Master's Advance SITUATION - While this card is in play, your opponent must discard a dodge for each dodge he wishes to play. Master's Advance is perhaps the most powerful card in the original Movie Edition. It is debatably the most powerful of the generic Master cards, although Master's Stratagem can give it a run for its money. Game mechanics questions. Multiple Master's Advances do not stack. Whether your opponent has one Master's Advance out or six, you discard one dodge to "pay" for one dodge. Master's Advance is perhaps the ultimate anti-dodge card. Challenge/SE is more reliable, but it affects both players. Lunge from Watcher's Chronicle is more potent, but can only be used with basic attacks. With Master's Advance, unless an opponent wishes to use Focus, they must lose a dodge to play a dodge: it's that simple. Which means one less dodge the next time they need one. Focus will let them keep a dodge as they ignore the Master's Advance. But that's small comfort against a constantly attacking opponent. Against multiple Master's Advances it is easy to run out of Focuses, or simply determine that it is useless to try to "Focus out" of the effects of your opponent's Master's Advances. Master's Advance works with practically any type of attack deck. It is particularly effective when used with any of the following cards: Dirty Tricks, Slash, Master's Attack, Ranged attacks, power blows, Kiss Your Butts Goodbye, Mountain Cave, Dust Storm, Flurry Strike, and Trip/Standard. These are all occasions when an opponent is going to want to play dodge cards. One thing I have observed is that when using Master's Advance, you probably do _not_ want to use other cards that limit your opponent's ability to play dodges. For instance, if you use Catwalk, Master's Advance actually gives opponents a chance to discard unusable non-Back Away dodges. This is a _bad_ thing: if they can't play those Evades, Ducks, Dodges, and Master's Dodges, then those cards take up space in their hand. Which means they can't draw new, more useful cards. You _should_, however, use cards that force your opponent to discard dodges. These cards include Kiss Your Butts Goodbye, Watcher/Hunter, Stumble, and Caught in the Act/ME. If they have fewer dodges, they can't pay the price demanded by Master's Advance. And if they can't pay, they can't play. Master's Advance works well with decks that rely on disarming an opponent. If an opponent loses her weapon, she can only play dodges for defense. Master's Advance quickly makes them run out of dodges. Combine with Lunge when you make your basic attacks and they'll quickly exhaust their supply of dodges. You can also combine Master's Advance with Ruins, particularly if you plan on making lots of Hidden attacks. This limits their ability to play 6-9 grid defenses, and 6-area Guards as well. You might actually hit someone with a Hidden attack or two. At the very least, you're more likely to folks like Amanda, Duncan, Nakano, or Connor from Duck/Jumping and getting their own Hidden attack. And finally, Master's Advance is the perfect card for an end-game. The way that the Highlander CCG is structured, you want to reduce your opponent to zero Ability. This gives you one last chance to attempt a Head Shot, when they have no cards in their hand. In this case, they must Exert for a defense. If they draw a dodge in this case, they can't play it. Why? Because they have no dodge in their hand to discard! A disarmed opponent, who can only play dodges, simply loses her head at this point: no escape is possible. So who should use Master's Advance? Practically anybody who plans on attacking. Personas who use Power Blows (Slan, the Kurgan, potentially Kern, Kalas, Duncan, and Connor) should consider it, combining it with Lunge. Annie and Amanda, who can count on keeping an opponent hopping with dodges, should probably also use Master's Advance. Any other Immortal who is counting on making Hidden attacks and/or Power Blows should consider using Master's Advance as well. So overall, Steve gives Master's Advance a _9_. It's a very powerful card, boosted by the errata'd version of Katana. Combined with Lunge, it can spell the end for many dodge-types who casually just tossed in six of each dodge that they had and ran circles around you. