This forums is for questions, answers, and discussion about First Edition rules, formats, and expansions.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Community Contributor
#446980
What's the best card in the game and why?
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Director of Communications
By OKCoyote (Daniel Matteson)
 - Director of Communications
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1E North American Continental Quarter-Finalist 2023
2E Cardassia Regional Champion 2023
#446981
BCSWowbagger wrote:What's the best card in the game and why?
I think "in the game" is a little too broad, but I think my pick for "best card designed in the CC era" is an easy one: Continuing Mission.

This card went a long way toward balancing power creep issues, it introduced dozens of new deck archetypes, it brought many older sets out of the binder, and it reintroduced many players to First Edition that had given it up years ago. It's hard to argue with that level of success.
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Second Edition Art Manager
By edgeofhearing (Lucas Thompson)
 - Second Edition Art Manager
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Community Contributor
#446982
Continuing Mission is why I'm playing First Edition.

I prefer the pre-errata version, less because of the power, and more because of how it impacted deck building. It is easy to optimize a TNG deck to get one draw from it; it was more engaging to build decks to optimally take advantage of two draws. It came out right around of the time of some draconian DQ nerfs; if those nerfs hadn't hit, I do think the power level of 2-draw CM would have been at about the same level.
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By Takket
 - Delta Quadrant
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#446995
It is hard to imagine a deck without Dead End. Certainly one of the most "stockable" cards in the entire game.
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First Edition Rules Master
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Continuing Committee Member - Retired
Community Contributor
#447012
If we're talking pure power, my money is on Temporal Micro-Wormhole, since it's the card that took affiliation weaknesses and threw them out the airlock.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Community Contributor
#447080
I threw this question out there without considering the answer. There's a strong case for Continuing Mission, though. It's ironic that such a complex and (initially) overpowered card, which as I have heard the story was somewhat rammed through over the protests of testers (i.e. the trinity of things you should NOT do with a card) ended up making the game so much simpler and more balanced, as well as being one of the most popular ever.

I wonder how open people would be to an errata for Reshape the Quadrant to give it a little extra voom, maybe bringing DS9 up to TNG level generally.

Just to be interesting, I'm going to throw Locutus of Borg out there. He wasn't even in First Contact, but became the first counterpart, transforming the Borg affiliation (for the better)... and, as a Fajo card, he looked extraordinarily good doing it.
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By Armus (Brian Sykes)
 - The Center of the Galaxy
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Regent
Community Contributor
#447083
I'm shocked that nobody has mentioned Temporal Benefactor yet....
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By sexecutioner (Niall Matthew)
 - Gamma Quadrant
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1E World Runner-Up 2023
1E European Continental Semi-Finalist 2023
1E British National Second Runner-Up 2023
#447123
Continuing Mission absolutely.

The best card ever created, along with Dead End.
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By Mogh, Son Of Worf (Meinhard S. Rohr)
 - Delta Quadrant
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1E Swedish National Champion 2018
#447124
BCSWowbagger wrote: ended up making the game so much simpler and more balanced, as well as being one of the most popular ever.
The game was not more balanced - it was balanced among the TNG decks because all of them were way ahead in terms of power. There was absolutely no reason to play one of these affiliations without CM. 1 card draw is balanced, TNG can compete with other deck types and you have decisions whether to go TNG or multi-property for these affiliations.
Also, 1E is (or should be) a game of resources, and card draws should cost something. Of course, the game is easier when you get 2 free draws for stuff you do anyway (report personnel), which is what a lot of 1E enthusiasts objected to. We don't want a too simple game, we want weird stuff - it is fine if block is an easy, dumbed down version of 1E (which was the point of it), but those decks should not dominate the main game.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
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Community Contributor
#447142
@Mogh: yeah, I definitely agree that the CM errata was appropriate and necessary. Nowadays, CM is a choice, but, for a while, it was dominant, and that was unhealthy and choked off many more interesting decks.
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First Edition Rules Master
By BCSWowbagger (James Heaney)
 - First Edition Rules Master
 -  
Community Contributor
#447257
Oh, yeah, if you include cards that are currently on the OTF ban list, Horga'hn is pretty much hands-down the best card in the game.

KFC is a solid draw engine, too. Although Mirror Image has made it much less popular, it's so simple that plenty of people still use it today.

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