Wesley's STCCG card of the day #280

here's a simple card. Quite simple that is:

ESCAPE POD

These situations can include:

• having been on the wrong end of a Borg Ship. Maybe the most useful application for this Interrupt. Uncovering a Borg Ship under a mission is something that can happen even to the best of players unless you're regularly using Scans (cards that tend to clutter up your deck as much as the Escape Pod though it might help you to decide which missions to attempt). And in this case you are perfectly justified in assuming you can rescue your crew later as there won't be an attacker waiting for you when you come around with your next ship.
• seeing a small ship (Runabout, Scout) of yours destroyed by a shot from a larger attacker. If there are several valuable crewmembers aboard that ship a rescue attempt might make sense and also be successful in spite of a waiting attacker if your rescue ship is large enough (or protected enough) to withstand the attack of a Vor'Cha or D'Deridex class ship.
• Losing a big, laden ship to an armada. While in this case the instantaneous effect of the Escape Pod might seem much more powerful than in the first two cases where the loss is often limited to a smaller crew, you will have severe trouble avoiding the very same fate for the rescue ship you want to send in, as your opponent might leave two or three ships in waiting, able to kill your new ship in two turns (or even one turn in the case of 3 ships).
• Losing a ship to a Dilemma apart from Borg Ship. You did what? Hit Cosmic String Fragment? Or Gravitic Mine with a damaged ship? Come on, is the "crew" on that ship really worth saving?
• Losing a ship to an Interrupt or Event. Plasma Fire or Warp Core Breach should not be that much of a threat. Maybe the occasional Auto-destruct sequence used to finish off an opponent's ship? Waitasec... Your opponent has a damaged ship with SHIELDS of 7 or less and you can't finish it with your WEAPONS? You must either have a rather weak ship (in which case there usually isn't much personnel aboard) or your opponent has just been hit by a damaging Dilemma or Interrupt (in which case there usually isn't much opponent to worry about) or you're playing Fed (in which case I don't know how you got the ship damaged in the first place)...

Yeah. That's it. Borg Ship Defence. Maybe a sideboard card (is that how Q's tent is played? Sideboarding during a game?) But that requires that you at least play two games and have the opportunity for deck alteration. So try something else. (Although it might make sense, if Q's Tent works this way and with the Pods, to put one in there and if you Scan a Borg Ship and urgently want to attempt the mission to play the Pod. But in this case you could as well attempt the mission from a ship with only a single Redshirt aboard and save both the Pod and the Tent. Unless your opponent used a Shaka / Borg Ship combo which requires you to go in there with several crew...)

• Escape Pod + a strategically triggered Borg Ship. Just to fill this space.

Wesley's rating:                3.0
Allen's rating:                 4.0
Cole's rating:                  7.0
Data's rating:                  7.5
Drew's rating:                  ---
Gowron's rating:                3.4
Hal's rating:                   7.0
Jack's rating:                  7.6
Lakanta's rating:               5.0
Nanite's rating:                7.0
Nouwa's rating:                 3.75
Picarde's rating:               6.5
Q's rating:                     3.0
Ranger's rating:                5.0
Ray's rating:                   5.2
Tania's rating:                 7.0
Tony's rating:                  8.0
Wa'Qah's rating:                7.0
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 5.7

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Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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