Mot's Useless Card Review #70: Klingon Painstik

It used to be that personnel who were killed generally stayed dead. But of course, that isn't very faithful to the Star Trek universe, and the game is evolving to reflect that. While Res-Q has always enabled you to return a personnel (or any other card) from the discard pile, and some strategies (like Kova Tholl or Konmel/Korris massacre with K'Nera) demand you play multiples of a certain unique personnel, it wasn't until First Contact came along that personnel began to regularly spring back from the dead.

Regenerate has had a dramatic impact on game play. Being able to shuffle your discard pile into your deck is a very powerful ability, even if it means having a few dilemmas end up in your draw deck in the process. Players are not generally as worried about losing personnel any more, even entire ships of personnel, expecting that in a pinch, they can Regenerate their decks later. Anti-Time Anomalies have become a staple strategy, many players regularly wiping the spaceline clean every so often and Regenerating later.

Enter the Painstik. With this Interrupt, you can make sure that dead personnel stay dead. What's more, this does not place the target personnel out-of-play; if the victim does Regenerate their deck, they may still draw that personnel card, and they won't be able to play it.

One footnote. Don't overlook the Painstik's ability to nullify your Arbiter of Succession. If you are playing Klingon and not using the Arbiter of Succession, you should repair that oversight immediately. It's a free 10 points - just have one of your Klingons kill another. If you do this in the early game, there is a risk that you might later lose those points any number of ways. So long as you are considering stocking Painstik for its other use, don't overlook this defensive ability.

Not to mention that if they ever make a Rectyne monopod card, you could play Painstik to make it jump 5 meters... well, maybe not...