Classification: Civilian Release Today

by Ross Fertel, Sid Meier

11th February 2022

Classification: Civilian releases today. As your printer cranks out a copy or three, we can take a look at the cards that make their debut today. If you have been diligent about finding cards in various corners of the internet, there are some cards that will be new to you.

There have been dilemmas that have gained power when used against a specific affiliation. Moral Choice comes to mind against the Federation for example while Discommendation is more useful against Klingons. Morphogenic Virus takes it in another direction, though you will get two stops no matter what affiliation it is facing. Not just that but the random selection from the stops cannot be avoided by exclusion. If there are more than six affiliation icons that are not Dominion, the cost goes up from zero to four. Note that the cost increases from zero to four as opposed to starting at four and going to zero.

It is also important to note that you need six affiliation icons that are not dominion to get the cost to increase. If your opponent attempts the mission with only five personnel, you can still play this dilemma for zero counters.

Just as there is something to hamper Dominion decks, there is a card that will put a smile on a couple fans of Dominion decks. Ramius, Syndicate Collaborator adds more to the Tullaberry Team. They were introduced in the set Unity and had a quartet of Dominion traders who were able to do fun things with Commodities. When he is an eligible target for random selection, something that should happen fairly regularly when you are attempting a mission, you can give your opponent a Commodity to exclude Ramius along with another personnel with Acquisition present. You will want your opponent to have Commodities in their core and will also want to keep your Acquisition personnel out of harm's way. Ramius offers some soldi synergy to that deck which has gained some other help as sets have been released.

He is also a new species to the Dominion. That deck will welcome his Acquisition, but it will be at a high cost even with the built-in ability of the headquarters. Still, he has something to add to that albeit at a price.

Speaking of things that come with a price, Zefram Cochrane, Bemoaning his Day is the latest in a series of personnel with a drawback. He has nice solid attributes, but he just does not want to be in the game. If you lose command of him for any reason, he is removed from the game entirely. Not just that, but because misery loves company, each player has to remove a non-human personnel from the game as well. You can easily mitigate this by not having any non-human personnel in your deck, though you are still out the counters. You can even take that one step further going on the offense while playing him and finding a way to lose command of him. Granted your opponent will probably have someone they can sacrifice, but it is still something they will not have access to for the rest of the game.

Manuele Atoa may be as Fun to Look At as his subtitle suggests, but those attributes are not. Thankfully, they go up rather quickly so unless he is the only personnel in your deck (not a challenge, just an example) his attributes will be 5-5-6. That still may not be too much to get excited about, but he gains an attribute point for each different affiliation icon you have present, meaning he could easily go to 6-6-7 in a non Deep Space Nine deck or 7-7-8 in a deck that has multiple affiliations which is something to take note of along with the diverse skill set.

When you think of civilians, the Borg do not immediately come to mind. You've seen Scout Drone earlier but today you meet his companion. Third of Five, Wayward Drone can also be described as event insurance. His ability will be very welcome on for the Maquis but while the Borg are not known for wanting events to stay on missions, there are some they want to keep around. Population Nine Billion -All Borg is expensive as all heck and has the same vulnerability as any other event in the game making it hard to build a deck around it. Third of Five will allow you to keep it around though you have to return him to your hand. That is not as bad as it sounds as you can play him again and even though you have to spend two counters to do so, it is nothing compared to the five more you will have to spend again on the event. Expand the Collective is another card that came to mind when the Scout Drone was revealed.

Rounding out the new cards is someone who is a certainly memorable if not a fan favorite, Elias Giger, Cellular Entertainer. His Order is great when you go up against someone who likes to manipulate, or even get a sneak peak at, their deck. Each player takes the top three cards of their deck and places them at the bottom. Since they are in the same sequence, they will eventually get back to the top of the deck but until then your opponent will be as in the dark as you are.

Classification: Civilian releases today. This expansion would not be possible without the hard work of Playtesting, Creative, Rules, Proofreading, Art and Programming. Go to the expansion page to marvel at the cover sheet and pack art. These cards are tournament legal next Friday, February 18. If any of these cards strike your fancy, please be sure to make a donation in return for a shiny badge. The cards are virtual but there are real world costs associated with getting them to you.

One last thing about Elias Geiger; he is not the first card with that title. There was a prior version that made it all the way to testing and involved revitalizing your hand in some fashion. This took a lot of time to resolve and while it was reminiscent of washing one's hands, the joke took a little too long to get and just like any joke that requires explanation to be funny, it got cut.

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