Mot's Useless Card Review #24: Subspace Warp Rift

A blue moon, incidentally, occurs when there are two full moons in a single month. This happens once every 2.4 years or so - and once is about the number of times I've seen Subspace Warp Rift played. I played it. It's really a bit of a mystery to me why one doesn't see it more often, though. It's a great card to slow down speedy decks with. An opponent crossing it is forced to incur damage or be stopped. Well, since damage reduces their RANGE, which will likely slow them down even more in the long run, most players will opt to stop here and wait a turn. That's one turn you put between your opponent and a runaway victory.

What's more, Subspace Warp Rift is highly versatile (not to mention cruel) when combined with other cards. Just play Subspace Warp Rift on top of a Gaps in Normal Space to force a difficult decision on your opponent. Which is worth more to them, the ship or the crew?

Another great combo to bite your opponent no matter what they do is to play a Subspace Warp Rift at a mission where you've dropped off an Anti-Matter Pod. The ship can fly through and be damaged, or stop and (probably) be damaged. Their choice.

Best of all, two Subspace Warp Rifts on the spaceline between an opponent's ship and their outpost can make things really miserable for them when you play your Incoming Message! (Just stock one for each affiliation in your Q’s Tent.) They have no choice but to fly through the Rifts, incurring damage, then destruction. Playing the 2nd Rift on a low RANGE mission like Warped Space (for your opponent) or Q’s Planet will guarantee they'll have enough RANGE to fly through the second Rift even though they've flown through the first and been damaged. Same thing goes for a Cytherian-controlled ship.

What better way to slow down your opponent than to impose a "speed limit" on them?