John Corbett, a.k.a. KillerB

Good Card, Bad Card #68

2011-10-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

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

2011-10-20T16:23:00.003-04:00

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.

Good Card, Bad Card #66

2011-09-22T10:56:00.001-04:00

This is a bittersweet GCBC this week. After last seasons WCT League Play ended, and leading up to GenCon, I kinda had the feeling that I wasn't going to run another League season. I tried to summon the spirit and give it another try, but after we couldn't pull just 4 players for our season opener I've decided to shut it down. Sadly, the league that started it all is closing up up shop. Not that I'm quitting the game, I've been doing this since the beginning, I ain't going anywhere. But the amount of time I devote to Trek over the last year has diminished a great deal and there's no point in forcing things. Have no fear, I plan on continuing the Good Card, Bad Card series. Unlike 1E, I don't plan on taking all my cards and putting them in the corner and never looking at them again. So since I never got a chance to play my terrible Ferengi Deck, I'm going to take two cards from that affiliation.

Good Card: Kreechta, Prepared for War

Why: I like 'hit and run' ships. The drawback of battle is that you lose a turn attempting missions during the process. The Kreechta is expensive, but you get 9 weapons, so you should have no problem throwing down with any ship. It seems to me that Ferengi are all about the two mission win these days. So I would use the Kreechta to score a quick ten with Call to Arms, then run that 10 into 20 a few times with Ferengi Tradition. After that, a couple of easy missions should win you the game. But what do I know, I suck playing Ferengi.

Bad Card: Krayton, Trade Envoy

Why: I mentioned in the last GCBC that I'm not a fan of cards that require a commander aboard. Too many bad things can happen during a course of a game. And this ships ability only seems good to me early game, when I'm trying to solve a quick space mission (and I have to make a quick trip home and back). There's a good chance I might not have my matching commander out yet. Take away the requirement, and this ability would be fine. And really, if I pitch the 9 cost rule, what the hell am I going to do with 17 range? In 1E that would be awesome, but in 2E it's excessive.

Good Card, Bad Card #65

2011-09-15T16:49:00.000-04:00

So last week we went 'old school' and had a couple of cards from back in the day. This week we go 'new school' and take a couple of cards from Tacking into the Wind. Each time I say that name a want to cry. Seriously, it's the worst name of any Trek set ever. Terrible, but I like the set. If I have to trade a terrible name to get a good set I'm willing to do that. This set finally gave people some cards they've been clamoring to get. The Enterprise-B finally makes a 2E appearance. We also got the Starship Defiant. This set focused on ships, and that was a solid idea. Ships are one of the coolest parts of the game. The trick is to make a cool ship without putting a wall of text on it. Remember the Queen's Diamond ship, or whatever it's called? That's why it was a "bad card". Sadly, we still get another 'team', this time Cardassians. I haven't seen it in action yet so I can't judge, but just from looking at them I can tell I won't be a fan. It's involves a new Kira, so I'm going to be a hater right from the door.
On the way back from GenCon I got an epiphany. A new format called Ferengi Fight Club (you can find the rules on the trek.cc boards). I kinda regret it already. Not because the format will suck, in fact I think it's going to be awesome. But after trying to make Ferengi decks for the last month I've realized I'm no good at it. I'm going to be in for world of pain this Sunday. But I should have at least have some fun doing it. I didn't play Dabo!, now I wish I made a deck with it. I hope somebody does.

Good Card: Duty Schedule

Why: I like 'hammers', cards that punish players. This is a great hammer for punishing players who use ships with one staffing icon. All those Non-aligned ships with one gold star can get you into trouble now. My only complaint is that it should cost one. When I suggest 'hammers' to Charlie, at GenCon or when I harass him in text messages, I'm extreme with them. Most of the time he's the voice of moderation, where I'm looking to really shut down abusive strategies. The only time I've seen a big 'hammer' is Transport Crash Survivors. But at least this dilemma is might make someone think twice. The only drawback is that it cost more than 1 and doesn't require a skill.

Bad Card: Executive Commission

Why: I'm not a fan of most cards that require a matching commander aboard a ship as a cost. Bad things can happen during a game and you can find yourself without your captain. If it's a big reward, like Deploy the Fleet, then maybe, since that's a game changer. But this card is as bad as Salvaging the Wreckage. Sure, this one is cheaper, but I could find myself unable to play it. And I never understood what putting a couple of dudes on the bottom of my deck is going to do for me later. If I'm in that bad of shape I'm probably going to lose the game anyway. And the worst part is, all my opponent has to do is play Greasy Dukat and rape my discard pile to make it a useless card. I'll stick with In the Mirror, Darkly if I'm going to play a 'reboot' card.

Good Card, Bad Card #64

2011-09-06T16:32:00.000-04:00

Hiatus over. After nearly a 2 month absence we're back to praise and poop all over 2E cards. I'm not sure why the hiatus began, a combination of starting a new job and being exhausted with the 'dork drama' that goes with this game sometimes. Thankfully, that seems to be in the past. I know why it continued after Worlds, I just needed time to decompress. GenCon was actually a great, exhausting time. I think I only slept a combined 12 hours the whole con. As for the Championship, I think having two ties in the Final is a miracle compared to the "Peak Performance Disaster" in Germany. My most memorable moment of the trip didn't happen in Indy, it was on the way. Driving with Phil, going through Wheeling, WV (check previous GCBC's for that terrible place) we decided to stop and kill a couple hours since it was early. No poker games going yet (since it's a sad, terrible casino), so we hit the dice table. It's all a blur now, but Phil made a guy over $12,000 while he had the dice. After some '*cough*, *cough*, aren't you glad we stop by on the way. Gas is sure expensive.' comments by me the guy threw Phil a black chip ($100). I mean, it's a tiny percentage, but free gas is free gas. Anyways, I really wasn't in a hurry to get back to GCBC. I figured once the WCT League got going again in late Septemeber I'd get the creative juices flowing again and it would happen on it's own. But the other night I get a text from an old school all-star named Brian Sykes. He told me I was lazy and to get back on it. Since I never like to disappoint my fans I gave in to the peer pressure. Since Brian hasn't been seen at a major event in 47 years I told him to nominate 2 old school cards and I would use those for the next GCBC. So here you go:

Good Card: Stricken Dumb

Why: I agree completely with Brian on this one. This is a very underused card that people should give another look. People can't ever stop playing Personal Duty and An Issue of Trust, so this cheater is useful against 90% of the dilemma piles out there. Here's another little trick I like with Stricken Dumb, at Worlds I was shocked at how much I saw The Caretaker's "Guest" being used. I used to play this dilemma a ton when it first came out, but it's just fell out of favor in our meta. Well, with Stricken Dumb, you can use the cost as a defense. Toss and money personnel in your discard pile and get him out for free. In the famous words of Brian Sykes.... "that's mad tech."

Bad Card: Rescue Prisoners

Why: At first Brian nominated Kressari Rendezvous, and I told him I already did that. Turns out I didn't, but I think I covered how bad Kressari is when I did Bat'leth and Ruling Council as bad cards. So instead he went with Rescue Prisoners. Here's the thing, this mission isn't bad, and Kahmis (the guy with all the skills) isn't bad. It's the combination of the two. In fact, you can say this was the first 2E Design fail in Premiere. Having one personnel with all the skills for a mission is very 1E-like, and that's what we wanted to avoid with 2E. It got worse as they made more and more 8 strength Klingons. Once you get three of those big boys with Kahmis you can solve Rescue Prisoners with four personnel. And we've all realized after all these years playing 2E that easy ass missions make this game suck. That's why I'm in love with the new dilemma Insurrection. Man, whoever designed that dilemma is a friggin' genius.....

Good Card, Bad Card #63

2011-07-15T16:12:00.001-04:00

I saw this hat up on my "Wall of Shame" (Where I keep all my 'not winner' STCCG trophies. Plus other keepsakes, like my Schloss Picard wines from Worlds in Germany) today and it made me think. Many years ago I called a group of MN players a bunch of "Random Jobbers". So when I showed up to Worlds that year, I think it was '03 or '04, I see a bunch of guys wearing Orange Hats. They took the 'insult' I gave them and turned it into their team name. It was actually very clever (even made Trek sense if you think about changelings). After Worlds, a MN player, I can't remember who, gave me a hat as a souvenir. There was no actual bad blood, and everything was in good fun. Believe it or not, back then, MN players had a sense of humor. I know, it's tough to believe. Sure, there have always been some prickly guys in that group. But overall, they were just like everyone else. They didn't go nuts anytime somebody talked some smack, made a comment on a message board, or made crazy threats of lawsuits. Those regular guys are gone. All that's left now (at least online) are a few unhinged characters who take things way too serious. They try to blame me for players they've lost or have 'left the scene'. But the Random Jobbers I don't see at Worlds anymore are the ones that used to have fun, have a sense of humor. The ones that I would have a beer with after they beat me (it's a tough sell saying I'm a sore loser when that happens). What's more likely, those people stop playing because of a guy they saw once a year, and didn't take seriously, or their prickly locals who have reality perception issues?

Today for GCBC we'll stop at the random set of These are the Voyages. I had the MACO virus for about two weeks. I kept thinking MACO's were the truth and Tier-1. I just couldn't crack the code.

Good Card: Swashbuckler at Heart

Why: Sometime back I said "Every dilemma pile should have at least one The Dreamer and the Dream". Well, now you can include Swashbuckler in that rule. There are a lot of cheaters out there. But the good ones are really good and the rest are just ehh, ok. Knowledge and Experience, The Central Command and Bridge Officer's Test are going to see lots of play at Worlds. Sadly, against K&E all it'll do is make your opponent burn one copy to save his others. But at least it's something. Also, this dilemma can really screw up a Terok Nor deck. Oh, I didn't mention the two bonus draws. I've used that bonus to beef up Excaliban Drama. In less you're playing a ton of interrupt prevention, this card is a 100% must in your dilemma pile. Why else is it "Good Card"? Sulu with his shirt off. Oh my.....

Bad Card: Richard Daystrom, Influential Scientist

Why: He's a poor man's Kirk. Everything else is fine with Daystrom, but he's got the evil words on him.... "prevent and overcome". That alone will get you on the "Bad Card" list. The Kirk errata helps a little bit, when these two guys were tag-teaming around it was pretty silly. A really abusive deck can play Daystrom 2 or 3 times in a game. Doesn't sound like a lot, but that's either a quick solve or plenty of extra dilemmas overcome. The +2 doesn't really mean much. TOS is really just OT Kirk, this guy, and a bunch of really cheap personnel.

Good Card, Bad Card #62

2011-07-12T22:07:00.000-04:00

I was wrong. For some reason I thought Kira Nerys, Ih'valla was in the set Peak Performace. It was in Extreme Measures. I just assumed, naturally, that anything broken must be from Peak Performance. And with so many Kiras it's just fucking impossible to keep track of them all.

So it's Day 3 of my exile from the CC message boards. The "Dork Wars" rage on. But I'll try to spare you any of that in today's GCBC. Unlike them, I have Worlds to prepare for. I played my "C" Deck and "D" Deck Sunday with mixed success. My Android deck couldn't stop the Borg Beast, even with Romulan interrupt hate tossed in. My experimental Starfleet NX Prototype Battle Deck went 1-2. Losing to Klingons and BenHosp's clever two-mission win deck. It was a fun deck to tryout. Guess that's why I don't have a 2000 rating like Australian players can get. I'm sorry, but it says nothing good about a country when a guy can run off 40 straight wins. I know the kid is good, but that would never happen in any other meta. We need to all start chipping in for a plane ticket for the Australian Continental winner to come to Worlds. It makes the rating system a fraud when one person is over 2000 and the next rated player is 1930.

Good Card: U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Diplomatic Envoy

Why: BenHosp had a big comeback on my Sunday with his two-mission win deck. I blew up this Enterprise with a NX Prototype, then two turns later a spooky "Ghost Enterprise" showed up and was solving missions. The lame part is this ship will be combined with cadets and their 2 range (range, not span since it's the same region) space mission. This is a good card because it brings some new freshness to TNG. All the other Enterprise-D's kinda suck. The 'future D' is kinda ok, but it cost 7 and is a pain to staff. Hell, it made somebody play Picard, Genial Captain for the first time. That's gotta count for something.

Bad Card: Unfair Comparison

Why: This card is definitely from Peak Performance. And it's been seeing lots of play lately. I tried it once a couple months ago, and I didn't like it. Why? It's a glorified 'crapshoot' dilemma. That's my term for dilemmas that 'might' do something. Dilemmas like Racial Tensions, Chula: Echoes, etc. Sure, you can build your pile up so the odds are big in your favor. But I've seen this dilemma miss too many time for my liking. Also, it's not immune to stuff like Archer, Reyga and Donatra, since it cost more than 1 and doesn't require a skill. To support this dilemma you need to play high cost dilemmas, which requires you to play 8-costers, which requires you to play events. If your opponent doesn't have much event destruction, you're in great shape. If they blow out your events, you're in big trouble.
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Today's Pic: The new logo of the CC.

Good Card, Bad Card #61

2011-07-08T17:15:00.007-04:00

So I can cross another thing off my Bucket List. I finally got banned from the TrekCC message boards. A 36 hour ban it looks like, which is kinda more insulting. I received this when trying to log in:

Making personal attacks in the thread about personal attacks? Really? Take a couple days off, come back next week and try to play nice, or the next one will be longer.

I like the threat on the end. After all these years, that's supposed to scare me straight? A moderator with a Napolean complex? Nah.... that's working under the impression that I need to be on the CC boards. These Midwest clowns want me banned more then I want to be around. Why else would I feed them red meat?

So how did this nonsense flare up again? I posted this, just a random response to another player, at the time I didn't think much of it. Then Charlie made it the prime example of a personal attack:

prylardurden wrote:

Or are you just saving your 'broken' deck so a MN player can win Worlds? /semi-joking response

KillerB wrote:
I doubt Waso here represents the best MN has to offer these days. Good god I hope not....

I guess the usual suspect cried to Charlie to have my head. After it was clear I wasn't going to be banished, the usual Minnesota passive/aggressive response:

Lore wrote:

Change the rule today?!? What are you talking about? In this article, posted in February 4 months ago, Chris was pretty clear. The fact of the matter is, no serious action has been taken against any of the offenders. You know what? F this... I'm out.

I committed the cardinal sin of responding to Kris on the boards. Pointing out the 'I'm taking my ball and going home' bluff they pull every time they don't get their way. Kevin Jaeger did it, Kris has done it in the past. Apparently pointing out passive/aggressive behavior is a "personal attack" on the TrekCC boards. Then I was banned.

The kangaroo court has judged me, and so be it. For over a year now, whenever I say something to shake their fragile emotions they cry to Charlie. When Charlie doesn't give in to their demands (You should've saw Kris demands when he threatened to sue the CC) they threaten to quit the game, and that others will quit the game. This is a tactic that works with Charlie for some reason. But, they're still here, and you can't name one person who's not around because of me. Sure Kevin 'quit' for a month, the same time he took the role of 2E Rules Liaison (opps! did I just out him? Sorry), then he was right back. Same with Kris, and now this next Minnesota wierdo who's on the boards all the time. I'll give it 2 weeks before he is back. These are the same people who cry favoritism and that Charlie is a puppet for Neil when it comes to Trek decisions. All this bullshit and stress for people WHO DON'T EVEN GO TO WORLDS. Wow, even if they weren't bluffing about quitting, what would we really lose? A couple of crybaby, emo kids who are too afraid to attend Worlds because their egos couldn't handle any kind of failure. All they do is sit back and shit on anything anybody ever does. Well, unless 24 jobbers show up for a Minnesota tournament once a year. Then it's the greatest thing in that's ever happened to Trek.

Let's talk cards instead of Blood Feud. To 'release my pain' I'll take my agression out on Peak Performance. It's the set that keeps on giving.... broken cards and headaches...

Good Card: The Text of the Kosst Amojan

Why: This is a great example of how retrieval should work. A unique event that plays on table. So you can only do it once each turn and it can be destroyed by an opponent, fair enough. Stopping a personnel for a cost. That a whole lot better than something goofy like losing 5 points or beginning a mission attempt. And to get exactly the card I want I have to have two copies of it in the discard pile. That's something not easy to do. Plus, the other removes from game. That eliminates any kind of loops that can lead to 'counterfeit' games. So hopefully Design learned something for broken Kira. Don't put retrieval on personnel. Put it on events that play in core and make in an order.

Bad Card: Exchange Program

Why: The card itself isn't the worse thing ever. The problem is logic. Going into Peak Performance, just like now, the best two affiliations were Borg and Klingon. So what do they put in Peak Performance? Two nasty interrupts for both. Exchange Program is nowhere as bad an Unrelenting, but it's just something that Klingons didn't need. Now after I get ass raped by Krudge I'm going to lose one or two guys at my HQ. In 2E you're supposed to be safe at your HQ. This is a 1E lesson forgotten by the 2E Design team. Borg and Klingon are above the others because set after set they kept getting another card. Then all of a sudden, you combine x,y, and z and you have something that's way over the power curve. Design isn't all that hard in the conception phase. That is, if there's a Tier-1 presence on the Design team. You ask yourself, "what affiliations are too strong, and what affiliations need a boost?" Instead of trying to come up with silly teams, maybe it's best to get back to basics?

Good Card, Bad Card #60

2011-07-05T15:04:00.000-04:00

"Get to Know Your Trek Players"
*these are not intended to be factual statements*

Name: Steve Rotz
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190 lbs.
Resides: Columbus, Ohio
TrekCC Handle: YeahToast
Trademark: Shaking his head with a sad look
Occupation: *Top Secret* FBI Assisstant Director, Ohio X-Files Division
Favorite Deck: What Charlie makes him play
Favorite GenCon Activity: Twilight Imperium with BenHosp at 3 am.

Fun Facts: Founded the Ohio Tea Party; Doesn't like to talk about his job; Hetero-life mate of John Corbett (had civil union in New Jersey); Keeps Charlie's kidney stones in his basement

We going to use the hot button topic in trek right now as today's Bad Card. With the main theme being 'retrieval', being able to get cards back from your discard pile. This was supposed to be a theme for the Bajoran affiliation. We learned from 1E that being able to get things easily from the discard pile (Palor Toff, etc.) was bad. So most of the Bajoran stuff in 2E is tame compared to that. The problems in 2E pop up when Bajoran retrieval is mixed with other affiliations, especially the stall theme of the Maquis. When this happens you see decks that 'counterfeit' the game usually in the form of personnel denial. I'll steal a poker term here (when you're two pair turns into crap because the other card pairs on the board) for this, because it kinda gives me the same feeling when it happens. "Counterfeiting" in Trek is a game where you never had a chance to win, no matter what. This has only happened a few times to me. Berlin Wall years back, and Terok Nor/Weyoun last year. From the reports of our Aussie friends, it sounds like we have another one of those situations.

Good Card: Souls of the Dead

Why: Here we have the original Bajoran retrieval card. It's an order, so the card you retrieve can't be played the same turn. That's good. Also, the card you retrieve goes on top of your deck. This means you have to spend a counter to draw for it, which is a fair cost. More important, it only allows for one card to be retrieved, that way there's not much you can do to abuse it.

Bad Card: Kira Nerys, Ih'valla

Why: Here we have a playtest fail, but it's easy to always blame the playtesters. It takes a sick mind to come up with these abusive decks, and not everyone thinks like that. I certainly don't. I'm too busy trying to figure out how to get to 100 points first, not put cards X,Y, and Z and break the game. Some people think like that, and there's nothing wrong with it. In fact, after the Berlin Wall incident I've been saying those are the types of people that need to be playtesters. Anything that has 'retrieval' has to be examined, and playtested, more than any other cards. These cards are Suspect #1 to be abused. We didn't learn the lessons on Vedek Assembly and now here we are again. Also, retrieving personnel and ships are one thing, but retrieving events and interrupts are another. Almost nothing but NPE's can result for being able to retrieve events and interrupts easily. One good thing can come from this though: No more Kira's! Please, it was cute in the Decipher days, but now it's just annoying.

Good Card, Bad Card #59

2011-06-29T03:35:00.002-04:00

I got hustled into finally creating a facebook page. I clicked on a link to see something posted on facebook one night and I didn't know that just 'signing up' created a page for you. So I figured since I was already duped I'd might as well join the 21st century. I like the thing where it suggest friends you might know. It had Kevin Jaeger and Kris Sonsteby on it. I wonder if they would accept my friend request.....

Today's bad card is the last card to be released by the CC. And what surprise it was. I invited the Chairman to write a "good card" section for it since he was defending the card to me. I sort of mini-debate. He declined. I'm going to call him out on politics on this one. I don't think he wants to offend any Midwest players out there by hanging out with good ol' KillerB on his blog. No big deal then, there won't be any defense of Surprise Party, just me crapping all over it.

Good Card: Odera'Klen

Why: He's my favorite Jem'Hadar. Cheap, has two skills you always need, and let's you do missions with 4 or 5 peeps. What's not to love? It always makes me sad when I have to kill Odera'Klen with Our Death is Glory to the Founders. But... it's not my life to give up... and it never was.... Anyways, I guess this is the opposite of today's bad card. Here we have a nice, simple non-unique. And there, a card that breaks the very fundamental structure of the game.

Bad Card: Surprise Party

Why: Did you read that last sentence? I'm starting to become like Worf, and hate surprises. This card came out of nowhere, I wasn't a fan of that. I remember the last surprise, Peak Performance, one month before the World Championships in Germany. Broken Terok Nor was a great surprise after spending all that money to fly to Europe. I'm not just kicking the dead horse of Peak Performace, but it's kinda the same feeling. It's the issue of "auto-includes" in decks. Non-unique Rituals were a terrible idea. Everyone packing this same card is the same thing. Besides the gameplay reasons, it just looks bad for the game. It reminds me of Q Referee cards in 1E. Let's get to the gameplay reasons now. I'm no math whiz, just a junkie with a monkey from Jersey, but if my opponent gets this card out Turn 1 and I don't for a few turns, I only have 87.5% of the counters he does. Here we are running a 100 meter sprint and I'm spotting him 12.5 meters, that makes my chances of winning pretty slim. The cost on this card is also misleading. You get one counter back the turn you play it, so it really only cost 1. Have a Party Atmosphere out, and it's free and raining extra counters for future turns. The game is simply based on 7 counters a turn. Only a few cards change that, and they're hard to get off. 1E was a doomed game because it had no costing mechanism. It was really "One or Free", that's what it turned into. So 2E came along and learned from that mistake. 7 counters a turn, and everything is costed based on that. Even screwing with it by one changes the game completely. It lets decks do things that they normally couldn't do. So when one player has it out and the other one doesn't, it puts someone at a serious disadvantage. When both players have it out, we're playing a whole new game where cost is different. I remember when 1E "jumped the shark", when DQSS came out. From that point it was all downhill. I don't know if Surprise Party means 2E "jumped the shark", but I have a sinking feeling in my stomach that it does.

Good Card, Bad Card #58

2011-06-24T21:08:00.000-04:00

I had an idea the other day when building a deck for my daughter, "Is it safe to go back in the water?" By that I mean, is it ok to build 35 cards decks (or any small deck) again? I guess we won't really know if the Tragic Turn monster has been slain. I'm thinking it'll be like Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and come back to torment us in the future (don't worry, no picture of Pennywise, I promised after the Legacy errata you'd never see him again). I mentioned in my interview with James Hoskin, on the CC site, that Jersey was a "culture of speed", or used to be anyway. For the first years of 2E, you never saw a deck over 50 cards. For the past 3-4 years I haven't seen one under 50. Now Tragic Turn is still feasible I think, but it's good that it'll be most likely only played in bigger events. I hope....

We finished our trip back through time, going through every 2E set, wrapping up with Premier in the last GCBC. So let's fire up the Delorean, kick that sumbitch up to 88mph, and go back to the future. Here's a couple cards from the last expansion, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Jaresh-Inyo, Federation President

Why: He made a pretty lame HQ playable. I can't recall playing Earth, Home of Starfleet Command much in the past. Maybe a lame cadet deck, trying to snag some League HQ bonus points. But now Jaresh-Inyo plus Promenade School give this HQ a legitimate build now. I can't say it's quite Tier-1, but it's damn solid. What I like better is that the personnel is not only crucial for his ability, he's also the 'backbone' of the deck. I use the term 'backbone' for personnel that provide mission skills. Jaresh gives you just about all the skills for every mission in that build, and his high integrity helps. He's got doubles of key skills. Double Honor for Honorable Pursuit, a popular dilemma these days. And double Leadership, we all know by now what to do with that.

Bad Card: Donatra, Honorable Commander

Why: New Rule: No more Kirks! After playing against, and losing to, some Donatra/Assess Contamination cheese the players said, "Well, at least Romulan is winning now." First of all, Romulans were always a solid affiliation, but they were really hard to play. That's why you didn't see them much. Second, at what cost? (pun intended) Is giving an affiliation a Kirk-like personnel the way to go about making an affiliation Tier-1? No, it's not. I'm confident that we'll never see "prevent and overcome" on a personnel again. I'm sure Design knows that it's no good for the game in the long run. Let's just hope Donatra is the last of her kind. Hopefully, years from now, we'll look back at these types of personnel like a VCR and say, "They still make you?"

Good Card, Bad Card #57

2011-06-22T20:56:00.002-04:00

"KillerB, we miss you!" I get an email with this title about every week from the Minnesota Trek Player's message boards. Telling me I've been inactive and inviting me "back to join the fun!" I tried to join the fun, a few weeks back, and was quickly banned. I didn't really say anything, but I guess I'm not allowed in Sonsteby's "happy place." Those boards are the 'KillerB Safe Room' for Kris. I thought it was funny that their site was taunting me and didn't even know it.

So we finally stumbled to the finish line and back to where it all started, Premier. Well.... where it started for a second time anyways. I would do a 1E GCBC, but would probably end up in an asylum if I did.

