A source of constant amusement in my life (I don't get out much) is the number of jokes inserted onto Star Trek: CCG cards by the designers, either into images or in the lore or game text.  Decipher's official "Easter Egg" policy ended with Q-Continuum, but those cunning PD folks have still managed to slip a number of sly jokes in since then.  To misappropriate that popular Pokemon catchphrase, "You gotta get them all..."  Or not.

COLLECTORS:  Since the only Q-cards which could be described as collectibles are Picard's Artificial Heart (from Fajo) and Hide and Seek (from the OTSD), this isn't going to get a very good write-up here.  It does feature, rather prominently, the ghastly green backdrop used to represent the "alienness' of Q's Planet, which has a certain appeal to Q fanatics or the colorblind, but nothing much else to commend it.  The Q-uote is quite a good one, though.

PLAYERS:  How to use this frankly bizarre card?  The answer (and the only worthwhile one, AFAIK) is to play it in combination with the Q-card 'Are These Truly Your Friends, Brother?'  If your opponent hits the GotT first and doesn't score the points, it is placed in the opponent's discard pile.  Then, you can subsequently use ATTYFB to examine that card, and score the points from it, for a game-winning 100 points.  Obviously, a risky strategy.  Is it worthwhile attempting?

Lets look at the conditions that are required to pull it off:
1)  Your opponent must attempt a mission (or attempt to commandeer Empok Nor) where you seeded a Q-Flash, or are capable of using Beware of Q to switch one in.
2)  Your opponent must *not* have a score of zero - positive or negative points are required.
3)  Gift of the Tormentor should preferably be resolved first, and Are These Truly... afterwards.
4)  To use Are These Truly..., there must be *more* cards in your opponent's discard pile than there are in this crew or AT - and you only get to look at *one* card in the discard pile each Flash.

Clearly, the biggest pitfall is that the opponent's score could be zero, and so he would gain those 100 points himself.  That wouldn't be good.  And there's no easy way to just give your opponent points - there is, however, a fairly easy way you can take them away from him.  The Higher... The Fewer, and Beware of Q is the way I would approach the situation, I think.  TH...TF reduces a score of zero to negative points, which is good early in the game.  Hopefully, there aren't *too* many cards in his discard pile at this stage - Burial Ground and The Next Emanation may help in this regard, but you want more cards there, remember, than in the crew or away team.  The problem is that super-crews seem to be the way of the future... if only we could return to the good old days of redshirting! ;-)

The possibility of using Issue Secret Orders to force your opponent to attempt a mission is one which intrigues me.  A seeded Memory Wipe forms the backbone of this strategy along with your opponent's Temporal Micro-Wormhole.  Bareil and Dr. McCoy are two popular choices to be used in conjunction with TMW, and MW will ensure that your Kira or Leyton Founders (both easily grabbed via Defend Homeworld) will be able to infiltrate the opponent, and set up ISO if your opponent does use them.  Dr. Telek R'Mor is another popular TMW choice, but it is more difficult to ensure an early arrival for the Lovok Founder (Martok Founder has the same drawback, although I can't think of any Klingons anyone would bother using with TMW anyway...).  Krajensky Founder also downloads ISO himself (and remember that the various impersonators of O'Brien, Bashir, LaForge, Boone, and also Jake Sisko, are not OFFICER or V.I.P.).  Failing any of these strategies, Anastasia Komananov from Holodeck Adventures could be used in a pinch.  Then, you choose an appropriate ship, attempt an appropriate mission, lose points to TH...TF, encounter your Flash (either seeded or swapped in with BoQ) and hope that GotT will come up first.  Even after all that, it's still a matter of choosing one card out of the discard pile at random... and that's about the best solution I could come up with...

Unfortunately, Intermix Ratio has presented a thorn in the side of this deck design for the last four years or so (as all GotT points are bonus points), increasing in potency with Quark's Isolinear Rods and then Q The Referee.  Post-Holodeck Adventures, I doubt there will be many competitive games which do not feature In The Zone in some capacity... while I applaud the action taken to stall abusive first-turn win decks (yes, I do believe both players should have the chance to at least play some cards!), it unfortunately impacts on the fun of this deck.  Although they do both provide a last-ditch protection against your plan going horribly wrong in the first instance.

TREKKERS:  An interesting one.  Winning the game does seem to be the ultimate gift which Q could bestow upon us, but it is never as simple as that... we must first prove our worthiness for the prize (although I can't quite imagine Q toying with the Founders in the way I suggest above).  I don't know how Siskoid's Trek Sense rating stands, but I think it fits quite well.

COMBOS:  The strategy described above might form the basis for a fun GotT deck, given a bit more work.  Here are some other points to bear in mind...

Q Giveth, And Q Taketh Away - A positive or negative score for your opponent is critical.  Cards like Cosmic String Fragment and Microvirus could work, giving an easy five-point bonus.  I think I prefer TH...TF still, as (if Scan-ed, FPS-ed, Preparation-ed, Ocular Implant-ed etc) it might persuade an opponent to redshirt through it and then be stopped at a follow-up wall, serving a dual purpose in the overall strategy.

Q Has Some Issues - Could Empok Nor (seeded at a strategically inserted Space mission) work as a lure? By self-seeding an Empok dilemma there, and switching out with a Q-Flash using BoQ we might get a result early on.  But I don't think many players would fall for the bait of a free Nor in the heart of their territory... and in any case, post-Voyager the Alpha Quadrant isn't nearly as crowded as it used to be.

Parallax Arguers + Protection Racket - In The Zone and Intermix Ratio notwithstanding, you might suggest, "That was cool, let me score all the points...' ;-)  I dunno...

OVERALL:  I think it would be tremendous fun to try a deck built around GotT, but perhaps not if you were bent on winning first place at a tournament with it... Kudos to any who have tried, and a special congratulations to those who've actually won a game using this strategy! ;-)
 

Craig
 

Answer:  The title is a play on the Star Wars CCG Premiere card, "Gift of the Mentor'.  Other such crossover titles include Friendly Fire, Narrow Escape, Ultimatum, and Surprise Assault.  Titles that have gone the other way, incidentally, include Asteroid Sanctuary and Holoprojector.