Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. TOS Season 2! Ooh, what's this? An "Incident"?
PICTURE: Though slightly blurred à la TOS, I like this pic's vertical composition. Everything's very straight, so Chekov's bent position sticks out more. That, and there's a good perspective effect created by the rank of figures, and the varied colors are pretty. The Booth never looked so painful than in freezeframe (his hand looks charred against the hot toaster-element background). A 3.9.
LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)
TREK SENSE: The Agony Booth seems to be some kind of equipment (all the more because, unlike other technological cards like Genetronic Replicator which indicates an advancement shared by all crews, it's tied to a specific ship), but isn't an Equipment card. It's not even an Event like the Replicator, Bynars or the various Shields cards either. Too much text, so it's an Incident instead. Seems odd. Card type aside, the Booth exists on a single ship (per copy of the card of course), and that ship must be from the Mirror Universe. Makes sense, since they're the only ones that made use of it, except all the mirror ships can't possibly support a large piece of equipment like this. We know the large Terran Constitutions had them, and the Alliance Cardassians and even Klingons surely adopted them too, but the Terran Rebellion Raiders? The Ferengi Shuttle? I don't think there's room even if there were intention. An Agony Shoe Box maybe. ("Stick yer foot in there.") The Agony Booth's effect enforces discipline in a sense, but in a different way from the Agonizer. If your crew doesn't "perform", i.e. win battles or complete missions, the personnel whose fault it is (apparently a random thing, too bad, or especially cruel) must return to the ship (or go down to the hold) to receive punishment. Problems with this part of the card include the punishment not doing much except stopping you (ooooh, now I'm scared), the aforementioned random nature of the punishment (always the fault of ONE guy? even if that personnel actually did the best, like the only one to mortally wound a foe?) and the fact that a single personnel failing a mission attempt will go back to its Shuttle and inflict pain on itself (those mirror masochists, eh?). There's also the matter of the reward for succeeding at those tasks: up to 3 card draws? Where do those resources actually come from? I understand the concept of positive reinforcement (the crew is so zealous that they give everything they've got), but on the show, it never balanced the negative reinforcement of the Booth. When you rule with fear, you don't need to reward the men. Of course, that's the incentive for using the card, or else it'd be a "play on opponent's ship" which wouldn't see much use. The reward may be for the leaders of the Empire/Alliance (get more work for their buck), but the Booth should actually make personnel so afraid of failure, they get a personal boost when performing target activities. A mess from top to bottom, though with its heart in the right place: a 1.8.
STOCKABILITY: Card draws you say? Up to 3 you say? If they're easy enough to get, you got yourself a pretty good card, since the current playing environment emphasizes getting at your cards in the most efficient manner possible. An on that front, Agony Booth is a success. Winning battles shouldn't be too hard with mirror personnel, since their ships generally have high combat attributes and the personnel themselves often download hand weapons which can be used to win those card draws in battle. Completing missions may not be as easy due to wall dilemmas, but it's still not that hard. The penalty for not succeeding isn't too severe anyway. At a space mission or battle, stopped personnel won't have to move at all, and will just be unstopped at the start of the next turn. At a planet mission, a personnel would simply relocate to the ship, but unless your opponent had something up her sleeve against that Away Team during her turn, the personnel's absence probably shouldn't matter. Still, in the middle of a losing personnel battle, expect to lose again on the counterattack - a riskier proposal than completing a planet mission. The card draws also flexibly allow you to draw "up to" 3 cards, so that you can manage your hand against Scorched Hand and the like. The ability is renewable, unlike Kivas Fajo-Collector's. While the Terrans will do okay with this, the Alliance will make the most out of the opportunity to torture their brethren: They have more powerful ships than their mostly OS counterparts, and their capacity to process ore makes them better deck managers overall. A strong showing at 4.1.
TOTAL: 13.07 (65.33%) Trek Sense REALLY hurts.
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