Good Card: Captain's Holiday

Why: An oldie, but a goodie. If Len dies before me, I'm going to put a copy of this dilemma in his casket. I don't love it as much as him, but I pack this dilemma from time to time. The obvious combo is putting Picking up the Pieces (previous good card) in front of it. Unless they can make someone lose a skill (or gain one) they won't have the geology. And archeology is a pretty easy skill to track. It's just a good solid skill dilemma that, if you're a good player, you can stop your opponent easily if you're tracking right. This is a lost art form is 2E, too many non-skill dilemmas and too many easy ways to pop skills. In the early days, skill tracking is what separated the best from the best at Worlds. Now it's who can turn the most dilemmas into 'blanks'. Back to the card, did I mention it usually craps all over Klingon too? It does, most of the time. Those are two skills the Empire doesn't care much about.

Bad Card: Alien Gambling Device

Why: Every time I almost had the balls to throw one or two of these in a deck just for fun I punked out. They're just too damn expensive. Shit, Vascular Pad unstops a person and it only cost 4. This is just going to let me spin the wheel one more time. I always wanted to see a personnel who made this card cheaper. This terrible El Aurian on the image, from the DS9 episode, I forget his name. Every time I almost packed this equipment I thought about how sad I would be if someone played Equipment Malfunction. Now somebody could steal it with Stem-Bolts. That would really piss me off. Downright rude.

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Today's Pic: You can find everything on EBay. Just something I picked up for GenCon. Big things planned for this year, big things....

Good Card, Bad Card #56

2011-06-16T21:47:00.002-04:00

"Get To Know Your Trek Players"
*These are not intended to be a factual statements*

Name: Jared Hoffman
Resides: Mount Vernon, Ohio
TrekCC Handle: Mugato
Motto: "Would you like a snack?"
Motto #2: "Going to the bathroom? I'll come with you."
Occupation: Serving The Lord
Family: Wife, Barbara; Wife, Nikolette; Wife, Margene; 14 children
Favorite Deck: Borg/Back to Basic cheese, Klingon/TT
Fun Facts: Graduated BYU, Did 3 years of missionary work in Southeast Asia (missionary work is also how you end up with 14 kids). Was sent home for violating Rule #71 of 167 'Do not sleep in the same bed as your companion' (those 167 Mormon rules are real), Owns 340 acres of land in Utah

I'm writing today's GCBC from my porch. I was in the kitchen, then I thought about how nice it was outside. This reminded me once on a Sunday, while watching football, I see my buddy going into the bathroom with his laptop. I said, "What are you doing?". To which he replied, "What does it look like? I'm taking a sh*t." Genius this guy I thought. This was an epiphany for me. Up until this point my brain hadn't adapted to wireless Internet yet. I was a free man now, free to surf the Internet while doing #2. God bless America! So instead of being in a warm kitchen sweating like a fat guy, I'm out enjoying the air on a nice, cool summer evening.

Two sets to go. Here's Energize. Things are starting to get foggy on me now. It's tough to remember the impact of the first expansion in 2E. I remember the first 2E Worlds, where I needed to win in the last round (No bracket that year, just a final confrontation) where I attempted, and my opponent got two to draw/spend. He had to stop one. I was playing Klingon and had a Relentless, so I thought I was golden. Back then, there wasn't much that could've stop me. Then my opponent play Chula: Pick One to Save Two and I became a sad, sad person.

Good Card: Picking up the Pieces

Why: This card saw tons of play back in the day. TNG speed, with geology missions, was 80% of the decks in my meta back then. This dilemma would pretty much seal the deal on one attempt. Even today, I find myself dusting this baby off and finding it still works great. Hell, against Klingons sometimes you can use it as a wall. Unless they have that dirty bastard Duras hanging around....

Bad Card: Assassination Plot

Why: Still waiting on somebody to use this card in a tournament. Come on, somebody step up to the plate and do something with this card. Speaking of never played cards, at the Richmond Regional (also where Neil had that Duras) a kid played the Borg Diamond ship. I gave the kid some credit for being the first person I ever see use the ship..... then proceeding to beat him 100-0.

Good Card, Bad Card #55

2011-06-15T16:21:00.003-04:00

On today's episode of "Blood Feud Weekly", On Monday, when I got back from the Regional in Worcester, a closet Ohio fan I have pointing me in the direction of this from Kevin Jeager's CC Blog, which was written before said Regional:

"Voldemort takes home his first regional win in 2 years when there is no one from the top 50 in player rating there to challenge him. A couple of valiant efforts by some up and comers with potential will scare for a second but ultimately, Voldemort wins but still proves nothing."

You're hating on me for winning the Regional before I win it? Wow, that's taking player hating to a whole new level. You should get a future icon for that kind of hate. Sad part is, Kevin's 'prediction' was spot on. Voldermort, I get it. Funny, I refer to my exwife as "she who shall not be named". Better part was somebody replying to the blog thinking that it was so clever not actually mentioning my name. Buddy, I'm not Beetlejuice, if you say my name three times I won't show up at your house. Or will I.....

The only thing more sad than Kevin's blog is the back-and-forth between Kris Sonsteby and Neil Timmons. Neil sounds like a Nazi sympathiser trying to explain all the 'atrocities' I've committed. The only good part was this from Kris, speaking about his 'threats' of legal action:

"Because his and my economic situations are not the same, it didn’t make sound business sense for me to pursue further and I instead elected to be adult about the situation and abstain from further altercations."

Did he just call me poor? I think he just called me poor..... Well, I can't be mad about that, I am poor. Working poor, but poor nonetheless. At least I'm not alone, 30% of America is in the same boat as me. I'll give Kris his delusion of even having a case for a second. But even then, only after realizing that I have nothing he could sue me for he decides to be an "adult"? Wow, that's real noble of him. Kris, you're the model of integrity my friend. This reminded me of The Dark Knight, when Batman was beating up The Joker in the holding cell. "All your strength, yet you're so powerless."

I digress, let's get back to GCBC. Three sets to go now, and today we have Call to Arms. Which introduced Borg and Dominion into 2E. One is, arguably, the most powerful affiliation in the game. The other, not so much.....

Good Card: Sensing a Trap

Why: Romulans have some fun cards. This is one of them. Forcing Their Hand, Brainwashing are others. Problem is, cards like this sometimes find their way into your Romulan decks, but when it's time to cut 3 or 4 cards this ends up being one of them. But sometimes I play Sensing a Trap because it can 'lock out' your opponents from playing a certain card, unless he wants to pay the toll. It's like the movie Goodfellas. You playing Kirk? F*ck you, pay me. You're playing Terok Nor? I name Tenak'talar, f*ck you, pay me. TNG speed? I name Excelsior, f*ck you, pay me. Cardassian? I name Central Command, f*ck you, pay me.

Bad Card: Psycho-Kinetic Attack

Why: What's the difference between 'Psycho-Kinetic' on this card and 'Psychokinetic Control'? Why are they spelled differently? I really am curious about that. Is it because one sucks and one doesn't? Because this dilemma is pretty bad. I know, it's a starter card, so it's not supposed to be fantastic. But come on, 3 cost, with easy requirements, just to kill one guy? And what if there's not a security person present (or somebody played Stricken Dumb, people used that back then)? Then I might not even get a kill. It's not all bad, at least the image on this card is pretty sweet.

Good Card, Bad Card #54

2011-06-10T14:09:00.001-04:00

You ever find a pack of Star Trek cards in your freezer? I would guess no you haven't. I did last night. The one-armed drunk midget somehow got on top on my table, pulled out one pack from a OTSD box I keep unopened packs for prize support, and then, for whatever reason a toddler has, decided the freezer was the proper place for it. The pack was from the set To Boldly Go, so maybe even he knew nobody wants that for prize support. If you were wondering why he's a 'one-armed' midget now, it's because he lost a bet to me and didn't pay up. Just kidding, don't call the cops. I've seen this kid take full headers off chairs onto the floor, cry for a second, then get right back up and start playing again. This time when he was playing with his sister on the couch, he just fell back a little bit, but his arm was behind his back and he managed to get a tiny fracture in his elbow. He'll be fine, just a cast on it for a few weeks. He was only slowed down for a day or two before he adapted and went right back into 'baby rampage mode'. He's like a tiny little Borg, he's relentless, resistance is futile.

We'll take a tiny step back on GCBC and look at the Tenth Anniversary Collection. A little promotion with nine ships and their matching commanders (a theme you'll see again soon). Overall is was a great idea. Except for the Dominion Defiant part.....

Good Card: Gowron, Sole Leader of the Empire

Why: Klingons have always been good in 2E, but before they were insanely good Gowron was a nice addition. He has 8 strength that can make missions broken, and the usual Klingon skills (leadership, security, blah, blah, blah), but his ability is money. He's kinda like Dukat, Prefect (a.k.a. Pimp Dukat), an ability that forces your opponent to overplay dilemmas. This Gowron is like fine wine, getting better with age. Reflections gave him Klingon High Council, so he can be downloaded. V-cards gave him Bridge Officer's Test to key off his 2 Leadership. Life just kept getting better and better for the Empire. I would've listed his ship too, but it's a over-costed big piece of crap. Who would pay 6 for a Klingon ship?

Bad Card: Naprem/Dukat, True Cardassian

Why: Our first 'bad card' combo. I don't know who came up with the Cardassian Infiltration idea, but that wasn't his best. The ship is bad because it only works on planet missions. Dukat is bad because, I believe this is the first time they tried this engagement/unstop ability, sure he unstops everyone involved, but the ship's range doesn't get restored. Great, I unstopped all my people.... but I got 2 range left. So the ability was a giant fail, and they should've put some errata on him so he actually works. But even then, nobody would play him. Trying to 'cross-pollinate' affiliations rarely works. Infiltration is a Dominion thing, Capture is a Cardassian thing, etc. Sometime you can try, like Romulans should have better capture (because it makes trek sense), most of the time it's just a gimmick that doesn't work.
___________________
Today's Pic: So exhausted from all the havoc he's cause, the drunk midget can't even finish his dinner before passing out.

Good Card, Bad Card #53

2011-06-08T20:42:00.003-04:00

I was bugging Charlie for some spoilers from the next set (due to release at Worlds) and he sent me a reprint instead. He said since I was onto the set Necessary Evil on GCBC it was perfect timing. Actually the 10th anniversary cards were next, but we can just skip those. So we get the beast-mode ship U.S.S. Valiant. This card played tricks on my eyes when I first looked at it. I said to myself, "Where the hell is the ship?" Then my eyes adjusted and I realized what I was looking at. I like the image, showing it compared to the massive size of the Dominion Battleship. You know what was the best part about the cadet episode? They all died. Well, except Jake, Nog and Dorian Collins. Would've been my favorite episode ever if they died too.

Necessary Evil was one of the few sets I had to actually pay cash for. Those Decipher Dollars were good for something at least (they beat me for my last couple hundred). I remember when I went to the store to buy it (ironic, I live 1/2 mile from it now but drive an hour to play trek in DE) and the guy charged me full retail. He always gave me a deal and I remember being pissed off and calling somebody, maybe Len or Alex. Then they told me the set was in limited print, or something, and that was all there was going to be of it. So this set is 'special' compared to any other Decipher set. Cards from this set are a bit more rare than others. That's why you see alot of archive portraits and alternate images from this set, so people can have a copies of hard-to-get cards. Which kinda makes me think of the argument of making all cards printable, which I'm not a fan of. I won't rant on it, but I'll just say I don't think it's a necessary evil (worst pun ever) we need yet. Plus, I think it'll make the game look shitty. Maybe it's my OCD, but I can't stand it when somebody has shitty prints of v-cards. I remember how terrible Star Wars CCG looked when they first went to v-cards. I remember thinking, 'who wants to play a game that looks like shit?' How can we expect people to take Trek serious if they look at it and see black-and-white printouts or a bunch of ugly paper-cards? The only reasons v-cards work now is because they almost look like a real card. Most games you never even realize the difference. So much for not ranting about it.....

Good Card: Riley Shepard, Confident Cadet

Why: I'm gay for Riley Shepard. I have no problem saying that. I used to say it alot back in the day. Blue was played alot back then, and if you did (in non-cadet decks), this guy could save your ass. First, he was Kirk's bodyguard (this is the days before OT Kirk, I still can't believe they made a worse Kirk). Tons of people played Kirk, tons of people played Charged-Particle Precipitation to filter him out. Since Kirk only had 2 skill dots he usually got snagged. Hence why I would sneak Riley, and his sexy non-skill dot having ass, and he would do the noble thing and take the bullet. Other than bodyguard duty Riley Shepard had the money skills. Biology and Security, plenty of dilemmas required those. And, mostly at Origins and Gencon, some Ohio fool would try to play a Quantum Filament pile, and Mr. Shepard would whip out his 2 navigation. The only knock on Riley, and I mean only knock, is that he had programming. Which means he would get stopped by Picking up the Pieces, a super popular card in my meta back then.

Bad Card: Weyoun, Warship Commander

Why: I forgot all about this Weyoun. Hell, I had to check my binder to make sure I even had a copy of this one in it. A shame really, Weyoun was such a cool character in DS9, but all his 2E cards are either lame or broken. So this one is basically just a cheap copy that is the matching commander of the Tanak'talar, since they forgot to add that keyword on both Call to Arms versions of him. I understand the token engagement ability (which is the best ability in our multi-player 'battle royal' format), I just don't get why a non-Terok Nor icon person needs the Cardassian ship part. That doesn't make any sense. I guess that is money for your dual-HQ Dominion/Cardassian deck that you never made, or never will make....

Good Card, Bad Card #52

2011-06-07T12:47:00.003-04:00

"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.

Good Card, Bad Card #51

2011-05-30T20:51:00.000-04:00

So I've been in a ditch the last 6 days. Another episode of "going broke" in poker. I've seen this episode plenty of times in the past. Seems to be my M.O. when playing poker full time, I run really well for about two or three months, then things 'go bad'. Part of it is numbers, part of it is playing poorly, or pushing things when the move is to scale back. It's just the way it goes really. When you're playing full time you're supposed to have 6 months of living expenses in savings, just in case things 'go bad'. Well, I'm just a guy from Jersey living day-to-day, I'm lucky to have a month or two. So I've decided it's time to go back to the real world again. I also had some other personal stuff going on, family troubles. It's funny how everything seems to go good at the same time, and how everything goes bad at the same time. I got stressed out for a little while. I considered filing some lawsuits or sending somebody a hate-filled private message.... but then I remembered I'm not from the Midwest and trek has nothing to do with my "real life". So I chilled out for awhile, took some quite time, plotted out my next move. That's what people from Jersey do, just figure it out and make the best of it.

For GCBC we're onto Reflections 2.0. This set was hot when it came out, everyone was buying it up. It had a lot of 'hot tech' in it, as an Ohio buddy of mine likes to say. I had a lot of different options here when choosing cards, and I'm sure I'll come back to this set in the future.

Good Card: Ohhhh! Nothing Happened!

Why: I always felt like a fool when filling out a decklist when using this card. I'd have to check to make sure how many "h's" were in the Ohhh! part, and remember the card ended with an exclamation point (!). I didn't want some fool to give me a game loss for messing up this dumb title. As for the card, this is the ultimate "meta card". This is almost like a 1E referee card, in the sense you can punish somebody who's abusing a dilemma too much. When Tragic Turn was running wild (and sometimes it still is) a few years back, I started packing this card. When you blew out all three of their Tragic Turns they were left with a big pile of monkey crap for a dilemma pile. But it's also good against anything else someone might abuse: Legacy, Gorgan, Tactical Disadvantage, Overwhelmed, etc. The last couple years in the first round of Day 2 at Worlds I've run into guys playing this against me. Lucky for me, I played Tragic Turn Day 1 and opted for a standard pile Day 2. I guess they figured I would go with a gimmick pile, but that's something I rarely do Day 2.

Bad Card: The Three Vipers

Why: You probably forgot this card was even in this set. That's because nobody plays this terrible dilemma. Why? Because it's a 3-cost space damage dilemma that has no attribute requirement. Why would I play this when I have plenty of other choices that are tougher to get past? Two set of requirements, both with 3 skills. Sure, one side is 2 navigation, which can be tough, but in today's world of super easy skill gain your opponent is going to get past one side of this dilemma. It doesn't even have a cool damage effect. Discard one card from hand at the start of the turn. Really? That's some lame sauce right there. I rather just play Prefix Codes, stop them, then blow them out of the stars.

Good Card, Bad Card #50

2011-05-24T12:26:00.000-04:00

The 'Book of Hosp' reads, "Navaar is God, and Gav is her prophet. And one day they will all live on Assess Contamination with Kirk and Donatra and live happily ever after." So I went to the Romulus Regional to play 3 BenHosps and an Alex. I played Ben, of course, a Donatra/Assess Deck, with some NA Thieves. Phil, who was playing BenHosp's TOS Kirk/Assess Contamination. Josh Sheets (who gets props for making the journey) was playing a complete Assess Contamination sellout deck with Donatra AND Kirk, apparently getting some online help from Mr. Hosp. Then Alex, who didn't read the 'Book of Hosp', but had a Borg deck with Assess Contamination.

This won't be a rant of hate for Assess Contamination. I like the mission, it's a previous 'good card'. The game just wasn't ready for the Donatra/Assess combo yet. The problem, which the current lead designer already took offense with when I 'spoiled' my opinion, is that Design didn't use any long-term thinking by releasing these cards at the same time. The problem now, and why this combo is super-strong, is that dilemma piles that are 85-90% skill dilemmas just aren't that good. When somebody has Navaar and Gav out, they can just about handle any skill based dilemma combo. When they're attempting Assess Contamination with Donatra, that wipes out any non-skill combos you might have. It's never good when an mission attempt can have the answer to everything. As for the 'drawback' of cunning > 40, and it being a tough mission to solve, that doesn't exist for Romulans. Power Shift at Assess Contamination is sick nasty stuff. I've seen it solved with 4 or 5 people. So when I talk about 'long-term' thinking, I mean Design should've released more skill-based 'support' dilemmas before release that nasty combo. Like Coolant Leak, a weenie hate card with a skill. There needs to be an Urgency-type dilemma that requires a skill. There needs to be a Timescape-type card that requires a skill. When Design decided they wanted to go in the direction of making people play more skill based dilemmas they should've taken more time, and came up with a better gameplan. Now there's a big gaping hole in Tier-1 and it'll be a patchwork job to fix it up. Sadly, that's been the problem with Trek Design from the beginning, even the Decipher days. Problem, patchwork solution, new problem, more patchwork. It's like how we fix our roads in America, just keep doing one shitty fix job after another, instead of doing it right the first time.

On our stroll back through sets in GCBC we stop at the Archive Portraits. The ultimate fanboy experience, big pictures of girls in tight outfits. Or Shinzon, if you're into that sort of thing. Hey, I'm not judging.......

Good Card: Persis, Loyal Daughter

Why: If I had "Exhibit A" of why every personnel doesn't need text on it to be good it would be Persis. Her skills are money for most space missions, which probably you'll be doing first (Unless you read the 'Book of Hosp'). And those attributes.... wow.... and I'm not talking about female attributes. 6-8-8 for 2 cost!? That's the definition of value. And if you need another reason why the archive Persis is a good card, I only got one word for you: Nipples. The headlights are on, if you know what I mean.

Bad Card: Improved Scenery

Why: I swear, I did not do it on purpose, but when I was looking through the Archive Portraits the only bad card there was the 'World Champion Design-a-card 2008 Kevin Jaeger' Improved Scenery. So after winning his worlds with Worf, Security Detail Leader he probably knew errata was coming soon to Mr. Worf. So I guess he decided to put that terrible ability on a interrupt. Improve Scenery is nothing more that a 2E version of the 1E cards Scan and Full Planet Scan. Listen, any card that messes with your opponents dilemma pile is bad. It's goes against what this game is about, getting through (and I mean through, not 'around') dilemmas. I've mentioned in the past about 'protecting the integrity of the dilemma pile'. Just about all the cards that 'break' the game involve 'dilemma choke'. Many a World Champion has been crowned by getting around facing dilemmas. That's fine, you play to win the game. But if you don't understand the concept of protecting the dilemma pile, then you don't know what this game is about.
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Today's Pic: A stressed out BenHosp playing Josh Sheets. Josh was going for the win, deciding on who to attempt with while me, Phil, and Alex were talking. Josh overheard us and said something. Ben then called 'clock' on Josh, because he didn't know how much time was left and was scared the game would go to time. I then informed Ben that there was 20 minutes left and he was a terrible human being for calling time on a player who doesn't play slow. BenHosp stopped Josh, then won on the next turn. Then turned back into Mr. Happy. I'm pretty sure he's bi-polar and probably a sociopath.

Good Card, Bad Card #49

2011-05-21T02:27:00.001-04:00

Ahhh, spring time, warm weather, birds singing... unless you live in a wasteland like South Dakota or Minnesota I guess. There it must still be bad weather, because another Midwest guy has gone bonkers on me. I got this lovely PM on the CC site the other day from Mr. Kevin Jaeger:

"I didnt call you a name. I stated that I believe you're an idiot....thus proven by the fact that you dont know the difference.

(Then 2 paragraphs of blah-blah listing the reasons why I'm a terrible human being)

YOU GOT YOURSELF FIRED AND NOBODY LIKES YOU. YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT THIS GAME. YOU HAVENT WON A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND NEVER WILL. YOU ARE NOT THAT GOOD. Now go back to your jail cell.

- Kevin

P.S. You wont see me at Gencon. I have better things to do with my time and money then drive 14 hrs and have to see your ugly face walk away from the table mid-game because you're a poor sport that cant handle losing."

OK, the first sentence doesn't make any friggin' sense. That's some fancy lawyer-babble there. That's like Newt Gingrich saying anyone who quotes him from his Meet the Press interview is telling a falsehood. Then came the ANGRY CAPS, not sure why that was necessary. Then he wraps it up with a pretty 'P.S.' (like it's a love letter), saying how he has better things to do then come to GenCon. Funny, since he just spent 10 minutes writing me an angry letter.

So that little mental meltdown earned Kev-Dog the next "Get to know your Trek Player" bio. Hopefully, he'll change his mind, and spend his very valuable time, since money should be no object for a high rolling lawyer like him, and come to GenCon. We also dig into the set 'Strange New Worlds' and find a couple of cards.

"Get to Know Your Trek Players"
*Disclaimer: some of the information 'might' not be entirely accurate*
*Anyone who qoutes me from this is telling a falsehood*

Name: Kevin Jaeger, esq. (pictured left)
Resides: Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Occupation: Ambulance Chaser
Motto: "I went to law school"
Highest Worlds Finish: 2008 World Champion
Favorite Deck: TNG Integrity Worf/Mot abuse

Fun Facts: Earned law degree from Sioux Nation Reservation Law School; Failed the bar exam 7 times; Personal attorney of Kris Sonsteby; Has the #1 profile on ChristianMingle.com

Good Card: Calisthenics Opponent

Why: I've always loved Calisthenics Opponent. I used to use him in my Cardassian "Pimp Dukat" (previous good card) deck. Back in the day, when Cluttering Irrelevancies (which would've been the 'bad card' from this set if it never got fixed) was insane, this guy was a beast. Monster attributes and the ability to get any skill, and more attributes, until the end of the mission attempt. I still think he's a beast, and have been thinking about making an all-NA Olarra/Hologram deck featuring him. Not only is he great for gameplay reasons, he's the most badass looking character ever.

Bad Card: Leonard H. McCoy, Remarkable Man

Why: Ironic, our 'bio' is of a player who like to abuse TNG nonsense, and here's a good example. What made absolutely no sense about McCoy was that TNG decks were already strong and Tier-1, yet they still gave them this monster. You know what TNG integrity decks with super-easy missions didn't need, a guy who turns 7 integrity personnel into 9 integrity personnel. Add in a broken Worf who 'scans' your opponents dilemmas, plus some Mot & Vic to cut down dilemma points and you got yourself some hot 'Jaeger Tech' going on.

Good Card, Bad Card #48

2011-05-17T18:37:00.002-04:00

Going into this year's World Championships in August, at GenCon, I wanted to give some people a little background on some of the players. So I'm going to start a new feature of GCBC called "Get to Know Your Trek Players". I've played in more World Championships than anyone and figured I'd share my 'scouting reports' with you. Think of this as your 'media guide', like in baseball. Also, we take 2 cards from the set 'To Boldly Go', a set even more sad then the series Enterprise.

"Get to Know Your Trek Players"
*Disclaimer: some of the information 'might' not be entirely accurate*

Name: Neil Timmons (creepy picture left)
Height: 6'3''
Weight: 325 lbs
Born: Montana
Resides: Washington, DC
Occupation: Internet Pornography
Family: Wife, Brenda; Son, Isaac
Highest Worlds Finish: 2009 World Champion
Favorite Deck: Klingon/Tragic Turn
Fun Facts: Once fought a grizzly bear in Montana as a small child; makes a delicious omelet; excellent housewife; can't hold his beer; suffers from post-concussion syndrome since Worlds '10; has never told a story with an ending

Good Card: Dabo!

Why: It's got a exclamation point in the title, that's got to mean it's awesome! If you don't like Dabo! then you don't like fun. Last time I saw Dabo! played was the Beirmiester tournament in Germany last year. Hell, if I'm drinking at a Trek event I don't even need an excuse yell Dabo!, but I'll take one. Is it Tier-1? Not really, but you'd be surprised how competitive a Dabo! deck can be. Every now and then, at a local (or 'fun' format), you can bust out the dabo wheel and try your luck.

Bad Card: Parallels

Why: 3 cost for a "maybe" dilemma? I already dislike dilemmas that might miss and do nothing. I have a whole list of why this dilemma is garbage. One, I have to already be playing a event heavy deck for this to be useful. If so, I have better options, like Overwhelmed and 8-pointers. Two, it's only going to be successful against decks that pack multiple copies of unique personnel (Terok Nor for example). I know it can hit non-uniques too, but so what? Three, if I have a good matchup where this dilemma might hit, I'm still not guaranteed to hit anything. Even if I do, I only stop them. Maybe, and I mean maybe, if the people I hit with this dilemma were placed on the bottom of the deck instead, I might consider this dilemma. Bottom line, for a 3 cost, space-only, dilemma I need more than a random chance to stop one or two personnel.

