almost forgot one card category in QC. But they're there albeit quite scarce (they probably saved a lot of them for Fajo): Artifacts !
Let's first take a naive look at the card and what you can use it for. If your opponent's crew is just sitting at a planet location, you can send them packing to the wrong end of the spaceline and thus cost your opponent quite a few turns to get them back into a somewhat more interesting area of space. Works even better if that opponent was a clever guy like a certain Wesley who protected himself against an untimely Alien Parasites by moving his ship one space away from the mission location before declaring the attempt.
Of course the same thing works in the other direction, too. Been Cytherian'ed, Love Interested or Bladed by a nasty opponent? Just move the planet and your crew back to a more civilized area of space. (With Cytherians, you actually have more than just the "move back" option. If you have a ship at a planet, you can get it to its target in just one move and if the planet was your opponent's mission, even better. If it only weren't for that secret limitation...)
The next use is very simple: Get back your outpost from the far reaches after a Q hit your crew.
More? Sure. There are a few things on the spaceline that move very predictably. Borg Ships and Sheliak for example. How unpleasant for your opponent should his key ship or crew suddenly pop out of a major dimensional shift just to be blasted into nothingness by a space nasty... Only that here, that d*rn limitation strikes again. [WHAT LIMITATION? GET TO THE POINT! OR I'LL MAKE YOU GET THE POINT!] (I hate these people...)
Okay, the limitation. One word in the card text. "Immediately". You can't leisurely solve a mission, put the blade in your hand and play it later. Nope, you will have to use the effect at the very point of time you complete the mission. Which means that timing will be very difficult for the better uses like sending an unprepared Colony exploitation team into the vicinity of the Sheliak or getting your just-Cytherianed ship to the target in one microsecond.
And rescue missions using the blade will also be hampered by the fact that you can't stock the blade until you need it. In most cases when you'd be willing to use an Artifact to rescue a crew it's a pretty good crew. Which means you need the lost people for mission-solving. So how the heck are you to get the blade when you really need it.
Only really sensible variant: In Q's Tent together with a Q's Planet. Just get them early, solve the Planet (if your opponent has not put any planet Dilemmas into his tent) and your opponent will find his outpost in the worst possible position. If you're lucky, this combo can be done on 2nd turn (You need a Q's Tent, a unique personnel and a small ship in the first 8 cards).
Wesley's rating: 5.6 Cole's rating: 5.5 Data's rating: 9.7 Drew's rating: 7.9 Gowron's rating: --- Hal's rating: 6.7 Jack's rating: 6.9 Mot's rating: 5.75 Nanite's rating: 8.5 Nog's rating: 7.0 Nouwa's rating: 5.0 Picarde's rating: 7.0 Q's rating: 8.5 Ranger's rating: 9.0 Rothspar's rating: 7.0 Tebok's rating: 3.0 Tony's rating: 7.0 ---------------------- AVERAGE RATING: 6.9
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Wesley Crusher
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"A couple of lightyears can't keep good friends apart"