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.