Mot's Useless Card Review #7: Tarchannen Study

So why is this mission so difficult? All you need is a ship with a Holodeck (that's any Fed ship you're likely to play with), a piece of equipment, and a pair of ENGINEERS, or one of the four - count 'em FOUR - Federation Super ENGINEERs.

But there's that part about the dual-icon. What's this mean? It counts as both a planet AND a space mission. To attempt it you must have an Away Team on the surface AND a ship in orbit. And your opponent can seed both space AND planet dilemmas here. Basically, you're fully exposed to everything they packed in their seed deck. A little bravery is called for here, because Tarchanen Study is the first of what will undoubtedly be several dual-icon missions. Why would Decipher create the card type for a single card?

The trick to completing this mission is to turn your disadvantage into an advantage. No, I don't mean you should bring Riva along . . . although if you happen to have him . . . ;-) Who you should bring is Ajur, or her hunting partner Boratus. Before attempting the dreaded mission, send down either Vorgon with any personnel with Archaeology (a certain bald-headed captain comes to mind ;-) ) and destroy all but three of your opponent's seed cards. This will probably be several cards, because your opponent is likely to stick many of their best dilemmas here just to teach you a lesson for playing this "impossible" mission. In fact, if you are playing an all planet deck, then your opponent will probably seed EVERY space dilemma they have at this mission (or vice versa), and you can get rid of nearly all of them in one swift stroke!

But wait, there's more! After knocking away all but three dilemmas, and getting your ship's compliment and Away Team into position, you've got another trick up your sleeve: Senior Staff Meeting. Since dual-icon missions ALSO count as space locations, all you have to do is have the appropriate classifications on the ship. (Bring along a few double-classification people like Data (Prem), Dr. Reyga, Vekor, or Katherine Pulaski, and this shouldn't take more than three people.)

So now, you are tackling the dreaded mission and facing a mere two dilemmas. This is no more - maybe even LESS - than you'd normally face in a mission attempt! And remember that if you encounter a planet/space dilemma, your Team on the surface can pool their skills with your Team on the ship to solve it! That means Barclay’s Protomorphosis Disease, Shaka When the Walls Fell, and several other nasty cards lose a bit of their bite. It'll take a lot of luck on your opponent's part to stop you, in fact. You've mixed up the carefully planned order of their seeding when you randomly selected with Ajur or Boratus, and it may be that in fact there is now but one space dilemma, and one planet dilemma left. No coorination, no one-two punch.

That's so easy, it's a shame you can't seed an artifact there. (Unless you want to risk destroying it . . .)