Mot's Useless Card Review #66: Planet

Fear of Balancing Act has forced many players to substitute in this mission when a unique planet mission in their deck is duplicated by their opponent. They place the mission out there on the spaceline, with no intention of ever scoring it. Indeed, most decks aren't even capable of completing this mission.

But really, it's a very easy mission to complete. Take a look at the requirements. You can get a landed ship through use of a shuttlecraft and Engage Shuttle Operations. Both the shuttle and the event can be downloaded by Launch Portal - all of them cards that many players are stocking to counter the Patrol Neutral Zone strategy. And with the Launch Portal on top of your Engage Shuttle Operations, you don't have much to fear from Kevin Uxbridge.

Don't want to go through all that? Stock the Vulcan Lander instead. It can land on its own (even taking off and landing several times in the same turn with a few Plasmadyne Relays). Staffing it is easy enough. By now there are nearly a dozen Vulcans in the game, both Federation and Non-Aligned (even one Romulan). Also, Solkar can be downloaded directly to staff the Lander with a Ready Room Door.

That leaves your choice of Geology or Greed, and there are of course a great many personnel to choose from here, not the least of which would be Mission Specialists Inge Eiger and Dr. Farek, either of whom will net you 25 points for completing a Planet.

Many players see Planet, and they don't even seed dilemmas there - why should they? They've probably never seen anyone complete the mission. So consider a few minor modifications to your deck or Q’s Tent and show them better.