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.