# Flashpoint Rares: Thoughts

After a few months of playing with the Flashpoint rares, I've come to the following conclusions. These are obviously warped by my play group, but I think my general instincts are good. Comments are welcome.

Little Jim is a huge and monstrous force of nature. As the biggest character who's immune to Nerve Gas, he deserves respect; while the Thing With 1,000 Tongues has its own dark merits, it requires more resources and the Thing's special ability requires that you sacrifice your own characters, which is not always good. I'm not willing to say that Jim beats the Thing in utility, but he's certainly not far behind if he's behind at all. Further, he's very flexible in that you don't need to tune a deck for him, which is a quality most of the Flashpoint rares lack -- most Dragon decks will have Hackers these days, and that's all you really need.

Johnny Badhair is scary, but I'm not sure that he's not overrated. I do find him useful, and I wouldn't mind having more of him, but I've noticed people playing as if he came back every time he was killed and that's just wrong. Still, when comparing him to the other Dragons with Guts, he comes out just fine -- weaker than Jack Donovan, but Jack doesn't come back as easily and he doesn't come back half as well. He measures up to the Big Bruiser, who pays for non-uniqueness by being costly, and while Mad Dog is arguably more likely to get through to a site, Johnny does more damage when he gets there. If you throw him in a random Dragon deck, you're getting a decent character who's a bit expensive but may come back, and if you design a deck for him he's a fine deal.

Kar Fei's Crib astounds me. This card, all by itself, is my Dragon deck's defense against Inauspicious Reburial, and it works just fine. It is cheap, strong enough to put in the front row, and it provides not one but two useful powers. In my multi-faction decks, it vastly diminishes my dependence on foundation characters -- for example, I have a Dragon/Lotus deck (Gnarled Heros) in which most of the Lotus hitters require magic. Most of my Lotus foundations are Claws of Fury. It simply isn't a big deal; I've never had problems getting out the Gnarled Marauders. The worst problem I've had was having to use the Crib to play a White Disciple for my Lotus and Magic resources.

Joey Paz bemuses me. The powers are interesting, but they don't pay off for me. His problem seems to be that while he'll get Toughness if someone plays an Event, he's the usual target of that Event, and so it doesn't really matter. He's the poster boy for Tortured Memory Syndrome. Nobody in my play group sits around too much, so he doesn't force people to attack, as I expect he might in some circles. He takes a lot of resources. And he's vulnerable to an extra cancel and smoke card, due to the Chi resource.

Melissa Aguilar is interesting; I haven't been able to build a solid deck around her because I only have one, and I don't think she's very flexible. I do not like the Tactics combinations because you either have to shell out 4 Power for a General, or 2 Power per character for a Vehicle with Tactics. It's worth it, but it's very expensive. On the other hand, I think one could get some milage out of putting out Battleground Sites, letting other people take them, and dropping Melissa onto the table. I'd be interested in how this works out for people. She'd need to pump up to a 9 Fighting to make this useful; if only one person controls a Battleground Site she's only an 8 and clearly inferior to Jack Donovan.

The Silver Jet is another one I haven't gotten around to working with. I suspect that the Dragon/Monarch deck we can all see is about as good as it looks -- but would be infinitely better if he had Independent. As is he's not a bad deal, just not an outstanding one. He might work out well with Ice Tigers and Cave Networks, except that by the time you get out the resources for the Jet you've probably already had your Cave Networks exposed. An unfortunately resource-heavy combo would involve the Jet, Wing of the Crane, and any Ice character you care to name. The best card to use with him is, of course, a Golden Comeback, simply because whoever you're playing is going to get very bemused when he or she smokes your Ice Shards and gets nothing whatsoever out of it.

The Arcanotower 2056 has the advantage that it's flexible; as with Little Jim and Dragon decks, you don't have to do anything special to optimize an Architect deck for the Arcanotower. It pays for itself in two turns, just like an average site (but not quite as good as a Trade Center or a Secret Headquarters), but it's much better in the long term and takes up less room in your site structure than the (equivalent) two normal non-Feng Shui sites. It's also easy to defend. The downside is that any clued opponent will destroy the thing in quick order if at all possible, especially in two player, since doing so essentially gives him or her a free turn. The other problem is that you'll likely spend a turn sitting around on the turn you play this, given the high investment. I find them to be most useful in decks designed to give you a quick slug of power -- they last far longer than (say) CHAR, who also costs four points.

The Arcanotower Now is less exciting, but the downside is also less. I believe it's far less likely to get attacked, as there's nothing at all an opponent can do that benefits him or her directly -- the only benefit from smoking it is to deny you one point of power. It has a somewhat useful effect which will annoy the Ascended, and it counts as a Feng Shui site, but can be played in the late game. It's no Kar Fei's Crib, but it's flexible.

Genghis X is a useful and straightforward Architect thug. While his special abilities do not measure up to the obvious comparison (Jack Donovan again), he is immune to Nerve Gas. His Guts aren't always on, but you can count on him doing either 7 or 8 points of damage. He has the "good in any deck" nature. He also gets a few points for advancing the story.

