Okay then, I am back to some state of health (meaning the ability to sit nearly straight and to focus both eyes on the same point of the monitor - you can't imagine how much you get to miss these abilities ;-) )
I'll restart with something easy:
Devinoni Ral? Forget him - he's got Treachery instead of the second Empathy and his INTEGRITY is so low, he'll get toasted in the next Firestorm.
Deanna Troi? Now why should I play the more expensive card just to trade
my VIP for OFFICER get a Command Star in place of my 2nd Empathy? Even
the stats are the same and you can't use her for Klingons or Romulans.
Doh.
Lwaxana? Without Diplomacy? And no better stats? Doh again.
Tam Elbrun. Maybe an alternative for those of you who play Federation and have less Honor than Diplomacy. At least these are of comparable play value (although Tam's stats just suck).
Rakal? Well, if you use her as Fed, you have a Deanna with VIP instead of OFFICER, so even closer here. And if you take her along as Romulan, you'd better have a Quash Conspiracy on the spaceline, otherwise you should start looking for a better Romulan personnel card.
So, we might come close to saying "one of the best empaths." Which only leaves the question "Do I need empaths?". Well, there are some moderately efficient Empathy decks. Also some good Empathy / Diplomacy decks. And for these you need empaths. Many of them. Which narrows your choices.
If you are playing some other deck, there are a few nice cards that can benefit from Empathy, but I don't think they are worth diluting a deck built around a different theme. And the two things it can save you from are Thought Fire and Cardassian Trap. And the latter can get nasty - better than Armus and usable everywhere. So maybe if you have room for a life insurance card, you should take an empath or two even if they don't contribute too much towards your other goals. For a well-staffed Fed team, this might be the better insurance than a Genetronic Replicator (as you usually have the required skills for most Dilemmas).
Oh, last tap: Almost forgot about Gomtuu. 7/Hurl/6 might not be that great, but for one crew...(although in this case I'd use Tam Elbrun and Captain's Log)
Well, in the end it comes down to a matter of taste. Playable, but not great.
- Maques + First Contact + Any Fed.
Wesley's rating: 7.0 Cole's rating: 7.0 Conner's rating: --- Data's rating: 7.0 Hal's rating: 6.5 Heather's rating: 7.0 Jack's rating: 7.6 John's rating: 6.5 Q's rating: 8.0 Ranger's rating: 8.5 Ray's rating: 8.0 ---------------------- AVERAGE RATING: 7.31
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http://www.worldonline.nl/~ldp/COTD.html
(for best indexing - all cards crosslinked)
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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"