Mot's Useless Card Review #62: Emergency Transporter Armbands

This is one card that deserves to see a lot more action than it has in the past. It always has been able to help your crew escape from a coming Firestorm. (With a number of the best Fajo Collection personnel sorely lacking in the INTEGRITY department, you might just need it!) It can also nullify Quantum Singularity Lifeforms, and with so many players now teaming that dilemma up with Scout Encounter and the Scout Vessel, you should be thinking of ways to get out of it.

But how about battles against the Borg? When the Borg come calling for their Counterpart, you'd better run and hide. What better place than on their ship? Many Borg players send over drones (and lots of them) in a bid for a counterpart, leaving their Queen undefended on the ship. If you use the Armbands to escape, your Counterpart will not only escape alive and unassimilated, but you'll be able to initiate a battle on your turn to kill the Queen. An Alas, Poor Queen will send your Borg opponent back to square one.

The Armbands don't have to work against the Borg. They can work for them just as well. When using Assimilate Counterpart, the targeted personnel will be brought back to your ship. All those other Borg involved in the battle will be stopped and vulnerable, however. Use the Armbands to pull them all back to your own ship at the start of your opponent's turn (once they're unstopped again). With your full force in one place, your opponent probably won't chase after you - but if they do, you can retaliate by destroying their ship.

The Armbands are even more valuable when it comes to scouting planets. Normally, you can send down only one Borg scout at a time - and that scout will be vulnerable to a number of dilemmas like El-Adrel Creature, Chalnoth and Nausicaans that will kill the scout. With the Armbands, you can involve everyone in the scouting efforts, beaming them all down before scouting begins. You won't have to waste a turn waiting to Adapt to Alien Parasites. Even better, with a Genetronic Replicator in place, that larger Borg Team is virtually unstoppable, and will fly through nearly any dilemma.

To be clear - the Armbands may not be played to beam stopped personnel. But with so many other great ways to use them, does it matter?