Good Card, Bad Card #85

So after a rough start to 2013 it's time for the first GCBC of the year. With a new year comes a new challenge. It's time for the "That Was Cool" challenge. Each GCBC I'm going to submit a card for players to try to do something cool with in a tournament. Then they can email me (killerbstccg@hotmail.com) or PM me on the CC with a brief story of how they used the card. You don't have to win with it, do something spectacular, just something cool. I'll post the stories here and then rate the coolness. The first challenge card is:

 Good luck with that mess. I don't have anything that even comes to mind when it comes to Punishment Box. Warning, I will grade coolness on a curve. If you're a high level player I expect more from you. The new year also brought a new set, Matter of Time. I'm not going lie, when I saw my name on the cover sheet for the set I had to reign in the ego a little bit. But finally, the shoe on the other foot and people can tell me what good or damage I've contributed to the game. Since I'm hesitant to pick cards from a set I designed on, I let Johannes Klaurhauser pick the two cards from Matter of Time.

Good Card: Disconcerting Displacement 

Why: This one wasn't a surprise, and it's not ego talking when I say we hit this one out of the park. "Broadcasters" (personnel like greasy Dukat, mirror Tucker, Boothby, etc) were getting really annoying in 2E and there was nothing you could do about them (short of a sneaky assassin). This card was discussed a little on some of the podcast. It wasn't an early card in the MoT design process. It was truly a collaborative card during one of our meetings. Now of course this card brings a guy over you want to murder, so you need to combo it with a dilemma. He Wasn't Nice or Necessary Execution. If you have the cost pegged you could use Final Adventure. You don't even have to necessarily kill them. If they go with nine personnel you can bump them to ten with DD and play cards like Bio-neural Computer Core or Restricted Area. You can make them work for you, or poke them with a stick while they sit in your brig.

Bad Card: Reliving the Past

Why: This one was a surprise. I needed Johannes to defend his position on this one. He said that the card isn't terrible, but there's better ways to score 5 points. There was no point on relying on this card when you can play things like Deploy the Fleet. He's not wrong. If your goal is speed, and if you're banking on getting those 5 points then Reliving the Past isn't a good option for you. I see this card as more of a punishment card. For players who overplay dilemmas, or worse, playing an All-Consuming Evil Pile.

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 8

When he comes knocking, I invite Death into my house. Just like any other guest I welcome him, feed him, drink with him, give him anything he needs. We share good times, bad time, and we laugh a bit. He takes what he needs then he goes on his way. He will always come back. That's just how it is.

Much like with other things, I have a different take on death. My mother had a brain aneurysm two weeks ago this morning. The damage was simply too much, and that was that. Brain death is a messy affair. The whole process took three days. An eternity of sleepless nights and endless cups of coffee. Then very early Tuesday morning I got a call. Due to her cancer years back they wouldn't be able to use any of her organs and it was time to take her off support. So I went to the hospital. I knew it was just her body, but I felt like it was a duty for some reason. I had to be there to send her off. Her breathing slowed, then stopped. I kissed her on her forehead and pulled the sheet over her. I would do the same for anyone else I cared for. No living creature should ever die alone.

I compiled this list awhile back, and was obviously sidetracked. It's a list of cards that I have in my binder x6. Cards that you end up having three of in multiple decks. Some are obvious, some were a surprise and some were depressing.

Personal Duty- The dilemma dominated for so long, and is still strong today.

Timescape- I still have a the personal rule that every dilemma pile (minus Legacy) should have two copies of this dilemma.

Gomtuu Shock Wave- Very sad. I wish it didn't have to be this way.

Secret Identity- Before Caretaker's "Guest's" and Oracle, this was the only meta control card for "heroes". Kirk, Living Legend saw an insane amount of play in our area back in the day.

The Dreamer and the Dream- Personal Rule #2: every pile should contain at least one of this dilemma.

Whisper in the Dark- I was surprise to see six. I only have three Tsiolkovsky Infections in there.

Hard Time- Before you could get whacked for playing non-skill dilemmas, Hard Time x3 was mandatory in every pile.

Necessary Execution- When this card hit the scene it was very popular. Still a great set-up card. Every now and then somebody gets cute, thinks people stopped playing this card and attempts planet first... Whack! Then somewhere Neil Timmons yells, "YOU DON'T GO PLANET FIRST!!!" It's been known to happen.

Excalbian Drama- Yeah, like Gomtuu, I hate myself for this. But what can you do, this dumb dilemma is absurd for zero cost.

Moral Choice- If you're not playing Fed there's a good chance you have one or two in your dilemma pile.

The Oracle's Punishment- This one just might be me, but I run this dilemma all the time now. Skill tracking/Hero stopping, this dilemma does a lot of things. Like a BMW, it's a product of fine German engineering.

Bat'leth- I have 3 copies of Kressari Rendezvous in my binder too. That means at one point 6 or 7 years ago I had two decks doing that nonsense. I am ashamed of myself.

Escape- People loved Tragic Turn. Some people still do...

Grav-Plating Trap- I only have five now because I traded one to a Boston jobber. Because I'm a saint goddammit!

Point Blank Strike/Provoke Attack- They're uncommon, and I only owned five Provoked at one point. For some reason they're tough to acquire. So is Brutal Struggle for some reason. Something about those elusive Premier uncommons.

