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20 Favorite Cards: A Designer's Perspective
by Evan Lorentz
Decipher Game Designer
For the recent survey of favorite Star Trek CCG cards, I wanted
to vote just like all the other fans out there. It took me a lot of effort
to get down to just 20 cards. My initial pass through all the cards we've
ever made netted 99 I thought were worth considering for my list –
five times too many. Eventually, I pared down that long list until I was
left with 20 that each had for me a special memory or story that went with
them. I'd like to share with you that final list, and the reasons behind
my choices.
Abduction (Call to Arms) – Lots of things I like about this
card. It demonstrates the approach Second Edition took to assimilation,
that great Borg flavor could be captured without the complicated rules of
First Edition. Of the assimilation cards in Call to Arms, this was arguably
the most devastating, since it can be used in addition to a battle-related
assimilation card to get multiple personnel in a single turn. On top of
all that, the card also shows a great image from a pivotal moment of The
Next Generation.
Arachnia (Holodeck Adventures) – Well ahead of the time where
we actually worked on this set, we'd planned to do the "Captain Proton"
related cards in all black-and-white. It was great to finally see that realized.
Arachnia is my favorite among them because she has the most over-the-top,
melodramatic pose of the bunch. She also has a fairly useful ability that
captures the episode story well, something that was very hard to do in the
limited text space available on First Edition personnel templates. Plus
the lore uses the quality word "impetuous," and the phrase "uncorking her
pheromones."
Assign Mission Specialists (First Contact) – This was the
first Star Trek CCG card I ever designed. I had recently been invited
to playtest, and I was daydreaming at work about ways to try to make several
old, existing cards useful with a minimum of new card designs. I came up
with the idea of singling out one-skilled personnel as a group, and came
up with what I thought would be an acceptable, if not final, nickname of
"mission specialists" for them. The designers embraced the idea and the
card became a reality. They even put a Bolian in the picture, though I'm
not sure if that was coincidence, or acknowledgment of my online handle
of "Mot the Barber." For the record, the "5 points for using the skill"
idea was mine, while the designers of that time can claim credit (and blame?)
for the downloading and "Captain's Log" parts.
At What Cost? (Necessary Evil) – While working on Call to
Arms, we started to wonder: was there any way we could make a player choose
to give up points they'd fought to score? To take a step backward after
they'd just struggled to take a step forward? That notion expanded into
the theme for an entire expansion. Most players will probably agree this
card lies at the top of the heap of "losing points to gain a big effect."
(At the least, it is open for any affiliation to use, and thus more likely
to show up than any other.) Plus the title, while completely in keeping
with the dialogue from the scene, is definitely a tip of the hat to the
whole point-loss gameplay concept: "you want me to pay what?!"
Barclay's Protomorphosis Disease (First Edition Premiere) –
This card is just too monumental not to list, and there's no way I could
pick just one story to tell about it. Outrageously flexible, since you can
use it to nail an opponent or net extra points for yourself. One of those
few dilemmas every player has to account for when designing a deck, and
again when attempting a mission.
Blood Screening (Mirror, Mirror) – At the time we made this
card, there were three "broken link" references in the game that seemed
relate to infiltrators: Blood Screening, Changeling Sweep, and Shape-Shift
Inhibitor. Nothing specific had been envisioned for any of those cards,
but it seemed as though all would do something to expose changelings. The
trouble was, changeling infiltrators weren't all that strong a strategy
in the game, and they really couldn't weather having three "magic bullets"
against them. Pondering this conundrum, I got the idea that maybe Blood
Screening could be a good thing for changelings, if we focused on the story
that Blood Screenings happen when people don't trust each other. Granted,
it didn't result in a hugely powerful card, but it was a memorable moment
for me in terms of approaching a problem from a new angle.
Borg Queen (First Contact) – The centerpiece of any good Borg
deck. The core of the affiliation that in turn was the core of my online
persona for many years. Obviously, I had to have at least one Borg card
in my top 20, and who better? Not to mention the card has a very evocative
picture, and spectacular lore – one of the few times a quotation was
used in the First Edition. It also showed off the radically different Borg
affiliation template, which while not much compared to what would later
come for all the affiliations in Second Edition, was an amazing departure
from the norm at that time.
Computer Crash (Deep Space Nine) – This card qualified me
for the 1998 World Championships, and got me to day two of that event. Locking
your opponent out of the Q's Tent he'd counted on using is just huge, and
stopping all that pesky downloading is even better. This card was so good
that from then on, the phrase "ignoring Computer Crash" became an expected
norm. There was also a fun trivia question asked about this card at the
Championships: "You've all seen Computer Crash plenty of times this weekend,
so tell us what the computer screen says in the image. Is it A) Database
Services Not Available; or B) Database Systems Offline?" (The answer is
A.)
