#397621
Make artifacts great again!!!!!!!!!
I was looking through the list of artifacts and, well, some of them suck. Like, why would you ever use them? Specifically looking at very weak cards here. Not ones banned for being TOO powerful (Tox Uhtat) or struggling from effecting cards that are banned (Persistence of Memory). Those cards need errata to be repaired.
So I wanted to try to breathe some life into them. It seems silly to errata cards that are not broken, so I’m going to try some new cards that enhance the artifacts.
First up, Alien Gambling Device
“Use as Equipment card. Once every turn, you may cause any one random selection at same or adjacent location to be canceled and re-selected. (Cumulative.)”
So maybe this saves some personnel you really don’t want to lose? Blech. Not worth earning an artifact for……..
New card:
Site: Club Martus
Martus Mazur, Cos, Roana, bartenders, waiters, any Rom or any personnel with gambler in lore may report here (or download here in place of a normal card play; player draws no cards that turn). Any player who has Martus Mazur unopposed here may draw an additional card at end of each turn and any random selection that player chooses to re-select with their Alien Gambling Device may be re-selected up to three times. This site extends the effects of each player’s Alien Gambling Devices throughout the quadrant.
Deep Space 9: Promenade
Notes: This card is kind of limited to Bajoran or Fed decks by the DS9 only seeding but you can expand it with Quark’s Bar, Cargo Bay, Klingon Restaurant… I kept the wording quite similar to Quark’s Bar, after all Martus did steal Quark’s customers, and his staff!!! I dropped the dabo girls though and added “gamblers”. There are currently 4 in the game, but one is gamma native. Cos is the name of the Alien who gave Martus the device and Roana is the woman who gave Martus her shop to open his club. I started with making alien Gambling Device “your choice” instead of random selection but I didn’t see that as being true to the episode. Martus had no control over the things and no clue how they really worked. That’s how I ended up with letting you select three times but that may still be a bit weak but definitely increases your chances of selecting something you really want. Gambling right! The last sentence makes the device easier to use on your opponent by not having to follow him/her around with it. The card draw could probably be dropped if broken when teamed up with Morn at Quark’s bar.
Next up: Antique Machine Gun
Use as Equipment card. At start of personnel battle, may target two opposing personnel or Rogue Borg (random selection). Mortally wounds targets (only stuns androids).
Pretty much worthless unless you are building a deck around personnel battle and even then you are likely packing enough hand weapons that you don’t need this… and if you are going to earn an artifact for personnel battle, why not Varon-T Disruptor?
New Card:
Dilemma: Defending Her Turf (Planet only)
Lore: Despite not knowing who was attacking her town, Lily Sloane chose to face the danger alone to defend the Phoenix with little regard for her own well-being.
Opponent may download here Any Lily and Antique Machine Gun. She may immediately initiate personnel battle. Discard dilemma.
Notes: So this gives you 2 kills during your opponent’s turn and also leaves the machine gun (and maybe Lily if she is lucky enough to survive) behind on the planet with a stopped away team. Your next turn, if you do it right, you can swoop in with your own away team, scoop up the gun, and start shooting again.
Next up: Canar
Immediately play on one female personnel. Specify one male personnel at a different location. If those two personnel are ever present together, discard both.
Oy… what a mess……. First off, this is one of the worst Trek sense cards I’ve ever seen. The Canar created an empathic bond between two persons in love. So… Decipher responds by basically making this card add nemesis icons to one man and one woman? HUH? They discard each other like mortal enemies? Also the lore says it is “glowing”. It isn’t glowing in the photo. This card annoys me, besides basically only discarding two personnel IF your opponent is dumb enough to place them at the same location. Just about useless. You can try discarding one personnel by placing it on one opponent’s personnel and one of your personnel, but then you still need to get them together, and you lose your personnel.
New card:
Objective: Perform the Bonding
Plays on Table if you have Canar in play. If your Canar targets are moved to the same location, rather than discarding them, they each gain Empathy and may use two Empathy like any other regular skill. When they each help complete a mission, you may discard this objective to score bonus point. Score double bonus points if Canar targets are Aquiel Uhnari and Geordi LaForge. Score double bonus points if you earned Canar from solving a mission.
Point box: 10
Notes: So this card has a number of uses. First off we restore Trek sense by making the personnel “not die” essentially. Now instead of discarding they can work together. This is obviously going to be used for YOUR personnel but you can still use Canar without the objective to mess with your opponent. Adding empathy is true to the episode and letting the two of them, if you keep them working together, pool their empathy into any other regular skill can help you dial a skill for dilemmas or missions.
