Necessary Evil not only brings new excitement to the Star Trek 2nd Edition but also a number of new keywords - and one of them features a well-known card type from the 1st Edition in a different environment: Artifacts!

To play this card you must have completed a mission requiring Acquisition, Anthropology, or Archaeology.

According to the concept of keywords in 2E the special rules associated with "Artifact" are written in italic letters along with the keyword so that new and old players don't have to read any additional rules to understand how the card works. In the case of "Artifact" that means you have to solve a mission with listed requirements of Acquisition, Anthropology or Archaeology in order to play the card. Valid for that are also the modal missions from Call to Arms where you may attempt with different affiliations using different pairs of requirements and you do not even have to complete the mission with that skill - it only has to be written as a requirement on the mission card itself! Thus the popular Feldomite Rush from basic may still be solved with 2 Treachery instead of the optional Acquisition to play all those new artifacts found in Necessary Evil.

But what kind of artifacts exist in Necessary Evil? There are currently four cards that will possibly be played at the Territorials in March and April till we may get new ones in Fractured Time about June. Here we have The Stone of Gol (4U33), The Sword of Kahless (4U34), Ressikan Flute (4R70) and Thought Maker (4R79) - all of them card titles from earlier versions in the 1E Premiere, Alternate Universe and Blaze of Glory set. But a closer look shows us that there is little similarity between those earlier versions and the current ones except for The Sword of Kahless that still gives attribute enhancements to the Klingons. Se let's see what the artifacts will do for our decks:

The Stone of Gol

When combat begins involving your personnel present, the opponent's personnel involved who has the highest Strength is killed.

Instead of a new card type in 2nd Edition artifacts are printed as card types according to the way they are played. Thus The Stone of Gol is an equipment as it may be carried along with your personnel and help you in any combat regardless if you or your opponent has attacked. Although there is still no need for a telepathic person (although it's a telepathic weapon!) this is far more realistic than the old way to play it as an event on any group of personnel on a planet to kill all of them without Youth or Cunning>7. Now The Stone of Gol is a valid addition to your Bajoran, Dominion or Klingon combat decks as it changes the relations in battle right before it's decided who wins so you may even kill your opponent's Lore with a single personnel using Brutal Struggle! If you have more personnel available go for points with Just Like Old Times, Jem'Hadar Ambush, Jem'Hadar Strike Force, A Chance for Glory or Born for Conquest. Good missions to include in your deck are Cargo Rendevous or Pacify Warring Factions for Bajorans, The Siege of AR558 for Dominion and Investigate Alien Probe for Klingons.

The Sword of Kahless

Hand Weapon. Each of your Klingons and Honor personnel present is Integrity -2, Cunning +1 and Strength +2.

Klingons still receive a strength bonus but now they also get additional cunning and let their Honor companions from other species participate in the Sword's effects - not only for combat but also permanently for mission solving! On the other side Integrity is lowered by two and thus you should consider using only missions with Strength in order to use this artifact the most economic way. Play Deliver Supplies if you include a couple of Non-Aligned Honor personnel or Quest for the Sword of Kahless - all other missions have to be completed with either Integrity or Cunning, or are simply not attemptable by Klingons on themselves. Good old Klingon Integrity missions may work for the Sword alone because you'll have it after the mission is completed, but that could mean high Integrity personnel only for gaining the Sword. May work in a Gowron deck but a Sisters of Duras Treachery deck will rely on Strength alone.

Ressikan Flute

Play in your core.
Order - Stop your personnel who has Integrity>6 to take an event from your discard pile into your hand.

Here we have the ultimate rescue for your events and it's usable for every affiliation except Borg - well, even Borg may use it with the help of Biological Distinctiveness... Simply include someone like Dathon, Inad or Macques in your deck to have a high Integrity personnel available and retrieve all those Unexpected Difficulties and Machinations you had to use against your opponent! Or play Bajoran, Federation or Klingons to use multiple Peldor Joi, Common Ground or Heart of Glory... There are endless possibilities to use the Ressikan Flute even after you completed your first mission, and if your deck is based on a special event strategy you shouldn't ignore this artifact. Missions to use are Amnesty Talks and Investigate Alien Probe for everyone, Cargo Rendevous and Encounter at Farpoint for Bajorans and Federation and Evacuate Colony especially for high Integrity Federation decks using Picard, Miles O'Brien, Tasha Yar and Worf.

Thought Maker

Plays in your core. When you have drawn dilemmas, you may search your dilemma pile for a copy of one of your overcome dilemmas and add it to those drawn. Shuffle and replace your dilemma pile face down.

Remember the way the Thought Maker worked in 1st Edition? There you could rearrange the opponent's deck as desired which had been a strong strategy before downloads were invented and made it useless. Now the story from the show is included in its game text and allows you to add a specific dilemma to those drawn without removing the others from the game, as you have to do with popular Machinations. This gives you a great advantage when you discover an opponent's weakness against a specific dilemma like Gomtuu Shockwave, Personal Duty, Picking Up the Pieces, Racial Tensions or Skeleton Crew - even Timescape may become valid for your dilemma pile again if you placed one right behind an all-stopper so your opponent overcame it (which is not possible any other way!). So the Thought Maker offers a similar use to The Manheim Effect but allows you to get an additional dilemma instead, even if the mission where that dilemma has been overcome isn't yet completed. You could put all those three Personnel Duties under your opponent's only space mission... Stock any of the 28 available missions with Acquisition, Anthropology or Archaeology in your deck and the Thought Maker adds perfection to every affiliation's dilemma strategy!

Jaglom Shrek, STCCG-Turnier.de