Good Card, Bad Card #84

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The above is just a little fun we had at the last tournament this past Sunday. BenHosp played the NA Reliant and then a nerdfest broke out. I played a Tier-1 deck at a local and had to apologize after each win. I forgot how stupid the deck was and how downloading is still an epidemic in 2E. I should've never played it. So for today's GCBC you're going to get a double shot of bad. Two cards I abused the crap out of Sunday. BenHosp is right, I'm a terrible human being and probably a sociopath.

Good Card: Small Problems

Why: I was a scumbag for playing a Quantum Filament/Rogue Borg Ship pile at a 4-person local, but I give myself a sliver of credit for using a card that nobody has ever played. It's a great combo with Rogue Borg Ship. It cost 3, so it can be abused with Subliminal Signal. Outside of that terrible stuff, it's not too bad on it's own. I can't think of too many bad matchups for it, outside Borg. Most affiliations have a good number of gold stars, usually at least 40% of the personnel. Some, like Cardassian, are super heavy on gold stars. So dig into your box of commons and dust off a couple of these.

Bad Card: K'Tal, Senior Council Member

Why: He should at least say 'once each turn'. K'Tal wasn't a problem until they made Guidance of the Council in Reflections. That created the stupid 'Klingon Download Chain'. As we know, the decks that are well above the power curve all involve downloading. Maquis didn't get silly until the new Amaros was made. Luckily, this is a known fact in Design now and future downloading hopefully will be kept to a minimum. The current downloading is still a problem. Klingon Tea Ceremony doesn't see a lot of play. Even if it hits the table, it only slows the chain down a little.

Bad Card: Energize

Why: You want to know why Borg and Klingon were the most abusive decks for the longest time? Energize is why. They both had a personnel who can download it (K'mtar and Fourth), and they had a card who could download that personnel (Guidance and Quintessence). What was I saying about downloads? Anyways, the only way you have a chance against either of these decks is to destroy Energize early. If not, forget about it, you simply can't keep up. Borg is even more ridiculous since the Energize never goes away with Fifth. People give newer cards like Sense of Obligation heat, they don't like it for some reason. But this game needs more quick event destruction. Anybody who doesn't like Sense needs to sit down and play one or two games against what I played Sunday. I'll make a believer out of them real quick.

Good Card, Bad Card #83

 


 "When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
-Thomas Jefferson

We have wars at home and abroad. I was saddened to learn that 1200 of the roughly 2000 deaths in the Afghan War have come since Obama became president. Most people close to me think "Barack's my boy", but that's mostly because I correct them when they say silly shit about him. Of all the bad things I've heard people say about him I've never heard anything about this. They care about taxes, healthcare, Kenya, but they don't care that more Americans have died in that useless wasteland during his presidency (which is only now half through) then during the 8-year Bush 2.0 administration. I can't defend "my boy" on this one. Sad part is, America's longest war isn't "scheduled" to end for another two years. Funny, I don't remember WWII being scheduled to end. Back then wars ended when you won them. That's how you know the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were just bullshit war mongering all along.

At home in Michigan the people are rising up. They've gone after the labor unions and they did it like assassins. I'm no sweetheart on the unions. They can get corrupt just like any other large organization. But I trust them more then the "aristocracy of our monied corporations" (I promise, the last Jefferson quote of the day). Now I'm not advocating violence, but I think they should keep raising hell. Republican controlled state houses in many states are up to all sorts of silliness and people needs to keep an eye on them. If you need proof just see what the yahoos in Arizona have done recently.

From serious political stuff to star trek cards. Now that's silliness. But we all need hobbies. If not I'd just watch Fox News all the time while drinking scotch. At least then maybe it would start making sense. I've been catching some heat (and it's caused a little trouble in Design), for being "Mr. Negative" about certain sets. If you're taking personal me expressing opinions on cards from sets that came out 3 years ago you need to relax. Maybe since I'm working on a set now people think I have to be a cheerleader or something. That's not going to happen. After the next set comes out if people want to start a blog and crap all over it more power to them. If something stinks it deserves what people say. If you think I won't criticize a card in a set because I was on the Design team, then you don't know me very well. Nobody shits on me better than me. Today I'm being positive, picking two cards from a set I like "Tacking into the Wind" (and not because Insurrection is in it). I remember when this set was in the works and liked the idea of a 'ships-based' set. I think it turned out real well and the guys on that design team should be proud. Now let me put down my pom-poms.

