Caught in the Act/Series Edition
Event
Target discards 3 attacks. (Restricted to 3)
Caught in the Act/SE is another oldie-but-goodie. A card
that saw at least some use in its initial release, it
seems to have been usurped by late cards. Or has it?
Game mechanics first, as always. Caught in the Act is
relatively straight-forward. It can target any player,
including the owner. If the owner targets himself, he
discards the attacks at the beginning of his next phase.
_Any_ attack is fair game. If the owner has more than
three attacks, basic, Special, non-Special, or Ranged, he
can choose which to discard. However, if he has, for
example, only one of each, he must discard all three.
And that's about it. So what use is making your opponent
discard three attacks?
Well, in this regard, not much. With the proliferation
of new attacks, and the returning emphasis to attack-
based strategies, it's unlikely you're going to make a
serious depletion in your opponent's resources. What
with Ripostes, Slashes, Pistols at R2, and more Master's
Attacks and Lunges then ever before, your opponent can
probably afford to discard his basic attacks while
holding on to his particularly important stuff. New
Weapons of Choice such as Claymore (with its Cleaves),
Rapier (which emphasizes non-Basic attacks by not
penalizing them, as well as Slices), Saber and Spear
(with their potent Slash-enhancement), Katana (also
emphasizing Slashes), and Parrying Blade (with its
Surprise Strikes and Dual Attacks), make this even more
unlikely to occur.
In short, there's no Weapon of Choice that helps a non-
attack strategy, and they all seriously strengthen
particular attack strategies. So more attacks because of
this works out to less chance that three successfully
played Caught in the Act/SE, in and of themselves, will
have a significant impact on your opponent.
However, Caught in the Act/SE can make a useful tool for
supplementing other attack-discard strategies. These
primarily include Charm/Fitzcairn, Angry Mob/ME, and
Sword to Snakes/Nakano. Proper use of Darius with the
first and last of these cards can be fairly potent
anyway. Imagine a Kern Deck that sets up the top of its
Endurance with attacks on a previous turn using Dr. Alan
Neyman or Calm Before the Storm, then plays Swords to
Snakes the next turn, Exerts for attacks, and plays
Flashing Blade. The opponent must deal with a multitude
of Hidden attacks, and most likely discard two attacks to
remove Swords to Snakes. If you've hit your opponent
with Caught in the Act/SE a time or two before that, he
may not now have enough attacks to discard to remove
Swords to Snakes _and_ keep up an offensive on Kern.
This gives Kern a chance to pull off the same stunt next
turn, with the additional advantage of playing a new
Special.
An overlooked use for Caught in the Act/SE remains to
play it on yourself to cycle your own attacks out.
Unlike Angry Mob/ME, this does not give your opponent a
chance to cycle attacks out as well. Due to cards such
as Master's Proficiency and Impale/Spear, Basic attacks
still remain potent. Nonetheless, if you have a deck
that emphasizes non-Basic attacks, cycling out basics via
CitA lets you draw to your non-basics that much faster.
This also means you don't actually have to waste turns
playing them. Combine this with Master's Stratagem,
Methos, or his Quickening, and you'll never have to play
attacks you don't want to.
While the Methos Q is probably the most reliable way to
cycle out attacks if you're playing a cheese deck, Caught
in the Act/SE can still prove useful. How useful this
strategy is, with the newly-added rule that your opponent
can discard a defense if you don't attack, remains to be
seen, though.
So who should use Caught in the Act/SE? Properly
supplemented with the cards mentioned above, CitA can
deprive your opponent of attacks, allowing you to attack
freely. Besides Kern, other Personas who benefit from
this tactic include Slan and the Kurgan, since they don't
have to worry about a hidden counter-attack. Fitzcairn
can supplement CitA with a "natural" non-Darius Charm or
three, which gives him a chance to set up attacks using
Combination. Annie Devlin and Kim, with their nine-grid
Master's Attacks that require a little extra finesse to
play against an aggressive opponent, might also want to
consider CitA's use. Paul Kinman can use the extra
freedom permitted him by an attack-deprived opponent to
play those 9mm attacks where he wishes, rather than being
limited by a block.
Caught in the Act/SE provides another "cycling" card to
Nefertiri. She can discard some or all of the three
attacks to her discard, draw back the rest, and draw
extra cards for what she discarded. In larger deck,
cards like CitA, Narrow Escape/reprint, Foresight, and
Heroic Deed can all supplement Desperation for her.
