The Star Trek CCG "Warp Pack!"

The Good: It WAS free . . . back in the day.
The Bad: Seldom free now, Overproduced, Nothing unique
The Basics: A terribly disappointing pack of cards, the preconstructed Warp Packs feature the same twelve common cards as a Decipher Promotion from way back.


The Star Trek: The Next Generation Customizable Card Game "Warp Pack" is the perfect example of a product it is hard to find much to write about.

The Warp Pack was a promotional package of gaming cards given out by Decipher to keep interest in their new (at the time) trading card game while they put the finishing touches on the first expansion set. The packages, given away free to dealers (with the intent that they would distribute them freely) and to fans who asked for them on-line, were a preconstructed package of twelve white border Star Trek: The Next Generation gaming cards. For players, this was intended to be a boost which would guarantee the game could be played with a Warp Pack and four other random packs of cards.

However, serious players quickly shunned the Warp Pack because the twelve cards were all reprints of common cards, with commons generally being less powerful and less interesting. The Warp Pack included: 1 Event, 1 Neutral Facility, 1 Interrupt, 7 Missions and 2 Personnel cards. Four of the cards were white border versions of cards which would be released in "Alternate Universe" and all that separates them from their usual printing is the color of the border. The Other eight cards look identical to the 1995 printing of the white border Premiere set.

Ultimately, the true reason to be so down on the Warp Pack is that the cards are weak for players and collectors. Collectors who buy any of the Reflections product are likely to end up with slews of all of the cards from the Warp Pack, including the White Border Alternate Universe cards. And because all of the cards are commons anyway, they do not feature exciting characters or situations. Instead, most of the cards are like "Excavation," a Mission card which simply features a CG image of a planet and is intended for players to use to help assemble the "board" of the game.

Players, though, were equally underwhelmed. The Missions in this set represented fairly unchallenging outings and most players were not wowed by the preview cards, like the "Yellow Alert" Event. In fact, the only reason fans ever had to pick the Warp Pack up was because it featured the common "Montgomery Scott" card. This was a nice card that looked great when James Doohan signed it, but with his death, the demand for free items featuring Scotty has pretty much plummeted.

Players don't need more of these cards, collectors can get them as cheap in other products which offer them something new, which makes the Warp Pack a relic of a gaming era long past.

This package was sandwiched in between "Premiere" (reviewed here!) and "Alternate Universe" (reviewed here!).

This set solely uses artwork from Star Trek: The Next Generation, reviewed here!

0/10

For other card reviews, please be sure to visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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