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Major Rakal's Romulan Reviews #112

01/24/01

Aefvadh! Because the Mirror Universe is represented in the game by a separate "quadrant", reporting of [MQ] cards is subject to the "native quadrant" rules. But you might want to use some mirror universe personnel in a "normal universe" deck, or bring your mirror universe people to the Alpha Quadrant and then be able to report more of them there without going back through the wormhole to pick up reinforcements. There are several mechanisms that allow you to do this, with one of the most basic being...

Crossover

Incident, common
[HA]

Seeds or plays on table. Once each turn, your [MQ] personnel may ignore their [MQ] icon when reporting OR just after you report Smiley, Benjamin Sisko, Professor Sisko, Jake Sisko, Bareil, The Intendant, Grand Nagus Zek, Maihar'du, Ezri, Rom, or Quark, you may download a Multidimensional Transport Device to that personnel (or vice versa, if you reported Device as your normal card play; discard incident).

The most frequent question about this card is, "What does it mean to 'ignore their [MQ] icon'?" Simply put, it means you pretend that card doesn't have a [MQ] icon when it's reporting for duty -- that is, it has no quadrant icon. Since personnel cards with no quadrant icon are considered native to the Alpha Quadrant (the only quadrant with no icon), you can report the card just as though it were a "real" Alpha Quadrant native.

In what situations can you use this ability? To answer that question, first let's look at what a [MQ] icon -- or the absence of it -- really means. Unlike the [GQ] or [DQ] icons, a [MQ] icon represents not only a different quadrant, but also a different universe. So a personnel with a [MQ] icon belongs to (is native to) both the Mirror Quadrant and the mirror universe. A personnel with any other quadrant icon belongs to that quadrant and the normal universe. And a personnel with no quadrant icon belongs to the Alpha Quadrant and the normal universe.

While quadrant and universe are related, sometimes one is relevant and sometimes the other -- and sometimes neither (just the icon itself). There are basically three different situations in which that [MQ] icon is relevant to reporting.

1. Cards or rules that require a card native to a specific quadrant. The most basic rule is that if a facility or site is giving you the place to report a card, then the card must report to its native quadrant. Universe does not figure into this rule!
2. Cards or rules that require a card native to a specific universe. If the card giving you the place to report is not a facility or site, but it requires a personnel "matching the affiliation of a homeworld", that also implies that they must be native to the universe of that homeworld. Quadrant does not figure into this rule!
3. Cards that specifically require either a card with a [MQ] icon or without a [MQ] icon. Neither quadrant nor universe is really relevant here -- it's the actual icon that counts, not what it represents.

"Enough," you're saying. "What I really want to know is whether I can use Crossover with Homefront! Or Ops! Or..." Patience, young Skywalker. (Sorry, wrong universe.) Here are the practical examples you've been waiting for.

Reporting to Facilities

If you're reporting a personnel to an Alpha Quadrant outpost or headquarters (using the rule that your compatible personnel can report there), or to an Alpha Quadrant Nor (using the text of a site), that personnel must be native to the Alpha Quadrant. That includes using Ops to download a personnel to a site -- remember, downloading into play is just reporting for duty (the download just gave permission to rummage through your deck for the card). We don't care about its universe, just its native quadrant.

Crossover lets you pretend that [MQ] personnel has no quadrant icon -- and no quadrant icon means "Alpha Quadrant". So in all these cases, you can report that compatible [MQ] as an Alpha Quadrant native using Crossover. (Ops downloads require matching affiliation to the facility -- don't confuse this with "matching the affiliation of a homeworld".) The Intendant can report to your Bajoran Outpost, to Chamber of Ministers, or to Guest Quarters on Deep Space 9 (or even download to Guest Quarters using Ops text).

Reporting with Homefront

Homefront, seeded or played on a homeworld, allows you to download a SECURITY personnel to the location of that homeworld. It requires that the personnel match the affiliation of that homwworld, and according to situation 2 above, that means they must also be native to the homeworld's universe. (We don't care about the quadrant -- you can download a Jem'Hadar Alpha SECURITY to the Founders' homeworld using Homefront, because they match the homeworld's affiliation -- [Dom] -- and its universe -- normal.)

Once again, Crossover lets you pretend that [MQ] personnel has no quadrant icon -- and in this case, no quadrant icon means "normal universe" (because only [MQ]-icon cards belong to the mirror universe). Bareil is [Baj] affiliation and has SECURITY skill, so by ignoring his [MQ] icon, he qualifies to download with Homefront at normal-universe Bajor.

Reporting to a Time Location

Any time location allows reporting of cards "native to this timeline" directly to the time location (including aboard a ship or facility at the time location). Sherman's Peak says the cards native to the timeline are "all cards with both [OS] and [AU] icon (except [MQ] cards)." Sherman's Peak doesn't specifically care about quadrants or universes -- all it wants to know is whether the card has an [MQ] icon.

With Crossover in play, a card with [OS], [AU], and [MQ] icons pretends to have just [OS] and [AU] icons. It's now native to the Sherman's Peak timeline! So First Officer Spock, using Crossover, can report to Sherman's Peak, and if Deep Space Station K-7 is there, it lets him report for free (because he has an [OS] icon).

Reporting Using Other Cards

What about using Assign Mission Specialists or Assign Support Personnel to download [MQ] personnel to an Alpha Quadrant facility? That works just fine -- and you don't even need Crossover to do it! That's because the card telling you where those downloaded personnel can report is not a facility or site -- it's an objective, and that means you don't have to pay any attention to native quadrant at all. So you have no need to "ignore their [MQ] icon," and you don't use up your "once each turn" Crossover allowance.

Reporting Ships

Sorry, Crossover just doesn't work with ships. It says personnel, and it means personnel. But you can still use Spacedoor or Construct Starship to allow appropriate [MQ] ships to report in the Alpha Quadrant, for the same reason you can use AMS or ASP for personnel: because the facility isn't what tells you "report it here".

Crossover's Other Function

While it takes up most of the card, the remaining function of Crossover is relatively easy to explain.

• Report one of the listed personnel, and immediately download a Multidimensional Transport Device to that personnel. Crossover remains in play. Or,
• Report a Multidimensional Transport Device as your normal card play (that is, don't download it with Crossover, or with Bareil's equipment download), and immediately download one of the listed personnel to the Device. Discard Crossover.

You can do only one of these each turn, and you can't do it on the same turn you used the "pretend this personnel has no [MQ] icon" function. So you can't report Smiley to your AQ Federation Outpost and download a MTD to him. (Extra copies of Crossover won't help, either -- "once each turn" means "no matter how many copies you have in play".)

The Major's Combos:

• Crossover + Spacedoor on a Klingon Outpost + Treaty: Bajoran/Klingon: Report all those Bajoran, Klingon, and Non-Aligned mirror universe folks plus Alliance Interceptors, K'Vorts, and Vor'Chas straight to the Alpha Quadrant. (You'll need the treaty because, while the [KCA] cards could be made compatible with Emblem of the Alliance, the Bajorans still wouldn't be compatible with a Klingon Outpost that has no [KCA] icon.)
• Crossover + Multidimensional Transport Device + Ezri + Crossover: Report the MTD in the Alpha Quadrant using your normal card play; download Ezri to the MTD and discard Crossover; download a new Crossover using Ezri's [SD] icon.

Jolan tru,

Major Rakal
Tal Shiar

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