Ruling New Jersey, Volume 2, Issue 3

2011-05-16T14:26:00.003-04:00

"R.I.P. Academy Format 2010-2011"

Academy Format was a collaboration of myself and a local player, Ed Kime, last year when we were sitting around trying to come up with a new fun limited format. At first it was great, a format without any b.s. like OT Kirk or Tragic Turn. Just a fun, clean, simple format. Sadly, yesterday I watched it die. I realized that with every new virtual expansion including a team that Academy doesn't exist anymore, it's now "Teams Format". A non-team build has almost no chance against a team. It's not a terrible thing, it's still an alright format to play, but it's not what I envisioned Academy to be. I envisioned something along the lines of a 'No Rares' format where people would play cards they normally wouldn't play. Now it's just pick a team, grab what they need, and go. On top of all that, the "85 point Kressari Monster" can be played in this format, and that just isn't right. There should be no easy two mission win in any limited format (Two mission win where you can solve both missions with 4 personnel no less). I brought my 8 year old daughter to play Academy (she blew up a ship, which was epic), thinking it'd be a simple format. All she saw was complicated team nonsense that she didn't understand. I've made no secret about my distaste for teams. I think it's the path of least resistance when designing new sets. It hampers the creative process of design, deckbuilding and gameplay. As a father wanting to bring his kids into this game in the near future I see bad things on the horizon. If we keep making every expansion built around complicated teams, how are we suppossed to bring new players into this game? No new entry point = slow death. We learned that from 1E, at least I thought we did. We forgotten who we were when we started playing this game, young people. Now we're men in our 30's designing a game for people in their 30's. A very SW:CCG-like game (where every person has a 3-line ability), that has too many moving parts. And if you think you can give a young person a 'team' and try to explain this game to them you're sadly mistaking. You try to give a kid an Equinox deck and explain the ship's ability and Nucleogenic crap to them. Jesus, that would be borderline child abuse. The current Design Team (and previous ones) have forgotten the roots of this game. Which each set they try to do more and more, cards with walls of texts and clunky interactions. The last in turn leads to tougher and tougher rules questions. M'Pella is a good example of Design not understanding the game itself. Her ability, and similar cards in the set, turns out didn't even work until somebody brought up a rules questions (Which then lead to a new ruling, then the infamous "2E Keller Dilemma Resolution Guide"). There's always been a disconnect between Design and how the game is actually played. I just ask them, remember who you were when you began playing Trek, and try to think of that person trying to learn this game, when you design new sets.

Good card. Bad Card #47

2011-05-13T21:30:00.000-04:00

This is a rare Friday night edition of GCBC. Usually right about now I'd be at a poker table "working". But since coming back from the Ohio Regional I've been getting beat up, so a break was in order. Maybe I hit a Gypsy on the drive back, because I got some wicked voodoo on me. So I'll take out my anger on the draft set Dangerous Missions. Listen, draft is cute, but it just doesn't work in 2E. Every year, at GenCon, I watch Charlie and other poor saps spend hours cutting out draft packs. Every year I end up playing in the draft tournament, and every year it sucks more than the previous year. Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, nothing sealed usually is. But with v-cards now, it just seems like way more work than what it's worth. Dangerous Missions is also where the concepts of 'teams' came from in v-sets. I'm not a fan of the team concept in every set. Charlie tells me people love teams, but I think it short-sighted way to design cards. Plus, it can lead to bad things, like Damaged Archer. From a business standpoint, I guess Dangerous Missions was a smart move for Decipher. Design 19 mostly crappy cards and charge $15 bucks ($45 to buy all three) a pop. Too bad they didn't pay attention to all that money....

Good Card: Vedek Assembly Transport

Why: This one is kinda simple, Bajorans didn't have any decent ships before, and now they got one. Easy to staff, low cost of 5, and get two of the three keywords on it you'll get to the magic 8 range. 7 is always the worst number, since usually it takes 8 to get to a planet and back. Plus, Bajorans have some 2 span space missions too, that's always an advantage. When you have all three keywords and you attempt a space mission without moving (usually your 2nd attempt) you can't get hit with Outclassed.

Bad Card: James T. Kirk, Irrational Human Being

Why: At least we have a Kirk on the 'bad card' list for just for being a crap card rather than being borderline broken. A Kirk with Anthropology and Security, that's interesting, I'll give him that much. This ability reminds me of something.... oh, the last 'bad card', the Jem'Hadar Umat'Adan. They both essentially lose a guy to boost attributes, but Kirk's trigger is terrible, 'when your leadership personnel present is selected by a dilemma'. Shit, you can't even use this for Chula: The Dice. I really have no clue how this ability is useful. I understand this was a card intended for draft, but that doesn't mean he had to be absolutely unplayable in constructed format. I think I'll just spend 1 more counter and use Living Legend.

Good Card, Bad Card #46

2011-05-10T17:56:00.002-04:00

The set Captain's Log brought us the Voyager affiliation. I'm not a big fan of Voyager, it's completely unplayable in Tier-1, but at least it didn't ruin the game like it did in 1st Edition. The main knock against this set is that it brought us the dilemma An Issue of Trust (previous 'bad card') and that made some affiliations useless for years. Other than that, it's just a set of pretty sub-average cards. Lots of binder fodder in Captain's Log. I'm pretty sure 50% of the cards I use to glue v-cards on are from this set.

Good Card: A Pattern of Lies

Why: It's probably the most useful meta-dilemma in the game. Klingon and Borg are two if the top three affiliations in the game right now (Assess Contamination + OT Kirk is the other), and this dilemma rocks them. It also has a decent shot against other decks you might come across: Cadets, Equinox or Ferengi. In my Ohio Regional deck I packed this dilemma x2 in case I ran into Klingon/TT. I did, but sadly Klingons attempt with 6 and solve with 4 at two of their missions, and I never drew it. Yeah, nothing like a deck that can ass-rape you with Krudge and Tragic Turn, then do two ridiculous easy missions. But I digress......

Bad Card: Umat'Adan, Eager Fifth

Why: A Jem'Hadar without Officer or Security. This should be a cool and interesting card, right? Nope, not a chance. This 'token' Dominion card thrown into Captain's Log is pathetic. No help with non-strength attributes, overcosted at 3, and a stupid ass ability. Umat'Adan is the trifecta of lame. That terrible ability is what takes the cake, how the hell would this help me in any way? It took me 10 minutes to even think of a scenario in which this ability is useful (Chula: This Dice). The only thing he's got going for him is that he has Science, but I'm afraid the Founders weren't wise in all things when they created Umat'Adan. Oh, did I mention he has a meaningless keyword? That's nice, he could get nailed by The Captain's Guest, that's just what I need.....
____________________
Today's Pic: The Advocate Magazine declared Minneapolis, Minnesota the 'gayest city' in America. I'm glad Minnesota has a new title after Team Jersey ended their run, at GenCon '08, at the 'self proclaimed' top in the Trek.

Good Card, Bad Card #45

2011-05-04T19:21:00.018-04:00

Back in the day we were asked by Decipher, "What is Genesis?" Turns out, it's a 27-card sub-set that would screw up the game up until this day. We covered OT Kirk way back in GCBC #4, so we don't need to kick that dead horse. We'll get to the other really 'bad card' today. What really pisses me off is the card Cellular Peptide Cake. What the hell is this 1E card doing in a 2E set? More importantly, why is there a bad 1E card in a 2E set?

Good Card: Genesis Effect

Why: Early game, my opponent is playing a 'theme' dilemma pile (Tragic Turn, Overwhelmed, etc), so I can drop this down and protect myself. Late game, I can drop this down and name Excaliban Drama or No Kill I and take out his main planet stopper. You want to get creative with this card you can find a way to blow it up (Navaar, or any personnel that blows up events) and move across the galaxy with peace of mind.

Bad Card: Kruge, Instinctive Commander

Why: It was only a matter of time before I tackled Kruge on GCBC. Let's start off with the fact that he's insanely undercosted. Just think, the Spock in this set is cost 4. Sure he has a few more skills and a little better attributes, but he can't do something in the game that goes above and beyond anything in second edition. Kruge's ability is more of a gamebreaker than OT Kirk's. Kruge's ability says a ship with 4 personnel. That's misleading, it's really 5. Any Klingon battle deck is packing Ferocity, so a ship with 5 is going to end up with 4. So most mission attempts begin with 8 or 9, so all you have to so is chip away three or four personnel and Kruge can wipe them out (Not hard at all with Tragic Turn). It's actually worse than death, because your opponent can't replay unique person you capture. 2E was created because of the NPE effect in 1E of where all your personnel would die on one mission attempt or a good battle deck could completely wipe you out. Kruge brought that NPE to 2E and he's still around.

____________________

Today's Pic: Charlie Plaine, with a Klingon deck I made, smashing a sad Brian Sykes the night before the Ohio Regional. The I.K.S. Valdore (thanks to today's 'bad card') blows up a Bird-of-Prey for the win.

Good Card, Bad Card #44

2011-05-03T00:43:00.024-04:00

Today America celebrated like it was our generation's 'V-E Day'. It was not, no war has ended, no soldier is coming home because a tall, goofy Muslim got shot in the head. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the son of a bitch is dead, but the "America, Fuck Yeah!" attitude is getting us into trouble. We might as well of put his head on a pike and paraded it around all our cities. I do pose one question: What if bin Laden surrendered? Would they still of shot him? This 'eye for an eye' justice rubs me the wrong way. Are we a country that exacts blood vengeance now? In other less important news, I went all the way to Ohio to lose to a deck I see all the time in Jersey. Listen, people can play any deck they want, but when you play a build that somebody else came up with you have to freely admit it. It seems some people just take decks off the internet then act like it's their deck. Just do me a favor people, just put the name of the person you hacked it from in the deck title, do that and I don't care what you do. You can't change two cards in the deck, give it a stupid new title, then act like you won a tournament yourself. On the way home I made a return to Wheeling, West Virginia. I left Columbus the next morning and it was raining, by the time I got to Wheeling, about 2 hours later, it felt like I was driving for 8 and needed a break. So I figured a couple hour poker break wouldn't hurt. After 2 hours, I got my money in the pot with the worst hand, got lucky and won back about half the money I lost on my way to Columbus. Figures, the one hand I play like a donkey is the one I end up winning. I decided to take the money and run, it was time to get the hell out of Wheeling. I have to give a big thanks to Brian Sykes, and his lovely wife, for letting Charlie and me crash at their place in Columbus. Sykes used up all his man-cred for that I'm sure. He'll probably have to take her to a chick flick movie to make up for it. For GCBC we're on to the set 'These are the Voyages'. Overall, I like this set. If it wasn't for a terrible 0-cost dilemma, that was a previous 'bad card', and a Romulan ship that needed errata, this set would've been a home run.
Good Card: Parek, Privileged Legate

Why: We all know I love 'Pimp Dukat' (Prefect), so of course I love his buddy Parek. But I also love this personnel because he's awesome. Cardassians have some skill issues, because most Cardassians are just shady scumbags with Officer and Treachery. Parek skills are a bit redundant (Cardies already have tons of archeology and exobiology), but at least he doesn't have Treachery (at least one guy not getting stopped by An Issue of Trust). But the ability to pop any skill you want from a Comfort Women is a great bargain for a 2 cost personnel. Right now he's super-awesome when you combine him with Navaar.

Bad Card: Two of Nine, Transtator Drone

Why: Borg were already Tier-1 good, then they gave them a Luther Sloan. Actually he's better than Sloan, all you have to do is put him on the bottom and then download him again next turn with Quintessence. An affiliation becomes too good when it gets too much 'offence' and 'defense'. Borg can already get through missions because they have awesome cheaters. Adapt, K & E, etc. Two of Nine gives them a defense against any event that might slow them down. They already had a way to 'steal' events with Adapt to Service Us, and that was great. So why did they feel the need to make this card?

Good Card, Bad Card #43

2011-04-28T16:02:00.005-04:00

Today's GCBC comes to you from Wheeling, West Virginia. After an exhausting family vacation in our nation's capitol last weekend (we all stayed at "Spooky Uncle BenHosp's" place), I've decided to hit the road for a little solo "business/dork" trip. On the way to the regional in Columbus is a poker room in Wheeling. So I figured I could probably pay for the trip. I arrived yesterday and was told it was $150 a night for a room at the casino, no poker rates, nothing they could do for me. I guess you can act like that when you're the only joint in town. So I told them they're nuts and drove over the spooky Wheeling Suspension Bridge (it's like Mothman Prophecies, same river too) and found a cheap room. Went back to the sad poker room to play, but the table broke up after 45 minutes. Today, the 'Wheeling Expedition' got off on the wrong foot, after a early lunch I hit the poker room and quickly lost $300. It's different here, usually you buy in for a $1/2 no limit game for $300, but here it's only $200. The games are soft (passive/bad players), which is sometimes bad for me because I'll lose my patience. I figured since I was in the "bizarro world" of poker I'd change it up, leave for a little while and come back for the tournament tonight. I'm a decent cash game player, but a terrible tournament player. Maybe here it's reversed. I got the rest of tonight and half of tomorrow to dig out of the hole before heading to Columbus to meet the esteemed CC Chairman, Charlie Plaine. I'd be happy at this point to break even in Wheeling.

Since I'm on "time out" until the tournament I can return to GCBC. We're on to the set In the Mirror Darkly now. I'm not a fan of this set. It's not terrible, but I don't like the themes. Mirror Starfleet never did it for me, and the revised Voyager stuff makes me sad. I also need to decide what deck I'm playing Saturday, I have 3 to choose from. I haven't played in Ohio in about 2 or 3 years, but I used to come here regularly. It's usually mostly jobbers and 2 or 3 solid players. It'll all depend how much I suspect I'll see OT Kirk. When it gets to bigger events, midwest fools love to 'go blue' (play Federation).

Good Card: The Dal'Rok

Why: This card is good because it's double hate. It's anti-weenie AND anti-dual HQ. Two meta cards for the price of one is never bad. Another boost for Dal'Rok is that it returns to the dilemma pile. It's always satisfying when your opponent gets cute early game and attempts with 6 and you play Hard Time + The Dal'Rok. They just lost two fools and got nothing accomplished.

Bad Card: Lam

Why: Man, the Breen could've been so awesome in 2E. Instead, they made them lame and useless. They had a few chances to make Dominion a good affiliation, but they always screwed it up. I just don't understand Lam. So he's a weenie with a drawback, which means he should have some cool extra stuff a normal one cost guy doesn't. Lam had 4 skills, instead of the usual 3 on a 1-cost personnel. But they're usual skills, nothing great. And for attributes, he has strength 7. Now riddle me this Batman, if I'm playing Dominion why the hell would I need another high strength guy? I have a whole race of 8-strength drugged-up warriors, it's the one attribute I got covered. Come on, give me some Integrity to help out my shady Vorta and dirty Changelings. And what the hell am I going to do with this guy late-game? Stop dudes I need just to have this clown in play? Just like I told the lady at the casino, "No thanks, I'll find something else."

Good Card, Bad Card #42

2011-04-18T15:11:00.007-04:00

I had a "wow" moment playing Trek yesterday. I picked the wrong deck and only won one game, but that's the game that pissed me off. BenHosp was playing Tragic Turn (imagine that), and there was 2 already underneath my space mission. So I went with 4, cutting down on his draws. It worked, at least I thought it did. BenHosp played one dilemma, Tragic Turn. He was throwing a 'hail mary' hoping to consume an All-Consuming Evil. He was playing the right guy, because everybody hits on me. Sure enough, he hit the ace on the second consume. I managed to prevent the kill, unstop my guys with Ruling Council then attempt again. This time I used Damar and gave BenHosp 1 draw, 2 to spend. He was playing the right guy, because he hit a Clown: Guillotine. This time dudes died, and I was unstaffed. At this moment I contemplated murder. Murder on lots of people. But I knuckled down, since BenHosp was playing Borg and I was Terok Nor I was slowing him down a ton, so I knew I could still squeeze the game out, and I did. For years I've been saying Tragic Turn is bad for the game, and now I just got clowned by it played by itself, straight up. It's such an absurd, sad thing for this game that that could happen, I just had so sit back and say, "wow."

What You Leave Behind was Decipher's big "Fuck You, Goodbye!" to ST:CCG. This set is filled with so much 'bad' I don't know where to begin. For this set, they knew it would be their last, so they didn't give a shit and threw every bad idea they had left into it. It's so bad, even the common cards are overpowered, game-breaking cards. Kinda sets the framework for the v-sets now that I think about it. Every card is a walls of text, and tons of skills on every personnel. When did simple, solid cards become a bad thing?

Good Card: Sylvia

Why: They weren't really any good capture dilemmas before Sylvia, and there's really not that many now. The capture dilemmas usually cost too much and have lame requirements. For Sylvia, they decided to 'get around' the cost part this time by going the "-1 for each event" route. That's was a good idea, most capture decks have some events out. The requirements on Sylvia are brutal, one side has cunning > 38, that's easy to track. The other side has 2 engineer and 2 science, most mission attempts don't even begin with that. It does suck that it's a planet-only dilemmas, but you can't have it all. At least now you can Ensnare them early and Sylvia them later.

Bad Card: Navaar, Experienced Gift

Why: This is the worst card in 2E right now that does not have the phrase "prevent and overcome" on it. This card is so far off the mark I don't even know where to begin. Let's see, for somebody who can create any skill you need she brings 5 of her own to the table. One top of that, 2 of them are doubled up. Leadership x2? Does Navaar really need the ability to use Bridge Officer's Test? So you can pop any skill you want just by blowing up a 0-cost event. Fantastic, I have no problem with that. You can do it as many times as you have events, and you get to keep the skill until the end of your turn. Fantastic.... wait, wtf!? No limit really, and till the end of the turn, not mission attempt. I'm getting all this for the low rate of a 4-cost personnel? Goddamn, Navaar must have Jayson Werth's agent. Considering what Navaar is worth she should cost around 9 to 11 counters. Now Design got it into their heads that they wanted everyone to go back to skill-based dilemmas but they didn't addressed these silly cards that can create skill out of thin air. No big picture thinking = shitty game.

Good Card, Bad Card #41

2011-04-14T02:15:00.008-04:00

You know what's a lot of work? Gardening. At Wal-Mart today while walking by the garden section I got the dumb idea of fixing up the yard. Its been a rough winter and I noticed the other day the rosebush and small garden area was a mess. So I bought a $10 shovel, a couple plants and went to work. Figured, how hard could it be? I quickly learned 2 minutes into it I'd need my $8 machete and $9 hatchet to take down this dying rosebush (yes, I previously purchased those items at Wal-Mart for no particular reason). That son of a bitch wasn't going out without a fight. I went into this wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. I had to call a timeout, go get water and proper attire. 3 hours later I had the whole tiny garden area shovel out, made pretty and replanted. Now it's a big patch of dirt with 2 tiny plants in it. Honestly, I don't know how landscapers do it, that's some back-breaking hard work. And I did a terrible job at it. Turning our attention to GCBC, somebody on the boards asked me to do a virtual promo edition of GCBC. Since I'm going back through sets the next icon back on the trekcc.org site is for all the virtual promos. So what the hell, might as well make a stop here.

Good Card: Engage Cloak

Why: One of the perks for doing a virtual promo is that you get to take a card with a crappy image and give it a new one. Sadly it seems that they usually use a worse image. Not with Engage Cloak. This card was from Premier so it had to have a sad image from Star Trek: Nemesis. I don't hate on the movie like most people do, but I'm not a fan of the Scimitar. It's a lame ship that could've been awesome. The only cool thing about the Scimitar 2E card is that it calls your opponent a "loser" when you win an engagement. The lame image of the original is a half cloaked Scimitar. But now we have a Klingon ship, like it's supposed to be.

Bad Card: Data, From the City of Rateg

Why: I don't even like this card in general, and I hate the promo even more. He's Romulan, so I could use Alternate Identity to get around paying retail for him, but I still don't want him. I don't play dissidents when Romulan, I just don't think it's Tier-1. Sure, he's got monster attribute, but Romulans can easily make that happen with Power Shift. Now let's get to the promo, they should've changed the title to 'Autistic Data'. He looks like Dustin Hoffman in Rain Main, "I'm in Rateg....definitley in Rateg. Sarek is dead, definitely dead. Fishsticks for dinner" This Data looks like BenHosp watching FoxNews, all twitchy and confused. It's ok for me to make Autistic jokes, I got a kid with a "touch of the BenHosp". It's like having a black friend....

Good Card, Bad Card #40

2011-04-12T20:13:00.006-04:00

Anybody who watches MMA is a douchebag. That's been my theory for about 3 years and I'm sticking with it. This weekend they were having some crappy MMA promotion show at the Tropicana were I play most of my poker in A.C. Not surprisingly it was the first time I ever cursed at a guy at the poker table. I decided to stick around because I figured this 'toughguy convention' would be good action. It was, but there's nothing more sad than a lucky toughguy. After my Aces got cracked by 10-8 off-suit I decided to pack it up and go home. Is there a moral to this story? Not really, I just hate MMA, people who watch MMA, worse than them is the girlfriends of the guys who watch MMA. They wear stupid toughgirl hates and act tough. UFC/MMA has created a culture of douchebaggery in America and I simply don't care for it. Anyway, for GCBC we've reached the very first virtual set "The Undiscovered Country". I like this set. I still don't understand how they got the first set so right, then the 2nd set (last GCBC) so wrong.

Good Card: Breaking The Ice

Why: The persistent keyword does make me sad, but this dilemma makes me happy. I don't recall ever playing this dilemma on someone and it not working. This requirements are so easy to track it's pretty hard to screw it up. And trust me, I'm an expert on screwing it up. The other reason I like it is because it changes things up. It takes a usual planet skill, geology, and puts in on a space dilemma. Not only that, but it goes hardcore and puts it x3. This dilemma was a fantastic idea, unlike our next card....

Bad Card: The Cost of Freedom

Why: Somebody who didn't know sh*t about Cardassians had a terrible idea and it became this card. This is another example of terrible risk/reward leading to a bad card. The only attribute Cardassians need is integrity, so getting a cunning/strength +1 or +2 isn't that great. I can use Comfort Women for that. What's the risk? Getting all my people stopped, basically losing a whole turn. No way, screw that. The chance for a couple attribute points isn't worth a wasted turn. I've only seen one person ever try to use this card, and it was a complete failure. This is a card which you have to base your entire deck around and it's simply not that good.

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Today's Pic: For some reason last Halloween I bought a giant fake sword. It was sitting in my room and my brother asked, "Why do you have a giant sword in your room?" To which I replied, "Why not have a giant sword in your room?" Months later me and the kids get to HeroQuest #13 'Quest for the Spirit Blade'. Turns out, they look very similar. Connor, already obsessed with HeroQuest, ran upstairs, got the sword, and 'by the power of Greyskull' did his best He-Man impression.

Good Card, Bad Card #39

2011-04-05T20:55:00.012-04:00

The set Favor the Bold is a big, steaming pile of monkey crap. Numerous cards have already hit the "bad card" list. It was tough just finding one 'good card'. This set was all about dilemmas. One selling point being it had the first card designed by the community. Well, we all saw how bad that worked out. All I can be thankful for is that there was no 'broken' in the set, just a lot of bad. It was the second virtual set release by the Committee, so maybe it was just filled with terrible cards that Brad couldn't get Decipher to make.

Good Card: Neral, Seasoned Politician

Why: You're certainly getting a lot of bang for your buck with this Neral. 3 Cost for 2 Leadership, 4 other skills and a kick-ass ability. This card was required because the dilemma An Issue of Trust completely murders Romulans. Now you might wonder why I made Neral a 'good card' and not Klag, the Klingon version with the same ability. Well, Klingons were already good, played frequently Day 2 of Worlds. I've only seen Romulan once or twice, and with only Far Seeing Eyes nonsense. At the time of this cards release I remember being pissed because it made no sense that Klingons got Klag and Cardassians got nothing. They got crushed by An Issue of Trust more than anyone. Eventually they got Central Command, but at that time it was a huge mistake.

Bad Card: Let Them Worry

Why: This card makes no goddamn sense to me. I've said in the past just about all the "HQ specific" dilemmas are terrible, but this one takes the cake. It cost 3 and has lame requirements. All these HQ dilemmas stop a guy and then have a 'bonus', but this one's bonus is to stop them all. Why the hell have the first part if I'm going to stop them all anyway. Am I really going to play this in a non-Dominion deck? No way. And if I'm playing infiltration and I really not going to have 3 shape-shifters out? Of course I will. So whoever designed this dilemma gets the 'Picard Facepalm' because it's the definition of Design Fail.

Good Card, Bad Card #38

2011-04-04T22:43:00.006-04:00

The last 4 days have been a blur of driving, poker bad beats, throwing dice with black guys, boardgames, beer, star trek trivia, scotch, yuppies, star trek ccg, more driving, wrestlemania and a lot of yelling at BenHosp. At one point I was so sleep deprived and delirious I told him I wanted to put Phil's beard on him and perform a sexual act on his face. Yeah, it was that kind of weekend. Almost like a GenCon experience. That's why I love Regional season, it's an excuse to travel to a place you have no business in and act a fool. Overall it was a great weekend, other that losing to the BenHosp Klingon deck for the 10,000th time it was fantastic. For GCBC we're on to the set Raise the Stakes. This was a 90-card set, which I wasn't a fan of. I think the CC should stick to 45 card sets. I think smaller, better sets are the way to go. After the debacle that was Peak Performance I think ever set needs to be tested thoroughly.

Good Card: He Wasn't Nice

Why: This card is good because you can get your opponent in two different ways. One, you can take out his main guy, like Archer or Kirk. Two, you can take out 3 personnel if he's got 3 of a non-unique out. With this dilemmas being printed zero, but +5, it gives you protection. It can't be nerfed by Access Contamination or Donatra. It also allows for it to be downloaded with Uninvited. I like cards that give me options and this dilemmas gives you just that.

