Design Log: Stardate 08.04.2003

Putting New Keywords Through a Filter

Now that the contest is over, I can give you a bit more information about the set that I couldn't before. Specifically, one of the wrong answers to question 10 (that is, something that actually is included in Call to Arms) is C, 8 new keywords. In fact, you've already seen three of them – Q, Morph, and Infiltration – and the first Call to Arms Design Log also mentioned (but didn't illustrate) the related Infiltrator keyword. This Design Log will take a closer look at the Infiltration (verb)/Infiltrator (personnel) pair, and reveal a fifth keyword.

Enemy in Your Midst, like Pseudopod, has both the Infiltration and Morph keywords. An event that plays in your core, it provides a simple solution to a nagging question you may have had over Pseudopod: if your Infiltrator needs to be present with the personnel it kills, how do you get them there if your opponent keeps everyone snugged up on his ship? Just play Enemy in Your Midst, and then – after you get one or more of your Infiltrators to the same mission as the opponent's ship – destroy the event to place them aboard that ship! Now they're in the perfect position to bump someone off with Pseudopod.

Founder Trap is an interrupt that will let your Infiltrator throw a hefty monkeywrench into your opponent's mission-solving by suddenly adding the Infiltrator's skills to the mission requirements just as he's about to score the mission. The price is discarding a random card from hand (plus removing the interrupt from the game), but if you've chosen your Infiltrator well not only will the opponent's crew be stopped, but even bringing in another crew won't help: the effect lasts till the end of that turn. Best of all, the Infiltrator doesn't have to be on the opponent's ship or on a planet with them; he just has to be anywhere at the mission location – a piece of cake under Second Edition ship movement rules, where you can move to any mission location, yours or your opponent's, if you have Range equal to the sum of the spans of the starting and destination missions (plus 2 if they're in different quadrants).

You may be wondering just how easy it will be to get those Infiltration cards in hand when you need them. All the Infiltrators in the Gamma Quadrant won't do you much good if all the Pseudopods and Founder Traps are on the bottom of your deck (as they would be in mine!). Martok Founder, Poison of the Empire, to the rescue! Martok Found is, of course, and Infiltrator and a Shape-shifter. He's also a Founder (keyword #5), and he makes use of the Infiltration keyword with his ability to download one whenever you play an Assault or Maneuver card (at the cost of discarding a card of your choice from hand). So you can pick fights with your Jem'Hadar (or their Warships) while simultaneously supplying your Infiltration card needs.

Now you're probably wondering about those other three keywords. Well, two of them are Borg-related, and you'll see both of them later this week, with the contest results (you'll also find out whether "2 Ferengi" or "3 Equipment cards" is the real thing). The final one I'm going to hold in reserve for now.

Kathy McCracken
Major Rakal
Star Trek Intelligence Officer

August 4, 2003

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