CrazyGamer

Precedence

• Released August 1999 196 cards in set
• IDENTIFIER: Set name at card bottom
• Starter decks contain 60 cards, counter sheet, and revised rulebook
• Starter displays contain 6 starters
• Booster packs contain 8 cards; booster displays contain 24 boosters, checklist, and promo card Psi Corps introduces the Psi Corps faction, an alternate faction for the Humans with Alfred Bester as the ambassador. In addition, there are several cards that relate to psi, including neutral telepaths and a host of new psi conflicts.

This set’s impact is minimal unless you play a heavy psi deck or the Psi Corps faction. Because psi is unbalanced between the races, the new psi conflicts keep the supporting nature of the older ones. Only one conflict encourages a deck that does nothing but psi and it takes too long to win with. The idea of Psi Corps fighting against neutral telepaths hasn’t worked out well, since the strategies involved never reached the strength of other, more straightforward strategies.
A change was made in autograph cards beginning with Psi Corps. Instead of there being one autograph card, Psi Corps has three: Alfred Bester, Byron, and Zathras. Psi Corps has also been one of the harder sets to get hold of. A smaller print run and the appeal of Bester (played by Walter Koenig) sold it faster than any previous set.
Set (196 cards) 90.00
Starter Display Box 25.00
Booster Display Box 35.00
Starter Deck 8.00
Booster Pack 2.00

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Precedence

• Released October 1998 397 cards in set
• IDENTIFIER: Set name at lower left
• Starter decks contain 60 cards; starter displays contain 6 starters
• Booster packs contain 10 cards; booster displays contain 20 boosters

The Great War is the largest Babylon 5 expansion. Part of the reason is that it introduced two new aspects to the game: a new, fifth, faction, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds; and opposition factions, factions of the same race as the Premier races but with different ambassadors and a few different rules and cards.
The Non-Aligned were originally far too powerful, beginning the game with two ambassadors in play instead of one. That rule has been changed, with the second ambassador moving to the opening hand. Moreover, the opposition concept turned out to be a bust. For instance, some of the multiple faction rules, used when there are two factions playing the same race, have become optional. Because the opposition starter is a non-playable starter filled with cards only applicable to situations involving multiple factions of the same race, it suffers from being mostly useless. The Non-Aligned starter, however, is necessary to play a Non-Aligned faction and has numerous valuable cards.
As for the rest of this huge set, The Great War is an improvement over The Shadows in terms of having many quality cards, including important commons and uncommons. One uncommon, We Are Not Impressed, single-handedly changed the metagame, eliminating power bonuses as long as it remained in play. As with Shadows, The Great War boosters have two rares each. A signed Prime Minister Mollari is the autographed card.

Set (397 cards) 80.00
Starter Display Box 15.00
Booster Display Box 15.00
Starter Deck 5.00
Booster Pack 1.50

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In Scrye 7.1 and 7.2 (Jan 00 and Mar 00), expert Wes Brown rated the best starting ambassadors to play for each race. The following are ranked from strongest to weakest based on their abilities, beneficial marks and game text:

MINBARI
1. Delenn
2. Neroon
3. Delenn (promoter)
4. Delenn (Chrysalis)
5: Delenn (Lennier)

CENTAURI

1. Londo Mollari
2. Londo Mollari (7 Influence)
3. Londo Mollari (Diplomat)
4. Lord Refa

HUMAN
1. Bester
2. Captain Sheridan (contingency)
3. William Morgan Clark
4. Jeffrey Sinclair
5. Captain Sheridan (extra card)

NARN
1. G’Kar
2. G’Kar (Extra Card)
3. Na’far

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Precedence

• Released April 1998 203 cards in set
• Booster packs contain 12 cards; booster displays contain 18 boosters and checklist

The Shadows, the first of several expansions for the Babylon 5 CCG, has as its primary theme the developing battle between the Vorlons and the Shadows. With Premier, allying one’s faction with one of the elder races was a benefit. With Shadows, it became the primary way to win.
Shadow players receive: Mr. Morden, more powerful replacement for Morden, the key character to existing Shadow decks; Lord Mollari, replacement for the Centauri ambassador who shores up the Centauri’s leadership weakness; and Shadow Fleets, fleets which can come back repeatedly. Vorlon players receive something far more important, however. For them, there is Vorlon Space, a location which builds Vorlon influence to match the locations that build Shadow influence.
Of the 203 cards, 100 are rares and 6 of the 53 uncommons are twice as rare as other uncommons. The Shadows has been very unfriendly to the customer. As a partial compensation, boosters contain two rares, a good thing as most of the tournament level cards are rare. For the serious player, The Shadows is a necessary evil to own as some of the cards are still among the best in the game. A signed version of Mr. Morden is the autographed card for this set.
Set (203 cards) 100.00
Starter Display Box 15.00
Booster Display Box 15.00
Booster Pack 2.00
This, th’at, and th’e ot’her
Yes, there really are a bunch of cards for Zathras in Babylon 5, with the apostrophes in different places. “Either way, it is confusing to be Zathras.”

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Precedence

• Released August 1998 380 cards in set

• IDENTIFIER: 1998 trademark; brighter and redder than Premier cards

• Booster packs contain 8 cards; booster displays contain 24 boosters and checklist

Deluxe, a reprint of the Premier set of the Babylon 5 CCG, became necessary when Premier boosters sold out. Precedence fixed many of the problems with cards abused In Premier, making Deluxe more important than just an opportunity for new players to get the base set cards.
Ten major card changes were made. Some of the changes had previously been errata to Premier cards. The most significant changes mainly involve agendas that proved too easy to abuse, such as Seizing Advantage, As It Was Meant To Be, and Maintain the Peace. One main character, John Sheridan, also got changed, making his new version one of the most sought after of the Deluxe cards.
Deluxe has some oddities for the Babylon 5 player/collector. Fixed cards, cards only found in starters from Premier, are one to a pack, making the Deluxe versions far harder to acquire than the Premier versions. Some cards, but only a few, have new artwork. Most of the cards look different from the Premier versions because of different color correction — Deluxe cards are brighter and redder. The “unique” cards from Premier were not reprinted. A mistake was made in half the As It Was Meant To Be cards, causing Precedence to pull the incorrect versions, leaving the correct version twice as rare. A signed Commander Ivanova, unsigned as an uncommon in The Shadows, is the autographed card.

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Set (446 cards) 150.00
Starter Display Box 25.00
Booster Display Box 25.00
Starter Deck 6.00
Booster Pack 2.00

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Precedence
• First set, Premier, released November 1997 446 cards in set
• Starter decks contain 60 cards, rulebook and playmat; displays contain 12 starters, 3 of each race
• Booster packs contain 8 cards; Booster displays contain 24 boosters
Designed by Ran Ackels, Edi Birsan, Paul W. Brown III, John Hart, David Hewitt, and John Myier
Babylon 5 is a game of galactic control based on the TV series of the same name, about a 23rd century space station acting as a United Nations for the Centauri, Humans, Minbari, Narns, and other less powerful races. Lurking are both the Vorlons and Shadows, the elder races of the Babylon 5 universe.
Though playable with less or more, the CCG is at its best as a four-player game. Each player plays one of the four primary races: Centauri, Humans, Minbari, or Narn. Victory is achieved by having 20 or more Power and more Power than any other player. Power is a total of Influence and Power bonuses. Influence is used to play cards, draw cards, and for power. Each faction starts the game with four influence, the race’s ambassador in play, and three cards of different types as an opening hand. (Yes, you get to choose your opening hand!) Starting at four and trying to get to 20 is not something that happens in the first few turns, preventing most opening-hand abuses.

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