The Good: Easy to play, Wonderful images, Good concept
The Bad: Collation issues with common and uncommon sets, No Archive Portrait foils
The Basics: "What You Leave Behind" adequately ends the Star Trek Customizable Card Game and gives players and collectors something to cheer about.
They say "All good things must come to an end," which is exactly why the series finale for Star Trek: The Next Generation was entitled "All Good Things . . ." When it comes to merchandising, it became very easy, then for things like the Star Trek Customizable Card Game to use that to sell the last set. There was - for the First Edition gaming cards - an exceptionally hard to find set that finished off the game called "All Good Things . . ." (reviewed here!). Well, as fate had it, the Star Trek Second Edition gaming cards came to an abrupt end as well and the second edition went with the name of the finale to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: "What You Leave Behind."
Because Decipher, Inc. has lost the Star Trek license and is now moving to an all-digital format, there seems little chance that this is not the absolutely final Star Trek Second Edition Gaming set. This is, truly, the end of the phenomenon and the end of this part of a collectors and gamers era.
The Star Trek Second Edition for the Customizable Card Game was an easy-to-play game, at least by CCG standards. As the game evolved, the Second Edition worked to bring players and collectors back to the game by broadening the representation of the Star Trek universe it depicted. The "What You Leave Behind" cards were only released in boxes of thirty packs, with packs possessing eleven cards each. Each pack included 11 cards: 1 rare (or foil), 3 uncommon and 7 common cards. In fact, before the series was released, the entire production run was bought up by one distributor and when he sold out, the only way to get these cards became the secondary market.
Basics/Set Composition
"What You Leave Behind" is a 140 card set of gaming cards, mostly focusing on characters and events from the end of the Dominion War, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, and Star Trek: First Contact, with a smattering of other adventures from the Star Trek franchise. The set consists of 41 Common, 41 Uncommon, 40 Rare, and 18 Archive Foil cards. The Archive foils are reprints of popular rares from the "What You Leave Behind" set and there are no Archive Portrait foils that foreshadow future cards, whatwith this being the final set.
The 122 non-foil cards consist of: 19 Dilemma (cards that feature obstacles from the series', like the Caretaker's Wave or a Moral Choice), 2 Equipment (cards featuring mass-produced objects in the Star Trek universe, like a Vascular Pad), 24 Event (cards that feature extended circumstances for the ships or crews, like a Romulans guiding an army via Distant Control or the struggle to Reclaim Terok Nor), 5 Interrupt (cards featuring quick turns of fate in the game, like Advanced Tactical Training or a Silent Strike from an enemy starship), 12 Missions (cards that act as the "board" for the game), 45 Personnel (3 Bajoran, 2 Borg, 4 Dominion, 13 Federation, 3 Ferengi, 3 Klingon, 11 Non-Aligned, 3 Romulan and 3 StarFleet characters), and 7 Ship (1 Borg, 4 Federation, 3 Klingon, 2 Non-Aligned and 2 Romulan) cards.
The cards are a rather diverse collection of the endings and peaks of the various Star Trek franchise components. Fans are bound to enjoy the array of images and concepts depicted on the cards and "What You Leave Behind" does an excellent job of portraying neglected aspects of the franchise. Certainly fans of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine will be thrilled as that series seems to dominate this collection.
Playability
The Star Trek Second Edition CCG is essentially a cross between a role playing game and a board game with cards being set down to create the board and players assembling a ship and crew to then travel the "board" and earn points. This set follows the same basic rules as they were laid out in "Second Edition Premiere" (reviewed here!).
By this point, there is some complexity in terms of dealing with time periods for some of the cards (i.e. Enterprise and Star Trek characters are not, technically, supposed to interact in the game with the 24th Century Federation characters), but most of the cards designed for playing, like the Event and Interrupts include the necessary text to understand how they are appropriately played. Anyone who has been playing the game will find this game easy to play and the "What You Leave Behind" expansion does not offer any changes to game play.
It is worth noting that one can play the Star Trek Second Edition game with only boosters from "What You Leave Behind" as there are an adequate number of Mission cards. Ironically, for the final expansion, Decipher seems to have gone out of its way to insure that the product is playable out of the single box.
Rule Changes
There are no changes to the rules in this expansion. One need only be attentive that the icons indicating which quadrant of space and which time period/universe the card may be played in.
Highlights
Given that the series of gaming cards was coming to an end, it seems like Decipher went all-out. Focusing the series mostly on the adventures of crew of Deep Space Nine works incredibly well for game play and including villains and ships from the films also enhances the style and substance of the game. As with the prior few sets, even the commons and uncommons are cool, though, with characters like Clark Terrell, Katherine Pulaski, and Tuvix making their Second Edition premieres. The designers at Decipher had dome fun and chose to include cards in the Events that bear the titles to previously released Star Trek Second Edition CCG sets! Sadly, there is no "What You Leave Behind" card in this set!
But the grails are all in the rares. It is in the rares that one finds General Chang and Chancellor Gorkon, starships like the Reliant and the HMS Bounty. As well, "What You Leave Behind" features several rare personnel who were never released in the first edition, like a Borg Affiliation Data (from Star Trek: First Contact) and various characters from Star Trek: Enterprise.
The highlight of "What you Leave Behind," objectively might well be the Ezri Dax, Resourceful Counselor card 14R79, Ezri might not be terrible strong, but she is cute as a button, and has a very cool skill. So long as one has a Jadzia Dax in play, this card can be kept in the discard pile to make all of the Deep Space Nine and Gamma Quadrant personnel virtually invincible as they cannot be killed by Dilemmas that cost three or more points! This can become a huge tactical advantage which allows a player to overcome an obscene number of dilemmas. Sadly, though, there is no Jadzia in this expansion, so one must find one from another set to use this amazing skill.
Collectibility
The "What You Leave Behind" cards were only released in the one release, so they are fairly uncommon, which always helps to increase the value. Indeed, one distributor bought out the entire lot of this set when it was released, then sold it to dealers and collectors, making it a very difficult box and set to find and assemble. This is great for investors, but less wonderful for collectors.
Unfortunately, there are two problems which lower the overall value of this release and make it a little more difficult to collect.
There are two short-printed cards, a common and an uncommon. Yes, the two cards that are new reprints of previous Archive Portrait cards are under-represented in the common and uncommon sets as a result of yet another printing error. Unfortunately, these are the both Non-Aligned personnel; Neras and Persis. Strangely, it seems like the reprint of the Stripped Down foil card from "In A Mirror, Darkly" - which is a rare in this set - is more common than those two other reprints.
The foil reprint cards help to thin the rares out some, but the usual grail for the collectors are the Archive Portrait cards and this set has none. As a result, there are no high level chase for investor/collectors to hunt after and there is a good chance of getting a complete set of the cards within four boxes.
Overview
Overall, this is an impressive set and anyone who is playing the Star Trek Second Edition game will want to pick this up! The cards have retained their value, even after Decipher's collapse and the images are good. Moreover, because it is the final expansion, it is virtually guaranteed to be highly sought after for years to come.
This was an all-around wonderful set, despite its minor problems.
This set was preceded by "In A Mirror Darkly" (review pending) and was not followed by any products as Decipher was done with Trek after this!
This set culls images predominately from:
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
"All Good Things. . ."
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
This is a set of gaming cards I proudly sell in my online store! For the current inventory, please visit my What You Leave Behind Page!
8/10
For other gaming card reviews, please check out my Gaming Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2013, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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