Flashback/Recover Edge SITUATION: You remember a similar experience. Discard to return the last Edge card you played to your hand. (Restricted to 2) Well, here's an interesting card. There are not a lot of cards that tamper with Edge cards for good or ill. Twist of Fate (CotW #15) does. And Rachel Ellenstein does. And that's about it. Until this promotional card was released. Game mechanic-wise, there are a few issues. As with any "discard to use" card, you can't play it and then use it that same turn. Your opponent gets a chance to remove Flashback from play first. Since there is no time limit on when you can use Flashback, this is important. Your last Edge card may have been played ten turns ago, but you can still use Flashback to recover it. Flashback won't let you recover an Edge card that you discarded or bypassed due to other reasons (Twist of Fate, Cat & Mouse/Endurance, Counterfeit, etc). Flashback is, well, a Flashback card. It counts against the six total cards you can have in your deck with a title of "Flashback." Presumably, if you play multiple Edge cards simultaneously, you can choose which one you played last. This is currently not significant. Later down the road, however, if a situation arises when you can play two or more different Edge cards to modify a single circumstance, this will be important. As with Twist of Fate, Flashback's usefulness depends on the Edge cards you're using. Let's run down the list: Alertness - Block/Dodge: these are high maintenance cards since they are unplayable if your opponent doesn't use the appropriate types of attacks. Rather than add extras of these, use Flashback to double the number. Alertness/Hidden: if you're a Power Blow specialist like Slan and Kurgan and plan to use this card, use Flashback to reuse. Since you may be limited in how many you use (since you'll probably want one or more of the other Alertnesses), Flashback lets you get around this limit. Careful Planning: I'm not one to encourage cheese/damage decks. However, if you absolutely _must_ use Careful Planning + Angry Mob, you'll want Flashback to get around the 3-card limit on Careful Planning. Courage: With a CotW rating of around 3 for either version, you're probably not going to be using this, or feel any pressing need to recover it if you are. Excessive Force: Another cheese/damage card, and one that if you're going to use, you'll want to use again. Feint: An excellent card for Connor/Pedestrian/Mountain Cave decks, or if you want to make Power Blows and sucker someone in. Flashback to recover it is a good idea. Focus: A "must-use" card. Many recommend you have six of this in your deck - Flashback lets you get more than six uses out of it. Iron Will + Practice Practice: Primarily good for Disarm strategies. Flashback can let you get these cards back if you failed on your earlier attempt(s). Lean & Mean + Patience: Both of these have about the same effect - rapid card cycling. They're also good cards to play if you are locked (due to Wargames West, Renee Delaney, etc.). Since you don't have to play Flashback the turn you use it, you can discard FB to recover a Patience, play that, and satisfy the "play a card or Exert" requirements for that turn. Reconnaissance: Despite their Rare status, Locations are rapidly becoming the predominant control factor in any given game. You win or lose by who has their Location in play . . . and whether you can ignore it or not. Schemer: As with any card that is Restricted, Flashback lets you get around the restriction by reusing a card. You still can't play two Schemers in a turn, but you'll have a third one later on. A great card for a Xavier/Cat & Mouse deck. Selective Memory: A so-so card to recover, unless your opponent is hitting you heavily with discard tactics. This doesn't seem to happen very often, but can be a life-saver against Charm (particularly Kastagir's version) and Kiss Your Butts Goodbye. Weapon Bind: See CotW #16 for uses for this card. Use Flashback to recover it and stall your opponent even further. Watcher's Chronicle Edge Cards: We still can't go into much detail at this time. However, Lunge and Flashing Blade are cards that, if you're using at all, you're going to want to use a lot. Since Kern tends to be Flashback heavy, he may not wish to reduce the number of his persona-Specific Flashbacks that he can use to four. But he is heavily reliant on those Edge cards, so he'd be best off doing so. So looking over the above, it seems that Flashback is best used when you are using Edge cards that are restricted, either due to an actual Restriction number (Schemer, Careful Planning), or title limitation (Alertness). This strategy is a little iffy - your opponent may Police or otherwise remove your Flashback before you can use it. However, it lets you avoid the use of a pre- game Darius and use your six pre-game slots for something else. And if they do Police it . . . well, that's one less Situation-remover they have for something else. Xavier users take note. As a "Flashback" title card, this version does count against your