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - One of the first universally-acclaimed "cool cards" from ME. However, it has seen a bit of a lessening in the meantime, due in part to the general cooling off toward Situations during the ME era and now Lunge in the WC era. Still one of the better generic Master cards. Hank - Very useful card for swordfighting decks. There are some Master's cards which see more use in my decks, but this one's used a lot. Alan - One of my favorite Master cards. Useful for those multi-attack decks, and against Amanda. It's a rare deck of mine that can't find room for one or two of these cards. Jim - A great anti-dodge card. It is well worth using even though it takes up a Master slot. Great anti-Amanda and any dodge intensive persona. Wayne - One of the better Situations for attack decks. It is now more powerful with Katana's ability being re-errata'd. Prodipto - This is almost a no-brainer for a Master slot, particularly if you're using Slan or the Kurgan. Dodges are too valuable a commodity to allow people to play willy-nilly. A Master's Advance will force your opponent to either spend a Special (or an Exertion) getting rid of it, or resign themselves to losing a lot of dodges. Unless my strategy requires my Master Slots to be filled with something else, one of these will usually go into any deck I build. Allen - Don't have room for Master's Advance in your attack deck? Check your Master's slots to see what you can get rid of. This is a great anti-dodge card. Once you pull all the dodges out of your opponent's hand then they can't dodge at all. It's also an almost required tool for slowing down those nimble types. Bruce - Formerly very high I my list of cards, with the advent of Lunge, it just seems to be a way to let my opponent cycle. It can be useful if you want to take your opponent's head after knocking them to zero. Ratings Overall: Steve 9 Jeff 6 Hank 7 Alan 8 Jim 8 Wayne 7 Prodipto 10 Allen 9 Bruce 5 Average: 7.67 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Immortal Wound SITUATION - Play in your Attack Phase. If none of your attacks this turn are successful, discard Immortal Wound immediately. For each Immortal Wound you have in play, your opponent must discard a card at the end of his Draw Phase. This seems to be one of the most misunderstood cards from Watcher's Chronicles. It's also often overlooked. What this seems to mean is that everyone I talk to either has no idea it even existed, or thinks it does something different than how it actually works. So game mechanic questions first. Here's the sequence of play. The person using Immortal Wound plays it on their turn. They don't have to play an attack as well. However, as we'll see below, it's pointless not to. Being the only Special you can play and still attack, you do not play any other Specials that turn. You may play Edges such as Flashing Blade and Lunge as normal. Now we go to your opponent's next turn, and his Defense Phase. He defends against your attack(s) normally. If none of your attacks succeed, the Immortal Wound you just played is _immediately_ discarded. Other Immortal Wounds you or your opponent already _have_ in play are not affected. If even one attack you made succeeds, the Immortal Wound you just played remains in play. Its effect occurs starting with your opponent's current turn. At the end of his Draw Phase, after he has drawn or discarded normally, your opponent checks the number of IWs you have in play, and must discard that many cards (of his choice). His turn then ends. Immortal Wound doesn't care what kind of attack(s) you played the turn you play it. Dirty Tricks, Pistols, Flurry Strikes, etc., all count as a successful attack for the purposes of whether IW stays in play or not. An attack doesn't have to do damage to be "successful." Thus, healing and damage-prevention cards used against the damage of your attacks will not prevent the attack from being successful, and Immortal Wound will remain in play. Immortal Wound specifies "each" Immortal Wound, and thus "stacks," having a cumulative effect. Despite the implications of its name, Immortal Wound is a Situation and can be removed via normal methods. Yep, the Police are more than glad to fix that nasty scar on Kalas' neck. So that's what Immortal Wound does. How do you use it effectively? The main obstacle to playing Immortal Wound is that, as the only Special you play during your turn, you have no other Special-based way to augment the attacks you make. No Seduce-Amanda/Immortal Wound attacks for you. So what you need are other ways to augment your attacks. These can include Lunge and (if you are somehow making multiple attacks) Flashing Blade, and inherently limited-defense attacks such as Riposte, Flurry Strike, and Pistol. Situations and Locations that you already have in play that limit or restrict defense play (Master's Advance, Catwalk, Dead End Alley, Factory, Battlefield) are also useful. The other downside of Immortal Wound is that, like Kalas' Persona ability (Persona of the Month #9), your opponent can actually _benefit_ from its effects. Your opponent can choose to discard useless cards at the end of his Draw Phase. However, if you're using Immortal Wound, you're probably using unblockable or undodgeable attacks, so he won't want to discard those Alertness cards. Certainly, forced discarding can help some type of decks (non-attack decks discarding