Wesley's STCCG card of the day #276

need more proof that QC is an interesting expansion? Probably not. So I'll rather prove that QC also has a few cards that are not that great. Like

SAKKATH

Ahem. I definitely hope this card is not rare. A Federation personnel card with V.I.P. and Diplomacy. Plus Mindmeld, as he's a Vulcan. Guess I have seen this before.

Like in Sarek. Only that the latter one has Diplomacy x3 and somewhat different attributes (actually totalling one less point). Or, like Satelk. Granted, he's an OFFICER instead of a V.I.P., but you get an extra Leadership, one more Cunning and a Command ability.

And unless you're playing a Mindmeld deck (haven't ever seen one yet) that skill is not really too useful, so we're basically stuck with a V.I.P. who is also a Diplomat and Federation. Great. Always wished to have more of them. But wait! Sakkath has a nifty special ability. Suspends Bendii Syndrome where present. Well, I don't know yet what Bendii Syndrome does, but so much is obvious:

• It's Event, Interrupt or Dilemma. If the last, it will most certainly affect all Vulcans, if one of the former, it should probably be played on one Vulcan only. I suspect that it's a Dilemma, though, as otherwise it wouldn't really be a strong card.
• It will only affect Vulcans.
• It will gradually ("SUSPENDS") drain their skills and/or attributes (esp. CUNNING) and maybe ultimately kill its victim.

So it could look like

BENDII SYNDROME

So it affects Vulcans. All four, sorry five, of them. But I count only four, as Sakkath's only real place in your deck would be to provide Bendii Syndrome defense. That leaves us with Sarek (so la-la), Satelk (sometimes usable), Selar (don't you have a Vekor?) and Taurik (exactly how many cards do you own - 61?) All four not cards I'd usually put in a deck except maybe for Sarek if I have a great emphasis on Diplomacy or want to play the Naiskos and choose him for Q-Net passing, leaving Picard at home.

Even if the effect of Bendii Syndrome were somewhat stronger, IMHO it wouldn't see a lot of play as it will hose Vulcans and nothing else. And Vulcans just aren't that good in STCCG.

Leaves us with a pretty useless ability. Plus some skills we have already seen on better cards. Try something else.

- Nope. Not tonight. Got my migraine ;-)

Wesley's rating:                4.0, with no X's today ;-)
Allen's rating:                 5.5
Cole's rating:                  8.0
Data's rating:                  ---
Drew's rating:                  6.9
Gowron's rating:                ---
Hal's rating:                   7.9
Jack's rating:                  7.5
Lakanta's rating:               ---
Nanite's rating:                6.0
Nouwa's rating:                 ---
Picarde's rating:               6.7
Q's rating:                     4.0 <-- seems I was quite accurate about Bendii
Ranger's rating:                ---
Ray's rating:                   ---
Tania's rating:                 ---
Tony's rating:                  7.0
Wa'Qah's rating:                ---
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.35

A huge lot of ---'s, several raters refused to rate because they don't know what Bendii Syndrome does, but IMHO it's obvious enough that it can't be that strong.

PS: Only got one (correct) guess yet for the #275 mini-puzzle. Is that the best you can do? Congrats to Lennard, spotted exactly right. But you had an unfair advantage (hint!) ;-)

Visit the Web Page!

http://www.worldonline.nl/~ldp/COTD.html
(for best indexing - all cards crosslinked)

With all back issues from #1 up to today !

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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