Wesley's STCCG card of the day #200

Hi, folks,

This is the day! And not a Captain's Holiday again (that one gets stale). After scrambling through over 40 entries from 25 persons, I have finally made some sense out of all the texts and picked the ten most interesting cards (one from myself,nine from others). And to give the best chances to everyone, I also restricted myself to one card for each person entering something. So we have ten different authors for this nifty little ex- pansion set. The question remained, where should I start. So I am going in inverse ranking order, starting at 10th and going up to 1st. And the ranking is not just mine but derived from the ratings I got in. And if somebody gave a "coolness rating" besides the gameplay rating, I used the former...

And here it comes...

Star Trek: Collectible Card Game
The Internet Expansion

Rank # 10, 557 points, Author: Isaac Garza.

SPOT

Personnel, Federation, rare.
Integrity 6
Cunning 4
Strength 1
ANIMAL, All attributes +2 if Data present, attribute numbers can be switched around at will.
"Spot is Lt. Cmdr Data's pet cat. After experiencing several or her appearance changes, Enterprise-D crewmembers have openly speculated that she might indeed be a shapeshifter."
That flavor text just did it. Besides a funny special ability, this variant of Spot (I got four different of these kitties) actually reflects best the one(s) that was/were on the show :-) Now for the game value of the card. Before delving into strategy we have to clarify a timing issue. You have a special ability that is played as an action (Swapping stats). You can use it whenever an action is legal and this means not during any other action (as it does not mention an action during whose course it may be used). So you can use the ability whenever an interrupt is legal, which does not include
- in the midst of an away team battle,
- during Dilemma resolution,
- between two Dilemmas if the crew or away team is unstopped,
- between the last Dilemma and the mission evaluation if the crew is unstopped.

So basically you have to decide on Spot's stats before any Mission attempt or battle. But you can interrupt your opponent's announcing of a battle to sharpen a few claws...

What can you gain? A 6/4/1 is nothing to write home about, and in the skill department little Spot is less than well-equipped. Even using the Data bonus you only have an 8/6/3 personnel whose special ability makes it a somewhat weakened 8/8/8 without any skills. And that is not much in a game whose nots and bolts are skills. But Spot might still come in handy as an attribute provider when facing things like Hologram ruse (she smelled something wrong), Shaka (cats' natural understanding), Malfunctioning door (claws like steel) or battles (did you ever have 20 claws and 10 pounds of fur in your face?).

Better than a phaser or PADD anyway, as you can also boost integrity and the bonus can be employed more variably.

Favorite combo(s):
Ratings for : SPOT 

Wesley's rating:                3.5
Cole's rating:                  5.0
Conner's rating:                6.0
Heather's rating:               8.0
Jack's rating:                  6.2
John's rating:                  7.5
Leto's rating:                  1.5
Q's rating:                     8.0
Ray's rating:                   1.5
Tony's rating:                  1.0
----------------------
AVERAGE RATING:                 4.82
Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: crusher@kiss.de

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With all back issues from #1 up to today !

LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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