minutes before Worlds who knows..... but I digress. This is one of the few times that design hit the nail on the head. Evek is proper cost, has the ability to miss, and doesn't screw with any fundamental functions of the game (like screwing with dilemmas). The Cardassian affiliation should be the guidebook for design on how to boost a weaker affiliation without screwing it up (like Starfleet or Terok Nor).

Bad Card: Changeling Infiltrator

Why: One day, this could be a 'good card'. This card has the potential to be super fun and awesome. Only one problem..... how the hell am I supposed to capture anyone playing Dominion? Making a capture theme card for Dominion is like making an All-Out War-type card for TNG, it just doesn't make any sense. What am I supposed to do, drop this bucket of gooey ooze and hope I'm lucky to capture someone with a lame capture dilemma so they can morph into somebody who is probably going to suck anyway? Nah, I'll pass for right now.

Good Card, Bad Card #35

So I have to credit my ass whooping last Sunday in Trek, going a pathetic 1-3 with Romulans, to turning around my poker game. Sunday night, coming home to some usual family mayhem, I had to lock myself in my room, put on some tunes, and hit some weights. Well, kinda like Forrest Gump, I figured since I started, I might as well keep going. So the next day I walked a few miles, next day more weights, next day more walking, etc. No coincidence, that after a month of treading water in poker, barely breaking even, that I finally had a breakout weekend. Three straight solid wins and feeling good again. Now I'm no fitness guy, believe me. I love my sugar, and shrimp burritos from Taco Bell. But just a little bit of exercise goes a long way mentally. Feeling good physically translates into feeling good mentally, and that gives you confidence. And that's the key in ANY card game. So I took that spirit, locked myself in The Lab and churned out some new decks. Tested them out with the Local Legend, before he went back up to Boston, and this Sunday I'll be ready to redeem myself. OK, we'll continue our journey back through time and trek sets. Today we have Allegiance.

Good Card: Conflict

Why: With all the garbage in the past to lower dilemma draws and points (RATS, Mot, Vic, etc) I'm for anything that makes more. I like this especially because it has two cost, either pitch 5 cards or lose 5 points. This means it's versatile and can be played by different affiliations. Anything that can snag 5 easy points, Borg or Romulan. Or anything that has lots of cards in hand, TNG or Ferengi. One draw back is that it can boost Tragic Turn, but most TT players boost their piles with Uninvited, so they can't have it all.

Bad Card: Reman Assault Team

Why: The 'player' in me wants to prove the 'cynic' in me wrong and make a deck to make this card work, but I doubt I could. One, it plays on a ship. For some reason, I just don't like playing events on ships. It makes me feel dirty or something. Two, it cost too much. Three, it won't help against Tragic Turn. Stopped Remans don't count as Remans. Fail. Maybe one day, a massive Romulan Reman Machine can be competitive, but that day isn't today.

___________________________

Today's Pic: A Drunk Midget's first haircut.

Good Card, Bad Card #34

Just change your damn light bulbs. The new tea party cause is repealing the law passed by Congress making the new 'squiggly' light bulbs the standard. I've heard the word 'repeal' used more in the last 6 months than my entire life combined. Never can I recall a whole political body hell bent on reversing legislature from the previous term. Not in my life, maybe not in American politics ever. They use terms like "nanny-state" and that the law is "politically correctness gone crazy". Things like the government shouldn't tell people what to do. Come on people, the government tell us to do things all the time, even things that our for our own good. Every time I get a seat belt ticket I get pissed off because it's a law put in place for my own good. I do believe that government shouldn't enact laws for my own safety. Should I wear my seat belt, of course I should. But me not wearing it doesn't hurt anyone else. However, one of the functions of government is to enact laws to protect from other people. This light bulb law will cut power-plant pollution by 100 tons. The government needs to protect me from corporation that will pollute the planet just to make a couple extra bucks. So relax people, it's just light bulbs. Your liberties aren't being stolen by the big, bad, black President. Today for GCBC, we continue on trip backwards with the draft set Infinite Diversity. Draft is kinda like the light bulb law, I feel it's pushed on me every GenCon and I'm forced to play this terrible format. You guess right, I hate draft. But guess what, I like this set. This set of full of simple cards, and I like simple cards. Because after this set came Peak Performance, and we all say what happened when you try to be revolutionary in an already established card game.

