Cull the Weak Situation Tired: While this card is in play, all players must discard two cards from the top of their Endurance for each Special card they play. Discard this card if you play another Cull the Weak. Cull the Weak Situation Weak: You may only play this card if you have Tired in play. Discard Tired. While this card is in play, all players must discard two cards from the top of their endurance for each card they play. Discard this card if you play another Cull the Weak. Cull the Weak Event Exhausted: You may only play this card if you have Weak in play. Discard Weak. At the beginning of their next turn, all players must discard the top card of their Endurance until they exhaust. We now turn, somewhat belatedly, to the first of the new Arms & Tactics cards. The three Cull the Weak cards introduce a new concept to the Highlander CCG: "Neo- Plots." These cards must be played in a particular sequence, like regular three-part Plots. However, unlike Destruction or Unholy Alliance, each of the first two parts have an effect on the game as well as acting as a prerequisite for the next part to be played. Game mechanics questions first. Despite any similarities, Cull the Weak is _not_ a Plot, and Xavier gains no benefit from his Persona ability when using CtW. Nor can Kalas use Forgery with it, or anyone benefit from using Plot Twist or Schemer. Simple Mind will have an effect on CtW. However, Cull the Weak is immune to Investigation and Alan Baines. Timing-wise, the loss of cards due to the first two parts occur consecutively with the play of the relative card. Thus, if you played Fortune Teller, you would discard the top two cards, _then_ look at the top six cards and rearrange them. For Patience (with Weak in play), you would play Patience, discard your top two Endurance cards, and then draw up to your Ability. Cards that are put into play by another card do not count as being played twice. Thus, if you play Conjure, you put an Object from your Endurance into play. However, you don't burn four cards for first playing Conjure, then putting into play the Object. A card that is Focused is still present as a Situation with a title. So if you Focus Tired, you can still play Weak. However, Weak will still remove Tired, as per the text on the former. Your Cull the Weaks have no effect on your opponent's, and vice versa. However, the same Situation's effects, even if there are multiple copies in play by different players, never stack. So if you and your opponent both have Weak in play, you each discard two cards for each card you play, _not_ four. Tired and Weak _are_ different Situations (albeit with the same title), so if you have Tired in play and your opponent has Weak, they do stack. So playing a Special requires that you lose four cards from the top of your Endurance. Exhaustion's effect occurs at the beginning of each player's next turn, as a "must do" effect. This means that the person who played it will Exhaust at the beginning of their next turn, after their Sweep Phase. The Exhaustion that was played will be Swept _before_ the deck is burned through, and then reshuffled. That can be important in terms of timing. So that's how Cull the Weak works in general terms. More specifically, how and what should you use it for. While the first two parts are by no means absolute card- playing preventatives, they do make sure that an opponent will pay a heavy price for playing many Specials (with Tired) or cards in general (with Weak). Playing four Lean & Mean and three Patience cards in a turn doesn't look like quite such a good idea if Weak is in play. Similarly, Tired can hurt a Chessex user. Particularly when using Tired, you want to build your deck to specific requirements. Thus you want a deck which doesn't necessarily rely a great deal on Specials. We'll look at who can do that below when we look at specific Personas. Weak is more of a general all-round exhaustion card. It is best used when you have a "tower" deck and want to drive a smaller-sized opposing deck to Exhaustion before you do. A Lean & Mean deck, if it doesn't or can't deal with Weak, will quickly burn itself out even under the best of circumstances. Of course, with a larger deck your chances of getting Weak out are that much smaller. Exhaustion is good for only one thing: causing you and your opponent to burn out quickly. Since it is the third part of the chain, it can be difficult to play and other Exhaustion-type cards that affect both players (Desert, possibly Challenge/ME and Avery Hoskins) are probably not recommended. You could easily go past Exhaustion or even the Weaks that you need to get down so that you can play Exhaustion. One of the differences between Cull the Weak and standard Plots is that the first two "parts" of Cull the Weak have their own effects, meaning that the mix of the six cards you wish to include in your deck can vary considerably. You may wish to use six Tireds, for instance. Or three Tireds and three Weaks. Getting Exhaustion into play is the trickiest combination. You could hope to have two of each "part," and be able to play them in two straight sequences of Tired-Weak-Exhaustion. Because of the timing for when Exhaustion is swept, and the deck cycling takes place, this is possible to do. However, you may find a 3-2-1 combination of the three "parts" a bit better. Remember, cards like Schemer and Plot Twist won't help you to complete the sequence any quicker. Assuming, again, that you _want_ to play Exhaustion. However, regardless, you probably don't want to have more than two Exhaustions selected from among your six permitted Cull the Weak cards. This brings us to the question of who should use Cull the Weak? This can vary a bit, depending on if you go with a 6-0-0 strategy, or a 3-3-0 strategy, or a 2-2-2 strategy. However, typically Khan is the master of card burning and Exhaustion. Six Tired cards, in combination with Desert (CotW #55), can be extremely painful. The opponent loses two cards at the beginning of their turn, and then must either play a Special to deal with Desert (losing two more cards due to Tired), or to deal with Tired itself (costing two more cards). That leaves the other card to sock them with two more cards lost next turn. Use of Reconnaissance, Focus, and A Master's Focus can help to get around this. However, that means those cards are tied up and can't be used to advance the strategies their owner intended them for. Weak assures card loss