Gypsy Lover SITUATION During your turn, randomly select a card from your opponent's hand, look at it, then return it to his hand (errata'd text). Gypsy's Curse SITUATION While this card is in play, when using any Gypsy Lover you have in play, do not return the card drawn from your opponent's hand until you have drawn a card for each Gypsy Lover you have in play. Gypsy Camp LOCATION While in the Gypsy Camp, any card with the word Gypsy in the title that is discarded from play may be placed on top of the owner's Endurance instead. With the introduction of two new Gypsy-related cards, now seems like a good time to not only evaluate those cards, but the older Gypsy Lover as well. Game mechanics questions first, as always. Gypsy Lover's effect does not stack. Gypsy's Curse remedies this by not only letting you draw once per Gypsy Lover, but assuring that you don't return any cards to their hand until you have used drawn once for each Gypsy Lover you have. Gypsy Camp targets both players. The person who is forced to discard a Gypsy is the one who chooses whether it does or does not go to the top of their Endurance. So even with the boost from Arms & Tactics, of what value is Gypsy Lover? Well, probably not much initially. Looking at one card, or two card, or up to six cards per turn once you've put six Gypsy Lovers and a Gypsy's Curse in play, is probably not of huge consequence against your opponent. Of course, having multiple Gypsy Lovers in play without a Gypsy's Curse is of little use, since they don't stack. Gypsy's Curse helps to minimize this problem to some degree, by assuring that the cards drawn due to Gypsy Lover remain separate until all Gypsy Lovers are used. However, even then you still only know six of the 15+ cards in their hand. This knowledge shouldn't be underestimated: knowing approximately one-third of their hand can be useful. Cards such as Asgard and Pyramid can give you much greater knowledge, however. The problem with those cards is that they target both players, and Pyramid is a Location. If you want to use Pyramid reliably, typically you'll have to forego the use of other Locations. If you use Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse, you can devote your Location resources elsewhere. And of course, your opponent won't be looking through your hand. Where Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse shines is later in the game, as you have (hopefully) whittled down your opponent's Endurance. At this point, that approximately one-thirds of his hand that you are looking at has now become one-half, or perhaps even one hundred percent. At the point where you have lowered him down to six Ability, your knowledge of every card in his hand can be critical for pulling off a win. The antithesis of the Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse combination is Simple Mind, which will sweep the board. If your opponent does this, there's not much you can do. Even Gypsy Camp does you little good. It may let you recover those lost Gypsy cards, but you are still unable to play them. On the other hand, if you supplement your use of these two Gypsy cards with other Situations, and your opponent does not use Simple Mind, it's very unlikely your opponent will target the Gypsy cards. If nothing else, Gypsy Lover's original reputation helps to assure that it is perceived as a weak card, not worth targeting. We mentioned your Location resources above. Gypsy Camp isn't necessarily critical to your use of Gypsy Lover or Gypsy's Curse. Indeed, against the worse Situation remover, Simple Mind, it is of very little use whatsoever. However, it can certainly assure that against most other strategies, you can keep those Gypsy cards back. This recycling of Gypsy cards does point out the main problem with the Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse strategy. That is that it takes _time_ to build up. To be able to get down six Gypsy Lovers, and a Gypsy's Curse, so that you can look at six of your opponent's cards per turn, you need to spend seven turns playing Special. Short of cards like Desperation and Dr. Sonny Jackson, you won't be playing any other Specials during those turns. So who should use the Gypsy cards? Those Personas who have other ways of looking through your hand, or gaining knowledge of cards that are going into your hand, can gain a somewhat greater benefit. Kane always knows at least one card that you draw, for instance: Gypsy Lover/Gypsy's Curse may tell him six additional cards. However, he may also end up drawing and seeing a card that he knew you had because it was on the top of your Endurance last turn anyway. Methos, due to Immortal Research, can keep fairly close tabs on your deck using the Gypsy combo. Kalas, thanks to Insurance/Situation, can do something similar if he can inflict damage. The Gypsy combo also means that he can get a somewhat better idea of when to play Insurance/Event. Remember, once the combo is down, it requires no further play of Specials. Kalas can look at six cards in his opponent's hand each turn. If he doesn't see any blocks among those six cards, it may be a good time to play Insurance/Event, hoping that he can inflict some damage or Ability loss. Although we don't review it here, the Gypsy Event can be used (and thanks to Gypsy Camp, reused) to keep tabs on your opponent's hands potentially every turn. The problem is that this requires you to use up your Special slot each turn. On the other hand, while a card like Pyramid is much more effective, with Gypsy your opponent gains no knowledge of your hand in exchange. Still, this may be of some use to those Personas who function well without playing Specials. So overall, Steve gives Gypsy Lover a _3_, Gypsy's Curse a _4_, and Gypsy Camp a _1_. Gypsy Lover gets a strong boost from Gypsy's Curse, and setting up the combo early in the game can pay off with big dividends later on. Gypsy's Curse is critical to the effectiveness of Gypsy Lover: otherwise, don't bother including the latter. Gypsy Camp strikes me as pretty much of a waste. It can help with cycling discarded parts of the Gypsy Lover/Curse combo. However, at that point you're talking about a pretty commitment of Special playing. It can be used to recycle Gypsy and keep tabs on your opponent's entire hand. However, this pretty much ties up your playing of Specials full-time. