[JeBuS]

otsd

its the only way to have a completely playable and fun game out of a single box. games can be interseting and competitive without richer people having the advantage. you get to see and use cards that you would never play otherwise. a lot of the premium cards are also very usable in normal constructed games. the boxes are very pretty and functional. and the old premiere and au packs are so cheap you can even play otsds like there brand new if you keep the 20 premium cards, over and over.

all of my favorite in game stories have been generated by otsd games over the yeras

I have had 3 tournament experiences using a single OTSD box where I was incapable of completing more than 1 mission due to the card pool being complete garbage. The OTSD set cards don't cure that.

Is that true even after accounting for Reflection Therapy (and Suna's easy access to it?)

That dial a skill tech has won me more than a few sealed deck games over the years.

Yes, because changing one skill doesn't get you the rest of the mission requirements. Or fill your deck with personnel who can pass the common dilemmas. Or give you a certain number of personnel, etc. The booster packs inside the OTSD box are still the same unreliably variable packs they always were.

[Rachmaninoff]

otsd

its the only way to have a completely playable and fun game out of a single box. games can be interseting and competitive without richer people having the advantage. you get to see and use cards that you would never play otherwise. a lot of the premium cards are also very usable in normal constructed games. the boxes are very pretty and functional. and the old premiere and au packs are so cheap you can even play otsds like there brand new if you keep the 20 premium cards, over and over.

all of my favorite in game stories have been generated by otsd games over the yeras

I have had 3 tournament experiences using a single OTSD box where I was incapable of completing more than 1 mission due to the card pool being complete garbage. The OTSD set cards don't cure that.

Is that true even after accounting for Reflection Therapy (and Suna's easy access to it?)

That dial a skill tech has won me more than a few sealed deck games over the years.

Especially with mission stealing being a thing in Sealed.

(Even in a lot of constructed games Suna has done me a lot of favors. Save your Defend Homeworld download, and Suna + RT can grab you any skill at download speed.)

[edgeofhearing]

The Next Generation is why I play 1e.

[Takket]

First Contact was the expansion that "changed everything". Reinvented the game in a lot of ways. Is my favorite.

[SudenKapala]

I'd have to say First Contact, for reasons alredy mentioned -- completely changing the gamescape, and bringing out the Big B.

What I like about CC expansions (even though I don't use them yet -- and though I don't know which V-expansion would be my favourite because of it) is that they tend to continue the practice (don't they?) of, step by step, making old binder fodder useful again. Like Decipher did with, e.g., Mission Specialists or Barbering.

[Armus]

This is a tough one! A few highlights for me:

Decipher products:

• First Contact -- COMPLETELY changed the game and largely for the better. From relaxing the 60-card deck size limit (causing the most impactful changes in deck design philosophy in the game's history), to turning the metagame upside down (Mirror Image, Intermix Ratio, TLMBDH were the first bullets with real teeth), to introducing new mechanics (downloading, probing, the Borg!)
  
  I remember reading over the First Contact rules sheet when the expansion first came out, and my jaw dropping further and further with each paragraph. The expansion literally rebooted the game.
• Official Tournament Sealed Deck -- Card-for-card the highest-quality product Decipher ever produced, and a masterpiece of design. In just 20 cards, Decipher ensured that virtually any collection of Premiere/AU cards would be playable (even including the Tama in case you stumbled upon a Particle Scattering Field!) and balanced (Spacedoor and Open Diplomatic Relations preventing a stray Red Alert! or The Devil from ruining your day). The cards are equally useful in Constructed, even more than two decades later, and still range from playable to ubiquitous. Only one of them had any real balance issues (Space-Time Portal), and it was easy to fix.
  
  In terms of quality, balance, and economy, no other 1E product comes close.
• Blaze of Glory -- A good expansion, but more so than the specific product this era was my favorite time to be playing the game. Without straining too hard, you could make a competitive deck with any affiliation, and the game pace was perfect (none of the monotonous "Sito Jaxa reporting for duty, now your turn" Premiere days, and crazy 30-minute first turn Hexany wins were still far away)

CC products:

My relationship to the game is very different now. I'm not an active player, but still like seeing new cards and thinking of strategies. So I get most excited by expansions which either tickle my nostalgia bone, or by cards like Gold! that are fun puzzles (now how would I build a deck around THAT?) With that in mind my favorite products are

• Shades of Gray: great way to bring old cards out of the binder
• The Next Generation: ditto, although maybe went a bit too far
• 20th Anniversary Collection: each card really feels like it could have come from those expansions
• Cold Front: A lot of creative cards like Distant Control, Disrupted Continuum, Holographic Camouflage, We Are the Metrons. Admittedly over the power curve, but as an inactive player that bothered me less than it would otherwise.

This is overall a really good take and I basically agree with all of it.

I would add one more.

It's absolutely true that First Contact changed the game by introducing the Borg, and I love that set. But if FC introduced the Borg, Enhanced First Contact made them tier one competitive. All of the Counterparts are able to be central to decks, both drones were key meta control cards sorely needed to make Borg go, and Service the Collective and We Are the Borg are cornerstones of Borg decks to this day, while Population 9 Billion - All Borg makes Stop First Contact decks really matter and Add Distinctiveness makes assimilation decks really strong.

