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 ------------------------------------------------------------------