six. However, currently, the only Personas that have a serious need for the existing versions of Flashback are Duncan (due to Scotland the Brave), Kern, and Fitzcairn. The Movie Edition Flashback remains at this time an inferior version of Elizabeth Vaughn. Until such time as either a card comes along to boost that Flashback's effect, or more cards are released that affect Reporters and/or Event Allies, use Elizabeth. So who should use Flashback? Looking at the above, it's an obvious choice for Kern. A plot-user, probably Xavier (or the Kurgan with Cat & Mouse) should use it if they plan to use Schemer. Cheese decks (most likely Katana) should add it for Excessive Force and Careful Planning. Power Blowers without the ability to see Hidden, and who intend to use Alertness/Hidden, should have two in their decks as well. This includes Slan, and probably the Kurgan. So overall, Steve gives Flashback a _7_. It's a surprisingly versatile card, and I'm surprised it isn't seen more often. It lets you beat the quantity restrictions on a number of very useful Edge cards, both cheese and non- cheese. Any card that lets you get around either Restriction numbers or the "six of a title" rule is handy. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - No response Jeff - A surprisingly useful "fun" card, obviously best when used with Schemer or Careful Planning. Rick - An excellent method for getting around card restrictions on Edge cards (like Careful Planning). A "Discard to use" Sacrifice without the penalty. Hank - "Play to recover" cards are typically used (like the Feint Event) to effectively have more of something in your deck. Flashback is great for Careful Planning/Angry Mob or Schemer decks, for example. Alan - This is a card that should be in almost any deck, since it can give you the equivalent of 8 of any Edge card (Focus, Patience, etc.). Being a Situation, it doesn't depend upon your opponent playing anything; it can be used any time. Jim - Flashback/Recover Edge is a good card for any deck that relies on Edges. It will help diffuse Lock Decks provided you aren't facing Katana (unfortunately, you can't count on that very often). This is very useful for reusing a Focus you played on a previous turn. FB/Recover Edge is also helpful in extending the usefulness of Edges like Schemer where you are limited to 2 per deck. Using FB/Edge, scheming immortals like Xavier can retrieve Schemer and got those plots unfolding much more rapidly. Chip - No response Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Ben N/A Jeff 6 Rick 6 Hank 8 Alan 7 Jim 6 Chip N/A Average: 6.67 ------------------------------------------------------------------
The Prize/Extra Exertion OBJECT: While this card is in play, all players may play an additional exertion during their turn. There may be only one Prize in play by all players. The winner of the duel may claim The Prize if it is in play when the game ends. (Restricted to 3) This card has been going out in tournament packages, but it doesn't seem to be seeing a lot of use. Part of this may be due to the delayed release of Watcher's Chronicles (see below). Another reason may be that people just aren't that fond of using "You may lose this card"-type cards. Some people are willing to risk Quickenings. However, many are not. The Prize is even more vulnerable to loss, since you merely need to lose the duel, not your head. Holy Ground/Forfeit won't let you keep The Prize either. One game mechanics note: you can _not_ Exert for an attack or defense and then, by making an extra Exertion, _continue_ that Exertion. The one exception to this is if you don't play any cards from the first Exertion. Thus, if Duncan Exerts for a defense against a URA, and the best he gets is a Dodge, he can't play it and use Flashback to get a Upper Guard. A few general observations: The Prize remains the most reliable way to gain an extra Exertion each turn. Flashback and Inspiration are the other two ways to currently obtain extra Exertions. Inspiration is pretty much useless in this circumstance: if you play Inspiration you have no way to play an additional Special the same turn to take advantage of your extra Exertion. Flashback can be used to set up a sequence such as Battle Rage/Scotland the Brave. However, this is a rather elaborate combination, requiring three turns to set up (1 - Flashback; 2 - Scotland the Brave; 3 = Battle Rage and two Exertions). Here's hoping your opponent lets you keep those two Situations out that long. The Prize is an Object, which means it is more difficult to remove/counter than an Event or a Situation. Due to the "one in play" restriction, The Prize is also a good preemptive card. Jeff Barnes notes below that The Prize/Extra Exertion is not as useful as The Prize/Extra Attack. Perhaps. However, if you play The Prize/EE first, your opponent has to remove it before they can get _their_ The Prize down. This could prove restrictive, for example, to an Amanda deck trying to get three attacks per turn. The Prize/EE doesn't require you to make _any_ Exertion. It merely lets you