Secret HQ
art (c) Mike Trap
While not as bad as the previous two sets (Sixguns & Shuriken and Two-Fisted Tales), Critical Shift falls short of the goal of reinventing Shadowfist. For those of you who don't know the history, CS was originally intended to be a new base set comprised of a majority of reprints and as a new block. Well, as the popularity of Shadowfist has been steadily declining this type of set has become financially unfeasible, and the game has moved to more a fan-supported model with sporadic expansions, and this is what CS has become.
While CS has a few interesting cards, it's nowhere near the high-water marks of Dark Future, Red Wedding and Seven Masters vs. the Underworld, which had well-received new factions (The Purists and Seven Masters). This set attempts to make the new faction introduced in Sixguns (The Syndicate) playable, but at least in our neck of the woods, the Syndicate has fallen flat -- they feel more like a gimmick to sell packs (look kids, a new faction!) rather than integrated part of the game that has been well thought-out and have something new to offer to the game. If you were expecting another Seven Masters, don't hold your breath.
We also have a new boldface ability this set, Influence, which was best described as 'meh' by a friend of mine. While it's probably better than Tactics, it's fragile and poorly thought out for the Syndicate -- a lot of their characters have combat abilities and Influence is basically Stealth, so you are nullifying your own powers.
If a lot of the cards in Critical Shift feel familiar, it's because this set is almost entirely composed of recycled cards and abilities (and even the new Influence is really turn to give stealth). And when you add the large set size along with the increased box price, this set becomes more of a luxury than a must have (our group is down to 1/2 box per player, from the usual 3-6 boxes in TW-7M era).
I'd like to end on at least a little bit of a positive note -- here are my picks for top 5 Critical Shift cards:
#1. LaGrange Four
#2. Reprints (Sacred Heart Hospital, Bull Market, Shadowy Mentor)
#3. New Foundations (Rebel Without a Cause, Wailing Apparition, Bush Pilot,
ArcanoMoth, Kamakazi Cosmonauts)
#4. New Sites (Palace of Virtual Light, Hot Zone, Hydroponic Garden, Iron
Palace, Rainforest Ruins)
#5. Triumphant Heroes
Simon Johnston writes in:
Generally I agree, Critical Shift isn't a particularly good
set. Though all my comments should be taken with a pinch of salt - I've hardly
played since the release of 7M.
There seems to be a trend in CS of making events that cost
too much when compared to the classic staples of Killdeer, Brain Fire,
Confucian, Imprison, WTMN etc.
I don't see any reason while all of the following couldn't
cost zero (though I didn't playtest):Delay the Inevitable, Echo Distortion,
Howling for Blood, Temporal Anomaly and Catching Bulllets.
Wei Chen writes in:
Longtime reader here. I have always enjoyed reading your card reviews, even if
I don't always agree with your evaluations (and isn't that the nature of
opinions?). Since you're again inviting commentary with your batch of Critical
Shift reviews, I thought I'd bite
Matt Wooley writes in:
While I agree with a hell of a lot of your assessments – in
particular the accusation of retreads - I think that generally speaking you are
unjustly harsh. Compared to a lot of past expansions CS seems to deliver a
fairly consistent level of playable (albeit not outstanding) cards.
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Arcanomoth Holy Moths Batman! Here we have the 3rd generation 2-cost Abomination foundation character, and it's not half-bad. It gives you tech, which you are likely to want for those Neutron Bombs, and, late game, you get an average hitter capable of taking a site when needed (or some tenacious D with their toughness). I can see dropping a couple in most any deck, although you still need to slot a couple of Loyalty Officers just to be safe. And if you missed it, Arcanomoth is an Abomination, so you have all those tricks going for you too. |
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Frenzy Engine Here we have a rather poor variation on the old standby, Arcanowave Reinforcer. Sure, it costs 1 power less and requires one less resource, but it's really gimped. Notice that there's no surprise factor -- the Engine has to be in play when you declare the attack.
Wei Chen: |
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General Gog I feel kinda iffy about the General here. I like the ability, but I don't think this was the right character for it. In a lot of end game situations, Gog is effectively going to have no ability. The Tactics/Unturn/Re-attack is going to be more useful mid-game when there are more columns and targets available. Ideally, this is an ability you want to somehow copy (as a surprise) to have fun with. Your best hope to attack one site with overwhelming force (which usually prevents interception), then unturn Gog and hold him back on defense. Would this card have been too over powered if they just gave him Independent?
Wei Chen: Matt Wooley: |
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Geoffrey Smythe This looks to be somewhat of a utility character that might find some room in certain decks. At 3 resources, don't expect to see him early, and even with Smyte's good ratio, he's more of a defensive character. While he's not going to replace Whirlpools, he can give you the edge in a cancel battle. While this is a hybrid-Purist card, the high resources make it unreliable in a heavy two-faction deck.