Destroy Transwarp Hub (Call to Arms) – I'm very proud of the
modal missions in Call to Arms (missions with game text describing an alternate
set of requirements for another affiliation). I'm glad we were able to acknowledge
story without adding much complexity to the game. This is my favorite modal
mission because of the image, and how very different the two goals are in
theme.
Dixon Hill (Holodeck Adventures) – I love the film noir style
captured by the image. And while I think the text is one of the game's most
interesting-while-not-overpowered ultra-rares, it's actually the lore that
I like best. I enjoy trying to explain away inconsistencies introduced by
the series writers, and I felt there was one involving Dixon Hill. The Next
Generation episodes established that Dixon Hill was written hundreds of
years earlier in the "golden age" of film noir mystery writing, but Voyager
established that a modern-day publisher was responsible for the adventures
of the private detective. I tried to craft the lore to reconcile this minor
contradiction.
Dukat, Liberator and Protector (Call to Arms) – This image
of Dukat, with this lore, was something I'd wanted to do since the very
beginning of Second Edition. Unfortunately, we had to wait until the arrival
of the Terok Nor icon in Call to Arms to bring out this version of the man
everyone loves to hate. I also feel that we really came up with an interesting
and effective bit of gameplay worthy of the great image and quote.
Harsh Conditions (Necessary Evil) – We went to great lengths
in this set to add a little risk to the "multiple headquarters" approach
of playing Second Edition and bring things more in line with how we'd always
wanted them. I think this card is perhaps the most effective in this purpose,
and it combos well with all sorts of other dilemmas. On top of all that,
it has a nice, grisly image to boot. (I'm a fan of evocative images.)
In Training (Necessary Evil) – I hope players love the Consume
mechanic as much as I do. This is my favorite card to use that keyword.
It's one of the strongest, for certain. And it reins in low-cost personnel
strategies a bit (another aspect of the game that didn't start out of the
gate exactly how we wanted it).
Leonardo da Vinci (Holodeck Adventures) – I loved doing the
research of all the many fields in which the real Leonardo da Vinci worked.
The list you see in the lore of this card (and the related skills in the
game text) are really just the tip of the iceberg for this epitome of a
Renaissance man. And though it took me several days, I finally figured out
a way to get a Lord of the Rings reference in honor of John Rhys-Davies
onto the card.
Male's Love Interest (Voyager) – Yes, this lore is an incredibly
juvenile joke. But it made us laugh. Hard. High-brow, low-brow – I'll
take any kind of humor that stays firmly within the "fourth wall." And this
card does. You can even see the waterplums at the bottom of the image. In
the left corner, you dog.
Mouth of the Wormhole, Deep Space 9 (Second Edition Premiere) –
The day we came up with the idea for headquarters missions was huge for
the design of the Second Edition. I had to pick one HQ mission to acknowledge
what an important aspect of the design that proved to be. I chose this one
for its image and highly useful span of 1.
Overwhelmed (Call to Arms) – Brad came up with this dilemma
idea that I immediately loved for its combo potential. My contribution was
to find a picture somewhere that would support the text. Brad suggested
"something that shows someone stressed out and holding a PADD, maybe?" I
had just watched Statisical Probabilities the day before, pulling images
for the "Jack Pack" personnel in the set, and instantly replied, "Brad,
have I got the image for you!"
Party Atmosphere (Necessary Evil) – Steering players toward
events was another major goal of this set, and this card hits that point
squarely. Plus, it finally made use of an image I'd identified way back
while working on The Borg expansion as one I wanted to use on a card someday.
The image was tried and cut from several sets along the way, but finally
made an appearance on this card I'm sure will see play.
The Demands of Duty (Call to Arms) – It had bothered me for
quite some time that the so-called "dilemma" cards never actually presented
a player with a true dilemma, a tough choice to make between two undesirable
options. We had made some other attempts in the past to come up with dilemmas
that literally posed dilemmas to a player, but I think this was the occasion
where we really got a good, effective one working right.
To Be Or Not To Be (The Motion Pictures) – I had fun tracking
down a copy of Hamlet in the "original Klingon," and then lining up the
right passage from that version with the English text to get the lore I
wanted. The picture appeals to me, showing one of the last big triumphs
of the original series crew.
So there you have it, my favorite 20 Star Trek CCG cards. Most
of them probably didn't line up with your picks, and I don't expect many
to be showing up on that top 100 poster. Still, thinking back on them helped
remind me of all the great memories I have of this game that literally changed
my life.
Thanks for playing, and keep on Trekkin'!
March 18, 2004
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