Wesley's STCCG card of the day #297

Hi, folks,

after Newton and Einstein, we got our third card from the past:

SAMUEL CLEMENS

Personnel, non-aligned, uncommon QC.
Integrity 7
Cunning 5
Strength 3
CIVILIAN, Once per game, may leave play when Devidian Door is "shown" and score 10 points. Diplomacy, AU icon.
"Crotchety 19th century author popularly known as Mark Twain. Visited the U.S.S. Enterprise in 2369 during the Devidian time travel incident."

Yeah, somehow this card reminds me of the one sitting right next to it in my binder, Kova Tholl (CIVILIAN, Diplo, scores 10 points if killed by an attack in which you do not retaliate, 8/6/2). As long as they are in play, they are pretty identical. But there are a few differences:

Sam Clemens gives you control over when you can take him out of the game to gain the 10 points, because you can use a Devidian Door yourself.
Sam might be usable in staffing ships for a Naiskos as he's a non-aligned CIVILIAN with an AU icon. Decius and Fek'lhr fans will love him just for this.
Kova, on the other hand, is reusable. Once you lose one, just play the next and score the points again if your opponent is foolish enough to start another attack.

But I think the first point is the most important. You don't need to rely on your opponent to gain 10 extra points, you can do it on your own by just using a Devidian Door for a purpose that is on its own already worth that card play. So you practically have an event that says, "score 10 points if you ever play Devidian Door in this game". Only it's not uxbridgable and can be played with Red Alert or seeded in a Cryo. Plus, you get the ability scores, the CIVILIAN for an eventual Naiskos (delay cashing the 10 until you have 90 or more) and a Diplomat if anything runs really wrong.

Somehow, with Devidian Door being that good, I wouldn't count this card into the group of bad buys. Actually, I think Devidian Door is almost too good to allow for an enhancer card which is a little the gripe with this Sam Clemens card. I'd rather have seen "Once per game, you may play Devidian Door to place Sam Clemens out of play and gain 15 points". Thus you'd actually be wasting the door for 15 points. But as it stands, this card should be in any deck with more than one Devidian Door and even in some of the decks with exactly one of them.

Favorite combo(s):

Yeah, guess what ;-)

Ratings for : SAMUEL CLEMENS

Wesley's rating:                7.5
Allen's rating:                 5.5
Cole's rating:                  6.8
Data's rating:                  7.0
Drew's rating:                  6.5
Hal's rating:                   5.9
Jack's rating:                  6.2
Mot's rating:                   4.5
Nanite's rating:                7.0
Nouwa's rating:                 5.0
Picarde's rating:               5.0
Q's rating:                     6.9
Ranger's rating:                6.8
Rothspar's rating:              8.9
Tania's rating:                 5.0
Tony's rating:                  5.0
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 5.6

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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