Playing The Borg No.17:
Computer Crash
by Evan Lorentz (evanl@earthlink.net)
Deep Space Nine. Exciting, new, and not one Borg card in the entire 276-card set. But don't think for a moment the Borg got shafted; upon closer examination, the Borg affiliation has actually "improved" with
the addition of these new cards.
There's no better place to start than with a close look at the one card that
has Borg fans everywhere concerned. Computer Crash is a Hidden Agenda with a
powerful function: "Seeds or plays on table. No player may play a Q's Tent
doorway, download any card or play any card that requires downloading.
Discard event at end of your next turn." At first glance, this looks bad.
Really bad. How about a closer look?
Computer Crash doesn't pack much of a punch if it isn't seeded. It's an
event, so to play it during the game costs you your card play, and it will
remain in effect for only one turn once revealed. You are basically giving
up one turn to stall your opponent for one turn, so really you're not
gaining anything. Your opponent may even come out ahead -- they get to play
a card on their turn after you spent yours on Computer Crash.
So what about the seeding possibilities? Deep Space Nine's exciting new
exemption of missions from the 30-card seed deck limit means six more slots
for seeds. While it is possible a player would choose to fill those six
slots with copies of Computer Crash, they would be cutting themselves off
from many other good choices for seeds: The Line Must Be Drawn Here, Mission
Debriefing, Beware of Q, a variety of useful DS9 objectives, an extra
Space/Time Portal, a Treaty, or even simply a few more dilemmas. While a
player with six seeded Computer Crashes would definitely be able to do some
damage to certain kinds of decks, they wouldn't have much protection against
other popular tactics, most notably Wormhole Field Trips and Q bypassers.
That won't stop *some* players from seeding six or more Computer Crashes,
but it is safe to assume most won't, no more than they would seed six Mirror
Images. Focusing too much on one strategy will leave you vulnerable to
others. Nevertheless, it is probably safe to assume most players *will* seed
Computer Crash -- at least one or two. What would the impact of this be on a
Borg deck? Let's look at the functions of Computer Crash one by one.
"No player may play a Q's Tent doorway." That can be a powerful thing, but
it is by no means exclusively for use against the Borg. Sure, you've
probably got a Borg Queen or some other valuable card in your Tent, but your
opponent has cards *they* value in *their* Tent, too... and Computer Crash
is indiscriminate. Even if revealed on your turn, it will last until the end
of your opponent's. Neither one of you will be able to access your Tent.
Also, note that Computer Crash does not *nullify* Q's Tents, it merely
restricts their play. If revealed in response to the play of a doorway, the
Hidden Agenda will merely force you to return the Q's Tent doorway to your
hand. It'll still be there (barring the occasional Telepathic Alien
Kidnappers or Scorched Hand) one turn later if you do want to use it, and
your opponent isn't gaining any ground on you since they too are cut off
from their Tent. Wrong Door is frankly a far tougher card on Tenting, and
all affiliations (Borg included) have managed to live with that.
"No player may... download any card." That's a bit tougher, and definitely
is beginning to look like it's picking on the Borg. In the big picture
though, it's like firing a BB gun at a locomotive. Borg decks download
virtually every turn... and that does not make them *vulnerable* to Computer
Crash, it makes them *stronger* against it. Consider how often a non-Borg
deck downloads (forget momentarily about Assign Mission Specialists and
Ready Room Door; I'll address those later). Not much, is the answer. The
occasional special download icon on a personnel, the one or two time
(average) use of a Spacedoor. These are downloads that are usually time
critical -- if you're closing your Spacedoor, it's because you don't have a
ship yet. If you are using a special download icon, you're required to play
the card immediately. Downloading is less time critical to the Borg. With my
Borg Queen, I can download at the end of any turn I want. No matter if you
play Computer Crash, I can get that drone next turn. I was probably planning
to download again anyway. For another affiliation where downloading is less
common, each download means more. For the Borg, every download is just as
good as any other, with few exceptions. (Retask is an obvious one, but
Retask already has abundant risks attached.) In just a few turns, a Borg
player will make you reveal all your Computer Crashes. Then they'll be gone.
Resistance is futile. You have bought yourself only two or three turns.
(Isn't that enough against the average Borg deck? We'll see...)
"No player may... play any card that requires downloading." There are some
cases where this hurts Borg, and many where it makes little difference.
Cards like the Borg Queen and the drones with downloading capabilities do
not *require* downloading, so there's nothing stopping you from playing them
if you draw one. For other cards like Activate Subcommands and Awaken,
Computer Crash again does not nullify them, it merely returns them to your
hand. They'll still be there next turn after the event is gone. (This does
hurt Retask a bit, but no more than Kevin Uxbridge will!) Again, only a
stall on downloading has been obtained, one turn per Computer Crash.
It's actually the *other* affiliations that are hit hardest by that final
function. The two most popular non-Borg downloads are Ready Room Door and
Assign Mission Specialists. Ready Room Door requires downloading, and thus
cannot be played with a Computer Crash in effect. Assign Mission Specialists
does *not* require a download of any kind (it's optional), so if you think
an opponent with seeded Computer Crashes is going to hurt a Borg deck, just
wait until you see what they can do to the average Mission Specialist deck!
All they need to do is wait until the AMS player has discarded their
objective and played a new one. They can then reveal Computer Crash, which
will not force the card back to the player's hand since the downloading is
optional -- all it means is they've wasted their card play on an objective
they voluntarily discarded at the beginning of their turn!
I can imagine what you're thinking. Even a one turn stall against the Borg
can be a big deal. You may believe they are slow to build, even more so with
downloading restricted. I ask you: slow compared to what? What is your
opponent playing that is so much faster? Why, an Assign Mission Specialist
deck! Now that there's a card that goes harder on Assign Mission Specialists
than *any* other downloading card, it will be a less reliable strategy. Do
you even remember what it's like to be stuck playing whatever personnel you
happen to draw? ;-) It's slow going -- just as slow as a Borg deck stalled
for three turns by delayed downloading. There's really nothing the Borg have
to try and keep up with. Any deck that was outspeeding the Borg before was
doing so only by heavy downloading of its own. Everybody gets hit equally by
Computer Crash.
So now that (I hope) I've laid to rest the myth of the DS9 card that's
"tougher on Borg than anyone else", it's time to move on to cards that
definitely hit *other* affiliations harder. One card type stands out in
particular...
NEXT TIME: DS9 Dilemmas
- Mot the Barber
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