CE alien survey #25: REINCARNATOR

First appearance: Eon Expansion #3

Plain-English power: After you lose any ships, drop your old power and get a new one.

Loved by: Cosmic fans who thrive on chaos and love to innovate.

Loathed by: Long-range strategy types. Insect and Plant should be wary of this alien power.

Three ways to win as Reincarnator:

• A cardinal rule of Cosmic strategy is that your alien power is just a resource like any other: ships, cards, etc. Players get attached to their powers and often make irrational decisions because they're more focused on keeping their power rather than getting to 5 external colonies. You have no such sentimental attachment. You know that your current power is just a tool to get you to 5. Therefore, you are almost always going to want "combat" powers that get the challenge totals in your favor, such as Virus, Anti-Matter, Loser, or Pacifist. Lose until you get one, and then hold on to it.
• You don't have time to mess around with indirect or subtle powers like Shadow, Gambler, Void, Hate, or Barbarian. If you get one of those, lose it — either throw a challenge as main player, or, better yet, ally with one ship with someone who's probably going to lose and is calling desperately for allies. As main player, Negotiates are your ticket to a new incarnation; do not despise them, but conserve them and use them wisely.
• If you get a Cosmic Zap in your hand, keep it to use on youself ("self-zapulation"). Like Human, zapping yourself at the right moment can be key to the game. Unlike Human, you'll use it right after you lose a challenge and your current incarnation is Pacifist, Loser, or some other powerhouse. Your Cosmic Zap is for you, not others.

Three ways to win against Reincarnator:

• If the Reincarnator player is not playing to get or hold a combat power, don't worry about his power. He's not using it. Just don't let him hold a combat power.
• If he's playing strategically, then be very careful about alliances. Generally, you shouldn't do it if he doesn't have a combat power.
• Also, if he's playing strategically, then you want to consider ganging up with the other players to remove his power by kicking him off his home planets. A smart Reincarnator is essentially playing with TWO powers.

At CE Online? Yes.

Anything else? The Wild Reincarnator is a crazy Flare, and most Cosmic. The game practically spirals into chaos as players reincarnate!

— Submitted by Rob Burns