Ships for Sale!

by Ross Fertel, Second Edition Brand Manager

6th December 2017

These articles have looked at affiliations from an expansion perspective. Sometimes it was easy like the other week with the Bajorans. Other times it's more difficult like this week with the Cardassians. They've had a time in the spotlight here and there, but they really didn't have one expansion here you can point to and say 'this is where they got a bunch of stuff.'

Tacking into the Winds really let them shine in all their glory. The Team in that set dealt entirely with tossing out ships. Who in their right mind would toss away their ships with wanton disregard outside of Khan and maybe the Bajorans? It turned out that this played right into their hands, with them being the masters of throwing stuff out for fun and/or profit and an asset involving ships, the venn diagram was visible. This is most clear with their ship, the Groumall. First off, it is better with another ship in the discard pile. If the card has native attributes for most of the game, you're not doing it right. The order is even better, letting you get your ships back in hand for more tomfoolery. It's pretty much everything you need right there. Never has a ship been more necessary for a deck than the Borg dissidents. The rest of the personnel, including one hidden with the Bajorans, is based around having eight or more ships in your deck, an idea that was maddening not too long ago. For what you can achieve, the Cardassians did rewrite some of the conventions.

Looking at individual cards, Breached is popular with helping you get over to your opponent's ship for various shenanigans. Greater Needs is probably the biggest card in the set, eating up time for your opponent if it his. Insurrection was the last card of something that was supposed to be much greater, but for one card it sure pack a punch at helping make missions that seem too good to be true less enticing. Rude Awakening and Rush Job keep the theme of commanding presences through the dilemmas while The Oracle's Punishment is deceptively simple and key at making sure that if it hits, it hits with a strong punch.

Christening has become a huge gamble that the majority of players simply don't mind taking and Repair Null Space Catapult helps you go further with your solving. The ship commander pairs are a bit of a mixed bag, but the clear winners are the Bajorans with the Kassidy Yates, TOS with John Harriman and the third Enterprise, the Cossette keeps your cards around while the Exter helps get your toys out of your deck of discard pile. Tom Paris and his Delta Flyer help keep you at your home away from home and a treacherous Duras helps keep his nefarious schemes going. We would be remiss if we didn't also mention Sybok who helps with dilemmas or his ship which helps you go towards victory.

One of the most memorable expansions, Tacking into the Wind ushered in even greater importance on the mighty vessels that traverse the stars and those who command them. But for the Cardassians, it added more to their arsenal, giving them a new force to be reckoned with.

Discuss this article in this thread.