Secret HQ
art (c) Mike Trap
The Seven Masters vs. The Underworld is the debut set for the long-awaited Seven Masters faction (a.k.a. The Taoists, who were originally scheduled for Throne Wars, but that was scrapped when Daedalus went under). The theme of the set is Wuxia from Hong Kong movies -- these are the fantastic martial arts and wire work that we all love to watch on the big screen. If you haven't check the set out, the official spoiler can be found here.
Unfortunately, I feel that the Seven Masters somewhat fizzle, and along with the other cards, make for a very middle-of-the-road set. Part of my reaction is that the bar was set so high by the amazing Red Wedding expansion. On a positive note, the art in 7MvU is some of the best ever -- it really invokes the spirit of old school Kung Fu.
If you are interested in the Seven Masters themselves, here is a little strategy.
And for card clarifications, check out the official Seven Masters vs. The Underworld FAQ.
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Aerial Bombardment |
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ArcanoGardener |
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ArcanoLeech This state is looking to be sort of iffy in generating a little extra power. ArcanoLeech is almost free if you play on the opponent to your left, as you will get back the power you paid right away. You are going to want to keep the site in play, but seizing it is not an option as it will stop triggering (the subject site no longer generates power for an opponent, which may just make this card unplayable). As always, watch out for Stone Dolmens, which seems to become more and more useful. Being Limited, I can't see playing more than 1 or 2 in a deck, and I still might just want 5 IKTV Special Reports before this card, let alone a Drug Lab. |
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Brain Tap Rifle Don't get me wrong -- I like Weapons -- I really do. But, I like my weapons to be playable, which this isn't. Think of this card as Brain Bug v2. There are better cards to reveal Sites, look at hands and deal damage -- I would rather play a card that does one of them well than a card that tries to do all of them so-so. |
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Buro Scientist Another marginal at best utility character, this guy is going to be difficult to use. I guess you are hoping to attack with a mid-range character and unturn them after playing a BK-97 on them. But, this is so combo-heavy that it's going to be unreliable and Buro Scientist is just too fragile for what you get (again, this might have been okay at a cost of 1 for 1 Fighting). Probably the best deck for the Buro Scientist is a Super Computer-type deck with an expanded hand size -- that way you can afford to hold on to a few Tech cards until you can get the combo set up (even then, it's just a 2-cost Back for Seconds). |
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Neural Stimulator Another why bother, I don't think this card will see much play. Why not just zap that character you were going to Ambush? Sure, you can get the Gunman with it, but that's an exception, not the rule. Also, don't overlook the ArcanoSeed (affectionately known around here as the ArcanoSpud) -- it has a very similar effect, is 0-cost, and is also reusable (if you can defend it that is). |
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Penal Soldiers The card that this really reminds me of is the Hand's 100 Names, which may have been playable in the old days, but I haven't seen one in a deck in years. Having to intercept is never good (Violence Junkies anyone?), and not always being able to attack at will just bites. You could try some janky Soldier action, but wouldn't you rather just save up one more power and play CHAR? |
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Rapid Response Team We can debate forever just how good refilling your hand is, but I don't think it's that great unless you have a high card throughput (which takes gads if power generation) -- I would consider it more gravy than anything else. I don't think the Rapid Response Team's card drawing ability is as good as Old Uncle's, who has proven to be a solid card to play. What you are left with is a bland 3-cost for 4 Fighting Cop, that you are hoping to do stupid Cop tricks with (Police Station, Partners, Magnum Justice etc.). I'm just not feeling the love. |
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Uncontrolled Mutation This is a card that I think people are going to like, as it has both offensive and defensive uses. If your an old school MTG player, you might see the resemblance to an old favorite, Berserk. On offense, you double your fighting, smoke everything in your way, and take sites. The defensive use is a bit more passive, as you are not going to directly stop an attacker, but you can wait until just before your turn to zap an opponent's character. Remember that under the timing rules, playing this at the end of an opponent's turn gives them the option of returning to their main shot and launching an attack, so you will want to either zap a turned character or wait until they've had a failed attack. This card is sort of a cross between Nerve Gas and Cellular Reinvigoration, and can take the place of either in a deck, although I would still pack a few Imprisoned to make sure I have some sure-fire denial. If you are the master politician, you can use Uncontrolled Mutation to smoke two characters -- wait until one opponent is attacking, and when it comes time to declare interceptors, zap another opponent's character this is capable of intercepting -- hopefully he will take the bait and you'll be clear of two problems. |
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200 Guys with Hatchets and
Ladders |
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Cobra Clan Stalkers |
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Grey Mountain The bull elephant is an okay guy. He's 4-for-5 Fighting Toughness:2, and can get a little better. What's nice about Grey Mountain is that he has a life outside the Transformed Animal deck -- he gets bigger from Lodge cards as well, which is where I expect to see him played occasionally. |
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Leopard Clan Warriors |
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Peacock Clan Warriors So, how big are these guys going to be? Best case is 6 fighting, but realistically it's going to be 4 or 5. Just how good is a 2-cost for 4 Fighting that comes out mid-game or later? Not really that good, and Tactics has always been a very iffy ability unless combined with some other ability that makes it worthwhile (like on the Palm of Darkness). Walking Corpses is good because they come out second turn, and lay down the beats. Late game, you want some sort of ability to break a character stalemate on the board. |