Good Card: The First Duty

Why: It's surprising the percentage of time I get a random kill off this dilemma. I'd say maybe around 35-40%. It's easy to track Law, and if you toss An Issue of Trust in front of it you're more likely to get a random kill. The Art of the 1-Cost Stopper is a lost art. I'm shocked how little I see them played anymore. The old school method is playing, for example, Hard Time-stopper-stopper-Wall is still viable. If you can track skills.

Bad Card: Inhumane Interrogation

Why: Somebody jumped to conclusions when they made this card. I know, it was intended to see play in draft, not really in standard format. Even so, what a pile of monkey crap. I don't care what the format is, you can't make a dilemma cost 4 then put a escape clause in it. One event? Really? You could've at least made it two events. This card makes me want to go to my garage, turn the car on, then shut the garage door.

Good Card, Bad Card #33

Happy "Dead Clown's Day" everyone! Yes, Legacy finally got the errata that was needed. I use the word "needed", not wanted. I know some people don't understand why I pushed so hard for it, but like the Borg Queen said, "You think in such three-dimensional terms." You had to think outside-the-box to see what the "Legacy Effect" was. I'm not looking for credit or anything, it wouldn't matter if I was, I wouldn't get it. I'm just glad the game is repaired now. People can go back to sitting down to build a deck without a gun to their heads. I got a text from Neil Timmons at 1:47 AM telling me of the errata and to"go on the boards and say nice things, so people forget how much you yelled". Unlike Neil, I have no desire to be loved by the community. I stand behind my actions fully. I know I made things miserable for awhile on the message boards. I know I gave the Chairman a few headaches. I'm am sorry to cause Charlie grief, but I'm afraid it was necessary. I know I'll sound pompous when I say I see this game on another level than most people. I do, but it's not because of greater intelligence or talent. It's just a matter of experience. I'm the Last Outlaw, nobody has been around longer than me ('around' means physically, you go to Worlds). I've played other CCG's. Raw Deal, Star Wars, DragonBall Z (for a minute, for my little brother), Pokemon (I think he also had this on the Nintendo Gameboy). So even if you don't like me, trust the fact that I might know a thing or two about card games. OK, I know I was supposed to go back through time each set picking out cards, but last time I was sad and forgot. I'll get to that next time, I'm eager to crap all over the draft set Infinite Diversity. But for now, we'll stick to the new set, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Assess Contamination

Why: BenHosp wouldn't shut the f*ck up about this card yesterday. Which was even more annoying because I was playing with it. He loved it more than me. He was using Favor the Bold to solve it twice. Good move since people in my meta are still favoring non-skill dilemmas heavily. Even yesterday, before the "Great Errata", Legacy wasn't scaring them off. Guess what, this mission will do a better job than pre-errata Legacy (post-errata Legacy will too, but that's a separate topic) of scaring people off non-skill dilemmas. You know how I figured out 100% that this is a "good card"? Because Len Neidorf hates it. Len, a.k.a The Local Legend, went off to school about 5 years ago and has only been playing trek sporadically in that time. His mind is like a time capsule of a Trek brain from 5 years ago. That old school thinking of how a dilemma pile "should be". Ironic, the great Legacy Crusader is in favor of hating on non-skill dilemmas.

Bad Card: Hate

Why: I love this card. Anything that might make somebody not use Navaar (Jihad #10, I swear Jihad on things I don't like. Remember when I said I would make a bad Muslim?) is a great thing. Problem is, this card has two hurdles I can't get past. One, the solved mission requirement. So unless I'm playing a fast deck with an easy early mission I won't play it. Two, what if I face a deck that doesn't create skills? Not every deck relies on gaining skills. Romulans don't. My borg assimilater rarely interlinks a skill. Cardassians don't. So while I love the effect, I can't see adding a card in my deck that I can't play early and I might not even play at all.

