Card Extras Remastered - Darmok

by Daniel Matteson, Writing Team Manager

7th July 2021

Note: During the release period for Official Tournament Sealed Deck Remastered, we thought it might be fun and nostalgic to take a look at some of the Card Extras articles written for these cards on the Decipher site, and compare the original uses for these cards with some more modern uses. Please enjoy these Card Extras Remastered articles, releasing daily between June 30th and July 7th.

Darmok

By Bill Martinson (billm@decipher.com)

No ship in the STCCG universe has as much flexibility as the Darmok, one of the twenty black border cards found in the Star Trek Official Tournament Sealed Deck. When reporting for duty, you get to choose one of three special equipment functions - a Tractor Beam, Holodeck or Particle Scattering Device.

What this means for sealed deck play is now you can match a ship's function to the cards you get in your sealed deck booster packs. Got a lot of holograms? Now you have at least one ship with holodeck capabilities so you can use them. Need to tow a Radioactive Garbage Scow? No problem, give your ship the tractor beam, and you can move it away. Or if you happen to get a Particle Scattering Field Event card, the Darmok can cause your opponent lots of beaming headaches. Or just give the ship the Particle Scattering Device to make your opponent afraid to beam anywhere, just as a bluff! But remember, once you pick the special function at reporting, that's what the ship will have for the rest of the game, so choose wisely.

In standard Star Trek Swiss tournaments, and in casual play, several copies of the Darmok can make a really nasty Particle Scattering Field deck. In addition, as a stand-alone card, this ship is easy to staff and has respectable RANGE, WEAPONS and SHIELDS numbers.

Combos:

Darmok + Particle Scattering Field

Darmok + Hologram characters

Darmok with Plasmadyne Relay

Darmok is a ship that is fantastic in limited play due to its versatility, but unfortunately not focused enough for constructed. It's not a bad choice in a pure non-aligned build, as it downloads with Spacedoor and gives you the flexibility to choose which ship equipment you want, which can help with dilemma busting (Tractor Beam), or crew reporting (Holodeck), or... whatever it is Particle Scattering Device does. (Kidding.) Its stats, however, are not spectacular, particularly the 7 RANGE, so there are generally better options available, though this can be a fun ship to experiment with. "Temba, his arms wide!"

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