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Removed from Existence

by Ross Fertel, Devoid

23rd October 2024

On Monday, you saw a couple cards that benefit from other cards being removed from the game. Humanity's Last Stand gets a better defense boost for each tactic that has been removed and Unfamiliar Reflection gets an increase for each card type removed from the game. Yesterday on the site and last week on Facebook, you saw personnel who gain a couple extra skills with an empty discard pile.

The Destruction of EarthThe question is how to accomplish all of this. There are ways to get cards out of play, but they are not numerous. Your discard pile starts out empty, but that will not likely not remain so for even the most skilled and lucky players.

All of this comes together today with the Survivors' Settlement, the Time Location for Ceti Alpha V and The Destruction of Earth. That incident is the key to the deck, at once emptying your discard pile from the game and removing all other cards put there as well. The NX-01 Enterprise gets beefier each time a card type is removed, but how crazy can things get? Most Starfleet ships cap out at a six for any stat, if you're lucky. The Terran Empire ships can get a bit stronger, but still cap out at some point.

Technically, you are limited by the number of card types in the game to hit the sliding scale towards its upper limit, but let's see how wild we can drive this up.

Perhaps the easiest is Interrupts; you play it, and it goes into the discard pile. You can also count on events headed there as well. Many Objectives are written to be discarded a s a function of completing their effect. You shouldn't hope your opponent will clear too many of your dilemmas, but that will probably happen eventually. If you have an Artifact, it might wind up there as well depending on the use.

Survivors' SettlementLooking at the nouns, Equipment and Ships might go there as well, depending on how ready for battle your opponent is or how nasty their dilemmas are. Your facility is even more at risk for an armada looming opponent. Clearing out the rest of the low hanging fruit, personnel, sadly, will more than likely be headed there at some point.

Incidents get a little tricky. Most of them are in your deck to play on the table as a reporting or draw engine, but a few can be discarded via gametext. Most Doorways are there to be seeded, but they do have a built-in play function which can land them in your discard pile.

If you want to get really crazy, you could use a Black Hole to eat up a Mission. Note that this is incredibly dangerous but an option.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. As long as you can get the card in your hand, you can discard it when instructed, adding Time Locations to the list. In theory, you can hit double digits but note that things cannot get too crazy. There are card types that you cannot put in your hand and thus discard such as Tibbles or Q cards. More than likely, you are hitting the expected range.

These cards so prevalent that they are in the title of the set Alternate Universe: Twilight having a lot of potential to be fun. Playing in a new place, the door is open for a new deck and a way to play. Have fun, especially if you combine it with Mirror Starfleet who like having no cards in their hand …


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