Good Card, Bad Card #32

I have never performed worse in a tournament than I just did today. My Romulan Far Seeing Eyes decks started 0-3, including a 5 point timed loss. I got a redeeming victory against Alex and his Ferengi (Ferengi hate exobiology apparently), but that doesn't really matter. For some reason, this time, I'm not in rampage mode over a certain card. BenHosp won with OT Kirk, coming back since last playing in last year's NA Continental Championship. Imagine that, an OT Kirk winning a tournament. I actually Brainwashed Kirk against BenHosp, but his Nevaar x3 was a solid Plan B. They put a gun to your head to play with more skill-based dilemma, but never addressed the dumb cards that can create any skill on a whim. Great plan Brad. But I digress, the Peak Performance anger has subsided. It's been replaced with acceptance, that Teir-1 has been reduced to crap. I used to pride myself that I could play any affiliation and go at least 3-1 with it, no matter what. Well, in my cut-throat meta, those days are over. Quite simply, unless you play Borg or OT Kirk, you're probably going to run into some bulls*it that's going to beat you. If Worlds was tomorrow I would be 100% forced to play Borg. Quite frankly, that's just sad. This game used to be better than that. So after getting home I find out that the baby decided to put some of the cards in my deck behind the radiator (I mention earlier in the week that the baby learned how to climb on the kitchen table and my cards got attacked). My deck was missing one Telepathic Deception (the dilemma the pile is based around), one Dangerous Liason (former "good card") and one Romulan Scout Vessel (meaning I played a deck with only 2 ships). Luckily I still has 21 cards left in the pile or I wouldn't been playing an illegal deck the whole time. Today's GCBC summaries will be brief, after today I need to go pound some freeweights and pound some beers.

Good Card: Telepathic Deception

Why: The only fun I had today was when I played this on Alex and I did the Wayne's World noise where they change endings at the end of the movie. As for the card, of course this is the backbone of a FSE deck. But it might merit consideration in any standard pile. One side has telepathy and attributes, that's easy to track. The other, exobiology, which some decks struggle with. This card is an oldie, and a goodie.

Bad Card: Lursa, Romulan Conspirator

Why: Until the mission Assess Contamination came out there was never a reason to use Lursa. Her skills suck and she is ugly. Now her skills are a little useful... but she still is ugly. In my 5 point loss to Ed "Big Time" Kime I attempted that mission and Ed pulled Lursa with a Hard Time out of 12 people to stop me. Ed..... great shot, I remember when I could so stuff like that. Lursa.... you're dead to me.

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 2

Kris Sonsteby is worse than Hitler. That's right, I said it. Now, for those of you who don't know. Kris will try to sue the Continuing Committee because I said that. For starters, Kris doesn't understand what the term "Libel" means. He should look that up. Two, I'm confused how the CC is responsible for anything I say. What's going on here is a bully not getting his way. And when he can't bully me, he goes after the Chairman of the CC. He threatens, with hostility and profanity, the Chairman that unless I'm banned he'll sue. Sounds like a bully to me.

How childish and pathetic of you Kris. Of course your threats are without merit. There is no case. I've cause you no damage, except to your fragile ego. But you would risk the years of hard work that CC members have put into the game, all the players who benefit from the work the CC does, all because..... John Corbett said mean things about you?

No, that's not quite it, is it Kris? What are you really mad about? I don't have to recall too far back how much you hated the CC years ago. How offended you were when you weren't asked to be a member when it was founded. This isn't 100% about the big, bad John Corbett. It's about a vendetta you've had for the CC since it was created.

What else is this about, Kris? I know you have other personal problem going on in your life. I'm not sure what those are, but you said so yourself. I know from my own experience when things are going bad in life you don't think straight. Things that are unimportant seem like life or death. Maybe you've lost perspective Kris? I hope that's the case.

So what we have here is a stressed out guy, who holds an old grudge, and is lashing out at the wrong people. Kris, the CC isn't responsible for anything I say or do. They fired me because of you. They can't ban me just because you don't like me. If your issues are with me, then deal with me alone.

You say you'll do "whatever it takes". That mean you would destroy an entire global community to save your ego and a few MN players? I know you guys would be content to stay in your bubble and play with each other. The rest of us like going to big events and playing with players throughout the world.

Things are not as they seem Kris. This isn't the grand arena. You are not the noble hero. I am not the evil villain. Because at the end of the day, I welcome you with open arms and an open heart. I love my enemies. I hold no grudges, no anger towards you. You speak of "long-held beliefs and principles that are the bedrock of what defines me at the core", but what are those Kris? Anger, hate, being a bully? Principles aren't words Kris, they're actions. If I'm your enemy Kris, then here I am. You have to open your arms and and heart and let me in.

Jesus and I love you, Kris.

Good Card, Bad Card #31

We're going to do things backwards today in GCBC. Go with the bad card first, then the good one. We'll continue going back set-by-set and pick two from Peak Performance. Or as I like to call it.... "The Worst F*CKING set every made." I had something smart to write about today, but my youngest kid learned how to climb on the kitchen table and got ahold of some on my cards. So I'm a little pissed off. Luckily the casualties were light. Ironically, most of the hits were former "bad cards". A Legacy and Excaliban Drama among them. That baby sure hates bad dilemmas.

