Review of Sci-Fi Week: EVE The Second Genesis Exiled Starter Decks

EVE: The Second Genesis CCG

Recently, I was given a sneak peek at the first expansion of CCP's EVE collectable card game. For those of you that haven't heard, the EVE CCG is based on the popular EVE on-line multi-player computer game. This new expansion features 161 new cards that build on the game’s core set. Cards will be available in both booster packs as well as 4 different starter decks.

The goal of this review is to provide a first impression of the starter decks in addition to exploring how some of the new cards might affect game play.

Starter Display:

There are 4 new starters, one for each race, available in this release. With a MSRP of $7.99, these are price to sell. Retailers should be happy to know that a display box contains 2 of each starter for a total of 8 decks. All of which are balanced so they should sell in equal quantities.

Included in each starter you will find:

- 1 Rule Sheet

- 2 Punch-out ISK Token sheets for tracking income

- 50 Fixed Playing Cards including: 1 Home and 3 Outer Region cards

The rule sheet provides an update to the core rules provided in the first set, as well as an explanation of new card types. It is well written and clears up some of the areas that players may have been confused about with the original rules. Unfortunately, the sheet is made of thin paper and has very small print. It would have been nice if there was an actual rulebook in the starter instead of this flimsy sheet. Hopefully, CCP will provide an easy to read file to download one on their website (www.eve-ccg.com).

Once again the cards for the set are nicely designed. Most of the images are taken directly from the on-line version of the game. CCP has upgraded the rarity icons from the previous set. They are no longer transparent, and much easier to read. Finally, it’s important to note that not all of the cards in the starter are from The Exiled expansion. In a typical starter, you get about 2/3 Exiled cards, and 1/3 Core Set. Personally, I'm happy with the mix as the cards play well together.

The distribution of cards across all the starters is also very well planned. If you choose to buy all 4 decks, you'll receive:

- All 4 new home regions

- All 8 new outer regions

And on top of that, you get almost 100 new cards to play with giving you a great start on collecting the set.

The Cards:

The abilities and commands of the new cards also got updated. Here are a few things you will now find:

Race Affinity - In this set, more cards are playable by all races, but they don’t all get the same benefits. Many cards now have Race Affinity icons, which grant an extra benefit to a specific race. This change will help sealed and draft formats of play by making more cards usable by everyone.

Bounty - If this ship is destroyed, the controller of the last ship to hit it gains ISK equal to the bounty value.

Exile - When this ship is at an outer region, it gets bonuses to both attack and defense.

Sniping - If this command is active, the ship gets a bonus to attack and a minus to defense.

Tanking - The tanking command grants a bonus to the defense of a ship, and a minus to its attack.

Limited or not - Several locations are now only considered limited depending on where it is played. For example, if played in your home region, the card is limited, but when played to an outer region, it is not.

Changes to the Game:

Overall, I think the new cards will slow down the pace of play. All of the new bases have the same effect when upgraded. For just 3 ISK, you gain "Players cannot attack home regions unless they controlled at least two outer regions at the beginning of their turn". These regions will force player to consider a meta-game that requires interaction at the outer regions, which has not always been the case in the past.