I have to admit, the overall plan for First Edition design seems very well thought out. They placed a whole block of cards which benefited and enhanced decks using the Deep Space 9 property logo ahead of the KCA expansion, Crossover, knowing that those cards would inherently benefit and affect said faction. Now that we are in the mirror universe block, we see a similar effect occurring for The Original Series (TOS) and Enterprise property logo decks, though in reverse. Some cards that will help the Terran Empire decktype are going to help out an Original Series Federation one, and cards that help out the Mirror Starfleet faction will certainly have a major effect on the regular universe Starfleet build.
And given that the focus of the soon to be released Through the Looking Glass expansion is focused on the mirror universe equivalent of TOS, I expected to see cards which would help my previous TOS based builds. But what I was not expecting was one that gave a boost of nitrous oxide to my Starfleet deck!
Today's spoiled card, Protect the Timeline, helps all of those decks. But I have the sneaking suspicion that it helps Starfleet AQ decks the most, at least at this time. Much like Wednesday's card of the day, Full Compliment of Shuttles, this Incident adds an additional free play engine to a deck that does not see a lot of play while encouraging said deck to focus down on a single property logo.
For the cost of one seed slot, Protect the Timeline plays on the Time Location of your choice and adds an additional free play there. Most time locations allow some sort of free play (or can gain it), so this card can be added to any deck to bring that to a total of two free plays per turn. This free play, though, must be a unique personnel. This minor stipulation should allow design to control how many free plays are possible and what skills are possible for each time location.
What should be immediately concerning is the ability to stack this play engine. But unlike many free play engines in the game, Protect the Timeline has its own build in limitation. The third sentence on the card effectively nullifies other free play engines, unless they are associated with the targeted Time Location. For instance, I could stack Office of the President with Camp Khitomer and Protect the Timeline, but this stipulation would limit the Office free reports to people native to Camp Khitomer. With a proper treaty in play, I could stack The Great Hall with these three as well. But still, there is a limit to the number of free personnel to be used in such a deck.
The final sentence of the card adds one more, bonus function. It allows for travel between the targeted Time Location and the corresponding spacline location. This built in function is a bit easier than any currently existing methods of time travel in the game, given that it seeds and is always on. But it does have a limitation, it will stop the ship unless that ship and/or at least three of its crew members are native to the Time Location. So again, the limit seems to deter the use of this card in most decks while encouraging and welcoming its use in the intended deck types; ones that are focused on a single Time Location.
And that brings me back to my Starfleet deck, which is the first place I thought of tossing this new Incident. A little over a year ago, I published an article describing my current Starfleet deck. It was pretty damned good when I played it back then, and now with an additional free play engine I expect it to be spectacular. Starfleet pack all the overpowered skills and stats of Voyager era personnel with the dilemma cheating power of The Original Series and the endless drawing capabilities of the KCA. The only thing they were missing was speed and that looks to have just changed...
Discuss this article in this thread.