Wei Chen: |
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Howling for Blood This is another fine example of the Nerve Gas/Imprisoned problem -- does this 1-cost event stack up to them? Well, uhm, not really. I'm not sure that Howling is that interesting in even a limited format, as you have to target an Abomination to get you money's worth out of this card. |
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Jigsaw Beast While I'm not sure that this card is overly powerful, Jigsaw Beast is mildly interesting. As you all know, in the early sets Ambush was almost always over-costed (except for a few characters like Midnight Whisperer). This abomination is always going to have more Fighting than cost, albeit with a diminishing ratio -- he's most efficient at 1-cost. You are probably still going to want +damage effects if you really want to take objectives. The reload is also of some potential use -- not just to get him back, but it also gives you another answer to someone stealing CHAR if you don't have a Loyalty Officer in hand. |
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Melting Flesh Squad Well, at least they improved over ArcanoRats in that the Squad doesn't cease attacking if other attackers are removed, but still, this can be a huge drawback. Yes, Guts is good, but you don't want to be saddled with 100 Names when you really need a hitter. Probably the best way to make MFS work is to play with Bouncing Benjiis, that way you are assured of drawing a character you can play every turn, but it's going to hurt when you have only 3 power and need to play this card when you have no other characters in play. Wei Chen:
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Nanovirus Here we have a twist on Inexorable Corruption (and we all know how good that card is). This time, it's only good for characters (and while Inexorable could target characters, it seemed to hit sites the few times I've seen it played). As straight character kill, it's got a little use, especially early game if you can zap a 2-cost foundation, but playing the wait-game for Nanovirus past the start is going to cost you tempo. Once in a blue moon you are going to be able to virus a regenerator or cancel a healing trick, but you can't count on that being an everyday occurrence. I put Nanovirus in the chaff category -- you have room for a few cards like this in your deck, but you don't want to overload.
Wei Chen: |
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New Recruits Here we have another card for the Soldier deck -- sure, they can always affect just themselves, but then you will be losing 90% of their effectiveness. Toughness stacks, you can get multiples of the same designator if needed. This looks to be best for getting your small Soldiers through your opponents foundation characters. A couple of caveats -- the toughness is only against characters, so you can't do something cool like choose the designator Brawl, and your General characters don't gain the toughness, so you don't gain the punch-through on those hitters. |
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Panzer X Here we have a little more juice for all those Tanks decks out there -- right? The card to up and up compare it with is ArcanoTank, which is a favorite of mine. Power-wise, I think it's just a tad-under -- I'm a huge fan of the ArcanoTanks turn ability to "shell" characters at the subjects location. Don't get me wrong, Panzer X's "shell" ability of doing 2 damage to the target of the subjects attack is also quite good, but it's purely offensive where ArcanoTank has defensive use as well. Of course, Panzer X costs only 2 power to play, which is significant, but it also costs Tech, which limits its splashability. |
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Security Officers New and improved for the Cop deck. I've played the old one time and time again as they are a 1-cost foundation for my Cop decks, and now they are only better. Throw in a Police Station or two, and they can be quite formidable. Wei Chen:
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Squadron Leader Holtz This is probably the best Architect card in Critical Shift, but it's been a pretty weak batch. While you can do Soldier tricks with him. Holts should be a nail against certain factions and decks. The ability is pretty obvious -- scan the board for things that he immune to, and go to town. This should include most big characters -- the ability actually states "cards" but I don't think there are many non-character cards that do damage and provide more than 1 resource. Add in a gun or a tank, and Holtz could become unstoppable if the stars are right. This card is good enough and priced such that it can be thrown into any Architect deck.
Wei Chen: |
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Anubis This is one of the worst of the ReAscended. He's pricy, and you need to do some tricks to get up his fighting. Yes he can get really big, but he starts out at 7, which is 1 shy of the magic number. And he's also going to eat 1-fighting characters for lunch, but that's not going to get you ahead if you don't have healing. The onerous resource requirements just make Anubis unattractive in comparison to Raven Li, who is a game winner all on her own, without requiring a lot of setup or having to keep her around to benefit. Wei Chen:
Matt Wooley: |
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Black Helicopter Squad A 3rd 1-cost Pledged character? What were they thinking? Oh wait, it's bad. As you can see, they tried really hard to balance BHS considering it comes out for free with Family Estate. So, we wind up with a somewhat nasty character on defense, and maybe some extra damage on offense. I think the deciding factor for including these over The Pledged and Student of the Bear is going to be your hitter make-up, but I think it's still iffy.
Simon Johnston writes in:
Wei Chen:
Matt Wooley: |
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Bull Market ERRATA Now that this is uncommon, expect lots of people to be trying it out as there will be plenty in circulation. The errata is the nice big LIMITED restriction, which does neuter some of the crazy recursion decks, but the card is strong in the right deck. |
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Everything Falls Apart To steal from RoboCop -- I LIKE IT! If you've been reading my thoughts over the years, you know I favor sharks over turtles, and this is as sharky as you get. And the Ascended is the perfect faction for it with lots of 1 (and 0-cost) characters, along with card drawing effects. Yes, this is going to help your opponents generate power, but you were going to steal the power/characters anyways, right? And since you know that people are going to be attacking, you take extra advantage of it by playing cards that trigger off of attacking (such as Blessed Orchard, which has a few timing issues, but is still decent). Remember, this card will accelerate the game, and make sure your deck takes the most advantage of it.