Good Card: Cosette, Reliable Raider

Why: The other day I set out to make a 'pure' Maquis deck. By pure I mean DMZ missions and a deck that doesn't revolve around shoving the Defiant down your opponent's throat. I never gave this ship it's proper look when it came out. It's really good. A ship with great attributes and a fortress for your events. I get off on playing obscure cards and was building a deck with Strafing Fire (so obscure I thought it was called Strafing Run). Since I'm not really a Maquis player (besides one Santos abuse deck years ago) my dumbass was doing that before stumbling onto the Cosette. What a relief to learn that I can play this card now without worry of wasting 5 counters. Now you can't always rig your opponent's deck so the top card is a personnel, but there are some way to get the odds in your favor. Easiest way, play Caretaker's "Guests", that's should lock it up. Second, play Kenneth Dalby. This Voyager scumbag can look at the top card of your opponent's deck at the start of your turn then place it on the top or bottom. Lastly, get the Valjean out. Use this ship's order first and if it's not a personnel that card goes on the bottom. The last two tricks should work about 50% of the time.

Bad Card: John Harriman, Captain of the Enterprise

Why: Wasted potential. John Harriman isn't terrible, I just feel he got watered down and drowned in text. That's a 5-line ability that just isn't that good. Why am I disappointed? Because it's Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I liked that character so much I named my 3rd born after him. I love the Enterprise-B, it's tough to make ships that score points that can't be abused in some way. My main problem with the ability is the price, a random card from hand. That a steep price to gain a skill on a personnel. A simple card from hand should've sufficed. One thing I like is that the personnel doesn't have to be 'present', they have to be on a staffed ship at the mission. This is sneaky, like the way Comfort Women is sneaky. Most people don't realize on that card the NA personnel only has to be at the mission. This provides some piece of mind, you can leave a person on the ship and not have to worry about not taking the right skill. Second thing I like, he's got the "mark of the beast", 6-6-6 attributes. Third, he's cheap. It's a raw deal giving Cameron the 'bad card' title, but when I made the deck with the Enterprise-B I ended up cutting him. That's a shame. Being true to the character and legacy, he's just a little bit off.


 

Ruling New Jersey- Volume 2, Issue 6

You can almost tell from body language which British guy in that picture really doesn't like me much. I'm not going to say which one. That was from GenCon earlier this year. They all should've been thrilled. For the first time ever Team Jersey lost a team event, to these bums no less. I blame Neil and BenHosp for selling us out to play board games or something.

Today I have a short, off-the-cuff list of the Top 20 "Played Out" Dilemmas in 2E. Some are good, some are bad, some are ugly. By "played out" I mean cards I'm just sick of seeing. I love it when I see a player try new stuff, or give old stuff another shot. When Ed stopped me with "Rock" People last year I had a dorkgasm (I'm trademarking that word right now). Now remember, this list might be skewed because of the "snake pit" meta I play in. It is interesting how different dilemmas are played in different areas. That is because most people subconsciously 'follow the leader'. Sometimes, especially Tier-1 players, get so stuck-in-a-rut, so keyed off of what other players are doing, they never get outside of their comfort zone. They never try something new and risky. So step up people, think outside-the-box, go through that binder, and do something cool and interesting for a change. Stop playing these cards....

#20 Old Differences
I hate this card, I never play it. But yet I still see this dilemma too much. 3 cost for two random stops isn't terrible, but it's just so goddamn boring. This is the most flavor-less dilemma in 2E. Best is when, I've had this happen twice, you're attempting a 40 pointer and your opponent forgets it now cost 4 and overpays for dilemmas.

#19 Moral Choice/Shocking Betrayal 
These cards are really the same. You play Moral Choice when not playing Fed, and Shocking Betrayal when you do. Only difference is that one makes you a hypocrite. Moral Choice was always sucky because it hits Voyager and DS9, two affiliations that aren't overpowered. And it hits Maquis, which makes no sense at all. Too much collateral damage with that card.

#18 Show Trial 
It really is too good to pass up. 2 cost stopper that requires a skill. And when you're losing it's clutch.

#17 Insurrection
I think the cats out of the bag and most people know I was behind this card (But I'll let Mr. Hoffman take the credit). I was shocked by how many people disliked this card. Easy missions were heroin and it took awhile to get them off that smack. I play decks with easy missions now just to make people realize that Insurrection is a good card for the game. Problem is, players in my area play it and it has cost me some games.

#16 Coolant Leak
This card was needed. But what pisses me off is when I have two 1-cost personnel and then just happen to have 4 engineers. That always seems unfair. Another case of collateral damage.

#15 Oracle's Punishment
See, Germans can have good ideas that don't ruin the world. What I am to Insurrection Mr. Klaurhauser is to the Oracle (I'm not sure if that's public knowledge, add it to my list of leaks). I'm the #1 abuser of this card. I was playing Debate Over Dinner just to nix the consume. I hate "heroes", and this is the ultimate hero-stopper.

