The Next Emanation
by Chris Heard (UZO@StarTrekMail.com)

Heaven. Hell. Sto-Vo-Kor. Valhalla. The Divine Exchequer. The Celestial Temple. Norfolk.

Many humanoid species both inside and outside the Star Trek universe have wondered where sentient beings "go" when they die. In the Star Trek CCG, the answer is usually "the discard pile." Unlike the Hebrew She'ol or the Klingon Gre'thor, however, the Star Trek CCG discard pile is by no means a place of no return. Through ore processing, conducting services, and the use of cards like Regenerate and Res-Q, any number of "dead" personnel can be restored to "life" and mission-solving or dilemma-busting glory.

The Next Emanation allows you to give your opponent an alternate answer to the question of the destination of the dead. Instead of going to the discard pile, your opponent's discarded personnel may be directed to your Next Emanation. They're still discarded, no longer in play (not even for uniqueness), so The Next Emanation doesn't prevent your opponent from playing another copy. But since the various methods of retrieving personnel from the discard pile won't work with The Next Emanation, your opponents will have to be more careful with their humanoid resources. This is especially true in a Warp Speed environment, where the rush of the game and the promise of one automatic regeneration might heighten your opponent's risk-taking instincts.

Combo:

The Next Emanation + Long Live the Queen: With their non-universal personnel under your Next Emanation and six universal personnel removed from play when they Regenerate, your opponent's Regenerates will not be sure shots to personnel recovery. Add multiples of Burial Ground to further drain your opponent's discard retrieval options.

The Next Emanation + Doppelganger and/or Klingon Painstik: Make sure that your opponent's personnel don't come back again, even if they've been stocked in multiples for use with the Delta Quadrant Subspace Scission.