Bad Card: Leverage

Why: I still have no friggin' clue why anyone is supposed to use this card. So if I'm playing against capture I'm certainly not going to give him more, I'd rather get my guys killed. Another suggestion to me was that it was a defense against Tragic Turn. Well, it doesn't work on stopped people so it's not really helpful. It goes in the category of the card This Side of Paradise. A card that doesn't do what it was designed to do. Proving that up until recently there was a serious disconnect between Design and Tier-1.

Good Card, Bad Card #37

2011-03-31T02:26:00.010-04:00

So a couple of things popped up on my radar today. First an article titled "Contender or Pretender" on trekcc.org about world championship deck building. I'm sorry to see I wasn't invited to be on the expert panel. Years ago, the old KillerB would've gone apeshit over this offense. Now, when I see a name like Mike O'Shagay and not mine, I just chuckle to myself and enjoy the jibberish I read. I read the beginning, then my mind got numb and skipped to the end. The ironic part is, the only person who even made a little bit of sense was Kris Sonsteby. If my man had his head on straight he might be able to actually play this game. Then for more trekcc.org disrespect James Hoskin picked a local to win the Norfolk, VA area Regional this Saturday instead of me. Man, I can't get any love from that website. The next thing to catch my eye was the new Organized Play Guide. More importantly the new tiebreakers. Differential finally got invited to the party, but only at the very bottom. Something I never heard of, called cumulative victory points has taken the place behind SoS (I call it Trek BCS). After figuring out what it was I was struck with another dose of hypocrisy. For years I battled while a member of the CC to get differential as a tiebreaker. All that time people argued that it rewarded beating a lesser player. Problem is, cumulative victory points rewards winning in the early rounds. You usually play the better players in the later rounds. That means you play the lesser players in the early round. So.... how is this anything different? I don't know, I guess I'm glad the problem of the old tiebreakers being useless in a round-robin regional is fixed. But I'm going to give the cumulative victory point thing a hard look before I make up my mind. For GCBC today we're on to the set This Side of Paradise.

Good Card: Number One, Reputable Officer

Why: There's alot of "ok" in This Side of Paradise, but not alot of "good". Considering I made Polywater Intoxication a Good Card in #14 I had to look hard and deep to find another one. I picked Number One because she gives an affiliation something no other one has, a "Get Out of Jail Free Card". No other affiliation has a built-in defense against capture. With Capture becoming a strong Tier-1 strategy, that makes Number One more valuable. Even if you don't run into capture, Number One is a pretty sweet deal. 2-cost for 5 skills and 6-6-6 attributes is a bargain.

Bad Card: Anastasia Komananov, Russian Seductress

Why: I'm not being objective on this one. If you put "Russian Seductress" in a subtitle you have to know I'm going to hate on it. Besides my own personal issues with Eastern European women, Anastasia just seems odd to me as a card. She does bring a hologram back from the dead when you play her, that's ok. Other than that she does nothing for me. She has four oddball skills that don't go together. Her attributes (not physical ones) are average. She doesn't seem worth her 3 cost to me. Unless your taking advantage of her species or keywords, which requires other cards, she's nothing special. So remember guys, stay away from the Russian Seductress or YOU will end up in the brig. :(

Good Card, Bad Card #36

2011-03-29T17:24:00.005-04:00

For the 15th anniversary of Star Trek: The Customizable Card Game the CC released Legacy (remember when that word didn't make you sad?). A little 15 card set designed to 'give old cards new life'. I'm not sure how all that worked out, but the set itself was solid.

Good Card: Evek, Agent of Cardassian Justice

Why: This card alone took Cardassian Capture from a deck type that was kinda ok, and could win to Tier-1. I rode Evek all the way to 3rd at Worlds last year in Germany. If it wasn't for broken cards that came out 2 minutes before Worlds who knows..... but I digress. This is one of the few times that design hit the nail on the head. Evek is proper cost, has the ability to miss, and doesn't screw with any fundamental functions of the game (like screwing with dilemmas). The Cardassian affiliation should be the guidebook for design on how to boost a weaker affiliation without screwing it up (like Starfleet or Terok Nor).

Bad Card: Changeling Infiltrator

Why: One day, this could be a 'good card'. This card has the potential to be super fun and awesome. Only one problem..... how the hell am I supposed to capture anyone playing Dominion? Making a capture theme card for Dominion is like making an All-Out War-type card for TNG, it just doesn't make any sense. What am I supposed to do, drop this bucket of gooey ooze and hope I'm lucky to capture someone with a lame capture dilemma so they can morph into somebody who is probably going to suck anyway? Nah, I'll pass for right now.

Good Card, Bad Card #35

2011-03-22T23:05:00.005-04:00

So I have to credit my ass whooping last Sunday in Trek, going a pathetic 1-3 with Romulans, to turning around my poker game. Sunday night, coming home to some usual family mayhem, I had to lock myself in my room, put on some tunes, and hit some weights. Well, kinda like Forrest Gump, I figured since I started, I might as well keep going. So the next day I walked a few miles, next day more weights, next day more walking, etc. No coincidence, that after a month of treading water in poker, barely breaking even, that I finally had a breakout weekend. Three straight solid wins and feeling good again. Now I'm no fitness guy, believe me. I love my sugar, and shrimp burritos from Taco Bell. But just a little bit of exercise goes a long way mentally. Feeling good physically translates into feeling good mentally, and that gives you confidence. And that's the key in ANY card game. So I took that spirit, locked myself in The Lab and churned out some new decks. Tested them out with the Local Legend, before he went back up to Boston, and this Sunday I'll be ready to redeem myself. OK, we'll continue our journey back through time and trek sets. Today we have Allegiance.

Good Card: Conflict

Why: With all the garbage in the past to lower dilemma draws and points (RATS, Mot, Vic, etc) I'm for anything that makes more. I like this especially because it has two cost, either pitch 5 cards or lose 5 points. This means it's versatile and can be played by different affiliations. Anything that can snag 5 easy points, Borg or Romulan. Or anything that has lots of cards in hand, TNG or Ferengi. One draw back is that it can boost Tragic Turn, but most TT players boost their piles with Uninvited, so they can't have it all.

Bad Card: Reman Assault Team

Why: The 'player' in me wants to prove the 'cynic' in me wrong and make a deck to make this card work, but I doubt I could. One, it plays on a ship. For some reason, I just don't like playing events on ships. It makes me feel dirty or something. Two, it cost too much. Three, it won't help against Tragic Turn. Stopped Remans don't count as Remans. Fail. Maybe one day, a massive Romulan Reman Machine can be competitive, but that day isn't today.

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Today's Pic: A Drunk Midget's first haircut.

Good Card, Bad Card #34

2011-03-16T16:48:00.006-04:00

Just change your damn light bulbs. The new tea party cause is repealing the law passed by Congress making the new 'squiggly' light bulbs the standard. I've heard the word 'repeal' used more in the last 6 months than my entire life combined. Never can I recall a whole political body hell bent on reversing legislature from the previous term. Not in my life, maybe not in American politics ever. They use terms like "nanny-state" and that the law is "politically correctness gone crazy". Things like the government shouldn't tell people what to do. Come on people, the government tell us to do things all the time, even things that our for our own good. Every time I get a seat belt ticket I get pissed off because it's a law put in place for my own good. I do believe that government shouldn't enact laws for my own safety. Should I wear my seat belt, of course I should. But me not wearing it doesn't hurt anyone else. However, one of the functions of government is to enact laws to protect from other people. This light bulb law will cut power-plant pollution by 100 tons. The government needs to protect me from corporation that will pollute the planet just to make a couple extra bucks. So relax people, it's just light bulbs. Your liberties aren't being stolen by the big, bad, black President. Today for GCBC, we continue on trip backwards with the draft set Infinite Diversity. Draft is kinda like the light bulb law, I feel it's pushed on me every GenCon and I'm forced to play this terrible format. You guess right, I hate draft. But guess what, I like this set. This set of full of simple cards, and I like simple cards. Because after this set came Peak Performance, and we all say what happened when you try to be revolutionary in an already established card game.

Good Card: The First Duty

Why: It's surprising the percentage of time I get a random kill off this dilemma. I'd say maybe around 35-40%. It's easy to track Law, and if you toss An Issue of Trust in front of it you're more likely to get a random kill. The Art of the 1-Cost Stopper is a lost art. I'm shocked how little I see them played anymore. The old school method is playing, for example, Hard Time-stopper-stopper-Wall is still viable. If you can track skills.

Bad Card: Inhumane Interrogation

Why: Somebody jumped to conclusions when they made this card. I know, it was intended to see play in draft, not really in standard format. Even so, what a pile of monkey crap. I don't care what the format is, you can't make a dilemma cost 4 then put a escape clause in it. One event? Really? You could've at least made it two events. This card makes me want to go to my garage, turn the car on, then shut the garage door.

Good Card, Bad Card #33

2011-03-14T15:41:00.010-04:00

Happy "Dead Clown's Day" everyone! Yes, Legacy finally got the errata that was needed. I use the word "needed", not wanted. I know some people don't understand why I pushed so hard for it, but like the Borg Queen said, "You think in such three-dimensional terms." You had to think outside-the-box to see what the "Legacy Effect" was. I'm not looking for credit or anything, it wouldn't matter if I was, I wouldn't get it. I'm just glad the game is repaired now. People can go back to sitting down to build a deck without a gun to their heads. I got a text from Neil Timmons at 1:47 AM telling me of the errata and to"go on the boards and say nice things, so people forget how much you yelled". Unlike Neil, I have no desire to be loved by the community. I stand behind my actions fully. I know I made things miserable for awhile on the message boards. I know I gave the Chairman a few headaches. I'm am sorry to cause Charlie grief, but I'm afraid it was necessary. I know I'll sound pompous when I say I see this game on another level than most people. I do, but it's not because of greater intelligence or talent. It's just a matter of experience. I'm the Last Outlaw, nobody has been around longer than me ('around' means physically, you go to Worlds). I've played other CCG's. Raw Deal, Star Wars, DragonBall Z (for a minute, for my little brother), Pokemon (I think he also had this on the Nintendo Gameboy). So even if you don't like me, trust the fact that I might know a thing or two about card games. OK, I know I was supposed to go back through time each set picking out cards, but last time I was sad and forgot. I'll get to that next time, I'm eager to crap all over the draft set Infinite Diversity. But for now, we'll stick to the new set, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Assess Contamination

Why: BenHosp wouldn't shut the f*ck up about this card yesterday. Which was even more annoying because I was playing with it. He loved it more than me. He was using Favor the Bold to solve it twice. Good move since people in my meta are still favoring non-skill dilemmas heavily. Even yesterday, before the "Great Errata", Legacy wasn't scaring them off. Guess what, this mission will do a better job than pre-errata Legacy (post-errata Legacy will too, but that's a separate topic) of scaring people off non-skill dilemmas. You know how I figured out 100% that this is a "good card"? Because Len Neidorf hates it. Len, a.k.a The Local Legend, went off to school about 5 years ago and has only been playing trek sporadically in that time. His mind is like a time capsule of a Trek brain from 5 years ago. That old school thinking of how a dilemma pile "should be". Ironic, the great Legacy Crusader is in favor of hating on non-skill dilemmas.

Bad Card: Hate

Why: I love this card. Anything that might make somebody not use Navaar (Jihad #10, I swear Jihad on things I don't like. Remember when I said I would make a bad Muslim?) is a great thing. Problem is, this card has two hurdles I can't get past. One, the solved mission requirement. So unless I'm playing a fast deck with an easy early mission I won't play it. Two, what if I face a deck that doesn't create skills? Not every deck relies on gaining skills. Romulans don't. My borg assimilater rarely interlinks a skill. Cardassians don't. So while I love the effect, I can't see adding a card in my deck that I can't play early and I might not even play at all.

Good Card, Bad Card #32

2011-03-13T18:38:00.007-04:00

I have never performed worse in a tournament than I just did today. My Romulan Far Seeing Eyes decks started 0-3, including a 5 point timed loss. I got a redeeming victory against Alex and his Ferengi (Ferengi hate exobiology apparently), but that doesn't really matter. For some reason, this time, I'm not in rampage mode over a certain card. BenHosp won with OT Kirk, coming back since last playing in last year's NA Continental Championship. Imagine that, an OT Kirk winning a tournament. I actually Brainwashed Kirk against BenHosp, but his Nevaar x3 was a solid Plan B. They put a gun to your head to play with more skill-based dilemma, but never addressed the dumb cards that can create any skill on a whim. Great plan Brad. But I digress, the Peak Performance anger has subsided. It's been replaced with acceptance, that Teir-1 has been reduced to crap. I used to pride myself that I could play any affiliation and go at least 3-1 with it, no matter what. Well, in my cut-throat meta, those days are over. Quite simply, unless you play Borg or OT Kirk, you're probably going to run into some bulls*it that's going to beat you. If Worlds was tomorrow I would be 100% forced to play Borg. Quite frankly, that's just sad. This game used to be better than that. So after getting home I find out that the baby decided to put some of the cards in my deck behind the radiator (I mention earlier in the week that the baby learned how to climb on the kitchen table and my cards got attacked). My deck was missing one Telepathic Deception (the dilemma the pile is based around), one Dangerous Liason (former "good card") and one Romulan Scout Vessel (meaning I played a deck with only 2 ships). Luckily I still has 21 cards left in the pile or I wouldn't been playing an illegal deck the whole time. Today's GCBC summaries will be brief, after today I need to go pound some freeweights and pound some beers.

Good Card: Telepathic Deception

Why: The only fun I had today was when I played this on Alex and I did the Wayne's World noise where they change endings at the end of the movie. As for the card, of course this is the backbone of a FSE deck. But it might merit consideration in any standard pile. One side has telepathy and attributes, that's easy to track. The other, exobiology, which some decks struggle with. This card is an oldie, and a goodie.

Bad Card: Lursa, Romulan Conspirator

Why: Until the mission Assess Contamination came out there was never a reason to use Lursa. Her skills suck and she is ugly. Now her skills are a little useful... but she still is ugly. In my 5 point loss to Ed "Big Time" Kime I attempted that mission and Ed pulled Lursa with a Hard Time out of 12 people to stop me. Ed..... great shot, I remember when I could so stuff like that. Lursa.... you're dead to me.

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 2

2011-03-11T14:12:00.011-05:00

Kris Sonsteby is worse than Hitler. That's right, I said it. Now, for those of you who don't know. Kris will try to sue the Continuing Committee because I said that. For starters, Kris doesn't understand what the term "Libel" means. He should look that up. Two, I'm confused how the CC is responsible for anything I say. What's going on here is a bully not getting his way. And when he can't bully me, he goes after the Chairman of the CC. He threatens, with hostility and profanity, the Chairman that unless I'm banned he'll sue. Sounds like a bully to me.

How childish and pathetic of you Kris. Of course your threats are without merit. There is no case. I've cause you no damage, except to your fragile ego. But you would risk the years of hard work that CC members have put into the game, all the players who benefit from the work the CC does, all because..... John Corbett said mean things about you?

No, that's not quite it, is it Kris? What are you really mad about? I don't have to recall too far back how much you hated the CC years ago. How offended you were when you weren't asked to be a member when it was founded. This isn't 100% about the big, bad John Corbett. It's about a vendetta you've had for the CC since it was created.

What else is this about, Kris? I know you have other personal problem going on in your life. I'm not sure what those are, but you said so yourself. I know from my own experience when things are going bad in life you don't think straight. Things that are unimportant seem like life or death. Maybe you've lost perspective Kris? I hope that's the case.

So what we have here is a stressed out guy, who holds an old grudge, and is lashing out at the wrong people. Kris, the CC isn't responsible for anything I say or do. They fired me because of you. They can't ban me just because you don't like me. If your issues are with me, then deal with me alone.

You say you'll do "whatever it takes". That mean you would destroy an entire global community to save your ego and a few MN players? I know you guys would be content to stay in your bubble and play with each other. The rest of us like going to big events and playing with players throughout the world.

Things are not as they seem Kris. This isn't the grand arena. You are not the noble hero. I am not the evil villain. Because at the end of the day, I welcome you with open arms and an open heart. I love my enemies. I hold no grudges, no anger towards you. You speak of "long-held beliefs and principles that are the bedrock of what defines me at the core", but what are those Kris? Anger, hate, being a bully? Principles aren't words Kris, they're actions. If I'm your enemy Kris, then here I am. You have to open your arms and and heart and let me in.

Jesus and I love you, Kris.

Good Card, Bad Card #31

2011-03-08T23:26:00.014-05:00

We're going to do things backwards today in GCBC. Go with the bad card first, then the good one. We'll continue going back set-by-set and pick two from Peak Performance. Or as I like to call it.... "The Worst F*CKING set every made." I had something smart to write about today, but my youngest kid learned how to climb on the kitchen table and got ahold of some on my cards. So I'm a little pissed off. Luckily the casualties were light. Ironically, most of the hits were former "bad cards". A Legacy and Excaliban Drama among them. That baby sure hates bad dilemmas.

Bad Card: Superior Position

Why: Sure, Cardassians got an awesome cheater a few sets before, Central Command. But that doesn't mean throw them a clunker here. First part, save a guy from dying. Hmmm, I have about 20 other options for doing that. Second part, get a dead guy and put him on top of my deck. Hmmm, that sucks, I have to wait until my next turn to draw/play him. So that's like paying +1 for him. I just don't need it, when I play Cardassian I usually stock 3 copies of my best personnel. "Pimp Dukat".... x3, check. "Dirty Evek"......x3, check. Bottom line, the 2nd function is a crappy late-game function and the first part is hardly a good enough early-to-midgame function to make up for it.

Good Card: Unrelenting

Why: Now I'm confused. Borg already had plenty of help. Hell, they are still miles ahead of Cardassians, even with Central Command. So I don't get how they get a interrupt that is 100 times more awesome than Superior Position. I guess they thought the cost (stopping a personnel you command but do not own aboard a Borg ship) would be tough, but it's not. When I play assimilation, more than 1/2 the time I assimilate more then one personnel in a single shot. So once you have two guys you can play a string of Unrelenting and snag three guys. Oh, and I get to chose who I want! Wow! They probably just went with that because they didn't have any more text space for "randomly select". That how bad of a set Peak Performance is. What's that? Oh yeah, I forgot about the first function, a Borg Amanda Rodgers. That's a fantastic late-game function. I love playing Borg assimilation, but when a build already has the best cheater in history, Knowledge and Experience, you don't go and design them another awesome card.

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Today's Pic: 4 Quest, 4 Dead Dwarves. But finally, during Quest 5, the heroes finally learned how to work together, find the Talisman of Lore, and keep the Dwarf alive!

Good Card, Bad Card #30

2011-03-07T22:04:00.010-05:00

So I got some insight into the midwest the past few days. I've been trying to arrange a regional on a Sunday, May 15th, but it seems nobody can accommodate me. Local TD's tell me they don't want to lose some of their locals. At first I got a little annoyed. I didn't think it was a big deal. But when I thought about it, most of their "locals" only play a few times a year. In my area, a regional is just another tournament, just worth a few more ratings points. No big deal. But out there, this is the only time the weirdos and hillbillies come out of their woodsheds and iceshacks and play some Trek. I hope I can make this trip happen. But I'm not sure if a guy from Jersey has any buisness out in the middle on nowhere. For today's GCBC we play "current events" and select two from the last set, Extreme Measures.

Good Card: Quinn

Why: I've said it in the past, the only time Brad said something I agreed with 100% is when he said, "Events are made to be destroyed." When it come to blowing up events Quinn is the nuclear option. I prefer it over Desperate Sacrifice. No cost (counters), and you only need to command 2 events instead of 4. If you have a deck that can handle losing 5 points then this needs to be in it.

Bad Card: I Stand With My Shipmates

Why: I'm not a fan of cards that are useless in my hand early on. The only thing early this thing would be useful for is making Morik attributes +5. Sorry, not good enough. So the idea is that I can pop this event instead of paying 5 points on a cost, which was the theme of the last set. My issue is, most abilites that you pay 5 points for already have some alternate way of paying. Usually it's a ship, Equinox or the new Bajoran ship, the Te'nari. This is a 'late game card', and I just don't like those types of cards.

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Today's Pic: This is my buddy Isaac Timmons. He feels the same way about Legacy as I do. I knew Isaac and I would be buddies when I met him the first time and he puked on me.

Good Card, Bad Card #29

2011-03-02T16:54:00.008-05:00

Yesterday I was told by the "Ultimate Imitator" Neil Timmons that the latest GCBC sucked because I was wrong about the D'deridex Advanced (and having a BenHosp pic). That the Advanced was usless now because of the virtual Bird-of-Prey. Ironic, the TNG-era Warbird being made obsolete by the 22nd century bird-of-prey. Neil listed all his supposed reasons, some had merit, others didn't. Problem is, all his logic is based under the assumption "This is how you play Romulans". That's how he thinks, "This is how you play Klingon", "This is how you play Maquis", etc. I reject that philosophy all together. That's why I love 2E, there are multiple was to play every affiliation (well, maybe not Terok Nor). If you play Klingon, you don't have to play TT/Mara/Krudge. If you play Romulan, you don't have to play past icons/P'tols x3/bird-of-prey. Are some builds better then others? Sure, but you have plenty of other options. This rigid world of absolutes that Neil, and other top level players, live in curtails their creative ability. That's why after awhile, they usually end up with only 1, maybe 2 (if they're lucky), Tier-1 decks they can bring to a big event. And when they try think outside-the-box it usually ends up a disaster. BenHosp wanted me to make Parallel Course a "good card", but I haven't seen used effectively yet. In fact, the last time I saw it used was Neil using it in an actual original deck of his. He beat the jobbers with it, but I had no trouble. It wasn't quite a disaster, but it was light-years away from Tier-1. The true test of a player is the test of time. If you paint yourself into a corner when you decide to play an affiliation you run the risk of becoming a 'stale player'.

Good Card: I.K.S. Kla'Diyus, Prototype

Why: General Chang is my 2nd favorite villian in Trek. So you really have to screw up for me to hate something related to him. But this ship's ability is awesome. It's really fun to staff the Kla'Diyus on turn 2, then cloak it and tell your opponent "I can see you Kirk. Can you see me?" Even if you don't want to make a fun deck completely based around it, it's still a 3-cost ship. That's always good. Careful, the stats suck so don't get hit by a Gomtuu or you'll be sending a distress call to the Rotarran to pick your ass up.

Bad Card: George Primmin, Starfleet Security

Why: Oh, he's a good card gameplay-wise, I use him when I play DS9. But let me tell you why he's 'bad'. One, he's undercosted for his awseome ability. If he couldn't use his ability on himself he'd be ok a 2-cost. Two, because he can use his ability on himself this leads to confusion. I've had to explain this to casual players multible times during tournaments. To new players one of the first things you usually have to explain is that personnel aren't "present" with themselves. Then this guy comes along and I have to explain that he isn't restricted by that. Big problem with 2E rules is sometimes you have to say, "Kinda forget about that stuff when I explain this....".

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Today's Pic: From the ages of 2 to 6 kids are just "drunk midgets". They run around, break stuff, then just pass out wherever. This little bastard passed out in my chair, with my remote.

Good Card, Bad Card #28

2011-03-01T12:42:00.010-05:00

Americans don't like black people telling them what to do. I saw on the tv the other day somebody giving Michelle Obama grief for her campaign against childhood obesity. Really...... Really? I don't recall Nancy Reagan getting heat for "Just Say No." I don't recall Laura Bush catching flak for promoting literacy. A First Lady picks a cause and runs with it, that's how it works. America's fat kids are a serious problem, I don't understand how any person could make it political. Hell, when I was in school I remember The Terminator (Arnold) promoting physical fitness. You can't blame video games, you can't blame the internet, you can only blame yourself. I got three kids, luckily they inherited their mother's Skeletor-like metabolism. Even so, on a nice afternoon or during the weekend, I kicked them out of the house, make them go outside. Kids need play, it's that simple. It doesn't help that we feed out children too much crap either. Too much McDonalds, too much cheap food from the supermarket. Things full of preservative, like Ramen Noodles. Poverty plays a role in it too. America's poor are living off the dollar menu and crap food. That's all they have access too. There's no Whole Foods store near them. Even if they could get there they couldn't afford any of the whole wheat stuff. America's healthcare system is already a joke, what happens when these kids grow up to be unhealthy adults? Making insurance companies even richer, that's what.

Good Card: D'deridex Advanced

Why: Romulan engines suck, it's just a fact of live. But this 6-7-7 ship is really 8-9-9, unless you really screwed up building your deck. Only once did I find myself on this ship without an intelligence person aboard. The best part is, you get the attribute boost without any extra staffing icon. The only draw back of this ship is being forced to look at the image. When they made 2E premier they wanted to be different, so they decided to use the ass-end of of ship for an image on some of them. Some of these ships, like this one, are just terrible. I know there are only so many ways to show a Romulan ship, but still, I don't need to see the asscrack of Warbird.

Bad Card: Virtual Reality Headset

Why: First it broke the new Weyoun and ruined Worlds. Now, after the errata, it's a useless card. The Will of the Collective has failed. I never really followed it on the CC's message boards. All I know it's 0 for 2 making cards. Hopefully they don't go for the 'silver sombrero' (that's 3 strikeouts in baseball for my non-US readers) and just make a simple card next time.

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Today's Pic: BenHosp enjoying a PBR tallboy during a game of Twilight Imperium. Sadly, while he was enjoying it I snuck in and claimed the throne by 1 victory point.

Good Card, Bad Card #27

2011-02-25T21:39:00.011-05:00

We're back bloggin' after letting the cooler heads prevail. My last blog touched some nerves and things got heated. I hope everyone has taken a deep breath and put things in perspective. It's tough sometimes, people have real life trouble going on and then take the 'dork stuff' too serious. I've seen it happen in the past. We had a player, Steve Fitchett, seemingly lose his mind one day, make wild threats then quit the game. Steve and I became good friends, I helped him start a neighborhood poker game, I watched the Eagles SuperBowl at his place. Then, in a blink of an eye, he changed and became this angry little man. Steve had health problems and didn't work, he played lots of different games to fill the time. I guess when games become your life things can get confusing. Being a poker player I had to learn the ability to always keep a personal inventory of my emotions and personal problems and to make sure they weren't affecting my decision making process. If you bring your problems to the poker table you probably end up broke. The same can be said for the Trek table. One mistake can set you back in Trek. Two usually will cost you the game.

