Being a look back at cards from the Star Trek CCG, and what I thought of them back when they were fresh and new... in EPISODE order. Six cards came out of The Schizoid Man, so we'll be here a while...
PICTURE: Yawn. Well, what did we expect for a card that only shows ionization? It's a pretty invisible phenomenon. OR if you believe the card, ions are sorta purple. A dull old 1.5.
LORE: Yawn. A quick concise description of the phenomenon and justification for its game text. It's all there, but it's no Shakespeare - a 2.5.
TREK SENSE: As the lore says, ionization in the atmosphere interferes with transporter beams. In effect, the transporter chief is trying like mad to get locks on the away team members, but is having a slow go of it. It's too bad Transporter Skill doesn't speed you up like it initially used to. That made a lot more sense and wasn't overpowered, in my opinion, but that's not this card's fault. One question though: Can atmospheric ionization just spring up all of a sudden? Cuz it's not seeded on a planet (except one)? I guess it can... an elegantly simple 3.8.
STOCKABILITY: While Transporter Skill lost its special ability with an errata, the game gave us more and more ways to land a ship, so anti-beaming cards aren't that powerful anymore (not to mention Pattern Enhancers). Not that Atmospheric Ionization ever was! While it can slow down an Away Team's assembling on a planet surface, or its coming back to the ship, that's all it really does. It won't affect redshirting, nor can it force an opponent to redshirt (so as to hit an anti-redshirt dilemma or Thine Own Self) since 3 personnel is over that limit. It won't affect Borg scouting either. You can use it as a deterrent on missions you'd rather your opponent not go for, including your own if you've got Pattern Enhancers in play to protect you. In any case, your precious card play could be used for more important things. Botanical Research lets you seed it, so I'd expect to see more of the card, but mostly in the Starter Deck II environment. How's 2.3 sound?
TOTAL: 10.1 (50.5%) Some good points, but the card basically gets lost in the fog.
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