ARTICLE: IT IS A GOOD DECK TO DIE!
By Evan Lorentz, Mot the Barber

Some of the most anticipated (and dreaded) elements of a new Star Trek CCG expansion are the ones players know as "counter cards." In the past, cards such as Fair Play, Intermix Ratio and Hide and Seek have helped temper decks based on mission stealing, bonus points and the Q dilemma, respectively.

With Blaze of Glory's arrival, players will once again be challenged to re-work or abandon deck types they've leaned on for months or more, as new cards punish old abuses. Here's a look at some of the cards that will modify existing strategies... and perhaps send you scrambling for a new deck design.

The Wake of the Borg - Colonies beware. When this card shows up, you have just one more turn to get all your point-scoring "colonists" to safety. Patrol Neutral Zone decks are in trouble, too. An opponent can play this interrupt on your Neutral Zone mission to destroy all personnel, ships and facilities there as well. On top of it all, The Wake of the Borg is immune to all nullification. If you're looking to really put on the hurt, try combining this new interrupt with Docking Procedures (against the Neutral Zone outposts) or Atmospheric Ionization (against the Colonies), just two ways you can trap your opponent at their doomed facility.

Intruder Alert! - This incident counters a few different strategies. Right up front, it nullifies all seeded Memory Wipe cards, eliminating an option that was never meant to be employed outside a simple Starter Deck II environment. Players using stations gain another way to protect against early commandeering, by capturing any small Away Teams that makes an attempt. Borg players will enjoy the ability to finally counter those pesky female VIPs that Open Diplomatic Relations to immobilize a fully staffed Cube. Previously, the Borg had no way to battle them to nullify the objective; now they don't have to, because the Talon Drone can assimilate them instead. (Remember that Enhanced First Contact's Reassimilation Drone can download Intruder Alert!)

Of course, what all players will most appreciate is the ability to download and protect Intruder Force Field. Timing rules are such that an opponent with a Kevin Uxbridge will still be able to nullify Intruder Force Field before Intruder Alert! protects it. Still, that brief window of vulnerability is worlds better than leaving an unprotected event on the table for turn after turn. Unless your opponent spends a Kevin Uxbridge at the moment you play Intruder Alert!, you can sit back and relax, safe from both small numbers of Rogue Borg Mercenaries and the vicious Telepathic Alien Kidnappers. You'll also enjoy a small measure of protection against other intruders as well.

Examine Singularity - Black Hole has been around for a while, but it wasn't until the 1998 World Championships that players got a real taste of just how nasty it could be. As quickly as Black Hole decks spread through the tournament scene, requests for a counter spread even faster. Examine Singularity is it, an objective that turns Black Hole into a quick 15 points. It also gives you a free ride to any location in any Quadrant in the process, paying you back for the time you spent nullifying it.

What's more, Examine Singularity stops more than Black Holes. Once each turn, you can use it to download a Bajoran Wormhole, Temporal Wake or Deactivation. You can even pull them back from your discard pile. That should be the last word in stopping abuse of Anti-Time Anomalies, Red Alert, and Static Warp Bubble. Now you can retrieve the same counter card time after time to stop abuse after abuse. And if your opponent tries to pull a fast one by using Fire Sculptor on your discard pile? Thermal Deflectors will protect against that.

Commandeer Ship - You'll most likely be too excited by the strategic possibilities of this objective's first function (to take ships from your opponent) to consider the possibilities in its second function: when seeded or played on table, your opponent can't return a ship to their hand which has your infiltrator or intruder aboard. Or, to spell it out, Space-Time Portal just took a hit. Now Borg and Dominion strategies based around Assimilate Counterpart and Invasive Beam-In have a chance to shine, since your opponent can no longer return their ship to their hand, and your "strike force" to yours. They're now faced with a difficult choice: use their Space-Time Portal before you beam over, leaving all your personnel still in play; or allow you on board their ship and hope for the best. Of course, The Walls Have Ears can take away even this choice...

Scanner Interference - Kathy "Major Rakal" McCracken sang the praises of this incident in a recent card extra, but it bears repeating. Scanner Interference stops the casual use of Scan and Full Planet Scans to determine the "path of least resistance" in a game. Too often, players would wait at their outposts, idly scanning missions until they found one they were prepared to tackle. This incident forces a scan user to at least travel to the location they wish to scan (with 2 Computer Skill), "charging" them time for the information they seek. Even after the scan is completed, you can discard Scanner Interference to add a little surprise in front of your exposed dilemma combo. It's a great end game tactic against an opponent who seems destined to win. You never know what that one extra dilemma might do.

Access Denied - Though it has several functions, players have already noticed Access Denied for one in particular: the ability to nullify Establish Gateway objectives targeting your missions. There are still risks to using homeworlds and planet missions worth 35 points or more where Borg opponents are concerned, but now your space missions that so regularly fall victim to Borg thievery in the early game can be protected. Borg players can now be forced to take on their opponent's dilemmas just as Fair Play forced non-Borg players to do the same, nullifying one of the most powerful and popular strategies of the past year.

The Big Picture - A massive net in which you can catch a wide variety of abuse, The Big Picture is going to force many players to rethink the way they build decks. Where Balancing Act asks only that you play both space and planet missions, The Big Picture requires you actually complete or scout them, or amass 140 points to win the game. Drop a Q's Planet onto the spaceline, guard it with Fair Play, and now those all-space or all-planet players will need a staggering 180 points to win. That's plenty of time for you to catch up to most abusive strategies; too many Borg Ship dilemmas to hunt quickly for their 45-point bonuses; too many turns to sit waiting at a Colony; too high a mark for a Ressikan Flute to reach. In short, too much for most abuses to handle. Expect The Big Picture to be one counter that never phases out of the "meta-game"; forcing both space and planet dilemmas on your opponent is just too good to pass up.

Remember that Blaze of Glory will be legal, immediately, in all tournaments (including World Championship qualifying events) upoon its release. These are just some of the cards likely to have a dramatic impact on current deck designs, so please prepare yourself with the spoiler list, rules sheet and other information available on the site. Don't get caught using an old deck when these new cards come rolling through!

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