Good Card, Bad Card #37

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. :(