There are probably about an equal number of Immortals
that don't need Caught in the Act/SE under most
circumstances. Amanda would probably prefer her opponent
to attack so she can Jump and use Acrobat to get Hidden
attacks. Multi-attack types like Ceirdwyn (and sometimes
Kim and Annie) don't have to worry about being block-
restricted by an opponent's attacks, since they can
typically skip their first attack and play the second one
anywhere they want (although this can be expensive for
them). Amanda can also do this, without a "cost" such as
losing two cards or being successfully attack. The
MacLeods aren't particularly restricted by anything.
Kanis combines multi-attack (due to Leader of the Pack)
with attack-deprivation (due to Hound/Cornwall), so he
probably doesn't need CitA either.
Other Personas, and even those mentioned above with
certain strategies, may find a use for Caught in the Act.
So overall, Steve gives Caught in the Act/SE a _3_.
Sadly, the card becomes less and less useful as each
expansion adds new cards, and the pendulum swings towards
attack-based strategies, new non-basic attacks, Weapons
of Choice, and multi-attackers. All of these mean more
opponents have more attacks in their deck, so that CitA
has less impact on them. Still, under the right
circumstances, this card can give certain Immortals a
powerful edge.
What Our Other Raters Say:
Jeff - A card I've found surprisingly useful in sealed
deck (one time, I got an opponent's Master's Attack and
Shooting Blade while he had a Nef Seduce and a Challenge
in his hand =). Not terribly useful in constructed these
days, though.
Hank - Flushing an opponent's attacks out of his hand
might be a useful thing to some strategies. I've always
gone the opposite route... if I was attacking, I wanted
them tossing defenses, and if I wasn't attacking I wanted
their attacks piling up in their hand (with Safe Haven or
Ped/Hidden or some such). You can always use it on
yourself, but there are other ways to card cycle.
Alan - Abstain
Prodipto - While not a spectacular card, it is a good way
to force attacks out of your opponent's hand. It is very
important to beware of decks that rely on sloughing
attacks, such as cheese or stall decks. It's often worth
hanging on to that one Caught in the Act, if it forces
your opponent to hold three attacks.
Allen - Abstain
Bruce - Caught in the Act/SE is a decent card in the new
First Blood environment. It forces the stall player to
dump the few attacks that they were holding onto for
First Blood and the full press combat deck to use their
cycling just to keep attacking. A small deck with Caught
in the Acts can enter First Blood with a serious
advantage on attacks. This card is hurt by the current
environment's extensive use of cycling and Nef's powers.
Stealth Dave - Abstain
Jonathan - Though often overlooked, this card may find
new uses within the current "Attack-Environment" that TCG
has encouraged. There's nothing like the look on
someone's face when this card is played, and the only
attacks they had to discard are Killer Precision, MHS,
and Master Swordsman. The restriction number of three
is well-deserved. However, the discarding rarely hurts
unless the opponent has only decent attacks such as
these. A couple Caught in the Act, along with a card such
as Skull Helmet, can really hurt your opponent's chances
at maintaining their stiff offense, and provide a setback
to multi-attack decks. The card just doesn't do enough to
find it's way into many top-level decks.
Charles - If this card is being used offensively to
prevent your opponent from attacking, then there are far
better cards to use--such as Hugh's Charm. If this card
is being used to cycle your own hand, then there are far
more useful cards that can be used. If this card is being
used to cycle your own hand while preventing your
opponent from attacking, then Angry Mob/ME is better.
Ratings Overall
Steve 3
Jeff 4
Hank 4
Alan N/A
Prodipto 4
Allen N/A
Bruce 6
Sdave N/A
Jonathan 4
Charles 2
Average: 3.86
------------------------------------------------------------------
Cull the Weak
Situation
Tired: While this card is in play, all players must
discard two cards from the top of their Endurance for
each Special card they play. Discard this card if you
play another Cull the Weak.
Cull the Weak
Situation
Weak: You may only play this card if you have Tired in
play. Discard Tired. While this card is in play, all
players must discard two cards from the top of their
endurance for each card they play. Discard this card if
you play another Cull the Weak.
Cull the Weak
Event
Exhausted: You may only play this card if you have Weak
in play. Discard Weak. At the beginning of their next
turn, all players must discard the top card of their
Endurance until they exhaust.