Bad Card: Superior Position

Why: Sure, Cardassians got an awesome cheater a few sets before, Central Command. But that doesn't mean throw them a clunker here. First part, save a guy from dying. Hmmm, I have about 20 other options for doing that. Second part, get a dead guy and put him on top of my deck. Hmmm, that sucks, I have to wait until my next turn to draw/play him. So that's like paying +1 for him. I just don't need it, when I play Cardassian I usually stock 3 copies of my best personnel. "Pimp Dukat".... x3, check. "Dirty Evek"......x3, check. Bottom line, the 2nd function is a crappy late-game function and the first part is hardly a good enough early-to-midgame function to make up for it.

Good Card: Unrelenting

Why: Now I'm confused. Borg already had plenty of help. Hell, they are still miles ahead of Cardassians, even with Central Command. So I don't get how they get a interrupt that is 100 times more awesome than Superior Position. I guess they thought the cost (stopping a personnel you command but do not own aboard a Borg ship) would be tough, but it's not. When I play assimilation, more than 1/2 the time I assimilate more then one personnel in a single shot. So once you have two guys you can play a string of Unrelenting and snag three guys. Oh, and I get to chose who I want! Wow! They probably just went with that because they didn't have any more text space for "randomly select". That how bad of a set Peak Performance is. What's that? Oh yeah, I forgot about the first function, a Borg Amanda Rodgers. That's a fantastic late-game function. I love playing Borg assimilation, but when a build already has the best cheater in history, Knowledge and Experience, you don't go and design them another awesome card.

_________________________________

Today's Pic: 4 Quest, 4 Dead Dwarves. But finally, during Quest 5, the heroes finally learned how to work together, find the Talisman of Lore, and keep the Dwarf alive!

Good Card, Bad Card #30

So I got some insight into the midwest the past few days. I've been trying to arrange a regional on a Sunday, May 15th, but it seems nobody can accommodate me. Local TD's tell me they don't want to lose some of their locals. At first I got a little annoyed. I didn't think it was a big deal. But when I thought about it, most of their "locals" only play a few times a year. In my area, a regional is just another tournament, just worth a few more ratings points. No big deal. But out there, this is the only time the weirdos and hillbillies come out of their woodsheds and iceshacks and play some Trek. I hope I can make this trip happen. But I'm not sure if a guy from Jersey has any buisness out in the middle on nowhere. For today's GCBC we play "current events" and select two from the last set, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Quinn

Why: I've said it in the past, the only time Brad said something I agreed with 100% is when he said, "Events are made to be destroyed." When it come to blowing up events Quinn is the nuclear option. I prefer it over Desperate Sacrifice. No cost (counters), and you only need to command 2 events instead of 4. If you have a deck that can handle losing 5 points then this needs to be in it.

Bad Card: I Stand With My Shipmates

Why: I'm not a fan of cards that are useless in my hand early on. The only thing early this thing would be useful for is making Morik attributes +5. Sorry, not good enough. So the idea is that I can pop this event instead of paying 5 points on a cost, which was the theme of the last set. My issue is, most abilites that you pay 5 points for already have some alternate way of paying. Usually it's a ship, Equinox or the new Bajoran ship, the Te'nari. This is a 'late game card', and I just don't like those types of cards.

_________________________________

Today's Pic: This is my buddy Isaac Timmons. He feels the same way about Legacy as I do. I knew Isaac and I would be buddies when I met him the first time and he puked on me.

Good Card, Bad Card #29

Yesterday I was told by the "Ultimate Imitator" Neil Timmons that the latest GCBC sucked because I was wrong about the D'deridex Advanced (and having a BenHosp pic). That the Advanced was usless now because of the virtual Bird-of-Prey. Ironic, the TNG-era Warbird being made obsolete by the 22nd century bird-of-prey. Neil listed all his supposed reasons, some had merit, others didn't. Problem is, all his logic is based under the assumption "This is how you play Romulans". That's how he thinks, "This is how you play Klingon", "This is how you play Maquis", etc. I reject that philosophy all together. That's why I love 2E, there are multiple was to play every affiliation (well, maybe not Terok Nor). If you play Klingon, you don't have to play TT/Mara/Krudge. If you play Romulan, you don't have to play past icons/P'tols x3/bird-of-prey. Are some builds better then others? Sure, but you have plenty of other options. This rigid world of absolutes that Neil, and other top level players, live in curtails their creative ability. That's why after awhile, they usually end up with only 1, maybe 2 (if they're lucky), Tier-1 decks they can bring to a big event. And when they try think outside-the-box it usually ends up a disaster. BenHosp wanted me to make Parallel Course a "good card", but I haven't seen used effectively yet. In fact, the last time I saw it used was Neil using it in an actual original deck of his. He beat the jobbers with it, but I had no trouble. It wasn't quite a disaster, but it was light-years away from Tier-1. The true test of a player is the test of time. If you paint yourself into a corner when you decide to play an affiliation you run the risk of becoming a 'stale player'.