Good Card: Unexpected Difficulties

Why: This is probably the ultimate "good card". It cost 0 and should go in just about every deck. It's simple, this card can buy you an extra turn. Extra turns are what wins you games. People are shocked sometimes when I blow up "UD" when there other events on the table. Even when I'm attempted a mission clean. Then they catch a "bad beat" and I solve the mission. Well, that UD probably would've stopped me that turn, and maybe even on my next attempt. That's 2 turns I just gained on my opponent. It's tough to catch up 2 turns.

Bad Card: Gomtuu Shock Wave

Why: One set of requirements has integrity. The other side has... integrity. WTF!? I never understood that at all. This dilemma is almost as bad as 'An Issue of Trust' for the fact it absolutely nerfs certain affiliations. Terok Nor, Cardassia (pre-central command), Dominon. Hell, any non-integrity deck has issues passing it. This is the reason we see all sorts of dumb cards that add other attributes to integrity. The new resistance rifle, Korinas, etc. All this because of one terrible space dilemma that was made.

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Today's Pic: Our first game of HeroQuest. I was the evil sorcerer (of course) and Brandy and the kids were the Heroes. Connor the Barbarian killed the vile Gargoyle and found the treasure. But sadly, the dwarf didn't survive. He died bravely while the two other injured heroes were falling back. He dies with honor.

Good Card, Bad Card #26

2011-02-20T14:22:00.008-05:00

God hates Star Trek, banking, and poker. I'm just trying to figure out how the 'jesusfreaks' in the trek community balance in their minds their religion, jobs and their hobbies. Star Trek, is a show about a God-less, money-less humanist view of the future. Our concept of 'god' has no place in Roddenberry's vision. I would take that even further, suggesting our waste of time and energy in religion holds us back from ever accomplishing the things seen in Star Trek. Poker, well, that's just a game based on taking money from someone. There's no way to balance the ideals of Christianity and playing poker. That's why Islam forbids gambling, it's goes against the nature of god. Islam also forbids lending money at interest, since it's usury. I'm no Muslim, in fact I would make a terrible one. But I'm pretty sure Jesus would hate banks too. The only time you see him angry in the Bible is when he went apeshit on the money-changers in front of the temple. Like all religions, most (unless you're gay) of their ideas about how to treat each other are pretty solid. But if you're a Christian, working at a bank, playing poker and Trek in your spare time I don't understand how you can't see the conflict of interest.

Good Card: Baraka

Why: I forgot another random quote of mine when I came across this ship. When I play DS9 with Region: Bajor System space missions I usually stock this ship. I only need one range and this ship only cost two. So I'll go for the Turn 2 attempt on the Baraka yelling, "I'm on a boat! Everybody look at me." (If you've seen the SNL skit you'll laugh. If not, you'll just stare at me strangely, like most people do) There's nothing more absurd flying the Baraka with 15 personnel aboard. If that's not enough reasons for you, it has the same name as a Mortal Kombat character. What else do you want?

Bad Card: B'tanay

Why: I get it, it's does the opposite of what Bajorans normally do. Sack your whole discard pile for a ship that doesn't have the normal crap stats of a regular Bajoran ship. I don't see a reason why I want to pay 7 counters for a 9-9-9 ship. I'm Bajoran, I probably don't need more range. The extra weapons and shields aren't going to do me much good. Bajorans are all about combat, not engagements. On top of that, it's a pain in the ass to staff. Even with all the new Bajoran love in the last set, this ship still serves no purpose.

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Today's Pic: Everytime I see an iPad commercial I have to explain to whoever is in the room how Star Trek invented everything. Cell Phones, laptops, iPads, kissing black girls....

Good Card, Bad Card #25

2011-02-19T20:33:00.012-05:00

So I find myself this weekend all alone, the female taking the kids up to her parents for the weekend. I'm old now so I don't even spend the free time touching myself. Just enjoying the peace and quiet. After eating a buffalo chicken pizza and taking a solid nap I decided to make a new deck. Going through looking at some cards it made me realize some odd things I say out loud during tournaments. I like to have fun and "get my dork on". What's the point of playing this game if I can't yell out random trek quotes or just act like a weirdo. Just a few I came across:

I think we all yell "Khan!" or "Dabo!" when we play those cards. I mean, it really should be required.

When my opponent misses a Prejudice and Politics I bang the table and yell, "The military does not dictate policy on Romulus."

When I play the card You Have a Disease I just put it on the table and say "AIDS".

When my opponent names a card with Sensing a Trap I do my best Star Wars Admiral Akbar impression, "It's a trap!"

When I score 10 points from Labor Camp I point at my captives and say, "Get to work!"

Anytime I say "Spock" I have to do it in Shatner-speak.

The 'Holy Grail' of quotes and the ultimate win, which I'm still waiting to do, is to be at 100 points and my opponent to have the Phoenix in play. Then play a damage card and say, "Watch, you're future's end." Hopefully I can pull that off one day.

Good Card: Dukat, Prefect of Bajor

Why: We call this version "Pimp Dukat" in Jersey. Watch the episode, he's just smooth with the Bajoran ladies. Come to think of it, he banged Kira's mom, then tried for years to bang Kira. Actually, he's a pretty sick son of a bitch. But that's what makes him a great villain. As for the card, it's my favorite Dukat. His ability works on himself as well any Cardie present. Some personnel don't affect themselves, that's a big difference. The most success comes when your opponent just flat out forgets about the ability. You'd be surprised how much it happens. They usually think they have to stop 2 or 3 people and play dilemmas accordingly. The one unstop usually is the difference in solving the mission.

Bad Card: The Enterprise Incident

Why: This is another card I've never seen anyone use. Ever. Why? Because it's high cost and a lot of work for little reward. A leadership captive? That's it? Not a great deal for stopping two ship most likely. Plus, I'm playing Romulan, what the hell am I going to do with a captive. Play Condition Captive to take command of him? Great, now I have to stock another card in my deck to make this worthwhile. I'm all for Romulans getting some captive flavor their way. It makes trek sense, they could get down and dirty like Cardassians. Ask Geordi La Forge.

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Today's Pic: That ogre is Neil Timmons, who last Sunday at KillerBOWL XI took home the Vince Berardi Trophy and won the WCT Heavyweight Title from Darrell Minott. "The Legacy Effect" has a stranglehold on our meta. Choking creativity like Tiger Woods choking a white girl. OT Kirk can make all your hopes and dreams come true.............

Good Card, Bad Card #24

2011-02-18T14:39:00.001-05:00

My absence from the blog has been due to my return to full-time poker. I didn't want to write a "blah, blah, blah" article about all that. It seems there are tons of poker clowns out there who write blogs. Makes sense, playing poker is actually a lonely business. You're surrounded by people all the time but you're really isolated in your own thoughts. I'll spare you the mundane, bullsh*t experiences of a poker life. But I did come across this the other day in an Internet search. It was an interview with Tony Gammell many years ago:

I remember a great article written by John Corbett which compared Poker to Star Trek CCG. He said that when you face an average player, just play a basic ABC game and your skill will take you through. But when you play a world-class opponent, you have to use tricks that you would not normally have to use in order to beat the player.

I still look back at this game as one that totally changed me as a player. I had to concentrate so hard for the entire hour, I was forced in to playing smarter and wiser, and I looked at the game from a new perspective. Games like this, where you become a better player than what you were before, are one of the best reasons for players of any level to attend such a large event.

So I guess I can dish out a nugget of wisdom every now and then. So if I come across a worthy poker lesson that applies to Trek I will still share it with you all. But enough with all that, let's get back to finding good cards and bad cards.

Good Card: Just Following Orders

Why: When a new set come out I like to throw a new oddball dilemma in my pile. Usually it doesn't work and I curse myself for trying new things. This sneaky little dilemma helped me out big time when I blew an event up with it (today's 'bad card'). I like dilemmas that destroy events. Especially if you have a deck that's light of event destruction. Just Following Orders has the "can't gain skills" ability, which is good. One side of the requirements has intelligence, easy to track. The other side: geology, honor and navigation. Those are three skills that usually don't go together.

Bad Card: Captain on the Bridge

Why: This falls in the category of "the card isn't bad, it's what you can do with it". Even now, since it's been made unique, it still annoys me. Two problems: OT Kirk and playing Krudge to the Federation Qel'Poh. Both are lame and bad for the game. While the "Legacy Effect" is in place in 2E OT Kirk is going to be everywhere, which means this event is going to be everywhere.

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Today's Pic: The dirty girl on the left is the actress who play Isabella on a TNG episode. I forget her name. Looks like she's turned into a bad girl.......

Good Card, Bad Card #23

2011-02-10T22:38:00.006-05:00

Now when I'm sick, I'm a bitchy whiny little girl. I don't handle it well. I don't like it at all. Now the baby is sick, and he doesn't like it more than me. Having kids isn't hard most of the time (that's what the female is for :)). Having a sick kid makes you reconsider having a vasectomy. If the children's tylenol doesn't put him to sleep I'll have to call the family doctor.... Jack Daniels.

Good Card: B'amara

Why: 5 skills on a non-unique, sign me up! Some say Kahmis is the best Klingon non-unique. Well, that's easy when you have all the skills on one mission. Seriously, that was lame whoever allowed that to happen. Getting back to my girl B'amara, she doesn't even come up short on attributes. 6-5-6 straight up, solid stuff. Her and an anthropology and your off solving Investigate Alien Probe. If that anthropology is Kahless you only need 2 more bozo klingons. Klingons dominated early in the life of 2E. It was because they had the best non-uniques. Then Klingon Riker just made them silly. Just a reason after that lots of non-skill dilemmas started being made....

Bad Card: Keldon

Why: Somebody tell me why Cardassians had 3 different non-unique ships in Premier? A bit overkill, no? So I have the nice, simple 5-cost Galor. Ok, I like that. Then 6 cost Keldon Advanced, that's pretty awesome if I have a intelligence personnel aboard. Ok, I like that too. So tell me why I would want to pay the same amount for a ship with worse attributes and a extra staff icon? I don't want to, that's why I've never used. I realized that when I played it in a draft event. Then I was sad when my non-aligned holograms couldn't staff it.

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Today's Pic: So I've finally stumbled into e-Bay, where I can buy all sorts of crap I used to have as a kid. Good thing about having a 5 year old son, you can use him as an excuse to buy dork toys. Here's him playing with some Star Trek micro machine ships I acquired.

Good Card, Bad Card #22

2011-02-08T16:14:00.011-05:00

A long weekend of Twilight Imperium, BenHosp, a dirty LARP, puking at Neil's house, SuperBowl, Neil puking on the side of the road, speeding tickets and swine flu kept us away for awhile, but we're back in action. Now I'm sitting here, cutting the new set of Extreme Measures painfully slow, one page at a time. Looking at my speeding ticket, cursing the state of Maryland. That state is just one giant speed trap. So I'm going to relax, eat some bacon, and talk about cards. You never saw an angry man eating bacon.

Good Card: Dangerous Liaisons

Why: Not too many premiere dilemmas stand the test of time. This old school all-star doesn't get the respect, or play, it deserves. The cost is perfect, and the requirements aren't easy. It's a "player's card", it requires you to track skills. The only drawback is if you face a deck with tons of treachery (Cardassian or Dominion), but no dilemma is perfect. In a nutshell, this dilemma is everything a good wall dilemma is supposed to be.

Bad Card: Event Horizon

Why: That's the question I asked when I saw this card, why? Give up with the persistent keyword already. Enough. Don't get me wrong, I like the persistent dilemmas. They just don't need the keyword. This was somebody's dumb idea when Decipher was in it's death throes and it should've been buried there. This card sucks more than the movie Event Horizon.

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Today's Pic: I'm not sure of anyone else who still has a old Decipher DGMA tablecloth. We still use ours. I "stole" one at Origins one year. By "stole" I mean I told a Decipher employee I was taking it and they really didn't give a shit.

Good Card, Bad Card #21

2011-02-03T11:23:00.009-05:00

Today's interesting combo of Good Card, Bad Card comes from Dan Van Kampen, a.k.a. Iron_Prime. He asked me my thoughts on the missions that give you a discount on manuevers and assault events after you complete them. Then I realized I play one, but never the other.

Good Card: Advanced Battle Simulation

Why: Who's the best affiliation for this mission? Surprise, it's TOS. One of the few times I was clever in Trek was my TOS Battle deck, "Wrath of the Constitution". When looking for missions for TOS personnel this fit like a glove. Leadership x2? No problem, non-unique Evans. For the other skills you can go either way, 1-cost Josephs has navigation + security and 1-cost Angela Martine has engineer + programming. It's my philosophy that for a good deck your non-uniques should provide all your mission skills. Plus, Cunning > 33 for 35 points is always a great deal.

Bad Card: Advanced Combat Training

Why: Skills. Sure, leadership, security and officer are usually found together on personnel. But the oddball medical thrown in there makes things tricky. At the moment the only affiliation I could see using this mission is Klingon, and they aren't too keen on doctors. Plus, they have plenty of easier planet missions to pick from. Maybe the new Bajoran Resistance personnel coming out tomorrow could use some combat training? I hope so, it makes me sad when a mission never sees any play.

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Today's Pic: This little red-headed vixen is Scarlett Pomers. You might remember her years ago as Naomi Wildman on Voyager. Looks like she's grown up.........

Good Card, Bad Card #20

2011-02-01T22:20:00.012-05:00

We're back after a bit of a delay. Somebody in the trekcc.org chat room found me a website that lets you download the game Birth of the Federation for free. I lost my CD of that game years ago. That game is like crack cocaine for me. I start playing and then 5-6 hours just disappears. I used to play that game so much I would fall asleep then have dreams about it. It's like that TNG episode with the Ktarians, "The Game" (I think), you just can't stop playing it. It's not the greatest game ever, just really addictive. Now let's play a game called "Good Ship, Bad Ship".....

Good Card: U.S.S. Centaur, Patrolling Warship

Why: DS9 has two type of personnel: cheap one coster weenies and expensive 4-costers. When I play Ds9 I like to 'jobber drop' (lots of weenies). The problem with that is their attributes are garbage. This ship let's you get away with that a little bit. Plus Ds9 needed a regular ship. They had nothing but runabouts and 7-cost Defiants. Sorry, I don't count the Akira from Premiere, it's overcosted and requires too many staffers. If I need a 10 weapons ship I'll just play the Defiant. This ship combines with a previous 'good card' Anneli to make her attributes 7-7-7, now that's a great deal for a 1-cost personnel.

Bad Card: Tama

Why: When I want a Non-Aligned ship there are two options. #1, I want a low cost, two star staff ship, like Flaxian Scout Ship. #2, I want a 7-cost ship that does something crazy, like Kyana's Hope. I don't want a 7-cost ship, with 4 staffing icons with a lame ability. Am I really supposed to park a ship with 4 guys at your mission just to make you discard one card? Sure, it would be awesome to catch somebody napping and then lock them out of beaming down to their last planet mission during a game. But that's never going to happen. I loved the ship in 1E, but the 2E version is no good.

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Today's Pic: I figured with all the Legacy drama going on it was time to begin my own Legacy. The dilemma is so easy to play I just told her, "If you draw it and have 4 points play it." She only played one game of Trek before, weeks before. So she lost 3 games, but managed to stop Daddy twice with Legacy. Sad thing is, if I played her deck, I would've went at least 2-2. On another note, kids like scoring points, even when they lose. Another reason we should have differential.

Good Card, Bad Card #19

2011-01-28T13:14:00.008-05:00

Let it snow, let it snow. I'm no scientist, but when every summer is the "hottest ever" and every winter has the "largest snowfall amounts ever" something might be contributing to that. 20,000 since the last Ice Age, maybe that's where we're headed as a planet. I'm no 'doomsday prophet', but you have to think something our species has done in the last 150 years will bite us in the ass. 20 years ago when you saw pictures of India and China they were walking and riding bikes. Well, they all have cars now. A billion more cars.... that can't be good.

Good Card: Vault of Tomorrow

Why: This is the best card most people don't use right now. I rarely see anyone else play it. Do you know what I download the most with it? Timescape. Having, basically, a 3rd timescape (I play two 95% of the time) is awesome. 'Double/Triple crewing' as I call it, is starting to come back around. Now that having non-skill dilemmas is crucial, some players cut cards like timescape. Since players attempt space first dilemma piles have shifted toward lower amounts of planet dilemmas overall. So I find it better to have a utility dilemma like Vault. Grab a dual stopper like Back Room Dealings. Or if I'm desperate go for the ultimate cheese Excaliban Drama. Grabbing Secret ID to get rid of a pesky Kirk or Archer never hurts either.

Bad Card: Gorgan

Why: I get so sad when I run into a Gorgan/Tactical Disadvantage dilemma pile. It's not unbeatable or anything, it just seems like no fun to play. The concept of being able to stop your opponent completely based on cards in your hand never sat well with me. It took the playing ability/skill tracking out of the game. I'm not very good at skill tracking, I should be all about these cards. But I believe the foundation of the game is dilemmas, and you should stop your opponent by knowing what he has out and what potential cheaters he can use. Not just stocking cards in your hands. This dilemma, plus Tactical, is why I've always stocked one copy of The Dreamer and the Dream for the past 3 years.

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Today's Pic: A 3-player, snowed-in, Twilight Imperium game. When your 8 year old takes Metacol Rex from you what do you do? You take it back! Then crush her army to teach her a lesson!!!!

Good Card, Bad Card #18

2011-01-25T13:01:00.010-05:00

Trilithium Heist didn't get the 100% support that the new Opaka did, but it was still rated highly positive in the poll. Extreme Measures was looking like an all-star set so far, then Charlie sends me "Isabella". One question, has anyone ever used the persistent keyword ability? Put the dilemma back after you opponent solves the mission? No, the answer is nobody ever has. I've never seen it. Ever. So Isabella will never see the light of day. She'll be stuck in your binder, behind today's 'bad card'. Unless they make some pretty potent persistent dilemmas in the future this card is useless. Personally, I would've thrown in 'cannot gain skills' on the card too. Most persistent dilemmas are 1-cost stoppers and the only good walls require one skill x3. It needs to stop personnel from gaining skills from cheaters as well as abilities. Bottom line, I think keywords are overrated and don't need to be a big part of the game. We certainly didn't need this terrible keyword added by Decipher in the last set they made. Our two card suggestions today come from Nathan Miracle, a.k.a GooeyChewie. If you want to make a suggestion all you have to do is troll the chat room on trekcc.org from time to time and find me.

Good Card: Distant Exploration

Why: I always liked this card. The only time I really played it was in a Borg deck. Download all three with You've Always Been My Favorite and go for the 2 mission win. It's cheap, only 2 counters. So the cost/reward ratio is fantastic. With Extreme Measure all about gaining 5 and spending 5 I think this card will see more play in the future. They should have made more incentive for DS9 decks to do gamma quadrant missions. Their flavor as an affiliation never really had a focus early on. Now it's about being able to protect your events, which is fine. Holding Cell kinda steals their fun a little bit. It's such a strong card you have to use it when playing DS9. After Peak Performance, I don't like being forced to play cards. It's starting to annoy me.

Bad Card: Greed

Why: If I'm lucky, what's the highest number of dilemmas I might get in my opponent core? 2 or 3. 4 if my dilemma pile is super focused on doing that. This won't happen until late game anyways. So here's a drawing card that doesn't let me draw cards until mid or late game. Why the hell would I want that? On top of that terrible scenario, I have to pay a cost. Discard a card to to it, really? I think by now you should let me get those draws for free. What if by late game my guy with Treachery x2 is dead? Then I would want to kill myself. I guess the thought was the 0-cost made it playable. It didn't. They should've drop it to a Treachery personnel, and drop the cost. Even then I wouldn't play it. You would have to make 2 draws for ever dilemma. Even then.......

Good Card, Bad Card #17

2011-01-24T16:43:00.011-05:00

Our good Chairman made a post asking the public how to make the Dominion affiliation more competitive. So I took up the challenge and played it in our last league event. I thought I could bring back the old school flavor of the 'Dominion Drawing Machine'. Which consist of Keevan, Hollow Pleasantries, and crapload of Vorta and Jem'Hadar. I added the new Luaran, her free 5 draws when I command a staffed Dominion Battleship was nice. Problem is they can't past any dilemmas, especially space dilemmas. An Issue of Trust (previous 'Bad Card') makes them unplayable as an affiliation. That dilemma might be the 'worst bad card' ever, maybe even more than the one I'm going to rant about....in detail.

Good Card: Keevan, Conniving Liar

Why: If you asked my ex wife she would tell you I have the same subtitle, but I digress..... When I play Dominion I don't play infiltration decks. They're fun, but they're just too slow. I like the Vorta. I liked them in the show, I like them in the game. Sneaky, dirty little bastards. Maybe it takes a guy from Jersey to appreciate them fully. Keevan makes dominion go fast, and I like to go fast. Add in Hollow Pleasantries to make my Vorta cheap or free and I'm loving it. Now if only we can find a way for them to get past dilemmas......

Bad Card: Legacy

Why: Yeah, it was only a matter of time before I got around to this one. Since Peak Performance came out and I was ranting and raving to the Committee I was met with the reply, "Wait and see, wait and see. Give it time." I have, and my verdict is still "Bad Card." The idea behind Legacy is fine. In fact, I support it. That is, to make people play more skill-based dilemma. To get them off the mindless dilemmas any brainless zombie could play. Dilemmas like Gorgan, Tactical Disadvantage, Excaliban Drama, Chula: The Chandra, Hard Time, etc. To do this you need a scalpel, instead they used a butcher's cleaver, and that is Legacy. The problem is, the game has evolved, with help from virtual sets, so that 60% or more (rough guess) of dilemmas don't require a printed skill (far less of a percentage for virtual dilemmas). This might look like a bashing of the virtual cards, it's not, it's a bashing of their complete 180 turn on the game. They pumped out lots of non-skill dilemmas then made them unplayable (With Legacy and Archer). There was no long-term thinking of the impact of Peak Performance. If it was my last set I guess I wouldn't be thinking long term either. Brad made some mistakes in Peak Performance, and when people questioned his logic he decided to simply quit, take his ball and go home. As players we weren't even good enough for an explanation of his logic and maybe admission of any mistakes. True ego is thinking you are above reproach and nobody should question your decisions.

I'm sorry, I didn't set off writing my Legacy rant with Brad in mind. It's just where it lead me and it seemed right. I know Brad a little, met him a few times, played against him in 1E, respect him as a person and designer. However, nobody is perfect and just because you're the lead designer doesn't mean you can't make some mistakes.

The game wasn't ready for Legacy. There are certain cards dilemma piles need depending on your meta. Cards like Timescape (I always play 2), Skeleton Crew (You're now forced to play Transport Crash Survivors), The Dreamer and the Dream (It's the best counter to destroying interrupts really), Moral Choice/Shocking Betrayal (The only true Fed hate), Necessary Execution and The Captain's "Guests" (Best anti-Borg card, cadets too).

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

This best sums up Legacy. Let's hope somebody has the sense to save us from ourselves.

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Today's Pic: The kids playing with the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Ironman is at the helm since we don't have a Chekov or Sulu. At least the new toys don't disappoint the kids like the new movie disappointed their father.....

Good Card, Bad Card #16

2011-01-21T08:52:00.011-05:00

You know what the worst part about being in jail for 37 days was? No, not the food. No, not taking a punch from a young Spanish kid trying to be tough in a crowded elevator. It was CSI:Miami. 2 hours of that crap show ever single day. I can handle of lot of things, but subjecting me to that was cruel and unusual punishment. In honor of torture.....

Good Card: Cardassian Processing

Why: Out of all the 'HQ specific' dilemmas this is the only good one. I play the borg one sometimes, but only in a Tragic Turn pile when it's usually the last card. My main beef with the 'HQ dilemmas' is that they're too easy, and when your opponent doesn't have the requirements they usually can't solve the mission anyway. So what good is another random stop? The Cardassian one has easily trackable skills. Law on one side, Honor/Transporters on the other. There are not too many cheap dilemma that can net you an extra captive (which can be really helpful), most cost 4 or more. For a bonus, it's a great anti-Borg card, since the Borg aren't too keen on Law and Honor. The fed dilemma cost too much and way too easy. Bajoran one too easy and not enough reward to use it. The Klingon one has a nice reward, but too easy. The Romulan one has tough skills (Telepathy & Intel), but the reward falls short. And the Maquis, Ds9, and Voyager ones are just big piles of monkey crap.

Bad Card: Bat'leth

Why: It falls into the "Man, I'm tired of seeing this card" category. I've used the actual text on Bet'leth once, and the card was in the 1st 2E expansion! I've said before, I absolutley despise 0-cost equipment, so you can imagine how I feel about Trellium-D (I actually think I hate it more). I know 2E wasn't going to be as rigid as 1E as for 'trek sense', but arms dealers paying for Bat'leths at Kressari Rendezvous for the past 8 years has been retarded. If I could hop in the Trek Time Machine I would go back and add, "To play this equipment you must command Qo'nos,", or "You must command a Klingon" at least.

_________________________________

Today's Pic: Darrell "Diesel" Minott, at the 2008 Romulus Regional. Darrell just regained the WCT Heavyweight Title on 1/9/11 after the 2 year drought.

Good Card, Bad Card #15

2011-01-20T10:37:00.013-05:00

Since Johannes Klarhauser, a.k.a Kaiser, told me my pictures sucked and I need better quality here's a better picture of "the shelf". Top right corner, bottle of '02 Dom Perignon. To be opened when I win Worlds or next Phillies Worlds Series victory, whatever comes first. What kind of German chooses "Kaiser" as handle anyways? After a guy who loses a war and ruins his country. That's like me having the handle "Bush" or "Nixon". What wrong Johannes, somebody already had the handle "Fuhrer"? :)

Good Card: Moral Choice

Why: Problem, TNG is really strong winning multible Worlds. This was a good choice to slow them down. It was a little heavy-handed, but it needed to be done. What I don't like about it is that it hurt decks that weren't nearly as strong, like Maquis, DS9, and Voyager. But 'playing blue', as I call it, is what most players fall back on in big events. I was guilty of this one year, and I got what I deserved, getting knocked out in the quarter-finals. We needed something to get people playing other affiliations, and this got the job done.

