Wesley's STCCG card of the day #333

Hi, folks,

with three threes in the number I can't do anything different than start round three of the Internet Expansion. (This doesn't mean you'll have to wait for COTD #4444 to get IE4 ;-) )

Okay, to it. Today's "official" Internet expansion card or rather cards (these two belong together):

Author: Stephen Hopkins
8th place / 18 points

PARALLEL UNIVERSES

Event
You must have Ninth Place Trophy on table. Allows all players to play infinite numbers of duplicate personnel/ships. If destroyed, the orginal and duplicate cards are removed from play. AU Icon.
"Rifts in the fabric of time/space can cause alternate universes to combine."

NINTH PLACE TROPHY

Artifact
Play immediately on table, all Klingons lose honor if present OR Place in hand until played on table as an event (parallel universe can be played later). AU Icon.
"Events in paralled universes don't follow the same path. In one, Worf didn't when the Bat'elth Championship, but came in ninth."
The ultimate rich kid cards. No more limits on unique stuff, just lots and even larger lots of personel. About as powerful as Supernova / Tox Uthat and thus well justified in the game balance aspect. However, I am a little sceptical about how you much you can actually gain from adding extra copies of unique personnel to your crews. A good amount of diversification is vital to any successful STCCG personnel strategy and you won't find too many places in your deck for extras. Maybe two or three, but an Artifact and two card plays for that ?

One might also have to consider the high risk involved when playing these, as a single Kevin can get you into bad trouble, as you won't have too much fun with your 3 Datas when they suddenly all wind up in your discard pile.

Two of the best cards to use with the combo are Lal and Mordock, the former nearly being a clone card (thus highly versatile) and the latter helping you to really quickly rack up points. But I am still sceptical. I like the concept (we all know there is a clone machine in the makings, so something will be done someday and this pair sets us thinking how much there actually is to be gained), but I can imagine few really great decks that would have to rely on having multiples of any unique crewmember in play.

Last thing: The secondary ability of that Artifact. It's a kewl and powerful Klingon hoser. As Klingons have so much Honor, most red decks will make heavy use of that skill. Cards like Honor Challenge become unusable and the Klingon player will have a hard time doing his missions. Placed in Q's Tent with a Q's Planet, this card makes for a powerful anti-Klingon measure, the Klingon player will definitely need the appropriate counter-card in his Q-Tent (I'll assume there would be one, otherwise Klingon decks would be rather unplayable...)

Favorite combo(s):
A word on the ratinx: Several raters have voted but forgot the rating numbers. In this case, I'll translate a 0 point vote into a 3.0, a vote of 1 into a 5.5, a 2 becomes 7.5, a 3 becomes 9.0 and the rare 4 point votes translate into a 10.

Ratings for : NINTH PLACE TROPHY & PARALLEL UNIVERSES 

Wesley's rating:                9.0/ 7.0
Allen's rating:                 3.0/ 3.0
Cole's rating:                  8.5/ 8.5
Cpt. Stasis' rating:            5.5/ 5.5
Dave's rating:                  8.7/ 8.7 
Drew's rating:                  7.1/ 7.1
Greg's rating:                  7.5/ 7.5
Hal's rating:                   9.0/ 9.0
Jack's rating:                  6.0/ 6.0
Jonathan's rating:              9.1/ 9.1
Locutus' rating:                7.5/ 7.5
Mot's rating:                   7.5/ 7.5
Nouwa's rating:                 4.0/ 5.0
Picarde's rating:               6.5/ 6.5
Ranger's rating:                7.9/ 7.9
Tebok's rating:                 6.0/ 6.0
Tony's rating:                  7.0/ 8.5
----------------------          
AVERAGE RATING:                 7.0/ 7.1

Q excused himself, too much of an email backlog, in case you wonder about the other names... These are some of the waitlist occupants who have received the chance for a guest star performance here...

And here the promised... 

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*Bonus cards:*
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Author: Jim Babcock
16 th place / 9 points

REPLICATOR

Doorway, common
Plays on replicator side deck (up to 10 equipment cards), doorway is now open allowing these cards to enter play OR Stack in deck and use as follows: Play as an event card to take one equipment card (your choice) from side deck and immediately play it (return doorway to hand)

Neat if you play with lots of equipment, but IMHO a little too limited...

and

Author: John Teti, Jr.
24th place / 3rd round card

PRIME DIRECTIVE II

Dilemma, Planet
All Federation crew members are stopped unless Jean-Luc Picard OR Greed x2 OR Integrity<5 present.
"Starfleet general order number one: Starfleet personnel and spacecraft are prohibited from interfering with the normal development of any society."

The "II" says it, this is a revised version of a submission on IE1... Last time it placed 6th and somebody obviously tried to improve his ranking with this one - as you see, the level of competition has severely increased ;-)

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

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher
Temporarily immortal STCCG Lord "A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"