Good Card, Bad Card #80

The image above is how I felt when Keller ran the show as Head Judge. He wasn't J. Edgar Hoover, but sometimes answers weren't forthcoming. After Peak Performance and the disaster of Worlds in Germany I was cracking skulls and asking tough questions. When it came time to errata the 'broken cards' I got a little cloak and dagger from Mr. Keller.

Well, I got in trouble again. Not so much trouble as the Charlie Plaine "stern text of disapproval". He's entitled to his opinion, as I am. I still don't feel I pulled up the curtain, or showed how the sausage is made. I didn't name any names, or call anyone out. I just said there's disagreement on solving the "Maquis Problem". Any group is going to have competing opinions. I don't think I dropped any bombshells about the inner working of the CC.

But I am an advocate for a certain level of transparency. When the circle gets too tight, and people are left to their own devices, mistakes get made and bad things happen. This has already happened in the CC, and I have no reservations reminding them when they inch back in that direction.

I'm not a member of the Continuing Committee. Remember, I was fired many years ago. I made a couple guys lose their marbles and they demanded my head, and they got it. I'm on board now as a member of the design team for the next set. I'm not sure what position that puts me in. I'm kinda a freelancer, but I know it comes with certain rules. I know I couldn't write here about possible cards in the next set or cry if something I wanted got cut or that Mark Foreman asks me what I'm wearing during every Skype meeting (Canadians are freaky). But because of the tiny bit of work I'm doing for them I was privy to some errata discussion. I think my last blog showed there's a slight problem with how the errata process works now. First it was Keller and his "Secret Council", now it's Charlie and the Errata Gang. No process will be perfect, nobody expects that. It's not an easy job and I don't envy the person in charge of it. But if it costs me future workings with the CC because I brought a little transparency to the process then so be it. Truth is a messy business, and people don't like it when you show that their capable of mistakes. We all do it, and the CC shouldn't be afraid to lift the curtain from time to time.

Let's do some cards. We're going to the 3rd v-set, Raise the Stakes. This set is almost 4 years old now, and it's not aging like fine wine. Right now it boast three of the most dangerous cards in 2E, in my opinion. B'aht Qul Challenge, Alarming Rumors and Cal Hudson, Convincing Recruiter. And there's a few other cards I've heard people say they just don't like, Bird-of-Prey for example. I don't want to bash Brad, and whoever helped on this set. The cards are what they are. But it's good to look back on them, take what's good and bad, and use it in the future.

Good Card: Coordinated Counterattack 

Why: It's the only way to play skill tracking these days. I give Design credit, there have been no new cards in a long time that can pop any skill. Skill gaining was way, way too easy in the last Decipher sets. They lost all respect for skill gaining. That's what led us down the road of too many non-skill dilemmas, then the backlash from that. Sadly, the old skill gainers are still around. Navaar is still good, Gav is still with us, etc. But I noticed their use starting to decline about a year ago. So I made a TOS deck with Coordinated Counterattack and a pile focused on Infinite Diversity. I wanted to bring skill tracking back, and I was surprised to find out you still can do it. The deck went 4-0 and my faith in 2E was restored. As a bonus, this card completely nerfs Cadets. Suck on that Nicholas Lacarno, a.k.a. Fake Tom Paris.

Bad Card: Duranja

Why: Isn't the six Bajoran anthropology people I paid for enough of a cost for this card? Every time I want to pop this into a Bajoran deck that 5 cost scares me away. The 5 cost makes it a late game card at best, and at that point the game is probably decided. If it was 2 or 3 cost it could become at least a mid-game card and see some play. The effect is powerful, but I don't think it's as powerful as Design thought it was going to be. The effect happens at the 'end of turn'. A few wonky things could happen before my turn to screw it up. And if my opponent hits a Mugato it makes this card useless. Even if I get my card, I have to pay one to draw the thing. That's more paying after the 5 cost and the six anthro bums I had to spit out first. Too many hoops to jump through for an effect that can get screwed with. I'll just stick with Souls of the Dead.

Good Card, Bad Card #79

Maquis is broken. Anyone who plays this silly game knows that. We're at the sad stage locally right now where we have a 'gentleman's agreement' not to play it. It's no fun to play, no fun to play against. Sort of similar to Klingons a few years back. At least they had to work to get rid of my people, not just play silly cards over and over again.

Now I'm not sure how much of this is privileged information and how much is public but of course errata is in the works. I might be talking out of school, I don't know. Maybe I get in trouble, but these are my personal thoughts regardless. I actually applaud Charlie and the Errata Gang on not acting abruptly. You do need information and these things should not be rushed. But this situation is well known and documented and it's time for action. There was plenty of debate, different ideas, different avenues to solve the "Maquis Problem". But it finally fell into two camps: Errata the verbs or give Athos IV the "you cannot command any other headquarters" Borg-like text.

I am in the first camp. Maquis got verb after verb in set after set because they're really hard to play and nobody quite did it right. Well, some smart people finally caught up and abused the shit out of them. First Neil at GenCon with straight up Maquis. Then Chris at Aussie Worlds took it to the crazy stupid level combining it with Bajorans. Problem being, like most loops, strong verbs not removing from game, which has made Stalling for Time 2E's current reigning "most broken card".