We now turn, somewhat belatedly, to the first of the new
Arms & Tactics cards. The three Cull the Weak cards
introduce a new concept to the Highlander CCG: "Neo-
Plots." These cards must be played in a particular
sequence, like regular three-part Plots. However, unlike
Destruction or Unholy Alliance, each of the first two
parts have an effect on the game as well as acting as a
prerequisite for the next part to be played.
Game mechanics questions first. Despite any
similarities, Cull the Weak is _not_ a Plot, and Xavier
gains no benefit from his Persona ability when using CtW.
Nor can Kalas use Forgery with it, or anyone benefit from
using Plot Twist or Schemer. Simple Mind will have an
effect on CtW. However, Cull the Weak is immune to
Investigation and Alan Baines.
Timing-wise, the loss of cards due to the first two parts
occur consecutively with the play of the relative card.
Thus, if you played Fortune Teller, you would discard the
top two cards, _then_ look at the top six cards and
rearrange them. For Patience (with Weak in play), you
would play Patience, discard your top two Endurance
cards, and then draw up to your Ability.
Cards that are put into play by another card do not count
as being played twice. Thus, if you play Conjure, you
put an Object from your Endurance into play. However,
you don't burn four cards for first playing Conjure, then
putting into play the Object.
A card that is Focused is still present as a Situation
with a title. So if you Focus Tired, you can still play
Weak. However, Weak will still remove Tired, as per the
text on the former.
Your Cull the Weaks have no effect on your opponent's,
and vice versa. However, the same Situation's effects,
even if there are multiple copies in play by different
players, never stack. So if you and your opponent both
have Weak in play, you each discard two cards for each
card you play, _not_ four.
Tired and Weak _are_ different Situations (albeit with
the same title), so if you have Tired in play and your
opponent has Weak, they do stack. So playing a Special
requires that you lose four cards from the top of your
Endurance.
Exhaustion's effect occurs at the beginning of each
player's next turn, as a "must do" effect. This means
that the person who played it will Exhaust at the
beginning of their next turn, after their Sweep Phase.
The Exhaustion that was played will be Swept _before_ the
deck is burned through, and then reshuffled. That can be
important in terms of timing.
So that's how Cull the Weak works in general terms. More
specifically, how and what should you use it for.
While the first two parts are by no means absolute card-
playing preventatives, they do make sure that an opponent
will pay a heavy price for playing many Specials (with
Tired) or cards in general (with Weak). Playing four
Lean & Mean and three Patience cards in a turn doesn't
look like quite such a good idea if Weak is in play.
Similarly, Tired can hurt a Chessex user.
Particularly when using Tired, you want to build your
deck to specific requirements. Thus you want a deck
which doesn't necessarily rely a great deal on Specials.
We'll look at who can do that below when we look at
specific Personas.
Weak is more of a general all-round exhaustion card. It
is best used when you have a "tower" deck and want to
drive a smaller-sized opposing deck to Exhaustion before
you do. A Lean & Mean deck, if it doesn't or can't deal
with Weak, will quickly burn itself out even under the
best of circumstances. Of course, with a larger deck
your chances of getting Weak out are that much smaller.
Exhaustion is good for only one thing: causing you and
your opponent to burn out quickly. Since it is the third
part of the chain, it can be difficult to play and other
Exhaustion-type cards that affect both players (Desert,
possibly Challenge/ME and Avery Hoskins) are probably not
recommended. You could easily go past Exhaustion or even
the Weaks that you need to get down so that you can play
Exhaustion.
One of the differences between Cull the Weak and standard
Plots is that the first two "parts" of Cull the Weak have
their own effects, meaning that the mix of the six cards
you wish to include in your deck can vary considerably.
You may wish to use six Tireds, for instance. Or three
Tireds and three Weaks.
Getting Exhaustion into play is the trickiest
combination. You could hope to have two of each "part,"
and be able to play them in two straight sequences of
Tired-Weak-Exhaustion. Because of the timing for when
Exhaustion is swept, and the deck cycling takes place,
this is possible to do. However, you may find a 3-2-1
combination of the three "parts" a bit better. Remember,
cards like Schemer and Plot Twist won't help you to
complete the sequence any quicker. Assuming, again, that
you _want_ to play Exhaustion. However, regardless, you
probably don't want to have more than two Exhaustions
selected from among your six permitted Cull the Weak
cards.