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Rat Clan Spies I understand what they are trying to do with the Transformed Animals, but they just cut the mustard. It's a real design problem -- the Ascended have some of the best cards already, so to avoid power creep, you have to make janky combo cards like the Rat Clan Spies. Our play environment is too aggressive to rely on having character combos last very long. Gruff Lieutenant works on so many different levels -- he can have Stealth the first turn, he comes out for free with Family Estate, he gets pumped by the Police Station, and he always has Stealth so you can combo him reliably with states like Explosives. Yes, I know the Rat Clan is a foundation, but they just don't have enough juice to make me want to play them. |
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The Lady or the Tiger Neither if you ask me. The only good reason to play this card is to fuel your Paper Trail, and there are better cards for that. Don't get me wrong, knocking denial out of your opponents hand is good, but you are giving them a really good chance to get cards just as good. I don't know about you, but I like playing good cards in my deck, so that when I have to draw cards, I draw good cards. Yes, discard is a viable dueling strategy, but it's really no fun, and doesn't add to the game. |
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Wolf Clan Hunters True to the Transformed Animal theme, this foundation is also doesn't seem very playable. I think they are weaker than Big Macaque Attack, which has proven to be somewhat fragile. Remember that the Wolf Clan will shrink as attackers are removed, so they can shrink unexpectedly. Yes, for 6 power, you can play three Hunters and attack for 12, but isn't that what the old Thunder King is for? |
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Four Mountains Fist |
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Li Mao (Dragons) |
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Lin |
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Master Bowman What makes this card playable to me is that it only requires one Dragon resource. You are effectively getting a 3-cost for 5 Fighting. And the ability is offensive in nature, so it's going to promote attacking if you want to get your money's worth out of it. This card has a pretty average designator, but it will allow you to draw a card from Dragon Dojo. |
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Out for Blood This card might prove to be of use in dueling, but I'm not sure that you're always going to get it off in a four-player game (where I think you are going to be better off with Dirk Wiseley's Gambit for a little extra power). Also, Hacker is going to stop this event. |
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Ready for Action I don't care if there is some janky combo with Iala Mane, this card isn't cutting the mustard (even if you play it for only 1 power with Kar Fai's Crib). Back for Seconds is a card I love but never seem to play enough of, and I'm always going to play it over Ready for Action. Another advantage of Back for Seconds is unturning an opponent's character to chump intercept. |
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Storming the Gates of Hell This is sort of an all or nothing event, with my money riding on nothing as being the most common result. Sure, can get some extra damage in, but there have been several other similar effects that just haven't proven to be that useful. And smoking your characters at the end of the attack is really going to deter you from using this with any character that you've invested much power in or have used to set up some combo (or have loaded down with states). Where this could work is in conjunction with Golden Comeback or Is That All You Got? -- you return the smoked character(s) to play unturned, and administer beats again. That's a real fickle gambit, but sorta cool. |
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Ting Ting's Bandits Kind of cool, and I love hosing my opponents, and that is what discard does. I think this card needed a little more oomph to be really playable though (such as providing a Chi resource). I suspect that you are most likely to see it some crazy Hood deck, where you can take advantage of their designator. |
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Wandering Swordsman Looking at this guy, he seems okay. 3-cost for 3 Fighting Independent is a little below the curve -- Add in the fact that these guys can hit for 6 damage and you get a potential threat. Having one of these guys in your smoked pile makes a nice option for Is That All You Got? I also seem some good synergy with Rigorous Discipline and some of the new Seven Masters copy cards. |
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Wu Bin of Turtle Island This set introduces a couple of :Demonic Tutors to Shadowfist, and this is probably the best. While he doesn't have the best cost-to-fighting ratio, and obvious choice to beef that up is going to be Open a Can of Whupass, which will get him up to 8 Fighting. Add that to his Independent, and you can get a real threat. There are a ton of other cards to get, too, especially low cost denial. To keep Wu Bin in check, his ability only triggers when entering play from your hand, so there's no return to play madness. |
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Ang Dao the Corrupt |
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Cenotaph |
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Desolation Wow is this guy big. He's generally okay, although at 7 cost, Desolation is a risky proposition (as is anything that costs that much). He's not quite the dueling monster that the Eastern King is, but he may be able to turn a game around for you. I suspect that I'll be playing him along with Glimpse of the Abyss so I can get him out and burn early (probably also in conjunction with The Hungry). The protection from opponents' control is crucial -- he wont loose a game for you the way Sky Dragon will if he gets mentored. And the +1 cost for events targeting him helps, and rarely are you going to need to target him. Desolation is so big that he eats a fat interceptor and still takes a site. |
