Sealed with a Kick

Sealed with a Kick is Christopher Guilmet's feature on Decipher's Official Tournament Sealed Decks in The Duelist #28 (August 1998, page 71). It covers the Star Wars CCG and Star Trek CCG sealed products.

The Duelist #28, August 1998, page 71.

Sealed with a Kick
Official Sealed Decks Invigorate Decipher's Tournament Scene by Christopher Guilmet

The intergalactic printing press has been running overtime at Decipher. In addition to the recently released Star Wars: Jabba's Palace expansion [see page 74], new Official Tournament Sealed Decks have been introduced for both the Star Wars CCG and the Star Trek CCG. These sealed decks are similar in design—both contain five boosters and a pack of fixed cards designed to help players construct effective sealed decks. First stop, the 24th Century....

The Sky's the Limit

Decipher definitely had simplification in mind while designing the new Star Trek CCG: Official Tournament Sealed Deck. To participate in a sealed-deck tournament in the past, a player had to bring commons from home, a Warp Pack, a starter, and a booster. The new sealed-deck box now contains all the cards needed to build a successful deck. As an added improvement, Decipher replaces the starter pack and a booster with five boosters—this gives each player five rares rather than three. My playtesting partner could barely control himself when he unwrapped the Future Enterprise. He couldn't use it (one Alternate Universe booster just doesn't pack enough AU-icon personnel), but it was mighty cool to see it decloak off the starboard bow.

If the Star Trek CCG: Sealed Deck relied only on boosters it wouldn't warrant a review, but the box includes 20 cards that both prevent the abuse of game-breaking cards and enrich the commons in the boosters. The most useful of these is Treaty: Federation/Romulan/Klingon, which allows free use of every ship and personnel card found in the box. The down side is that an opponent's missions may not be attempted, nor can there be any side decks in play. While this isn't an issue for the sealed-deck format, I doubt the card will appear in standard games.

A Treaty card is so important to sealed decks that there's an objective to ensure it enters play immediately. Open Diplomatic Relations lets you seed any one Treaty during the doorway phase. No more waiting for a Treaty to appear; get it out now and start playing a unified Alpha Quadrant. If the Treaty is nullified, discard the objective and "exchange" (discard) two cards from your hand for any Treaty in your discard pile. It's a red neon sign reading treaties are very important.

Another equalizer is the Spacedoor. This two-sided, hard-to-conceal doorway card plays "open" on an Outpost and lets you either download a universal ship or nullify a Static Warp Bubble if you have an empty ship in play. Using the Spacedoor "closes" it, flipping the card over. While closed, your opponent's Red Alert affects your outpost. Its only drawback is its expense—one seed slot to play, a card play to use, and a card loss to reopen.

There are three planet and three space missions—all are universal and most have fairly low point value. There is a good spread of common and uncommon skills scattered among the

Star Wars and Star Trek Official Tournament Sealed Decks
Decipher, Inc.
Norfolk, VA
FORMAT
Star Wars: Sealed deck includes 4 Premiere Unlimited boosters, 1 New Hope booster, and 18 fixed cards (9 dark, 9 light).
Star Trek: Sealed deck includes 4 Premiere Unlimited boosters, 1 Alternate Universe booster, and 20 fixed cards.
DESIGN Decipher Design Team
ART DIRECTION Decipher Art Team
CONTACT Decipher, Inc. (757) 623-3600 www.decipher.com

See also

• Magazines · Media · The Duelist · Official Tournament Sealed Deck
• Jabba's Palace Limited · Decipher plays the palace · Christopher Guilmet

External links

• The Duelist #28, Internet Archive (Wizards of the Coast, August 1998)