I intended the cool side effect as well of using this on people who ALREADY have empathy. Imagine Lwaxana Troi and Maques who both already have empathy x2. Now they each gain empathy and essentially have Empathy x3 each for a total of 6 between them. By “using 2 empathy” they can basically add any three skills they want. Lwaxana uses 2 empathy as ENGINEER, Maques uses two as Navigation and they each use their third empathy as Leadership. You just completed Restore Errant Moon! I don’t know if rules would let it work that way but I’m just going to assume they would lol.
As for the bonus points you get 10 if you use Aquiel’s special download to bypass earning it. You get double (20) if you did earn it. You get double (20) if you are true to the episode and use the Canar on Aquiel and Geordi. And the big payoff is if you earn the Canar AND use it on Aquiel and Geordi, scoring double double (40).
Next up: Croden’s Key
Seeds only in Gamma Quadrant. Use as Equipment card. Where present, allows docking/undocking at, and walking into/out of, any player's ship or facility (as appropriate).
Again a card that provides a function that is much more easily provided by cards that are not artifacts. Plus I have to go to gamma to get it. This card doesn’t do much for you that other cards like Invasive Transporters, Untrustworthy Associate, any of the docking sites, Dropping In, etc, don’t do already.
New card:
Mission: Recover stasis pod (Planet)
Lore: Chamra Vortex Region: Asteroid within Chamra Vortex: Locate and revive fugitive’s last surviving family member.
(Navigation x2 OR Croden) + Honor + Geology + MEDICAL + Croden’s Key
When solved may download any personnel.
Any Non-Dominion affiliation may attempt mission.
Opponent’s side: Same
Range: 3
50 points
Notes: Requires an errata to Investigate Rumors to create the region. Another mission could easily be made for the runabout/Miradorn raider that took place in the vortex. You need to acquire the key somehow before completing this mission. Virtually unstealable, but heads up for Assimilate Planet. Non-Dominion to prevent Gamma camping decks. 50 points due to difficulty of needing the key and traveling to gamma. Download of a personnel is bonus to represent Croden’s daughter who was sleeping on the asteroid in the stasis pod that only the key could open.
Next up: Ophidian Cane
Place in hand until played as an Interrupt card to allow 3 through Devidian Door OR double Devidian Foragers (to four personnel) OR double Empathic Touch.
Awesome. So let’s see, Devidian Door is OTF banned…… Empathic Touch doesn’t do a whole lot for you. Devidian Foragers doubling can be nice but there are other cards to place people out of play and even if I don’t “double” Devidian Foragers, pretty sure I can still get past that Altonian Brain Teaser.
The Foragers personnel makes this artifact pretty useful, I guess my beef with it is that only 1 of the 3 uses is something I would actually want in my deck. I’m not going to try to repair Devidian Door, so what about Empathic Touch? It is hard to even relate these things since one is from Time’s Arrow and the other is from Nemesis………..
New Card:
Event: Counsel of the Viceroy
Lore: Praetor Shinzon depended on the ongoing counsel of The Viceroy to temper his otherwise impetuous nature.
Hidden Agenda
Seeds or plays on table. After you have doubled Empathic Touch with Ophidian Cane, place Empathic Touch on table as an Event and double its effects permanently. May not be nullified.
Notes: This was a tough one, but I wanted to make using the cane with empathic touch into a pseudo genetronic replicator. You still need to protect your empaths to protect your other persons. This may be a bit overpowered since The Foragers can get the cane without earning it from a mission.
Next up: Samuel Clemens’ Pocketwatch
Place in hand until played as an Interrupt card. One action that must happen on your next turn (such as your card draw), happens now instead.
Really isn’t a whole lot of useful things you can do with this other than shortening a Cytherian’s trip by a turn or drawing a card early.
New Card:
Time Location: 19th-Century San Francisco
1893 Earth: Site of Devidian incursions into that past.
Seeds or plays on table, if Samuel Clemens unopposed here, you may play Samuel Clemens’ Pocketwatch from hand, even if not earned, and it may apply to your opponent’s turn as well. Data’s Head may seed here and be acquired by any Picard. Native to this timeline: Frederick Le Rouque, Madam Guinan, Samuel Clemens and The Foragers. Once per turn one personnel reporting here may do so for free.