This brings us to the question of who should use Cull the
Weak? This can vary a bit, depending on if you go with a
6-0-0 strategy, or a 3-3-0 strategy, or a 2-2-2 strategy.
However, typically Khan is the master of card burning and
Exhaustion. Six Tired cards, in combination with Desert
(CotW #55), can be extremely painful. The opponent loses
two cards at the beginning of their turn, and then must
either play a Special to deal with Desert (losing two
more cards due to Tired), or to deal with Tired itself
(costing two more cards). That leaves the other card to
sock them with two more cards lost next turn. Use of
Reconnaissance, Focus, and A Master's Focus can help to
get around this. However, that means those cards are
tied up and can't be used to advance the strategies their
owner intended them for.
Weak assures card loss even if Reconnaissance and the
Foci are played. What this adds up to is that Khan (or
someone using his Quickening) comes out ahead, since he
only loses three Ability when Exhausting. And
Exhaustion, of course, means that when played Khan's
Persona ability kicks in right away.
Tired, particularly six by themselves, can prove useful
if you plan to play a deck relatively low on Specials.
Personas best suited to this are typically:
1) Duncan: diagonal Slash, Razor's Edge, Master's
Block and Dodge, Leg Sweep, Master's Head Shot,
Superior Tactics;
2) Connor: diagonal Slash, Master's Block + Master's
Lunge, Master's Block + Lunge + Head Shot;
3) Slan: Master's Head Shot, and "free" Power Blowing
plus Edge enhancements like Lunge and Appel;
4) The Kurgan: "cheap" Power Blowing plus the same
Edge enhancements as Slan;
5) Fasil: Master's Lunge + Backflip, Fleche, Side
Steps; and
6) Methos: borrowed Master's Head Shot/Kurgan,
Master's Blocks, Attacks, and Lunges, Immortal
Research, Superior Tactics.
Two others can include Kern (can make multiple attacks
without playing a Special, enhancing them with Edge cards
like Flashing Blade and Lunge), and Ceirdwyn (multiple
attacks from pre-game Allies plus the same Edge
enhancements as Kern).
Personas who can play Specials early on, then play Tired
and benefit from the in-play Specials without further
Special play, can also use Tired. Ceirdwyn once she gets
some Allies down, Kanis after he has played his Hounds,
and Yung Dol Kim after he has a few Frenzy's in play, are
good examples of this.
Personas who can duplicate the functions of certain
Specials, without actually playing those Specials, can
work well with Tired as well. These include Katana,
Nakano, and Fitzcairn. As always, Nakano discarding a
Special to duplicate an Event is not considered to be
"playing" that Event, so he loses no cards due to Tired.
In all of these cases, you can set up what you need (if
anything), and then put Tired into play while you advance
your non-Special tactics. An opponent can easily lose
valuable cards playing Specials to deal with your barrage
of attacks and potential Power Blows.
It's interesting to note that in some of these cases,
Tired may help a deck while Weak can actually hurt the
same deck. Kern might be able to make his opponent pay
for playing those Specials, but if he plays Weak, he's
going to lose two cards for each attack he makes. And
since his strategy is multi-attacking, that's going to
hurt a lot.
The same applies to Personas that rely on elaborate
multi-defense/attack/Edge combos. A Duncan deck that
plays Jump, Leg Sweep, Flashing Blade, and Master's Head
Shot won't lose any cards due to Tired, but he'll lose
eight cards due to Weak.
This also means Weak is a minor defense against multi-
attack types. A Kurgan deck that plays Bloodlust when
Weak is in play is going to exhaust even quicker than
usual.
So overall, Steve gives Tired a _7_, Weak a _5_, and
Exhaustion a _2_. Tired in and of itself is a fairly
potent card in the right type of deck, and as shown
above, there are a lot of Personas it can work with.
Weak requires Tired to be in play, is much broader in
scope, and typically will probably only be of use to
those using Khan or his Quickening. Exhaustion requires
that Tired have been played, and that Weak is in play,
making it difficult to pull off. It's really only of use
in decks based on Khan's Persona ability.
What Our Other Raters Say:
Jeff - I'm not a big fan of this set of cards, since it's
pretty evident that the first two-thirds encourage
stall/"do-nothing" decks. Never the less, they do
perhaps encourage larger decks (and Khan), so it's not
_all_ bad. What I can't see is why you'd ever use the
third part.
