1) Premiere

     The set that started it all.  It, for a long time, was the set you absolutely needed, to play ST:CCG anywhere near effectively.  It included tons of not-at-all-useful personnel, that nowadays you'd hardly ever see used in a deck, except maybe as mission specialists.  It is distributed through Starter Decks and Expansion Packs.

     It did have its problems.  First of all, Red Alert! didn't have all that many counters (namely kevin), and unbalanced the game.  The person who drew Red Alert! first, and who had a lot of personnel/ships in their opening hand would have a significant jump-start.

   Second of all, the counters.  There are a bunch of cool things you can base your deck around, but a lot of them only need 1 kevin to blow them away.  This made the game less fun for everyone.

2) The Warp Pack

     The Warp Pack includes 8 different cards, including missions, a personnel, and an outpost to help a new player start out.  It is distributed for no cost by Decipher, and can be obtained by mail and special offers.  All cards in the Warp Pack can now be obtained in expansion sets.

3) Alternate Universe (AU)

     This set introduced, namely, the AU icon  and AU cards.  Strange things occur all the time in the world of Star Trek, although some of them wouldn't occur "normally" if not for, let's say, temporal disturbances.  ST:CCG needed a way to represent these cards, yet balance the game, since they really don't belong in the normal ST universe.  Thus, the AU icon was born.

     One card in the AU set would spark fascination, and anger as well, to those unlucky players, or ones who wouldn’t be able to afford it.  This card is the Future Enterprise (FE).  At the time the rarest card in the game, it was quite powerful (although hard to staff).  Some people thought (and still do think) that it gave an unfair advantage to the people lucky enough to own a copy of it.  Well, nowadays, there's ships that are basically equal with it, in terms of base attributes, so most of the controversy is over.

4) Q-Continuum (QC)
 
     The next set to appear in the world of ST:CCG, it also introduced new and exciting elements to the game.  First of all, Q-cards.  These cards are put into a Q-Continuum Side Deck and would enter play through Q-flashes seeded like dilemmas for your opponent to encounter.  Many of the cards in this set are Q-cards, giving a wide range of cards to have in your Q-Continuum side deck.

     The other gameplay element that was introduced is the Q's Tent Side Deck.  It allows you to seed up to 13 different cards underneath a Q's Tent card, which is subsequently accessed by Q's Tents in your draw deck.  Cards that you wouldn't risk putting in your draw deck for fear of them being shuffled into the bottom, or even cards you have in your draw deck, but would like access to if those don't come up right away, are put in the Q's Tent.  It is a commonly used element, even today, although more and more people are stocking multiple counters for Q's Tents.

5) First Anthology (FA)

     The First Anthology consists of 2 premiere starters, 2 premiere boosters, 2 AU boosters, 2 QC boosters, 6 Preview (PV) Cards , and a rules supplement for AU and QC.  The FA is, put simply, the Best Product Available for new players trying to build a base of cards to play with.  The 6 PVs have created some annoyance for experienced players who really don't need a FA, but need (or want) the preview cards, but since now they are starting to turn up in newer expansions, most of this debate has been diffused.

6) 2-Player Game: Federation & Klingon Versions (2PG)

     This is the one product that has sparked some of the most intense fury among ST:CCG players in the entire history of the game (there is one other, but I’ll get into that a little later on).  Supposedly intended for new players to have 2 ready-made decks to start out, this product was split into 2; a Federation (Fed) version, and a Klingon version.  Each version is exactly alike, except for 3 premium (PM) cards that are only obtainable through this product.  These PM cards are highly sought-after by collectors, as well as Fed and Klingon players.  The product includes 2 ready-made decks, which include no rare cards, that are ready to play.  While it may be slightly good for new players, it doesn’t help anyone actually build a deck, which is one of the most important aspects of the game.  New players, if wanting to eventually learn all the aspects of ST:CCG, as well as not spend an exorbitant amount of hard-earned money, are surely better off buying a FA instead.

7) First Contact (FC)

     First Contact is the expansion that really jump-started the game.  Many players, after the release of QC, expected the game to die out.  This expansion revitalized ST:CCG as we know it, introducing the first new affiliation since the premiere set, the Borg.  It also gave new personnel and ships for the Federation, as well as new interrupts, events, doorways, dilemmas, and missions for all the affiliations.  The federations received new versions of their bridge crew, as well as the new Enterprise, the Enterprise-E (Ent-E).  The Ent-E, although hard to staff, is a very powerful ship, which also has a weapons bonus against Borg opponents.

     The Borg are, in many aspects, completely different from all the affiliations that preceded it.  They do not solve missions, they (for the most part) start out in the lonely Delta Quadrant (Delta Quad), and their main ships, Borg Cubes, have very high weapons and shields.  They, however, can only use 1 Borg-icon objective at a time, which limits them substantially.  These objective allow them to, for example, assimilate a planet or Starship, assimilate a potential counterpart, etc.  They are powerful in many aspects, yet can be overcome, if properly prepared.

