Submitted by stccgfaq.com on Mon, 03/13/2000 - 21:00
Gift Of The Tormentor
Q-Card If your current score is zero, score bonus points. Otherwise, place this card in your discard pile. (May be nullified only by Countermanda.) Point-Box on card: 100 bonus points (you score points, when you play or use this card). Characteristics: bonus points. Rule hint for this cardThis card has an clarification: You cannot encounter this Q-icon interrupt from your own Q-Continuum side deck. See Q-icon cards. Because it specifies that it is placed in a discard pile, this card overrides the rule to replace it face up beneath your QContinuum side deck. Taken form Glossary - Version 1.9.5.Card logging info: Logged by openCards team at May 1st, 2009. |  |
- InterruptThis Card-Review article was written by Kathy McCracken and was published first on "Decipher's Website (decipher.com)" at Mar 13th, 2000.
Wow! A Q-interrupt that lets you score 100 points! And all you have to do is face it when your score is zero. Let's see, I'll just attempt a mission where I seeded a Q-Flash
last, before I've scored any other points, and if this is the only card in my Q-Continuum, I'll win the game. Right?
Well, actually, wrong. Unfortunately for this strategy (but fortunately for gameplay balance), you never face the cards in your own Q-Continuum, no matter who seeded the Q-Flash you encountered. Fill your side deck with Gift of the Tormentor, and it's your opponent who will face it (and score the points if his score is zero).
So why would you ever use this card? You sure don't want to give your opponent 100 points. The simplest reason is to torment your opponent with thoughts of how easily he could have won the game...if only his score had been zero when he hit this card. Of course, you'll want to seed a no-conditions, no-stopping point loss dilemma that he'll encounter before the Q-Flash, to make it virtually certain that his score won't be zero. The Higher … The Fewer
is a good choice; unless he just happens to have previously scored points exactly equal to the number of personnel in his Away Team, his score should be non-zero.
But the "otherwise" text gives a clue that there's more to this card than meets the eye. Unlike other Q-Continuum cards, which "discard" to the bottom of the owner's side deck, this one explicitly tells the player encountering the card that he is to place it in his discard pile. Why? Check the combo for a way to maybe (if you're lucky) score those 100 points after all.
Combo:
- The Higher … The Fewer + Gift of the Tormentor + Are These Truly Your Friends, Brother?
: Mix the two Q-interrupts in your side deck. Opponent loses points to The Higher...The Fewer, then faces Gift of the Tormentor which goes into his discard pile. When he faces Are These Truly Your Friends, Brother? (during the same or a later Q-Flash), if his discard pile has more cards than his Away Team, he may select Gift of the Tormentor, which he has to give to you to score the points.