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - What's worse than a lame card? Three lame cards that don't do a lot in combination. Gypsy Lover has little use beyond sealed deck. Gypsy's Curse makes it a bit better... but why would you waste two Special slots on these? Gypsy Camp became the worst Location when the cool Gypsy-related stuff was pulled from A&T for space reasons. Hank - I've never thought of Gypsy Lover or Gypsy to be particularly useful. Gypsy's Curse and Gypsy Camp are supposed to make them more so... but I still haven't really gotten psyched about building a deck around them. Methos looks at your hand with an Edge, not an Event, and taking a card at random (even holding onto it for awhile) isn't that gross. Alan - Abstain Prodipto - (Gypsy Lover) While Gypsy Lover can give you a very small amount of insight into what your opponent's cards or strategy may be, it hardly warrants the space in a deck. Being able to look at one (random) card in a hand of 15, or even 10 is relatively useless. Until your opponent's ability is down around 5 or less, Gypsy Lover's ability is not worthwhile. And by that time, you hardly need her help. (Gypsy's Curse) While this card make Gypsy Lover a little more useful, it's a hard card to put into a deck with limited space. Even with the increase in the size of decks which will be triggered by Arms and Tactics, I'd think very seriously before taking space up with they Gypsy's Curse/Gypsy Lover combo. Pyramid will accomplish some remarkably similar effects (albeit for both players), and provide the added bonus of being a Location. (Not that I'm an advocate of Pyramid either). (Gypsy Camp) Well, if you're dead set on a Gypsy strategy, you might as well put this in your deck. Of course it can be a real hindrance if you're trying to draw other cards, or make an Exertion. On the other hand, it will let you keep putting your Gypsy cards in play. Allen - Gypsy Lover has never gotten much play. By itself, it simply isn't worth the deck-space or your Special card slot for a turn. Gypsy Curse helps here by allowing your Lovers to "stack," but IMO this still isn't enough to make the combo worthwhile. In the end-game the combo becomes more effective, but you've spent lots of special cards setting up for the end-game while your opponent has been busily _knocking_ you to the end-game. Gypsy Camp can help the above combo, and improves the use of Gypsy. Seeing your opponent's _entire_ hand every turn can be quite useful. Mix this with Upper Hand and you've got a useable strategy. Bruce - (In general) A Gypsy deck would be an interesting concept. I must admit that I have not tried it, but think it would have little likelihood of being successful. The ability to probe their hand lends itself to a variety of strategies and Gypsy Camp's ability to leverage your Gypsies and delay exhaustion could be very useful. Another batch of fun and interesting but impotent cards. (Gypsy Lover) While it can be quite a good card to have out in the end game, especially with others and a Gypsy's Curse, you are likely to otherwise be in a bad position if you took the time to put these out. (Gypsy's Curse) This certainly seems to make Gypsy Lover a far more useful card. However, the time it takes to get out enough Gypsy Lovers to make it really useful puts a serious crimp on things. (Gypsy Camp) This is certainly the card that makes Gypsies interesting. It is Location defense that allows significant leveraging of your other Gypsies and some degree of exhaustion protection. Stealth Dave - Abstain Jonathan - (Gypsy Lover) Just doesn't offer much of an effect to warrant taking up space in a deck. Seems like an extremely passive strategy. Better to waste a turn playing Gypsy/Event and see their full hand. (Gypsy's Curse) Oh boy, the Gypsies offer you a chance to do some cycling as well! You can draw a few cards and get to see some of your opponent's cards as well. Again, a passive strategy that really seems to be a waste of deck space. These Gypsy cards might be some fun in a theme deck, but I'd be extremely surprised to see them in any serious deck. (Gypsy Camp) Just a silly Location to play with, unless you have no others. The number of usable and productive cards with the word "Gypsy" in the title are extremely few. Best use would involve use of Gypsy to constantly look at your opponent's hand without allowing them to see yours (as with Asgard), but that's not much of a killer strategy. Still, it's a card you might want to own, as you never know when a new powerful Gypsy card might emerge. Charles - Great for stall decks and for annoying an opponent. Gypsy Lover with Gypsy's Curse is lethal when your opponent is at an Ability equal to the number of Lovers you have in play. I fail to see any other use for them at this time. Ratings Overall (Lover, Curse, Camp) Steve 3/4/1 Jeff 2/2/3 Hank 4/4/4 Alan N/A Prodipto 2/3/3 Allen 2/4/7 Bruce 2/3/4 Sdave N/A Jonathan 2/2/3 Charles 1/1/1 Average: 2.25 (Gypsy Lover) 2.88 (Gypsy's Curse) 3.25 (Gypsy Camp)