Submitted by Telak on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 22:00
(4) • Phlox, Sadistic PhysiologistStarfleet "If you're angry now, just wait." Characteristics: kill opponent's personnel, kill your own personnel, Card logging info: Logged by openCards team at Jan 1st, 2008. |  |
of Denobulan species.
Biology This Card-Review article was written by openCards user RedDwarf and was published first on "Decipher's Website (decipher.com)".
There are some non-unique personnel that seem to appear in every deck. When was the last time you faced a TNG Science deck that didn't contain Davies? How about a Cardassian deck without Goran? Or a Romulan deck without any of the 4 stooges? Being non-unique, your opponent can (and probably will) have three copies of these personnel in their deck. Killing one can be hard enough, but killing multiple copies is next to impossible unless you're playing a battle deck. Maquis players have recently been given Cascade Virus to help them combat the situation, and now Starfleet gets a tool. Well, to be more precise, Mirror Starfleet gets it.
As you'll have probably guessed from the card images revealed in Brad's Q&A on the message boards, Mirror Starfleet personnel all have abilities that require you to have no cards in your hand. As long as you can meet this condition, Phlox's order forces each of your opponents to kill one of their non-unique personnel every turn. Yes, you read that correctly: EVERY TURN! It turns out that Phlox is so good at killing non-unique personnel, that you will probably get to a stage in the game when your opponent does not have any non-unique personnel remaining in play.
Phlox's order isn't the only feature worth mentioning either. His eight skills will be useful when facing dilemmas as well as when completing missions. With Biology, Medical and Science, you'll have no trouble overcoming Unknown Microorganism. Two helpings of Exobiology mean that you have almost all the skills you need to overcome Tsiolkovsky Infection. If you encounter a Borg player trying to assimilate through their dilemma pile, then both Dangerous Standoff and Not Quite Domesticated Pets should be easily overcome. As for missions, if you use a Tricorder to help Phlox gain Geology, then he'll provide all the skills you will need to complete both Feldomite Rush and Survey New World. If you were to also include one of the three Mirror Starfleet Vulcans with Science, then you will have all the skills needed to complete the Genesis Planet. Three missions worth 100 points - that sounds like a deck idea to me!
