Wesley's STCCG card of the day #310

Hi, folks,

welcome to the MEGABYTE edition of COTD! Right, those of you who have collected all of my COTD articles from #26 to this one now have one Megabyte of strategy on their hard disks. Now if I only had one dollar for each of those bytes ;-) ...

For a little less than a million dollars, however, you can get this

Classic COTD #22

BEVERLY CRUSHER

Personnel, Federation, rare.
Integrity 8
Cunning 8
Strength 5
MEDICAL, MEDICAL, Biology, Exobiology, Command Star (*).
"Dr. Beverly Crusher is the chief medical officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Dancer and thespian. Widow of Jack Crusher. Mother of Ensign Wesley Crusher."
Yep, my mom. And I wouldn't dare to write badly about her. Not that I'd love her that much, but just because I can't find anything bad. First and best, she's one of the core cards of any Fed speed deck. Her ability to solve Evaluate Terraforming, the best Federation mission, all by herself, is invaluable, especially if your opponent also plays that card (very probable thing if she also plays Federation).

A cool bluff (Betazoid Gift Box, Q-Flash and two intentional mis-seeds) will keep your opponent from placing her outpost there and then you just drop down yours. Just place Bev in your Q's tent and hope for at least one tent in your opening hand. Bang! Instant 35 points and a Gift Box, meaning you'll not run out of good cards for the next few turns. That'll teach your opponent to play the same affiliation as you do.
(I once scored a great victory this way. My opponent played mainly space Dilemmas and somehow overlooked to place anything under Evaluate Terraforming. My opening hand included Bev, Data, a Runabout and a Devidian Door. I had a Horga'hn under ET and Investigate Time Continuum next to it with a BGB seeded there. I went first, play Beverly, solve ET (35), play Data with the Door, attempt ITC (after Full Planet Scan), hit Impassable Door (yeah, it was the last game of a looong round-robin tournament), score 35, grab Danar, a second D. Door and Distortion of Space-Time Continuum with the Gift Box, first turn ends. Second turn, play Runabout, Door in Danar, move to ITC, pick up Data, move 3 more span, play Distortion, move to Restore Errant Moon, attempt it, hit Female's Love Interest, score, show two doors. The entire thing lasted less than 90 seconds and my opponent never got to play a card ;-) )

Okay, so much for first-turn victories (rather hard to pull off). But Beverly's qualities don't just end after the first turn (unlike those of a certain $250 Magic card). A dual MEDICAL is a good thing to have for Genetronic Replicators (two dual MEDICAL are even better, but who's nitpicking?) and there is no classification with so many x2 and x3 demands on Dilemmas than MEDICAL.

And the two other dual MEDICALs? There's Bev Picard, but she lacks Exobiology (vital against Zaldans and good for several missions) and if hit by a Tsiolkovsky Infection, both of her MEDICAL are gone instead of just one. And then, Kate Pulaski. Two MEDICAL plus SCIENCE but the beaming limitation disqualifies her for really fast decks. You also don't get any vital skills besides the three classifications. I'd prefer a Vekor in most situations... In the end, there's nothing to replace the original. And don't forget the cool (5 points) Parallel Romances Beverly can have with her son ;-)

Favorite combo(s):