Hank - I like Cull The Weak. It fits with Khan decks, or
non-Special decks, or decks which retrieve cards from the
discard pile. I think between Cull The Weak and Choke
we're going to see more Exhaustion strategies develop.
Not overpowering, but a good set of cards.
Alan - Abstain
Prodipto - Most valuable for Khan, the Cull the Weak
series is also good for tower decks. Many decks,
particularly at the tournament level, stay between 44-50
cards. Rapid card turnover, particularly if used in
conjunction with Avery Hoskins, and Zocchi's can
completely throw off somebody's strategy. The trick with
Cull the Weak is that, like plots, it is difficult to get
the third card out.
Allen - Abstain
Bruce - (Tired) Since this is the first card of the
series it can be played alone in the deck and is the most
likely to be seen as a result. It can be used in any
moderate size deck that is light in Specials or just as
an augmentation to other Exhaustion strategies. (Weak)
This card can devastate any speed deck no matter how big
it is. If you play a defensive stall deck, you can slow
down your opponent's strategy dramatically without losing
a lot of cards. This will likely either put you in First
Blood where you wanted to be any way, or your opponent
out of the game from Exhaustion and the inability to get
to his cards. (Exhausted) As a closer, this is a fairly
decent card, but in the current First Blood environment,
I don't actually think you will see it hit the table to
frequently.
Stealth Dave - Abstain
Jonathan - This is a fun neo-plot but probably not a very
effective one. It lends itself to one particular Immortal
very well (Khan) but few other decks will wish to use the
full set of three. The best part about these neo-plots
is your ability to use only parts of them if you wish. A
low Special deck can utilize Tired to penalize the
opponent more greatly than they are penalized. Likewise,
a deck that plays very few cards a turn may wish to use
Weak to prevent their opponent from unleashing a multi-
attack arsenal, or playing a plethora of Edges in a turn.
Only Khan has a tremendous advantage when using
Exhausted. With a bunch of healing in his deck, Khan
might be able to run you through your deck a few times
using this set, but I don t foresee it getting a lot of
use otherwise.
Charles - I like Cull a lot; especially with the Khan
persona or a tower deck; Unfortunately, this group of
cards affects all players. Fortunately you only need to
get Cull: Tired into play to annoy your opponent.:)
Ratings Overall
Steve 7/5/2
Jeff 4/6/3
Hank 7/7/7
Alan N/A
Prodipto 5/5/5
Allen N/A
Bruce 6/7/4
Sdave N/A
Jonathan 3/3/2
Charles 6/7/5
Average: 5.43/5.71/4.00
------------------------------------------------------------------
Gypsy Lover
SITUATION
During your turn, randomly select a card from your
opponent's hand, look at it, then return it to his hand
(errata'd text).
Gypsy's Curse
SITUATION
While this card is in play, when using any Gypsy Lover
you have in play, do not return the card drawn from your
opponent's hand until you have drawn a card for each
Gypsy Lover you have in play.
Gypsy Camp
LOCATION
While in the Gypsy Camp, any card with the word Gypsy in
the title that is discarded from play may be placed on
top of the owner's Endurance instead.
With the introduction of two new Gypsy-related cards, now
seems like a good time to not only evaluate those cards,
but the older Gypsy Lover as well.
Game mechanics questions first, as always. Gypsy Lover's
effect does not stack. Gypsy's Curse remedies this by
not only letting you draw once per Gypsy Lover, but
assuring that you don't return any cards to their hand
until you have used drawn once for each Gypsy Lover you
have.
Gypsy Camp targets both players. The person who is
forced to discard a Gypsy is the one who chooses whether
it does or does not go to the top of their Endurance.
So even with the boost from Arms & Tactics, of what value
is Gypsy Lover?
Well, probably not much initially. Looking at one card,
or two card, or up to six cards per turn once you've put
six Gypsy Lovers and a Gypsy's Curse in play, is probably
not of huge consequence against your opponent.
Of course, having multiple Gypsy Lovers in play without a
Gypsy's Curse is of little use, since they don't stack.
Gypsy's Curse helps to minimize this problem to some
degree, by assuring that the cards drawn due to Gypsy
Lover remain separate until all Gypsy Lovers are used.
However, even then you still only know six of the 15+
cards in their hand.
This knowledge shouldn't be underestimated: knowing
approximately one-third of their hand can be useful.
Cards such as Asgard and Pyramid can give you much
greater knowledge, however.