Unexpected Difficulties- This is The Champ. There's 10 in my binder. Pound-for-pound the best card in 2E.

Stir Crazy- Ahh, where dilemma choke began. We used this card a lot in the early days. It's time to bring sexy back.

Party Atmosphere- The days when this event was non-unique were stupid.

Optimism- I find myself uses this card often lately. Curious, since I rarely did before. And if you use it, you're going to use three of them.

These are the Voyages/Lwaxanna Troi- Cheap drawing/cycling hurt 2E more then  people realize. Many bad decks could be, and still are, sustained because of this.

Alvera Tree Ritual- It's an auto-include in 95% of decks.

Surprise Party- Also an auto-include, but a bad one.

Davies- That's dude is so high.....

Jerax- That dude is angry...

Kolos- That dude is big pimpin'...

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 7

There he is. The Man, The Myth, The Legend. First Charlie told me he's tapping me for a set. Then he told me it was temporal themed. Right away my inner fanboy knew Richard Castillo was finally coming to 2E. The 1E version of Lt. Castillo was from the beginning of the episode Yesterday's Enterprise. 2E's version is when he steps up and gets the job done at the end. That's what Richard Castillo does. Right away you see he's a matching commander for the Enterprise-C, and when the shit hits the fan he goes into beast mode. If the captain goes down his "mark of the beast" attributes of 6-6-6 turn into 11-11-11 and he gains any two skills that are needed for the job.

Richard Castillo's 2E rebirth wasn't easy. He went through many different versions. We couldn't quite get him right. We were going in the wrong direction. In 1E the story generates the card. In 2E, it's the opposite. But since we were "going back in time" with this expansion, I watched episode again and went with what I saw. After a little more ironing out we finally got him right.

 What's the best 2E expansion? This is from the rookie designer perspective. What cards make the game better, what cards make the game worse? What cards make the game healthy, what cards make the game unhealthy? Unlike GCBC, where I use the terms good and bad very loosely, here they have to have had a significant impact on the game. The formula is simple, +1 for a good card and -2 for a bad card. This is because making a bad card has double the impact on the game then making a good card. This is sad, but true. We're taking into account how cards are now, post any errata. However, a set might have an asterisks (*), or multiple (*), for any bad cards that needed errata. Usually errata moves bad cards into the neutral category, sometimes it remains bad. In a rare case, like Legacy, it can actually make it a good card for the game. To get another perspective, one with a background in acadamia, I asked BenHosp to participate. He was way more liberal with his scoring, so it'll be interesting to see the difference. Here's my rankings (number of cards in each set in parenthesis):

Tacking into the Wind (54) +3
Lineage (54) +2
Legacy (15) +2
This Side of Paradise (45) +2
What You Leave Behind *** (122) +2
Infinite Diversity (20) +1
Allegiance * (45) +1
Undiscovered Country (45) +1
Captain's Log (120) +1
Energize (180) +1
Unity (54) 0
Extreme Measures (54) 0
Peak Performance ******* (54) 0
Favor the Bold (45) 0
Dangerous Missions (19) 0
In a Mirror, Darkly * (122) -1
These are the Voyages ** (122) -1
Tapestry (18) -2
Necessary Evil * (180) -2
Call to Arms (288) -2
10th Anniversary Collection (23) -2
Raise the Stakes * (90) -4
To Boldly Go (120) -4
Genesis (27) -5
Strange New Worlds *** (120) -5
Reflections 2.0 (61) -7
Fractured Time * (40) -10

Of course, there are lies, damned lies, and then there are statistics. I'm not sure if there is anything substantial to be learned from this exercise, but there were some surprises. First, I was shocked to see how shitty of a set Strange New Worlds really was. Second, the virtual sets score well. But this is because they had the luxury of cleaning up the mess that the Decipher sets made. Not surprising, how "boutique sets" didn't rank very well. And how Peak Performance bounces back to be an average expansion after tons of errata. Without it you'd be looking at a -14 score. Now here's BenHosp's rankings:

Tacking into the Wind +11
Undiscovered Country +5
Lineage +5
Infinite Diversity +4
Legacy +4
Tapestry +1
Unity +1
Raise the Stakes +1
In a Mirror, Darkly +1
To Bodly Go 0
Dangerous Missions 0
This Side of Paradise 0
Extreme Measures 0
10th Anniversary Collection -1
Favor the Bold -1
Captain's Log -2
Genesis -2
Energize -3
What You Leave Behind -3
Allegiance -3
Fractured Time -4
Strange New Worlds -5
These are the Voyages -5
Peak Performance -6
Reflections 2.0 -6
Necessary Evil -9
Call to Arms -10 

Now BenHosp threw around good/bad more then I did, but there are some similarities. We both rank Tacking into the Wind at #1. We both have little regard for Strange New Worlds. Curious that he only ranks one Decipher set in the positive, In a Mirror, Darkly. And I don't understand all the Call to Arms hate. -10 seems kinda harsh.

If anyone would like to take a shot at the ranking they're more then welcome. I'll post them here and then proceed to mock your opinions. Email: killerbstccg@hotmail.com. Up next time: Cards you have in your binder x6.