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. I never got to this one in the original Rolodex, so let's see what I can come up a billion years later...
PICTURE: One of TNG's core colors is pink and the Thought Maker is a big piece of illegal candy. The big close-up is dramatic and the design is simple enough that you don't feel like you're missing anything. How about a full 4?
LORE: It's hard to believe the Ferengi outlawed a market advantage, but that's straight from the show. Not that it's specifically a Ferengi invention, but given the look, yeah, okay. Future Ferengi episodes show these domes as part of their control structure. A bit to many "and"s in the syntax. A 3 should do.
TREK SENSE: It was equipment on the show. Rare equipment. Outlawed equipment. But equipment. Now we're finding a Thought Maker at an archaeological dig (an Artifact), which I suppose is possible. If illegal, some Ferengi might have buried the remaining examples somewhere for a rainy day. You found one. It becomes an interrupt card, so it isn't present with your personnel. That's a Trek Sense problem. And what it does is abstract and mechanical. That's another. You can look at your opponent's draw deck and rearrange it (quickly, no thoughtful decisions), and I'm not sure that's anything like the effect seen on the show. Picard was given visions (memories) of his former crew on the Stargazer. That's the discard pile, not the draw deck, right? Players might be tempted to drop all the personnel cards at the bottom of the deck - simple but hurtful - which is absolutely opposite to onscreen evidence (not that the personnel were actually there, so maybe). We're inching towards 0, but as it "scrambles" the captain's brains, I'm going to give it a 1.
SEEDABILITY: Artifacts are a pain to get into play. You have to solve a planet mission and could conceivably be stolen. Once you do have a Thought Maker in your hand, its effect can be devastating. The aforementioned bottoming out of personnel (or ships!) very early in the game might well ensure a victory. Late in the game, it's less useful, though by then, you perhaps know your opponent's strategy better, there are fewer cards to look at, and you might be able to be a little more strategic. On top of all that, you also get a look at your opponent's entire deck, and what you register can guide you through the rest of the game. Some might call this suite of effects broken. It becomes an Interrupt, so yes, Amanda Rogers can kill it, and so can Plexing (an early nerf card for this overpowered card). Fajo Collection owners might have Persistence of Vision in play, which would mean you would be giving THEM the chance to reorder their decks - your archaeological efforts would be wasted. Opponents can also stock The Juggler, Countermanda, or other cards that reshuffle the deck to restore balance. But even if they don't, you only have 10 seconds to look at a deck and make changes. If you know the game like the back of your hand, this might be easy. If you practice sorting, it could help as well. But how about using Jaglom Shrek - Information Broker to look at a deck for TWENTY seconds before you play Thought Maker, giving you time to make a plan? This is really the kind of card that's powerful in the hands of a veteran, and that's who we're scoring for: A 4.5.
TOTAL: 12.5 (61.5%) A narrow pass, but that's because it's so powerful.
Comments
- A potentially useful function of this is to mess up your opponent's probing. Your Borg are about to Assimilate a Homeworld? Fine, I'll (at Interrupt speed) make sure you've not got a [Com] icon on the top card of your deck, so your probe fails. That delays things for an extra turn, perhaps. However, the Borg are particularly good at avoiding Thought Maker problems, because...
- Reshuffling your draw deck was hard to do in Premiere. But it became a lot easier when downloading was created (remember you don't even have to actually download from the draw deck, just look for the card there before 'remembering' it's actually in your Q's Tent). Downloading being as common as it is, it''s not at all hard to find a way of unwinding any shenanigans my opponent might have been up to, particularly since you know it's coming from when the artifact is found.