On Second Thought: Smuggling a Card In

Every month this year, I’ve posted a Blog on something related to Second Edition. Sometimes it’s a behind the scenes story, sometimes I look back at a set and sometimes I might even reveal a spoiler. I’m cross posting this month’s entry here.

Time for a story!

Way back when I was a Resident Assistant in college, my boss told me about her time on a recruitment committee. Part of the job involved traveling to job conferences to interview perspective staff members. There was a particular job fair that unofficially required the hiring company to decorate their provided room with paraphernalia from the school. She told me specifically that she was walking around with her boss who said “Those blankets look nice.” She took the hint and those $98 blankets were approved on the total budget but the $2 untippable mug? Not so much.

Flash forward to the Crixus design team. These guys looked at every single deck the Klingons had.  Every. Single One. You name it, they are least considered it. One of the decks they didn’t as much look at as they did momentarily consider was more of the sub theme of Klingon Smugglers. I (Brand Manager, not a member of the design team at all) took a look and said that it could be the skeleton of a deck and might be worth considering. The Design Director (again, not technically part of the design team at all) agreed. One of the designers decided to look into it since two people not involved in this specific design at all were interested.

A History of Collusion

At the time there were four Klingon Smugglers: B'Etor, Sister of Duras; J'Dan; Koral, Dour Smuggler and Lursa, Sister of Duras. Now, four cards do not a deck make (things like ships help) but you can see the beginnings of one with these personnel.

First, there are the skills. Between all four, you have Archeology, Astrometrics, Engineer, Exobiology, Geology, 2 Leadership, Navigation, Physics, 2 Science, and 5 Treachery. Klingon Treachery decks are nothing new, ditto for Leadership (Usually in the form of High Council Member), but not all of these cards are used in those decks. Let’s face it, these are fairly used cards, but not usually together. This specific pair of Lursa and B’Etor are not the most popular.

As you look at the abilities, you’ll see that they do pretty well complement each other. The Sisters download a Treachery personnel. Those can be the other Klingon Smugglers or you can go outside that keyword. Koral gives himself a temporary attribute boost. Again, not the entirety of a deck you would want to build (ships are helpful) but there is a skeleton of an idea there for you to build on.

So design came up with A History of Collusion. A one cost event, when you play one of the afore mentioned Klingon Smugglers, your opponent has to choose between an event they love and giving you a discount.  It’s a nice little incentive that you can play to maintain a counter advantage and get rid of a somewhat expensive event. Or you might pick something particularly annoying that could come back to haunt you, such as Unexpected Difficulties. Note that the event has to be in your opponent’s core, so if they haven’t given you command of that commodity, you can’t put it in your crosshairs.

That’s how a guy who isn’t part of design wound up getting a card into the final set. You’re welcome!

by Ross Fertel, Second Edition Brand Manager