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Winning Without a Q's Tent
by Enabran Tain Yes, that's right. This is one issue which has been debated here in Australia ever since Q-Continuum released, so let's look at it in detail. The first thing that needs to be considered is the fact that while it (apparently) was very popular in the states, Q-Continuum never really took off here in Aus. To be honest, we found the new Q icon cards useless, if somewhat humorous, and were only moderately enthusiastic about tents. Nowadays, in our local tournaments, Q's Tents make almost no appearances at all. They are seldom used when Nors are an option, and NEVER used in Borg decks. Now, I shall speak from personal experience. I wish to point out, that I have never lost a tournament game. Ever. Now for modesty's sake, I should also point out that this is only going on a local tournament, in a city of just over 80,000 people, including about 8-12 CCG players, not all of whom I have played. However, the fact stands that neither I, nor the other successful tourney players use Q's Tents. One guy I played one day had a strategy which revolved around Q's Tent coupled with the Ferengi Trading Post. With my simple Ore Processing/Obsidian Order deck (the primary design of which I have to credit to Alidar Jarok. See "Ore Processing Anyone?"). I crushed him 120 to nil. As a Cardassian player, I prefer Ore Processing and Downloading through Sites, but even in non-Cardy decks, I don't use a Tent. So let's get down to it! WHY NOT???? I did note in one deck design on Decipher's site that there was no Tent, and the author of the deck made comment that many people may be surprised. But I wasn't. I don't wish to speak ill of Tent users, but I was pleased that this person had the nerve to stand up with a good deck without a Tent. So apart from Site usage, why don't I use a Tent? The fact is that it's not really worth the wasted seed space. A good tournament deck (or any deck that's out to win), should be really, really speedy. It needs cards like The Traveler: Transcendence, Red Alert and others which enhance speed. (Kivas Fajo: Collector is a good if somewhat optional choice.) If the player is able to use these cards to rip through their deck at a nice rate, then why should a tent be necessary. A Q's Tent has many drawbacks. True, it does allow you to keep thirteen good cards out of your draw deck so they are not cluttering up space, but then you also have to take up space in your draw deck with half a dozen tents! This seems like an awful waste to me, since not only are you losing a seed slot, but you have to slog through all these tents in the draw deck, delaying those cards in your deck. Besides, are those extra thirteen cards really so bad to have in your normal deck? If you've built said deck properly, then you should get to them pretty quick. Q's Tent is undeniably not without uses, but they need to be considered an optional extra depending on the kind of deck you're using. Not a crutch that you can't win without! (That's a Battle Bridge side deck! No, it's probably optional too, though it's more useful than Q's Tent.) So, if you still think you need to use a Tent, then please do. If however, you think you can design a good enough deck without one, then give it a go! You might just be surprised. Enabran Tain
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