Mot's Useless Card Review #47: Incoming Message: Attack Authorization

What does this have to do with Kurlan Naiskos? Consider this, currently the prime-cut, can't be beat Kurlan Naiskos crew for the Federation:
Spock (VIP, SCIENCE, Command)
Thomas Paris (CIVILIAN, SECURITY, AU)
Rachel Garrett (OFFICER, ENGINNER, AU)
Beverly Picard (OFFICER, MEDICAL, AU)

Four cards, and you've got your Future Enterprise staffed and ready for battle! The three AU icon personnel could be loaded onto a Cryosatellite and retrieved in a quick mission attempt (from Study Stellar Collision, or Study Plasma Streamer, perhaps, a snap for the right Federation personnel). Grab Spock from your Tent, and you're off to the races. You could go Borg Hunting in the Naiskos'ed monstrosity that is the Future Enterprise!

But unlike when the Klingons play Borg Hunter, you don't have the option to attack people as Federation. And that's where this week's "useless" cards come in.

As it so happens, Thomas Paris has Treachery (unless you convert it). With that Treachery, you may play Incoming Message: Attack Authorization on yourself (don't use your VIP to ignore it), and attack a pesky ship. You'll likely blindside your opponent. Even when your Future Enterprise has a Naiskos on it, your opponent may not fear flying away from the relative safety of their outpost shields, thinking you won't be able to initiate battle against them!

Also, the four personnel listed above only have a combined INTEGRITY of 31. So if you carelessly trip a Conundrum you "accidentally" seeded under one of your missions, you'll also be able to do battle against an enemy ship.

Apart from the ramifications of using these cards on yourself, don't count out the possibility of using them on your opponent. Incoming Message: AA might make a decent addition to your Q’s Tent. You could always choose Treachery as one of the skills to give your opponent when they hit Frame of Mind (if they don't have it on their own).

Conundrum will work against Romulans most of the time. A crew of 6 or 7 Romulans can still fall short of 40 INTEGRITY, unless they're the right Romulans. (The new Sisters of Duras, despite their many, many strengths, don't help you at all in this respect!) Sidetracking a warbird in a chase after one of your ships can be fun (especially if you are playing Klingon or Romulan and can keep all your ships cloaked and nearly impossible to target). After an Edo Probe, it can be a most unpleasant distraction indeed!

Like you, I enjoy all the hubbub over the new Fajo cards... but since we can't actually put them in our decks yet, don't hurry to abandon your old "useless" cards. ;-)