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Evil Chanting The second ability of this event is its primary ability. I don't really expect to see enough Seven Masters characters in play to be zapping them all the time, and 1 power for 4 damage isn't that great. The +2 damage could be useful with Inauspicious Return, and it's clearly better than GeoScan Report, which is a fizzle for a card. Note that this effects all Lotus characters, so avoid (or use to your advantage) this bonus on your opponents' characters. |
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Haunted Forest I'm not really sure about this site. It can be darn powerful, but it's also hard to position correctly. I'll have to play with it some more -- I expect the place to try it is in the Palace Guard/Imperial Palace deck, where it will be a bit easier to defend. Time will tell if this turns into a standard weapon for the Lotus, or a highly-specialized combo card. |
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Hopping Vampire NEW Like the Bloody Horde, this is a card you build a deck around, and you will want the full compliment of 5 in your deck. They're okay, but not top-level beats. The official 7M FAQ should be able to answer the timing questions on how exactly these guys works. |
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Jiang Fei I find her to be very average, but playable. Jiang Fei is the type of card I throw one-of in a deck and hope to get a little bit of extra mileage. Remember to hold off on using her counters until interceptors are actually declared against her. Jiang still falls short of the amazing Cognitive Spirit, who is beats and a half. This is another card that sort of falls into the Lotus+Weapon theme. |
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Kong Jung She The second biggest character in this set also belongs to the Lotus (see also Desolation). This renegade Seven Master is pretty beefy, but with just the Regenerate ability, doesn't quite make the cut for me. I'm going to go with the old Ice Queen or White Ninja unless I really really need something that this card provides (which I can't see). The gravy ability of discarding 2 cards is nice considering how many return effects there are these days, but not worth playing this card for alone -- this ability would be much more meta-game useful on a mid-sized character |
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Long Axe and Short Axe The best weapon for these guys is the Butterfly Sword, which will turn them into a 12 damage hitter for the cost of 5 power and two cards. They do have a little bit of protection (when they have a weapon) against a few annoying sites, but unfortunately they still get lost in the Fox Pass (v2 has errata and does not target). Remember these guys only double damage bonuses, so other damage and + fighting on weapons will only trigger their immunity ability. Of course, without a weapon, Long Axe and Short Axe are just a thug, which makes me think that I'm really going to want to play Mad Monk over these guys. |
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Miasma I'm not a big fan of characters that are primarily designed to attack other characters, and that sort of what Miasma is. With only 6 Fighting, it's going to be hard for her to reliably take sites, and I always hope to do a quick burn after plopping out 5 power on a character. That said, the ability can be powerful, but takes a bit of work to set up. Also, a few counters on Miasma can really deter attacks at her location. Her designator is going to be a hard match for Discerning Fire, which is a bonus, and I don't recommend playing her in conjunction with Feast of Souls. |
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Poison Clan Warriors I guess these are okay for a foundation character -- they have an ability and potentially useful designators. But... they are outclassed by existing foundations in my opinion. There are already four 1-cost foundations that I would seriously consider playing before the Poison Clan even in a Hood Martial Artist deck (Shamanistic Punk, Vassals of the Lotus, Sinister Priest and Palace Guards), and there is a better 2-cost Hood foundation, Big Brother Tsien. Sadly, this replacement for Thorns of the Lotus is going to wind up sitting next to them in the card box instead of seeing much play. |
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Shrieking Witch Heads The event plays very much like Shattering Fire, except that it's going to get you a little more damage in most cases. You should expect to see it most in decks that don't have a lot of Magic (for Discerning Fire) and decks not tuned around Inauspicious Return/Palace Guards/Die!!! Direct damage has been a little bit out of favor, and this might bring it back some. |
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Shun Kan There may be some turbo-dueling deck that makes good use of this card, but it's mostly a big wall. If play Shun Kan and attack, you've just spent 4 power to for a 7 Fighting no ability character, of which you should be doing better. The way to try and make it work is with The Dragon Throne, Proving Grounds or Cave Networks, and maybe Lai Kuang. The Hungry would also be good to refuel this demon's ability to attack. |
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Soul Theft This could be fun in a multiplayer game where you are biding your time, and are lying low and trying to annoy your opponents. Unfortunately, Soul Theft only triggers off of smoking by damage, so when the Neutron Bomb goes off, you are out of luck. If you add in Shrieking Witch Heads, you have the poor man's Shadowy Mentor, but this combo is probably balanced (Mentor is broken). Tortured Memories and Bribery are just too good to play the card with any frequency. And Waterfall Sanctuary and Stone Dolmens just kill this card. |
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Terracotta Warriors This state pretty much goes in the Deadly Sites deck along with Death Trap, and not anywhere else. It's a bland deterrent, and probably not even as good as Death Trap. But, if you can get a couple out, you might have a pretty tough site. Of course, if an opponent does seize the subject, you might find that you can't get through the army of Terracotta Warriors yourself. |
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Underworld Gateway This state is sure to get a lot of buzz during discussions of Seven Masters vs. the Underworld. Clearly there is going to be an entire new deck archetype built around this new way to achieve victory. All of the initial decks will be mono-Lotus, but there may be other abusive combo with another faction. I expect Underworld Gateway decks to be very small and tight, as they need to draw at least 3 copies of this state to win. As a starting point, I would consider playing Turtle Islands just to make sure there are sites in play as targets. This one is going to take some time to shake out -- is it da bomb? Or is it the next Power of the Great? Chris Turner writes in: |