Wei Chen: |
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Feral Regression While not as bad as some of the cards that have been printed, this is definitely on the junky card. Feral Regression is dual purpose -- it gives you a 1-cost permanent Larcenous Mist (that doesn't cancel States), and it could give some of your characters a Fighting boost. But, and there's a big but here -- it's going to blank your own character too, which can be a problem. You can build a deck with bad characters like Fist of the Bear and Charge of the Rhino just so they don't lose much when you Regress them, but then you are a loser anyways. Okay, you got me, I will give out props whenever I see 13 Fighting Unpoken Name (old school of course).
Wei Chen: Matt Wooley: |
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Freelance Platoon More low-ish cost goons for your Pledged deck and Family Estates. Not much to say, other than it's very playable. I am still a huge fan of Gruff Lieutenants, which are cheaper, but Freelance Platoon does draw you cards, which the type of deck that this goes in will burn through. |
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Habbakuk This card is too much of a trick horse for me to get excited about. Its high cost and medium body make it a pricey toy that's going to be hard to keep a hold of. And it requires 3 resources, so don't expect it early. A must is ID Chopshop to make sure your extra foundations get the bonus. The most efficient bonus will be on lower cost characters, such as Sting of the Scorpion. not hitters like Senior Ocho who are over-costed to begin with. Wei Chen:
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Hit Squad Gangsters that are not Hoods --what's up with that? Here we have a semi-improved version of the never-played Muckraking Journalist. It is a ramp character, and it's lack of designator matching can be useful if you are fearing a Discerning Fire. For this card you need to be on top of the timing rules -- remember the active player has the first opportunity to make a declaration on their turn, so you can't turn a character to prevent it from attacking if it's already in play (assuming the active player did not declare another effect). What you can do is turn a character in response to it entering play, negating it for that turn. Of course, Operation Killdeer pretty much negates a character for a turn at 0-cost...
Wei Chen: |
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Reascention Agenda PROMO This is a novelty card that really doesn't help much of anything. It's Faked Death (with is decent when combined with Family Estates) and protection against Discerning Fire, which I guess is sort of okay since the Ascended have a lot of common Designators (cough Pledged, cough Lodge). But, since this card requires Tech, it's really hard to play, and I don't think it has enough bank for it's buck to be worth playing.
Wei Chen: |
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Reascention Spy I guess they are giving this out to try and make up for the nerf to Shadowy Mentor. Trust me, you still want Mentor. At a pitiful 1-Fighting, this guy is going to be too vulnerable to be used as more than a 1-shot. And it's not an unconditional take conrol effect like Tranquil Persuader, who doubles as a Kinoshita House. I don't know how much you've played Mr. X, but this is more along his power, which is quite questionable. Wei Chen:
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Secret Plans for World Domination Here we have another interesting card that is trying to affect game play. A long standing problem has been that burning sites is almost always preferable to seizing them (which is being offset a miniscule amount by the new return from attack rule, but our group has always played that way, so I honestly don't think it will have much impact on the game). As for the Secret Plans, they look to be reasonably playable. You are going to want to drop them right before and attack that you are going to seize, so you get their cost back and the search. Afterwards, it's gravy. Of course, if you're a savvy Ascended player, people will be seizing your sites fearing the bite. But I still there can be a little juice in this card -- who knows, you might just search for Contingency Plans! |
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Shadowy Mentor ERRATA If you missed the errata, all that changed in the cost, which is now 4. I playtested this version to death, and it's still broken. All it does is force you to play a tighter deck, saving your power for Mentor instead of playing other cards. This is not the fix that was needed.
Wei Chen: |
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Soul of the Wolf Here we have a ho-hum state that's going to let you take sites every now and then. Surprise Stealth is good, and this card makes a nice 1-of as a surprise, but if your opponents are wary, it's much harder to pull off to effect (especially compared with the overly-amazing Op Killdeer). |
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The Unspoken Name NEW While not Adrienne Hart, the new Unspoken Name does pack a little punch at the potentially ridiculous ratio of 3-cost to 8 fighting. It's really hard to control auctions, but doubling up on unique sites in your deck might give you a chance to pull of some unturning, but under the new rules (you can't play duplicate uniques you control), this is somewhat hard, and can cause your deck to stall. If you really want to trigger his ability, you are going to want to play a lot of unique sites, with doubles of a few of the best sites, and wait on your opponent (which is hard to control). There is also Master of Disguise from 2FT which triggers auctions, and seems to be a reasonable combo, which should be more opportunistic (as long as you have a spare foundation character AND 1 power to start the auction).
Wei Chen: |
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Bush Pilot While not overly excited about this card, it's one that I can see sneaking a 1-of into a variety of decks. Mobility generally slows down the game, and if you can get this guy buffed up a little by a State, that might do you a little good, but the real power in Bush Pilot is being able to launch an attack against a back-row site. This is a great way to get past some defensive monster like a Temple of Angry spirits to the softer meat inside. Wei Chen:
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Homicide Detective You should have been able to tell at a glance that this card falls into the "iffy" category. Yes, he's kind of hard to intercept, but that just means he's going to draw Event fire and Site based denial. This card is sort of like the Water Demon that no one plays. And as for the extra card drawing ability, I'm not sure it's an advantage as much as a disadvantage -- sure Homicide Detective is going to be harder to intercept, but you've just spent 1 power (non-trivial) and you've probably given your opponent's 9 cards to stop you with.
