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Leakings of the Fajo Collection
by Ross L. Fertel From the moment it was mentioned, no product seems to have caused as much controversy as the Fajo collection. This was the first 'set' that Decipher had put out (1st Anthology premiums excluded) since Q-Continuum and players spoke their minds. Eighteen cards for eighty dollars seemed excessive and out of the range of many players and collectors alike. The revelation of the cards on the website had many a player drooling. Not only were they great to look at, but they were good (and I mean GOOD) cards. True to the website, they were 'highly desirable cards.' Every player wanted to play with them. Since that time, Decipher has released seven products. In those four expansions and forty three premium/preview cards, aspects of the Fajo Collection have found their way into the various sets, giving players with lower budgets some of the flavor they may have missed. Black Hole - Star Wars, the sister Decipher CCG, had played with the basic layout of the card since their first expansion. Creature cards seem to 'jump' out of the image frames, and some other enhancements have been made to the cards themselves. While Black Hole was the first STCCG card to have a special effect, it was far more impressive than their counterparts. First Contact continued this tradition with Mirror Image. The entire card is flipped on a vertical axis! A very clever gag, it was indeed a surprise for many who opened their packs and looked at their cards. This card took longer to read than some of the objectives. Dixon Hill's Business Card - Card maintenance is a big issue in decks. Most cards do A or cancel B. Some of the more interesting ones modify C. Dixon Hill's Business Card actually combined two cards into one. What more, they actually had three lines for each card type, rather than three total. The split icon may not have been shown on Hide and Seek in the OTSD, but it did display greater card efficiency. Separately, the two cards would be binder fodder for sure. Together, they achieved versatility. DNA Metamorphosis - The first foil released for Star Trek.
Guinan - It's always nice to have some extra attribute totals on your ship. Doubling the currently popular Captain's Log could be powerful indeed. The Cha'joh from Deep Space Nine gives the benefits of two matching commanders right on the card itself. It can take on some tough ships with the appropriate cards. Locutus of Borg - I like to call this card prelude to Borg, as it was meant to be the first Borg card released for the affiliation, sort of how Quark, Son of Keldar was the first Ferangi affiliated personnel. Timing issues came up, and before anyone knew it, First Contact had came out before the Fajo Collection. Still, this was the first pre-made counterpart, and the only one that does not need an AU Door. Miles O'Brien - Confession time. When I first printed off a copy of this card, the download icon was more like an upload icon (it pointed up). Whatever changes were made, the icon came into prime use in First Contact with the one affiliation that downloads the most, the Borg. Since then, downloads have changed as well. Now, downloading any Romulan treaty is not farfetched, while most early cards simply referred to specific card names. Qapla'! - Some early cards made a valiant attempt to have lore written in languages other than Federation standard (English). One of the best examples would be Dathon from Alternate universe, written in Tamarian lore. Qapla'! was written (and designed) in Klingon. This seems to be a precedent for 'Borg lore.' Sisters of Duras - Going back to card economy, you just can't beat a two for one deal, especially when you have two very good personnel in one card. This was done in Deep Space Nine and Dominion with cards that would become binder fodder separately. Jake Sisko, for example, would be laughed at from first sight. Nog might be slightly more valuable just for his Ferangi status. Together, you have a decent six- (or five- depending on your math) skilled personnel. Consider 10 and 01. Would you put each one seperately in a deck? The download is good, but is it worth the slot that could be spent with the prevention of Computer Crash? It might be a toss up either way, and 01 might find a way to the binder quickly with only one special skill that would be useless after players geared their decks away from downloading. Put the two together and you get the best of both worlds. Ross L. Fertel |
Dr. Soong, I.K.C. Chang, Lore, U.S.S. Pastuer - Storytelling is one important issue that fans remember when the look at card images. Klingon Death Yell, for example, brings a certain memory of a great moment for Trek. Granted not all situations from STCCG would happen on TV, but that is to be expected. But, some just seem too darn odd. Would Jadzia Dax, armed with a Bat'leth and disruptors really kill Benjamin Sisko? Probably not. The Nemesis Icon shows some situations that would be more realistic. While the icon made its second debut on Data (FC), it came into fuller bloom in the Dominion and can even have a full blown theme deck thanks to Blaze of Glory. The icon has grown greatly within these two past expansions.