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Xiang Kai I get what they are trying to do with the Poison Clan Chieftain -- he's trying to be a 4-cost for 8 Fighting side of beef. But, he's really only got 4 Fighting + 4 Damage when attacking, and a piddly 4 Fighting on defense. I'm just not a fan. Note that the damage is mandatory, so he's really bad if he's the only character in play. Of course, if you really want to go nuts, you can try him with "We Need Bigger Guns!" where you can get a nutty 11+ damage out of Xiang Kai. |
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Eight Pillars of Heaven
Array |
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Essence Absorbing Stance |
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Know Your Enemy |
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Lui Yu Min I guess this card is okay, but it just doesn't leap out at me. A 5-cost for 8 Fighting CHAR is not bad, but usually the Guiding Hand relies on other tricks. Speaking of tricks, you are going to need to play with your site mix in order to trigger Lui Yu Min's Superleap. You really can't count on people burning for victory (at least in our group), so you might want to consider a Turtle Island or two (sort of think of how you would use them in conjunction with Gorilla Fighter). Also, since Lui triggers off of any seized site, Bandit Hideout is a nice low-risk site that wont come back to bite you if seized by an opponent. |
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Orange Master This character pretty much goes in one deck -- the Peacock deck. The name refers to a deck that tries to splash most (if not all) factions, and the name comes from the site Peacock Summit. The deck can be unwieldy because of its larger size, but once it gets rolling, it can have some steam. So, you are basically hoping that Orange Master is going to be a big thug, with a maximum fighting of 9, but more reliably 6-7. What is going really help this character is that you can play it for only 2 power if there is an Orange Senshei chamber in play. He's another guy that gets wasted by Larcenous Mist, which along with Temple of the Monkey King are almost too good not to play. |
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Red Master Cough... cough... Iron Monkey... cough cough. Your opponent's are always going to make sure this guy has a little damage on him. At least the timing rules are in your favor -- even though the Red Master will lose Superleap if he has to speedbump a foundation character, at least it will usually be too late to declare any turned characters as interceptors. And healing a Red Master after interceptions have been declared will make him magically jump over any turned characters. Good think the Guiding Hand excels at healing. |
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Righteous Heaven Stance I think this state is playable as a one-of surprise in a fun deck, but like Mad Monkey Kung Fu, it may wind up being cut after a game or to as a deck is tuned. The ideal target is some really useful 2-3 cost character -- putting Righteous Heaven Stance on a higher-cost character is going to be putting too many eggs in one basket unless you are going for the win and think you can withstand all the denial you are going to draw out. I sort of like Celestial Stance better, but it's rare, and has some slightly different resource requirements. |
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Shaolin Defender This guy is an ugh. He's not the worst ever, but it's just so bland that I can't see myself wanting to build the Gardener deck just to play a possible 2-cost for 3 Fighting Superleaper. Yes, he goes with the Swords theme, but there are other characters that I just want to play over him (and you get the bonus of not having to worry about your site mix). For reference, there are currently 7 Garden sites - Stone Garden, Puzzle Garden, Garden of Bronze, Moebius Garden, Rust Garden, Paradox Garden and The Twisted Gardens. |
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Shaolin Swordsman This is the card that just might make the Swords deck work -- not lift to greatness, but finally work. The trick is to wait for your second turn, and then play Shaolin Swordsman with a Butterfly Sword for an early burn. You are going to need a sharky environment, but I think it might be doable. And even late game, this combo is still strong enough to pulling of. |
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Shaolin vs. Wudang This is the mother of all Face Offs. And seeing how difficult it is to often pull off a single one-on-one Face Off, I just can't see the epic battle that Shaolin vs. Wudang pretends to be. I guess it's a way to make playing 2-cost foundations playable, but it's seriously tough to pull off to great effect. |
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Sword Saint Expect your opponents to love intercepting this guy -- all their foundations, and maybe even a few other characters will always try to pile on. He's a little bet better of wall than 100 Names, but that isn't saying much. Not being a target for Shadowy Mentor makes this guy worth at least playing around with to see how he does. You may want a few unburnable sites or Battleground Sites so as to stretch out your opponents' structure to lessen the chance of interceptors. Also, you may be able to get the power rebate yourself with a little Rigorous Discipline. |
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401K Squad |
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Ape Nuts |
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Deep-Cover Rebels |
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Hordes of Saboteurs |
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Kick 'em When They're Down This event has a huge random potential -- you just never know how it's going to work out. Ideally you are playing it for free with the Genocide Lounge (although there are other stuff you are probably going to choose over it). For maximum annoyance, you really with to combine Kick 'em with some other damage generating effect like Final Brawl or Killing Rain. |
