Wesley's STCCG card of the day #320

Hi, folks,

as the last delay in COTD writing was caused by a one-day army reserve exercice I had to do, I guess I'll stick with the theme and do an issue on patriotism - err sorry wanted to say

THE ISSUE IS PATRIOTISM

Q-Interrupt, uncommon QC.
You must immediately initiate a battle at one location that has opposing ships or Away Teams (if any). "Stopped" cards are "unstopped" long enough to battle. No leaders are required and no affiliation restrictions apply. (Immune to Q-Flash)
"'You slaughtered millions in silly arguments about how to divide the resources of your little world.'"

Um, well. A card that forces a battle. Well, we had that kinda stuff before, but this one has the advantage to be absolute. No requirements, no affiliation restrictions and nothing else except for an unplanned Amanda.

But let's remove one idea from your head. Using this card to force your opponent to start a losing battle is at best highly unreliable. The person encountering this card can choose at which location to start a battle, so you will have to keep moving a lot in order to always keep a superior force available and making sure that every force you have at an opponent's location is superior. But if you are able to do this, you don't need this card - you just attack. Unless, of course, you are a civilized, cultural, educated, peaceful and overall nice-mannered person using blue cards. In this case you will need a little help. And this card could just be the help you need. Slap down a Wartime Conditions once the dust has settled to ensure you have the ability to stir up more of it.

Oh, did I say Wartime Conditions? Well, maybe you don't even need to create a winning situation to take advantage of your patriotic opponent. Just send Mot on a strafing tour, lonely on his runabout. He won't cause much damage, but the death of a Bolian isn't something the admirality will take lightly. Point taken and war started. ("Hey, it wasn't us! Those Klingon terrorists have attacked a harmless spyieeech traveling Civilian.")

So far, so good. Smells like a Fed battle deck. Just one problem here. You use Q-cards to increase your effective deck size beyond 60 as they are essentially free. This function isn't too well fulfilled if you need to dedicate three cards (a ship, a crewmember and Wartime Conditions) to make any use of it. And if you make use of enhancer cards to ensure that your ship is not in danger (Metaphasic Shields would work well here), you have barely managed to substitute two cards with one new, still requiring two cards and at least the temporary dedication of a ship plus crew to your patriotic issue. Which, as a net effect, means this Q-card misses the real purpose of a Q-card. Forget it, next candidate please.

Favorite combo(s):

Yeah, I told you. The issue... + Wartime Conditions. But that's about it.

Ratings for : THE ISSUE IS PATRIOTISM

Wesley's rating:                3.0
Cole's rating:                  6.5
Data's rating:                  8.5
Drew's rating:                  ---
Gowron's rating:                6.0
Hal's rating:                   6.0
Jack's rating:                  6.7
Mot's rating:                   5.0
Nanite's rating:                9.0
Nog's rating:                   8.0
Nouwa's rating:                 6.5
Picarde's rating:               5.5
Q's rating:                     6.0
Ranger's rating:                6.0
Rothspar's rating:              6.0
Tebok's rating:                 6.0
Tony's rating:                  8.0
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 6.5

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Wesley Crusher
Primary member of the STCCG Players' committee

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