*these are not intended to be factual statements*
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.
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.
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.
1 comment:
And don't forget Souls of the Dead is also an interrupt, and can be prevented by numerous cards. Nothing you can do about Kira's ability at all.
Nick
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