Wesley's STCCG card of the day #221

Hi, folks,

here's a Dilemma with a twist:

COSMIC STRING FRAGMENT

Dilemma, space, uncommon.
Point value: 5.
Ship is sucked in and destroyed unless Astrophysics OR ENGINEER OR Navigation aboard. Discard Dilemma.
"A long space object as thin as a proton but with the gravitational attraction of a hundred stars."

Hey, a Dilemma? With all these ORs in the conditions needed to overcome? Uh, not! Yes, it might be that its effects are great, what other Dilemma can boast with blowing up the entire ship and not just ridding it of some (or all) crew? So far, so good, but did you ever think you'll catch an opponent attempting a mission with neither an ENGINEER nor Astrophysics nor Navigation? Dream on, man!

So a totally crappy card, right? Wrong. This one has a use. As do Nanites and Null Space. You just don't seed them for your opponent to hit, but for yourself to score some incredibly easy points!

In this entire game, I can't think of five points so easily earned. Better yet, if you have several of these in your deck (like six, if playing six space missions) each mission attempt will net you five points before you hit anything potentially destructive. Make that ten if you combine it with Null space and wait for the second Navigation before jumping in.

You might even make a deck of this design: Six String Fragments, six Null Space, and a few Cytherians to complete your setup. Play WNOHGB, and lots of McKnights (or Wesley, Picard, etc, skills don't matter as long as Navigation is among them). Add some fast ships and you'll start scoring points over points without ever finishing a mission. Hit for ten, encounter Cytherians, start flying off, prepare next ship. Once a ship has reached the end of the spaceline, throw your WNOHGB and atempt the nearest mission with the known results. You'll be amazed how fast these points add up. (Note: will probably only work once and best if your opponent plays the same affiliations as you do, you can then seed some Dilemma stacks under her locations and keep the bluff up somewhat longer)

Yeah, this design is a really degenerate surprise, but a String Fragment thrown in here or there can easily mean 10 additional points in an all- space deck. And 10 points are 10 points, right ?

Favorite combo(s):

- Cosmic String Fragment + Null Space. Incredibly easy 10 points.

Ratings for : COSMIC STRING FRAGMENT

Wesley's rating:                7.5
Cole's rating:                  6.0
Conner's rating:                6.5
Data's rating:                  5.0
Hal's rating:                   3.0
Heather's rating:               7.5 (you found this trap - nice!)
Jack's rating:                  4.7
John's rating:                  4.0
Q's rating:                     --- (long comment but no rating)
Ranger's rating:                4.5 (also found the trap)
Ray's rating:                   3.6
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 5.16

(Yeah, I like trapping raters with seemingly innocent cards that have a nearly invisible side use... One of my more successful tries lately ;-) )

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With all back issues from #1 up to today !

LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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