This deck is currently eligible for the following family or families of achievements:
Mission (6) | ||||
Mission | ||||
P | 1x Cargo Rendezvous | |||
R | 1x Espionage Mission | |||
R | 1x Fissure Research | |||
U | 1x Protect Shipment | |||
17 V | 1x Renovate Starbase | |||
12 U 42 | 1x Secure Strategic Base |
Seed Deck (30) | ||||
Dilemma | ||||
R | 1x Cytherians | |||
U | 1x Dead End | |||
5 R | 1x Denevan Neural Parasites | |||
60 VP | 1x Denevan Neural Parasites | |||
U | 1x Edo Probe | |||
R | 1x Founder Secret | |||
C | 1x Friendly Fire | |||
7 V | 1x Friendly Fire | |||
8 V | 1x Gomtuu Shock Wave | |||
6 C | 1x Linguistic Legerdemain | |||
13 C 17 | 2x Reflections | |||
C | 1x Scientific Method | |||
2 C 24 | 1x Telepathic Deception | |||
U | 1x The Higher... The Fewer | |||
18 V | 1x The Whale Probe | |||
10 R | 1x V'Ger | |||
97 VP | 1x V'Ger | |||
Doorway | ||||
C | 1x Alternate Universe Door | |||
93 VP | 1x Q's Tent: Civil War | |||
1 V | 1x Quantum Incursions | |||
10 V | 1x Temporal Micro-Wormhole | |||
Event | ||||
9 V | 1x Finally Ready to Swim | |||
Incident | ||||
20 V | 1x Protect the Timeline | |||
R | 1x Quark's Isolinear Rods | |||
2 VP | 1x Tribunal of Q | |||
Objective | ||||
39 C | 1x Assign Support Personnel | |||
21 V | 1x File Annual Report | |||
R | 1x Visit Cochrane Memorial | |||
Time Location | ||||
36 V | 1x 22nd-Century San Francisco |
Draw Deck (59) | ||||
Doorway | ||||
31 U | 1x Ready Room Door | |||
2 V | 1x Ready Room Door | |||
34 VP | 1x Space-Time Portal | |||
Event | ||||
14 R 35 | 5x Military Assault Command Operations | |||
43 P | 5x Temporal Shifting | |||
37 VP | 5x Temporal Shifting | |||
Facility | ||||
Starfleet | ||||
44 P | 1x Seat of Starfleet | |||
Interrupt | ||||
R | 1x Going to the Top | |||
39 U | 1x I'm a Doctor, Not a Bricklayer | |||
C | 8x Parallax Arguers | |||
Personnel | ||||
Starfleet | ||||
12 C 110 | 1x ❖ Amanda Cole | |||
8 U 94 | 1x ❖ Callaghan | |||
45 P | 1x Charles Tucker III | |||
13 R 111 | 1x Chief Surgeon Phlox | |||
14 C 108 | 1x ❖ Crewman D'Vela | |||
39 V | 1x ❖ Dallas | |||
49 V | 1x Danica Erickson | |||
40 V | 1x Daniel Leonard | |||
42 V | 1x Erika Hernandez | |||
48 P | 1x Ethan Novakovich | |||
15 V | 1x Gannet Brooks | |||
12 C 111 | 1x Hideaki Chang | |||
12 R 112 | 1x Jeremiah Hayes | |||
50 P | 1x Jeremy Lucas | |||
51 P | 1x Jonathan Archer | |||
13 C 109 | 1x Major Reed | |||
53 P | 1x Maxwell Forrest | |||
12 C 113 | 2x ❖ Nelson Kemper | |||
12 C 114 | 2x ❖ Sascha Money | |||
12 C 115 | 1x ❖ Sean Hawkins | |||
55 P | 1x T'Pol | |||
56 P | 1x Travis Mayweather | |||
Starfleet/Non-Aligned | ||||
41 V | 2x Daniels | |||
Ship | ||||
Starfleet | ||||
51 V | 1x Columbia | |||
57 P | 1x Enterprise | |||
13 U 121 | 1x I.S.S. Avenger | |||
53 V | 1x Sarajevo |
Q-Tent Side Deck (13) | ||||
Equipment | ||||
U | 1x Medical PADD | |||
5 V | 1x Mr. Tricorder | |||
8 V | 1x Vulcan Tricorder | |||
Event | ||||
U | 1x Captain's Log | |||
R | 1x Defiant Dedication Plaque | |||
50 U | 1x Lower Decks | |||
Facility | ||||
Starfleet | ||||
21 V | 1x Starbase One | |||
Incident | ||||
13 V | 1x Out of Time | |||
Interrupt | ||||
U | 1x Vulcan Mindmeld | |||
Objective | ||||
23 V | 1x Straight and Steady | |||
Personnel | ||||
Starfleet | ||||
46 P | 1x Elizabeth Cutler | |||
47 P | 1x Emory Erickson | |||
43 V | 1x ❖ Garrid |
Q the Referee Side Deck (13) | ||||
Doorway | ||||
U | 1x Temporal Vortex | |||
Event | ||||
U | 1x Mirror Image | |||
Incident | ||||
U | 1x Access Denied | |||
60 C | 1x Containment Field | |||
U | 1x It's Only a Game | |||
27 U | 1x Obelisk of Masaka | |||
29 U | 1x Q the Referee | |||
34 C | 1x White Deprivation | |||
R | 1x Writ of Accountability | |||
Interrupt | ||||
U | 1x Oof! | |||
U | 1x Scorched Hand | |||
U | 1x The Juggler | |||
Objective | ||||
41 U | 1x Defend Homeworld |