make a second one if necessary. Because of this, The Prize is not a bad emergency card. The Prize is also handy in several emergency scenarios. If your opponent played Toadies and launched a Power Blow, you can Exert both to prevent the Toadies damage and to make a Power Block. If you need to use Angus, you can do so. Turn of Events was featured several issues ago (see CotW #17). The Prize allows you to meet the Exertion requirement for playing two Events in one turn. It is the only "generic" card that currently does so. Cards that affect Exertions, such as Master/Swordmaster and Collect, are excellent cards to supplement The Prize. So the question is, should _you_ use The Prize/Extra Exertion? The primary issue is: do you need to (or think you may need to) make more than one Exertion per turn? In many cases, the answer is no. Xavier and Amanda, for instance, probably could care less since they don't want to make Exertions at all, and are rarely required or forced to do so. Of the existing Series and Movie Edition Personas, Katana gains the most from The Prize. Using it, he can Exert to remove two Situations, or Exert to remove a Situation and then Exert for something else. This card even lets him partially bypass the effects of Psychosis. With The Prize, he can Exert to remove a Situation as required by Psychosis, and still Exert for that Power Blow, or for an attack to play with his Taunt. The Prize can also be useful for Duncan, adding to his arsenal of extra Exertion cards like Flashback and Inspiration. These cards were initially not particularly useful. However, with the emergence of promotional cards like Scotland the Brave, the ability to make multiple Exertions becomes much more useful. Slan's Berserk becomes more powerful in conjunction with Scotland the Brave. A barrage of ten Power Blows, supplemented with two or three Carls, is enough to give any opponent pause even if they have an Ancestral Blade out. Connor lacks his clansman's Flashback/extra Exertion talent. However, he is also fond of Power Blow/Exerting for the same reason as Duncan: he suffers no penalty from a counter-Hidden attack. The Prize lets him Power Blow/Exert and still have an Exertion to spare. He also has Battle Rage, and can pull the same stunt of making five attacks Power Blows via Scotland the Brave. Khan, Nefertiri and Richie have Battle Rage. An opponent with an Ancestral Blade can probably handle five Power Blows more easily then Slan's ten. They may or may not wish to use Scotland the Brave. This pretty much covers the Series and Movie Edition Personas. As we noted above, however, one long-awaited Persona from Watcher's Chronicle, the one who may benefit the most from The Prize, is Kern. While we can't go into a lot of detail at this time, Kern's Persona ability has been revealed (in Castle News) as the ability to play any number of attacks from an Exertion. As noted above, this means Kern can Exert for five cards when attacking. This leaves him with an Exertion available for Hogg, or to make one of his attacks a Power Blow, or if he needed to Exert for a defense or against Toadies. He can't extend his initial attack Exertion with the second Exertion, but he can extend his Exertions using other cards like Bowie Knife and Collect. Hugh Fitzcairn also gets a boost. As noted in Castle News, Fitzcairn can Exert to prevent an unspecified amount of damage. Like Katana's ability, the only limit on how many times per turn he may use this ability is how many Exertions he can make per turn. The Prize lets him get around the "one Exertion per turn" rule. So overall, Steve gives The Prize/Extra Exertion a _6_. It is a powerful supplement to several Personas (Duncan, Katana, Slan, Kern, and Fitzcairn). It is of limited use to the others, but can prove handy in an emergency. An opponent is very unlikely to have a deck that takes advantage of it like your deck does, or that can take advantage of it once the game begins. And The Prize/EE stops the use of The Prize/Extra Attack. Not a bad trade-off for the potential loss of the card. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - [Abstain] Jeff - Not as useful as its multi-attack cousin. In fact, I can't think of a whole lot of reasons to use it, unless you want to stick somebody else with it. Rick - What would a Katana deck be able to do with this one? Since Exertions are currently "under-utilized," Katana is the biggest winner with this one. Hank - Making an extra Exertion might be useful in particular decks (Katana, maybe, or Turn of Events) but it's not generally useful: there's never been a huge run on Duncan Flashbacks. It's useful for things like Scotland the Brave with Berserk, I suppose. I also don't like giving up cards if I lose a match. Alan - This card should be a must-have in any deck which needs to use Exertions (Katana, Battle Rage, Bloodlust, Scotland the Brave, Kern, etc.), since it is always useful to be able to do more than one Exertion in your turn. I have only recently begun to see the true value of it in my L&M Connor Battle Rage/Scotland the Brave deck. Jim - This is an extremely useful card for Katana and anyone who needs to make more than one Exertion each turn. It is pretty much a prerequisite for a deck that uses Scotland the Brave if you aren't playing Duncan. Kern should also consider using this card. Chip - [Abstain] Ratings Overall: Steve 6 Ben N/A Jeff 3 Rick 4 Hank 6 Alan 8 Jim 5 Chip N/A Average: 5.33 ------------------------------------------------------------------
