Wesley's STCCG card of the day #207

Hi, folks,

now we get down to distributing the medals...

And the Bronze goes to:

Star Trek: Collectible Card Game
The Internet Expansion

Rank # 3, 723 points, Author: Rydia (rydia@teleport.com)

SPACE-BORNE LIFEFORM

Event, uncommon.
Play on any outpost. All players may beam personnel and equipment to and from lifeform at any time, even while in motion. At the end of every turn, moves a span of 20, reversing direction upon reaching the end of the spaceline. (Not duplicatable).
"Encountered by the U.S.S. Enterprise in 2364, this huge creature can survive in space un-aided, and maintain a breathable atmosphere within itself. It seemed uninterested in crew members walking about within it."

As Rydia called it: Spaceline Mass Transit. And in a very interesting way, too. It is really very fast (Range 20 exceeds the FE by half!). So the first place to put this would be any deck low on ships (or even without any ships). But the catch is that you are not the only one to use it, but your opponent can do exactly the same thing.

Let's first have a look at what you can do with it. You can use it to get to any planet or to another ship very fast and reliably. You can also attempt space missions from it, but you will have to calculate spans very exactly to make sure that you wind up stopping there early enough to give you any use as you cannot attempt a mission on the fly-by. But any space mission attempt from the Lifeform is safe from all those "affect ship" Dilemmas and "affect entire crew" Dilemmas (like Barclay's Disease or Ktarian Game) will hurt your opponent's crew as well as yours. It might even be worth beaming off all your personnel except one at an intermediate location, attempt a space mission with known Dilemmas beneath it from the lifeform and then retrieving your crew just to hurt an opponent's crew present aboard the lifeform.

Using the card of course also encompasses a big risk. When the Lifeform gets Uxbridged at any space location (or at a planet if you don't have any Emergency Transporter Armbands in reserve), your crew will suddenly find themselves deep-freezed and deprived of oxygen as they now do free-float in space. So you are in for a nice poker game. Will she Uxbridge the lifeform with a medium-size crew aboard to kill them or will she try to pull a quick transportation later on when that thing comes along the next time. You might now say "Moving that thing is just one action, so I can safely use it for a quick hop...", but nope! Between you beaming aboard and the lifeform starting its move there is one timing window for a Kevin. And once it starts moving it will no longer be at the location it started from. But if you hop on at any intermediate and jump back off at another intermediate, you are indeed safe. (Only beaming actions may interrupt the movement and Kevin does not say you can use him during such an action).

I think that the risks and uses of this card balance each other very nicely and thus the card is a worthy third for this expansion, though I had probably made it rare as it is not duplicatable, but who am I to judge...

The best deck you can use this in is a fast planet-oriented mission deck with lots of defense, especially a few Q2's to provide counters to Kevin.

Oh, and to answer the Rules FAQ's for this one (all (c) Wesley):

It can bypass Q-Nets if either side has 2 Diplomacy aboard , but not if both sides have one each.
Gaps in normal Space will kill one crewmember. At random. (You'll have to shuffle them together or roll a die or something).
It cannot be damaged by weapons or events that normally damage a ship.
Players can mix affiliations aboard without a treaty, however they count as separate teams and cannot pool their STRENGTH to conduct away team battles. They can however exchange non-aligned personnel (but not after an attack is announced.)
For purposes of Dilemma resolution, things that affect a ship do not affect it, but things that affect a crew or "something aboard a ship" do.
If the Dilemma calls for a selection, the card selected is taken from the crew attempting a mission. If it affects everybody, all crews have to check separately.
You can ETA away from it if it is destroyed by Kevin, but you cannot use Escape Pods.

Favorite combo(s):

Space-Borne Lifeform + Kevin Uxbridge. Wait until your opponent seizes the opportunity to take a ride and then nuke the thing yourself! You might just have to put an Ensign Chump or two aboard to make your opponent think you would never consider to ... WHAM!
Space-Borne Lifeform + Any non-aligned expendable. If you think you know where your opponent wants to get off, just stop her by attacking and she might be in for a long ride across the Galaxy.
Space-Borne Lifeform + several Borg ships. They won't hurt you when triggered, but your opponent is likely to have a few ships somewhere...

Ratings for : SPACE-BORNE LIFEFORM

Wesley's rating:                7.5
Cole's rating:                  7.6
Conner's rating:                7.0
Heather's rating:               7.0
Jack's rating:                  7.0
John's rating:                  6.5
Leto's rating:                  7.7
Q's rating:                     7.0
Ray's rating:                   7.0
Tony's rating:                  8.5
----------------------
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.23

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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