A few people have pointed out that this is usually worse on average than something like
Luminarch Aspirant, which is nice to see here because I think that card is fun in theory but snowballs too quickly in practice. I like it when they take the chance to "backfill" design space that already has very powerful options, because it gives people who aren't powermaxing the opportunity to play a cool effect class without needing to play something broken. In this case, a card between
Luminarch Aspirant and
Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is a cool thing to print!
These are all reasons why I really,
really like this card. I may even replace
Luminarch Aspirant, since that card is a bit too much of an engine for my liking, as seen in
17lands data for powered Cube. I am ok with snowballs at 2mv when you still have to work for it, but I think my preference is the
Deanna Troi, Psychic Council /
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower side of things. Besides the Aspirant,
Jacked Rabbit,
Ocelot Pride, and
Death-Greeter's Champion are the only "A-level" cards in this tier list I run, and I have very specific reasons for all of them and am generally comfortable with these as outliers when there's a lower density of them overall.
My biggest issue is that it doesn't feel particularly Troi-ish. The flavor of a lot of these cards is great, but there are just as many that feel woefully generic. As a
massive Star Trek fan, I'm a little disappointed, but if it means my Cube gets plenty of Star Trek, it's a fairly minor complaint.
Similarly,
Beverly Crusher, Ship's Doctor is a "fixed"
Agent Bishop. Again, not really sure about the flavor here, but I like a card like this that makes you work for the counters. It's not a big ask, but it's certainly better than "every turn starting NOW". I had been extremely hesitant to play Agent Bishop for how oppressive it can feel on the other side of the table despite my broad support of the +1/+1 counters theme. Again, looking at where I want to draw the line for power, Crusher is on the good side, whereas Agent Bishop is too close to
Ouroboroid, a card that undermines the +1/+1 counters theme by being so broadly powerful the synergy bit feels like an afterthought.
Similar card
Cosmogrand Zenith is in-and-out of my Cube, but I like the requirement of drawing an extra card each turn instead of playing a second spell for about a dozen reasons. The theme of the America-colored commander deck from Trek is drawing a second card each turn, which makes cards like
Honor a lot more appealing in addition to recent cards like
Bard, Heir of Girion,
Lyra, Tolarian Archangel,
Leader, Super-Genius, and
Sphinx of False Conclusions. Going to retool my Cube just slightly to support this strategy, as there are quite a few cards I'm eying in this space, not to mention the many cards from previous limited environments that were just waiting for this push like:
Other cards:
Hell yeah.
Ezri Dax, Newly Joined is exactly the kind of novel design that feels super Star Trek I've been waiting for. In a way, it's a variation on
Night Nurse, Healer of Heroes, a card that's over-performed for us. We've seen this kind of effect before, but not so cheaply, unrestricted, or flexible before, and it's been
almost good enough in the past. I believe this will get there. Obviously, better with things that cheat creatures into play like
Sneak Attack,
Flash, etc. or the MH2 elementals like
Solitude (and has some
sick combos for
Reveillark).
Brought Back was too mana-intensive,
Continue was extremely good but got stuck in hand too often (and I didn't jive with the flavor), and
Second Sunrise gave people the notion that a combo deck existed and had the downside of being symmetrical. Sure,
Continue has a way higher upside, but I think Ezri will more than justify a long-term spot in my Cube.
Julian Bashir, Frontier Doctor is another in a long line of creatures I've really wanted to work. I love repeatable reanimation of small dudes for White, and this feels like a fair version of the effect.
Bishop of Rebitrth was always too expensive,
Custodi Soulcaller maxed out at 1mv and had weird multiplayer text, and
Bereaved Survivor made you work way too hard for the pleasure.
Redemption Choir probably came closest of this variety, but the Coven ability was again too much work.
Serra Paragon and
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle are excellent cards, but I would be happier to have a 3mv version of these kinds of cards, and this is actually quite simple in how it works, and fuels itself a la
Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate. She's the best analogue to Bashir, and the difference between a mono-white version of the effect and a two-color one makes me feel comfortable with the difference in power, which is particularly notable since Alesha triggers off
any creature attacking.
I mentioned
Worf, Son of Mogh before, but getting a bigger beater and what amounts to a 2/2 is pretty interesting compared to something like
Mischievous Mystic. I think if I hadn't been so thoroughly convinced to run the more interesting design of Kira Nerys, this would be a serious contender for my Star Trek update, but I think if folks can stomach a bunch of red shirts running around, this is a great card for many a Cube.
Temporal Tribulation is a
Ghostly Flicker with a delayed return (mostly a benefit in my Cube) that has an expensive flashback. I love me some flashback, so I'm much more interested in this than I ever was with Ghostly Flicker, and the upside of hitting all permanents is no small upside.
Holo Engineer is neat. I've seen the comparisons to
Esika's Chariot and I think that's fair, and I don't really mind running both at a Cube of my size. If I had to pick one, honestly I'd pick this, since giving you the ability to upgrade your Foods and Treasures into illusions is a fun upside and the effect doesn't go away if someone blows up the Engineer. This feels like a proper 2026 version of
Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second, a card that didn't do much on her own, but was beloved by my players. I had been very tempted by
Draconic Visitor, but the artifact token limitation mixed with the "you're probably going to just kill them with the 5/5 dragon anyways" made the synergy potential feel less compelling, in addition to its inability to affect the board besides blocking on turn 1.
Tasha Yar, Out of Time is the lovechild of
Earthshaker Khenra and
Feldon, Ronom Excavator, and improves on both of her parents in the average scenario. Maybe more text than I'd prefer, but at least it's segmented enough to not feel like reading a novel. I love a creature you can cast from your graveyard at a low cost with all the discard shenanigans I have in red.
I like
Deliver from Chaos as the Orzhov equivalent of
Fractured Identity, and as one would expect, the Orzhov card is a little weaker than the Azorius but has meaningful upside. The instant-speed interaction here is key. I won't run this if it's my only 1/1 Borg generator, but since I do see at least 1-2 others worth serious consideration, I'll likely try this out. I'd rather my gold cards be indicative of the synergy decks the colors support, but if we're going to do something more generic/general, I like the power-level on them to feel vibrant like this.
With the minor saga subtheme I've got going in Gruul with Final Fantasy cards like
Rydia, Summoner of Mist (who is 90% in here for the Landfall ability but I won't turn down the saga upside and been reasonably satisfied with the recent test of
Terra, Magical Adept as well), this doesn't seem too bad, actually, but I only run 10 cards that are actually sagas on their front side. I think a three-colored card that indicates a small enchantress theme isn't a bad thing to have, but this is a little too Commander-pilled for me to do anything besides speculate for now and
maybe pick up a copy for my Cube-sized "on-deck binder".
None of the starships/station cards are that interesting to me outside of
Deep Space Nine. I wasn't really expecting that, but I will probably cut DS9 as well if it's the only card with the card type that is in my Cube by the end of the spoiler season.
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