Giving Your Starter a Boost (Part 1)

by Keith "Foreman" Morris, Freelance Writer

10th November 2009

So you’ve decided to try out the Star Trek CCG, Second Edition. First of all, good choice, it is one of the best customizable card games out there. You’ve probably got your hands on a starter or two (or six), maybe had someone demo the game to you, and now you are wondering where you can go to buy some cards to add to your deck. My advice is: don’t, at least not right away. Don’t go out and buy cards just yet, why not try a few free cards first.

The Continuing Committee has created four virtual expansions, which means you can just print out the cards. They are free (minus the cost of ink and paper and some card sleeves). All you have to do is print the cards, cut them out, and put them in a sleeve with a cardboard card behind it. (This adds support and ensures the back of the cards all look the same.)

I know, I know, there are so many cards... where do you start? Trying to read through all of those cards can be a bit daunting to a new player. That’s why I’ve created some “boosters" for each of the affiliations (well the six with starter decks anyway). All you gotta do is just follow the link, then hit print at the bottom, and a page of nine cards matching your favorite affiliation will appear in a pdf, ready to be printed off.

• Borg Booster
• Dominion Booster
• Deep Space 9 Booster
• Klingon Booster
• Romulan Booster
• Next Generation Booster

Not only that, but I’ve created an eighteen-card dilemma booster, and a nine-card event/interrupt booster. Also, if you are not playing Borg, there is even a booster with fifteen Non-Aligned personnel and ships that you can print. (There are are a couple of events and an interrupt thrown in the Non-Aligned booster.)

• Dilemma Booster
• Event/Interrupt Booster
• Non-Aligned Booster

I would suggest you start by printing your favorite affiliation's booster and the dilemma booster. Then, choose a few of those cards to add to your starter and play a game or two before you take a look at the interrupt/event booster and the Non-Aligned booster (sorry Borg) to see what you might want to add.

It may turn out that you find yourself saying, "Wow, that card is great, I wish I could print more of it, without wasting ink on the other cards in the booster." Well you can. All you have to do is to go back to the booster link, but change the number of copies of each card that you want in the little box. Then hit the print button.

Now that you’ve mastered how to print only the virtual cards that you want, you are ready to tackle missions. The Continuing Committee, in a brilliant move, has allowed all missions to be printed and used as virtual cards. With 18 expansions to choose from, that is a lot of missions to read. To help you out, I’ve created some mission boosters for each of the starter affiliations. The reasons these missions are good is because they have a 'good points earned to difficulty ratio,' or because they have useful game text. To print these, use the links just like you did for the other virtual cards. Take a look at them and see if any of them fit your deck. You’ll be amazed how much just changing a couple of the missions in your starter will help you win games.

• Borg Missions
• Deep Space 9 Missions
• Dominion Missions
• Klingon Missions
• Romulan Missions
• Next Generation Missions

There are plenty of other missions out there, but start by adding one or two of these to the boosted starter you have already made. Then you may want to go back and make a few changes to the personnel to make sure they have the skills needed to complete the new missions.

-djl-