I think "nuking" Athos IV and making it a 'solo' HQ like Borg is lazy and the easy way out. The Errata Gang never tried to slow down the Maquis verbs. That's where the problems lies, there's not some built-in problem with Athos IV, it's just all the junk they've been giving year after year.

I've said it from the start how to curtail this Maquis mess. #1, Stalling for Time removes from game. #2 Alarming Rumors can only target events or interrupts, not personnel (9 personnel denial cards is way, way too many). #3 Change Defiant to one card on top of deck (or stop the ship and keep it 2).

When it comes to these types of things, just like everything in 2E, stick with the K.I.S.S. system: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Sadly, I'm afraid this thing had been 'overthought' and it'll get screwed up. I hope I'm wrong.

I was away for a bit. Thanksgiving week I caught a nasty case of Strep, and when you don't have health insurance that means you sit around shivering/sweating/hallucinating/dehydrated with chest pains and the inability to swallow for 6 days. And that's no good for a fat guy like me. Dispite my girlfriend becoming a fake internet doctor telling my I could die, I sucked it up for those 6 days and came out of it like I always do. I needed to drop a few pounds anyways.

Before the medical emergency I was going through some Necessary Evil uncommons. Those are as good as rares really. So here's two for today's GCBC.

 Good Card: Hollow Pleasantries

Why: I've always loved this card. I love the image, the episode it's from. I've never been one for an Infiltrator deck, too slow and methodical. When I play Dominion I like Jemmies and free Vorta. I like to get out Keevan out quick, rack up the draws while spitting out Jemmies and then barfing out those free Vorta. I'm giving too many free draws to my opponent you say? Screw it, I'll dreamer their hand later. Dominion has always been a sub-par affiliation. One, because they have crap missions. Two, because they have no focus. Giving them one more recently with the Commodity junk wasn't what they needed. That's a failing of Design and I hope that can be corrected in the future. Overthinking, that's the culprit here again. I think they just need a few simple cards to get them on track as a top affiliation.

Bad Card: Apprehended 

Why: Sure, you cost zero. But I have to lose 5 points and win a fight (which means stopping my personnel) to get a guy in my brig? No thanks, plenty of easy ways to do that now. This cards shows the early Design bad idea in 2E which thought getting a personnel in your brig was something you had to jump through hoops to do. It's why Capture decks were never played for the first 7 years of this game. Finally they saw the light and cards like Evek and Ensnared were made. But this card isn't completely useless. You get to choose the personnel, which means this card might be worth one copy of in the deck to snag any 'hero' personnel your opponent has in play.

Good Card, Bad Card #78

"If you sleep with targs, you'll wake up with glob flies"
-Klingon proverb

It's a shame Hunter is gone, the Pigs and Fat Men are losing and they have no idea what to do. The face of America has changed and it's too late to play catch-up. Mark Rubio and another guy named Bush won't save you in 2016. They'll be no John Wayne cowboy bullshit riding in to save the day like Reagan in the 80's. The majority minority in America has left the Republican party in the dust, but it was working class white America that gave Obama another 4 years. The Republican party is just undereducated rural folk and the uber-rich, with a splash of christian zealots. I don't celebrate this too much. America is all about competition, it's what makes us thrive. Yet, we live in a monopoly of a two-party system. And one party can't even stay in the game. I'm not advocating more political parties, in fact I despise them all. But I'd like to see more independents in office. The dreamer and the dream, I know....

Today's two cards come from Thomas Kamiura (Bosskamiura) of San Diego or Florida. Whatever state he doesn't owe back child support, I'm not sure. I was lazy so I asked him to chime in with two picks. Let's start with the ugly today

Bad Card: Deep Roots

Why: I had to dig into the files because I thought I did this card before. I'm not sure how it made it this long without hitting the list. I've tried to use this card once or twice back in the day, but it simply cost way too much. Maybe in the early days this was costed appropriatly, but now it's a relic. So many easy ways now to kill events, why bother with this card? Plus, you have to pop it the turn you play it. You can't even risk it sitting in your core for a turn or it might get destroyed itself. Then you just wasted 4 counters on nothing. I'm a big advocate of "bringing sexy back" in Design. I love when old cards are made useful again. Hopefully something can be done with this card in the future. A whole Bajoran Resistance team didn't make them relevant again. Sometimes it only takes something simple to bring a whole decktype back.

 Good Card: Obrist, Temporal Tactician

Why: Mulligans, Mulligans. There were many people that thought 2E needed some sort of mulligan option like in Magic. #1, I disagree. #2, if the reasoning for anything in 2E involves Magic you're probably not going to get my support. I couldn't give less of a shit about his ability. Why? I don't know. Maybe I make good, solid decks that doesn't need this nonsense. Sure, we all get bad beat draws sometimes, that's just part of the game. Even if I pack 2 Obrists in my deck it doesn't mean I'm going to draw him at the same time as I get a bad opening hand. It's still very random. But Obrist is still a Good Card. Why? Because I love cheap NA personnel with skills and attributes. His skills are a little oddball. Anthropology & Archeology have no business going with Physics & Officer, but sure, sign me up. Combine that with a gold star and the mark of the beast, 6-6-6 attributes, and you got a solid guy no matter what.