Notes: So, I think this makes the watch a bit better by letting you mess with opponent’s turns’ actions as well. The value I see in this is making their countdown icons go a turn faster (think about using this to nullify their Quark’s Isolinear rods the moment it is revealed to ignore your computer crash). Or you can force them to draw a card and make them vulnerable to Scorched Hand. I removed the requirement to earn it since even this time location doesn’t make earning it worthwhile. The free Data’s head as well is just an added bonus, but only if you bring a Picard back in time to get it.
Next up: Thought Maker
Place in hand until played once as an Interrupt card. Look at opponent's draw deck for ten seconds and rearrange as desired.
The card that was destroyed by the downloading mechanic (And The Juggler being a Ref card to boot). No more putting all your opponent’s ships on the bottom of their deck. GOOD! But what can we do to make this card playable?
New card:
Event: Hidden Agenda: Bok’s Obsession
Lore: Daimon Bok plotted his revenge on Jean-Luc Picard for years. He was determined to make Picard suffer for a decent amount of time, not just an instant.
Seeds or plays on table. Any time your opponent is required to shuffle their draw deck, you may cancel that shuffle. X=3 if you have any Bok in play; otherwise X=2
Countdown icon: X
Notes: So this let’s you take advantage or arranging their deck with Thought Maker, but only for a few turns to slow them down but not permanently cripple them. And you get an extra turn for using Bok. Daimon Bok is Ferengi but has the special download. Non aligned Bok has no download but can be used by any non-Borg. I’m sure you sadistic people can think of things a lot more horrible to do than stashing ships on the bottom of a draw deck.
Last up! A card I don’t think is that bad but just needs a boost. Varon-T Disruptor
Use as Equipment. Doubles your personnel's STRENGTH where present. (Not cumulative.)
Not horrible, definitely good for dilemmas, but I would like to encourage more using this for personnel battles.
New card:
Interrupt: Incinerated
Lore: Varria was incinerated from the inside out at the molecular level by Kivas Fajo’s Varon-T Disruptor. No technology in the galaxy is ever bringing her back.
Plays at start of personnel battle involving your Varon-T Disruptor. Personnel you mortally wound in combat pairings are placed out of play at the end of the battle.
Notes: Ouch. Nano-probe resuscitate THAT!!!!!!
That’s it! So, what set can I expect to see these cards in?
I was looking through the list of artifacts and, well, some of them suck. Like, why would you ever use them? Specifically looking at very weak cards here. Not ones banned for being TOO powerful (Tox Uhtat) or struggling from effecting cards that are banned (Persistence of Memory). Those cards need errata to be repaired.
So I wanted to try to breathe some life into them. It seems silly to errata cards that are not broken, so I’m going to try some new cards that enhance the artifacts.
First up, Alien Gambling Device
“Use as Equipment card. Once every turn, you may cause any one random selection at same or adjacent location to be canceled and re-selected. (Cumulative.)”
So maybe this saves some personnel you really don’t want to lose? Blech. Not worth earning an artifact for……..
New card:
Site: Club Martus
Martus Mazur, Cos, Roana, bartenders, waiters, any Rom or any personnel with gambler in lore may report here (or download here in place of a normal card play; player draws no cards that turn). Any player who has Martus Mazur unopposed here may draw an additional card at end of each turn and any random selection that player chooses to re-select with their Alien Gambling Device may be re-selected up to three times. This site extends the effects of each player’s Alien Gambling Devices throughout the quadrant.
Deep Space 9: Promenade
Notes: This card is kind of limited to Bajoran or Fed decks by the DS9 only seeding but you can expand it with Quark’s Bar, Cargo Bay, Klingon Restaurant… I kept the wording quite similar to Quark’s Bar, after all Martus did steal Quark’s customers, and his staff!!! I dropped the dabo girls though and added “gamblers”. There are currently 4 in the game, but one is gamma native. Cos is the name of the Alien who gave Martus the device and Roana is the woman who gave Martus her shop to open his club. I started with making alien Gambling Device “your choice” instead of random selection but I didn’t see that as being true to the episode. Martus had no control over the things and no clue how they really worked. That’s how I ended up with letting you select three times but that may still be a bit weak but definitely increases your chances of selecting something you really want. Gambling right! The last sentence makes the device easier to use on your opponent by not having to follow him/her around with it. The card draw could probably be dropped if broken when teamed up with Morn at Quark’s bar.
Next up: Antique Machine Gun
Use as Equipment card. At start of personnel battle, may target two opposing personnel or Rogue Borg (random selection). Mortally wounds targets (only stuns androids).
