by Evan "Heimlich" Lorentz, Game Designer at SOE Denver

When dealing with a character or adversary that only appears in a single episode of Stargate SG-1, it's often very easy to identify the one clear image that best captures him for the card. That was most definitely not the case for Khalek; many great moments were in contention for his card image.

There were many moments that depicted Khalek using his developing telekinetic powers, the best of these showing him stopping a hail of gunfire. Ultimately, it was decided the bullets wouldn't be recognizable at actual card size. There was the great, Hannibal Lecter-esque moment where Khalek first drops his act of pretending to be innocent and breaks out into full villainy. Unfortunately, this extreme close-up didn't offer much for the foil version of the card to key off of.

Ultimately, the image you now see was chosen because it showed the green laser beams behind his head -- which seemed like a prime choice for foily goodness. And then, ironically, the artist who created the foil treatment for Khalek chose not to foil them. The resulting treatment he created is actually a whole lot better, with fantastic tricks in the blue light playing on Khalek's face. Nevertheless, you could say that "the reason" for this image choice turned out not to matter in the final analysis.

Some players have said that Khalek's cost of 4 feels high, but he was really run through the playtest ringer, and we found that anything less made him far too good. Of course, that high cost pays off in a villain win, especially since Khalek can score easily at any of the four skills your opponent might choose to skip in his mission strategy.