attacks, for instance). But it can also hurt other, tighter decks. It is pretty much useless against anyone using Nefertiri or her Quickenings, of course - another downside. So who should use Immortal Wound? Those Immortals who can make multiple attacks (only one attack needs to succeed, remember), and those who can best hit with a single attack unaugmented by Specials. Slan and, to a lesser degree, the Kurgan are good at making Power Blows and then using Lunge to make them virtually undodgeable. If you've deprived an opponent of Ancestral Blade and Continuity, you can gain some additional benefit if your opponent cannot or does not wish to Exert for a Power Block. Or you can extra reason to Exert for that Power Block. If he takes two damage and uses Dr. Sonny to prevent, the attack is still successful, and Immortal Wound remains in play. Personas who can make multiple attacks without playing a Special (Amanda, Kern, and Annie Devlin, and Yung Dol Kim and Nakano after The Gathering release) have a better chance of getting a single attack through, using Flashing Blade as necessary. If two or more of those attacks are Flurry Strikes, the chances of success with at least one attack are greatly improved. Connor, Nakano, Amanda, Duncan, and Fasil are fairly versatile at tossing off Hidden attacks without playing a Special (due to Duck, Jump, or Persona ability). A Hidden Lunge attack made in conjunction with Immortal Wound, backed up by anti-dodge Situations and Watcher/Involvement, has a good chance of hitting. Xavier, Fasil, and Connor are good at making unblockable, undodgeable attacks without playing a Special. Although Immortal Wound to some degree mirrors Kalas' Persona ability, it is probably not a good choice for him. He can use Dirty Tricks with the best of them, but otherwise lacks a good way to successfully make an attack without playing another Special. The main factor to consider when using Immortal Wound is whether it is worth your time to use your one Special per turn playing Immortal Wound. The penalty early in the game is not particularly severe, unless you can successfully keep in play several Immortal Wounds. Xavier is useful here (thanks to Forethought protection). Later in the game, against an opponent with a lowered Ability, the cumulative effects of Immortal Wound can be painful. If you have five Immortal Wounds down, and they have an Ability of six, they'll start to feel the pain. However, typically this author is of the opinion that you are better off putting in cards that are useful throughout the game, rather than cards that are _only_ good in the end-game. If you're wasting space in your deck using end-game only cards, you'll be less likely to get to the end-game with an Ability advantage in the first place. So overall, Steve gives Immortal Wound a _2_. It's a so-so card, really only useful in the end-game when your opponent is low in ability and low on cards that can effectively deal with multiple Immortal Wounds. If you are using a Situation-heavy deck _and_ have the ability to successfully make attacks, it might be worth a look. Still, there are probably better cards to choose from. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Immortal Wound is a card that had such promise... but wound up being very lame. It _should_ be a Kalas-specific card limited to three that doesn't require a successful attack. What will it work in? A multi-attack deck, maybe -- except that they're going to be busy playing better cards. An unblockable/undodgeable deck (Fasil springs to mind), which likewise will have better things to do. And even if you manage to keep the Wound in play, it's useless against Nefertiri and her discard Q. My recommendation: let your kids put them in their bicycle spokes. Hank - Immortal Wound is a mostly useless card. It can only be played with an attack, but it relies on the attack being successful to even stay in play, let alone have any effect on the game. I'd much rather be spending my time playing cards to _help_ my attacks be successful, or other cards to further a particular strategy. Immortal Wound is too easily vanquished to further anything. Alan - A good card back-up card to have in case you make unsuccessful attacks. Particularly complements Kalas' Persona power, as he will be able to cause his "power" to kick in whether he makes successful attacks or not. Not a card I would generally include, however. Jim - A fairly useful card for aggressive attack decks. Vulnerable to anti- attack strategies and not overly powerful. A good card for Kalas and also anyone capable of routinely making multiple attacks. Wayne - I feel that any card which lets your opponent choose which cards to discard from his hand is pretty much worthless. Prodipto - Immortal Wound is a chancy card. If you play it and can't get an attack through, then it will have no effect