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Netherflitter This is a very oddball vehicle. I'm not a huge fan of Mobility as it can turn you into a chump, being forced to intercept to stop someone else from time to time. The damage reduction ability is very haphazard -- you really need it against interceptors of lesser or equal fighting to insure that your attack gets through. Of course, our environment is chocked-full of 1 Fighting resource characters as speedbumps. Where I see Netherflitter being played is as a supplement to BattleMatic decks, and even then, it's unclear as to how good this "improved Training Sequence" really is. This is somewhat of a turtly card, as it will discourage some attacks (because of the Mobility, opponents are unlikely to attack with something that's just going to take a hit and bounce). Of course, if you want to go all the way, you can try this in the Jammer/Hand Superior Master deck, where you can trick out your opponents to the max. |
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Rogue Scientist Now that the Jammers have Mad Scientist, they don't need to really rely on their 2-cost characters for Tech. So, you are really going to be playing the Rogue Scientist for the ability (and the occasional 2 points of damage). How good is the card drawing ability? Well, it's good if it gets you a card that is going to turn a game for you, and it's not so great if it doesn't. At some point someone is going to come up with some crazy combo where this card will prove useful. |
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Shaolin Monkey Monkey fans rejoice -- this is the best Simian we've seen in a while (and makes the cut as playable which the Flying Monkey Squad doesn't quite do). I think the majority of the time you will be picking Independent as his ability, but the other two just might prove useful in the odd situation. |
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We Need Bigger Guns! I think this is about as balanced as a card can get -- it's your basic +1 damage for 0-cost, and you get to do some extra combos with non-combat damage such as Curtis Graham or The Monkey Who Would Be King. The question is -- are you going to be better off with this state, or one of basic Jammer defining cards, In Your Face Again? I think you need some card where you are getting at least +2 damage to really make this work, such as Mad Bomber (I think this works). |
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Combat Courtship |
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Ice Sword |
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Jaguar Warriors |
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Sir Gawain 4-cost 6 Fighting with Guts -- there isn't much more to say about this guy. You are probably going to want to save your weapons for Ice Commandos anyways. I still prefer The Baron, Silver Jet and The Once and Future Champion for non-element aligned Monarch backup. Brass Monkey has shown that a Reloadable hitter does have some benefit, especially in a meta-game where you are worked about getting decked. |
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The Book of Wrath Too bad this has the Thunder designator, or it would go in every Monarch deck. You are still going to see it in a bunch, but it will be the decks forgoing the amazing Fanaticism (unless Thunder is your sub-faction). Timing is key with this card -- wait until a character is going to be smoked within a scene, then turn the Book to add it's effect to the same scene. In a four player game, expect this to get you about 2 power every 3 turns as long as you play aggressively, which is a reasonable return. Of course, The Book of Wrath has a huge Discerning Fire target on it. |
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The Queen's Wrath It was definitely a bad day when I had a Test Subject in a MegaTank taken down by this event. It's okay, but there are a lot of good events to play, and it's always tough to find room for ones like this are are fairly specific. Our metagame uses a lot of 1-cost foundations -- if yours doesn't, The Queen may not be as Wrathful. I don't think this isn't as strong as Demonic Plague. If you like obtuse combos, you can combine this with Vivisection Agenda to turn it into a "free" reload. |
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Thunder Captain Yes, this guy is a Thunder Knight, so your Thunder Squires are going to be able to recycle him. While he doesn't really have any special abilities that are going to be useful in-game, the Captain does give you some power rebates, eventually making him cost less than his printed cost of 4. He's at least going to be a 3-cost for 5 Fighting if you play him right -- normally, I'm not a huge fan of these mid-cost thugs, but the chance of a power a turn, a Fanaticism boost, and the recycling make this guy very playable in the right deck. His power generating ability doesn't trigger in a Faceoff, so you aren't running him in that type of deck. |
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Thunder Inquisitor I just don't quite get this card. Just as everyone knows that Blanket of Darkness is good, they also know that Dr. April Mucosa is bad, and, in my opinion, this card is more the latter than the former. If you are the Thunder fanatic, you will drop a Thunder Sword on him, which combined with Fanaticism, gives him the ability to lower damage by 7. And then you get to use it in a Face Off -- I just don't see Thunder Inquisitor being used that much. |
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Incarnate Abstraction |
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Chi Syphon |
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Jenaya Ou Thi is another card that I'm going to have a hard time finding room for in a deck. She's mainly a 4-for-6 thug with a marginal ability at best. Any combo with you damaging her is going to be marginal (if even that), so her ability is going to have to be triggered mostly by opponents -- I guess you are hoping that your opponents will hold off on their damage effects while Jenaya Ou is on the board, but that's not enough disincentive for me. Give me Mutator or Hexagram Spirit any day. |
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Geomantic Spirit This is another card that I don't really like. The idea is card economy -- you get a 6 Fighting character and a site for only one card (as long as you meet the pre-condition of having a Feng Shui Site in your Smoked Pile, which the Purists can do with Entropy Sphere). So, what is the cost of this 6 Fighting no-ability thug? Well, it's 4 power if you have 0-1 FSS in play, 3 power if you have 2 FSS in play, and 2 power if you have 3 FSS in play. That sounds like a good deal, but it's not because of the 5 power outlay. Usually, you are going to be better off spending the whole 5 power on a character (or characters) with abilities that are going to be useful in accomplishing your goals (i.e. beating on your opponents). I guess you can try combining Geomantic Spirit with the Dragons or the Jammers and use inexpensive return to play effects, but you aren't really going to have enough sites to reuse this ability a lot. |
