Angus Situation While Angus is in play, you may look at the bottom card of your Endurance. You may make an Exertion to put that card on top of your Endurance. Angus is one of those cards that tend to get overlooked. For good or ill, we'll see... Game mechanics issues first. The sequence for Exerting to do something to your deck is to make the Exertion first (reshuffling as necessary if you draw the last card of your Endurance), then doing whatever the Exertion permits. In the case of Angus, the Exertion moves a card from the bottom to the top of your Endurance. If you were forced to reshuffle due to the Exertion you made when using Angus, you can move only the _new_ bottom card of your Endurance, after the reshuffle. The previous bottom card, which is now part of your Exertion, cannot be moved by Angus. You can use Angus to look at the bottom card as many time as you wish, without Exertion. So what use is Angus? Obviously, in case that one card on the bottom is _the_ card that you need to complete your strategy. If Richie is counting on that Shooting Blade to play in conjunction with the Seduce/Nefertiri in his hand, and it's on the bottom of his deck, Angus is just the thing. However, whether this advantage outweighs the increased deck size, and the one turn's play of a Special, to get Angus out, is left to the individual player. Not to mention the Exertion itself, which could cost you a card or five that you were also counting on. The Exertion cost brings us to cards that you can use to minimize the harm done by Angus when you use him. Master/Swordmaster and Collect are the cards to consider here: if you've already reduced your Exertion for other reasons, this reduction will help you with Angus as well. Exertion-oriented Personas such as Katana and Fitzcairn, who may very well be using these cards anyway, can use Angus (and Joe Dawson/pre-game - CotW #45 - as well) to give themselves a wider range of options. Connor MacLeod, thanks to Remembrance, may also find Angus of value. Duncan, thanks to Inner Strength, can use Angus as an excuse to dump five cards from his hand _and_ gain that bottom card. Nefertiri doesn't necessarily gain a huge advantage from Angus. However, one thing that should be kept in mind is that she can get that bottom-to-top card a bit more quickly. By Exerting on her defense phase, it comes to the top of her deck. Then, during her attack phase, she can play something and draw it as her new card, or use Desperation. Her draw-at-any-time Quickening serves much the same purpose. If you're using a Avery Hoskins- or Challenge/ME-type forced-Exertion deck, and are worried about finding reasons to Exert, Angus is an Ally to consider. Alternately, if you're worried about coming up _against_ such a deck, Angus can give you an alternative to making a standard Exertion. However, it should be noted that the Joe Dawson/pre-game card serves this function as well, and without you having to take up space in your deck. This brings us to the Joe Dawson/pre-game. As mentioned in the review of that card (CotW #45), the use of Angus in conjunction with that pre-game card can yield significant benefits. Make one Exertion to move your Watcher(s) to the bottom of your deck and then another to bring them to the top. This can be expensive, but if used in conjunction with the Exertion-reduction measures mentioned above, can be quite profitable. If all Connor has to do is discard a couple of John MacLeods and make 0-card Exertions via Remembrance to get two Watcher/Treatments back, it's well worth the effort. So overall, Steve gives Angus a _3_. He doesn't do much, and as a general emergency card he's probably not worth the space in your deck. However, in a deck that is already going for 0-card Exertions (including Duncan's Inner Strength), or that is considering it, he can be a valuable addition. Even more so with the addition of Joe Dawson/pre-game. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - I don't know about you, but I'm not so concerned about the bottom card in my Endurance that I have to waste a Special for it. Angus is a waste of my time, even if I want to play a Watcher: Revealed / Watcher Regional HQ gimmick deck. In sealed, maybe, but nowhere else. Hank - I've _never_ found a good use for this card. If the bottom card is good, fine, then you Exert 5 cards (or less if you're prepared) to get to it immediately, but as soon as a bad card shows up on the bottom of your Endurance you either need to Exert & draw the bad card to get to another or Angus is useless. There are better ways to get to cards, IMHO. Alan - N/A Prodipto - N/A Allen - An interesting card whose required effort just doesn't seem worth it. Used in conjunction with the Joe Dawson PG, you can cycle a Watcher/Treatment from your discard to the top of your Endurance. However, do you need to? Cycling your Treatments to the bottom of your deck as you near the end of your Endurance and then again after you exhaust. You'll still get to them three times in two passes through your deck and not have to make those Angus Exertions. Besides, there are plenty of other healing cards in Highlander to fill in those lulls between Treatments. Bruce - Angus has an interesting effect. I _like_ this card. You can do lots of nifty things with Angus. Unfortunately, despite all of this, Angus is just not a particularly effective card if you are looking to win tournaments. Most of the effects are difficult to pull off and the cost of an Exertion is pretty steep. But it is still fun and has seen its way into many of my non-tournament decks. Stealth Dave - When Movie Edition came out, Angus was a fairly useless card. It certainly wasn't worth wasting a Special slot in your deck. Then came Watcher's Chronicles with Joe Dawson/pre-game, and suddenly Angus became useful. With upcoming sets it is possible that we may find more uses for Angus, but right now he's a one-trick wonder, and it's only useful in a Healer deck. Jonathan - Angus is one of those cards where I can think of a few ways to use it, or Situations in which it would be helpful, but would never include it in a deck. Even after losing a game where Nexus was the last card in my deck, or while using PG Dawson to retrieve Treatment cards, I wouldn't consider using it. The payoff is too little, and the sacrifice too great for wasting a slot in my deck for this. I'd just throw in Holy Ground/ME. Though I ve got to admit, I ve never seen Angus played in a game, so all of this is idle speculation. Charles - I do not see a adequate use for this card outside of the nearly endless healing provided by using a healing Watcher and a Joe Dawson pre-ame. It is possible to build a deck that utilizes this card effectively, but it requires a lot of time to set up, and, unfortunately, there are only 30 minutes per match in a sanctioned tournament. Ratings Overall Steve 3 Jeff 3 Hank 1 Alan N/A Prodipto N/A Allen 2 Bruce 3 Sdave 2 Jonathan 3 Charles 2 Average: 2.38 ------------------------------------------------------------------