The problem with those cards is that they target both
players, and Pyramid is a Location. If you want to use
Pyramid reliably, typically you'll have to forego the use
of other Locations. If you use Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's
Curse, you can devote your Location resources elsewhere.
And of course, your opponent won't be looking through
your hand.
Where Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse shines is later in the
game, as you have (hopefully) whittled down your
opponent's Endurance. At this point, that approximately
one-thirds of his hand that you are looking at has now
become one-half, or perhaps even one hundred percent. At
the point where you have lowered him down to six Ability,
your knowledge of every card in his hand can be critical
for pulling off a win.
The antithesis of the Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse
combination is Simple Mind, which will sweep the board.
If your opponent does this, there's not much you can do.
Even Gypsy Camp does you little good. It may let you
recover those lost Gypsy cards, but you are still unable
to play them.
On the other hand, if you supplement your use of these
two Gypsy cards with other Situations, and your opponent
does not use Simple Mind, it's very unlikely your
opponent will target the Gypsy cards. If nothing else,
Gypsy Lover's original reputation helps to assure that it
is perceived as a weak card, not worth targeting.
We mentioned your Location resources above. Gypsy Camp
isn't necessarily critical to your use of Gypsy Lover or
Gypsy's Curse. Indeed, against the worse Situation
remover, Simple Mind, it is of very little use
whatsoever. However, it can certainly assure that
against most other strategies, you can keep those Gypsy
cards back.
This recycling of Gypsy cards does point out the main
problem with the Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse strategy.
That is that it takes _time_ to build up. To be able to
get down six Gypsy Lovers, and a Gypsy's Curse, so that
you can look at six of your opponent's cards per turn,
you need to spend seven turns playing Special. Short of
cards like Desperation and Dr. Sonny Jackson, you won't
be playing any other Specials during those turns.
So who should use the Gypsy cards? Those Personas who
have other ways of looking through your hand, or gaining
knowledge of cards that are going into your hand, can
gain a somewhat greater benefit. Kane always knows at
least one card that you draw, for instance: Gypsy
Lover/Gypsy's Curse may tell him six additional cards.
However, he may also end up drawing and seeing a card
that he knew you had because it was on the top of your
Endurance last turn anyway.
Methos, due to Immortal Research, can keep fairly close
tabs on your deck using the Gypsy combo. Kalas, thanks
to Insurance/Situation, can do something similar if he
can inflict damage. The Gypsy combo also means that he
can get a somewhat better idea of when to play
Insurance/Event. Remember, once the combo is down, it
requires no further play of Specials. Kalas can look at
six cards in his opponent's hand each turn. If he
doesn't see any blocks among those six cards, it may be a
good time to play Insurance/Event, hoping that he can
inflict some damage or Ability loss.
Although we don't review it here, the Gypsy Event can be
used (and thanks to Gypsy Camp, reused) to keep tabs on
your opponent's hands potentially every turn. The
problem is that this requires you to use up your Special
slot each turn. On the other hand, while a card like
Pyramid is much more effective, with Gypsy your opponent
gains no knowledge of your hand in exchange. Still, this
may be of some use to those Personas who function well
without playing Specials.
So overall, Steve gives Gypsy Lover a _3_, Gypsy's Curse
a _4_, and Gypsy Camp a _1_. Gypsy Lover gets a strong
boost from Gypsy's Curse, and setting up the combo early
in the game can pay off with big dividends later on.
Gypsy's Curse is critical to the effectiveness of Gypsy
Lover: otherwise, don't bother including the latter.
Gypsy Camp strikes me as pretty much of a waste. It can
help with cycling discarded parts of the Gypsy
Lover/Curse combo. However, at that point you're talking
about a pretty commitment of Special playing. It can be
used to recycle Gypsy and keep tabs on your opponent's
entire hand. However, this pretty much ties up your
playing of Specials full-time.
What Our Other Raters Say:
Jeff - What's worse than a lame card? Three lame cards
that don't do a lot in combination. Gypsy Lover has
little use beyond sealed deck. Gypsy's Curse makes it a
bit better... but why would you waste two Special slots
on these? Gypsy Camp became the worst Location when the
cool Gypsy-related stuff was pulled from A&T for space
reasons.
Hank - I've never thought of Gypsy Lover or Gypsy to be
particularly useful. Gypsy's Curse and Gypsy Camp are
supposed to make them more so... but I still haven't
really gotten psyched about building a deck around them.
