| The Star Trek Customizable Card Game is, as the name implies, a collectible card game based on the Star Trek
universe. The name is commonly abbreviated as STCCG. It was first introduced in 1994
by Decipher, Inc., under the name Star Trek: The Next Generation
Customizable Card Game. The game now has two distinct editions, though both forms of the game have many common elements.
Standard Elements
The central goal for a player of STCCG is to obtain (usually) 100 points, primarily by completing missions or
"objectives". This is done by bringing personnel, ships and equipment into play, then moving an attempting
team to a mission. Once a mission attempt starts, the personnel will create away teams to encounter dilemmas which will
challenge them in some way; often if the personnel have the required skills or attributes they can overcome certain
dilemmas' effects. Once the required dilemmas are passed, the personnel still active in the attempt (not "stopped") must
have the skills and/or attribute totals required by the mission to solve it. If the mission is solved, the player earns the
printed points.
Other aspects of the game increase player interactons: ships and personnel can battle, or otherwise affect each other; cards
like events and interrupts can alter the environment for one or more players; and points can be scored using
methods other than mission solving.
One of the most attractive themes of the game is the differences between affiliations. These are groupings of ships and
personnel based on the major interstellar powers of the Star Trek universe, and most decks will be based around one, or perhaps
two, of these groups (though first edition in particular allows the use of many).
First Edition
What is now known as First Edition among players is the original conception of the game, through various designers and
iterations. As mentioned above, it was first licensed only to cover Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the first three card sets were limited to that
show's universe. As such, the only affiliations created were the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans, plus a placeholder for other groups called Non-Aligned. This narrow
scope caused little attraction for players, and it was felt that only five more sets could be released before running the full
course of available material.
In 1997, Decipher announced that a wider scope had now been licensed for the game:
DS9, Voyager and the TNG movies would be soon providing cards,
thus the game's name was shortened to the existing title. The First Contact set arrived late that year, based on the
eponymous film; that set introduced the Borg affiliation, among other new concepts.
This was soon followed by several sets based on situations in DS9; these introduced affiliations for the Bajorans, Cardassians,
Dominion, and Ferengi, along with enhanced systems for battling and capturing. The era of these expansions is considered by
many players to be the 'golden age' of First Edition.
Two more sets featuring Original
Series cards came next (when that property was added to the license), followed by sets drawing heavily on Voyager
which introduced new, but smaller, affiliations. It was after this that the game began a serious decline in popularity and
sales.
The last two sets, based on the films and on holodeck scenarios, did not sell very well at all; this led Decipher to take a
serious look at the game's future.
First Edition's problems
Some of Decipher's big concerns included the complexity and bloat that the game had built over seven years; there was no
balanced 'cost' system for cards, causing stopgap and complex systems to be added to the game over time. As well, the game had
embraced many different and not fully compatible ideas over time; this made for long, corrective rules documents and a steep
learning curve for beginners. Not only that, the number of cards types went from nine, to over 17 in just a couple years, which
made the game that much more difficult. Clearly, the future of the game was in doubt.
Initial ideas
At first, the game designers sought to introduce an entire new game based on Trek; it would be simpler and be targeted to
beginners, while the original game still produced expansions, but on a slower schedule. This concept was abandoned when the sales
figures showed that the original game could not continue on its own merits.
Second Edition
The solution was to reinvent the original game along the basic lines, still allowing 'complex' gameplay but avoiding complex
rules and concepts. The standard card types and gameplay would remain, allowing some cards to still be used with the original
cards (these are known as backward-compatible). However, many cards central to the new form of the game would only work
with the new rules and setup. Thus, Second Edition was launched in 2002.
As the game was essentially starting from scratch, but with the hindsight of seven years' work, the first 2E set was able to
cover a lot of ground. As a result, five affiliations debuted in that set (compared to three for the original), though it could
be counted as six through a unique new system of dividing the Federation affiliation into groupings based on the shows' casts.
The focus of the 2E sets has been on characters and situations in TNG and DS9, though 'supporting' cards have
images and concepts drawn from every part of the canon Star Trek universe.