Wei Chen: |
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Julienne Wong Well, there are a ton of 4-cost 6-Fighting Toughness:1 Dragons that have good gravy abilities. Julie's gravy ability is to gain additional toughness for additional factions. So, you are going to want a solid 2-faction deck with some extra traitors in it like Jason X, Bei Tairong and Wu Ming Yi. That way you will pretty much get to Toughness:2 mid-game, and Toughness: 3+ late game, where this card will start to look above the curve. Copying this ability is worth bonus points -- Rig Dis could easily get Julie up to Toughness:6. Not a really outstanding card, but very playable with some deck building around her. |
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Lenny Wu Here we have another "bleh" card, with an ability that is worse than toughness:1 90% of the time. The only time that it really matters is when combating a character with exactly 5 Fighting -- in this case you will trade. But honestly, this guy is so much worse than Tom Donovan (who was a promo and was widely available) that I can't ever see putting him into deck, save maybe as a 1-of in a Dragon Cop deck.
Wei Chen: |
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Li Han Well, here you have someone to lead all your Triumphant Heroes. A nice little addition to Undead Kids, even if he is sort of boring. I guess Li Han can also lead a horde of Students in the Iala Mane' (new) deck. The tag leads one to wonder who the first and second greatest martial artists are. |
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malloc() I'm not really sure how useful malloc()'s second ability is going to be. He is going to be able to nail maybe a couple of characters or a site, but not reliably. malloc() gets better against mono-faction decks, and when you happen to have multiple opponents sharing factions. Two items of note -- you can pick any resource, including a Talent to cancel, and, you can Dragon as your resource which does work as it's not a continuous effect and resolves before it can cancel itself. |
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Muscle Car Here we have another entry in the cycle of 2-cost 3-Fighting States with a gravy ability, and this one looks to be a gooder. Not only is it okay on it's own in a pinch, but it has some useful designators and can be combined with Tank Warfare and Chopshop for some cost reduction. I just looked over the list of cards that interact with Vehicles and Tanks, and Muscle Car makes a great compliment to them. |
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Sidekick This card is a little goofy, and sort of a reverse Street Fighter (who's pretty much a coaster in our area). I guess it all comes down to what you are copying with Sidekick -- if you copy something bad, he's kinda bad, but if you are copying say, Big Bruiser, then you may just have something. This is strictly a fun card that you trying to build a goofy deck around, and while Sidekicks can't copy each other, they can both copy the same character. And while you're at it, try and include Wing of the Crane in the deck so you can trigger Sidekicks as a surprise.
Wei Chen: |
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Smugglers Yet another ramp character for the Dragons, and I don't think I like this one as much as the previous three. Chinese Doctor is amazing, and Scrappy Kid and Consumer on the Brink have good offensive potential. Smugglers just kind of sit around, waiting to be turned for a 1-power rebate -- yawn. Wei Chen:
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Stunt Driving This is sort of close to that Hand event who's name escapes me and no one ever plays. Since this doesn't have as many restrictions, it's more playable. And isn't there some over-costed Dragon Event or State that gives Ambush that no one ever plays? Well, this is better than that too. Mostly you are going to use this to take a site, but don't overlook the techie play of using Stunt Driving on an opponents character that is in combat with another opponent's character to create a situation where both will be smoked. Simon Johnston chirps in: Wei
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Three Days to Retirement Yeah, we get the joke and have seen this shtick in movies. This card is just plain bad, especially given the timing rules. It can't be played in response to an effect because all targets are chosen at generation... AND... effects can still zap your characters in response to Three Days entering play, as it hasn't resolved yet. And while this State tries to consume all effects, remember they have to be legal, so during an attack you may be out of luck if the subject isn't attacking (and if it is attacking, it will probably just get removed by interception). This is probably worse than even Final Sacrifice, except for maybe the resource requirements. Wei Chen:
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Triumphant Heroes Ugh, can you say even more broken Dragon recursion event? While there are a few silver bullets, this card is stupid good. Yes, this card does encourage you to play more expensive foundations, but recurring them for free over and over again (and don't forget you are recurring Triumphant Heroes with Fighting Spirit) is going to be a nightmare. |
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Zheng Yi Quan Good thing they made this card as playable as Kar Fai, or we'd be having all sorts of headaches trying to figure out what exactly happens with all those Feng Shui sites. And for those of you who fail to see sarcasm, Kar Fai isn't playable. While they tried to word it as best as they can, we found that during playtesting there were just odd situations that came up in trying to figure out who can do what with which site. Yes, shutting down all opponents FSS sites is good, and yes, being able to use opponents sites is also good, but it really isn't worth 7 Power in most situations. Wei Chen:
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Box of Bones This is sort of funky in how it plays -- it can effectively negate healing, or if you're lucky, turn into a character smoking machine. In a way this card is Underworld Presence, as opponents are unlikely to heal when they are going to be hurt by it. To make up for this, you can make sure you have a few ways to heal cards in your deck so as to pull out the damage as a surprise. Box of Bones can make for some pain in a Regeneration deck, but you may find that opponents are more unwilling than normal to throw damage on your regenerators.
Wei Chen: |
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Cannibal Army The flesh-eating horde doesn't thrill me as a foundation. As strange as it seems, I kind of like my opponents playing sites -- it helps the game progress along, and I like targets on the board. Not providing magic is a big killer for the Cannibal Army. And if you want to get cute, can you try to add the Demon designator to pump up your Bloody Hordes.
