Card Extras Remastered - Hippocratic Oath

by Daniel Matteson, Writing Team Manager

6th 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.

Hippocratic Oath
By Tom Landy (tlandy@Autobahn.MB.CA)

Hippocratic Oath is a very powerful dilemma from the OTSD. Not only can it be a wall if your opponent is lacking MEDICAL personnel when attempting, but if your opponent does have the MEDICAL required, the MEDICAL with the most CUNNING will actually abandon your opponent's crew/Away Team to help somebody else in need...for awhile. This isn't bad, MEDICAL is needed for many instances and if you can set it up properly, you can have alot fun.

For example, seed Hippocratic Oath so it is encountered before a Tarellian Plague Ship. Chances are, you will take out your opponent's only MEDICAL and then the rest of the crew will be wiped out from the Tarellian Plague Ship. Either that, or another MEDICAL hits the road. You can even be more nasty, sending the MEDICAL by Hippocratic Oath to Qualor II Rendezvous if you can. His/her trip looks like it may last awhile longer, if affiliated... And if this wasn't enough, seed Alien Parasites at the other mission adjacent to Qualor II, then you can send the lonely doc some visitors. ;)

Combos:

Hippocratic Oath + Tarellian Plague Ship: "Julian! You sure picked a good time to help the Jem'Hadar!! If we find out you are playing darts..."

Hippocratic Oath + Qualor II Rendezvous: "I'm a doctor, not a couch potato! Well, actually I guess I'm both..."

Hippocratic Oath is still arguably the strongest of the OTSD dilemmas. MEDICAL drain is a common dilemma combo strategy, using cards like Hippocratic Oath and Tarellian Plague Ship (or Male's Love Interest & Plague Ship) to weed out a crew's MEDICAL, followed by a big stopper such as Medical Crisis or The Cloud. Plus Hippocratic Oath's relocating feature makes it fun to pick people off in personnel battles, if that's something you're into. Finally, Aid Fugitives causes the relocated personnel to be sent to the Gamma Quadrant where they can be potentially stranded - bad news for the health of your opponent's personnel!

Discuss this article in this thread.