DECIPHER.com > Star Trek > Expansions > Fractured Time

Miles O'Brien, "Smiley"

by Geoffery Peterson

Miles makes his newest appearance as his mirror counterpart "Smiley" in Fractured Time. Not only is he Non-Aligned, allowing him to be played in any deck (except Borg), but his ability may help some of the higher cost ships see more play!

With a cost of 4, "Smiley" might seem expensive for four skills (Engineer, Leadership, Physics, and Transporters) and average attributes (5-6-6), but a quick look at some numbers in two examples can show that his ability can more than pay for his cost.

The Next Generation examination:
In most TNG decks, you will find an abundance of cost 4 Excelsior type ships, with the occasional U.S.S. Enterprise-E. With the new U.S.S. Enterprise-Ds, two mission win decks are becoming much more viable, but can be slowed down having to spend an entire turn's worth of counters to play a single ship. With "Smiley", those 6 or 7 cost ships can easily become 0-2 cost ships! In a "perfect" scenario, you could play the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, Data, Jean-Luc, and Worf (using Common Ground) all in the same turn. That's 20 counters worth of cards played for 7 counters! Throw in some At What Costs, and you're in for some record breaking counters spent in a single turn!

The Klingon examination:
It can be difficult to really surprise someone with a battle deck in Second Edition, but "Smiley" with some Party Atmospheres can make them much more feasible. Generally, if you play a ship on your turn, you won't have enough counters to play enough Damage Events to destroy an opponent's ship, but when "Smiley" gets out with your Engineering team, you can play that I.K.S. Qam-Chee for free, then throw down three Damage inducing Events for free thanks to happy Neelix. Assuming you had already played a ship or two, you'll be on your way to blowing your opponents to bits in no time!

August 23, 2004