Wei Chen: |
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Cannibal's Banquet They keep making more of these piddley Lotus power generating events, but face it, it's going to be hard to ever find a card worthy to replace Pocket Demon and Glimpse of the Abyss. What hurts this card is the round down -- it's a deterrent to playing 1, 3 and 5 cost characters, and I don't like boxing myself into that type of deck construction limitation. You can try out the Banquet, but you might fight it's more like McDonalds than Sardi's. |
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Cloaca While playable, Cloaca suffers from the problem that he doesn't do anything very new or interesting. He does gain protection form all Events, so you can combo him with your own Neutron Bomb if you have has the power and surplus character. But, the protection doesn't extend to States, so you are going to have to sacrifice Cloaca himself to avoid Mentor. Simon Johnston writes in:
Wei Chen: |
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Demonic Alliance This is the promo card for the next set, but this time with some rules text (which is going to reduce the confusion of the past). Power wise, it's pretty vanilla, but time has shown Regeneration to be useful. This is sort of a multifaction card -- Regenerate is a signature ability of the Lotus, and they have plenty of cards with the ability -- you don't need Demonic Alliance unless you are running a second faction (mmm... adding Regenerate to one of the Seven Masters would be tasty!).
Wei Chen: |
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Haunted Again this is a variation on cards we've seen before, but it seems marginally playable. At least Haunted can target any type or card in play (even Edges), which makes if more flexible. I guess that if you're playing Haunted, you are going to want to Reload it every chance you get, but be careful when dropping in on a site, as opponents can make use of the extra damage. For cool points, try making a Haunted Haunted Forest. |
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Petal's Attendant They really loaded up this 3-cost foundation to try and make it playable. It sort of feels like Sting of the Scorpion, but toned down. Since you're playing the Lotus, you are most likely going to be loaded up on Magic and should be getting the +1 Fighting bonus (but watch out for the Purists and Monarchs). Assassinate is, well, assassinate. It's a good ability, but not great, but is nice to include in a deck just in case you have to take out a pesky utility character. Now it comes down to the plink -- does it put the card over the edge of playability? Not quite. The card has 3 useful designators, and I think Petal's Attendant will be best used when you sprinkle a few in a deck that is going to take advantage of the designators. You can also try the Attendants in the Cave Network deck, but our group knows how to play around the card so well that it stagnates (although Cave is still a great 1-of as a surprise factor).
Wei Chen: |
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Sewer Demon Here we have a sort of baby Seven Evils, a card which sees occasional play in our area, and garners a modicum of respect. As always, the sacrifice ability is a deterrent to Mentor, and unturning is high on the scale of useful abilities. Be sure to watch any opponents playing Sewer Demon to make sure they don't try to sacrifice any characters brought back to play with Inauspicious Return. Wei
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The Hand of the Underworld The Hand is heavily combo dependent, not something I am sure you want in this early game spot. Since sacrificing your own guys is retarded (and often unavailable in the Lotus with cards like Inauspicious Return), you are resorting to the usual trick of Torturing an opponents character (which is not bad, but not really a reason to play more than 1 or 2 Hands of the the Underworld). You can also have some fun with Sites, with Ring of Gates being the no-brainer, but Proving Ground also of some use.
Wei Chen: |
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The Library of Souls This is a fairly interesting card once you break it down -- it gives you lots of choice in recycling characters at sort of an extra cost (think about it this way -- the Library generates 1 power, which offsets the +1 cost on replaying). The first thing to remember that they made sure you can only bring back Lotus characters -- no recycling of Displaced or other bad things. And since Library brings them back with no new restrictions, you can use this card to fuel your sacrifice deck. And it can be used every player turn, so if you can get a burn for power in, your opponents may think twice about attacking you if they know you can bust something out. The Library also gives you a way to keep your character-based combos going. And on a final note, your opponents won't be getting much use out of it, as they are unlikely to have Lotus characters to replay.
Wei Chen: |
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Twelve Thousand Skulls At 2 power, this Edge is pricey -- our game has a lot of Edge-hate, so you have to weigh the pros and cons of any expensive Edge. For 12K Skulls to break even, you need to get about +4 Fighting out of it. And you need to have a character that makes a good recipient for the bonus. There are some games where this is going to fizzle, and others where you will be rolling in Skulls -- it's somewhat dependent on what everyone has brought to the table. Since you don't have much control over your opponents' decks, you should put a little extra emphasis on character zapping in your when you're running a few 12Ks -- magic for Fires or pairing with Architects /. Dragons should give you some extra chances to proc this Edge. Simon Johnston adds:
Wei Chen: |
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Wailing Apparition This is a fairly useful foundation, that can even get a little boost from Twisted Gardens (an oft overlooked site). It's up to you as to whether you want to hold them back unturned as they can be turned in response to a healing effect to cancel it before it resolves.
