Wesley's STCCG card of the day #51

Hi, folks,

here's a killer for ya:

NAGILUM

Dilemma, space, rare.
5 points
Half of crew is killed (random selection, round down) unless 3 Diplomacy OR STRENGTH>40 aboard. Discard dilemma.
"Extra-dimensional entity willing to kill in order to understand the concept of mortality."

This is one of the very few powerful space-only dilemmas and as such a staple in many decks although it is more an average than a great card. Its effect is unique in the game so far as it is placed between the few kill-all dilemmas and the numerous kill/disable/discard-one cards. However, IMHO the results place it very close to the all-around killers insofar that the opponent will in most cases be forced to abandon the mission and take time to recover. He will just have the chance to recover a little faster.

The conditions to avoid the dilemma consist of one hard to meet requirement (3 Diplomacy; almost impossible unless playing Feds) and an easy STRENGTH threshold of 40 (Just bring any sufficiently large crew). As it is enough to satisfy ONE of these conditions the Diplomacy requirement tends to have little if any effect in play. (Data and Worf alone have a STRENGTH of 22, add Picard to get your three Diplomacy and you have 28. The remaining 13 points will easily be contributed by the needed ENGINEER, SCIENCE and MEDICAL unless the player uses Vekor or Dr. Reyga. So even a Fed crew is pretty safe...)

Also, Nagilum tends to be pretty hard to combine with other Dilemmas. Well, play an Ancient Computer after it and hope Nagilum does his work or try Nitrium Metal Parasites. Even worse are the possibilities to prepare for Nagilum. There isn't a single Space Dilemma that lets you get rid of a single cremember at a time, much less do so with opponent's selection. The best way to play it is to place it under an easy mission and hope the opponent is stupid enough to rush in with little personnel. Note also that it is absolute- ly safe to redshirt Nagilum! 1/2 killed crewmember, rounded down just isn't THAT big a loss :-).

In tournaments Nagilum will probably be considered a sideboard card for oppo- nents trying to play a space-mission strategy. In friendly, low- to mid-level (sub-COTD) play it can be considered a must in every deck; there are just too many people falling for such stuff... But whom do I tell this, regular COTD readers are immune to such primitive traps.

Favorite combo(s):

This card lacks obvious combos. I tend to combine it with whatever is left over after I built my other Dilemma stacks.

Ratings for : NAGILUM

Wesley's rating:                7.0
Allen Castaban's rating:        7.5
Data's rating:                  Doesn't have
Habib's rating:                 6.5
Bryan's rating:                 8.0
Jeff's rating:                  8.75
Holt Kernodle's rating:         7.0
Jack's rating:                  6.9
Jason's rating:                 Doesn't have
----------------------
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.4

PS: Typical ST:CCG player's monologue

- Ah, so I know 51 good cards. Now I can beat everybody.
- Oh, he's got no Internet Access... good.
- Let's play for ante, shall we?
- Darn, yet another white border all-common deck. Won't win anything sensible.
- Now what's THAT strategy good for?
- Oops???
- HOW many points?
- Anyone selling a limited Picard?

Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: blohmer@pips11.informatik.uni-mannheim.de

LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"