The game is now doing well, and many older players have embraced the new approach.
Set History
(Reference: Numbers 1 to 20 for full-size card sets and 51+ for products that added less than 50 new cards.)
First Edition
F01 Premiere: 363 cards basic set. Introduced the game as such. Was plagued by a lack of good Dilemma cards that could be used
for any mission and a slow play mechanism. This led to extremely limited play styles. Only the Federation was truly competitive.
Card types were: Personnel, Ship, Outpost, Event, Interrupt, Equpiment, Artifact, Dilemma, Mission. Most (in)famous card:
HorgaH'n (lets you take double turns after having solved a mission)
F51 Warp Pack: To compensate for the problem that Starter Decks of the game were often unplayable, this product was given away
free. It was a 12 card pack with mostly missions. Most of its cards were from Premiere or later reprinted in Alternate Universe,
one only appeared in the 2 Player game. Most famous card: Montgomery Scott (from "Relics").
F02 Alternate Universe: This 122 card set addressed the Dilemmas problem, adding a substantial number of those that could be
used anywhere. It added the Doorway card type. A suitably large group could still pretty much overcome any Dilemma. The set's
focus was the episodes happening in a different timeline or in the past. Most famous card: The Future Enterprise (first
Ultra-Rare card, 3 times as rare as a normal card)
F52 Two-Player Game: Released in two versions, this was an introductory way of playing the game with only planet missions,
very few Dilemmas and premade decks. Was sold in two variants, Federation and Klingon, differing only in three bonus cards. The
other 125 cards were identical. 21 new cards. Most famous card: Mogh (the first card done in computer graphics).
F03 Q-Continuum: Based around the mischief of Q, this set included the concept of Side Decks, extra stacks of cards from which
you could draw under certain circumstances. This became a predecessor to downloading and was the first time you could exercise
any control over what you would draw. Made the Romulans very competitive. 121 cards. New card types: Q-Event, Q-Interrupt and
Q-Dilemma (all only played from a side deck). Most famous card: Q's Tent (allowed you to access any card from a 13 card side deck
and helped many decks of the time)
F53 First Anthology: This was a boxed set of 2 Starter Decks, 6 booster packs and 6 preview cards to appear in later sets. Its
only notable addition was Dr. Telek R'Mor from Voyager, a card to make Romulan space decks incredibly fast and strong.
F04 First Contact: This 130-card set introduced the Borg as an affiliation. As a collective, these did not solve missions but
Objectives (a new card type). They also had the power to assimilate Earth in the past, massively damaging a Federation player. A
mechanism called downloading allowed easy access to specific cards in your deck. Some rules were massively redefined at
this time to stifle abusive strategies, but three new ones emerged and dominated the scene. Borg and Federation shared as best
affiliations. Most famous card: Borg Queen (extremely versatile and a Must Have for the Borg)
F54 The Fajo Collection. Highest price per card for any product, this set of 18 special cards in a binder was available only
through direct order from the manufacturer. It was limited to 40,000, however no numbers above 15,000 have been seen on the
market. Most cards had a serious graphical twist. This product also incorporates the only card that was created after a design a
player of the game made, the Black Hole, later to become abused in several nasty strategies. Most famous card: Locutus of Borg.
Now easier and cheaper to collect through individual card purchases.
F55 Official Tournament Sealed Deck: To help Sealed Deck tournaments, this box included 5 booster packs (4 Premiere, 1
Alternate Universe) and 20 fixed premium cards. Among those were 6 missions, 6 dilemmas and a few others. It was very playable
out the box and the best starter product in the game. If you consider trying out First Edition, this would be your stepping
stone. Today, it often sells for $2 on conventions. Most famous card: Reflection Therapy, adding one skill of your choice to any
personnel.
F05 Deep Space Nine: Moving away from the Next Generation crew, this set focused on the Bajoran and Cardassian affiliations.
