Vic Fontaine - Guns Blazing

by Michael Shea, Chief Ambassador

17th December 2019

Today, we welcome Vic Fontaine to the Second Edition Universe.

It may surprise some of you to learn that I started my days as a Star Trek CCG player with First Edition. My friends and I loved the game, even if no other group of players playing Magic or Lord of the Five Rings in the gaming room of the comic book shop I helped run worked as hard in between rounds as we did. We didn’t mind that sometimes it took almost as long to set up the game as it did to play the game. But, what we really loved was Decipher’s willingness to have fun with their cards. Who could ever forget the sublime uselessness of Barber Pole from Q Continuum? Or, the insanity of devouring the space line it took you a half hour to properly seed with a Black Hole from the Fajo Collection? Or the impish satisfaction derived from wormholing your opponent to the Montana Missile Complex before there were any other time locations for them to move to? How often did you make Wesley get the point?

When Decipher wasn’t creating crazy interactions like that, they were taking creative liberties. I can remember when players hated that the Pendari Champion from Voyager had Geology or that the copyright text on that card contained the text, “This card rocks.” I remember thinking it was pretty cool that Arachnia, Buster Kincaid, Captain Proton, and Chaotica from Holodeck Adventures were all printed in beautiful black-and-white. And I can remember Vic Fontaine from Mirror, Mirror suddenly being “inexplicably” human and enegmatic. Some players didn’t like that Decipher took such creative liberties – that they were so willing to have a laugh with the players (or even, occasionally, at the players’ expense). But I always thought it was all in good fun. After all, this is a game. There’s no need to take it so seriously all of the time.

When I learned that the designers of Inheritance had chosen to make a Vic Fontaine as part of this set, I was anxious to see what they would do. Would they play it straight? Or, would they have a little fun with the card? Second Edition doesn’t have the same reputation for madcap – which is something I’ve always felt was lacking. So, I was interested to see how far designers would push this card? Would it be equally “inexplicable”?  

The result, I’m happy to say, is a comfortable middle-ground. This Vic Fontaine is no longer Non-Aligned, he’s Bajoran and he’s still Human – both of these feel like fun creative liberties within the context of the relatively utilitarian and straight-laced world of Second Edition. When you play Vic, he downloads two hand weapons; and when he gets placed in the discard pile from your deck or hand, his owner gets to draw two cards. All of this feels pretty cool and useful in certain deck builds. Maybe the Bajoran Resistance will suddenly get help from the Rat Pack-esque crooner-cum-rebel. Maybe Mirror Bajor players will get to draw cards when their Cardassians are saved by Central Command. Thankfully, he doesn’t work with the Crafty Underling as that card doesn’t need any help being good. So, I expect this card will find its way into play.

This card could have gone off the rails, very easily. For example, we could have gotten our first Second Edition Musician. And if we were back in the wild Decipher days we might have. Thankfully, we didn't. Sometimes there's fun and then sometimes there's going too far, and Decipher certaonly dfidn't always get it right. The days of Decipher-Era First Edition insanity may be gone, for better or worse. But, it’s nice to see that Second Edition still gets to inherit some of the fun while still getting cards that fit in well with the play environment.

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