Wesley's STCCG card of the day #125

Hi, folks,

what was that number again ? 125 ?
[Yep.]
Does that really mean this is my 100th card of the day (after Habib's 25) ?
[Guess so.]
And probably you expect something special again.
[Nice Guess]
Great. I hate when this happens.
[Don't start getting sarcastic]
People get soo used to getting bonuses now and then.
[Oooh, PLEASE]
Well, then, persuaded. Two cards?
[Hey, Wes, we had that in #40, so it's old hat.]
Three cards ?
[Don't you remember the incoming messages ?]
Four cards ?
[Sounds Okay to me, but I hope it's not the espionages.]
Don't worry, I've mentioned these in #75 as boring.
[(blush)]
[So what else ?]
Well, how about:

SCAN (c)

FULL PLANET SCAN (u)

LIFEFORM SCAN (u)

LONG-RANGE SCAN (c)

Interrupts.
Glance at the cards located under one space mission / located under one planet mission / in your opponent's hand / aboard any ship for twenty (ten) seconds.
"Sensor instruments can detect life signs and molecular signatures at a distance with accuracy."
"Sensor instruments can make detailed scans of a planet surface and atmosphere."
"A special form of sensor scan capable of detecting life-forms on planets or in space."
"Detects ships and phenomena at interstellar distances using ship sensors."
Yuck. So much text. Still, four cards, one purpose. Investigation. Of these four, the Long-Range scan is definitely the weakest. Checking cards on a ship serves as little more than a brain aide unless your opponent is doing lots of crew transfers. The other three however fall into the "avoid nasty surpri- ses" section. Nasty surprises like an Armus, a Nagilum or a Kevin Uxbridge.

How to profit from these:

1) In small crew decks, these can help finding the locations at which you can safely attempt missions. Also, you can regrow them at interrupt speed (Palor), which means you don't really need more than two of each. If you're playing all planet or all space, even better.

2) If in a hurry and you cannot wait for a given crewmember, sneak peek before risking something.

3) Look at opponent's hand before playing some critical event. Note that you can duplicate the effects of these cards. An Alien Probe helps you as much as a Lifeform scan and redshirting is an obvious way of "Scanning" locations. However, you can use Life-Form Scan + Jaglom Shrek as an Alien Probe that only exposes your opponent's hand!

IMHO, Full planet scan is the best of the four, as you can also find out where your opponent has hidden a crucial artifact.

What I do not understand is the rarity distribution. For my taste, the two mission scanners should have the same rarity (probably uncommon) and the two hand/ship scans should be the same rarity (common?). This might have been a SNAFU from Decipher's side (swapped two cards on the sheets) or maybe it has been done on purpose. Don't really know.

Favorite combo(s):
And now for a big rating table:

Ratings for : the * SCAN cards 

                        SCAN     PLANET   LIFEFORM LONG-RANGE
Wesley's rating:        4.5      6.0      4.0      1.0
Cole's rating:          7.0      7.0      5.0      5.0
Lore's rating:          7.5      7.6      6.7      7.2
Owen's rating:          6.5      5.5      ---      1.2
Ian's rating:           5.0      5.0      3.0      3.0
Jack's rating:          5.9      7.0      4.3      5.0
Jason's rating:         7.5      7.5      5.5      5.5
-------------------------------------------------------
AVERAGE RATING:         6.3      6.5      4.7      4.0
Please direct all email concerning card of the day to:
blohmer@pips11.informatik.uni-mannheim.de

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LLAP,

Wesley Crusher, the new STCCG Lord

"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"