Star Trek Customizable Card Game
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The Star Trek Customizable Card Game is, as the name implies, a collectible card game based on the Star Trek universe. The name is commonly abbreviated as STCCG. It was first introduced in 1994 by Decipher, Inc., under the name Star Trek: The Next Generation Customizable Card Game. The game now has two distinct editions, though both forms of the game have many common elements.
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Standard elements
The central goal for a player of STCCG is to obtain (usually) 100 points, primarily by completing missions or "objectives". This is done by bringing personnel, ships and equipment into play, then moving an attempting team to a mission. Once a mission attempt starts, the personnel will create away teams to encounter dilemmas which will challenge them in some way; often if the personnel have the required skills or attributes they can overcome certain dilemmas' effects. Once the required dilemmas are passed, the personnel still active in the attempt (not "stopped") must have the skills and/or attribute totals required by the mission to solve it. If the mission is solved, the player earns the printed points.
Other aspects of the game increase player interactons: ships and personnel can battle, or otherwise affect each other; cards like events and interrupts can alter the environment for one or more players; and points can be scored using methods other than mission solving.
One of the most attractive themes of the game is the differences between affiliations. These are groupings of ships and personnel based on the major interstellar powers of the Star Trek universe, and most decks will be based around one, or perhaps two, of these groups (though first edition in particular allows the use of many).
First Edition
What is now known as First Edition among players is the original conception of the game, through various designers and iterations. As mentioned above, it was first licensed only to cover Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the first three card sets were limited to that show's universe. As such, the only affiliations created were the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans, plus a placeholder for other groups called Non-Aligned. This narrow scope caused little attraction for players, and it was felt that only five more sets could be released before running the full course of available material.
In 1997, Decipher announced that a wider scope had now been licensed for the game: DS9, Voyager and the TNG movies would be soon providing cards, thus the game's name was shortened to the existing title. The First Contact set arrived late that year, based on the eponymous film; that set introduced the Borg affiliation, among other new concepts.
This was soon followed by several sets based on situations in DS9; these introduced affiliations for the Bajorans, Cardassians, Dominion, and Ferengi, along with enhanced systems for battling and capturing. The era of these expansions is considered by many players to be the 'golden age' of First Edition.
Two more sets featuring Original Series cards came next (when that property was added to the license), followed by sets drawing heavily on Voyager which introduced new, but smaller, affiliations. It was after this that the game began a serious decline in popularity and sales.
The last two sets, based on the films and on holodeck scenarios, did not sell very well at all; this led Decipher to take a serious look at the game's future.
First Edition's problems
Some of Decipher's big concerns included the complexity and bloat that the game had built over seven years; there was no balanced 'cost' system for cards, causing stopgap and complex systems to be added to the game over time. As well, the game had embraced many different and not fully compatible ideas over time; this made for long, corrective rules documents and a steep learning curve for beginners. Not only that, the number of cards types went from nine, to over 17 in just a couple years, which made the game that much more difficult. Clearly, the future of the game was in doubt.
Initial ideas
At first, the game designers sought to introduce an entire new game based on Trek; it would be simpler and be targeted to beginners, while the original game still produced expansions, but on a slower schedule. This concept was abandoned when the sales figures showed that the original game could not continue on its own merits.
Fan Sites
Numerous fan sites existed, the majority of which contained strategy articles for the first edition of the game. The most popular of these was named Where No One Has Gone Before and featured the popular Ruling Britannia series of articles.
Second Edition
The solution was to reinvent the original game along the basic lines, still allowing 'complex' gameplay but avoiding complex rules and concepts. The standard card types and gameplay would remain, allowing some cards to still be used with the original cards (these are known as backward-compatible). However, many cards central to the new form of the game would only work with the new rules and setup. Thus, Second Edition was launched in 2002.
As the game was essentially starting from scratch, but with the hindsight of seven years' work, the first 2E set was able to cover a lot of ground. As a result, five affiliations debuted in that set (compared to three for the original), though it could be counted as six through a unique new system of dividing the Federation affiliation into groupings based on the shows' casts. The focus of the 2E sets has been on characters and situations in TNG and DS9, though 'supporting' cards have images and concepts drawn from every part of the canon Star Trek universe.
The game is now doing well, and many older players have embraced the new approach.