Colonel Griffith is just fine if used properly. Johann Bonengel is his best friend, although it's rumored he'd love to meet Gao Zhang one of these days. (Yes, Gao Zhang is the best match for him -- an incredible 20 Fighting, just ahead of Kar Fei.) The nice thing about the Colonel is that if you don't have anybody to combine him with, he can still be a 6 Fighting on defense in a pinch, which makes him useful on his own. This is not something you can say of most of the support characters. When you compare him to the Military Commandant, which is the obvious comparison, you get a more pricy character who is better at pumping other characters up; he also survives Final Brawls. Finally, he's in the right faction for his work, as so many of the Architects require or provide tech or magic; that extra point or two of Fighting is pleasant. His drawback is that he needs other characters to be useful offensively, which is unfortunate and makes good use of him a two-turn proposition; one turn to get out the characters, hope they survive, and then get out the good Colonel.

Rhys Engel is fun, but a lot of that is for his flavor text. He is quite expensive in terms of resources, and unlike most 3 Power for 3 Fighting types, his power isn't directly applicable to battle. He is, however, about the best thing going for research, so that's quite useful -- I very much like knowing if an attack is worthwhile before I try it, and Rhys makes that easy. He's best in a big fat multi-player deck, and in long slow multi-player games.

Dunwa Saleem is another Architect I like for what he reveals about the world. In terms of what he can do, he's yet another decent 3 Power for 4 Fighting; his ability to toast cards will be useful some of the time, but you can't predict when, and sometimes it'll help your opponent. You could tune a deck destruction deck with him, but those are never much fun to play or play against. The ability to steal Ascended cards is cute gravy, and won't bother any Ascended player very much; the worst that can happen is a Might of the Elephant gone over to the Dark Side. There are many better cards in his Power/Fighting ratio bracket, although admittedly he's not clearly worse than the other Architect 3 for 4s. Still, Brain Suckers provide tech and most Architect decks make better use of tech than of the Ascended resource that he provides. Plus Reinvigoration Processes don't work with Dunwa.

Mr. Big (speaking of the Ascended) is -- well, he's Mr. Big. He isn't Pledged, so you don't get a price break on him. He has two moderately pleasant abilities, which only come in handy in a very specific kind of deck, and a big vulnerability. I compare him to Just a Rat, and I find him not as exciting, and he certainly doesn't measure up to such 3 for 3s as the Butterfly Knight and the Dallas Rocket. I have never seen a winning Hood deck, and a number of people I know have tried to build one. If anyone manages it, let me know; if anyone wants to try but needs Mr. Bigs, I have a couple for trade.

Sam Mallory is a pleasant addition to the roster of Ascended heavy hitters. He's certainly expensive in terms of resources, if not overly so in terms of Power, but he can pay off if used wisely. He needs States to be at his best, and he's right up there with Mad Dog McCroun on my list of "characters most likely to get Explosives to their target." I've also had some amusing luck using him with a Whirlwind Strike. He does tend to push you towards defending, though, since his ability is perhaps most useful on defense.

Shan Tsu is absolutely lovely, and he becomes even more useful when you consider that you need add no other factions to get the use of Rigorous Discipline. He is also a Shaolin Master, and thus pumps up Shaolin Monks. The Hand has sorely needed a hitter like this, to go along with Shi Ho Quai, and at just two resource conditions he stands up to any of the big thugs from other factions. He can, of course, be Nerve Gassed, and he shares the Ambusher's problem of being everyone's first target of attack, but the Hand is the right faction to protect him. He shares Little Jim's flexibility, and I'm glad he exists.

Finally, Xiaoyang Yun is another of those rather deck-specific cards. Her ability is excellent, among the most useful of the Flashpoint rares, if you only put a little effort into tuning your deck for her. She is better than Rhys Engel in that Rhys lets you know if it's worth attacking while she makes it worth attacking by her presence. She's a bit costly, but she won't go down to one Final Brawl. Her problem is much the same as Melissa Aguilera's; if you put her on the playing field and don't attack, everyone will want to kill her before you get another slug of power and a chance to make the winning move. Thus, you need to save up power and lay down the winning attack in a single turn, and unlike Melissa you cannot attack with her and have a good chance of her surviving. Still and all, she's not a bad card.

So, to wrap up, I consider Little Jim, Shan Tsu, and Kar Fei's Crib to be the best of the Flashpoint rares. Joey Paz and Mr. Big are at the dead bottom. Melissa Aguilera, the Arcanotower Now, the Silver Jet, Rhys Engel, Colonel Griffith, Sam Mallory, and Dunwa Saleem are OK but nothing to write home about; finally, Johnny Badhair, Xiaoyang Yun, Genghis X, and the Arcanotower 2056 are almost star quality.

- Strategy

Last modified: June 18, 1997.
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