Today's one of those funny-looking pre-First Contact Borg (they seem a lot less scary when I go back and watch the old episodes now):

This review's going to be a little shorter than most, simply because there's not too much depth to this card.

Another one of those "patch" cards designed to cover one of the Borg's weaknesses, much like recent Borg drones (the Complink and Reassimilation drones also fit this category, but not to the same degree this drone does).  Aside from his special skills, Six of Thirteen's not much to look at.  Astrophysics?  Well, you can close Black Holes with Examine Singularity, but the Tachyon Drone has this plus the valuable Navigation for dilemmas, or the Queen can select it because it's such a little-needed skill.  OK, he's communication subcommand... like a third of the other drones.  So, those special skills had better be pretty decent for him to be used.  Let's take a look at them...

"Immune to Thine Own Self."  Although Thine Own Self isn't used much, it's definitely a nasty anti-Borg card.  At the World Championships last year, I drove one Borg opponent nearly crazy by hitting his drones trying to steal one of my planets with Barclay Transporter Phobia and Thine Own Self turn after turn, delaying him tremendously.  Of course, that deck was also very specialized, and very few decks contain enough Thine Own Selves to seriously hamper a Borg deck, unless you're foolish enough to send a Queen, Seven, or counterpart down on a planet to scout, which few players would do anyway.  Anybody else can simply be re-downloaded with the Queen at the end of the turn.  But, this guy's not a bad Tent card.  A cube deck can easily withstand the loss of a single drone (well, there are exceptions, but for the most part).  If you lose a drone or two to Thine Own Self, Awaken or Queen-download this guy right to your Cube, and you can pick up right where you left off -- without having to wait until next turn if he's retrieved via Awaken.  OK, this is a so-so use, qualifying him for Q's Tent in most Borg decks, or maybe even draw deck inclusion in one of those monstrous 150+ card Borg decks whose enormous quantities of Awakens and sometimes Retasks can compensate for the occasional less valuable card.  At least this guy's a good probe for every Borg objective except Stop First Contact and Salvage Starship... but if playing a Population 9 Billion/Salvage Starship 2-objective win deck, be sure to Tent this drone or to download him before probing for either objective.  OK, he's up to so-so.  What about that other skill?

"If present where your Adapt: Negate Obstruction is nullified, you may place it beneath draw deck."  This is the use that'll qualify him for most decks.  Although Mandy usage might decrease slightly after TwT releases (because of Q the Referee downloading Oof!), she's still IMHO the most useful of the troika cards for general purposes.  Kevin and Q2 are definitely powerful, but I see a lot more decks abusing interrupts than events right now.  Scans, Awakens, Temporal Rifts, Isabellas, Distortions, and still the occasional Wormhole or RBM player.  Anyway, his ability to recycle nullified A:NOs is invaluable to many Borg decks.  It'll save you from having to use up another A:NO to replace the first, allowing a Borg player to realistically stock four or five A:NOs in a standard deck (three or four in a two-mission deck) and not have much to worry about in the way of running out.  There have been decks that try to lock out (or at least seriously slow down) Borg decks while still remaining effective against others by including at least one dilemma that the Borg must Adapt to in each combo (Alien Parasites, Armus: Sticky Situation, In the Pale Moonlight, etc.) and running very high on Amandas and card-drawing techniques.  Although a Borg player would probably overcome the Mandy's eventually (from the ability to download one each turn), the Borg player might not be able to get more than one or two objectives scored before running out of A:NOs in a deck.  Although this type of deck would still slow a Borg deck to a crawl, at least there's no chance of a lockout by running the Borg deck out of A:NOs and Kevin-ing the Regenerate.  So, does this use qualify the Scout Drone for inclusion in a Borg deck?  I'd say so.  It enables your Borg decks to run more efficiently, as you can usually strip out a few A:NOs from the draw deck and either put this drone in the place of one of them or put him in your Tent.  And if nothing else, he's still a Communication drone, good for a myriad of uses.

The final verdict: I'd put him in the Tent in Establish Gateway decks, but if I'm planning on assimilating planets, I might even consider stocking two of him in the draw deck.  He probes just as well as an A:NO, and the additional drone in the deck is balanced by fewer A:NOs for the same effect.  And for scouting planets, he's perfect.  He's Communication subcommand, so he can share skills from the entire Cube.  He's immune to one of the cards that can delay a Borg player scouting a planet.  And, he protects your A:NOs from being permanently nullified, instead reducing it to a one-turn delay.  One last thing: that Tribble icon looks really funny juxtaposed against the Borg background and picture!

Next: Odo (the nonaligned one, of course)

Steve "Sergei Rachmaninoff" Boyles