It introduced Sites and Headquarters and added a lot of complexity to the game. It also provided counterstrategies to two of the
dominant concepts at that time, but not to all of them. Cardassians had a way to do massive card-drawing and enjoyed their run as
a good affiliation, along with Borg and the still viable Romulans. 276 cards. Most famous card: The U.S.S. Defiant (WB) that was
secretly added as an ultra-rare preview - it would later be released normally in The Dominion.
F06 The Dominion: Introducing its namesake affiliation, this set fleshed out the Deep Space Nine strategies and generally
achieved good play balance except for a few issues. This set approximately marks the turning point in the history of the game as
from now on, sets would nearly always introduce more problems than they fixed. Its best cards were Dilemmas, and the Dominion
potentially became one of the strongest affiliations. 130 cards.
F07 Blaze of Glory: The one set to sell out the most quickly, this expansion completely revamped ship and facility battle
system. It also added the new card type: tactics. This was used to enhance space battle strategies more effective and realistic.
Consequently, Klingons became extremely viable by playing strategically for combat to kill off the opponent and before solving
any missions. 130 cards. The only set to have had 18 of its cards subjected to a foil treatment - these metallic versions were
exceedingly rare. Most famous card: Battle Bridge Door, which enabled the space battles.
F56 Starter Deck 2: This was a basic premiere starter deck with 8 cards added: 6 missions, 1 outpost and 1 event to make all
affiliations become one. Allowed out of the box play, but did not add much strategy to the game.
F08 Rules of Acquisition: The Ferengi expansion added this affiliation as well as several small strategies, but it was the one
set with the least contribution to the overall game. Greedy Ferengi. 130 cards. Added Writ of Accountability, a card that
specifically counters half a dozen abusive strategies. Gameplay was very balanced at this time.
F57 Second Anthology: Like the First Anthology, this was a collection of decks and packs with 6 cards added, however the 6 new
cards here were premium and would not become available anywhere else. Still a good value to pick up today as they are often sold
cheap.
F09 The Trouble with Tribbles: Introducing the Original Series characters, this set also added Tribble and Trouble cards and
brought back the ultra-rare rarity. From this point, every set would have one ultra-rare card. Gameplay ideas introduced in this
set mostly became viable only with the next set, but the Federation was strategically strengthened because of the lack of alien
races in the Star Trek timeline. Klingons also gained some ground. 131 cards. Most famous card: Dr. McCoy, one of the two
strongest ultra-rare cards in gameplay.
F58 Enhanced First Contact: These were small boxes with 4 First Contact packs and 3 premium cards each. Brought the Borg back
to tournament level quality. There are 4 different boxes and you see which one you get, thus allowing to shop for any specific
premium card. Most famous card: We Are the Borg, a must have to make your Borg extremely fast.
F59 Reflections: Sold in normal packs, this set added no new cards whatsoever. Instead, it contained random cards from older
sets plus one foil-treated metallic card in each pack.
F10 Mirror, Mirror: Drawing both from the original series episode and its DS9 cousins, this expansion added flavor and
strategy to the Original Series, making decks based on using the mirror universe extremely strong. 131 cards with mostly
personnel (the most personnel heavy set in the game) were added. This set brought about one of the most degenerate strategies
ever, needing about 10 copies each of 4 different rare cards, heralding the age of the money player. While strategies focused on
a single card always flourished during the ages, this set made it worse. Most (in)famous cards: Mr. Nog, Mr. Rom, Mr. Quark and
Mr. Brunt - fetching each other over and over, these got your entire deck into hand and then to play in a single fell swoop.
F11 Voyager: First of the Delta Quadrant sets, this one introduced all the main cast from Voyager. It also brought in two new
affiliations, the Kazon and the Vidiians and a number of degenerate strategies. By this time, the game's development had become a
race between the players discovering new abusive plays and the developers trying to test and remove those. With over 2,000 cards
to check, the developers lost this race. 201 cards, thereof about 30 reprinted from earlier sets. Most famous card: The Pendari
Champion (a character played by The Rock from
WWF), the least collected and wanted ultra-rare in the game- yet very formidable if it ever
saw play.