Wei Chen: |
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Xin Ji Yang This princess is clearly quite bitchy. Xin has a potentially useful, but that in itself probably wont win you the game -- you will need some follow up to make sure you grab up the weakened sites, not an opponent. This card looks like it was made for the Celeste Carter deck (which also tries to keep lot of Magic cards in play). Poofing out 3 Sinister Priests with an Auspicious Return will give you extra firepower, as well as a little extra defense as Xin Ji Yang is weak when not attacking, and has a high target priority due to her offensive ability. |
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Accupressure Master Here is another mid-range hitter that I am just not too excited about. It's playable, and pretty fierce in a limited environment (sealed or draft) if you can get it out, but Accupressure Master is just crying out for copy trix with Rigorous Discipline. Of course, the Hand have access to some top-notch healing cards, so this second-rate-at-best healing ability will probably fizzle out when you need it the most.
Wei Chen: |
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Black Belt Rebels These guys are deceptively bad. Unless you are playing cards that improve on the designator Rebel these are a 3-for-4 that has no ability when they are in play. Yes, at some point they are likely to trigger, but it still costs you 1 power each time, which can add up. Black Belt Rebels are in no way to be confused with Underworld Tracker who's amazing and near-broken. This card will clearly do best in a Rebel deck where they can protect your Black Flag Rebels On the plus side, remember that you don't have to intercept with the Black Belts when you do pop them back, potentially setting you up for an attack.
Wei Chen: |
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Cheng Hu Bai Even though he can be hosed up by your opponents, I kind of like Cheng. He's got a great cost-to-Fighting ratio and a top-notch ability in Superleap. Now you gotta figure in the back-row site wackiness. Attacking them is good, and 7 damage is often enough, but, you are unlikely to get in any more attackers because he does not share his ability, so States or a Rig Dis will get you some extra gas. Speaking of Rig Dis, you can always try to pull of the 100-Names trick if you only have front-row sites. Now your opponents could try to neutralize Cheng Hu Bai, but then they are spreading out weakening your defense -- while I don't suggested trying to make a deck around this card, it's a fine inclusion as a utility/surprise in any deck that can expect to field 3 Hand resources by mid-game. |
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Crane Stance In case it wasn't obvious at first glance, this is about a 60% Operation Killdeer for the Guiding Hand. On your turn it does almost everything Operation Killdeer does (but in reverse since you play it on the target of the damage, not the source). Out of turn, it's acts as a moderate deterrent if if you previously dropped it on a character. And yes, there is always Superior Mastery for some ultimate jank. Simon Johnston points out: Wei Chen:
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Iron Hands Ma Not much to say about Iron Hands other than he's a mini-beat stick. He's good against foundations, and is at least an annoyance for mid-sized characters, taking a pretty good bite out of them. What keeps this card from going into most decks as a no-brainer is his lack of a Chi resource provision -- probably a good thing seeing the general power level of this card. |
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Elephant Stance Well, we all know how good Armored in Life is (it's not, in case you didn't get the sarcasm), so this card needs to be a serious bump to be worth consideration. This card has a built-in drawback of working best on cards that provide a lot of resources, and the majority of the time, they require a lot of resources. Yes, you can probably get Toughness:3 out of this, but at what cost?
Wei Chen: |
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Master Yuen Is anyone else getting tried of all the Toughness:1 that seems to be thrown in this set? Master Yuen has Superleap most of the time, but at the cost of denying you the turn-abilities of your site. He's not bad, but he's not that interesting. Note that a Whirlpool of Blood can shut him down, which is going to limit him somewhat. Simon Johnston
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Orange Divination This card is novel in that you finally don't have to worry about the Hacker check. And it's not going to be thinning your deck by removing cards (which has mixed blessings). Still, this gives you a chance to get the best 2 cards out of half a dozen or so by mid game, assuming you are running heavy Chi. For maximum effect, be sure to pack your deck with trash cards, and remember, you have to wait a turn to get them, so this card is effectively -1 hand size until your next turn when you draw it. |
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Shaolin Saboteur Woo! A new ramp character (ramp is what our group calls a 1-cost 1-resource-requiring character, as it can ramp you up in resources early game). This one looks kinda nasty early game, as a way to pick off opponents resource characters at no real cost to yourself. You drop this guy, and hopefully turn him right away to to target another turned character (preferably controlled by the player to your left), and let the fun begin. Even if you can't get the next player, there is some chance that your Saboteurs will stay alive as they have an interest in keeping other players down. Note that there is also a small bit (but not an incredible) amount of goofiness you can do with unturn effects (usually control changing ones like Shadowy Mentor, Tortured Memories and even Shaolin Hoedown). |
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Taiko Drummer So, if this card were a 2-cost event, would you play it? Being a character means it's a little bit harder to cancel, and it does have the advantage of being able to play when you need a small character, not to mention you can Rig Dis it for extra tricks. Yeah, you can try and do crazy Student tricks with it, but I find it hard to find this more than a funky addition to deck that you can't count on, but might just get you a win in a pinch.
Wei Chen: |
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The Inner Garden Not much to say about this site other than it's quite playable. It's Uncommon and non-Unique, so getting multiples shouldn't be hard or hurtful. It only goes in a couple of variants of the Chi-State deck, but it should help out in them out a little. And it's got all the mojo of being a 2-cost 1-power generating Non-FSS that isn't of much use to opponents. But don't make the mistake of thinking that this is going to make terrible Chi States like the Paths playable -- you are playing cheap Fortunes of the Turtle along with the other top-notch Chi States. Don't overlook returning a State to your hand -- it's a great way for some card economy.