Set history
(Reference: Numbers 1 to 20 for full-size card sets and 51+ for products that added less than 50 new cards.)
First Edition
Premiere
F01: 363 cards basic set. Introduced the game as such. Was plagued by a lack of good Dilemma cards that could be used for any mission and a slow play mechanism. This led to extremely limited play styles. Only the Federation was truly competitive. Card types were: Personnel, Ship, Outpost, Event, Interrupt, Equpiment, Artifact, Dilemma, Mission. Most (in)famous card: HorgaH'n (lets you take double turns after having solved a mission)
Warp Pack
F51: To compensate for the problem that Starter Decks of the game were often unplayable, this product was given away free. It was a 12 card pack with mostly missions. Most of its cards were from Premiere or later reprinted in Alternate Universe, one only appeared in the 2 Player game. Most famous card: Montgomery Scott (from "Relics").
Alternate Universe
F02: This 122 card set addressed the Dilemmas problem, adding a substantial number of those that could be used anywhere. It added the Doorway card type. A suitably large group could still pretty much overcome any Dilemma. The set's focus was the episodes happening in a different timeline or in the past. Most famous card: The Future Enterprise (first Ultra-Rare card, 3 times as rare as a normal card)
Two-Player Game
F52: Released in two versions, this was an introductory way of playing the game with only planet missions, very few Dilemmas and premade decks. Was sold in two variants, Federation and Klingon, differing only in three bonus cards. The other 125 cards were identical. 21 new cards. Most famous card: Mogh (the first card done in computer graphics).
Q-Continuum
F03: Based around the mischief of Q, this set included the concept of Side Decks, extra stacks of cards from which you could draw under certain circumstances. This became a predecessor to downloading and was the first time you could exercise any control over what you would draw. Made the Romulans very competitive. 121 cards. New card types: Q-Event, Q-Interrupt and Q-Dilemma (all only played from a side deck). Most famous card: Q's Tent (allowed you to access any card from a 13 card side deck and helped many decks of the time)
First Anthology
F53: This was a boxed set of 2 Starter Decks, 6 booster packs and 6 preview cards to appear in later sets. Its only notable addition was Dr. Telek R'Mor from Voyager, a card to make Romulan space decks incredibly fast and strong.
First Contact
F04: This 130-card set introduced the Borg as an affiliation. As a collective, these did not solve missions but Objectives (a new card type). They also had the power to assimilate Earth in the past, massively damaging a Federation player. A mechanism called downloading allowed easy access to specific cards in your deck. Some rules were massively redefined at this time to stifle abusive strategies, but three new ones emerged and dominated the scene. Borg and Federation shared as best affiliations. Most famous card: Borg Queen (extremely versatile and a Must Have for the Borg)
The Fajo Collection
F54: Highest price per card for any product, this set of 18 special cards in a binder was available only through direct order from the manufacturer. It was limited to 40,000, however no numbers above 15,000 have been seen on the market. Most cards had a serious graphical twist. This product also incorporates the only card that was created after a design a player of the game made, the Black Hole, later to become abused in several nasty strategies. Most famous card: Locutus of Borg. Now easier and cheaper to collect through individual card purchases.
Official Tournament Sealed Deck
F55: To help Sealed Deck tournaments, this box included 5 booster packs (4 Premiere, 1 Alternate Universe) and 20 fixed premium cards. Among those were 6 missions, 6 dilemmas and a few others. It was very playable out the box and the best starter product in the game. If you consider trying out First Edition, this would be your stepping stone. Today, it often sells for $2 on conventions. Most famous card: Reflection Therapy, adding one skill of your choice to any personnel.
Deep Space Nine
F05: Moving away from the Next Generation crew, this set focused on the Bajoran and Cardassian affiliations. It introduced Sites and Headquarters and added a lot of complexity to the game. It also provided counterstrategies to two of the dominant concepts at that time, but not to all of them. Cardassians had a way to do massive card-drawing and enjoyed their run as a good affiliation, along with Borg and the still viable Romulans. 276 cards. Most famous card: The U.S.S. Defiant (WB) that was secretly added as an ultra-rare preview - it would later be released normally in The Dominion.
