Caretaker Release Day

by Ross Fertel, Pathfinder

8th October 2021

Leading up to Star Trek: Voyager, the writers seeded the concept of a disgruntled group in episodes of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The seeds were first planted on March 28, 1994, with Journey's End but the group would be named in the two-parter fittingly titled The Maquis. They would reappear with Ro Laren's onscreen swan song in Preemptive Strike. Those are the three tentpoles though Deep Space Nine would involve them in the plot for Tribunal and have them heavily featured in Defiant prior to the series they were created for with the series premiere of Voyager, Caretaker.

Last in a series of sets based around the theme of interaction, Caretaker draws entirely from Voyager featuring not only the Maquis but also Holograms, Borg, Species 8472, Relativity and even The Clown along with much more. Even if you have been following the spoilers on various Social Media platforms and been diligent with your puzzle solving, there are still a lot of cards that are new to you as of today for the set release.

We start off with Equinox Conspiracy, optimized with their 'headquarters.' You have to do a little more work than usual to pull it off, but two kills for three cost is good and even if you need that Nucleogenic card in your hand because you can still get the stops. The Clown: Cloaking Device requires some mental math at times but if you can solve that equation, you can give your opponent some calculation issues of their own. Your Galaxy is Impure adds to the mystique of Species 8472 cards as putting the card in their core might be the safest option for your opponent, which might very well be true late in the attempt.

Implant Neural Interface lets your holograms get a card for their Holoprograms. This can seem random but if you play things right you can influence how many cards are left for you to choose from by the personnel you whittle out. The effect is optional so you may not want to use it on occasion. The special text on Baharat's Space Station, Negotiate for Supplies is also optional but can help both of you on your way to success early on.

Former Briori Colony, Examine SOS lets your opponent plain out download personnel right as the game begins but you get five points for each, so win-win, though it is quite the choice if you got first and are playing the Dominion friendly Cardassia, Subjugated Planet. You are no worse if they do not and can benefit if they take advantage of it. They will have to take a detour to pick them up, though if their deck is not Delta Quadrant based and if your deck is battle centric, you have an early opportunity to wreck havoc. Third of Five, Altruistic Individual gives another card to the patient Borg Dissidents. His ability lets you substitute him in for one of your other Borg Dissident personnel and he has the rare Borg Honor, at a double nonetheless.

Carlson, Mariah Henley and Taylor might not seem like all that much as vanilla personnel with one cost and three skills but there is a decent selection of missions and dilemmas that are in those skill sets. Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, Diagnostic Program Alpha One One has a fantastic set of skills that are very useful, so much so that you might want to hold off on your using him for his ability. Two skills at double are very hard to turn down or get rid of on a whim. Tricia Jenkins, Relaxed Pilot is just chilling around although you can make things a little more interesting. The choice is yours so you can be sure that you will get the greater benefit of her ability.

The Ferengi are always a challenging headquarters to manage with the cards underneath the headquarters but Reg, Inside Man helps in that regard. He has a nice selection of skills from which you both can benefit especially the rare Acquisition. You get the effect anytime they make use of the named skill, so you might be able to fine tune your cards.

The final new card for today is Satan's Robot, Dangerous Minion. A non-aligned personnel with two natural double skills and a natural strength of ten, it is a solid choice for a lot of decks. The gametext will make you want to get into fights with your holograms. Like other holograms, it gets better when around other holograms. Oddly enough, it gains the keyword of Hand Weapon opening up some interesting possibilities for cards that specify the keyword but not the card type.

Caretaker's sixty-three cards are released today, and are legal for events one week from today, on October 15, 2021. This set would not be possible without the efforts of the Rules, Creative, Proofreading, Art and Programming. It is available for immediate download along with the cover sheet and pack art.

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