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Glimpse of Brief Eternity I like this card, but then again, I like cards that punish my opponents for relying on a single designator. This isn't going to replace the targeted take out for the Purists (Entropy Sphere), it's going to supplant it. I can't see myself holding on to Glimpse in my hand -- I will be dumping it before the start of my next turn. What it seems to directly outclass is Echo Cancellation. |
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Material Transcendence This is a dual purpose state -- it's both character protection and character take out. As take-out, it's like Prisoner of the Monarchs. As protection, it only really works for 1-2 cost utility characters, but it can set you up for some long-term action with them. See the 7MvU FAQ for some clarifications on this and Incarnate Abstraction. |
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Ordinal Spirit This character's ability is a little too random to rely on. There are quite a few characters that it will take no damage from, but they can still be intercepted and will fail to overcome anything with a higher fighting than it. I think it's about a 50-50 shot at having 14 characters, but, honestly, you are almost always better off with 10KB's Cognitive Spirit. |
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Shadow Legion This card would be okay except for one thing -- it doesn't provide the crucial Magic resource that the Purists absolutely need. And I don't like playing the 1-cost or 2-cost Purist foundations that don't provide Magic, let alone the 3-cost Shadow Legion. Playing it out of turn as an interceptor is a fool's game. Tutoring for a card is good, but since you can only get Purist cards with it, you are somewhat limited. At some future point, there may be a combo that breaks the game, and if you have the power to spare, Shadow Legion may become a (minor) problem. |
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Shards of Warped Reflection Yes, Evil Twin was over the top back in the old days, but the two limitations added in Throne War really moved the card towards the top end of the balanced scale. The Shards swings back too much on the other side. Evil Twin is probably worth paying 4 power for, but I don't think this is. The Shards are way too hard to set up -- ideally you copy a the fighting from a character with high fighting, but a drawback, and then you copy a good ability from a character with less fighting. Unfortunately, this never happens. I don't know about your playgroup, but we like characters with good abilities, not drawbacks, so that is what we tend to play. Most of the time you are going to copy the highest fighting on the board, and wind up with some piddling or no ability copied from a resource character. |
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The Shattered Mirror There are probably a few tricks to do with this one -- I haven't really thought it out, but the might be something that's just a bit over the top. Stay tuned for more. |
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Balanced Harmonies |
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Beneficent Tao |
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Ghost Wind The Master of the Liquid Sword has some pretty good beats, and you will find that he gains you a rebate of a couple of points of power. And, his play-for-free is probably the easiest of the Seven Masters to trigger in a four player game, so you can expect to play him at no cost a lot of the time. I expect to see Ghost Wind as a staple hitter in any Seven Masters deck. He also combos well with Final Brawl. |
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Gold Lion Again we have a big thug with a few modestly useful abilities. Discarding a card to heal him every turn is the better of the two I think, as your opponents aren't going to be able to muck with it. Hopefully you will have Superleap against enough opponents that you can use that first ability to remove any damage created by the speed bumps that do get a chance to intercept. And be wary of opponents who can spend power to get down to 0 if needed to stop a win. |
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Ho Chen This Master reminds me of those janky Hand cards from Shaolin Showdown that you never seem to get around to playing. He's okay, but a couple of the other Masters are just better, and I only expect to see Ho Chen played as filler because players don't have enough of the better Masters. His superleap is going to work most of the time, but sometimes you might fight yourself going for your second choice of targets. Also, he can lose it between being declared as an attacker and the declaration of interceptors. Of course, you have a chance of smacking any interceptors with the Flawless Strike. |
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Jade Fox This Master is interesting -- 5 power is a lot to pay for a character, but Independent has been proven time and time again to be a game winning ability. Just how big can Jade Fox get? That's really up to you, and how long you hold off on playing him. You are probably going to want to be playing the new Seven Masters event foundations, Kunlun Clan Assault, and a healthy spattering of other low-cost events to make sure you have plenty in your smoked pile (Unexpected Rescue, anyone?). Remember that, unlike Che Gorilla, his Fighting isn't fixed, so he gets bigger for every event that you play, and doesn't get totally hosed by blanking abilities (Larcenous Mist et. al.). The real saving grace, is that in a four-player game, Jade Fox has a good chance of coming out for free, just at the time when he is going to be big enough to make a difference. |
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Kunlun Clan Assault This foundation is revolutionary -- it's the first that is not a character or site. The ability itself is under-powered (compare to Mark of Fire, which is very balanced in my opinion). The power of this card is in providing three separate resources, of which DNA Mage and The Junkyard are the only the only foundations to due so. This is a card that will take some time to figure out how playable it really is, but it does create some possible new splashes for Magic and Chi (not to mention the Seven Masters). Kunlun Clan Assault is also going to be of help if you are trying to make this set's Stances work for you. |
