DECIPHER.com > Star Trek > Expansions > Necessary Evil

The Double-Edged Sword of Evil

by Kathy McCracken (Major Rakal)
Web Writer and Tal Shiar Agent

double-edged sword, noun: something that has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences.

That's the very essence of "necessary evil": accepting the unfavorable (evil) consequences as the price of the favorable ones. And Necessary Evil is loaded with what I think of as "double-edged sword" cards.

To start with, every dilemma with the Consume keyword is, by its very nature, a double-edged sword. It can pack a hefty punch, at a lower dilemma counter cost than you would ordinarily expect, but it's still (probably) gonna cost ya. To be more precise, it'll cost you one or more additional dilemmas removed from your dilemma pile and overcome at the current mission. Not only will your dilemma stock be depleted when your opponent attempts another mission, but her future attempts at this mission will face fewer dilemmas. So the Consume dilemma had better give you enough bang for your buck to make up for the Consume cost.

Talosian Trial can be just that good. Curiously, this dilemma by itself doesn't do a thing to the attempting personnel – it doesn't send anyone back to the owner's hand, kill anyone, or even stop anyone. What it does is let you retrieve a planet dilemma that was already overcome (either at another mission or during a previous attempt at this one) and place it on top of the dilemmas you chose for your opponent to face at this mission attempt. This can allow you to effectively use more than three "copies" of a single dilemma during a game, or just reuse a dilemma when you didn't happen to draw your other copy this turn. And with a 0 cost, it doesn't take up any of the counters you need for the dilemma you're going to retrieve. But – here's the double-edged sword – any future attempts at this mission will be that much easier, because to get the effect of one dilemma you've allowed up to three to be overcome.

It's probably not surprising that a card called Desperate Sacrifice might be a double-edged sword. An event that plays in your core (always good to have around considering the number of Necessary Evil cards that key off that situation), it lets you force your opponents to destroy all but two of the events they command. The other edge of the sword is that you have to destroy all but but two of yours as well. But if your opponent's core is littered with events that feed his Defragmentation Drone or let him hammer you with reduced-cost Tsiolkovsky Infections and Whispers in the Dark, losing an event or two of your own may be a necessary evil.

Another event, Mutual Advantage, is more or less the flip side of Desperate Sacrifice. Instead of suffering from the same evil you inflict on your opponent, you accrue a benefit that is also enjoyed by your opponent. You and your opponent each discard a card from hand and then draw a card; then you get to draw an additional card. Probably you got rid of a piece of dead wood with a chance of drawing something better, but so can your opponent, and your second card draw just replaces the Mutual Advantage, which is destroyed.

VIP Welcome is similar in benefiting both players, but it provides an ongoing effect rather than Mutual Advantage's one-shot: any time a player plays a personnel that costs 3 or more, they can draw a card. In effect, they get 8 counters that turn instead of 7. This time, both players are presented with a double-edged sword. Say you're the one who played VIP Welcome. The price you pay for getting extra card draws with your expensive personnel is that your opponent gets exactly the same thing. Now that opponent is faced with the choice between destroying your VIP Welcome, shutting down the freebies for both of you, or gritting his teeth and accepting the necessary evil of your extra card draws as the price of getting them for himself. Of course, that assumes they also are playing with 3+ cost personnel and can take advantage of it. If not, they can shut you down with impunity. But that's one of the risks you take when you embrace Necessary Evil.

February 18, 2004