4 •Lorian (Future Captain) Human/Vulcan Engineer Leadership Officer Science Security Transporters Commander: Future Enterprise. When this personnel is about to be removed from the game, you may unstop each stopped personnel present. (Those personnel may join the mission attempt.) "I swore to my Captain on his deathbed I'd save those seven million lives."' [Integrity 4] [Cunning 7] [Strength 6]
The son of spacefaring veterans T'Pol and "Trip" Tucker, Lorian (who is wearing what looks suspiciously like a vest he borrowed from the wardrobe of Jake Sisko in this shot) was sure to get his fair share of talent. At cost four, he is at the upper end of the scale, but for this hefty price tag, you get six useful skills. Leadership is a staple for starship Commanders, and with four "classification" skills he can contribute to overcoming a lot of dilemmas. In addition, Transporters is required by a number of decent Starfleet missions. Even more useful than his skills are other aspects of Lorian. With his smart parents and part Vulcan ancestry, he qualifies for outstanding Cunning of seven. His true potential, though, lies in his game text. When Lorian is aboard his ship and about to be stopped or killed by a dilemma, you may use the Future Enterprise to remove him from the game instead, unstopping all your stopped personnel present in the process! Suddenly, a dilemma combination that contains two filters might well end up not doing much at all. For example, popular dilemma combos like An Issue of Trust, followed by Temptation, can quickly backfire if Lorian is selected to be stopped by the second dilemma (to make sure he makes it through the first one, Travis Mayweather (Opportunistic Sergeant) or Burrows (Diagnostic Tech) can help). His skills even allow him to volunteer for a noble sacrifice while facing a number of dilemmas like Distraction, Shocking Betrayal, Command Decisions, Night Terrors or Warp Bubble Mishap. Of course, Lorian wouldn't know all those nifty little tricks about temporal shenanigans if it weren't for his mommy:3 •Elder T'Pol (Future Guide) Vulcan Anthropology Honor 2 Science When this personnel uses a skill to complete a mission, you may shuffle any number of non-Human personnel that you own that have been removed from the game into his or her owner's deck. "There's a human expression. 'Follow your heart.' " [Integrity 7] [Cunning 7] [Strength 3]
Note that this personnel may be in play at the same time as one of her younger versions, so the T'Pol family already provides you with three personnel who have Cunning of seven (or more, if you want to recruit T'Pol (Not a Slave)). T'Pol cares about her friends aboard the Future Enterprise. Use one of her three skills to complete a mission, and you get to shuffle all your non-Human personnel that have been removed from the game back into your deck. After all, when it's worth removing Greer and Lorian from the game to download interrupts and unstop personnel, it's worth doing it over and over again, right? (And by the way, if your Romulan opponent has run out of tricks to remove cards from the game, Elder T'Pol might just decide to shuffle some personnel back and render Wariness useless.) Even though this T'Pol has only three skills, there are several missions where her ability can be triggered: Investigate Alien Probe ties in nicely with her Integrity of seven, Secure Strategic Base is a no-brainer for an affiliation that has the icon by default, and Obtain Illegal Embryos is a good choice for those who like to play with missions that are worth '40 or more' points. (You still don't see a reason to use those big missions? Ok, here we go again: Causal Recursion, U.S.S. Enterprise-J, Well-Prepared Defenses, Unfair Terms, Spatial Interphase, Slightly Overbooked, etc.) Speaking of '40 or more' points, with Allegiance, it's finally time to shine for Nathan Samuels (Earth Minister). Before Allegiance, the only non-human personnel available were Daniels (Temporal Agent), Phlox, T'Pol, Soval (Idealist), and non-unique D'Vela... and you couldn't even take full advantage of the discount for Soval and Daniels with their cost of only one. With Elder T'Pol, Lorian and non-unique Greer, there are now enough reasons to justify using Samuels as the central play engine of a deck – oh, and there's even another non-Human personnel in Allegiance. To find out more, check back on Friday to see the fifth and final card for Starfleet, as well as a deck suggestion.-djl-