Simple Repack Theatre, Vol. 11, "Dangerous Missions" Clears Out Decipher's Trek Warehouse Well!
by wlswarts - Written: Aug 20 '08 (Updated Oct 28 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Interesting new cards, Not too rare, yet still collectible, Foils
Cons: Getting harder to find, Collectors end up with duplicates from packs
The Bottom Line: An intriguing collection of new foil cards mixed in with unopened packs makes for a surprisingly solid investment for "Star Trek" CCG enthusiasts!
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| wlswarts's Full Review: Decipher Star Trek CCG Dangerous Missions Deluxe D... |
As it became clear to the fine folks at Decipher that their ship was sinking with the "Star Trek" CCG, they began to dump their overstock and while they still had new sets they were producing, they decided to jettison some of the old. Wisely, they concocted new and inventive ways to rid themselves of their stock and one of them was with Deluxe Draft Packs. For the "Star Trek" Second Edition CCG, this took the form of "Dangerous Missions" Deluxe Draft Packs, a collection of three different repackages of select booster packs along with foil cards unique to this set.
"Dangerous Missions," as a set, is only nineteen foil cards but each package of foil cards comes with unopened packs from one of five previously-released sets. The whole point of this foil set is to allow players to recreate important missions from the "Star Trek" franchise. One package allows players to re-create the film "Star Trek: Generations," another the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" second season premiere arc that climaxed in "The Siege," and the third to tell the "Star Trek: Enterprise" story from "The Forge," "Awakening" and "Kir'Shara"). The three packs of foil cards provide enough for players to play the game right out of the pack, though there are no rules in the Draft Box. "Dangerous Missions," then, seems mostly like a gimmick; but it's not a bad one.
Basics/Set Composition
"Dangerous Missions" is an exclusive set of 19 cards packaged in three draft boxes with a few leftover goodies from Decipher. Each master box contains 4 of each of the Deluxe Draft boxes. Each Deluxe Draft box contains an exclusive package featuring twelve foil cards plus an assortment of four booster packs, including Premiere (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_422389780100 ), Energize (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_423279169156 ) Call To Arms (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_424228064900 ), Reflections 2.0 (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_428843830916 ), and "To Boldly Go" (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_438448066180 ). Each Deluxe Draft box has at least one pack of "To Boldly Go," which was a surprise at the time because that set was still so new. This added a little extra enduring value to the "Dangerous Missions" set.
The concept of "Dangerous Missions" is to introduce into the Second Edition game a quick method for playing a randomized deck as quickly as possible. The set foil cards guarantee players a crew and ship, along with (in a worst case scenario) one mission. As a result, players looking to play a StarFleet, Federation or Bajoran deck right out of the gate can play with a single Deluxe Draft Box. Players tend to like this format to shake the game up every now and then as they are forced to play with the hand they pull from the box and that leads to sweeping amounts of variety.
The nineteen card exclusive set is the reason to purchase this boxed set as it is the only unique aspect of the product. And it is a decent set. All nineteen foil cards are premium rares and they tend to be intriguing and popular cards. The nineteen card set is comprised of: 4 Dilemma (cards that featured obstacles faced by the crews, like a Bio-Neural Computer Core or a Maquis Vendetta), 3 Mission (cards that form the "board" of the game), 9 Personnel (3 Bajoran, 3 Federation, and 3 StarFleet cards), and 3 Ship cards (1 Bajoran, 1 Federation, and 1 StarFleet).
Playability
This set is follows the rules that were established in the Star Trek Second Edition CCG Premiere. The new cards add a little intrigue but the cards tend to have text on them that tell players exactly what they do and how and make the game quite easy to learn and play with others.
Rule Changes
There are no rule changes in this expansion. All that changes with this expansion is how fast the game may be established for playing. The Second Edition was a remarkably stable playing platform that did not change significantly from start to finish.
Highlights
The Dangerous Missions set is a set almost entirely of highlights! First, all of the cards are foils, so all nineteen cards look good. This is a set rich in character cards and the few ships are also fairly powerful. Fans and collectors and players enjoyed the popular characters included in this set, like a "Generations" Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, Captain Archer, T'Pol and Trip Tucker. As well, this set has the doomed Galaxy Class U.S.S. Enterprise-D and the NX-01 Enterprise.
For my money, though, the best card is 9R10 Jadzia Dax, Elder. This is a Bajoran Personnel version of Dax and her cost is reduced by having other Bajoran religious characters in play. Conveniently, Vedek Bareil is another one of the foil cards, which affords those playing the game a quick, easy way to get a powerful character like Jadzia into the game at a reduced cost!
Collectibility
Who doesn't love exclusive cards?! Unfortunately, the nineteen unique cards are found with annoying ratios. So, for example, each and every Deluxe Draft Pack has 2 9R1 - Bio-Neural Computer Core Dilemmas. There are duplicates in each pack of the three characters and one dilemma each. This means that fans need to purchase multiple Deluxe Draft packs just to get more of the ships and missions. Indeed, with each of those cards being inserted at one per pack, fans end up with a lot of extra cards trying to assemble multiple sets. This adds some injury to the insult of getting over twice as much recycled product in addition to the goodies. Collectors might object to the extra packs, but most tough-it-up and are happy for something to sell back to recoup some of the cost of the exclusives with! Players are always looking for cards and they tended to like this set because of the extra recycled product, as opposed to in spite of it.
Each Deluxe Draft pack has a suggested retail price of $14.95. The 19 card foil set, though, can often still be found in the $50 range in the secondary market. It takes one of each of the three boxes to make a complete set.
Overview
Collectors of the card game, players and investors all make out well with this set. It was rare, but not impossible to find, so it never became cost-prohibitive for investors. It is fun for the players and allowed them to experiment with game play in the Second Edition at a reasonable cost and collectors are likely to enjoy how easy it is to assemble the set.
It's hard to argue with all that!
Rating is more appropriately a 3 1/2.
This set was preceded by "To Boldly Go" (link above) and followed by "Captain's Log" (reviewed at: http://www.epinions.com/content_429601296004 ).
This set culls images from:
"Star Trek: Generations" - http://www.epinions.com/content_410799345284
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" "The Siege" - http://www.epinions.com/content_75550199428
and "Star Trek: Enterprise" Season 4 - http://www.epinions.com/content_297806630532
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 15.00
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