#594822
Gotta say... I like what I saw.
WHAT?!?! SYKES IS SAYING SOMETHING *GOOD* ABOUT DEISGN?!?!?!
Yeah, I am.
I've always considered myself tough but fair when judging new cards. 2021 was a not great year for Design, and I'm not sure 2022 was much better (jury is still out), but that's not why I'm making this post. I'm making this post because 2023 appears to be off to a relatively good start.
This set caused me to dust off a deck I had partially built a couple years ago for a tournament with my kids. We finally make it happen last night. I'll spare the details here, but the BLUF for this post is I built a Vintner deck for the first time in about a decade, and added two new Biology missions and 2 copies of Jessel.
I liked what I saw. The missions are clean and tight, and paired well with the mainstay Bio planets of Medical Relief and Plague Planet. All of them being 30 points meant that I had an easy path to a 3-mission solve, but I needed to do some sort of bonus-pointing along the way, which is fine because![[TNG]](https://www.trekcc.org/forum/images/smilies/icon_tng.png "Next Generation")
has that in spades, even without the cheeseball points (Guinan, Preposterous, Friendship and Good Will, etc.). In this case I used Daneeka, the Enterprise-E and the Enterprise-D to have multiple paths to get the extra 10 points I need to get over.
And I gotta say, Jessel is actually really solid in that deck. She's a great backup Medical if your opponent takes out Beverly, or Daneeka, or even Shelley, who has a great skill set. At 1 cost she reminds me of when I used to splash Sigmund Freud into decks, but since she's got the icon, I can also grab her in a pinch with Vintner.
My deck aside, I was pleased to see other people trying out these cards. I'm not sure if the codes have been cracked yet on which cards from this set are best and/or how best to use them, but that's ok. I'm on the record in a big way railing against how boring LEGO Design is - putting out 18 cards and saying "Here's some cards, figure it out" is MUCH more appealing to me personally.
Also, I haven't encountered anything obviously broken (at least not yet, though there's a couple of cards I'm watching), and I see some real potential for some other cards from this set, but the fact that I saw new cards and was able to incorporate them into an existing deck design to make it better without breaking anything struck me as a net win.
Finally, the cards look great. I know it seems like 2023 started off with a bunch of Art Projects, but that's not a term of disparagement here. Both the Second Skin AIs and the Timeless Cards are really well done image-wise. My compliments to the art team on those efforts. And while I might take a breath before doing another one after such a rapid-succession release, but simple cards with great images that don't break the game is a nice value add on multiple fronts. That's the kind of thing that, when done right, gives people multiple reasons to either pick up the game and try it, or do what I did and dust off an old deck to see at the new cards can do with them. That strikes me as Good For Business.
So yeah, nice job, guys! Good stuff!
WHAT?!?! SYKES IS SAYING SOMETHING *GOOD* ABOUT DEISGN?!?!?!
Yeah, I am.
I've always considered myself tough but fair when judging new cards. 2021 was a not great year for Design, and I'm not sure 2022 was much better (jury is still out), but that's not why I'm making this post. I'm making this post because 2023 appears to be off to a relatively good start.
This set caused me to dust off a deck I had partially built a couple years ago for a tournament with my kids. We finally make it happen last night. I'll spare the details here, but the BLUF for this post is I built a Vintner deck for the first time in about a decade, and added two new Biology missions and 2 copies of Jessel.
I liked what I saw. The missions are clean and tight, and paired well with the mainstay Bio planets of Medical Relief and Plague Planet. All of them being 30 points meant that I had an easy path to a 3-mission solve, but I needed to do some sort of bonus-pointing along the way, which is fine because
has that in spades, even without the cheeseball points (Guinan, Preposterous, Friendship and Good Will, etc.). In this case I used Daneeka, the Enterprise-E and the Enterprise-D to have multiple paths to get the extra 10 points I need to get over.And I gotta say, Jessel is actually really solid in that deck. She's a great backup Medical if your opponent takes out Beverly, or Daneeka, or even Shelley, who has a great skill set. At 1 cost she reminds me of when I used to splash Sigmund Freud into decks, but since she's got the
icon, I can also grab her in a pinch with Vintner.My deck aside, I was pleased to see other people trying out these cards. I'm not sure if the codes have been cracked yet on which cards from this set are best and/or how best to use them, but that's ok. I'm on the record in a big way railing against how boring LEGO Design is - putting out 18 cards and saying "Here's some cards, figure it out" is MUCH more appealing to me personally.
Also, I haven't encountered anything obviously broken (at least not yet, though there's a couple of cards I'm watching), and I see some real potential for some other cards from this set, but the fact that I saw new cards and was able to incorporate them into an existing deck design to make it better without breaking anything struck me as a net win.
Finally, the cards look great. I know it seems like 2023 started off with a bunch of Art Projects, but that's not a term of disparagement here. Both the Second Skin AIs and the Timeless Cards are really well done image-wise. My compliments to the art team on those efforts. And while I might take a breath before doing another one after such a rapid-succession release, but simple cards with great images that don't break the game is a nice value add on multiple fronts. That's the kind of thing that, when done right, gives people multiple reasons to either pick up the game and try it, or do what I did and dust off an old deck to see at the new cards can do with them. That strikes me as Good For Business.
So yeah, nice job, guys! Good stuff!
"I won't kill you... but I don't have to save you." - Batman
![[KCA]](https://www.trekcc.org/forum/images/smilies/icon_alliance.png "Klingon/Cardassian Alliance")
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