Pretty much worthless unless you are building a deck around personnel battle and even then you are likely packing enough hand weapons that you don’t need this… and if you are going to earn an artifact for personnel battle, why not Varon-T Disruptor?
New Card:
Dilemma: Defending Her Turf (Planet only)
Lore: Despite not knowing who was attacking her town, Lily Sloane chose to face the danger alone to defend the Phoenix with little regard for her own well-being.
Opponent may download here Any Lily and Antique Machine Gun. She may immediately initiate personnel battle. Discard dilemma.
Notes: So this gives you 2 kills during your opponent’s turn and also leaves the machine gun (and maybe Lily if she is lucky enough to survive) behind on the planet with a stopped away team. Your next turn, if you do it right, you can swoop in with your own away team, scoop up the gun, and start shooting again.
Next up: Canar
Immediately play on one female personnel. Specify one male personnel at a different location. If those two personnel are ever present together, discard both.
Oy… what a mess……. First off, this is one of the worst Trek sense cards I’ve ever seen. The Canar created an empathic bond between two persons in love. So… Decipher responds by basically making this card add nemesis icons to one man and one woman? HUH? They discard each other like mortal enemies? Also the lore says it is “glowing”. It isn’t glowing in the photo. This card annoys me, besides basically only discarding two personnel IF your opponent is dumb enough to place them at the same location. Just about useless. You can try discarding one personnel by placing it on one opponent’s personnel and one of your personnel, but then you still need to get them together, and you lose your personnel.
New card:
Objective: Perform the Bonding
Plays on Table if you have Canar in play. If your Canar targets are moved to the same location, rather than discarding them, they each gain Empathy and may use two Empathy like any other regular skill. When they each help complete a mission, you may discard this objective to score bonus point. Score double bonus points if Canar targets are Aquiel Uhnari and Geordi LaForge. Score double bonus points if you earned Canar from solving a mission.
Point box: 10
Notes: So this card has a number of uses. First off we restore Trek sense by making the personnel “not die” essentially. Now instead of discarding they can work together. This is obviously going to be used for YOUR personnel but you can still use Canar without the objective to mess with your opponent. Adding empathy is true to the episode and letting the two of them, if you keep them working together, pool their empathy into any other regular skill can help you dial a skill for dilemmas or missions.
I intended the cool side effect as well of using this on people who ALREADY have empathy. Imagine Lwaxana Troi and Maques who both already have empathy x2. Now they each gain empathy and essentially have Empathy x3 each for a total of 6 between them. By “using 2 empathy” they can basically add any three skills they want. Lwaxana uses 2 empathy as ENGINEER, Maques uses two as Navigation and they each use their third empathy as Leadership. You just completed Restore Errant Moon! I don’t know if rules would let it work that way but I’m just going to assume they would lol.
As for the bonus points you get 10 if you use Aquiel’s special download to bypass earning it. You get double (20) if you did earn it. You get double (20) if you are true to the episode and use the Canar on Aquiel and Geordi. And the big payoff is if you earn the Canar AND use it on Aquiel and Geordi, scoring double double (40).
Next up: Croden’s Key
Seeds only in Gamma Quadrant. Use as Equipment card. Where present, allows docking/undocking at, and walking into/out of, any player's ship or facility (as appropriate).
Again a card that provides a function that is much more easily provided by cards that are not artifacts. Plus I have to go to gamma to get it. This card doesn’t do much for you that other cards like Invasive Transporters, Untrustworthy Associate, any of the docking sites, Dropping In, etc, don’t do already.
New card:
Mission: Recover stasis pod (Planet)
Lore: Chamra Vortex Region: Asteroid within Chamra Vortex: Locate and revive fugitive’s last surviving family member.
(Navigation x2 OR Croden) + Honor + Geology + MEDICAL + Croden’s Key
When solved may download any personnel.
Any Non-Dominion affiliation may attempt mission.
Opponent’s side: Same
Range: 3
50 points
Notes: Requires an errata to Investigate Rumors to create the region. Another mission could easily be made for the runabout/Miradorn raider that took place in the vortex. You need to acquire the key somehow before completing this mission. Virtually unstealable, but heads up for Assimilate Planet. Non-Dominion to prevent Gamma camping decks. 50 points due to difficulty of needing the key and traveling to gamma. Download of a personnel is bonus to represent Croden’s daughter who was sleeping on the asteroid in the stasis pod that only the key could open.