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Li Mao The mature version of this master out-shines his Dragon aspect. He has a couple of obvious combos -- if you draw him with Unexpected Rescue or Surprise Surprise, you can choose to make Li Mao immune to the faction of the event, which means he is going to stay in play at the end of the attack/turn. Even if you don't pull off that trick, you can make him immune to the most dangerous faction sitting at the table. He's also got conditional superleap, but it's much more under your control than Red Master's. Kunlun Clan Assault makes a great discard for this ability, as to a lot of the utility cards you are going to be playing. |
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Monkey Fools the Tiger Expect this card when playing against someone with two Seven Masters' resources in their pool. I expect to be checking for that one power to give, and it will give me second thought before attacking. That said, it's still not as good as the old standards, but it is take out. It's not a targeted effect, so you can stop the Gunman and his ilk, but since it's damage redirection, CHAR is going to be a problem (isn't he always?). A way to think about this card is in comparison to is a hypothetical "Small Nerve Gas" that gave the controller of the target 1 power. |
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Monsoon This Master is very playable, but you are going to want to play him with some way to boost his damage. Some type of weapon seems to be obvious, and with that boost, he is going be able to pick off those back-row utility sites (Whirlpools). Pao Yeh Pao Lo Mi is another possibility for that quick damage boost. Being uncommon, combined with his low cost and resource requirement, are going to make him the most accessible of the Seven Masters. |
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Occult Kung Fu This is the Seven Masters' Training Sequence, but with an interesting gravy ability. I don't think Violet Senshei Chamber and Soul Diver are played often enough for most people to realize that the ability is strong -- and Occult Kung Fu is differentiated in that you copy from your own Smoked Pile, not your opponents', so you have much more control over it. I expect to see this card crop up from time to time in some funky dual faction decks -- what exactly it will do it's hard to predict, but it will do something. Note that the Seven Masters faction does not have a lot of good stuff to copy, so it's multi-faction synergy that this card promotes. |
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One Thousand Swords Unfortunately, this weapon is really useful outside of a Sword deck, and I don't think it's really that useful in one. Don't confuse this as a re-usable Mark of Fire -- it only zaps characters, and they have to share the location with the subject, so you are rarely going to be getting in all 4 points. Also, since both abilities require turning, you can't Mobility over and slice and dice. As I've said before, Mobility is not my favorite of the abilities, as it often turns you into the table-chump. |
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Pao Yeh Pao Lo Mi I'm torn as to whether this card is playable or not. It's very comparable to a Pump-Action Shotgun when attacking, but has a few extra tricks, especially when combined with healing effects. I think it's going to come down to a meta-game decision -- are there a lot of Lotus decks that you expect to go up against? Canceling that Tortured Memories can be key. Requiring Chi seems a little odd since it's really hard to get a Seven Masters' resource without Chi. Maybe ArcanoWave Pulse will make a comeback... |
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Sky Dragon He's big, he's expensive, and he kicks the teeth in on other characters (excepting CHAR, of course). You absolutely have to have event and Mentor protection in hand if you ever want to get Sky Dragon in play (I've had him Mentored away, and boy are you up the creek). Strictly a fun card, he will draw a lot of attention from your opponents, and is good in combination with Golden Comeback (as are most ultra-high cost characters) |
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Unexpected Rescue I expect this to be a defining card for the Seven Masters at the set's release. Whether Unexpected Rescue holds up in the long run has yet to be seen. This event plays a lot like Surprise Surprise, where you are hoping for a little bit of luck to make it work. Combining with come into play effects is always a bonus, so this card will mix well with other factions as well. Note the obvious combo with Li Mao -- when he comes into play, choose Seven Masters as the resource for his event immunity, and then at the end of the attack he gets to stick around since Unexpected Rescue can no longer see him. Since none of the Seven Masters characters require more than 2 resources (and some only 1), they will work well with this event. Unfortunately, multi-faction decks hurt a little because of the resource restriction. |
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Wah-Shan Clan Warriors Seven Masters' foundation. Chi foundation. Students. Not much more to be said. You will probably want 5 of these most of the time, but you might need to go heavier on the Kunlun Clan Assault depending on how you are combining factions. |
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Wondrous Illusion While this card can be powerful, the restriction of not being able to use it during an attack puts it in the iffy pile. You are going to want 3-4 sites in play to maximize rearrangement tricks, and probably some serious damage for the healing to be of use. But, I'm going to have a hard time playing this over some of the other healing events -- Beneficent Tao for example. This might work okay with a faction that has lots of stupid site tricks like the Purists. |
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Wudang Monk Boy I wish this card could copy Unique characters -- then you would actually play this card to do stuff. Right now, I'm finding it a hard sell to include this card in a deck over another copy of the character I wanted to copy. Sure, your opponents may have something worth copying, but just as often they wont. I like Occult Kung Fu much better because it lets you combine abilities for cool synergy. |
