I have good news for you ! Just for once, Decipher allowed me to preview a card from the next expansion. Right, a Fajo Collection card.
An Artifact. Well, what else did we have to expect. But finally we get a card that makes these Vulcans a little more usable. Really, except for the Vulcan Mindmeld, what did they have? None of them had that great skills.
Perhaps you might now say "What's the catch? You get just one skill instead of all of them and it's limited to four people...", but it's actually a lot better than Vulcan Mindmeld.
Reusability is the one factor. The Mindmeld Interrupt is used and gone while you can employ this one over and over again. Like a permanent mindmeld card.
Intrinsically even more important is the other difference between the two cards. You may not only select skills present but any skill, so if you need something really desperately this is the card to go for.
Let's just compare to another card that might come to mind: K'ChiQ. She can select a skill and change it at the start of each turn, here we can change any time during the turn or as Jason put it:
'The Lirpa is the ultimate Emergency K'ChiQ.'
So where would I want to use it? In rather any deck that is well suited for making sure that I can definitely overcome all Dilemmas at one mission. Q's Planet might always be an alternative for this strategy, but it relies on meeting an unprepared opponent to work.
Finding a regular mission suitable for seeding the Lirpa is not as easy, but you might want to consider Reunion (Spock) or Evacuation (Sarek).
Or of course you can wait for the one Fajo card that Tom hinted me to as allowing you to "introduce a totally new way of using Artifacts".
Or you might even fool your opponent to do the dirty work for you. Hide the Lirpa under a low-point triple affiliation mission and play the Charybdis. Then use Brain Drain to remove his Archaeology and snatch the Lirpa without any risk. Then get four Vulcans and a few Androids and run through everything he might throw your way. You'll however give your opponent some points with this strategy.
Lastly, this card makes for an excellent bluff. Keep an away team of defenceless, leader-lacking Vulcans on the planet. Just when your opponent attacks, get a Leadership and beat him up. Add some other Vulcan devices like a Stone of Gol for good measure.
Summary result: A card really worthy for today's review. REALLY !!!
(Sorry, due to the fact that I had to promise not do disclose this card to anyone before April 1, I was unable to collect any ratings)
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Wesley Crusher
Temporarily immortal STCCG Lord
"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"