Next up: Ophidian Cane
Place in hand until played as an Interrupt card to allow 3 through Devidian Door OR double Devidian Foragers (to four personnel) OR double Empathic Touch.
Awesome. So let’s see, Devidian Door is OTF banned…… Empathic Touch doesn’t do a whole lot for you. Devidian Foragers doubling can be nice but there are other cards to place people out of play and even if I don’t “double” Devidian Foragers, pretty sure I can still get past that Altonian Brain Teaser.
The Foragers personnel makes this artifact pretty useful, I guess my beef with it is that only 1 of the 3 uses is something I would actually want in my deck. I’m not going to try to repair Devidian Door, so what about Empathic Touch? It is hard to even relate these things since one is from Time’s Arrow and the other is from Nemesis………..
New Card:
Event: Counsel of the Viceroy
Lore: Praetor Shinzon depended on the ongoing counsel of The Viceroy to temper his otherwise impetuous nature.
Hidden Agenda
Seeds or plays on table. After you have doubled Empathic Touch with Ophidian Cane, place Empathic Touch on table as an Event and double its effects permanently. May not be nullified.
Notes: This was a tough one, but I wanted to make using the cane with empathic touch into a pseudo genetronic replicator. You still need to protect your empaths to protect your other persons. This may be a bit overpowered since The Foragers can get the cane without earning it from a mission.
Next up: Samuel Clemens’ Pocketwatch
Place in hand until played as an Interrupt card. One action that must happen on your next turn (such as your card draw), happens now instead.
Really isn’t a whole lot of useful things you can do with this other than shortening a Cytherian’s trip by a turn or drawing a card early.
New Card:
Time Location: 19th-Century San Francisco
1893 Earth: Site of Devidian incursions into that past.
Seeds or plays on table, if Samuel Clemens unopposed here, you may play Samuel Clemens’ Pocketwatch from hand, even if not earned, and it may apply to your opponent’s turn as well. Data’s Head may seed here and be acquired by any Picard. Native to this timeline: Frederick Le Rouque, Madam Guinan, Samuel Clemens and The Foragers. Once per turn one personnel reporting here may do so for free.
Notes: So, I think this makes the watch a bit better by letting you mess with opponent’s turns’ actions as well. The value I see in this is making their countdown icons go a turn faster (think about using this to nullify their Quark’s Isolinear rods the moment it is revealed to ignore your computer crash). Or you can force them to draw a card and make them vulnerable to Scorched Hand. I removed the requirement to earn it since even this time location doesn’t make earning it worthwhile. The free Data’s head as well is just an added bonus, but only if you bring a Picard back in time to get it.
Next up: Thought Maker
Place in hand until played once as an Interrupt card. Look at opponent's draw deck for ten seconds and rearrange as desired.
The card that was destroyed by the downloading mechanic (And The Juggler being a Ref card to boot). No more putting all your opponent’s ships on the bottom of their deck. GOOD! But what can we do to make this card playable?
New card:
Event: Hidden Agenda: Bok’s Obsession
Lore: Daimon Bok plotted his revenge on Jean-Luc Picard for years. He was determined to make Picard suffer for a decent amount of time, not just an instant.
Seeds or plays on table. Any time your opponent is required to shuffle their draw deck, you may cancel that shuffle. X=3 if you have any Bok in play; otherwise X=2
Countdown icon: X
Notes: So this let’s you take advantage or arranging their deck with Thought Maker, but only for a few turns to slow them down but not permanently cripple them. And you get an extra turn for using Bok. Daimon Bok is Ferengi but has the special download. Non aligned Bok has no download but can be used by any non-Borg. I’m sure you sadistic people can think of things a lot more horrible to do than stashing ships on the bottom of a draw deck.
Last up! A card I don’t think is that bad but just needs a boost. Varon-T Disruptor
Use as Equipment. Doubles your personnel's STRENGTH where present. (Not cumulative.)
Not horrible, definitely good for dilemmas, but I would like to encourage more using this for personnel battles.
New card:
Interrupt: Incinerated
Lore: Varria was incinerated from the inside out at the molecular level by Kivas Fajo’s Varon-T Disruptor. No technology in the galaxy is ever bringing her back.
Plays at start of personnel battle involving your Varon-T Disruptor. Personnel you mortally wound in combat pairings are placed out of play at the end of the battle.
Notes: Ouch. Nano-probe resuscitate THAT!!!!!!
That’s it! So, what set can I expect to see these cards in?
Last edited by Takket on Thu May 16, 2019 6:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.