Sunday, January 4, 2015

A Set That Hedged Its Bets: The Star Trek Genesis Collection!


The Good: Limited quantity, Some cool characters, All foil
The Bad: Inconsistent composition, Not limited enough
The Basics: With twenty-seven foil cards, the Star Trek Genesis Collection had the potential to be awesome, but was diluted by elements that had nothing to do with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.


As Decipher was struggling in the early 2000s with financial issues and a reconstruction of the company that had built itself on the strength of its Star Trek and Star Wars gaming products, they tried to raise capital fast. Rather than coming up with some full new sets, they released a few limited edition sets. For Star Trek, they released The Genesis Collection, an all-foil limited edition set that the company sold directly. Unfortunately for fans who were either collectors or players, The Genesis Collection is an unfortunately erratic set. Instead of committing to its premise, which one might assume had to do with Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan - or even the original Star Trek films – The Genesis Collection is all over the place.

While the Genesis Collection is compatible with both the first and second edition of the Star Trek CCG , it acts only as an accent piece to established decks. Because there are random characters, like Kira Nerys (Bajoran) and Jasad (Cardassian) and Dilemmas that have to do with Benjamin Sisko’s journey as the Emissary, there is no sense of cohesion to the set.

Basics/Set Composition


The Genesis Collection was one of the last expansions from Decipher, Inc. and it was one that straddled the Second and First Edition formats, though it looks like a Second Edition set. Focusing, loosely, on the characters, events and scenarios of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan and some of the other Star Trek movies, this twenty-seven card limited edition all foil set was initially released directly from the manufacturer exclusively to the U.S. marketplace. Rapidly gobbled up through the secondary market by overseas players and collectors, the twenty-seven card set was oft-delayed by the troubled manufacturer.

With twenty-seven cards, the Genesis Collection set is small and scattered. Each pack has the same twenty-seven cards (one each) and is numbered as if it were a full set. The numbers for the set make it the 11th Second Edition set. The set is comprised entirely of foil cards, which adds some additional inherent value to the set.

The set is broken down with twenty-seven premium cards thus: 7 Dilemma (cards that form the objective challenges for the game, like encountering a Subterranean Barrier), 5 Events (cards depicting long-standing challenges within the game, like a No-Win Scenario), 1 Interrupt (which make for fast turns in the game, like having to scream out “Khannnnn!”), 1 Mission (cards that provide the “board” and points for the game, in this case – predictably – The Genesis Planet), 11 Personnel (1 Bajoran, 1 Cardassian, 5 Federation, 1 Klingon, and 3 Non-Aligned), and 2 Ships (1 Borg, 1 Federation).

Playability

The Genesis Collection introduced no new card types or scenarios to the game. In the First Edition, there were cards that mimicked all of the best cards in the Genesis Collection. The Genesis Collection serves to reintroduce the key film moments from some of the First Edition into the Second Edition. With only 27 cards, though, the Genesis Collection is not playable on its own. It is very much an accent piece for collectors, as opposed to a playable deck or even a full enhancement to Second Edition players.

Rule Changes

This little set came with no rulebook or official rule changes. Those who continue to play have found errors on eleven of the cards, which have been fixed on the virtual decks that players still produce and play. As a result, this seems rather impractical, and uncomplicated, for play.

Highlights

Fans of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan would be hard-pressed to find a better card in the Genesis Collection than the Khan Noonien Singh card. Khan is a Non-Aligned Personnel card and a powerful one at that. In addition to being smart and strong, when he is played, he reduces the opponent’s attributes. Gracing fans with a beautiful image of Ricardo Montalban, the Khan Noonien Singh card is the best of the set.

Collectibility

Players will find the Genesis Collection to be eminently problematic to play with as far as the game mechanic goes. Collectors might like how limited the set is, but it is incredibly unsatisfying to look at the set when it’s in binder pages. The set looks terrible when displayed because it has no thematic cohesion, despite the cool foil nature of the set. Fortunately, after the much delayed first printing, the second (more common) printing was released and the sets are not so hard to come by as to make them impossible to find, though this certainly was not an overproduced or overprinted set. Instead, this seems to have struck the right balance as it is easy to collect - as it is all in one place - but not so common as to make it worthless.

The Genesis Collection has hovered right around its original release price, not appreciating in value largely because soon after it was (finally) released, Decipher went bust and the player base shrank dramatically.

Overview

The Genesis Collection is an ideal set to cherry pick from. Arguably one of the best collections to get singles from, the set might not hold together thematically, but it has some cool and powerful cards to play and they do look good. That makes it worth it more for players than collectors, so it is not entirely worthless.

The Genesis Collection was released between Captain’s Log (reviewed here!) and These Are The Voyages . (reviewed here!)

This set culls images from a number of Star Trek sources, but mostly Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, reviewed here!

This is a set of cards I proudly sell in my online store! Check out my current inventory at: Genesis Collection CCG Inventory!

5.5/10

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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