The Dominion
F06: Introducing its namesake affiliation, this set fleshed out the Deep Space Nine strategies and generally achieved good play balance except for a few issues. This set approximately marks the turning point in the history of the game as from now on, sets would nearly always introduce more problems than they fixed. Its best cards were Dilemmas, and the Dominion potentially became one of the strongest affiliations. 130 cards.
Blaze of Glory
F07: The one set to sell out the most quickly, this expansion completely revamped ship and facility battle system. It also added the new card type: tactics. This was used to enhance space battle strategies more effective and realistic. Consequently, Klingons became extremely viable by playing strategically for combat to kill off the opponent and before solving any missions. 130 cards. The only set to have had 18 of its cards subjected to a foil treatment - these metallic versions were exceedingly rare. Most famous card: Battle Bridge Door, which enabled the space battles.
Starter Deck 2
F56: This was a basic premiere starter deck with 8 cards added: 6 missions, 1 outpost and 1 event to make all affiliations become one. Allowed out of the box play, but did not add much strategy to the game.
Rules of Acquisition
F08: The Ferengi expansion added this affiliation as well as several small strategies, but it was the one set with the least contribution to the overall game. Greedy Ferengi. 130 cards. Added Writ of Accountability, a card that specifically counters half a dozen abusive strategies. Gameplay was very balanced at this time.
Second Anthology
F57: Like the First Anthology, this was a collection of decks and packs with 6 cards added, however the 6 new cards here were premium and would not become available anywhere else. Still a good value to pick up today as they are often sold cheap.
The Trouble with Tribbles
F09: Introducing the Original Series characters, this set also added Tribble and Trouble cards and brought back the ultra-rare rarity. From this point, every set would have one ultra-rare card. Gameplay ideas introduced in this set mostly became viable only with the next set, but the Federation was strategically strengthened because of the lack of alien races in the Star Trek timeline. Klingons also gained some ground. 131 cards. Most famous card: Dr. McCoy, one of the two strongest ultra-rare cards in gameplay.
Enhanced First Contact
F58: These were small boxes with 4 First Contact packs and 3 premium cards each. Brought the Borg back to tournament level quality. There are 4 different boxes and you see which one you get, thus allowing to shop for any specific premium card. Most famous card: We Are the Borg, a must have to make your Borg extremely fast.
Reflections
F59: Sold in normal packs, this set added no new cards whatsoever. Instead, it contained random cards from older sets plus one foil-treated metallic card in each pack.
Mirror, Mirror
F10: Drawing both from the original series episode and its DS9 cousins, this expansion added flavor and strategy to the Original Series, making decks based on using the mirror universe extremely strong. 131 cards with mostly personnel (the most personnel heavy set in the game) were added. This set brought about one of the most degenerate strategies ever, needing about 10 copies each of 4 different rare cards, heralding the age of the money player. While strategies focused on a single card always flourished during the ages, this set made it worse. Most (in)famous cards: Mr. Nog, Mr. Rom, Mr. Quark and Mr. Brunt - fetching each other over and over, these got your entire deck into hand and then to play in a single fell swoop.
Voyager
F11: First of the Delta Quadrant sets, this one introduced all the main cast from Voyager. It also brought in two new affiliations, the Kazon and the Vidiians and a number of degenerate strategies. By this time, the game's development had become a race between the players discovering new abusive plays and the developers trying to test and remove those. With over 2,000 cards to check, the developers lost this race. 201 cards, thereof about 30 reprinted from earlier sets. Most famous card: The Pendari Champion (a character played by The Rock from WWF), the least collected and wanted ultra-rare in the game- yet very formidable if it ever saw play.
Enhanced Premiere
F60: Just like the earlier enhanced product, this combined surplus packs with some premium cards and sold them as a new product. 21 premium cards, quite a few made it into tournament decks, especially the dilemmas. Most famous card: Male's Love Interest & Radioactive Garbage Scow, a dual dilemma that revived the Garbage Scow strategies of old, extending them to planet missions as well.
The Borg
F12: While named The Borg, this set rather introduced the Hirogen affiliation. It also added to the Borg that had been pushed of the play scene by several good speed cards that could be used by anyone but Borg. Other than that, it was a solid but unspectacular offering. 131 cards. Most famous card: Your Galaxy is Impure, a Dilemma that is a core part of many disruption strategies and has made mission attempts much harder (neededly so).
