For now, I'm skipping both Arne Darvin and 1,0000 Tribbles, both for similar reasons, but I'll eventually get to them both.  Until I see K-7 itself, how many [OS] personnel there are, how easy it is to get them there, etc. I'll hold off passing judgement on Darvin, but I will say that unless it's really easy to use his special skill, he looks just like a watered-down Etana Jol.  1,000 Tribbles depends mainly on the Storage Compartment Door, and the answers to such questions as whether tribbles play for free, whether or not they can breed multiple times per turn, etc.  So, until then, I'll simply skip to the next available cards.

It's Shaft!  Well, not really, but for some reason when I first saw the card the pose and lighting made me think of the new Shaft.  OK, OK, maybe I'm just a little weird... but on with the review.

Uh oh.  Sha... er, Sisko's lost Honor, a point of INTEGRITY, a special download, and his command icon's been degraded to staff.  Fairly negligible losses, but for him to be a worthwhile inclusion in a deck he had better have something to bring him above his normal self.  There's two main things I see.  First, he's got the Original Series icon.  Because no Classic equipment revealed thus far benefits him, that doesn't help much.  However, if the Classic Tricorder is any indication of things, he'll get some nice benefits from such equipment.  It's also probably going to be useful for ship staffing, but again, I can't really discuss this aspect as no ships requiring [OS] have been revealed, so I don't know if the ships are even worthwhile including in a deck.  (Starship Enterprise has got to be good, although the name Enterprise hasn't always guaranteed a very powerful ship: the Ent-C and Ent-E, while decent cards, have nothing at all on the hold the Ent-D had when Premiere was all the rage.)  So, the only thing we've got to justify his inclusion in a deck is his special skill.

That skill is extremely powerful in a Federation report-for-free deck.  Aided by some card-drawing engine (cargo running being my favorite) you can tear through your deck, playing multiple personnel for free each turn.  STP-drop a ship like the Future Enterprise or Pasteur with Kirk on board, then play this guy for free as well, no need to mess around with Devidian Doors or Ready Room Doors to get a Siskoid out for free.  And he's a fine addition to a Federation personnel battle deck, (Stolen Attack Ship, anyone?) which with Kirk is actually a pretty mean fighting force.  Two personnel who can download hand weapons, Data, Worf, Kirk (who can stun his opponent automatically), etc.  Throw in some strong NAs (Roga, Zon, STAs), and you can probably do some major damage to an unprepared opponent.  Of course, the Feds still have nothing on the Dominion for personnel battle, but they're much more efficient at drawing and playing cards rapidly and solving missions afterward.  In such a deck, reporting to Kirk (whom you'll be using probably in multiple anyway in a dedicated Fed battle deck) for free is nothing to scoff at.  No need to return to an outpost or waste such silly things as card plays.

What about in more traditional decks?  In this case, his special skill isn't nearly as noteworthy.  Kirk, while often included in more aggressive Federation decks (or perhaps a PNZ deck), is not seen nearly as often in Federation mission-solving decks, because he contributes next to nothing in the way of dilemmas except for OFFICER, Leadership, and high attributes, which can be substituted for other personnel with much more useful skills.  For example, Picard's just short the second Leadership (which you'll probably have plenty of anyway) an attribute point or two, while providing multiple Diplomacy and Navigation.  Even more powerful would be Beverly Picard, with two MEDICAL and Biology in lieu of the second Leadership.  Because you don't see Kirk very much in straight mission-solvers, Lt. Sisko (as it stands right now) probably is inferior to regular old Ben in such decks.  If playing report-for-free, he's definitely a bonus, but I might consider stocking the normal one in your Tent to persona swap if need be.

But wait... who says that the loss of Honor has to be a detriment?  In some cases, it can be quite powerful.  The Federation's not known for having a surplus of Treachery.  No need to shuffle personnel around on planets or on ships (risking Thine Own Self, Barclay Transporter Phobia, and wasting time) if you need to play that crucial Reflection Therapy.  If you just drew it and need to play it, unless you have Suna already in play, you have to wait a turn because you can't execute orders before playing a card.  However, being one Honor less may be just enough to save you the turn this would otherwise cost.  It'll also give you at least some shot of passing Worshiper (not as if I see that one very much).  Unfortunately, he's still got the skill dot from the special skill, so he's no less vulnerable to Mandarin Bailiff and such cards.

Oh, and there's the loss of that Baseball download.  Not too big of a deal, but I've known Baseballs to swing a number of games... if your opponent's left his Nor undefended, Luther Sloan and a D-Doored Sisko can give you an easy twenty points (barring any Nor defenses like Intruder Alert or (ironically) Sisko 197, of course).  The loss of the command icon is little to be worried about, especially considering fine command personnel like Data, Roga Danar, and, naturally, his idol Kirk.  The INTEGRITY point also isn't too significant either, especially considering that the Federation is one of the high-INTEGRITY races (along with the Bajorans and Klingons, but not to the same degree).  Only downside is that it pushes him one point closer to the dreaded 22 (for Chula: the Lights).  Another good instance to persona swap him for Old Ben (OK, he's not really any older, but this guy was masquerading as a younger rank lieutenant from nearly a century before... but he's really Sisko, so where's that [AU] icon?... but although he's back in time, it's really 24th-century Sisko... but he's pretending to be....AAARGH!  O'Brien was right.  Temporal mechanics do give me headaches) if you need him for dilemmas and a Scan reveals this particular Chula dilemma.  Oh, and you actually have to think about his Yuta number now!

The final verdict: A strong personnel (like his present-day persona), but until more uses for the Original Series icon are revealed, I'd still recommend Old Ben for most uses.  Lt. Sisko is good if you're playing a report-for-free or battle strategy, but 90% of the time you'll get more mileage out of the traditional persona.  This seems consistent with earlier personas... the originals tend to be more general-purpose, with additional personas tending towards specific deck types (for example, see Jean-Luc Picard, Reg Barclay (he's much more useful as a mission specialist unless playing VCM), and others)

Next: HQ: Orbital Weapons Platform

Steve "Sergei Rachmaninoff" Boyles