Mot's Useless Card Review #39: Drought Tree

You don't see these much, probably because it's easy to get rid of: a Kevin Uxbridge will destroy it, or an enemy Away Team can beam down and nullify your points. The trick here is, contrary to the lore, this Tree is not meant to be protected and nurtured - it's too much time and effort. Rather, Drought Tree makes an ideal endgame card, to hold in your hand until you're within striking distance, and then played. After all, by the endgame, you've drained your opponent of all their Kevin Uxbridges. They won't be expecting to need one.

Plus, there are so many great 30-point missions! Cloaked Mission, Diplomacy Mission, First Contact, Investigate Anomaly, Krios Supression, Plunder Site, and Study Plasma Streamer are just a few of the 30-point missions that are paticularly easy to complete. Problem is, 30 x 3 = 90, 10 points shy of a victory. Even two 30-point missions and a 35-pointer comes up short... and by the time you're planning on doing two 35-point missions, the beauty of using the easy low point missions is marred.

Enter Drought Tree. (Use Q’s Planet as your Drought Tree site if you're playing a space mission deck.) Two 30-point missions, one 35-pointer, and one Drought Tree played after completing them totals to victory for you. A Samuel Clemens leaving through a Devidian Door on top of all this should put you over the top if you've lost points somewhere along the way. If you are the impatient type and don't want to wait around until your next turn to end the game with your Tree, then don't. Upon completing your third mission for a score of 95, declare "that was cool!" (Smile required.) Your opponent will most assuredly dispute this, lest they hand you the game. You respond by using your Parallax Arguers to play an Event instead: Drought Tree. "You don't want to give me 5 points? Fine, I'll take 7."

See how cool they think that is... ;-)