Bad Card: Hall of Warriors

Why: If you don't want to help an affiliation that is already good then don't make them a card at all. Klingon ships don't need a weapons or shields boost. The only thing they need help with is their crappy range. So the attributes +1 is really meaningless. Where you really lose me is the cost of the card. 3 is way too much. The risk/reward is too much for an easily destroyable event. If this card cost zero, like Noble Cause (one of the few 'good cards' from Fractured Time), I would consider it. But right now the most useful thing it does is serve as 'cannon fodder' when I glue V-cards to it.

Good Card, Bad Card #14

2011-01-19T02:24:00.005-05:00

So I ask Charlie for another spoiler and he sends the "crime" card..... to the guy who spent 37 days in the country jail. The guy invites me on his podcast show and this is how he repays me? Thanks friend. I'm just joking, I don't think Charlie saw the connection, nor would I even be offended if he did. Russian girls, getting kicked out of Origins, I think I deserve my own Trek crime card.

Here we have Trilithium Heist. Technically, this dilemma is two sentences so I should be happy. But it's wordy, any dilemma with a theme is going to be. I'm going to give it a pass since it's trying to get crime cards back into the game. I'm happy about that. Problem is, all the good Thief decks are Non-Aligned and there's that NA super-hating dilemma out there (The Seen and the Unseen). So you have to be careful when deciding to pull the trigger with a thief deck. I doubt this spoiler will be as popular as Opaka was (everyone voted 'Good Card'), but for a theme card I think it's solid. Now to some cards that are solid, and not so solid.....

Good Card: Polywater Intoxication

Why: I love stuff that doesn't go under. That always catches my eye. Also, it's micro-team hate. That always puts a smile on my face. There's nothing better then when your opponent gets cute early in the game and tries a 6 person attempt, then you hit them with Hard Time & Polywater. The downside now is, those types of piles were seriously hurt by Archer and Legacy. Sure, we want people playing more skill-based dilemma, I'm all for that. But in the short term, you help micro-teaming and "jobber drop" (playing a deck with tons of weenies and attempting missions multiple times in a turn). Timescape doesn't require a skill, and that is a very, very important dilemma in 2E. And if none of those reason were enough to be a "good card", how about the picture? Even an android is ready to take care of that.

Bad Card: All-Consuming Evil

Why: There was one thing in ST:CCG that absolutely didn't need any help. That thing was Tragic Turn. I don't know how that went unnoticed during design and playtesting, but it did. Tragic Turn came out so long ago I can't remember the year. Yet, it still wins today (literally, like 4 days ago at US Nationals-West). Not only does it win, it dominates the field if people aren't prepared for it. Last year, at Continentals and Worlds, on Day 2 my first round opponents played Ohhh! Nothing Happened. Both saying, "I thought you were going to play Tragic Turn." Sorry guys, I played that Day 1, when you weren't thinking about it. Then I proceeded to beat them with Borg and Cardassian, both with pretty standard dilemma piles. So we all know what Tragic Turn can do, at least anybody who has a clue. The point of this is that we must be careful in the future not to design ANY cards that help Tragic Turn as much as All-Consuming Evil. Not even half as much.

Good Card, Bad Card #13

2011-01-18T04:01:00.008-05:00

Lucky #13. Speaking of "getting lucky" (no, not that kind of lucky), let's talk about random selection dilemmas. These dilemmas you have to successfully hit the random selection for it to work. When it works it's great. When it doesn't, you usually wasted some precious counters and your opponent usually solves the mission. I call them "crapshoot" dilemmas, and I personally hate to use them. But there's some I throw in from time to time.

Good Card: Racial Tensions

Why: This is probably the most popular of the "crapshoot" dilemmas, and with good reason. The cost/reward ratio is excellent. 0-cost for 2 stops is solid. More important, it's chances of hitting are usually pretty good. Unless your opponent is playing Klingon or Borg you usually have a decent shot at hitting it. I should hate this card, it did cost me a Worlds Championship. But even I can't hate on a card that hit when I had 6 humans out of 8 personnel and it still found a way to beat me.

Bad Card: Arena

Why: Cost/Reward is horrible. 3-cost to get rid of one person? Bad Deal. That's like getting a mortgage from Bank of America. On top of that, it's chances of hitting aren't spectacular. Attributes > 18 is a coin flip straight up. If your opponent has any kind of attribute boost cheater and it's not going to work. Now I understand all dilemmas can't be gamebreakers, and trust me, I don't want them to be. I just want to be able to find a reason to stock any dilemma if I want to. You just can't do that with Arena.

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Today's Pic: "The Shelf", my hall of shame, items I've acquired during my Trek career. The WCT Founders Cup, numerous "not winner" trophies from Worlds, Trek books, OTSD boxes, Random Jobber hat, bottles of Schloss Picard, and a Enterprise that makes noise my son Connor likes to play with.

Good Card, Bad Card #12

2011-01-15T04:54:00.013-05:00

Rhetoric: the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.

The recent events in Arizona made me examine this word. Then it made me examine myself. I didn't like what I saw. I, along with others, in the trek community have been guilty of using this tool. Now of course there's a big difference between a nutjob with a gun and a bunch of dorks yelling each other through a message board. But the underlying negativity is there, much like in America these days. We, as Trek players (trust me, I include myself in this), need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We're fans of a universe based on Humanist ideals. Which means we are, as humans, responsible for all the good and bad out there. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. Whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, as a Trek player you accept the fact that we can always better ourselves. In the words of the great philosopher Jerry Springer, "Take care of yourselves, and each other."

Good Card: Rule of Acquisition #33

Why: We need more cards that make you say something for a cost. It's campy, it's corny, but it's fun. We're all dorks here, why bother hiding it. I think Khan! should make you yell "KHAN!!!!". Means of Control should make you ask your opponent "How many lights do you see?". It brings a little of the 1E flavor back into the game, without all the terribly, terribly worded cards. Plus it's a solid cheater for Ferengi without being overpowered.

Bad Card: An Issue of Trust

Why: When you have affiliations based on honor (Bajoran/Klingon) and ones based on treachery (Cardassian/Dominion) you shouldn't make a card that nerfs them. Hell, Cardies already got smoked by Gomtuu Shockwave, you didn't need to add a filter that absolutely murders them. This dilemma hurt affiliations that were already considered the "weaker" ones. So then you have to overcompensate by making personnel like Neral and Klag. Interrupts like Central Command. All this to fix one bad dilemma.

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Today's Pic: "The Lab"- Where my deckbuilding and 'dark matches' (Got your Jersey dictionary?) at home take place. "The Lab" is trademarked by KillerB Enterprises, I've seen the term used by impostors. It's all good, imitation is the sincerest form.....

Good Card, Bad Card #11

2011-01-12T23:57:00.012-05:00

The Chairman, Mr. Charlie Plaine, was nice enough to send me a spoiler to show to you all. The next set is all about scoring 5, losing 5. I'm not sure how I feel about the new mechanic of quick 5 points. I think At What Cost? is going to be a hot card again. On the bright side, maybe you'll see people rocking Khan! more now. As for the new Opaka, I don't see anything wrong with her. She's sacrificing her normal super-high integrity for that 5 points and ability. That's a fair trade. I don't think you'll see her as a future "Bad Card".

As for our 'Good Card, Bad Card' in issue #11, they are nominated today by Josh Sheets, a.k.a. prylardurden. I ask for some nominations in the trekcc.org chat room and these were his two suggestions.

Good Card: Biogenic Weapon

Why: I had to think about this one. I never thought of this card as good for the game before. But now, since there is more event destruction, it's a good card to keep people honest. Josh said it makes people play missions they can actually do. This is true, and makes it a 'good card'. If you stock Historical Research, you better be able to solve it if you need to. It also makes people think twice before they play a deck with 3 space and 1 planet, or 3 planet and 1 space.

Bad Card: Korath, Duplicitous Tinkerer

Why: Josh didn't have to sell me on this one. I've hated Korath for a long time. He gives Klingons an advantage that no other affiliation has. He was the Steel Curtain defense for Neil Timmons' (Ben Hosp's) World winning Krudge/Mara/Tragic Turn monster deck. Emergency Transporter Unit is his best friend, you can play it multiple times if someone gets selected to be killed. He can be downloaded with Guidance of the Council. He has a future icon, so he can be used with Hindrance. He does more for 4 cost then even Kirk, Living Legend.

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 1

2011-01-11T19:34:00.002-05:00

When I posted this on the "Good Card, Bad Card" thread on trekcc.org it reminded me of the old Ruling New Jersey articles. So I figured, what the hell, let's give it another go. 6 1/2 years later, divorced, 37 days in jail, back with my original 'baby momma', two more kids, a house, a dog. I would hope I have a new perspective on things now. But I'm sure I'm still pretty much full of crap. Here's what I posted:

I was wandering the internet like a hobo and I came across this article: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/A ... aily/mr11b

It list 3 different types of players. It reminded me of this article I wrote 6 1/2 years ago: http://rulingnewjersey.blogspot.com/200 ... sue-4.html

True, there's a lot of crap in most of those articles, but that was one of the good ones. Jesus, that was a long time ago..... so old....... Btw, the female in that pic is now called "She Who Shall Not Be Named".

The point of the articles were kinda the same, players play for different reasons. Got me thinking on what types of players are left in Trek.

The "ultra competitive" players (like myself back then) are pretty much extinct. There are no more big prizes, so you don't get the pure gamer who just wanted to win anything. They are the type that played any deck. They begged, borrowed, stole ideas until they made up the best possible deck and won. I think this is why you don't see anybody that wins Worlds stick around. Once they accomplished that goal there was no reason to continue. I'm kinda the last of the Mohicans now, and I'm not quite sure why I stuck around. Sure, I never won the big one, but other guy just gave up when they failed. Trust me, winning Worlds would be great, but at this point it wouldn't change anything. After all these years playing, I don't think I'd just walk off into the sunset like most Worlds winners do. I would probably just make a post that said "Suck it Clowns!" and then go lose a game to Len on my kitchen table.

I think most players now are the type that just want to make a deck they came up with and it to work once or twice in a 4 round tournament.

The others fall into my category, they want to win with what they make. Deckbuilding is just as an important part of it as playing. 3 out of 4 is acceptable, but they want to win the tournament.

Then every now and then, before worlds, groups of a few guys get together, put their minds into the combinations of cards that beat the game. They usually succeed and then you get your Worlds winner.

Good Card, Bad Card #10

2011-01-11T19:31:00.005-05:00

Good Card: Repressed Message

Why: It's a fun card. It leads to things interesting things. Last time I played it I stopped a Borg player with his own An Issue of Trust. This game is better when cool stuff happens.

Bad Card: This Side of Paradise

Why: It doesn't do what it's suppossed to do. Last time I played against Tragic Turn I had this event in my core. I attempted with 10, 9 didn't survive. Why? Because all the good dilemmas that go with TT stops the personnel then kills them. Whoops. So unless they change this event to include stopped personnel as well, this event is as worthless as a Glenn Beck opinion.

Good Card, Bad Card #9

2011-01-11T19:28:00.003-05:00

Good Card: Anneli

Why: I love my non-uniques. The "backbone" personnel are the key to a successful affiliation, an idea that's getting lost these days. Anneli is my favorite Bajoran. 1 Cost for 6-6-6 basically. Can't beat that.

Bad Card: Borg Queen's Vessel, Borg Flagship

Why: The only nice thing I can say is that the ship looks cool. If you're going to put a 4 sentence ability on a ship at least make it good. Nobody has ever used this ship let alone it's dumb order. Speaking of which, has anybody ever used the persistant keyword on a dilemma? I never have or seen it used. Worst keyword.....ever.

Good Card, Bad Card #8

2011-01-11T19:26:00.002-05:00

Good Card: Show Trial

Why: I realized something during 2010, all the best dilemmas are 2 sentences. Dilemmas that take up the whole card with a paragraph annoy me almost as a set with every personnel with 3 lines of text. But they got this one right. 2 cost, stops a guy and then a little bonus if your opponent is winning. It's not dummy proof, if your opponent doesn't have a leadership or medical you could whiff. So you have to think a little.

Bad Card: Trellium-D

Why: Man, when they plotted that damaged Enterprise crew they tried to give them everything. A guy who blanks non-skill dilemmas, and a bodyguard for him. D'Vela + Tricorder to get past any skill dilemma. A guy who stops battle. A guy who stops kill dilemmas. A broken interrupt that plays from the next room. Then to top that off a 0-cost equipment to feed Grav-Trap. And it help you draw cards! Wow! I though they learned from Klingon TT/Mara/Koroth that you can't give a deck monster offense and defense, but I guess not. They have slowed the Archer deck down a little, but Trellium-D is available to every race, by throwing in a crappy mission as your 4th. I absolutly despise 0-cost eqiupment. Bat'leths make Kressari stupid, but at least you can't blow them up with Grav-Trap. By the way, it looks like crack pipe.

Good Card, Bad Card #7

2011-01-11T19:25:00.003-05:00

Good Card: M'Pella, Seductive Employee

Why: I just like her. She has a neat ability. She let's you play Dabo!. And if you don't like playing Dabo! then you just hate fun.

Bad Card: Survey New World

Why: Let me count all the times I've played SNW and all the times I've played against it...... over 1,000. Seriously. That's terrible. 29 strength for 35 points!? Wow. I guess they though the losing a guy if you fail was going to counterbalance the ridiculous easiness of the mission. They were way wrong. Hell, all your guys gets stopped and who cares. In hindsight, they should've made it so you lose two people if you fail.

Good Card, Bad Card #6

2011-01-11T19:23:00.002-05:00

Good Card: A Few Minor Difficulties

Why: Problem, Dominion Defiant and other 'bad ships'. This solution was ok, but I would've made it stronger. The last sentence shouldn't even be on there. In fact, it should return to hand when destroyed. Hello, Korath? Got him and it's a breeze blowing up. It's still a ok card, but I don't know why they got scared at the end.

Bad Card: Lwaxana Troi, Extravagant Ambassador

Why: She's not bad herself, it's who she helps. TNG was already being played too much at Worlds. Then Lwaxanna + These are the Voyages made these decks super-fast. All the guys who won Worlds with Worf, Brunt-sniping, (you know who you are) should thank the short sighted person who came up with Lwaxana.

Good Card, Bad Card #5

2011-01-11T19:16:00.002-05:00

Good Card: Exocomp

Why: It's a good meta card. If you suspect somebody is bringing battle you can toss a couple of these bad boys in. It also gives a little help, but they still get rocked by kills from battle. You can't rock Exo's and ETU's, not unless you don't want any personnel. Funny, instead of giving a personnel with the new Malcom Reed ability they should've given it to a personnel. Just a thought.....

Bad Card: Uninvited

Why: They didn't consider some things when making this card. One, it needed some sort of cost. Two, the 0-cost Excaliban Drama. The ability to download a bad dilemma with a bad interrupt makes me a sad clown. Also, you can give Tragic Turn a boost by downloading Entaglement and getting +3 to spend. Basically, it cost nothing to do something awesome.

Good Card, Bad Card #4

2011-01-11T19:15:00.004-05:00

Good Card: Pitching In

Why: I'm all for any weenie hate. 4 cost for 2 stops is fair, even if you have to pay retail for this dilemma. It does require some skill-tracking to play. If you play it and your opponent doesn't have any of those skills you miss a stop. That usually leads to a solved mission. So it does require some skill to play.

Bad Card: James T. Kirk, Original Thinker

Why: I think we all know why. ? Really? That doesn't even make sense. He was worded so poorly when he came out, all the headaches they must've caused poor Mr. Keller..... Hopefully, the errata on Captain on the Bridge will slow him down. I had him in my Android deck a couple weeks ago. That's just stupid.

Good Card, Bad Card #3

2011-01-11T19:13:00.003-05:00

Good Card: Necessary Execution

Why: Problem, everyone does planet first. This dilemma was a great solution. It's has a proper cost. It's simple, I love a dilemma with 2 sentences. I'm not a fan of dilemmas that take up the entire card.

Bad Card: Excalbian Drama

Why: I don't hate the space version of this card actually, at least that one is cunning. A 0-cost auto-stop (if you have enough cards in hand) is way to strong. Kris Sonsteby, aka LORE, and I agree (which is rare) on one thing in the trek universe, we don't like cards that require no talent (skill tracking, cost tracking, etc.) to play. Cards like Gorgan, Tactical Disadvantage, etc. Also, this card murders Cardassians, and other affiliations that have low integrity personnel (Dominion, Maquis). And decks that do planet mission super easy, integrity based decks like Federation and Bajoran, don't have to worry about this dilemma. That doesn't make sense to me.

Good Card, Bad Card #2

2011-01-11T19:11:00.001-05:00

Good Card: Nel Apgar

Why: In Jersey he's simply known as 'Dirty Nel'. He's as old school as it gets. Cunning 7, and some free draws... hot damn thats a sweet deal!

Bad Card: Mot, The Barber

What a terrible idea. That whole last Decipher set is full of bad cards. He was super bad before the errata, but even now after I still hate that card. What were they thinking giving (an affiliation that was already super strong) more help? If I was in the design room when that card was pitched I would've said, "What are you f*cking retarded?".

Good Card, Bad Card #1

2011-01-11T18:50:00.005-05:00

I started a thread titled "Good Card, Bad Card " on trekcc.org a few months back. So the first 10 I wanted to archive here and then continue the articles in a blog format, and dusting off the old Ruling New Jersey articles and giving them a go again.
Here's #1.......

Good Card: Instigate Dissension
Why: Problem, people using Brunt for sneaky event destruction. This card was an excellent solution. But, it also remains useable in every dilemma pile. This is key in 2E. 'Magic bullets' (cards to counteract a popular strategy) in 1E were straight and to the point, you could get away with that with cards. You can't do that in 2E (well, because you should never get to that point), so the card needs to be a solid overall card. 4 cost for 2 stops is a fair deal. Add on top of that, it makes for the best dilemma used in a No-Win Situation deck.

Bad Card: Ruling Council
Why: I know, I've made my hatred for this card clear the past two months, so this won't be just a pure rant. In a nutshell, it's the 2E version of the 1E card 'Distortion of the Space/Time Continuum'. If you played 1E you know that's not a good thing. Problem, Terok Nor sucks. But giving them a super powerful 1E card wasn't the answer.

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 8

2004-12-05T17:22:00.000-05:00

"Useless"

I've finally dug myself out of the ditch I've been in the last 3 months. I probably should've just stayed there though. It was a busy 3 months. I managed to start and finish an entire professional poker career in that time. I started with a $6,000 bankroll and ended up broke. Strange part is I only lost $1,000 playing poker, don't ask me to explain it. Oh yeah, I got married too. That happened somewhere along the way in that time. I could spend the rest of this article explaining my useless life but that's not what this is about. It's supposed to be about Trek strategy, but since I don't have anything usefull in my mind these days let's do something fun. I've compiled a list of the 13 most useless cards in 2E. This is what I came up with:

13- Enabran Tain, Head of the Obsidian Order

Let's see a 4 cost Cardassian that has 3 strength, that's pretty useless. Granted he's got a hundred skills but he has that most useless abilities. When an engagement begins....blah, blah, blah. He's just a fat piece of shit.

12-Jean-Luc Picard, Explorer

4 cost, useless. His order, useless. Know what's even a bigger piece of shit than this card, that oversized copy of it.

11-Cargo Haul

They must be hauling bullshit on those ships. Cunning>44 and only 35 points? Oh, but if I move there I get to draw a card, whippity-freaking-doo.

10-Scimitar, Preadator

High cost, 3 Command Icons, butt ability. Ok, it looks cool
but so does banging a Russian. It's all fun at first but then you've lost it all.

9-Console Overload

Just read the card and you'll see. If anyone played this on me in a tournament I would just laugh then punch them in the face.

8-Athos IV, Maquis Base

I could fill this whole list with just Maquis cards so instead I'll just put the headquarters. I remember when some Minnesota clown played Maquis Day 3 in 2003. It's was a funniest 8 minutes of my life.

7-Kurn, Bajoran Security Officer

Some things just don't go together. Me and a winning hand, Kellerman and t-shirts, Fitchett and blow jobs. Neither do Klingons dressed as Bajorans.

6-Battle Drills

Let's see, Cardassians don't battle. So let me waste a whole turn just to randomly kill someone? Nah, I'm good. Jesus, It's worse than Cry Havoc.

5-Engage Cloak

The only thing worse than this card are the others that try to make this one usefull. All those garbage Romulan ships.

4-Render Assistance

Ok, it's a starter card so I'll cut it some slack, but really why?

3-Sensor Sweep

You know I often find myself in games saying, "Damn, if I only had a pursuit card right now." Oh, that's the Russian Poon Chasing Game. Nevermind.

2-Shadow Operartion

Just reading the damn card makes me want to kill myself. By the time your reaping the benefits from the card your opponent has already won and is starting the next round.

1-Sermon

The grand daddy of them all. Everything about this card licks balls. This picture, the text, even the stupid quote on the bottom. If you have this card in your deck ask yourself a tough question, "Am I Gay?"
Because the only way I see playing this card is if the Doctor gives you a hard on.

So there it is, I would be interested to hear other people list of useless cards. Let me know what you think. Untill next year, I see you clowns around.

John Corbett- The Golden Fucking Rule, "Always leave yourself outs."

Any questions, stories, fan or hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 7

2004-08-31T13:29:00.000-04:00

"Running out of time"

Well, here it is again, the week after Worlds and I have this feeling again for the third time. This emptiness, so unsatisfying. Another year and no Title. I'm starting to feel like the Dan Marino of Trek, great career but no ring. I don't think I could be content never winning a Worlds. I want that ring. Now I'm not old, I can play this game for as long as I want. But with consecutive showings of 2nd, 3rd and now 6th I'm starting to think how long is this going to take. I'm getting the feeling I'm... running out of time.

The last two weeks are a blur to me. Shit, the last two months. The poker hasn't been going well for me. I think the secret is out on me, I play at the Tropicana 90% of the time and I think that's my problem. The good players have adjusted to me and maybe I'm also a little burned out. A couple of bad beats and I'm starting to get gun-shy and you can't have that in No Limit. No Limit isn't about luck or cards; it's a test of courage. Anything in excess is a bad thing so I think it's vacation time, but first let's look back on these past couple of nights and see where it all went wrong.

Actually it's starts the weekend before at the Trop. You should know by now that all my stories start like this. It's was a bad idea in the first place but I was playing with my GenCon money. With that in mind I was keeping it tight and playing solid. Then I run into a guy who wasn't. I flop top pair and make a reasonable bet, he calls. Turn comes, I make another reasonable bet, and he calls. River actually makes me a gut shot straight, I make a big bet, he pushes all-in. I'm shocked, I knew it came out runner-runner (both cards suited making a flush possible). But I wasn't worried about that since I made reasonable bets and only got called. I was forced to call since I had so much in the pot and sure enough he had the flush. He didn't even have a pair on the flop, unbelievable. I was only at the table for about fifteen minutes, but after that hand the player on my left informed me he's been playing loose all night. Information of little use to me now. I bought back in with the chump change I had left but it didn't last to long. But in that time the same loose player lost his whole stack, about $800, in one hand. He made a semi-bluff, he had a pair and a flush draw on the turn and he went all-in $500 into the big stack with a set of Jacks. There was a possible straight on the board so he considered for a long while but then made the call. So at least that restored my faith in the poker universe but now I was dicked for GenCon.

I had to dip into the emergency funds for a bus ticket. Last year it was a three-hour trip, this year 17 hours, ouch. But I figured I at least try to turn a negative into a positive. So I posted on the teamjersey.net message board when I got home that night. It was all true except for the not coming part. I figured maybe I would get some players hopes up. But as Sonsteby put it, "You would kill your own mother to get here." So he wasn't fooled but I heard some players were.

So I left Thursday morning for my exhausting journey. The trip there was pretty uneventful. The shitty part about taking a bus is the layovers at crappy bus stations. I had to sit in Pittsburgh for two hours, which licked balls, much like the city itself. But I managed to make it to Indianapolis by 2 a.m., luckily it's right by the convention center and I was able to meet up right away with the guys I was staying with. So I was able to get a couple of hours a sleep before Day 2.

I woke up early Friday so I could get there to buy a badge and register for the event. Last year I pre-registered and I remember Len waiting in line for 4 hours. So I called for a cab and waited, and waited. I saw a couple of gamers coming out of their room and I knew where they were headed. I asked them for a lift, ironically, they were from Binghamton, NY the same place where my roommates were from. I managed to buy a badge and register with plenty of time to spare. Jesse, the guy I was staying with asked me how I thought I would do and I told him 6-2. I should've played the lottery that day. I won my first 3 matches easily. Then I play Kris Sonsteby, he was playing Klingon Riker, as were 5 of my other opponents. Not to take anything from Kris but it was my first game where I made a mistake, I think I started to relax and I lost the game. Next I played Josh Latenau, I never quite abused anyone like I did to Josh this game. On my fourth turn, remember I'm running event/dilemma manipulation; I attempted my mission with 4 personnel. I solved the mission and went to my second mission; to my surprise I solved that one too. So I won my 4th game and pretty much locked up a Day 3 spot. Josh though would not have to wait too long for his revenge. With two more wins and only one other lose to Andrew Ehret's Riker deck I ended the day with the No. 3 seed. This, I think, being my unlucky break.

After Day 2 Justin Beal and I were looking over the results and seeing whom we matched up with. The judges didn't do the Trek BCS to determine the seeding. We noticed there was a good chance we would be playing each other. And sure enough...

