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Forgotten Cards
by Spare Head 2 Ever since the release of the Alternate Universe Set, Decipher has stated that there won't be any white border expansion sets. For the most part, this is true. There have been no plans to release any white border "sets" since the release and continued printing of the White Border Unlimited Betas which began its print run in 1995. Nevertheless, there have been white bordered expansion cards, super-rare preview cards not withstanding. There have been 12 White Border Alternate Universe cards released in the Warp Pack and Two Player Games: Warp Pack: Countermanda, Montgomery Scott, Neutral Outpost, and Yellow Alert
Why do these cards deserve special attention? They're just common cards, right? Scrye magazine doesn't even list them individually in their price guide. On a technical level, the value of these cards to a player of the game is no different from their black border counterparts. To a collector, though, they deserve a small notation at least, although they aren't recognized officially as WB AU cards. One question which comes to mind is whether or not one should split a pre-made set to collect the few cards within it that one wants. Looking at how Fajo Collection cards are bought and traded to players looking for a particular card, it's not unheard of for a dealer to purchase a dozen or so sets in order to sell the individual cards - Monetarily, the cards are worth more individually than they are in the set. In sports card trading and collecting, the question doesn't come up - For the most part, there's only one set - There are various sub-sets; Foils, Holograms, Rookies, etc., but generally, the 1999 Skybox Baseball Set isn't mixed with the 1998 or 1997 sets, nor are they mixed with Skybox's Football or Basketball sets. Due to the nature of the CCG card genre, cards from various sets are naturally mixed to enhance game playability - both by the players, AND by Decipher. Enhanced First Contact and the Sealed Tournament Deck have only a few unique cards to each of them - the other cards in each of these boxes are just re-boxed packs. In the First Anthology collection, there are six white border preview cards which are not available anywhere else; Dr. Telek R'Mor, Ensign Tuvok, Garak, Orb of Prophecy and Change, Quark, Son of Keldar, and Thomas Paris. There are also a number of other packs included in the box, but would these cards also be included in a First Anthology list? No, the packs are clearly marked as being from various sets: The Q Continuum, Alternate Universe, and White Border Unlimited. From this, therefore, we could conclude that a set isn't the sum of the parts within, but the sum of its unique parts. The Warp Pack consists of 12 white border common cards, all bearing a 1995 copyright date. But both the White Border Beta set and the Alternate Universe set carry that copyright date too. 7 Warp Pack cards are identical in every way to their White Border Beta counterparts; 4 of them, listed above, are WB AU cards, and then there's Sensitive Search. I suppose all 12 cards could be saved as a collection - there aren't that many to store. Then what about the Two Player Game? The game itself consists of two 60 card decks of white border common cards, with a few Premium cards thrown into the box for good measure. To get ALL the cards though, you need to get both the Federation box and the Klingon box... or do you? Since dealers are willing to split up sets, It's probable that one could buy the Federation box and then get the three Klingon Premium cards from a dealer, but would you have a "full set"? Either you need just the unique cards, or all >252 cards from both the Federation and Klingon boxes - Two sets of Federation decks (120), Two Klingon decks (120), two of each of Spock, Admiral McCoy and Data Laughing, and the 6 premium cards (3 from each box). The solution I came up with is relatively simple; I just refer to the card as being part of the set it was FIRST released in - this avoids the debate (in my mind) which set which card belongs to. Some purists may disagree, saying I DO need all 252 cards. It's a matter of semantics really; you could consider each expansion set or individually "named" pack (like the Warp Pack or the Away Team Pack) to be a separate entity among Decipher's cards, or you could refer to the ST:CCG collection as an entire set with individual sub-sets released periodically. Using my method, there are 5 Warp Pack cards (4 WB Alt. Universe and Sensitive Search), 27 Two Player Set cards (3 Federation Premiums, 3 Klingon Premiums, Spock, Admiral McCoy, 8 WB Alt. Universe and 11 Missions, not including Sensitive Search), 6 First Anthology cards, 16 Enhanced First Contact cards (gotta count the overlays, right?), 20 Sealed Deck cards and 8 Starter Deck II cards. Okay, you say "What happened to Data Laughing? You forgot about it!" Not really - Data Laughing's FIRST appearance came as a mail in offer with the purchase of the Official Star Trek Customizable Card Game Rule Book, which was released when the Premiere Set came out. Therefore, although it's available in both the Two Player Games and the First Anthology box, according to it's original availability, it's on it's own - but not forgotten. Spare Head 2
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