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Wudang Mountain At first glance, this Feng Shui Site seems strong. And I think it is. The only Seven Masters' character that it doesn't work with out of the box is the Wah Shan Clan, and a little Occult Kung Fu or some other fighting booster makes them eligible. Wudang Mountain plays like a mini-Rend Chi, but without the location and about to enter combat restrictions. With a solid 8 Body, I expect to see this played fairly often as the 3rd FSS for anyone running the Seven Masters. Note that being a Feng Shui site is also a drawback (as well as an advantage) -- it's going to cost you in terms of power over a regular FSS if you can't maintain a larger site structure. |
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Wu Man Kai The Master of Wudang Mountain is a game finisher, but a costly one. He reminds me of the Dark Future version of Rhys Engel. Where he is going to kick-ass is on all the X fighting characters -- discarding any card to smoke them is to prove randomly useful. |
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Boundless Heaven Sword |
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Celestial Stance I'm not sure if Superleap is worth 1 power -- I guess it is, but how often do you see Flying Kick? Chi provides the Superleap, but a lot of the hitter in your Chi providing deck are already going to Superleap anyways (e.g. most of the Seven Masters). Magic provides the blasting ability, but it's a tad expensive to use (2-4 power to smoke a character, plus the 1 power to play the state). Of course, it's a big deterrent after a burn for power when you got the ammo to protect the location of the subject. The resource requirement is light enough to play in any deck that can support the Seven Masters. |
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Invincible Stance This card can be very strong, if you have power to spare. Not that you have to spend the power, but you have to have the power as a threat. This card works great after a burn for power -- you have an invincible interceptor guarding at least one of your columns. What really restricts this card is the resource requirement -- It's going to take a while to see what combination of factions really work for this resource requirement. |
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Lunar Sword On a medium sized character, this is likely to get you +2-3 Fighting, and +3-5 Fighting on a serious hitter. Without a gravy ability (like that on Sword of the Dragon King), I don't think Six Dragon Sword pulls its weight. I think it would work best some sort of Can of Whupass deck that you've worked Magic into. Sure, the Seven Masters get nice big bonuses from this weapon, but they don't need it, and you're always going to want another Fortune of the Turtle for any of this card when building your deck. |
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Phoenix Stance While this card has an okay ability, the resource requirements are very high, making it difficult to fit into many decks. Also, there are already a fair number of 0-cost states that seem a little better that I never seem to fit into decks (like King on the Water). Another problem is that most of the characters that this would be played on probably will have a good evasion ability or immunity, and won't need the Regenerate. |
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Solar Sword Here we have an improved Really Big Gun, but with a few tricks. I expect to see the occasional Solar Sword deck, but I'm not sure how well it will work. You need a Magic resource for the this weapon, and most of the Swords characters are in Chi factions. It might actually make the old Swordsman resource character playable in limited situations. |
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The Celestial Eye If you can wait a few turns, this card can be devastating, blasting entire columns. But, if your opponents give you the time that the Eye needs to get going, they are chumps. The Eye has a reasonably high resource requirement, and it's fragile nature means you are going to want to play it on a character that is going to stick around. In a weird way, Amulet of the Turtle is very comparable (and possibly better) at dealing out some damage and punching through. |
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Buddha's Palm This is a very specialized event. It is 0-cost character take out, but it has another potentially hefty price of toasting cards from your deck. I think this will be best in those decks where you are using Chi for support (such as Blade Palm) without heavy usage (such as Healing Earth). The Seven Masters splashed with any faction but the Hand should achieve this, as will a light-Chi Hand deck. I think this will do best in 80+ card decks, where you are only going to have a couple of for that added punch through. Watch out for Hackers, who seem to know the counter-move for Buddha's Palm. |
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Invincible Earth Sword Dreck. See Boundless Heaven Sword. Or don't. |
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No Shadow Kick This card plays almost identical to Shadowfist. It's strong, but vulnerable. The best use of this state is to play it on Wong Fei Hong for free, but I think that was kind of the point. If you use it to attack characters, be prepared to have your attack fail as No Shadow Kick will smoke the target before you get to combat damage most of the time. |
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Shung Dai This old monk knows how to kick butt. Not only is he okay in dueling, I think he's going to be good in multiplayer. He's best as a speed card, and if you can get him out on the second turn (using Proving Ground like in a TurboCHAR deck), he's going to be hard for your opponents to stop. Even mid-game he can be okay against a player who has a larger site structure where you can exploit interceptors to trigger Shung's abilities. |
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| None in this set. |
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Unaligned |
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The Swords Unite |
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Jade Palace of the Dragon
King |
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Mountain Fortress |
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Thousand Swords Mountain |
1 so that it could be played with the counters
from We Have the Technology.
,
which makes a nice second resource, but you are still going to need a
foundation for the first. Of course, none of the Seven Masters' cards
need more than two resources, so that reduces the need.
