With all these new and more powerful dilemmas out there, players are
starting to rely on scans to get by these nasty dilemma combos that
arise. Who wouldn't? So, how can we protect our dilemmas from being
easily overcome? The way is easy. We use Beware of Q and a well built
Q-Continuum to thwart the scans.

Now that was the easy part and I know you are reading this article
thinking "This is advanced strategy?" Do not worry I am getting to the
part where I'll get your brains thinking about your dilemmas a bit more.
The way I see it, you need to get the Continuum to stick or otherwise
you are just using a little trick that you could of picked up in a card
extra [no, I'm not bashing card extras - *I* get plenty of my ideas from
card extras]. You want to make sure this trick sticks!

For starters we need to make sure that we can get the Q-Flash traded out
for the dilemma. So you need to have a Q-Flash in your hand or in your
Q's Tent. The easiest way is to stock your Q-Flash in your Q's Tent. But
we have to make sure that we can get it out of the tent. So, we will
stock an AU Door [or two] in our draw deck and seed an extra Space-Time
Portal [which we can use for so many things but in this case it will be
there to make sure we can download an AU Door if needed]. Now we can
keep our Q's Tent open so that when we want to do the swap, we are not
worried about it being blocked in any way.

Next we have to realize that if this trick works once, we want to use it
again. So, we need to be able to get another Q-Flash in hand or in our
Q's Tent. Since there is no way to get another Q-Flash in our Q's Tent,
we will have to get one in our hand. There are really only two reliable
ways to do this. I can hear the brains working and you probably have
this figured out but I'll explain anyways. First is to stock Q-Flashes
in our draw decks. We can use the Flashes to nullify cards from any
continuum that OUR away teams/crews may face and have the cards there in
case we need to do another swap. Of course these extra Q-Flashes in hand
can be used as fodder toward Ore Processing or opening Spacedoors or
Remodulation. The second way to get a Q-Flash into hand is to use the
Q-Flash from the tent again. To do that we need to 1) Ore Process it
[takes too long] 2) Regenerate it [could take too long] or 3) Palor Toff
or Res-Q it. Obviously, we want to Palor Toff it to save on a card play.
Palor Toffs in the draw deck can be used for many things and not just
the Q-Flash. If you are uncomfortable with having these cards in your
draw deck [because you plan on doing some probing] place them in your
tent. Now they are just a Q's Tent away. So the deck is ready to make
the trick work and work well … or is it?

We now need to decide which dilemmas to swap the flash out for. I know
what your immediate thought is: "Whichever dilemma my opponent is about
to overcome." You would be correct in thinking this too but lets add a
little bit to the mix. Let us try to get the most out of the dilemma
that we are swapping out. That is right [I can hear the brains working]
we will seed a lot of Lack of Preparations. Now if your opponent scans
your dilemmas they will probably have to figure out how to get buy the
rest of your dilemmas after the Lack of Preparation or get a crew/away
team together that can be thrown away to the dilemmas after the lack of
Preparation. Both options are good. But our trick is going to work
because we are getting two dilemmas for the price of one - the Lack of
Preperation and the Q-Flash.

If they amass the "super crew", you swap out the Lack of Preparation for
a Q-Flash and watch the chaos unfold as the super crew is weeded out by
your great Q-Continuum [which probably includes Penalty Boxes, Mandarin
Bailiffs, Fightin' Words, Hide and Seeks, Door-Net, Scottish Setter and
maybe Rhetorical Question] before what is left of the away team/crew
hits the rest of your dilemmas. If your opponent decides to get an
expendable away team/crew to take out the Lack of Preparation and fall
prey to the rest of your dilemmas you may be in a bit of trouble. Of
course by the time it takes to do this, it could be all you need to get
a turn or three ahead of your opponent and win - but let us put that
notion aside [things do not always work as planned]. I hear those brains
working again! Yep, you are correct the Fightin' Words and Rhetorical
Questions you put into your continuum can make a huge difference all of
the sudden. Fightin' Words affects all of your opponent's personnel with
more than two skills, not just the ones attempting the mission, and the
fact that the mission will probably not be solved this turn means that
the Rhetorical Question will take hold and expendable crews usually mean
expendable ships. Expendable ships, that unless you can get them back to
a facility, will not let you attempt the mission again.

Now this is not the only way to swap out the flash. I can think of
others such as going with a wall dilemma followed by a killer dilemma
with conditions [i.e. Flaxian Assassin, Beserk Changling, Unscientific
Method, and ECT] or a killer [ie. Yuta, Common Thief, Dal'Rok] and then
another wall or filter. You can now swap out the flash whenever you
like.

Here's the test for you: Figure out how to swap out a flash for Common
Thief + Yuta + Berserk Changeling

But don't just swap out the flash for the Berserk Changeling! Find a way
to make it evil and to make it stick!

I can already hear the brains working …
 

Sirna Kolrami
Your favorite Famed Strategist can be reached at strategema@hotmail.com