Holodeck Adventures
F13: Originally planned to be the 4th set, this one got pushed back to #13 in the release order. It added lots of non-aligned support to all decks, including the strong Sherlock Holmes and Dixon Hill versions of the Next Generation Bridge crew. However more impact was generated by the extremely versatile deck manipulation strategy provided by two Interrupt cards: Data Keep Dealing and All Threes. Together with some other cards, these created a way to practically play from a stacked deck, always draw the card you needed and use the discard pile as a resource. Overused, this strategy allowed several first turn wins. It has partially been stopped by newer cards but still remains strong and even casual players use it, in a more moderate fashion. 131 cards.
The Motion Pictures
F14: The last full expansion added scenes and characters from the 8 as of yet not covered movies to the game (Nemesis was not out at that time). It did relatively little to alter gameplay. The Baku were not in this set, but the Son'a were (as non-aligned, just like the Baku would be in All Good Things). No really outstanding cards.
All Good Things
F99: Released about a year after the last full set, this boxed set had a starter, 10 Reflections boosters and 41 new premium cards, all of which filled holes in the game as there had been cards referenced on other cards but not actually made. With the long time since the last release, All Good Things did an extremely good job fixing abusive strategies, resulting in a mostly balanced ultimate play environment. Many First Edition players do not use the backwards compatible cards (which are often weak compared to the older cards) and the game holds together very well as a completed entity. Most affiliations are competitive (the only one that might not be is Kazon) and there is a variety of strategies that would be able to keep the game alive for many years, making the problem finding players. All Good Things was sold out before release through preorders and boxes are nearly impossible and expensive to buy.
Second Edition
Second Edition Base Set
S01: This set reintroduced the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, and set up a base for play with five distinct affiliations: Federation (With both Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation cards), Bajoran, Cardassian, Romulan, and Klingon (Non-Aligned continued as well).
Energize
S02: This served as a companion set to the base set, and introduced a new group of cards the Maquis, while not an entirely new affiliation, they did report to a different Headquarters then other cards. It also created cards to counter certain stratergies that had popped up after Second Editions base set released.
Call to Arms
S03: This set introduced the Dominion and Borg affiliations, adding new keywords including Interlink, and also added many strong dilemma cards to the game, including the popular 'Gomtu Shockwave'.
Necessary Evil
S04: This set was notorious for being hard to find, as Decipher did not produce enough to come close to meeting demand, the online orders were sold out within hours of its release, and many suppliers did not receive their full order. This set introduced many 'odd affiliation' cards, including a Klingon Riker, a Cardassian Odo, and a number of cards capable of avoiding being stopped by dilemmas. It created several new delimmas that made decks with many events to be competive. It also saw many cards that worked well with bonus point stategies and new, better ways to get bonus points, making bonus point strategies competive for the first time in second edition. This set saw the biggest change in gameplay since the second edition came out despite the small print run.
Tenth Anniversary
S51: This was not a distinct set, but rather a set of cards which were reprinted foiled with a little X on them within the Necessary Evil set in honor of the games tenth anniversary.
Fractured Time
S52: This small set came out in pre set boxes, and included a full set of the cards, in addition to packs of the first three sets and a random starter box. Despite being a small set (only 40 cards) several of these cards had a major effect on gameplay, most notably Tragic Turn and James T. Kirk.
Reflections 2.0
S53: This set included some new cards, but was mostly a collection of cards from the previous expansions, even a few Necessary Evil cards, although few. Each pack contains one card unique to the set, and one foiled card previously released, as well as 13 cards from the other, previous 4 sets.
Strange New Worlds
S05: This set introduced the Ferengi affilation, holograms and more androids. It also created large increase in cards that provide more points to spend, although most are Ferengi cards.
Second Edition Anthology (coming soon)
S54
To Boldly Go (coming soon)
S06: This set will introduce the Starfleet (Enterprise era) affilation aswell as new cadets.
Captain's Log (coming soon)
S07: This set will introduce the Voyager affilation and new Ships with matching commanders.
External links
- Decipher web site (http://decipher.fanhq.com/)
- Second Edition homepage (http://startrekccg.fanhq.com/)
- First Edition homepage (http://www.decipher.com/startrek/index1.html)
- Garak's Star Trek CCG DataBase (http://www.garak.it/2e)
- Team Jersy's web page (http://teamjersey.net/index.shtml)de:Star-Trek-Spiele