Wesley's STCCG card of the day #299

Hi, folks,

a ship? Really? I never understand why you find this stuff so interesting, but then, maybe some are...

ZALKONIAN VESSEL

Ship, non-aligned, universal, common QC.
Range 9
Weapons 8
Shields 6
Requires 1 Command (*), 0 Staff (+), 2 non-aligned crewmembers.
Kills untransfigured John Doe if at same location at end of your turn.
"Typical Zalkonian defense vessel. One commanded by Sunad traveled at Warp 9.72 hunting the fugitive known as John Doe in the Zeta Gelis cluster."
First comparison: Tama. That was the best non-aligned ship before with 7/9/8 for only two crew. Now this one needs three (same as with the AU guys who can work either as command or as AU), but two of them have a rather weak requirement: they just may not be affiliated. So all the scientists, doctors and whatevers may still help fly this beauty. And it is universal, so even though the Tama might be a little better in value for money, this one's powerful just because you can have more than one of them. And an 8 Weapons is a good start for an attacker, with the 9 Range helping to hunt down nearly any ship. Let's put her to maximum use. Madred, Vekor and Kareen Brianon (or Timicin) have 6 of the 7 classifications needed for a Naiskos. Add any cool VIP (Devinoni Ral should do) and you have a sparkin' brand-new 4-person Naiskos crew composed of only gold-bordered cards. Which means this beauty can attack. Even in a Fed deck well-equipped to get to that Naiskos at incredible speed. And as it's universal, you can well have one in play and save your Gift Box to put together the crew. Neat, eh? Add 2 Bynars and you have an Outpost killer. And you don't even need to go too far out of your way in a Fed speed deck as most of the crew cards are even good for overcoming Dilemmas and the ship has a solid 9 Range so your flying speed is as adequate as the Enterprise's.

More ideas? Sure. Use these ships in a non-aligned mission solver deck with Rakal and DeSeve providing the necessary color splashes. Rakal can even allow you to attack other Romulans. Just use mainly planet missions as you can't use John Doe to save some personnel's butt.

Oh, speaking of John Doe: This is another reason to have the Zalkonian Vessel in play if you can support its requirements. It is as close as you'll get to a free nullifier card. And it's the only way to get rid of John besides Doppelganger or a well-placed Dilemma.

(A few raters complained about the somewhat low shields, BTW. I don't think this is so big a disadvantage. After all, what did they print these Nutationals and Metaphasics for ?)

Favorite combo(s):
Ratings for : ZALKONIAN VESSEL 

Wesley's rating:                9.0
Allen's rating:                 8.1
Cole's rating:                  6.0
Data's rating:                  7.5
Drew's rating:                  5.5
Hal's rating:                   6.5
Jack's rating:                  6.9
Mot's rating:                   4.0
Nanite's rating:                6.0
Nouwa's rating:                 8.9
Picarde's rating:               6.5
Q's rating:                     7.0
RAnger's rating:                6.0
Rothspar's rating:              6.5
Tania's rating:                 6.5
Tony's rating:                  8.0
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 6.7

Oh, if anyone can guess the card(s) that will be in #300, I'll give that person a head start on Wes' COTD #300 contest. Guesses accepted up to Monday 4pm EST...

(It will be from the real cards only - no Internet expansion or equally nasty stuff...)

Please direct all email concerning card of the day to: crusher@kiss.de

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

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