Amanda Rogers and Goddess of Empathy

        Most of these decks that do not play fair rely on interrupts. Amanda
Rogers and Goddess of Empathy are the best way to go for stopping
interrupts. With players stocking between 6-14 of these interrupts in
their decks you will need quite a few Amanda Rogers.  The downside of
Goddess of Empathy is that it “expires” too fast. This means you have to
get done what you need to get done [like gaining 100 points] before it
expires. This only works if you can run the board and your Goddess of
Empathy doesn’t get nullified and your opponent is playing with reaction
interrupts. Reaction interrupts are interrupts that only get played when
certain things happen like staffing a ship [Rogue Borg Mercenaries],
moving a ship [Wormholes], beaming somewhere [Barclay’s Transporter
Phobias], attempting a mission [Brain Drain] or drawing a card [Subspace
Schism].
        That is right Goddess of Empathy is not used much against Schism decks
but if you see that your next card is a card you need [like a ship]
playing the Goddess of Empathy is a great idea.
        But Goddess of Empathy doesn’t help against independent interrupts.
Independent interrupts are played when you least expect them or right
when they are drawn or needed. Examples of independent interrupts that
are abused are : Scan, Full Planet Scan, Orb Experience, Adapt : Negate
Obstruction and Palor Toff. The best way to fight these off is with
Amanda Rogers. Stopping someone from looking at your dilemmas or
returning Orbs to Bajor [when they are Cardassian or Klingon] or looking
at any card or adapting to your dilemmas or recycling other abusive
cards with Palor Toff [though Countermanda works great here] can mean
the difference between an easy win and fighting off potential abuses all
game.

Temporal Vortex

        Like Goddess of Empathy and Amanda Rogers Temporal Vortex is a great
weapon against some abuses. Is your opponent bolting up and down the
spaceline gathering points through Cytherians and Distortion Space/Time
Continuum? Slap down a Temporal Vortex and make them play fair for a
while. Temporal Vortex can also hide a Borg Ship dilemma or The Sheliak.
This is a big considering how many players rely on the Sheliak and the
Borg Ship dilemma to do a lot of damage to their opponents. It is also
another way back from a bad trip to the Montana Missile Complex.

Revolving Door

        Course you can close a Temporal Vortex with a Revolving Door but with
Revolving Door you can also close a Black Hole. Yep, Black Hole decks
are starting to show up more and more. Close Q’s Tents, close Space-Time
portals, close Transwarp Network Gateways.  You need multiple Revolving
Doors to do this well but the more you have the more potential abuses
you can stop.  Also, having Revolving Doors in your deck helps you get
rid of Revolving Doors that your opponent may have placed on your
doorways as one Revolving Door cancels out another Revolving Door.

Oof!/Trokia

        The Trokia [AKA QAK] are Q2, Amanda Rogers and Kevin Uxbridge. They are
an enigma – both blight and cure. You must both protect yourself from
Red Alert!s, Static Warp Bubbles, Telepathic Alien Kidnappers, Anti-Time
Anomalys, Super Novas, Kivas Fajo and the like. Yet, you have to protect
your Intruder Force Fields, Regenersates, Revolving Doors, Goddess of
Empathys, ect too. Use of the Trokia is great. Abuse of the Trokia is
where Oof! comes in. The Line Must Be Drawn hurts both players and must
be on the table to be effective while Oof! hurts only your opponent and
can be played latter. Oof! also has the added advantage of removing the
QAK from the game.  Q2 is also a very good weapon against players who
self seed Q dilemmas with the intention of over coming it to discard
dilemmas.

Self Seeded Dilemmas

        Seeding dilemmas at your own missions is a good way to get thief decks
to play fair. They have to now face at least one of your dilemmas or
scan the mission and then formulate a way around it … and how do we stop
Scans? AMANDA ROGERS! Good. Self seeds are a matter of opinion. Some
players like walls [good against Borg scouting your missions] others
like to go with killers [Yuta, Common Thief] while others go with worse
than death [Frame of Mind, Framed For Murder, Vantika’s Neural pathways]
and others like filter/walls [Hippocratic Oath, Assassin’s Blade,
Blended].  The best choice is what you feel the most comfortable with.
Of course you have to overcome these dilemmas as well.

Hide & Seek

        Well, there is no other reason for this than to beat Q-bypass. The
Question here is do we go with one or two hide & Seeks? Why more than
one? Well, if the Q-bypassing crew/Away Team survives the dilemmas
reseeded by hide & Seek. Flipping a second one when another Q is
bypassed allows for another shot at the Q-bypassing crew. Also, a
Q-bypassing player can “back out” of the mission attempt by playing Time
To Reconsider, Rogue Borg Mercenaries, Dead End or Smoke Bomb. Having a
second hide & Seek helps. But remember Hide & Seek can be seeded as a
dilemma too.
        Now the dilemmas you reseed, do you reseed what was there originally or
do you grab …

Dilemmas in the Tent

        Putting dilemmas in your tent that work specifically for being used at
a mission that has been Hide & Seeked or thatare grabbed for a Q’s
Planet is a great idea. Dilemmas like The Higher The Fewer, Borg Ship,
Dead End, Dal’Rok, and Altonian Brain Teaser can really hurt someone
trying to get a fast artifact from Q’s Planet or Q-bypass a mission.

Landed Ships/Charbis/MCR-OCD

A landed ship is the best way to fight off the “Express Trip to Qualar
II.”  Land your ship to avoid Barclay’s Transporter Phobias and when
that last “dilemma” turns out to be Magic Carpet Ride – OCD don’t worry.
Your ship and it’s away team can not be targeted by the MCR-OCD because
it is landed.
        Another way to fight off the MCR to Qualar II is to not play with any
archeology and then play the Charbis so that you can not recover any
artifacts.
        The other option is to seed your own MCR-OCD last so that it is the 1st
one found and your opponent’s MCR-OCD is a misseed.

AU Door

        This is the best medicine against Temporal Rifts and with Space-Time
portal you can even download your AU Door and get rid of any pesky Rifts
that are bothering you. It also works great against Revolving Doors and
Doornet. Most players put one in their Tent but it works the best in a
draw deck. It can be something to Remodulate away but also it will do
nothing against that Revolving Door that closed your Tent if the AU Door
is in the Tent.

Intermix Ratio/Altonian Brain Teaser

        Opponent still grabbing all their points from point dilemmas? Stock
Intermix Ratio IN YOUR DRAW DECK and you can put an end to that real
fast. You see most players put an Intermix Ratio in the Tent figuring
they can play a Q’s Tent and grab the Intermix to stop Point dilemmas
fools. But the problem is Computer Crash. It can totally lock a player
out of their Tent. Stocking Intermix in your deck is the way to stop
these Colony/Cytherian playing fools.
        Also, seeding Altonian Brain Teaser at spaceline end or at a Colony
Preparation can stop players from grabbing points at those locations.

Scorched Hand

        If you can not stop your opponent from playing Kivas Fajo or The
Traveler [events here – not personnel] Scorched Hand can be the cure.
It can also be used against those players that get lost processing Ore
and for get to play those cards. But the most enjoyable way to use it is
right after an opponent “picks up” their ship with a Space-Time Portal
and now they have a hand full of cards. Just blast them with a Scorched
hand and watch those personnel and maybe even the ship get burned.

Wow, I covered a lot of things and am getting tired of typing. Now look
at what you may have to put into your deck. Crazy, huh? Not to mention
that now you have to find a way to win and a way to get Exobiology into
your deck so that none of your personnel develop issues.

-Sirna Kolrami
Famed Stratigist