even if Reconnaissance and the Foci are played. What this adds up to is that Khan (or someone using his Quickening) comes out ahead, since he only loses three Ability when Exhausting. And Exhaustion, of course, means that when played Khan's Persona ability kicks in right away. Tired, particularly six by themselves, can prove useful if you plan to play a deck relatively low on Specials. Personas best suited to this are typically: 1) Duncan: diagonal Slash, Razor's Edge, Master's Block and Dodge, Leg Sweep, Master's Head Shot, Superior Tactics; 2) Connor: diagonal Slash, Master's Block + Master's Lunge, Master's Block + Lunge + Head Shot; 3) Slan: Master's Head Shot, and "free" Power Blowing plus Edge enhancements like Lunge and Appel; 4) The Kurgan: "cheap" Power Blowing plus the same Edge enhancements as Slan; 5) Fasil: Master's Lunge + Backflip, Fleche, Side Steps; and 6) Methos: borrowed Master's Head Shot/Kurgan, Master's Blocks, Attacks, and Lunges, Immortal Research, Superior Tactics. Two others can include Kern (can make multiple attacks without playing a Special, enhancing them with Edge cards like Flashing Blade and Lunge), and Ceirdwyn (multiple attacks from pre-game Allies plus the same Edge enhancements as Kern). Personas who can play Specials early on, then play Tired and benefit from the in-play Specials without further Special play, can also use Tired. Ceirdwyn once she gets some Allies down, Kanis after he has played his Hounds, and Yung Dol Kim after he has a few Frenzy's in play, are good examples of this. Personas who can duplicate the functions of certain Specials, without actually playing those Specials, can work well with Tired as well. These include Katana, Nakano, and Fitzcairn. As always, Nakano discarding a Special to duplicate an Event is not considered to be "playing" that Event, so he loses no cards due to Tired. In all of these cases, you can set up what you need (if anything), and then put Tired into play while you advance your non-Special tactics. An opponent can easily lose valuable cards playing Specials to deal with your barrage of attacks and potential Power Blows. It's interesting to note that in some of these cases, Tired may help a deck while Weak can actually hurt the same deck. Kern might be able to make his opponent pay for playing those Specials, but if he plays Weak, he's going to lose two cards for each attack he makes. And since his strategy is multi-attacking, that's going to hurt a lot. The same applies to Personas that rely on elaborate multi-defense/attack/Edge combos. A Duncan deck that plays Jump, Leg Sweep, Flashing Blade, and Master's Head Shot won't lose any cards due to Tired, but he'll lose eight cards due to Weak. This also means Weak is a minor defense against multi- attack types. A Kurgan deck that plays Bloodlust when Weak is in play is going to exhaust even quicker than usual. So overall, Steve gives Tired a _7_, Weak a _5_, and Exhaustion a _2_. Tired in and of itself is a fairly potent card in the right type of deck, and as shown above, there are a lot of Personas it can work with. Weak requires Tired to be in play, is much broader in scope, and typically will probably only be of use to those using Khan or his Quickening. Exhaustion requires that Tired have been played, and that Weak is in play, making it difficult to pull off. It's really only of use in decks based on Khan's Persona ability. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - I'm not a big fan of this set of cards, since it's pretty evident that the first two-thirds encourage stall/"do-nothing" decks. Never the less, they do perhaps encourage larger decks (and Khan), so it's not _all_ bad. What I can't see is why you'd ever use the third part. Hank - I like Cull The Weak. It fits with Khan decks, or non-Special decks, or decks which retrieve cards from the discard pile. I think between Cull The Weak and Choke we're going to see more Exhaustion strategies develop. Not overpowering, but a good set of cards. Alan - Abstain Prodipto - Most valuable for Khan, the Cull the Weak series is also good for tower decks. Many decks, particularly at the tournament level, stay between 44-50 cards. Rapid card turnover, particularly if used in conjunction with Avery Hoskins, and Zocchi's can completely throw off somebody's strategy. The trick with Cull the Weak is that, like plots, it is difficult to get the third card out. Allen - Abstain Bruce - (Tired) Since this is the first card of the series it can be played alone in the deck and is the most likely to be seen as a result. It can be used in any moderate size deck that is light in Specials or just as an augmentation to other Exhaustion strategies. (Weak) This card can devastate any speed deck no matter how big it is. If you play a defensive stall deck, you can slow down your opponent's strategy dramatically without losing a lot of cards. This will likely either put you in First Blood where you wanted to be any way, or your opponent out of the game from Exhaustion and the inability to get to his cards. (Exhausted) As a closer, this is a fairly decent card, but in the current First Blood environment, I don't actually think you will see it hit the table to frequently. Stealth Dave - Abstain Jonathan - This is a fun neo-plot but probably not a very effective one. It lends itself to one particular Immortal very well (Khan) but few other decks will wish to use the full set of three. The best part about these neo-plots is your ability to use only parts of them if you wish. A low Special deck can utilize Tired to penalize the opponent more greatly than they are penalized. Likewise, a deck that plays very few cards a turn may wish to use Weak to prevent their opponent from unleashing a multi- attack arsenal, or playing a plethora of Edges in a turn. Only Khan has a tremendous advantage when using Exhausted. With a bunch of healing in his deck, Khan might be able to run you through your deck a few times using this set, but I don t foresee it getting a lot of use otherwise. Charles - I like Cull a lot; especially with the Khan persona or a tower deck; Unfortunately, this group of cards affects all players. Fortunately you only need to get Cull: Tired into play to annoy your opponent.:) Ratings Overall Steve 7/5/2 Jeff 4/6/3 Hank 7/7/7 Alan N/A Prodipto 5/5/5 Allen N/A Bruce 6/7/4 Sdave N/A Jonathan 3/3/2 Charles 6/7/5 Average: 5.43/5.71/4.00 ------------------------------------------------------------------