Good Card: I.K.S. Kla'Diyus, Prototype

Why: General Chang is my 2nd favorite villian in Trek. So you really have to screw up for me to hate something related to him. But this ship's ability is awesome. It's really fun to staff the Kla'Diyus on turn 2, then cloak it and tell your opponent "I can see you Kirk. Can you see me?" Even if you don't want to make a fun deck completely based around it, it's still a 3-cost ship. That's always good. Careful, the stats suck so don't get hit by a Gomtuu or you'll be sending a distress call to the Rotarran to pick your ass up.

Bad Card: George Primmin, Starfleet Security

Why: Oh, he's a good card gameplay-wise, I use him when I play DS9. But let me tell you why he's 'bad'. One, he's undercosted for his awseome ability. If he couldn't use his ability on himself he'd be ok a 2-cost. Two, because he can use his ability on himself this leads to confusion. I've had to explain this to casual players multible times during tournaments. To new players one of the first things you usually have to explain is that personnel aren't "present" with themselves. Then this guy comes along and I have to explain that he isn't restricted by that. Big problem with 2E rules is sometimes you have to say, "Kinda forget about that stuff when I explain this....".

______________________________________________

Today's Pic: From the ages of 2 to 6 kids are just "drunk midgets". They run around, break stuff, then just pass out wherever. This little bastard passed out in my chair, with my remote.

Good Card, Bad Card #28

Americans don't like black people telling them what to do. I saw on the tv the other day somebody giving Michelle Obama grief for her campaign against childhood obesity. Really...... Really? I don't recall Nancy Reagan getting heat for "Just Say No." I don't recall Laura Bush catching flak for promoting literacy. A First Lady picks a cause and runs with it, that's how it works. America's fat kids are a serious problem, I don't understand how any person could make it political. Hell, when I was in school I remember The Terminator (Arnold) promoting physical fitness. You can't blame video games, you can't blame the internet, you can only blame yourself. I got three kids, luckily they inherited their mother's Skeletor-like metabolism. Even so, on a nice afternoon or during the weekend, I kicked them out of the house, make them go outside. Kids need play, it's that simple. It doesn't help that we feed out children too much crap either. Too much McDonalds, too much cheap food from the supermarket. Things full of preservative, like Ramen Noodles. Poverty plays a role in it too. America's poor are living off the dollar menu and crap food. That's all they have access too. There's no Whole Foods store near them. Even if they could get there they couldn't afford any of the whole wheat stuff. America's healthcare system is already a joke, what happens when these kids grow up to be unhealthy adults? Making insurance companies even richer, that's what.

Good Card: D'deridex Advanced

Why: Romulan engines suck, it's just a fact of live. But this 6-7-7 ship is really 8-9-9, unless you really screwed up building your deck. Only once did I find myself on this ship without an intelligence person aboard. The best part is, you get the attribute boost without any extra staffing icon. The only draw back of this ship is being forced to look at the image. When they made 2E premier they wanted to be different, so they decided to use the ass-end of of ship for an image on some of them. Some of these ships, like this one, are just terrible. I know there are only so many ways to show a Romulan ship, but still, I don't need to see the asscrack of Warbird.

Bad Card: Virtual Reality Headset

Why: First it broke the new Weyoun and ruined Worlds. Now, after the errata, it's a useless card. The Will of the Collective has failed. I never really followed it on the CC's message boards. All I know it's 0 for 2 making cards. Hopefully they don't go for the 'silver sombrero' (that's 3 strikeouts in baseball for my non-US readers) and just make a simple card next time.

__________________________________________

Today's Pic: BenHosp enjoying a PBR tallboy during a game of Twilight Imperium. Sadly, while he was enjoying it I snuck in and claimed the throne by 1 victory point.