whatsoever. However, if you can get it out and keep it out, you have an ongoing drain on your opponent's resources. This card should definitely _not_ be used for lock decks, since it gives your opponent a chance to cycle cards out. Kalas can make excellent use of this card since it complements his ability well. Others who can benefit really include anyone who can make multiple attacks in a turn without having to play a Special, since the more attacks you play, the more likely you are to get things through. The uncertain nature of Immortal Wound would lead me to a certain amount of trepidation in playing with it, but if my strategy is to keep my opponent's hand size down, I'd use it in a pinch. Allen - This is a neat card, but very difficult to use. It takes up your Special slot for the turn, and then goes away if none of your attacks is successful. Unfortunately, most of the best ways to make a successful attack is to play them in conjunction with a some sort of Special. You can't do that and use Immortal Wound. You must keep this in mind and build your deck around Immortal Wound. If you can keep a Lighthouse in play and make two Slashes with a Flashing Blade after you block an opponent's attack then you are in a good position to use an Immortal Wound. Similar concepts can be utilized. Once you get it into play, Immortal Wound can be nasty to your opponent. Bruce - Immortal Wound is difficult to play successfully. Once you have, your opponent gets free card cycling. It seems only useful as part of the endgame, particularly when hunting heads. There are generally better Specials available. Ratings Overall: Steve 2 Jeff 2 Hank 3 Alan 6 Jim 4 Wayne 2 Prodipto 4 Allen 4 Bruce 3 Average: 3.33 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Security Guard SITUATION - Play on any Situation/Object in play. If your opponent attempts to remove a Situation/Object from play, discard one Security Guard assigned to that Situation/Object instead. If the Situation/Object leaves play, so do all Security Guards assigned to it. (Restricted to 3 per version) Well, here's our first in a series of The Gathering card reviews. As with many cards, Security Guard helps to protect certain cards you may wish to keep in play longer than is typically possible. Game mechanics questions first. A Security Guard that is the target of Focus is turned face down and has no effect on play, as is normal. In the case of a Guarded Situation targeted by Focus, it is _not_ considered to have been removed from play. So if the Situation is Focussed, the Security Guards remain on it. By the same token, Security Guard/Sit will not protect a Situation from being Focussed, since Focussing does not remove the Situation from play. Security Guard/Object is much more straightforward. It protects the Object. In the case of both Security Guards, if any and all Security Guards attached to a particular Ally or Object or Focused, that item can be removed with impunity. So that's how they work: what can you do with them? In general, don't use Security Guards unless you are using other Situations as well. As Allen notes below, three Security Guards and no other Situations means an opponent can easily remove them with the typical Police/Remove Sits which might otherwise clog his hand. Ditto for Focus. As of the release of the Gathering, there are 17 Ally/Situations. Of these, (Carl, Garfield, Jack Donovan, Rachel Ellenstein, Dr. Anne Lindsey, Hideo Koto, Joe Dawson, James Horton, Lt. John Stenn) are discard-to-use, or otherwise easily removable, and may not be worth protecting. On the other hand, some are more powerful and thus you may want to assure they stay in play long enough for you to use them. This can be particularly important for Dr. Lindsey, Hideo Koto, Dawson, and Horton, who may not become useful until later in the game. You may very well want to try to keep them out until you need them. Of the other Allies, some are just not that impressive (Tessa, Louise Marcus, Brenda Wyatt). Avery Hoskins can be useful in a forced-Exertion deck. The rest may prove useful to specific strategies you may design. If you think keeping that Ally/Situation out is important, put in some Security Guard/Ally cards. Situation/Allies are rarely Persona-specific, so which Personas should use them is dependent more on the particular strategy you devise using them. If Duncan is using a forced-Exertion strategy, then he should consider using Security Guards to protect Avery. And so on. Security Guard/Object's importance is clearer. The recent addition of Hogg gives an Object that you seriously want to keep in play as long as possible. Ancestral Blade, now Restricted to 1, is also an Object that you will want to keep out. New The Gathering cards like MacLeod Bagpipes, Skull Helmet, Trenchcoat, Corda and Reno's Flying Machines (particularly Wings), and