The Best Evek Yet

by Kevin Jaeger, Creative Consultant

3rd November 2009

Guilty until proven even more guilty. That's how the Cardassians roll. You're targeted, captured, jailed, and then put on trial before being further used by the state. This Evek is truly an agent of Cardassian justice. He puts the cuffs on personnel you haven't even played yet! That doesn't even seem fair!

Before you get all bent out of shape crying "Overpowered!", remember that your opponent doesn't get to choose all the potential captives, he or she could theoretically capture no one, and Evek does cost four and requires six or more Cardassians to fill the brig. That said, we are looking at turn three being his first likely appearance. So there is some downside and that's not even including his lack of good mission/dilemma skills like Anthropology or Diplomacy (skills the other versions carry).

This guy is good though, and certainly better than his prior versions. Potentially capturing three people is way better than just gaining a couple skills if you have a captive. Cardassians do not lack ways of getting skills on peersonnel, and you'll easily live without gaining Biology and Law. Then there's paying one cost more to actually capture up to three personnel without having to spend more counters for the capture. The best "Cardie" capture card up 'til this point was Ensnared. Attaché Evek cost you three to play, two more for Ensnared, six Cardassian-affiliation personnel in play, six cards off your deck, and the personnel had to be away from the headquarters. This Evek costs you four to play, and six Cardassian-affiliation personnel in play for the swipe. That's it. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the math advantage.

Let's go back to the potential for whiffing. That problem can be outright mitigated through planning. Drawing from an old Borg Assimilator deck I used to play - just use The Caretaker's "Guests". Once you're packing the Caretaker's "Guests" again, you need not fear the James T. Kirk (Original Thinker). Either your opponent pops Kirk on the Guests and the rest of your combo is safe, or he doesn't and Kirk becomes your prison bitch. Once there, he's not able to harm your dilemma combos again. I would advise you to keep in mind that an Original Series opponent will likely be packing Number One.

The absolute best feature of this Evek, though, is his potential for an incredibly cost-effecient, bulk snag that can really get your deck rolling. My personal experience with capture decks has been that they tend to have difficulty getting enough captives to really exploit them well enough to help you win. Sure, you get one captive with Ensnared, etc. but that might mean a skill you need to pull isn't there for Means of Control; or your opponent has too many events for Corbin Entek to kill; or your opponent stops too many people for Elim Garak (First Officer of Terok Nor) to prevent; or you don't have quite enough skill dots to make efficient use of Prison Compound; or no one in your brig is worth killing for Vast Resources (or conditioning with Condition Captive). ...

This Evek makes all of those punishment cards better. Let's look at some combos.

Evek plus an Evek in hand plus High Command "Motivation" plus Prison Compound plus Feast on the Dying. High Command "Motivation" kills Evek and pays for the Feast plus a counter. So now your turn is another Evek, some captives, and a play of Prison Compound, and you are set for another go of it next turn.

Evek plus Condition Captive plus Ensnared plus Inexorable Torture. Even though Ensnared doesn't work with Inexorable Torture when played, Condition Captive does, and so do all the other capture cards still physically in your deck. Get your six Cardassian-affiliation personnel and a ship on the table. Following turn, play Evek, then Ensnared, and you could theoretically drain your remaining deck of personnel and leave it with only capture/punishment cards. Then play Condition Captive and suddenly Evek is also a free reporting machine out the gate. ... This has van Breemen smell all over it.

-djl-