Wei Chen: |
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Zhu Maichen Here we have another funky attempt at getting damage through --somewhat like the Water Demon. Zhu makes interception potentially painful, but it's not guaranteed, as opponents control triggering, and get get out of the way in a pinch. The card is best end game when you have some waxy character build up, but at 6 Fighting is likely to do more damage to characters than to sites. |
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Ape Shall Kill Ape I hope you all know how to play bushwhacks by now, and this one seems okay-ish. Blanking sites is good, just hope it's not your site that gets Aped. Also note that this card can target non-Feng Shui Sites. And any 0-cost Faceoff gives you a chance for some out of turn Character kill in a pinch. |
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Botzilla Yet another variation on the giant Jammer monster -- pay a lot of power, and attack attack attack. Designators are pretty off on this guy, so don't expect matches, but at 4 Jammer + 1 Tech resource required, it's going to be hard to get Botzilla into play. Wei
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Bouncing the Rubble This is a nice little card to throw in almost any Jammer deck. It's free, and if it lasts, you can get a pretty good trick out of it -- from softening a site for you to take to denying a win by blasting a site to the Netherworld. It's not a card you can really count on, but it makes a good potential threat. Also, it could draw some Edge hate away from a Payback Time or Entropy is your friend. |
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Cyborg Mermaid This card is all about bad combos. For just straight up damage, you can do a lot better for yourself then just 5 or maybe 7 Fighting Guts for 4 power. You are playing this card to plink (and possibly destroy) your own sites. This type of deck can sometimes be fun to play (for yourself) but will invariably lead to a long drawn-out game that bogs down. Note that you don't want to be playing with Dragon Mountains and Diamond Beaches -- sure they negate the plink, but you are wanting you sites to burn when you play Cyborg Mermaid, right? Well, I guess you try Fortress Omega too if you are going the crazy toughness route.
Wei Chen: |
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Kamikazi Cosmonauts Not much to say about this new Jammer foundation -- it's one cost, and has a potentially useful ability. Immediately means that it cant be turned in response. And with their uncommon designators, the Cosmonauts are unlikely to get you Discerning Fired. While I'm not a huge fan of Frag the G! this is a foundation you are going to want 5 of when playing it (and it probably any deck you are trying to get mileage out of Monkeywrenching in). |
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Project Apocalypse The Project adds yet another to the slowly growing list of alternate victory conditions. This is not a casual card, you are playing multiples of it in a deck designed to protect it. I say that because if left unprotected, and opponent can seize it, creating a real problem. Well, I take some of that back -- you could play this card as a diversion, and while your opponents are bickering over it, try to mount some serious FSS attacks, but then you've potentially flushed 3 power down the tubes for Project Apocalypse. Note that this site is copyable for what it's worth, and there might be some really goofy combo out there.
Wei Chen: |
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Rebel Without A Cause This is the most interesting meta-game trends that we've seen in years -- when added to cards like Sacred Wigwam recursion is in danger of going from broken to just amazingly good. After much fiddling, they've got Rebel Without a Cause pretty balanced so that it's not a complete no-brainer and splash-tastic. This card isn't going to shut down decks the way Hacker can (since there is so much recursion), but it can put the breaks on -- I view this card much like I do Loyalty Officer.
Wei Chen: |
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Reentry Squad This card is somewhat amusing but is more bad than anything else. On the plus side, it has a moderate chance of grabbing a site for you, but on the minus side, Reentry Squad is unlikely to stay around for more than 1 turn. This is really a take someone down card, not a get yourself ahead card because if you do reduce a site's body to 0, you are most likely burning for power just to recoup what you spend (and lost) on this card.
Wei Chen: |
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Safety Third! First off, I'm assuming you're not playing Aztec Pyramid, because if you are, you have a goofy coin flip deck anyways, and it's packed with all sorts of sub-optimal cards. Safety Third! can be really good if you win/stop a win with it, but it's too random to be as dependable as other stoppage.
Simon Johnston raves:
Wei Chen: |
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Silverback If you can keep this card in play, and if you can manage to still have some power, Silverback can be somewhat of a beast. Your numero uno task after plopping down 5 power for the Monkey Leader will be to burn a site for power -- this is what is going to set up your defense (a little like the Mouth of the Fire Righteous who likes to burn a site for power and sit behind his 3 pt damage ability). Now of course there is somewhat of a problem with this card -- what faction has no trouble generating power and loves to take control of opponents character? The Ascended you say? I know it's over-paranoid not to play cards because you are afraid they will get Mentored, I just wanted to point out that it's going to suck really really bad when Silverback falls victim... |
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The Gimp Time has shown Cancelling to be a sold ability that often gets overlooked when building a deck since it's so reactive to your opponents. Unfortunately, the Gimp is a little gimped when it comes to his cost-to-fighting ratio. As this card is a promo, I'm pretty sure it wont see much play. His ability is purely offense, so he's also gimped when you're on defense or don't have a good target to attack. |
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Turbo Boost Again we have a pretty vanilla card -- free mobility and a little bit of Damage boost -- not excited, and nowhere as cool as Death-O-Rama. It's also a tech card, which is going to limit it's inclusion in decks somewhat. |
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Turing Machine Nowhere near the monster than Apes of Wrath are, Turing Machine fills that niche where you'd kinda expect a card. Sure, you can build a deck around it, or throw it in some existing decks, but it's not a lot to get excited about. Yes, this a natural for a site destruction deck, but over the years I've grown a dislike for them, as they slow the game more often than win the game. |
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Burning Man This sort of falls into the category that I consider "bad card design." Why, you ask? The card is way over the curve if you just look at it without the restriction -- 1 resource 4-cost 6+2 damage? That's a site killing machine. For the restriction, there's one no-brainer that you are going to want in your deck -- Secret Headquarters. And while there are quite a few other Secret cards (including a couple of other sites and some foundations), the designers are really trying to make you play the Fire/Chi deck because of Golden Candle Society.