Of all the, let me say, "easier" players I could've faced in the first round (Bowling, the two British fools, Ohio) I had to play Justin. So I prepared myself to go to war, as Sammy Farha would say. A war would be exactly what I got. We were told that the games would be untimed, best of 3 with a 3-hour limit. This made no sense to me; I assumed it would be hour time limits on the games. Our first game lasted almost two hours. It was exhausting, when you combine his Romulan manipulation with my Cardassian nonsense you're have yourself one hell of a chess match. I managed to "plot and scheme" and barely win that first game. Luckily, I think I had the stamina advantage as I think Justin's heart wasn't in the 2nd game. Compared to the first game the second was a piece of cake. I would be playing the winner of Sykes/Latenau, I beat both Day 2. Latenau won and it looked like I would have to run the Arizona gauntlet to get my Title.

I figured Josh would be switching his deck from the previous day. He's a competitor and I would've done the same. I was right, but I was confused when I saw a Cardassian/Bajorian combo. Game 1 was another Iron Man match lasting about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, this time I was on the bad end of it. I was running the Overwhelmed dilemma pile and Josh's deck had the perfect skill set for it. I would always stop him but rarely would I get kills. Josh knew he might have to play me round two and he played the perfect deck for it. Game 2 was odd, I drew 6 personnel, this rarely happens. At this point I was just about on tilt, I just played them and attempted the missions. Sure enough, Josh got some bad beats and I solved easily, shades of our Day 2 game. I managed to win without much trouble. But the game did take about 45 minutes and I knew Game 3 wasn't going to be long. Ironically, Game 3 my deck came out exactly as it should, but against Josh this was a bad thing. I knew I needed people and attempt fast. But it wasn't looking good; I didn't attempt a mission until Josh was well out. We both had a mission done and there was 12 minutes left. It wasn't looking good, I was....running out of time. He used a General Krim once to blow out a dilemma so if we had the same amount of missions done I would win by 5 points. I got stopped on my 2nd mission and had two dilemmas overcome. So it was Josh's turn with 10 minutes to go, he was thinking there awhile so I had to ask him, "Josh, you're not going to take a 10 minute turn, are you?" He wasn't quite stalling yet, but he was getting close. He completed his 2nd mission and went to his third. At this point I hear a 3-minute warning, I take the top seven cards of my deck and lay them out. I stop his attempt, and I figured there was about a minute and a half left. So I had no time for moves, I simply said draw seven and attempt. I think he drew 5; he picked two cards and told me, "I have the nuts." He was quoting me earlier; I guess he's a fan of RNJ. He turned over an In Training and a Captain's Holiday. I shook his hand and conceded the match. Crazy part is if I had one more 3 cost personnel I might have solved the mission. Not to be though, not to take away from Josh but I think if that was a full â€œone-hour" game I win. But he won in the format that was given and he won and I was busted out.

After Day 2 I watch some of the poker tournament they were having. To my surprise this year they were giving out a $1000 prize, unfortunately all the qualifiers were sold out. But after I busted out of Day 3 I went to see if I could talk my way into it. I found the guy in charge of it in the exhibit hall and luckily he knew a guy who wasn't playing and I could buy his ticket from him. So I was in and dominating my table. I did catch one bad beat when I flopped a set and a guy with top two called me and caught a boat on the river. But it only slowed me down for a moment. It got down to about 5 tables when our table broke up, then my cards went ice cold. The format they had was after 4 hours the top 3 chip leaders qualify for the final table. Problem was it was about 20 minutes left and there was about 20 players left. Again, I was....running out of time. So I get A-7 suited and push in, pocket 4â€™s calls me. So we flip the coin and I lose. So I bust out of my second tournament of the day.

So I wake up Sunday and figure I might as well go watch the final confrontation and pick up my glass. It was just as exciting as I expected, like a $1-3 stud game 8 a.m. on a Tuesday. After that I had some time to kill so I decide to play in the Race to the Alpha Quadrant tournament. I play my 90-card Goval deck; I figured I'd give some free rating points away. See, I give back to the "community". It manages one win and I managed to kill 3 hours, time to go home.

I get on my bus and this fat smelly Magic player sits next to me. Now this kid really stunk. It makes no sense to me these stinky gamers. I mean you got a hotel room, you get free towels and soap, wash your fat ass please. On top of that he's talking on his cell phone for two hours. At one point he went to reach for his bag in the overhead storage and I almost lost it. At this point if I could've choked this kid to death and get away with it I would have. Instead I just said, "Dude, I don't mean to be a dick but you have to keep your arms down." Luckily when we got to Columbus he was off the bus. 15 hours later I finally made it home.

As I sit here now disappointed, but not broken, I do have some grips about how Worlds was run. As I said, I assumed the games on Day 3 were going to be timed best of 3. DGMA should specified this ahead of time, this affects what types of decks can be played successfully. Decks like Justin's and mine are seriously diminished in untimed games I believe. And to my surprise, the Finals had hour time limits. This is ridiculous, how can you have a top 16 tournament and have different formats along the way? Decipher, next year just keep it the same the whole way, best-of-3 one-hour games. Another for the judges for not doing the pairings between Days 2 and 3. I know theyâ€™re tired and want to go do something else but give us a little effort please. Decipher, I know Trek is at the bottom of the list but I'm sure you can find us judges with a little enthusiasm. Last, where was the clock? A guy told me someone dropped it. Bullshit, they dropped the LotR clock and we got dicked. How sad, I'm playing in a World Championship and I got a guy yelling 3 minutes left like I'm playing in a shitty local. All right, story time is over, you can leave the library now; RNJ is about strategy so here are your nuggets of wisdom for the month. But I listened to some of the critics of RNJ and let me see if I can please the haters.

Decklist, Decklist, Decklist

Some of the criticism about RNJ was that it didn't include decklist. Well, I hate decklist. When I see them on DGMA I look at it for about 5 seconds, even if it's good or bad. One of the things I hate the most is a hack; someone that never makes their own decks and only copies other players. Now I'm not going to judge anyone else. If you need to look elsewhere for help then fine, do what you need to do. I'm not a good deckbuilder, so I'm not going to sit here and write out a deck that took me a long time to develop. I have to put a good amount of work into my decks, a lot of trial and error. I start with a rough copy and it takes some games to filter out the junk I put into it and fill in the gaps. I could churn out an average, maybe a little better, deck and put it here, but that's not me. You can get plenty of that at DGMA. But I'll tell you what I'll do. I'm going to look through my binder here and go through a couple of cards I like, and why I like them. This isn't natural for me, so it's probably not going to be enlightening. But let's get started:

Missions- 2E right now is in desperate need of more missions. There's only about 3 or 4 different sets of missions you can use for a winning deck. I could only imagine how much better this game would be if those clownshoes they call 'designers' would come up with some new missions. So there is not even one mission I like, I'm tired of them all. Aren't you tired of seeing Kressari Rendezvous?

Equipment- Have you ever used a non-Batleth equipment card? I haven't. And it's only used as a token hand weapon for gay Harsh Conditions. So if it weren't for that nobody would use them. Same as missions, there's not even one I like.

Dilemmas- Even though it crapped out on me at Origins, I love Biochemical Hyperacceleration. Throw a Dreamer and a Cave-in and blow out a crew and hand, good stuff. I remember one game with Mike when he went out on his third turn and after his attempt he was left with an empty ship in orbit and no hand. Problem is that just about every competitive deck is Security/Strength based. But just wait for the right time in your meta, when it works it's pretty solid.
I'm not a fan of the "crapshoot" dilemmas. Examples would be Murder Investigation, Dressing Down or Racial Tensions. The pick x personnel and if they have y they're stopped group. I'm not saying they're bad, I just dislike them. I catch enough bad beats at the poker table; I don't need them at the Trek table too.

Interrupts- I'm trying to think of something other than Escape, Shady, Comfort, Relentless, Stricken, or Death is Glory. Everyone knows they're good but there's not much else out there. One I don't like is Stricken Dumb; if I hate the "crapshoot" dilemmas I'm not going to stock cards to stop them.

Events- Instead of making battle or infiltration better, Brad and Evan, maybe to busy with another game, just said let's just design 100 different event cards. That'll make the game interesting. Decipher, see what happens when you make shitty 1E players game designers?
Anyway, the key event in my deck was Key to Victory. IF you're forced to play with 50 events in your deck you need a way to get through it. The other hot card was Crystalline Entity, against Klingon Riker it's pretty much useless but when you see a guy play a Far Seeing Eyes you'll be happy you have it out. Then you have your "fuck with your opponent" events, Trial Never Ended, Manheim Effect and Stir Crazy. Whatever is fucking him up keeps fucking him up with it. Also, don't forget Unexpected Difficulties, you have to make sure you draw those Secret Identities and get rid of Riker. Finally if you are going to play with all this junk you need the worst card of them all, Party Atmosphere. The only this worse than playing all this crap is paying for them.

1 Cost Personnel- It's my belief that 1 cost personnel are the backbone of any successful deck. Cardassians have Jerax, Klingons have Kahmis and TNG has bong-smoking Davies (look at him, it looks like he's hitting the 24th century bong). So when you make that deck remember you have to get those attributes from somewhere.

Right before publishing: that vacation didn't last too long. I got back on the poker horse and recently took eighth in a $20 buy-in tournament at the Trop. Didn't make a fortune but it's nice to get back on track. So with the 2004 Trek Championship Circuit at a close it's back to the Lab until '05. Until then, if you find yourself in A.C. stop by the Trop, maybe I'll see you clowns around.

John Corbett- "Tighten the back of your tongue. ...Keep Trying. You've almost got it."

Any questions, stories, fan/hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 6

2004-08-06T00:08:00.000-04:00

After "monkeying" around with my computer I finally got it working again. So let's look at what you were supposed to see last month.

"The Right Skills"

You cannot win at poker without understanding and applying basic strategies. Two important skills are hand reading and game selection. In Trek it is the same, you have to understand and apply the strategy you have. In Trek this would include deck building and playing that deck, and this article does not attempt to teach them. My counterparts at DGMA would be better suited for those articles (not that I think you'll find anything good there).

My goal is to help you prepare you for those moments in the game (or maybe before) that determine the outcome. Also, prepare you for the different opponents you will face.

For reading your opponent I turn to legendary poker player Doyle Brunson. He has two general rules:

(1) Against a low-grade player, you simply make the obvious play. That is you don't get fancy. You don't try to make subtle moves that'll be far beyond his capacity to understand or appreciate. You play fundamentally better (rather than strategically better) than a weak player. In a word, you outplay him.

In Trek this means when you're playing a bad player just play straight up. You don't have to do anything special. If you have nine personnel and he has four dilemmas underneath don't get cute and attempt with five and wonder why he top-decked you and drew a Triage or Racial Tensions. Just play straightforward. You are fundamentally better, you have a better deck, and you are a better player. Winning is the only goal, there are no style points, don't be cute.

(2) Against a higher-grade player (someone who could be thinking along the same lines as you), you must mix-up your play. Sometimes you make the obvious play against a strong player (as you always would against a weak player), and sometimes you go at it another way and make a play that's not so obvious. Most of the time.you have to put a play on (outmaneuver) a strong player.

This is where you prove yourself. Here's the time for the moves. Especially when you're playing opponents you play often. For example, I was playing Len in The Player's Championship in the final confrontation. He beat me earlier so I knew I had to "make a move". I was playing TNG Shared Problems, usually doing to two planet missions first. Instead, so I don't leave all his good space dilemmas left (I knew he only runs a few), I went for that mission first (It's the hardest to solve). Well, my gamble paid off, he only had one or two he could play and I solved on my first attempt.

That's all there is to it. And it seems simple and logical enough. But knowing something and being able to execute it is not the same thing. As I proved at the NJ Maiden Voyage, I was playing Nikolai and he was attempting his last mission for the first time. I drew my nine dilemmas and I could've definitely stopped him, but I was trailing slightly and maybe felt some pressure. Instead of trusting my deck and my abilities I decided to get cute, the mission required two diplomacy and I knew he had only two in the attempt. I just played a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and stopped one. Then I said you're stopped you only had two. He said no and showed me his Elim Garak, and diplomacy in hand, and I said good game knowing that I just blew it.

Rating Players

Poker is a game of deception; opponents will dress differently or act differently to throw you off so you can't get a read of there style. Are they loose or tight? Are the passive or aggressive? But in Trek you can get a read on your opponent in a heartbeat, even in a big tournament with players you've never seen before. You can tell if he's good or bad usually by turn two. What cards has he played? Is the deck any good? Then, is he confident or unsure? Does he look like he knows exactly what he's doing? Does he feel like he's going to win or does it look like he's there to have fun?

In poker there is four types of players: Loose-Aggressive, Loose-Passive, Tight-Passive, and Tight-Aggressive. The last one is usually best suited for a winning poker player. In Trek I've noticed there can be a comparison: Bad-Confident, Bad-Unsure, Good-Unsure, Good-Confident. The last one is best suited for a winning Trek player. Now of course there is room in the middle, you might share qualities with more than one type. And by "Good" I mean players who win more than 50% of their games and the opposite for "Bad". Let's go over these four, their characteristics and how to play against them:

Bad-Confident - We come across this type of player all the time, mostly at locals. He has all the cards, but he doesn't know how to use them. He's talking all the time, about decks and strategy, but he doesn't know what he's talking about. When he loses he blames bad luck and never looks at his deck or his playing ability. He thinks he's there to win but doesn't have a chance.
To beat these players you don't have to do much. Their decks aren't very good and they will make mistakes. Remember, they are a low-grade player so just play straightforward. Don't get fancy. And don't waste your time trying any mind-games, they are so blind, they think they are good and nothing you say will change that.
If you are a Bad-Confident player- You have to simply stop denying reality. You have to see you aren't winning enough games. Sure you probably go 2-2 in most tournaments, but that's not a good player. It's not all bad though, you have an excellent trait in a player: confidence. You just need to look at yourself and be real. Maybe you could use some help? There's no shame and asking for help from fellow players.

Bad-Unsure - These are what I like to call "T-shirt" guys. They are there to have fun, socialize, and relax. They are generally nice, quite guys. This is probably the most common type of Trek player.
If you can't beat this type of player than there's not much hope for you. They don't put any time in there game. They probably have a wife, kids, or whatever and Trek is just another hobby. Once again, all you have to do is play your game and don't waiver. Even if you find yourself behind (this can happen in 2E no matter your opponent), don't "take a chance". Trust yourself and your deck and he'll need a miracle to win.
If you are a Bad-Unsure player- If you're playing to have fun and whatnot, than you're doing just fine. You're satisfying your motives and that's what's most important. But there are some players like these who become good (50%+ wins). I'll use Steve as an example, when he started he won about 1, maybe 2, games a tournament. Then he won the Cruiserweight Belt and he didn't want to lose it. He started asking for help, he listened and responded to it. Soon he was beating Len and I. He also went 4-0 Day 1 of Continentals. He lost the Belt to Nikolai and hasn't gotten it back, but he's gained confidence and skill. He still needs plenty of both but might be a player one day.

Good-Unsure - These guys blend in with the wallpaper. They never talk smack; you usually never notice them until you're in a game with them. They know what they're doing; they have a great deck and know all the cards. But in a game they are a little nervous and aren't sure what their next move is. They have a bad habit if making dumb mistakes.
To beat this player you have to be on your game. You can't sleep on this guy early. He's playing a solid deck so you can't mess around. But here's the key, he'll slip up. You have to make him pay when he does. And when it's time for him to make a tough decision, it's time to get in his head. Mess with him; say whatever to make him more worried. Hell, even before the game I go at him. Remember, you need an edge; this is a chance to get it.
If you are Good-Unsure player- Well, you really can't teach confidence. It's something you gain during life. If you're not confident in Trek I'm willing to bet you go about your whole life that way. You can only gain it one win at a time. Much the opposite a bad player has to look at himself and realize his faults, you have to realize your strengths.

Good Confident - This is the ideal Card player, no matter what the game. They have it all together, the deck, the ability, discipline, intensity, concentration; they know they are going to win. There are always looking for an edge, then take maximum advantage of that edge. It's not all perfect; sometimes you can get cocky and let a game slip. Also, if you are an aggressive player, like myself, other players will become hostile towards you. But you will gain respect.
Of course, these are the toughest players to beat, but if you're also this type of player, this is why you play the game. To be the man you have to beat the man. Play your game and let it dictate what you have to do. If you get a read on him and see a move that will work then this is the time for it. Even the most confident of players can get rattled, let's say a horrible dilemma draw. It's worth taking a verbal shot at him; you make be able to put him on tilt (make him play below his normal capacity).
If you are a Good-Confident player- You can go about to two ways, you can be aggressive (mean guy approach) or more passive (nice guy approach). I truly believe being aggressive gives you an edge, but it just depends on your personality. It depends if you want to be loved or feared. What will help your game?

You got away with it last month, but I know you're all dying to see the New Jersey Premier Series Standings. Here they are:

1. Len Neidorf 156 Pts. ($24)
2. John Corbett 110 Pts.
3. Michael Keller 84 Pts.
4. Nikolai Fomich 68 Pts.
5. Steve Fitchett 58 Pts.
6. Vera Sergeyeva 40 Pts.
7. Matt Sinclair 36 Pts.
8. James Bottomly 26 Pts.
9. Rob Tapp 16 Pts.
10. Tim Geary 8 Pts.
10. Cliff Lentz 8 Pts.
10. Michael Vroom 8 Pts.
13. Drew Christensen 6 Pts.

NJ Premier Series Schedule

Jan. 24th- KillerBOWL IV, Champion - Len Neidorf
Feb. 22nd- The New Jersey Pre-Territorial Open, Champion - Michael Keller
Mar. 28th - New Jersey Territorial, Champion - Michael Keller
Apr.17th & 18th - The Jersey Masters, Champion - Len Neidorf
May 16th - The New Jersey Player's Championship, Champion - Len Neidorf
June 6th - The Kellerman Invitational, Champion - Len Neidorf
July 18th - KillerSLAM!, Berlin NJ
Sep.- The World Champion Invitational
Oct.- The World Series of Trek $8 Buy-In, $2 Entry Fee
Nov.- KillerBAD BLOOD!
Dec.- The New Jersey Premier Series Championship (Major) $10 Entry Fee

Point Breakdown
1st - 24 Pts.
2nd- 18 Pts.
3rd & 4th- 14 Pts.
5th thru 8th - 8 Pts.
9th thru 16th - 6 Pts.
17th thru 24th - 2 Pts.
26th thru 32nd - 1 Pt.
*Majors worth double points*

The $24 is what Len took in by winning the Player's Championship. Nothing but high stakes here in Jersey. The 18th will bring KillerSLAM! with a Triple Threat, with Len and Steve, for my Heavyweight Title. Steve won the last tournament and has an opportunity to leave Berlin with both belts. Len has won three straight Premier Series tournaments and has a massive point lead. Looks like the odds are against the Champ.

Here's my Origins report: I went, I played Trek and sucked, I played poker and sucked. It got so bad I found myself playing board games at 3 a.m. with guys I didn't even know. But they turned out to be cool. The one dude got up and said he had to "take a walk". I'm down; I know what "take a walk" means. So I got to thinking, it's been some years since I "took a walk". Plus it was a pretty shitty weekend. So when he got back I said, "next time you take a walk I might come with you." I think I caught him off guard and he responded, "That depends on what you mean." I said, "You know what I mean." he said all right. So I "took a walk" and it sadly enough turned out to be the highlight of my trip. All because I committed deadly sin No. 2: denying reality. I played the MV and a warm-up on Friday; I should've known my dilemma scheme wasn't going to work there. Even the next tournament in Jersey I still tried to make it work and it failed. I was stubborn and I paid. So it's back to the Lab.

Shockingly enough we have something in the mailbag this month and it comes from the other side of the pond. Ian Taylor wrote:

If you delete the 'like myself' from the middle of paragraph three, this months RNJ is great. Even with it in it is still pretty good and only brought down by the one annoying bit of self-glorification. The series seems to be taking a good direction. I can definitely see the influence of a lot of poker articles but the points are also very valid for Trek. I look forward to the next one if the quality continues.

The sentence was: Even winners, like myself, take self-defeating actions that make us feel comfortable. Remember, these two articles were in reverse order, I defined winner (good) as a player who wins more than 50% of their games. And so what if I did anyway? I am a winner, if I can't throw a bit of self-glorification then what's the point? As for "if the quality continues", talk about annoying. You can take your tea drinking, fish and chips eating, non-toothpaste using self and kiss my fat American ass. Be a good little Brit, like Tony Blair, and do what the USA says, read the article, learn something and, if you have something useful to say, chime in when you want. Until then, I'll see you clowns around.

John Corbett- "Hey, how can you listen to this without feeling the urge to dance?"

P.S. any questions, stories, hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 5

2004-08-05T00:10:00.000-04:00

"The Right Skills"

I began writing this article on the 12th, I wrote about half of it then decided to go to bed (I do most of my writing, and everything else, in the middle of the night). Well, the next day my computer decided it didn't want to work anymore. I'm a computer monkey, I think I deleted something important for Windows to run and now when I start the computer it shuts down. So anyway, here it is the 14th and I finally found a computer to use. Instead of rewriting the "Right Skills" I'll skip to the next portion I was gong to cover, "Our Deadly Sins". Hopefully by next month I'll have my act together.

"Our Deadly Sins"

Some of us have all of them; a few winners have only one or two of them; but none of us are free of them. Some of us try to deny the last fact. We pretend to that we are better than we are, but denial is one of the worst sins. It stops us from doing anything about our weaknesses. The best way to improve ourselves is to see how we are beating ourselves. Only when we understand our thinking patterns and attitudes that prevent us from playing our best can we become the players we want to be. There used to be seven deadly sins, but as Trek players we've managed to beat that by having eight, they are:

Deadly Sin No. 1: Poor self-control. It's the worst sin and underlying cause of all the others. We all want to "do want comes naturally", but it's natural to lose. We're human, we're prone to making mistakes. Even winners, like myself, take self-defeating actions that make us feel comfortable. We rationalize that they improve our game. But winning is not natural, we need enough self-control to do the unnatural things it takes to win.

Deadly Sin No. 2: Denying reality. It's the second worst, and nearly all of us do it occasionally. We deny that this particular deck isn't good enough. We deny that we are playing poorly because we are bored, tired, or losing. We do not want to admit this because we don't want to admit our own limitations. Any type of denial can destroy our chances for winning consistently.

Deadly Sin No. 3: Impatience. Even a good player occasionally yields to it. We get a bad hand or our opponent gets off to a great start, so we "take a shot". Sometimes it works, but usually it cost us the game. I can use yesterday as an example in my game against Len. I was up one mission and attempting my second, he also got hurt when he attempted his first mission. So when I attempted he decided to "take a shot" and play only one dilemma, Murder Investigation. He knew he was taking a chance, I had six personnel and two had Security. I even told him this had all the makings of getting "scum bagged" (one of my words I like to use meaning when you should hit a random selection but miss). Well, I was right, he missed and I solved. He stopped me twice on my last mission and almost came back. He would've won if he didn't yield to his impatience and play "his" game.

Deadly Sin No. 4: Focusing on ourselves, not the opponent. We are so concerned with our own deck, our hand, our own strategy, that we forget the important information that comes from our opponent. We look at that bad hand or dilemma draw, those cards aren't going to change - no matter how hard we study them - and we miss signals and can't review the previous turns. Who did he play, what did we see in previous attempts or even previous games.

Deadly Sin No. 5: Yielding to our emotions. Anger and pressure can makes us take foolish chances - by not playing the right dilemmas, changing your strategy when you don't need to. Even a desire to be nice and help a player out can cost us later down the road.

Deadly Sin No. 6: Poor concentration. Sometimes we're having a conversation with our opponent during the game, or talking to a spectator, or thinking about your girlfriend. Usually it's more subtle, but just as destructive: for example, we all fall into the trap of thinking about earlier games - especially ones we lost or bad plays we regret. Trek is a "now" game. You need to focus because once it's time to make a play we are stuck with whatever we do. If we make a bad one we are stuck with it forever.

Deadly Sin No. 7: Educating the opposition. (This is my worst sin) We show our dilemmas when we get bad beats, or we explain why we made a certain play, or we criticize other players. We do this because we want respect or sympathy, or just expressing our frustration, but Trek is (for me, and maybe you) about winning, not making ourselves feel good. Every time we show cards, tell a story, or criticize a player it can cost us. A bad player will get better, and a good player will learn how to beat you. I had to learn this again yesterday. A week ago Steve showed me the deck he was playing, I told him what to take out and what to put in (I call this the Ray Linton Maneuver). Well, he did just that and yesterday he preceded to beat Len and me and win the tournament (actually a 3-way tie between him, Mike and me, our opposition totals were identical and we had to have a roll-off. This system does not work for Trek and I long for the days of differential. But from what I hear that's not going to happen). I don't mind seeing Steve do well and win, just not at my expense.

Deadly Sin No. 8: Blaming bad luck. We all do it. Blaming a bad hand or bad beat on dilemmas helps us protect our ego by justifying poor results. This is a form of denial; we deny that only we are responsible for our long term results. It makes us feel better, but stops us from working on our weaknesses. To play our best we have to increase our self-control, accept that responsibility, and sin less frequently.

This is where I would update everyone on the NJ Premier Points standings and any news on the happenings in Jersey. But since my computer is just a fancy paperweight at the moment you will be spared. When Decipher's new message boards opened I figured this would be a good chance to get some reader feedback on the Ruling New Jersey articles. So I posted on of them fancy new polls and these were the results as of 6/14:

Great 11%
Decent 11%
Average 30%
Bad 13%
Garbage 32%
Total votes: 43

When I saw this it didn't break my heart. I'm figuring half of those garbage votes are just your usual KillerB hating. So with that in mind, the jury is about deadlocked. It's either loved or hated, much like myself. So I just wanted to take a moment and respond to some of the responses to the poll:

Mogh wrote,
I voted "Great" based mostly on the last article you wrote. I found it very thought-provoking in how it draws parallels between poker and Star Trek CCG (or any TCG). I've watched enough poker on ESPN to come to this conclusion: the best players in poker and in any TCG are cut from the same cloth.

I agree, they are. You have to make tough decisions and handle the random nature of cards. You have to be mentally tough to be a winner.

