Two-Fisted Tales of the Secret War: Lotus and Purists

Part 5 of a Shadowfist set review

Overall score:

This is the fifth review; you can find the first here. For copyright reasons I won’t be printing the text of the cards, just the titles--it may help to have a second browser/tab with the spoiler in it--there’s one on the official site, www.shadowfist.com, in the spoilers/card lists section.

Lotus

Lotus get some interesting new stuff, but the chrome is better than the power level. Nothing amazing, but Drugged! and Poisoned! are fairly fun.

Chang – A big hitter who's a little behind the curve, but damages stuff when he gets hurt and heal when he damages things. Pretty cool, and bound to be very annoying--particularly to weenies.

Deathtrap – Turns a site into a one point Temple of the Angry Spirits. Deadly against weenies, but otherwise just an annoyance. Use it early-game to look after a site, since no big hitter will care.

Drugged! – useful for Nerfing a hitter, but even more so for getting past a character’s damage reduction. Then again, if you’re not likely to see damage reduction it’s probably not worth it.

Hired Bodyguard – A so-so 2-for-2 character, except that when he intercepts he pumps to very large proportions. Excellent as a defence, at least until someone targets him directly. Of course, if you have the power you can get around that by playing two of him.

Hypnotized! – takes a character out of action for a turn. Very useful as punch-through, probably as good as Dragon’s Flying Kick.

Insidious Plan – An interesting edge: you put a counter on it every turn, and you can sacrifice it for either that many cards or that much power. Sort of like a piggybank that you need to crack before you can spend all teh stuff you've saved up.

Madame Yen – Quite a nasty hitter, since every turn you can remove a damage from her to inflict two on characters at her location. Which means you can use it during an attack to kill the interceptors.

Necromantic Conspiracy – This is cruel. It lets you search an opponent’s deck for cards sharing a title and toast up to four of them, probably disallowing your opponent from playing them. Costs two, so only really worthwhile if there’s one card you really don’t like.

Poisoned! – A cheap and useful event for causing chaos among Interceptors, especially weenie interceptors. Gains double points for the chrome being awesome – what Lotus player doesn’t like poisoning things?

Red Scorpion Killers – A midrange hitter with a below-the-curve Fighting score, but capable of being pumped by sacrificing things. It's a coaster, in my opinion.

Thugs – The new Lotus foundation. 1-for-1 that pump to 2 when the subject of a state. If you have a deck with a lot of free states, they’re pretty useful compared to some foundations.

Tong Hatchetman – A Butterfly Knight who only works on characters, and can assassinate things. Lovely, especially for getting rid of an interceptor before attacking again for the site.

"You fell into my trap!" – Cave Network in Event form. Probably more useful than Cave Network, and a pretty good card, but don’t overuse it.

Yuen Sheng – An interesting utility Character that does quirky things and locks off cards in people’s hands. Odd, and difficult to work properly.

Purists

Purists come off really well in this set, and rightfully so, since they opened the Pulp Juncture to begin with. Most of their cards are based around a cult to (essentially) Cthulhu, and win on chrome alone. They also get an odd new win condition in Mount Erebus, and a very cool multifaction card with the Dragons called Spirit of the Gun.

Faceless Minions – The new 2-for-2 Purists foundation, they’re cool because they’re cultists and they blow up when they die. Not much more to it.

Mount Erebus - The new win condition is this Purists site. Play it, let it get taken, and seize it back to win. That said, anyone who seizes it wins if they keep it for a turn, meaning the moment this hits the table, you get a big game of Hot Potato. Fun, but not entirely reliable.

Priest of the Unnameable – A midrange cultist hitter with a very useful ability: name a card when he attacks, and that card can’t be played in response. Particularly useful against pesky Hand players with a trick up their sleeve for everything.

Ritual of the Unnameable – A free event that holds a double-edged power: if you draw the right card type you get 2 power; if not, everything you own takes a hit. Worth it, but only in a deck where you can predict what you’ll pull next, such as a mostly state based deck, or by using something like Paradox Garden to know what’s on the top of your deck.

Sir Arthur Broome – A utility character with the rare ability to make opponents and yourself discard cards. Useful for irritating opponents, getting rid of an opponent's hand (if there's only a couple of cards left), or to prune your own hand of useless stuff.

Spirit of the Gun – This is really a multifaction Dragon/Purists card, but I put it here because I’m lazy and it seemed to fit Purists more than Dragons. It has a funky new colour effect, where half is each faction colour. The state itself can be uberpowerful to play on a weenie in the right Dragon’s guns deck, and if you can find a good reason to play Purists multifaction you might get a really interesting deck. If only it was common and not rare, I’d pick up five and play more with the concept.

The Unnameable – A massively strong hitter whose nearly impossible to intercept (requires a sacrifice) and who is, well, Cthulhu in all but name. Awesome just for chrome, but be careful of a Sacrificial Monarchs deck for whom the opportunity to sacrifice may actually be rewarding.

"They Came Out of Nowhere!" – Semi-useful defensive card, but I’d probably just skip it in favour of Cloud Walking.

Tortured by Madness! – This effect, forcing the discard of one part of a hand, isn’t all that powerful, but it’s cool simply for annoyance factor. Also, cards that require the opponent to make hard decisions are fun.

Twisted Horror – A midrange hitter that becomes lethal against Edge users with Toughness: 3. Slot it if you know you’ll see Jammers or Monarchs.

Voice of the Unnameable – Sir Arthur Broome’s Alter-Ego, this is a very weird midrange/utility character with an odd but powerful and expensive ability. It’s very Purists, but I’m not entirely sure how practical it would be.

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Written by JamPaladin on March 11th, 2005