A Look Back at Inheritance

by Ross Fertel, Writer of Remembrance

11th September 2020

Once an expansion comes out, it generally takes six months for the community at large to fully adopt it and put cards in their decks. This makes it a little infuriating behind the scenes to see how players fully appreciate a set. Inheritance debuted in December of last year, so there’s been more than enough time for us to embrace it. Let’s see which cards were most successful in getting into decks.

Inheritance was based on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the game. Design took twenty-five cards from First Edition and made Second Edition versions of them. Some were more straightforward than others, but we got some fun cards out of the set.

Looking at subthemes, there was some love given to the Neutral Zone region. By far the most successful card in that vein is Donald Varley, Discoverer of Iconia. Of these three cards in the set dealing with the region, his is the easiest to pull off and, though a bit pricey, his skills are worth it. The other sub theme was on our two favorite members of the Department of Temporal Investigations. These are a little harder to pull off since they require you to be playing Deep Space Nine and your opponent to be working with another time period. The former you can control but the latter is less reliable, though with an entire expansion recently released based around the past, the odds have never been more in your favor.

Looking at individual cards, Hippocratic Oath is ready to join the pantheon of classic dilemma favorites. Placing a personal at your choice of planet missions means your opponent can either go out of their way to rescue them or leave their to their own devices, a risky proposition. It’s not just the art of Spot that players enjoy. Not only is she a good stopper with your choice but you can also target two very important skills, along with the abilities that happen to be on those personnel. Borg Nanoprobes is a good protection card that won’t be useful in every game, but when you do need it, you are glad you have it. There are few ways to get rid of a dilemma after the initial encounter and this card gives you a belated out. It’s great to get another 8472 dilemma out of your core, though if they are in your core, they aren’t in your opponent’s deck.

Fontaine, Enigmatic Rebel was very popular upon release, enough that the card needed to be curbed due to exploitation. Even with a big neuter to his ability, he remains a powerful tool in the Bajoran arsenal. Ilon Tandro, Special Envoy is a great way for you to start your vast collection of captives. Adorable Naomi Wildman, Obliging Assistant is one of the latest members of the Zero Cost Personnel Club and, though she has only one skill herself, can get you through several dilemmas. Much the same can be said for Non-Aligned Amarie, Information Broker. Ch’Pok, Vexing Advocate, is a walking Honor personnel buster, though the personnel is placed at the bottom of the deck, not the discard pile. Timicin, Irresolute Scientist goes, to show that no matter what the gametext, there are a myriad of ways around it. Riker makes his Non-Aligned debut with a great set of skills at a great price.

While design generally looks forward. Inheritance is proof that sometimes, you can get great cards by looking back. It was a unique concept that gave us Fantastic cards with familiar images. Happy Anniversary!

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