Good Card, Bad Card #70

I could've used Bev's sexy little milf ass last night. After a night of PBR, Jameson whisky and poker (a demon's triangle if there ever was one) I had the unfortunate experience of waking up in the middle of the night expelling those demons. Two problems though: one, there's was nothing in my stomach so it was just dry heaving. Two, I was only 10% awake, so I was still semi-dreaming while violently hacking up a lung. BenHosp told me to Google 'planet Kolob' once and I did last week. This happened to be floating in my subconscious when this happened. Having weird Mormon things flying around your head while you body is going through terrible convulsions is just too much to handle.

My medical problems aside, let's take two cards from one of my favorite v-sets, Tacking into the Wind today and give them their due.

Good Card: Xhosa, Sponsored Transport

Why: When I made my recent Bajoran deck for Regionals I overlooked the new Xhosa. The first one sucked so much I didn't give the new one it's fair shake. On a whim I took out the Talnot (which did me little good since I played few events), and tossed in the Xhosa. Next thing I knew I was rescuing Basso Tromac from the discard pile every other game. I caught myself saying the Bryan Sykes line, "That's mad tech." There are some drawback though. I hate the cost. I hate the attributes. If the ship gets damaged things get a bit hairy. But staffing is a piece of cake, and the ability to bring Bajorans back to life like Lazarus makes it worth the price.

Bad Card: Arrogance

Why: This is one of those card that will only see the light of day in terrible virtual or sealed formats. Other than that, I absolutely see no point in packing this dilemma in my pile over a sure-fire 1-cost space stopper. A set-up or random chance to get a random stop? That is terrible stuff. If I got to choose the stop maybe I would consider it. Considering how shaky it is, it should probably cost zero.

Good Card, Bad Card #69

The "Great Trek Depression" is over and I have returned. In my return I bear gifts. A spoiler from Lineage. A day or two ago we got to see the new Dominion mission Stage Covert Fleet. That was pretty sexy. Recruit Ally here isn't as sexy, but she's still a very pretty mission. Too bad these two don't really go together. Strength > 36 is pretty tough for a Cardassian or NA deck, unless were talking androids, but it's good to see Dominion finally getting some good mission options. It's long overdue.

Since I'm four PBR pounders deep tonight, I'll spare you any deep thoughts and get straight back into Good Card, Bad Card. This time we'll take two mission from the last set Unity.

Good Card: Fulfill Temporal Paradox

Why: I think we need more Gamma Quadrant love in 2E. All the premiere, and most of the other, Gamma missions suck. There's just something missing when it comes to non-Dominion Gamma missions (all Gamma really, hence the new missions). I like the gimmick of higher solving requirements, but with some sort of attribute boost. The mission is only 30 points, so it won't lead to any two-mission cheese nonsense. It's just a solid, neat mission. Something this game can always use. Plus, it goes good with a hologram deck. Good, clean fun.




Bad Card: Evade Samaritan Snare

Why: A classic example of a card not doing what it was designed to do. Design wanted to water down excessive downloads (Like K'Tal and Fourth), yet somewhere they missed the mark completely on this one. Maybe during playtesting it got diluted? Pitching a card of your choice is meaningless when you can download any verb of your choice. Hell, if I have Guidance of the Council out I can discard a personnel I already have in play first then discard that when I use K'Tal. You could argue that it even HELPS Klingon high council decks by getting rid of unwanted cards in the deck. This mission should read, "...he or she must discard a random card from hand for each headquarters missions they command." Like card after card Design put out to curtail Tragic Turn that didn't do it's job, Evade Samaritan Snare is impotent against downloads. When you design a hammer you need to keep it a hammer.