The only cards in the set that fell flat were Nightmare and Sphere Encounter but even then 10/12 = 83% - talk about card-for-card quality!

I don't think we can have this discussion without EFC getting a shoutout, so out I shout!

Shouting is irrelevant...

[SudenKapala]

Yes, Armus, good points. I'm still going to stick with regular FC because of jewels like Phoenix (see my ode to that card, elsewhere) and Zefram, but I'm glad you brought up EFC.

[Klauser]

Decipher product - Blaze of Glory. The dominant power in STCCG for years was the Federation - until the Borg came out in First Contact. But the Klingons and Romulans were pretty much one-trick-ponies - with few solid additions- until BoG came along.

CC products: - The Next Generation: An inspired expansion. Along with the rest of the expansions in the TNG block, you could start with some basic Premier/SDII and or OTSD cards and have an outstanding starting point for any level of player.

[Data's Socks]

My favorite might be Alternate Universe actually, in part due to the timing of picking up the game with Premiere, collecting that set for a bit, and knowing there was another world full of new cards just waiting in the wings. I also hadn't looked up the set online, so that was pretty exciting not knowing what was in there.

AU was also fun to collect because it was building on the things I had already. For most other sets it was getting a few packs every now and then, and the sets were geared toward some new affiliation or faction. That was difficult getting anything going that felt like a deck before the next new thing dropped.

I'd pick other sets in terms of breathing new life into the game or kicking the mechanics up a notch, but there it is. Also--the design of the AU icon? Genius.

[SudenKapala]

Also--the design of the AU icon? Genius.

What can you tell us about it? I don't have any background info on it.

[edgeofhearing]

Also--the design of the AU icon? Genius.

What can you tell us about it? I don't have any background info on it.

I don't have any background, but I've always been impressed by the iconography of this game in general. Like, the interrupt icon and the event icons are both very abstract while providing a clear contrast to each other. They visually tie in with their card types without having a concrete thing to be based on like the equipment or doorway icons do (though I really like those icons too).

[Data's Socks]

Yeah, what edgeofhearing said. I don't remember coming across notes on these, but to my mind the icons readily connect with what they represent, even if the icons are abstract.

For the AU icon in particular, I like to think that each hump represents a universe, and they're sliding past each other. Those living in one might be blissfully unaware the other is right there. Yet the boundary between them is thin, making the idea of crossing over a tantalizing possibility. It also works well on the field IMO; it's easy to spot on cards and looks nice to boot.

[KazonPADD]

My view here is biased. Back in the day, Mirror, Mirror was probably my favourite (despite the curving on the cards) because it added so many diverse personnel. Not only the mirror factions, but a handful of TOS Romulans, a new Counterpart for the Borg, etc, etc

But since joining design, my favourite expansion is the 50th Anniversary set. Not only was it great fun to work on such a diverse set covering all the property logos, but the pre-release tournament at London 2016 was enormous fun - I got to see all the players revealing new cards (with fantastic images) from underneath solved missions with all the joy of opening packs like it was 1994 again!

[jadziadax8]

Yeah, what edgeofhearing said. I don't remember coming across notes on these, but to my mind the icons readily connect with what they represent, even if the icons are abstract.

For the AU icon in particular, I like to think that each hump represents a universe, and they're sliding past each other. Those living in one might be blissfully unaware the other is right there. Yet the boundary between them is thin, making the idea of crossing over a tantalizing possibility. It also works well on the field IMO; it's easy to spot on cards and looks nice to boot.

I always thought it formed an A and a U...

[Smiley]

DS9 was the product that really changed stuff for us here. It was the first product you could buy a starter and some 5 boosters (either at a tournament or just in a shop) and go home and build a themed deck that actually worked that was almost always a good deck and one or two affiliations and really playable.

It was a design marvel. It was a semi-random starter with a trifecta of Fed, Baj and Car with some NA sprinkled in for good measure and need. The cards were set up in a circle so that each affiliation got a third of it and a treaty between each affiliation if you got some sort of flow over to another affiliation (the best starter was always the mixed Fed/Car because of the seedable Klaestron Outpost). This setup made the card sorting for the factory easier as well as more or less promising a playable deck in each starter (some few misses could be found but with the help of a couple of boosters and extra treaties to borrow during a sealed event would alleviate this problem).

The special starter only cards made the starter valuable for beginners as well as regular players and made the sealed events interesting and fun. The boosters where filled with good cards that was made for sealed events and game the game a nice touch. And as most of these card where obviously build with sealed/limited pay in mind the built decks looked differently and took a different turn. Some cards where just not good enough for constructed as well as some of the constructed cards did not work well in a sealed/limited environment as they needed more focus/combos to work well.
But all in all a good design and product that we unfortunately did not see more from.

This made the recruiting easy and cheap for anyone wanting to get into the game. The show was still being shown so there was a good connection there as well and the card had much better balance compared to PAQ as well as less totally incomprehensibly like some cards in Q.

This was where we got all players and this kept going with the small hickup with RoA that made some question the state of the game. Then everything escalated with TwT and MM which triggered an exodus and finally killing the game with Voy.

So. DS9 was and still is the game for most of us here. Pre was given away at all tournaments as Price support form D so everyone had a full set of WB Prem after a couple of tournaments but still it never garnered any interest.