8) The Fajo Collection (Fajo)

This product contains 18 powerful, versatile cards that can enhance virtually any deck.  At $80 (US), they’d better!  Many of the cards in this product are printed with special inks, or special designs, which, in turn, make the cards look a higher degree of quality than the other cards out there, although since FC, the level of quality has come very close to the cards that are now printed.

9) Away-Team Pack

     This special-offer pack consists of 2 cards, The Emissary and The Traveler (Nick-Names for 2 Decipher Employees), which are powerful, yet balanced.  The Emissary is a Bajoran persona of Benjamin Sisko, and allows other Bajorans to report directly to his location.  The Traveler lets the ship he’s aboard, if youth present, to move directly to anywhere on the Spaceline, then phases back into your hand.  The pack can be obtained through special offers, and is available through purchase of Scrye 5.3.  The Traveler is mostly a novelty, but The Emissary is a valuable addition to any Bajoran deck.

10) Official Tournament Sealed Deck (OTSD)

     This product, intended mainly for Sealed-Deck play, consists of 4 Premiere expansion packs, 1 AU expansion pack, and 20 fixed cards.  The expansion packs allow an element of surprise which adds to the challenge of building a deck.  The 20 fixed cards include missions, dilemmas, a doorway, an outpost, and a valuable personnel, which provide you with some cards that many times do not appear frequently in the expansion packs.  It also includes 1 of 6 different boxes to store and protect your cards.  For new players intent on learning how to build decks, this is great crash-course material.

11) Deep Space Nine (DS9)

     Deep Space Nine introduced 2 new affiliations, Bajoran and Cardassian, which each add new and exciting aspects to the game.  It is considered to be a Double Expansion, with approximately twice as many cards as other full expansions.  It also includes a PV card, the USS Defiant.  This ship is twice as rare as any other rare card in the set, making it the most rare card in the game, only appearing in 1 out of every 200 packs.

     The Set Also Introduces a new type of card, called a Station.  Stations fall into the newly formed category of cards called Facilities, which include Outposts, Stations, and Headquarters.  The Stations in the DS9 expansion include Deep Space Nine/Terok Nor, a dual sided card, as well as the universal Nor.

12)  Starter Deck II  (SD2)

     The Starter Deck II is a product that combines a premiere starter pack with 8 premium cards designed to enhance gameplay.  The SD2 can also be used for Sealed Deck games, helped by the premium cards, as well as better sorting of the premiere cards.  This is a good product for new players, although  regular premiere starters are usually much cheaper than this re-released product.

13)  Enhanced First Contact (EFC)

     As you may have noticed earlier on, I noted something else that would spark immense controversy among the ST:CCG community.  This is that product.  Enhanced First Contact is a product that includes 4 FC expansion packs, as well as 3 PM cards and 1 overlay, for use with the Borg.  There are 4 different EFC packs, each with different PM cards.  It sells for $15 retail (US).  What bothered so many ST:CCG players is that many people don’t need any more FC cards, but would definitely need the cards included in the EFC packs for their Borg decks.  This controversy was heard mainly when EFC was announced, but continued, and still continues, after the release of the product.

14)  The Dominion (Dom)
 
     This set introduces a new affiliation, The Dominion (as the set was aptly named).  The Dom affiliation is one that is somewhat different from “regular” affiliations.  They’re not as different as the Borg are, but different nonetheless.  They  can accomplish missions with alternate methods, and do not start out in the alpha quadrant (as the Borg usually do not).  One of their races, the Jem’Hadar (Jemmies), are totally dependant upon Ketracel White(White), which limits them, although they are quite powerful, with relatively high stats compared to other affiliations.  A viable deck, however, can be made without Jemmies, especially when using a treaty.  This takes the deck off the dependency of The White, which is quite safer.

     This set also introduced a new station, Empok Nor, which must be commandeered before use, but allowing affiliations the use of a station.  The Feds, Rommies, Klingons, and Cardies also get (a) new ship(s), which enhance(s) gameplay further.

15)  Blaze of Glory (BoG)

     The next expansion to arrive, this set  will be the first full expansion to come out without a new affiliation since QC.  BoG will add new battle elements to take gameplay to the next evolutionary level.  Little is known about this expansion beyond that.
 

16)  Things To Come

     The things that can be virtually guaranteed, are an expansion focusing on the Ferengi,  and on Voyager.  Beyond that,  only our imagination for speculation can tell us.
 

     I hope that this has been an informative article on the Evolution of ST:CCG.  Thanks for reading.

-The Man With Multiple Names, EviLore/Lore