Weyoun's Last Clone wrote,
I voted average. I thought it was a good read, quite interesting, but I didn't feel it really helped me as a player. I guess I'm not a real winner.

I'm thinking your motives aren't about being a winner. You're probably there to have fun and relax. As long as you are then you don't need to be a "real" winner.

Nickyank122 wrote,
I voted bad. reasons are: The name I find insulting to my friend Ian Taylor, and his excellent Ruling Britannia articles. At least his title made sense. Ruling New Jersey? What? Your writing leaves a lot to be desired. By writing I refer to both your gramma and writing style, for instance your tendency to insult and talk down to people. Do you think that all the players are huge fans of pro wrestling, which is where I would expect to see that style. When 99% of STCCG players are playing for fun, I have no comprehension of why you play the game. Playing to win is a valid motivation, but why STCCG? Why not a heap of other games? It's not like there is any serious money in it, and being a World Champion is hardly something for your resume. Maybe you could address this in one of your articles?

Insulting? They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The title is just that, but it's more about me being the leader of Team Jersey. As for my writing style, I'm no Steven King or Hemingway, nor do I claim to be. I don't try to be a good writer, I just try to express my point. As for 99% of Trek players play for fun, I would say you're right, but as I stated in my last article, nobody has just one motive. I play for fun, that's a part of it, but my main goal is to win. No different why a pro sports athlete plays, he loves his sport, but he wants to win. I won't mind putting World Champion on my resume.

Lore411 wrote,
While I don't agree with much written in any of the articles, I often find myself reading them just to keep tabs on your area. Keep on writing them, that way everyone here in MN can be prepared for your decks at Worlds.
Kris "Lore" Sonsteby

(Warning!: The insult and talking down portion of the article!)

Well Kris, maybe that's why you'll always be in the shadows of your fellow MN players. I look forward to Continentals for Round 1. Just so you know, you will never be prepared for Jersey. No matter what anyone says about me the one thing they can't take away is that I am the Continental Champion! It's MY title. And later this month I'll be the first man to ever become Back-to-Back Continental Champion. So Kris you have to ask yourself one question, "Are you ready to play THE GAME?". When you look into your soul and find the answer I'll see you MN clowns around.

John Corbett- "How can you not sing for all to hear?"

P.S. any questions, stories, hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 4

2004-08-04T00:28:00.000-04:00

Do you have "The Right Stuff"?

This is the first chapter in one of the poker books I own. In it, it lists twelve characteristics that most winners possess. But as I read these characteristics I noticed that they apply to Trek as well. Let's go through these twelve and see what separates the winners from the losers.

Characteristic No. 1: Winners always demand an edge. In poker it can be better hand, a good draw, favorable position, superior skill, greater concentration, etc. Without it, winners won't play. Well, in Trek you don't have that option. You draw your opponent and don't have a choice. But you certainly have an edge; the trick is to find it. My edge: KillerB. People wonder why I do all the online harassing, and this is a major part. When a player meets me at a big tournament for the first time and he's concentrating on me, just a little bit, instead of his game that gives me an edge. Find your edge; are you a better player than your opponent? Is he distracted by something? Did he just lose his last game and going on tilt? (If you're an avid RNJ fan you know what that means. Len used that word at the last tournament. I'm glad to see I'm teaching the kids.)

Characteristic No. 2: Winners are obsessed with winning. A poker player once said, "I'd bust my own grandmother if she played poker with me." This means that sometimes we have to do unpleasant things to win. In poker you can never play soft. At the poker table I play with the same people often. I've come to know these people. Spent many hours with them. I like some of them, but I'll take their money in a heartbeat. In Trek I don't care if I'm playing Len, my girlfriend, or the #1 rated player in the world, if I can I'm going to beat you 100-0.

Characteristic No. 3: Winners have extreme self-control. Without this control the obsession would become self-destructive. Last year at Worlds before Day 3 started Mike looked like a mess. He said he was up in his hotel room all night crying. Well, I hope he was exaggerating but he still had no control. Mike still got 4th, but I believe he could've won that day if he could've controlled his fear and anxiety.

Characteristic No. 4: Winners are brutally realistic. They don't kid themselves when they lose a game. They don't blame a random selection, bad hand, or a bad beat on dilemmas. They see where they lost the game and what they could have done to change it.

Characteristic No. 5: Winners concentrate intently. This is obvious in-game, what personnel your opponent played, what skills is he lacking in, what cheaters is he running with that deck, etc. But also concentrate when you're not playing. What are the other players saying? Keep your ears open. Some people call this a form of scouting, but you can't help with what you hear.

Characteristic No. 6: Winners think visibly. They verbalize their observations. Len is excellent at this. Sometimes when I attempt a mission he can recite all the people I'm attempting with. Doing that gives you a huge advantage.

Characteristic No. 7: Winners admit mistakes quickly. Self-control and visible thinking enables them to admit their mistakes. It allows them to correct the problem fast.

Characteristic No. 8: Winners learn from their mistakes. Winners rarely make the same mistakes twice. An obsession combined with self-control helps them learn from those mistakes. I've blown countless games of Trek, but I'm glad to say I've never done it the same way twice.

Characteristic No. 9: Winners accept responsibility. They don't complain about how they lost the game. They don't complain because they accept the game as it is - with all its frustrations. When you accept the responsibility it allows you to focus on the only thing you can control: Your own decisions. When I lost to Matthew Frid at Worlds last year, when he pulled the only card he could to win, it wasn't bad luck. I didn't make a bad play but apparently it was the wrong one. I lost the game.

Characteristic No. 10: Winners depersonalize conflicts. Since winning is the goal, an anger or desire for revenge would reduce your edge. If I go to Worlds looking to get Frid back, I would be losing focus on my real objective: winning.

Characteristic No. 11: Winners adjust to changes. The last 1E Worlds they banned cards. This killed the deck I was planning. I dealt with it. I touched on this last month with the meta-game; some decks can win one place and get crushed in another. You have to adjust to what is being played at your tournaments.

Characteristic No. 12: Winners are selectively aggressive. In poker this means waiting for the right cards, right position, the right opponent, or all three. Then they attack. In Trek you can have those things as well. How do you attack? This is where I would start the mind games. If I can think of a way to rattle my opponent I'll do it. Some people may look down at these tactics but I don't. If there's something that you can say to make your opponent lose his concentration I say go for it. Be careful, if you're focusing on how to do this more than your game it defeats the point.

Why do you play Trek?

If you ask a poker player why they play 99% will say, "To make money." They are kidding themselves. First, most of them are losers. Second, nobody does anything just for one reason. In the book it has you rate your motives for playing poker. They are:

Make Money __%
Socialize, meet people __%
Relax __%
Get excitement of risk __%
Test self against competitive challenges __%
Sense of accomplishment from winning __%
Pass Time __%
Other (specify) __%

The blank spaces should add up to 100. Here's what I think an average Trek players motives are:

Make Money 0%
Socialize, meet people 50 %
Relax 15%
Get excitement from risk 5%
Test self against competitive challenges 10%
Sense of accomplishment from winning 5%
Pass Time 15%

Now here are my motives for playing Trek:

Make Money 1%
Socialize, meet people 5%
Relax 5%
Get excitement from risk 15%
Test self against competitive challenges 30%
Sense of accomplishment from winning 34%
Pass time 10%

Now my motives are no better from the average player. The point is that we all play for different reasons. If your motives are closer to an average player than most of those characteristics don't matter to you. You play for fun and to hang out with people and there's nothing wrong with that. Like in poker if you there to have fun and lose a little bit of money you really win. You're accomplishing your motives. However, if your motives are similar to mine and you're not accomplishing them they should be important to you. They are what will separate you from the rest of the field. Now here's what's going on in the fine land that is Jersey:

ST:CCG 2E New Jersey Premier Series Standings

1. Len Neidorf 84 Pts.
2. John Corbett 60 Pts.
3. Michael Keller 56 Pts.
4. Nikolai Fomich 50 Pts.
5. Steve Fitchett 28 Pts.
6. James Bottomly 26 Pts.
7. Vera Sergeyeva 16 Pts.
7. Rob Tapp 16 Pts.
9. Matt Sinclair 8 Pts.
9. Tim Geary 8 Pts.
9. Cliff Lentz 8 Pts.
12. Drew Christensen 6 Pts.

NJ Premier Series Schedule

Jan. 24th- KillerBOWL IV, Champion - Len Neidorf
Feb. 22nd- The New Jersey Pre-Territorial Open, Champion - Michael Keller
Mar. 28th - New Jersey Territorial, Champion - Michael Keller
Apr.17th & 18th - The Jersey Masters, Champion - Len Neidorf
May 16th - The New Jersey Player's Championship, Cinnaminson NJ, (Major) $10 entry fee Prizes: $25 Cash (minimum) Foils- Martok (2), Shinzon, Storage Compartment Rares- Elim Garak, Seven of Nine, Storage Compartment + Packs
*NEW* June 6th - NJ Maiden Voyage (The Kellerman Invitational), Denville NJ
July- KillerSLAM!
Sep.- The World Champion Invitational
Oct.- The World Series of Trek
Nov.- KillerBAD BLOOD!
Dec.- The New Jersey Premier Series Championship (Major) $10 entry fee

Point Breakdown
1st - 24 Pts.
2nd- 18 Pts.
3rd & 4th- 14 Pts.
5th thru 8th - 8 Pts.
9th thru 16th - 6 Pts.
17th thru 24th - 2 Pts.
26th thru 32nd - 1 Pt.
*Majors worth double points*

The last month saw both Title belts changing hands. Nikolai, riding a huge push after beating Mike and myself in a previous tournament, took the Cruiserweight Belt (1750 rating or lower) away from Steve. In the last tournament Mike had the option of putting up the belt against Len or myself or nobody, if he didn't we would both have a shot at the Player's Championship. He decided to give Len the shot. This was a bad move. He lost his game to Len. I managed a timed win over Len. (A nice one where he was attempting a mission in overtime for the win and he double crewed. I stopped the first with Whisper in the Dark; I failed to draw a Timescape, I was running 3! I stopped the second by using Machinations to download Talosian Trial to hit the second away team with the same Whispers) However, I lost to Mike's Borg Deck, again. I thought I could abuse it with In Training, I was wrong. So Len won the belt and became the first ever two-time World Heavyweight Champion. The 16th will be the Player's Championship, the first of two "Majors", and it'll be another new format. Three rounds and then the top four will have a playoff. Once again it'll be Len and I battling it out for the World Heavyweight Title.

Now that you know if you have the "Right Stuff" you need the "Right Skills" Next month we'll discuss exactly what that is. Until then, I'll see you clowns around.

John Corbett

P.S. any questions, stories, hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net

Ruling New Jersey - Volume 1, Issue 3

2004-08-03T00:28:00.000-04:00

Let's start this months article with a good old KillerB battle. This month it's with Tristan Marsman of Decipher. A couple of weeks ago I contributed to the Q Series article on DGMA. The next time I contributed I got cut and didn't make it in to the article. Needless to say, I was a little annoyed with this. So I sent him an e-mail:

Will Hawkins? Now this is some funny shit. I can't wait to hear what the 142 ranked player in the world has to say on the game. Are you kidding me? My new name for you is the "Ringmaster" because you got nothing but a bunch of clowns writing for you. Thanks for proving my point. I appreciate the good laugh.

I guess I struck a nerve and he responded with:

Dude, you're such a loser... You're like the evil player that couldn't do nothing. I'd be surprised if you made top 10 in the WC this year. In fact, I think I'll be there to witness you not becoming WC this year either.

Thanks for making me laugh again over yet another silly email, since you don't get the point. You're so unlike the other highranked players; you lack, among a lot of other things, personality and a good writing style. And, most of all, you keep missing the target.

Keep it up and maybe someday, you'll become WC of something. I'll be picking people for my own website until then, thanks. My new name for you is number 5. Funny, last time I talked to you, you seemed to be higher up on the list.

Well, I just had to respond myself:

Top 10? I hope you're there when I run all your boys out. Your the "Ringmaster" and I'm going to abuse every member of the "clown squad". Now how's that for writing style? Your right, I'm not like other highranked player. What's the difference? I NEVER miss the target, and that's the Title. One of your clowns won it last year but he had to go through me to do it. Don't you forget who I am, the most recongnized player in the game. I didn't do that without any personality. Loser? Son, check this picture out and tell me your pulling better tail than this. And that's only one of them. I'll see your punk ass at GenCon, if you can't find me I'll be the guy on the stage with the big trophy.

John Corbett
http://home.comcast.net/~surfitch/
Don't jerkoff too hard you geek

He responded again, I guess:

Fine, if you really want to go into this.

> Top 10? I hope you're there when I run all your boys out. Your the Ringmaster and I'm going to abuse every member of the "clown squad". Now how's that for writing style?

Well, you spelled "your" incorrect, 2 times.

> Your right, I'm not like other highranked player.

Oh, there it is again.

> What's the difference? I NEVER miss the target, and that's the Title. One of your clowns won it last year but he had to go through me to do it.

Oh boy. Reality check: you weren't even in the final.

> Don't you forget who I am, the most recongnized player in the game. I didn't do that without any personality.

Illusions of Grandeur again. Oh well, I guess that's to be expected. All you can do is talk. When you fail to talk you make up stupid shit to mess up conventions. When that fails, you're left with playing the game at Tier 1, at which you didn't really do good (let's face it, Hayes was better than you and he only played because he thought it was easier than LotR).

> Loser? Son, check this picture out and tell me your pulling better tail than this. And that's only one of them. I'll see your punk ass at GenCon, if you can't find me I'll be the guy on the stage with the big trophy.

Didn't know they were giving out trophies for losers this year... I will need to check

The Hayes thing was too much, I had to break it down to him:

Oh, we can go.

> Well, you spelled "your" incorrect, 2 times.

Oh God, don't make fun of my bad grammar. If that's what you think it takes to be a good strategy writer no wonder you got clowns writing for you.

> Oh boy. Reality check: you weren't even in the final.

Your boy Frid got a lucky ass win off me Day 3, you better check in to reality son.

> let's face it, Hayes was better than you and he only played because he thought it was easier than LotR.

I BEAT hayes Day 2, are you fucking kidding me? Plus, I never seen somebody choke so bad before in my life. That fool ain't got no skills. I don't mess up conventions, I make them famous.

> Didn't know they were giving out trophies for losers this year... I will need to check.

What's that I can't hear you? Didn't think you did. Don't be jealous, maybe at GenCon I'll let her sit on yout lap. I bet it's been awhile since you've touched a girl.

I really like that last line, probably because it's true. He came back with this:

> Your boy Frid got a lucky ass win off me Day 3, you better check in to reality son.

My boy Frid won the World Championships. You finished nowhere near him. That's reality for ya.

> I BEAT hayes Day 2, are you fucking kidding me? Plus, I never seen somebody choke so bad before in my life. That fool ain't got no skills. I don't mess up conventions, I make them famous.

Hayes was in the final. There's reality knocking on your door again. The "fool" got the skill to beat you to the final.

> What's that I can't hear you? Didn't think you did. Don't be jealous, maybe at GenCon I'll let her sit on yout lap. I bet it's been awhile since you've touched a girl.

I'm not getting into a girlfriend debate, that's so extremely lame... Even lamer than this, since I got the list of the top 2 finishers of the WC last year sitting right here at my desk, and, funny enough for me, you're not on it.

Sorry if I make you feel bad.

Ah, I knew that last line would get him. I was smelling blood and wrote this:

> My boy Frid won the World Championships. You finished nowhere near him. That's reality for ya.

Um, 3rd place, and in "reality" I was ties for 2nd. You reading thats list in front of you right?

> Hayes was in the final. There's reality knocking on your door again. The "fool" got the skill to beat you to the final.

That fool was lucky enough not to have to play me day 3 or he wouldn't of been in the final.

> I'm not getting into a girlfriend debate, that's so extremely lame... Even lamer than this, since I got the list of the top 2 finishers of the WC last year sitting right here at my desk, and, funny enough for me, you're not on it.

I sure your a master-debater. Now that's style son. Bring that list with you to GenCon so I can wipe my ass with it

> Sorry if I make you feel bad,

Sorry, clowns like you make me laugh and feel pretty good.

After that he sent something saying thanks for the funny little e-mails and that he had to get back to work. Sounded like somebody tapping out to me. It was good stuff though, nothing like a good battle to get you motivated for Worlds. Now hereâ€™s how the TOC season went for me.

Two Territorials in 24 hours

It all starts with a bad beat story, like most things in my life do. It's Thursday night and I'm playing No-Limit at the Tropicana in Atlantic City with my Russian girlfriend. I'm up $300 and about to leave, I decide to limp in (when there's a small raise and you call) with 83 suited. The flop comes 3,J,3 and it's three-handed. I'm first to act and the player to my left is a player and to his left some fish (a term for easy money) I never seen before. I check, the player to my left bets $22 and the fish calls. With about $40 in the pot pre-flop and $44 just bet I wanted to get these guys out of the hand and go home with that so I decided to move all-in (the guy to my left had only $100 and the fish about $300). The guy to my left folds, he knows me too well, the fish thinks about it for a while. We were joking earlier about going all-in so I said, 'Well, here's your chance buddy.' A sure tell (a sign giving away someone's hand) I have a three, this being wasted since he's not that good. He says, 'Fuck it' and calls. I tell him I have a three and he says, 'That's good for now.' The Turn a Queen and the River a King. Then he flips over his two cards, KK! A full house! Going into the river he's a 95.6% underdog, but that's poker baby. I pay him off, $297. I do some math in my head; I'm still up $37 for the night. So I pick up my checks (chips) and leave. On the 'long' drive home (it takes about an hour but after a bad beat it always seems longer) I remember about the tournament in Yorktown VA. So I decided I needed a little break from poker and I want to be the one pooping on people's heads.

I drop the Russian off and get home about 5 a.m. Friday morning, tell the 'wife' to pack some stuff, call out of work (she was a little sick) and that we're going down to Virginia. My Dad lives in Newport News, which is about 3 miles from the store so I give him a call a head down.

Saturday morning I get to the store and I'm walking when this guy points and says, 'John Corbett?' I didn't recognize him and just kept walking like he was a nobody, I thought he was just some local clown who recognized me. Then realized it was John from Decipher who was the judge at Worlds. I said, 'Sorry buddy, I didn't recognize you without the Decipher shirt on. I didn't mean to clown you like that.' John's a good guy, he runs a good tournament and decided to run this event so the original TD could play. See, I don't hate everyone who's affiliated with Decipher.

The Territorial runs smoothly for me after 5 rounds. I took my Dominion Infiltrator deck. Problem is it only gets timed wins. But I did manage one full win and after 5 rounds I was tied for 2nd. Since I never lost I owned any tie-breakers and played the final against a guy I already beat. With final confrontations being untimed he knew his chances were not good. He was also playing Dominion but his was a Jem'Hadar solver. He put up a good fight but I won in the end. Got my T-shirt and my byes and some of my Trek confidence back. Grabbed my stuff and the World Heavyweight Belt, which everyone in Virginia marked out for, and headed home.

I got home to New Jersey about 4:30 a.m. and got about 5 hours sleep, picked up the Russian and was ready to go again. This time there was more at stake; if Michael Keller wins not only is he the Territorial Champ he also would win the World Title. I decide to play the same deck, with a couple of changes. This would prove to be a fatal error. The first round I'm paired against my Russian. I only had time to teach her in one game. So this game went pretty slow and I got a timed win. I draw Kellerman, as I like to call him, in the 2nd round. He's playing the 'broken-ass gay Borg Deck', my new name for it. This thing is fast and it is stupid. Discard half your deck by interlinking and then swapping all the drones you need with the Queen, nice and broken. I put up a little struggle but it's pointless and he wins. 3rd round I get a bye, shit, I'll take 3 points. 4th round I get Len, he's playing the same-old Cardassian Comfort Women deck, but the worst part is he's winning with it. He's off by turn 3 and my dilemmas crap out on me, for some reason I draw like 1 event in the first 4 turns and that kinda hurts when it's all based around Formal Hearings, Tsolvski Infections and Whisper in the Dark. So I get abused again, for some reason I get the worst situations against Mike and Len, I've made these guys into monsters. Kellerman wins his last game when Nikolai blows it when he could've solved his last mission. He hit Gomtuu Shockwave and he only had one Diplomacy (Kell), but he had Telepathy but Integrity at exactly 35. What he missed was that he had a shady resource and could've had the two Diplomacy and he would've been over the 32 integrity that's required. Len was hounding him for missing that play, they playtest a lot together, but I told him not to worry about it. That's a tough play to see, and he's still a young player. He'll be good someday.

So the final was Len versus Kellerman with my title hanging in the balance. I wanted to leave but since the belt might change hands I was forced to sit and watch. Len jumped out to a commanding lead. At this point I was feeling pretty good. Len was up 2 missions and Kellerman was working on his first. Len got stopped on his third and had four underneath. Kellerman drops another ship, solves the mission where he's at, swaps ships, goes to the 2nd mission, solves that and heads to the third. He's about to get 100 points in one turn and abuse the shit out of Len, but Kellerman gets stopped by a Flim-flam; no Locutus out for him, too bad. Len has 5 guys on his last mission, he plays two guys, picks them up and goes back. He attempts with 7 and gives Kellerman 3 points to work with. Why he would give 3 points to a guy who's playing an attrition dilemma pile is beyond me. I'm sure there was a better play he could've made. Kellerman draws a Dressing Down and it's lights out for Len. Kellerman drops a Locutus and attempts again, survives a So Many Enemies and a Murder Investigation, solves the mission and wins. What a bum Len is, he blows the Territorial and in the process gives the belt to Kellerman. All kidding aside, Mike's a good player and it'll be tough for anybody to take it from around his waist (I'm sorry Mike, I had to do it). The deck might be broken, but he put the effort in and earned this tournament and the Belt.

The fatal error I made was not adjusting to the metas of each TOC. I knew I wasn't going to see any competition in Virginia. I'm not being a dick, you guys played good there, I'm just saying. So I could get away with a slower, stall-type deck, but in Jersey that stuff won't win. I knew Kellerman was playing Borg and Len always plays something fast. The only way to beat speed is with speed, unless you get lucky. I don't get lucky, ever. So take a lesson from me, if everyone is playing speed in your area get faster or get luckier. You can only prepare for one.

So overall I say the trip was a success, I lost the Belt and got abused in Jersey again but I owned Virginia and got my byes. Next month is the Jersey Master and the new Green Jacket will be awarded to the winner. With a new prize comes a new format, there will be two separate tournaments on Saturday and Sunday. But the combined scores from both will determine who wins the Jacket and the NJ Premier Points.

For pictures go to:
http://home.comcast.net/~surfitch/NJ_2004_TOC/NJ2004TOC.htm

Here's April's Standings in the New Jersey Premier Series:

1. Len Neidorf 60 Pts.
2. Michael Keller 48 Pts.
3. John Corbett 42 Pts.
4. Nikolai Fomich 36 Pts.
5. James Bottomly 26 Pts.
6. Rob Tapp 16 Pts.
7. Steve Fitchett 14 Pts.
8. Cliff Lentz 8 Pts.
9. Vera Sergeyeva 8 Pts.

NJ Premier Series Schedule

Jan. 24th- KillerBOWL IV, Champion: Len Neidorf
Feb. 22nd- The New Jersey Pre-Territorial Open, Champion: Michael Keller
Mar. 28th - New Jersey Territorial, Champion: Michael Keller
Apr.- The Jersey Masters, Cinnaminson NJ
May- The New Jersey Player's Championship (Major) $10 entry fee
July- KillerSLAM!
Sep.- The World Champion Invitational
Oct.- The New Jersey Premier Series Fall Classic
Nov.- KillerBAD BLOOD!
Dec.- The New Jersey Premier Series Championship (Major) $10 entry fee

Point Breakdown

1st- 24 Pts.
2nd- 18 Pts.
3rd & 4th- 14 Pts.
5th thru 8th- 8 Pts.
9th thru 16th- 6 Pts.
17th thru 24th- 2 Pts.
26th thru 32nd- 1 Pt.
* Majors worth double points

Prizes
$60 cash (minimum)
Complete Set of Premier 2E Foils
Complete Set of Enhance 1E Premier
#1 Contender for the WTE Title and more to come (donations welcome)

We actually have something in the mailbag this month and it comes from Olav Rokne:

Hey John,

I really am enjoying your New Jersey article series-- finally a reason to read WNOHGB again. Plus it's getting me stoked for Gen Con.

Perhaps I'll have a chance to lose a game to you :-)

--Olav

Last year at GenCon I was waiting for my flight home when this guy behind me heard Len and I talking about Trek. It was Olav. We talked for the brief time while we were in line and he seemed like a good guy. I hope you get your chance Olav, unless it's sealed. A lot of players when they see me say, 'I remember you, I beat you before.' I'm ask them when and they always say some sealed event. I tell them good for you but I don't count sealed. There's nothing wrong with being a good sealed deck player, it's just not my forte. I don't recall playing Olav in sealed, but I'm sure he would beat me as well.

I just want to wrap this up with a little something for Tristan Marsman. Just in case you wonder where I got my 'Illusions of Grandeur' from this might help:

John Corbett - 46 picks
Brian Sykes - 23 picks
Justin Beal - 18 picks
Kris Sonsteby - 18 picks
Hayes Hunter - 13 picks
Michael Keller - 12 picks
Franklin Kenter - 12 picks
Jesse Carlucci - 11 picks
Greg Hodur - 10 picks
Robert Corbett - 8 picks
Matthew Frid - 8 picks

This is last years fantasy team picks. Since you like lists so much I thought I jolt your memory with one. I pulled it off of 'your' website. I believe I have twice as many votes as any other player. That would make me the most recognized player in the game. You're not the first man to doubt me and, I'm sure, not the last. But in the end, just like the rest, you will come to know that I am just THAT DAMN GOOD! I'll see you clowns around. And Tristan, I'll see you at Worlds.

John Corbett- "How can you not sing for all to hear?"

P.S. any questions, stories, fan/hate mail please feel free to send to johncorbettjr2 at comcast dot net