Mot's Useless Card Review #55: Go Back Whence Thou Camest

This is one of those cards from the Q-Continuum attempting to discourage both red-shirting and Mega-Teaming at the same time. Well, red-shirting is obviously going to be a lot less popular with the advent of First Contact Expansion - nevertheless, the tactic has run rampant all over the game all this time, despite the existence of this card. Mega-Teaming has been just as prevalent, with many players loading up on the INTEGRITY in order to overcome self-seeded Qs and bypass their opponent's dilemmas. The problem with Go Back Whence Thou Camest is not the conditions - a surprising number of Away Teams can't fall between that 10 and 50 INTEGRITY range. The problem is the penalty... being relocated to your outpost hasn't been that much of a punishment.

Until now. This card could prove a major pain in the neck to the Borg. Individual Borg scouts at planet locations are gonna have a difficult time mustering 11 INTEGRITY, and will fail to meet the conditions of this dilemma time and time again. Loaded Borg Cubes scouting at space locations may well overshoot the 50 INTEGRITY mark. (Remember, it takes at least 7 Borg to fly those beasties, and no doubt many players will load on still more - expendable scouts, or Drones like Eighteen of Nineteen that are a menace in multiple.)

When the Borg do trip up on Go Back Whence Thou Camest, they'll find themselves back in the Delta Quadrant at their outpost. They'll need to spend a card (Transwarp Network Gateway or Transwarp Conduit) to get back to the action in the Alpha Quadrant. Granted, these are two cards a Borg player is likely to have several of - still, spending the card on an occasion they hadn't planned for coupled with the time they will have to spend getting back to the mission they were working on can make for a significant delay for a Borg player.

Not that the other affiliations should be fond of Go Back Whence Thou Camest, either. It makes an excellent counter to those decks trying to overcome a self-seeded Q and bypass all of your dilemmas. Q-Flashes (being doorways, not dilemmas), are not discarded by Q. A well-stocked Continuum should thin down an opponent enough that they cannot complete the mission. Include Mandarin Bailiff, Penalty Box, His Honor The High Sheriff of Nottingham (if you have SECURITY to back it up), and of course Go Back Whence Thou Camest. A Q bypass strategy will of course fail to overcome it. If you can just thin out the people just enough that your opponent cannot complete the mission, then you've created the perfect opportunity to sweep in and steal the points for yourself - your opponent will be relocated back to their outpost.

A worthy addition to any Continuum, just to keep people honest. :-)