Optimism - The Great Space Saver

As Brad mentioned in his letter to Evan, Optimism contains three ideas that didn't seem to work well enough on their own. Not one to give up an idea (or waste any space), the design team combined all three ideas into one card, and produced an absolute gem.

Order - Place a card from hand on the bottom of your deck.

This order may not seem that impressive, but you will find it surprisingly useful. Any time you would normally have to discard cards from hand at the end of your turn, you will now have the option of placing them under your deck instead. That means that you can keep drawing for an important card, knowing that all the drawn cards won't have to be discarded. It also means that you won't have to discard any cards should you fail a mission attempt having encountered The Dreamer and the Dream. More importantly, it will also mean that returning a card to hand (maybe because of Chula: Pick One to Save Two or Emergency Transport Unit) won't force an end-of-turn discard because you thought you had six cards in hand and not seven. Or is that just me?

This order will also benefit Cardassian deck builders, as they will no longer have to worry about the ability on Dukat, Military Advisor. Simply adding Optimism to their deck means that they can utilize the superior offensive ability on Dukat, Liberator and Protector instead. They can then draw through as much of their deck as they would like using cards like Cardassian Protectorate, For All Our Sons and Seal the Temple’s Door.

Order - Shuffle your dilemma pile.

Once again, you may look at this order and think that it isn't very impressive. Now, just think about how someone tampering with your dilemma pile will usually do so for several turns before they make an attempt. Using Optimism, you can just shuffle your dilemma pile - every turn if need be - and limit the advantage your opponent is getting from Tampering With Time. Or, you could hide your opponent's copy of Tampering With Time under your shoe, and force them to face dilemmas like a regular player. The choice is yours, but the second option - while immensely satisfying - would probably be frowned upon.

This order also gives you a chance to shuffle your dilemma pile when you know that a particular dilemma is currently sitting near the bottom. If your opponent fails to overcome a dilemma like Unknown Microorganism on one turn, you could then shuffle your dilemma pile on your turn, and hope that you draw Unknown Microorganism again on your opponent's next turn. You could even shuffle your dilemma pile for the fun of it. That might confuse your opponent, and give you a small psychological advantage.

Order - Discard a card from hand that has the same title as a unique card you command to draw a card.

The last of the three "unimpressive" ideas will be of great use to any player whose deck relies on one particular card for it to work. Whether it is A Sight for Sore Eyes, Alexander Rozhenko, K'mtar, or U.S.S. Defiant, Commandeered Warship, players can now stock three copies of important unique cards in their deck without worry. Optimism simply means that players can discard these unneeded duplicate cards and draw the card they would have drawn if that superfluous copy wasn't in the deck in the first place.

So there you have it. Three ideas that didn't work by themselves, combined into one great card, usable in many different situations.