#14 Timescape
Problem is, when you have only one card that can do something important in a game you see it over-and-over again.

#13 Hard Time
If this list was made 5 years ago, this would be #1.

#12 The Caretaker's "Guest's"
It's probably the best early-game dilemma. If your opponent has no answer for it, the results can be devastating. Downside is, this card can be useless by late-game or if your opponent has clever defenses.

#11 Intimidation
People just love this card. They are ga-ga for it. It's Borg and Klingon hate, I do like that. But it's just another non-skill 4-coster that only stops two sometimes.

#10 In Development 
Back in the day it was In Training, now it's In Development. Weenie hate got an upgrade with this card.

#9 Mugato
I'm just not a fan of this card. I usually love dilemmas that don't go under the mission, but Mugato just doesn't stick with me. I try to use it sometimes, but I find it's a bad matchup against too many decks I see.

#8 The Clown: Guillotine/Bold Plan/All-Consuming Evil
It's the new "Unholy Trinity". With Tragic Turns long awaited, long deserved errata, players bypassed TT and went straight for the super consume strategy.

#7 Pitching In
Tough to beat the payoff of 2 stops for 1 cost. But I shy away from it when I can. Low cost decks are on the decline, and the stops can be prevented with no penalty. And when somebody play George Primmin you might as well make it a blank card.

#6 Miner Revolt
Now we're getting into the really played out dilemmas. Lots of play in my area. Like Pitching In, for some reason I stay away from it.

#5 Agonizing Encounter
I'm so bored of my opponent drawing dilemmas, then looking at my missions, then asking, "What does Agonizing get me?" I just tell them because I want to hurry up, but I'm thinking 'Look at the missions asshole and figure it out!'.

#4 Gomtuu Shock Wave
Two integrity requirements was one of the biggest mistakes ever made on a card. It's still a staple in most decks. Why not, so many affiliations simply have too much trouble with it.

#3 An Issue of Trust
Like Gomtuu, this dilemma would simply wipe out certain affiliations. They had to make a whole series of personnel because of this dilemma. And that really hasn't slowed down it's play.

#2 Excalbian Drama
Integrity being an only requirement for a dilemma, you would've thought they learned their lesson back then. Nope. Even worse, it's zero cost and can almost become a de facto infinite requirement.

#1 Where No One Has Gone Before
I had an epiphany last time I was building a dilemma pile. I was doing the usual (what I've been doing for probably the last 4 years), putting in two WNOHGB's, and cards that set that up. Then I started thinking 'this is what everyone does now. It's what I prepare for, and what everyone else prepares for'. Why? Because you get sucked in by the payoff. It's the only card that can cost your opponent a whole turn. But do you really need that? Isn't the turn you stop your opponent enough? It should be. If I need an extra turn then I probably need a faster deck. So I said enough and swore to stop using WNOHGB. My dilemma pile worked fine, and I went 4-0. I wasn't a saint and didn't reinvent the wheel, I did pack two Gomtuu's. Hey, don't hate the player....

Good Card, Bad Card #82

It hasn't been intentional, but I've been crapping on the v-set Raise the Stakes a lot lately. I just kept running into bads card and they keep having the #17 set number on them. But now, once again by accident, I've discovered another reason to hate Raise the Stakes: It's Racist! Let me explain....

The 2E Nagata (the gentleman pictured about from the DS9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations) has strength 6. You say, 'John, what's the big deal about that?' Nothing on the surface, but follow me down the 'Road of Racism'....

In 2E strength 5 is a person of average strength in an 'average' species. Humans, basically. Strength 6 is a 'fit' person of an 'average' species. Nagata is a strapping young man, what's wrong with that? He's an engineer, that's what. Not a security officer. Did he do something in that episode to demonstrate his fitness? No, he just told some people where to go. Let's take a look at other human male engineers. Wesley Crusher (grown up), 5 strength. A young season one Geordi LaForge, 5 strength. Joe Carey, 5 strength. Kelby, 5 strength. Let's look at engineers from his TOS era: Robert Tomlinson, 5 strength. Even Scotty himself, the 3rd in command of the Enterprise, has strength 5. Engineers are 5 strength, that's just how it is.

So why is he different? Because he's Asian. They saw he was Asian, and all Asian people know Kung-Fu.

1E wasn't racist, the Lt. Nagata there has 7-7-5 attributes. 5 is low by 1E standards. Somehow when it was time to bring him to 2E Brad and Charlie assumed he was Bruce Lee. But I guess all Asians aren't 'good at math' because somehow he got dumber in 2E and has cunning 5.

