Reporter Event REPORTER: Each player gains 2 Ability. May not exceed maximum. (errata'd text) Here's another Series Edition classic. Unlike last issue's Maurice, though, this one is a Common, and one that folks were initially probably pretty sick of seeing in all of those booster packs. Reporter's popularity has waned and risen as the Highlander CCG rules have changed. initially it's use was somewhat limited. Then folks figured out how to make stall decks work, and Reporter became much more valuable. who cared how much Ability your opponent had, as long as you had even more and could time the game out after 30 minutes. Now, with stall- and supra-Ability decks on the wane again, now seems like a good time to take a look at Reporter. Game mechanic questions first. DUEL IS DELAYED on the original text is flavor text, has no impact on the game, and has since been errata'd out. Reporter is, needless to say, a Reporter card. This makes it vulnerable to cards such as Sovereign Media, Trench Coat, Scare/Kurgan, and Casual Killer/Corda & Reno. Reporter works just like Angry Mob/SE, except in reverse. The person playing it gains the two Ability on the Ability Adjustment phase of the turn he plays it. The opponent gains the two Ability at the end of _their_ turn during their Ability Adjustment phase. Thus, if the opponent is Nefertiri, they don't get to draw up to their new +2 Ability until after their Ability Adjustment phase. Regardless of when you play Reporter, your opponent is considered to gain the +2 Ability during _her_ turn, not yours. So this means they will subsequently be a legal target for Kate. Since they didn't play the Special themselves, Stalk/Hyde will have no special effect. So what can you do with Reporter? The only real use for it is if you have less Ability then your opponent. Optimally, you want to play it when your opponent is already at his maximum Ability, so that they gain no benefit from it whatsoever. Of course, nothing is as easy as that. First of all, you do not _want_ to have lower Ability than your opponent, and strategies that you know will cost you Ability should (hopefully) zap your opponent for an equal amount or more. Thus, the Kurgan packing Reporters to handle the four Ability loss he knows he's going to take from playing a Bloodlust won't do much good, because hopefully he'll inflict even more damage on his opponent. In which case Reporter is useless to him. Ditto for Battle Rage or Bassett & Hotchkiss. So Reporter is really more of an emergency precaution, for when your opponent nails you on that first turn with a Power Blow/Seduce and you failed to draw that Live Forever? You can take 12 points of damage, each pass through your Endurance, and recover it with six Reporters. This still leaves your Watcher/Treatments for other stuff. Of course, if you're that poor a player, or having that much bad luck, you're probably in trouble anyway. Still, this demonstrates Reporter's use as a beginner's tool. Most starting players will have it due to their Common status, and it can help to assure they aren't totally crushed by an unlucky draw. Still, if you're up against an Angry Mob/SE + Careful Planning type of opponent, Reporter can prove useful in avoiding a loss. Greenfield Hobby and Spiritual Center might be a bit better...but you also have to have those particular cards. Remember that Reporter is a Common. We mentioned Kate above, but healing them for two so that you can subsequently inflict two damage on them isn't really of much benefit. One overlooked facet of Reporter is that it is the only card that lets you heal your opponent. If you don't want them to escape a battle due to 0 Ability, this can prove remarkably useful. Of course, it's only useful if you want to take their heads instead. With careful use of Reporter, you can whittle down an opponent to near-zero with normal attacks. Keep attacking them to use up your non-Head Shot attacks, get them down to 0, then bring them back up again, while boosting yourself up if you're down in Ability. This requires a bit of careful timing, but means that your opponent can't throw himself on to your non-Head Shots so that he can get to 0 and exit the battle. Another use for Reporter is to force a game into First Blood, by keeping both players from winning. Again, you shouldn't play Reporter and extend the game out to 30 minutes if it looks like you can win before then. However, if you can't, or if you want to rely on a Head Shot after 30 minutes is over (through the use of the new A&T pre-game, or the Kurgan/Duncan Master's Head Shots), Reporter will prove useful to you. Otherwise, Reporter's primary use is as an emergency card. However, it's an emergency card that's only good if you're losing What do you do with it if you're not? Card cycling is the key. Methos is the master of such things. If he's ahead on Ability and doesn't anticipate a need for Reporter, he can dump it and redraw. The other Persona who can dump unneeded Reporters is...Nakano. Don't need that Special? Discard it to duplicate your opponent's Event. Heck, if Nakano is using Master's Maneuver, make a Hidden attack the same turn as you duplicate your opponent's Watcher/Treatment, or Seduce, or Live Forever? If you're going to use the Methos Q or Master's Stratagem, you can also cycle out unneeded Reporters as fast as you draw them. However, that depends on you keeping those cards out. An inherent ability to ditch Reporters will ultimately prove more useful. So overall, Steve gives Reporter a _5_. It may not be an incredibly useful card in competitive play (except to Methos and Nakano), but it can prove extremely valuable to beginners, in sealed deck, and as a defense against certain stuff like Angry Mob/Careful Planning if you don't have other preventatives. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Formerly the card of choice for heal decks, Reporter seems to have fallen into disfavor since the advent of Trench Coat and the new First Blood rules. Still a nasty card to prolong a game. Hank - Each player gains 2 Ability... as useful as Watcher/Treatment for you, and not limited to 2, but useful to your opponent as well. You can undo the benefit with Kate, but it's using another Special to do so. I've used it in heal/stall decks, and in decks that rely on other ways to win (Head Shot decks, for instance). Alan - Abstain Prodipto - Reporter should be used when your opponent is at full Ability, or down only 1 to minimize the amount of benefit they get from the healing. Generally, it is best used when you are losing. As a result, the card is fairly unappealing to me, since it implies an expectation to lose. For a healing-heavy deck, however, it's fairly decent. Just watch out for Hyde and Kate. Allen - Abstain Bruce - On its face, this is a fairly balanced card, deserving of an average rating, but its lack of a restriction makes Healing far too easy. If you want to force First Blood or keep your opponent alive to take your Head Shot, this is a fairly effective way to do it. I have seen this card used to great effectiveness despite the current countermeasures. Stealth Dave - One of the many Healing cards in the game. Back in the old First Blood days, this card was a staple in Healer/Stall decks. While it still makes its way into a few of the newer Stall decks, its use has seen a huge decline. Since you now have to actually win the game or go to First Blood, Reporter can hurt you as much if not more than it can help you. That and the existence of Trench Coat can severely inhibit your ability to play Reporters. All that adds up to little place for Reporter in today's decks. Jonathan - Reporter is one of my favorite sealed deck cards, mainly because it's easy to get in your Series Edition boosters, and is a great way to help yourself out early in the game if you get behind. In Standard Constructed, it's much less useful. There aren't many reasons to use Reporter in place of Watcher/Treatment. In fact, with Hyde Stalking away, it's less likely that we'll see huge healing decks, using any more than a couple Watcher/Treatment. It seems to me that Reporter will be relegated to being a nice sealed deck card, and that's about it. Charles - In spite of the anti-Reporter cards that have been released, this card proves to be quite useful in small quantities (1-3). It can aid you in staying alive until time is called. It can also annoy your opponent whenever he manages to score a hit and still not do any permanent damage. Ratings Overall Steve 5 Jeff 6 Hank 6 Alan N/A Prodipto 5 Allen N/A Bruce 7 Sdave 3 Jonathan 3 Charles 4 Average: 4.88