Forged Armor further demonstrate that Objects will continue to increase in quantity and quality. So who should use Security Guard/Object? Any of the Personas who can use the Objects just mentioned: either MacLeod, the Kurgan, Corda and Reno, Khan, Amanda (who needs Ancestral Blade worse than practically anyone), and Kern. Kern and Corda and Reno in particular should use Security Guard, since Hogg and Flying Machine/Wings cause ability loss if they are removed from play. Hogg has forced more people to use Misfortune, and Flying Machine/Wings will further enhance that trend. Security Guard lets them both avoid the ability loss, and keep the Object in play. If you use a deck that has generic Objects, you'll have to decide whether some or all of them are worth protecting. Having a Security Guard hold your Trenchcoat can assure that you're able to continue attacking your opponent while avoiding some lock strategies. Even Watcher's Chronicle and Watcher Database can prove useful if you want to target an opponent using a Quickening, and you want to put a particular Nemesis in play. Assuming you were lucky enough to have that particular Nemesis in your deck, of course. So overall, Steve gives Security Guard/Ally a _6_, and Security Guard/Object a _9_. They are both useful cards, but as Objects become more prevalent, and if some remain as powerful as Ancestral Blade, Hogg, Flying Machine/Wings, Skull Helmet, and Forged Armor, it will be important to keep them in play using Security Guards. Allies will hopefully also become more powerful as more expansions are released, and thus be worthy of protection. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - [Ally] Eh. This card means that you get to keep your generic Forethoughts from ME2 (editor's note: Lt. John Stenn) or your Avery Hoskins in play even with Police. Does little good against Simple Mind, given that the Security Guards are Situations, too. Less powerful than its cousin. [Object] Icky. As if Hogg wasn't bad enough, now we have a garage for it to stay out of the elements. =( Also helps with Ancestral Blades, etc. No longer will you be able to play just one Misfortune or Thief in a deck. Mark my words: this is the card that will drive Hogg into errata. Hank - Powerful cards, especially in tournament play, with certain cards being limited to one per deck (Ancestral Blade, for example), Security Guard is very useful for supporting your cards. Alan - (Ally) Great card to protect those precious Carls, Dr. Anne Lindsay's, etc. Should see more and more use as more and more Ally/Situations become available. (Object) Must-have for any and all decks that use and/or rely heavily on Objects (especially Kern, Khan, Richie). As more and more Objects become available, this card should see more use in more and more decks of different Personae. Jim - A great pro-Ally card. This card will become more useful as the number of Situation Allies grows. As for Security Guard/Object, an essential card in any Object-heavy deck. Khan should definitely use this card. Wayne - (Ally) This cards simply serves as an extra layer of protection for Situations. Not very useful in today's environment of Renee Delaney lock decks being played everywhere, but may be a somewhat better card in the future. (Object) Great protection for Hogg, Ancestral Blade, etc. This card could possibly be used effectively in some decks. Prodipto - Abstain Allen - (Ally) ME2 will provide us with a influx of cards allowing Police to remove more than one Situation, and all Situations with the same name. Given this new wrinkle, Security Guard/Ally will become very valuable to Ally-using decks. Its use is fairly straightforward, and with the release of ME2 will often be more useful than simply playing another of the same Ally you wish to keep in play. [Object] A good boost for Object-using decks. Given the presence of Thief, simply playing a second of any Object is never a good way to ensure that you keep one in play. Besides, with many Objects you can only have one in play at a time anyway. The use of SG/Object is obvious. However, the standard Situation warning applies. If you use this card you must also use other Situations, and hopefully use ones that your opponent will want to remove. Otherwise all you are doing is giving your opponent an easy way to unclog his hand of Police and Focus. Bruce - With the availability of Precinct and Detective Walter Bedsoe in ME2, I find using a Situation to protect another Situation an odd concept. The use of a Situation to protect an Object, however, is another matter entirely. If your opponent does not remove your Object immediately, they need a more versatile deck to accomplish their goal. Ratings Overall (for SG/Ally and SG/Object, respectively): Steve 6/9 Jeff 4/8 Hank 8/8 Alan 7/8 Jim 7/6 Wayne 5/5 Prodipto N/A Allen 5/7 Bruce 4/7 Average: 5.75/7.25