Wei Chen: |
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Flambards While not exciting, the Flambards are playable in almost any Monarch deck. To be extra annoying, try out a Monarch/Jammer deck with cards that trigger off of site damage or destruction. Perhaps the nicest thing about Flambards is that they will hurt your opponents when they leave play, which creates a disincentive to smoke them upon occasion.
Wei Chen: Matt Wooley: |
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Floating Teeth Combo-jank time. There isn't much to say about Floating Teeth. I can't really get excited, but to me, this is a card that really needed a gravy ability (even something sub-par like Assassinate or Tactics) to be really be playable. |
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Gathering the Fire Not a fan. Mark of Fire is such a standard and it's well known for all of the utility things it can do. Then you have Shattering Fire, which only gets better and better as the game goes on. So what do you do with Gathering the Fire? Well, I guess you hope to keep a lot of Fire cards in play (not easy to do) and hope for the best (which is probably weakening a site mid-attack). |
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Harbinger Man, they are really trying to ramp up the Secret deck. If you can get him in to play, it's a house and a half. It's mows through interceptors, and will even take down the mighy Inner Sanctum. Not that the 2 point zap isn't combat damage, so he's going to smoke any site he enters combat with it it has 2 Body or less, but you shouldn't have to worry about this too much. Notice the Tech resource, a first for the Monarchs -- I guess it fits in well with Secret Laboratories?
Simon Johnston notes: |
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Ice Blessing Wowzers -- this card looks like it has some potential. Not to mention some power gain. And double not to mention some stoppage. This card would be playable just for the healing ability -- sure, healing opponents is not your ultimate goal, but it can translate into 0-cost stoppage, and if you time it right, Ice Blessing can leave a damaged site for you to clean up. |
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Ice Carvers Ramp-tastic. Not the best healing, but it can come in handy from time to time. Wei Chen:
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Lightning Strike While this event can pack quite a whallop, it's cost makes it somewhat undesirable. It looks to be best when your metagame has a lot of waxy character buildup -- Lighning Strike can potentially soften a bunch of characters, but has the potential to draw a lot of denial. |
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Ming I's Chosen While this card can be powerful, I'm not sure it worth building a deck around, and is more of a 1-of type surprise card. The Toast-It restriction isn't that big a deal, as you are probably playing on an attacking character, so it won't toast the subject right away. While this looks like it will be good in a character stand-off, I'm not so sure about it. Chosen has the ever-shrinking-State problem -- people may just wind up throwing resources characters in the way of the Subject (as each interceptor does effetely +1 damage, making 1F characters do double damage). This is a card that needed another little oddball ability to be interesting. Wei Chen:
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Mistress of Blotted Moonlight This card has an interesting cost mechanic, but with a hitch. Mistress is a card that needs a lot of momentum -- if you are already winning, it will almost seal the win, but if you are loosing, she is a turkey. With less than 3 sites in play, I don't think it's worth playing Mistress unless you have a glut of power (say someone has played Bull Market). At 2 sites, Mistress of the Blotted Moonlight is going to cost you a hefty 6 power, which is almost right for 9 Fighting with the ability to cancel an event . But, without a punch through ability (like Billy Chow's Superleap), you are really gunning for a cost reduction on Mistress and getting her out for 5 power, which is something that is on the difficult side in our metagame (keeping 2 columns in play until the start of you next turn). |
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Rogue Shaper Here we have another mini-beatstick. Mobility is just a throw-on ability (but a little extra defense for the Monarchs). Otherwise, this is a much more playable Duodenum (and all the deck-tech of playing Duodenum apples to Rogue Shaper). And since this bad boy doesn't have an elemental designator, he can safely (and probably should) go any Monarch deck. Wei Chen:
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Summer Fire Palace This one is not too hard to figure out -- attack and burn. The obvious combo ability is Independent, letting you burn some extra heavy duty damage, making this a pretty decent card in the right Dragon/Monarch deck.
Matt Wooley: |
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Shard of the Molten Heart While this has some limited use on it's own in protecting your Armies of the Monarchs et. al (not to mention the general usability of Edge cancellation), this is also a gimmick card for the Netherworld era Triumvirate deck. This card is probably too useful (because of the cancellation) to deserve the Promo rarity. |
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Christine Winter While this card looks okay, it's not really that spectacular. You need to be on the offense, and you need 1-cost characters to back her up. And is Mrs. Winter isn't smoked, she's just a little annoyance damage-wise (for a bunch of resources). If you want to recur some damage, Rev Payne is a league above. (While 3 Fighting seems good for 2 power, it's not really -- you need some extra ability that is more reliable to make it worth playing). Wei Chen:
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