Ok, I'm not saying Brad and Charlie are racist. I'm saying that subconsciously, in their hearts, they believe in Asian stereotypes. Just having some fun with you guys, Merry Christmas.

Kidding aside, let's do some cards. I saw the cardlists on the CC site has a 'random card' link. Click on it and boom, random card. I said what the hell, can't find a better way to pick two cards.

Good Card: Katherine Pulaski, Chief Medical Officer

Why: This was the first card that popped up, and we had winner. I'm sentimental about this card. This card gave my daughter her first win at the Virginia regional earlier this year. Somebody went old school and played DNA Analysis (I give Charlie Barhite props for being the only guy to use this dilemma). Constance luckily had Katherine and her 2 Medical out and she didn't have to stop anyone. There's alot of bad in What You Leave Behind, I've said that plenty, but Pulaski is a clean card. Costed right, good skills, good attributes. Most importantly it was effective Tragic Turn hate. The cards they designed on purpose to tone Tragic Turn down rarely worked. Goes to show, the simplest solutions are always the best.

Bad Card: Liam Bilby, Family Man

Why: The random link showed me I'm a 2E pessimist. It took 15 clicks before I got to a bad card. But it didn't disappoint. We got a bad card that downloads a bad card! Holy shitbox Batman, how haven't I noticed this before? It's not even 'discard a card' to download (it's place a card on top of your deck), so I can't even use to defend Caretaker's Guest. He's cheap, but that doesn't even matter since his attributes are garbage. I have to get off Pickpocket just to make him a functional person. His three random crap skills don't impress me either. Even his name sucks: Liam. Nobody likes a Liam. Liam is a smug British dude who steals your drugs and has sex with your girlfriend. Wait, that would actually make him a pretty cool dude....

Good Card, Bad Card #81

Maybe there's a "War on Christmas", maybe there's not, I don't know. But I know the people who get bent out of shape about it (every other story on Fox News is about it) have their history wrong when they defend it. They say America is founded on judeo-christian values and that this is part of who we are. Actually it's not. The first Puritan settlers saw no justification for celebrating Christmas in scripture and it was forbidden. Christmas wasn't big in New England until the mid-1800's. I think it's all pure silliness. A few wacko left-wingers, and right-wing t.v. nuts who blow it out of proportion to fill time on cable t.v.

Anyways, back to cards. We played a sealed event around here last Sunday. I usually hate, and do terrible, at sealed. But this time I was running it, so it was going to be awesome. "Jersey Sealed". Special rule: 'you could play anyone to an HQ, pay +1 if that person doesn't normally do so'. This lead to some unusual, and fun, collection of personnel. Each player drew two booster packs at random. I pulled a Captain's Log pack. I had a Romulan starter. So I basically had 1 cost Remans running around with a few Voyager personnel. Marquay is a beast in sealed. I went 3-0, but the MVP was the Deyos I pulled in that pack. Switching integrity requirements with cunning was clutch in sealed. For GCBC I'm picking two Premier starter cards.We must go back, fix whatever damage they have done....

Good Card: Shady Resources

Why: You always remember your first. When it came to cheaters in the early days, it paid to be shady. We were weird in Jersey back then. We played Cardassian before it was fashionable. So naturally this card fit. In the sealed this basically won me two games. There nice to get pass those pesky Premier "have a personal with 2 of this skill, or 2 of that skill" dilemmas straight up. Doesn't hurt in sealed when you have Marquay and Deyos running around with their treachery and mad skills. This card doesn't see much play anymore and I'm not sure why. There's tons and tons of personnel with treachery. It just became too easy to pop any skill I guess. But I think this card will become sexy again. Worse case scenario you use it to pitch a guy into your discard pile to screw your opponent's Caretaker's Guest. Also, a good side effect for Stricken Dumb too. Those 'discard a card to' cheaters were annoying back in the day, now they're a good defense.

Bad Card: Cry "Havoc!"

Why: What's the first thing you do when you open a starter deck for sealed? You take out all the D'Arsay Archives (the leftover 1E in my brain always calls this card Masaka Transformations) and Cry Havocs. Why? Because everyone is doing two planets first in sealed and all you get from this card is one lousy kill. Back in the stone ages of 2E design they overestimated the cost on this result, as they did capturing a personnel (see last week's Apprehended). 3 cost + stopping a ship = one random kill. Funny math. It's not their fault, it was a new game they were designing, and battle in 1E was pretty much anything goes. They were so afraid of the 'lockout' that could happen in 1E they got uber-conservative at the start of 2E. But I had an light bulb go off during the sealed. Next special rule: Cry "Havoc!" kills three random personnel. Can't wait for that, that'll be interesting to watch.