by Rick DeMille (aka Darklighter)

Ok, Stellar Link isn’t that bad, except when it is. I have found Stellar Link to be the only Tech card that, when used, might turn on you. My therapist said I should write about it, so here I am.

I previously published the article, “Tech Support“, describing my initial thoughts about the Tech expansion and each of the individual Tech cards. I had mostly nice things to say about Stellar Link. Then Stellar Link turns around and stabs me in the back. I guess 2 Trade isn’t enough to secure its loyalty and affection…I digress.

When activated, Stellar Link lets you look at the top 2 cards of your deck, after which you must discard one of them. So if you’ve got 6 starters, Mothership, and a Blob Fighter in your draw pile, and those 2 Blob cards happen to be the top 2 cards of your draw pile, then if you use Stellar Link you will be forced to discard one of them. So mean.

You might point out that that’s an unlikely scenario, and that more likely you would have been able to discard a starter, increase that chances of drawing both blob cards together, and speed up your deck. To that I would say, “Does Stellar Link know it’s unlikely?” and “Whose side are you on anyway?”

But yes, Stellar Link has its value, but also its risk. So beware. Look at the odds before using it.

If you’re going to be top decking something on the same turn you’re going to use Stellar Link, you’ll generally want to use Stellar Link before top decking (unless you’re going to draw what you top decked before using Stellar Link). Depending on the odds, you typically want to draw after you use Stellar Link since Stellar Link lets you choose which of your top 2 cards you get to draw. Stellar Link is also helpful when you have no discard pile but have in hand one of those scrappers that can only scrap from discard pile, unless of course Stellar Link is feeling vindictive and makes you discard a blob fighter.

Either way, you’ve been warned of the risks. Don’t come crying to me when Stellar Link makes you discard your hope and dreams.

All situations described herein are only in my mind and any similarity to actual situations is purely coincidental, or at least that’s what Dr. Screecher told me last session.

No blob fighters were discarded in the making of this blog post.