DECIPHER.com > Star Trek > Expansions > Fractured Time

Out of Options

by Michael van Breemen

This one cost Romulan-emphasized, three decay event shows what kind of manipulators the Romulans are evolving into. This card interferes with the mission attempts of your opponent, allowing your Romulans to remove any card of your choice from their hand in their mission attempt before they face the first dilemma. The card you take away goes on your Out of Options, staying there until the event is destroyed, which is when the card goes back to your opponent's hand.

One of the more obvious uses for this card is the following combo:

Opponent's "cheater" cards + Out of Options: Not as likely to happen now. No more Escape to avoid dying to a Whispers in the Dark, no more Comfort Women or We are Klingon to get you over the hump in terms of attributes, no more The Promise or Shady Resources to gain skills you didn't have or even Stricken Dumb to get around being stopped. This also has the added effect of really annoying both Aamin Marritza, Honorable Patriot and Elim Garak, Agent of the Obsidian Order as well, taking away their key cards when needed.

Did we mention that this is a non-unique event? There's nothing stopping your opponent from stocking several of these in play and then filling each up to two, denying you six cards out of your hand before they have to start coming back to you. Just another way that the Romulans can overcome a slow start before kicking themselves into gear with solving their missions. Still, you could be more difficult...

Toreth, Cautious Commander + Out of Options: She'll remove a card from your hand to be discarded whenever she uses a skill to complete a mission or you'll remove a card with Out of Options whenever they attempt a mission. Not exactly a win-win situation here.

August 26, 2004