Mot's Useless Card Review #33: Kova Tholl

Not the easiest card to use, admittedly, but there are a lot of good reasons why you would want to. For example, Kova Tholl should be a part of every Colony deck. As a CIVILIAN, he scores the double points each turn he is at your Colony, but you also enjoy the benefit of Colony protection he provides. Opponents will think twice before risking the death of Kova Tholl at the Colony, and unless it looks like you are going to walk away with victory unless stopped, most opponents will leave you alone to focus instead on scoring points of their own.

Kova Tholl can be a mild deterrent against armada and Naiskos attack decks. Granted, an opponent bent on destruction is not likely to let 10 points for Kova Tholl stop them from killing your crew, but nevertheless, such decks generally have a difficult time scoring points - if you can force your opponent to the disadvantage when they attack you, you may still win by drawing your deck out, even after they destroy you. Think of the 35 point advantage you'll have over your opponent if they destroy the ship or outpost carrying Kova Tholl and the Mona Lisa! That's one entire mission they must complete to catch up.

Then there are a few ways to be less passive about your passive resistance. Load Kova Tholl all alone onto a Zibalian Transport and fly him off down the spaceline. Your opponent will never bite such an obviously baited hook, but they don't have to. Pop a Borg Ship from your outpost, and let it go kill off the hapless Kova Tholl. Try it in a Kurlan Naiskos Borg Attack Deck, perhaps... let the Borg escape long enough to finish off Kova Tholl before you destroy them. 10 points for Kova plus 2 Borg Ships equals victory. Or how about Incoming Message: Attack Authorization? Play on your own Federation ship to allow them to attack your own Kova Tholl. Sure, it's three cards for 10 points, but so is that Samuel Clemens/Devidian Door/Q’s Tent people seem to play quite frequently - and Kova isn't limited to once per game.

In fact, Decipher had better build a drawback into the Clone Machine when it's finally printed. Otherwise, will anyone bother to build another kind of deck besides 10 Kova Tholls on a Yridian Shuttle? :-)