F60 Enhanced Premiere: Just like the earlier enhanced product, this combined surplus packs with some premium cards and sold
them as a new product. 21 premium cards, quite a few made it into tournament decks, especially the dilemmas. Most famous card:
Male's Love Interest & Radioactive Garbage Scow, a dual dilemma that revived the Garbage Scow strategies of old, extending
them to planet missions as well.
F12 The Borg: While named The Borg, this set rather introduced the Hirogen affiliation. It also added to the Borg that had
been pushed of the play scene by several good speed cards that could be used by anyone but Borg. Other than that, it was a solid
but unspectacular offering. 131 cards. Most famous card: Your Galaxy is Impure, a Dilemma that is a core part of many disruption
strategies and has made mission attempts much harder (neededly so).
F13 Holodeck Adventures: Originally planned to be the 4th set, this one got pushed back to #13 in the release order. It added
lots of non-aligned support to all decks, including the strong Sherlock Holmes and Dixon Hill versions of the Next Generation
Bridge crew. However more impact was generated by the extremely versatile deck manipulation strategy provided by two Interrupt
cards: Data Keep Dealing and All Threes. Together with some other cards, these created a way to practically play from a stacked
deck, always draw the card you needed and use the discard pile as a resource. Overused, this strategy allowed several first turn
wins. It has partially been stopped by newer cards but still remains strong and even casual players use it, in a more moderate
fashion. 131 cards.
F14 The Motion Pictures: The last full expansion added scenes and characters from the 8 as of yet not covered movies to the
game (Nemesis was not out at that time). It did relatively little to alter gameplay. The Baku were not in this set, but the Son'a
were (as non-aligned, just like the Baku would be in All Good Things). No really outstanding cards.
F99 All Good Things: Released about a year after the last full set, this boxed set had a starter, 10 Reflections boosters and
41 new premium cards, all of which filled holes in the game as there had been cards referenced on other cards but not actually
made. With the long time since the last release, All Good Things did an extremely good job fixing abusive strategies, resulting
in a mostly balanced ultimate play environment. Many First Edition players do not use the backwards compatible cards (which are
often weak compared to the older cards) and the game holds together very well as a completed entity. Most affiliations are
competitive (the only one that might not be is Kazon) and there is a variety of strategies that would be able to keep the game
alive for many years, making the problem finding players. All Good Things was sold out before release through preorders and boxes
are nearly impossible and expensive to buy.
Second Edition
- S01 Second Edition Base Set: This set reintroduced the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, and set up a base for play with five
distinct affiliations: Federation (With both Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation cards), Bajoran, Cardassian, Romulan, and
Klingon.
- S02 Energize: This served as a companion set to the base set, and introduced a new group of cards the Maquis, while not an
entirely new affiliation, they did report to a different Headquarters then other cards.
- S03 Call to Arms: This set introduced the Dominion and Borg affiliations, adding new keywords including Interlink, and also
added many strong dilemma cards to the game, including the popular 'Gomtu Shockwave'.
- S04 Necessary Evil: This set was notorious for being hard to find, as Decipher did not produce enough to come close to
meeting demand, the online orders were sold out within hours of it's release, and many suppliers did not receive their full
order. This set introduced many 'odd affiliation' cards, including a Klingon Riker, a Cardassian Odo, and a number of cards
capable of avoiding being stoped by dilemmas.
- S51 Tenth Anniversary: This was not a distinct set, but rather a set of cards which were reprinted foiled with a little X on
them within the Necessary Evil set.
- S52 Fractured Time: This small set came out in boxes, and included a full set of the cards, in addition to packs of the first
three sets and a random starter box.
- S53 Reflections 2.0: This set included some new cards, but was mostly a collection of cards from the previous expansions,
even a few Necessary Evil cards, although few. Each pack contains one card unique to the set, and one foiled card previously
released, as well as 13 cards from the other, previous 3 sets.
- S05 Strange New Worlds (coming soon)
- S54 Second Edition Anthology (coming soon)
- S06 To Boldly Go (coming soon)
- S07 Captain's Log (coming soon)
External links
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