Wesley's STCCG card of the day #201

Hi, folks,

here we go again:

Star Trek: Collectible Card Game
The Internet Expansion

Rank # 9, 619 points, Author: Jay (000694476@mcimail.com)

I.D.I.C.

Event, uncommon.
All ships with Male + Female + five different races aboard gain all stats +1, all personnel aboard get CONNING and INTEGRITY +1.
"The Diversity of the Federation is a source of pride and the basis for the ancient principle of Vulcan philosophy."
(Sorry, Jay, I could not resist renaming this one. The +1 instead of the +3 was a typo, but the card got its ratings this way, so I had to keep it.)

The first reaction from Q I got on this one was "Hey, we don't need another Federation booster!" But is this right? I'd say no, and here's why this card is not just a Fed booster:
First, there are lotsa non-aligned races. I counted 16: Angosian, Human, Ktarian, Ferengi, Cardassian, Betazoid, Takaran, Dopterian, Tamarian, Traveler, Vorgon, Cairn and the unnamed races of Amarie, Baran, Vekor and Narik. And not just 16 races, but a large number of good cards here. Roga Danar, Vekor and Dr. Reyga are among the best personnel in the entire game and the Cardassians and Dathon are not too crappy either. Add to this that you'll probably need Ral or Maques for Empathy in any Klingon or Romulan deck, you can easily have four different non-aligned races in play besides your red and green cards.

Let's on the other side take a quick look at my "Blue Lightning" deck, which is pure Federation and uses the very best personnel the Feds and non-aligneds can offer.

[...]
Personnel (14)
Data: Android
Geordi La Forge, Beverly Crusher, Montgomery Scott, Wesley Crusher, Beverly Picard, Jean-Luc Picard, Rachel Garrett, Tasha Yar - Alternate: Humans
Worf: Klingon
Roga Danar: Angosian
Dr. Reyga: Ferengi
Vekor.
Lakanta: Traveler.
[...]

Just seven races and over 50% humans. And Lakanta, Reyga and Worf were the most borderline inclusions in that deck, I was toying around with Will Riker and another doctor (most likely Bev Crusher.) Which means I sometimes sideboard them in and am down to five races with my oh-so-strong Fed deck. And even if I can go with the listed ones, I still need to draw more than 70% of my cards (on average) before I could make any use of the I.D.I.C. bonus.

Now which deck types DO benefit most from I.D.I.C.? Easy: Cheap decks. The common and uncommon non-aligneds are about the best personnel in their rarities and Feds have to offer 12 races in commons and uncommons (compared to just 6 in the rares almost all of which are repeated in the cheaper cards). Klingons have 3 races in their cheap cards (There are Fek'lhr and the Targ!), only the Romulans have nothing in common/uncommon (but a Betazoid and a Human in the dual-affiliation rares!). So there should be decks of any affiliation that can use this card. And the effect? Good enough - it's a speed and protection card for any mission-oriented deck, and especially if playing space missions the extra attribute scores can come in handy. However a good use of this card requires fairly large teams unless you use a deck specially built to have only one member of every race you play (interesting premise!).

Favorite combo(s):
Ratings for : I.D.I.C. 

Wesley's rating:                8.5
Cole's rating:                  7.0
Conner's rating:                5.5
Heather's rating:               6.9
Jack's rating:                  8.5
John's rating:                  8.0
Leto's rating:                  3.5
Q's rating:                     2.0
Ray's rating:                   4.0
Tony's rating:                  8.0
----------------------
AVERAGE RATING:                 6.19
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Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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