Verona, Italy - 1637 LOCATION: No [errata: Special] attacks may be played. Note: this review and rating is currently of the old, unerrata'd version. If the last two promotional cards reviewed, you do not see Turn of Events and The Prize/Extra Exertion used much. Verona definitely is the opposite. Anyone who has encountered a "cheese" deck that employs either direct damage or a "lock" strategy has probably seen Verona any number of times. There is good reason for this. However, first let's look at the game mechanics involved, and any timing issues. Verona's effects seem fairly simple. No attacks may be played. Emphasis on "played." An attack that is not played (via a card) is still legal. Fortunately, the only attack that currently meets that criterion is Xavier's 1 pt. Middle Center attack. Timing-wise, Verona will stop an opponent from attacking as long as it is in play. However, the opponent can remove it with a a Special and still attack that same turn. The same applies for the Verona user: they can make an attack and then play Verona. This timing sequence is similar to that found for Catwalk, Dead-End Alley, Ruins, and Rooftop. Compare this to Locations such as Battlefield and Desert. These are mandatory beginning-of-turn effects. The person playing the Location ignores the effects on the first turn. Their opponent is harmed (unless they play Reconnaissance) even if they remove the Location right away on the next turn. So Verona is a fairly straightforward card. What can you do with it? As comes as no surprise, Verona's best use is in "cheese" decks. For whatever reason, Thunder Castle created a card that is the antithesis of a "Swordmaster" game. Verona works nicely with non-swordfighting decks. The first category of cards are Event/Damage cards. The most popular is currently the Angry Mob/Careful Planning combination. Alliance, and Toadies are also popular cards in such decks. Verona allows these decks to reduce the number of cards they must devote to defense. If your opponent can't attack, you don't need defenses . . . leaving you more room for damage cards, card-cyclers (Holy Ground/SE, Patience, Lean & Mean, Elizabeth Vaughn, Flashback), and cards to counter your opponent's non- attack strategies (Police, Do It Yourself). Such decks will typically use many dodges for those times when an opponent bypasses Verona: by removing Verona with an Event, playing another Location, or using Reconnaissance. The other deck where Verona is typically used is a "lock" deck. By the use of only three cards (Verona, Jack Donovan, and Honor Bound), a small-sized "lock deck" can sit without Exerting or playing cards. Meanwhile, an opponent is forced to Exert in an infinite cycle. If your opponent can't deal with these cards as quickly as you play them, they're doomed. Verona's use outside these two basic deck concepts is problematic. A heavy Power Blow-oriented deck might use Verona. In this manner it can attack by using Reconnaissance, and not have to worry about a counterattack, Hidden or otherwise. So the question is: how do you handle Verona decks? Unfortunately, if their use wasn't mandatory with the Movie Edition's release, Locations now almost have to be used with Verona out, in _any_ deck you create. Locations remain the most effective way to deal with an opponent's Locations, since they not only remove his Location, but let you start your own tailor-made deck strategy. The best alternative strategy is to use the Illusory Terrain promotional card. This will lock up the Locations in their hand unless they deal with Illusory Terrain. Even Katana will Exert to remove, hopefully costing him the cards he needs to defeat you. Get Away From It All will remove Locations, but there is no real strategy to it. You play it - that is the only Special you play that turn. This makes it hard to take advantage of the momentary window of attack opportunity. The final removal strategy against Verona is TSC Troopers. We have already talked about this at some length (see CotW #14). To reiterate what was said in the main review: the two decks that typically use Verona are those that most likely will not Exhaust. If your opponent doesn't Exhaust, it doesn't matter where his Verona Locations are - in his discard pile or out of the game. However, several of our reviewers felt TSC Trooper was a solution to Verona abuse. Try it and see for yourself. Those are the four ways to _remove_ a Location. There is a fifth way to _deal_ with a Location, however, and that is Reconnaissance. This Edge card will let you attack _and_ play a Special to enhance your attack. This is superior to three of the four