Methos looks at your hand with an Edge, not an Event, and
taking a card at random (even holding onto it for awhile)
isn't that gross.
Alan - Abstain
Prodipto - (Gypsy Lover) While Gypsy Lover can give you a
very small amount of insight into what your opponent's
cards or strategy may be, it hardly warrants the space in
a deck. Being able to look at one (random) card in a hand
of 15, or even 10 is relatively useless. Until your
opponent's ability is down around 5 or less, Gypsy
Lover's ability is not worthwhile. And by that time, you
hardly need her help. (Gypsy's Curse) While this card
make Gypsy Lover a little more useful, it's a hard card
to put into a deck with limited space. Even with the
increase in the size of decks which will be triggered by
Arms and Tactics, I'd think very seriously before taking
space up with they Gypsy's Curse/Gypsy Lover combo.
Pyramid will accomplish some remarkably similar effects
(albeit for both players), and provide the added bonus of
being a Location. (Not that I'm an advocate of Pyramid
either). (Gypsy Camp) Well, if you're dead set on a
Gypsy strategy, you might as well put this in your deck.
Of course it can be a real hindrance if you're trying to
draw other cards, or make an Exertion. On the other
hand, it will let you keep putting your Gypsy cards in
play.
Allen - Gypsy Lover has never gotten much play. By
itself, it simply isn't worth the deck-space or your
Special card slot for a turn. Gypsy Curse helps here
by allowing your Lovers to "stack," but IMO this still
isn't enough to make the combo worthwhile. In the
end-game the combo becomes more effective, but you've
spent lots of special cards setting up for the end-game
while your opponent has been busily _knocking_ you to the
end-game. Gypsy Camp can help the above combo, and
improves the use of Gypsy. Seeing your opponent's
_entire_ hand every turn can be quite useful. Mix this
with Upper Hand and you've got a useable strategy.
Bruce - (In general) A Gypsy deck would be an interesting
concept. I must admit that I have not tried it, but think
it would have little likelihood of being successful. The
ability to probe their hand lends itself to a variety of
strategies and Gypsy Camp's ability to leverage your
Gypsies and delay exhaustion could be very useful.
Another batch of fun and interesting but impotent cards.
(Gypsy Lover) While it can be quite a good card to have
out in the end game, especially with others and a Gypsy's
Curse, you are likely to otherwise be in a bad position
if you took the time to put these out. (Gypsy's Curse)
This certainly seems to make Gypsy Lover a far more
useful card. However, the time it takes to get out enough
Gypsy Lovers to make it really useful puts a serious
crimp on things. (Gypsy Camp) This is certainly the card
that makes Gypsies interesting. It is Location defense
that allows significant leveraging of your other Gypsies
and some degree of exhaustion protection.
Stealth Dave - Abstain
Jonathan - (Gypsy Lover) Just doesn't offer much of an
effect to warrant taking up space in a deck. Seems like
an extremely passive strategy. Better to waste a turn
playing Gypsy/Event and see their full hand. (Gypsy's
Curse) Oh boy, the Gypsies offer you a chance to do some
cycling as well! You can draw a few cards and get to see
some of your opponent's cards as well. Again, a passive
strategy that really seems to be a waste of deck space.
These Gypsy cards might be some fun in a theme deck, but
I'd be extremely surprised to see them in any serious
deck. (Gypsy Camp) Just a silly Location to play with,
unless you have no others. The number of usable and
productive cards with the word "Gypsy" in the title are
extremely few. Best use would involve use of Gypsy to
constantly look at your opponent's hand without allowing
them to see yours (as with Asgard), but that's not much
of a killer strategy. Still, it's a card you might want
to own, as you never know when a new powerful Gypsy card
might emerge.
Charles - Great for stall decks and for annoying an
opponent. Gypsy Lover with Gypsy's Curse is lethal when
your opponent is at an Ability equal to the number of
Lovers you have in play. I fail to see any other use for
them at this time.
Ratings Overall (Lover, Curse, Camp)
Steve 3/4/1
Jeff 2/2/3
Hank 4/4/4
Alan N/A
Prodipto 2/3/3
Allen 2/4/7
Bruce 2/3/4
Sdave N/A
Jonathan 2/2/3
Charles 1/1/1
Average: 2.25 (Gypsy Lover)
2.88 (Gypsy's Curse)
3.25 (Gypsy Camp)