Continuum, Re-Qed

by Kim & Allen Gould (tribble@oanet.com)

Q-Flashes have often found their way into high-level decks – for one seed slot, you get to cause your opponent to suffer through multiple cards, some that irritate, some that devastate. (Kind of like Q himself, now that we think about it...) Anyhow, let's take a look at Q's latest additions to his bag of tricks.

Q's Fantasy Women is a way to cash in on your opponent's hard work. Take your pick of any male present (and it's opponent's choice, so take your time and look through that personnel stack!) and if they help solve the mission, you get five points. Dixon Hill will be a favored target for this card, as well as the people who are "named" on missions, such as Neelix for Liberation. Best of all, unlike Lemon-Aid, it doesn't require your opponent to have a twenty point lead.

Quandary, at first, may seem like you're doing them a favor – they get to revive a personnel, of their choice, from the discard pile to the crew or away team, for free. But there's a catch. You randomly select a personnel, and unless you pick the person they just revived, the new person is discarded (sorry, no safety for holograms), and they lose five points. There's a good chance that they'll be trading important mission solvers for expended redshirts. Perfect for large crews or away teams (c'mon, pick that one person out of ten), but even with a single redshirt, you've got a 50/50 chance.
 

Last of all, Ar-Q-ologist is a Q-icon dilemma, so you can seed it under a mission normally using Beware of Q. With interesting requirements, you'll trip up players who have tuned some of the lesser-used skills out of their decks – after all, this is the first dilemma requiring Archaeology. The effect, instead of being a penalty to the opponent, is a bonus for you – you'll get to move cards from your discard pile to the top of your draw deck. Perfect for probe rigging. While the number of cards you get to excavate is limited by the skill and special download icons on that crew's lowest INTEGRITY personnel, many of the lowest INTEGRITY personnel have several of these (4 for the Equinox Doctor, 6 for Luther Sloan, and 7 for Lore!). Useful as a followup to In the Pale Moonlight.

So, what to do with all of these? Try out this side deck, using the best of the new (and old) Q-icon cards.

The Gould Family Q-Flash:

Mandarin Bailiff x3
Penalty Box x2
Fightin' Words x2
Rhetorical Question
Hide and Seek
Ar-Q-ologist
Quandary x3
Q's Fantasy Women x3
Risky Business
Frigid
Door-Net
Q's Planet x1

This side deck is good if you've seeded a Flash under every mission. We've kept the size down to 20 cards so that an average sized crew or away team will hit most of the different cards. Cards that sit on table (especially the points-related ones) are included in multiple. Q's Planet is optional for players in the Delta Quadrant, and could be replaced by an additional Risky Business.

December 10, 2001