methods mentioned above: only Illusory Terrain functions differently, being a preventative rather than a removal card. The problem is that Reconnaissance doesn't do anything about that Verona still on the table. You've ignored it: you may even have played that Berserk and unleashed 10 attacks. However, Verona is still in play, stopping you next turn. Also, you can only have six Reconnaissance cards. So Reconnaissance is not _the_ solution to Verona. However, use it with six of a given Location, and you're set. Use Reconnaissance on the turns when you have a Special-oriented combination ready - play the Location and attack on the turns when you do not. Personas who can make effective normal attack(s) without the use of Specials are the ones who will benefit most here. Those are primarily: Slan, Amanda, Kern, and the Kurgan. Any of these Personas, particularly when using the Lunge Edge card in Watcher's Chronicle, can make it difficult for an opponent to avoid even their "normal" attacks and/or Power Blows. Reconnaissance is yet another "toolbox" card. It is always useful: you can play it on your own Locations, if nothing else. However, by the time you add six "necessary" Reconnaissance, and six Focii to deal with those pesky Situations, and a few Extra Weapons to deal with disarm decks, and some anti- Event damage cards, and so on . . . you begin to have a deck too large to _do_ something. You may have to use less than six Reconnaissances just to keep your deck size viable. Enough of how to deal with Verona. Who should use it? The typical Personas that use damage and lock decks are Katana and Xavier. Katana rules pretty much supreme here: he can Exert/remove most of the Situations you can bring to bear against him (including Illusory Terrain, see above). He has a good range of cards to deal with what you throw at him (Do it Yourself) and he even has another, underrated way to keep you from attacking or make it painful to do so (Intimidate). Xavier is not quite as powerful. However, since his strength is in using Plots, he can use Verona to stop you while using Unholy Alliance, Bassett & Hotchkiss, and Poison Gas to lower your Ability and ignore your damage- prevention cards. Thanks to Forethought and Plan Ahead, he can counter most of your cards. Are there other Personas that should use Verona? Not really. A deck that relies on "cheese" should probably do so, but it's rare that another Persona does so. Nefertiri perhaps, and Kalas has some potential. Generally, however, if you have any kind of swordfighting strategy for your deck, you do not want to use Verona. There are other Locations that can enhance your swordfighting strategy and/or deprive your opponent of needed resources. So overall, Steve's rating for Verona is a _8_. It's an extremely powerful add-on to a few already-powerful decks, and superior to the other existing attack stoppers (Pedestrian/Hidden-Only, Intimidate, Pedestrian/Delay-2). It can be dealt with, however, but it can be hard to work around. If you have a deck that should use Verona, then its use is without measure. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - [Abstain] Jeff - Ranks as the most abusive non-pregame card in the game at present. Extremely powerful, extremely deadly. It's Verona; do you really need me to say anything about it? Rick - A cheese card that started with the best of intentions. While Verona can shut down attack decks, it's only a Location so there are many ways to remove it. This card alone makes playing with Locations a necessity. Hank - A way-too-useful card for cheese decks. Despite my moral outrage at the very _existence_ of this card, it's definitely a must-use in those decks. Alan - Ah, the bane of every sword deck's existence. One of the most abusive cards out there, particularly when combined with such other abusive (promo) cards like Safe Haven/Situation. A must-have card for every cheese and lock deck. As a Highlander card in general, I give it a 1. However, as part of a cheese/lock deck, I give it a 9. (Averaged to 5) Jim - This is one of the cards I hate most in this game. It is very powerful and really helps the cheesemongers. It is not hard to deal with alone but when it is combined with Wargames West and/or Honor Bound it is an absolute attack deck killer. Verona is particularly abusive when it is combined with Safe Haven which leads the way in abusive cards that TCG should never have released. Verona is a must have for anyone building a Lock deck. Anyone frustrated with the use of Verona should consider using the often overlooked TSC Troopers which lets you remove a Location from the *game* at the expense of an Exertion. Since TCG has never stated how this card is acquired, this card is terribly frustrating for players who aren't plugged in to TCG's special underground promo card release system. Of course, you can get one through the promo subscription plan but I've yet to hear any further details regarding the promo subs. Chip - [Abstain] Ratings Overall: Steve 8 Ben N/A Jeff 10 Rick 8 Hank 9 Alan 5 Jim 8 Chip N/A Average: 8.00