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. Better late than never, in this case...
PICTURE: Nasty, but avoids being too gory by doing a close-up of the Queen inside Remmick's chest. You don't see too much, and you don't necessarily recognize those red sections as part of the torn Starfleet uniform. Good rich color and a rare shot of this alien (shown very, very briefly) add extra interest. A 3.5.
LORE: N/A (score will be adjusted accordingly)
TREK SENSE: An interesting and card-light way to model Bluegills, it can't provide a complete picture of the race, but does fairly well. We don't know how the first Starfleet personnel from "Conspiracy" got infected or how long ago, really, but there they were, so the card seeds, but does not play (placing personnel here would have been too difficult mid-game anyway). The Bluegills always took great care in selecting hosts, and tried to get high-up or at least useful personnel. The seven hosts you place here must be unique as a consequence. They won't all be in positions of authority, but it's more palatable than having them drive around in universals. These copies are merely "reveals" of infested individuals, and these personnel still report normally. They have all the same skills, which would be true and necessary for the infiltration to work, but maybe adding Treachery and removing Honor should have been in there. Integrity should also have been dropped. Strength goes up however, as these guys were tougher than normal, and they can no longer be stunned. We indeed saw them take phasers standing up. I also like how the Bluegill Queen is handled. We don't know which host has the Queen, so when one is killed, the chest bursts open and we get to see. The random draw doesn't really reveal who the Queen IS, because on the next draw, it might very well be someone else, it shows who the Queen ISN'T. That's the way it's phrased too. When the Queen is killed and Alas, Poor Queen is played, it matches the events of the episode, and all Bluegills die. If Alas, Poor Queen isn't used, then we stray from the episode. We might surmise the Queen has reproduced and implanted a younger Queen in another individual. Possible. Some loose ends: First, the Bluegills don't have an agenda in this game. This isn't a big thing since the missions and battles they get involved in may well all be "part of the plan". Second, they don't recruit anyone beyond the original seven. Ah well. Third, they can't be found out and are always trusted. And last, they can somehow infect androids and changelings. These details don't take too much away from the fact that Bluegill Infestation is a very elegant solution to a broken link that could have spanned numerous cards. And so, a 4.
SEEDABILITY: If you've got your favorite unique personnel in multiples, you can place them under Bluegill Infestation to make them stronger than ever during the game. When they show up in play, their STRENGTH is boosted by a whopping +5, and they can't be stunned in battle. That means that to be taken out in personnel battle, they will have to be mortally wounded by an opponent with more than the Bluegill's STRENGTH+5. Tends to accumulate. Battle-ready affiliations become particularly unbeatable, with a guy like Worf Son of Mogh having STRENGTH 15, and be only taken out of a fight by personnel with... Varon-T Disruptors probably. The only danger is your opponent using Alas, Poor Queen, but it's not that great a danger. It's a normal, non-downloadable Interrupt, and not all that likely to be in your opponent's hand when your Bluegill dies. An opponent who stocked it to use against the Borg might draw it, then go after your Bluegills in personnel battle, but is he going to win that battle? Say he does and a Bluegill dies: there's only a 1 in 7 chance that this Bluegill is the Queen. If it does happen though, all your Bluegills in play immediately die. None of that prevents you from recycling the personnel, playing more later in the game and/or using yet another copy in your deck and making them Bluegills again. Bluegill Infestation isn't nullified, you see, nor are any of the personnel placed here. Now, it's just a STRENGTH/battle booster for a choice 7 personnel, though Delta Quadrant Spatial Scission could double that number, and you do need a lot of extra copies of unique personnel. Thankfully, they aren't all rare. The ability, as modified by its disadvantages, is worth 3.6.
TOTAL: 14.8 (74%) Seems like it could have been a lot more, but I'm not complaining.
Comments