Scorn/SE Situation While Scorn is in play, target player loses 2 Ability. At the end of target player's 2nd turn, discard Scorn. (errata'd text) Scorn/ME Situation At the beginning of each turn for the next 3 turns, target player loses 1 Ability. At the beginning of that player's fourth turn, remove Scorn from play. All lost Ability returns when Scorn leaves play. While catching up on old favorites (and some not-so- favorites), the two Scorn cards come up as some of the typical "almost-forgotten" cards that we've been reviewing recently. These cards never drew a great deal of attention on their initial release. Now, several Collections, Editions, and Expansions later, let's take another look at them. Game mechanic questions first. Both of these cards affect Ability, rather than inflicting damage. As such, this means that they can't be negated by cards that prevent damage. Most such cards only work against Events only. Even Dr. Sonny Jackson and Dr. Anne Lindsey won't work against Scorn, though. By the same token, Kalas gains no benefit from his Persona ability when using Scorn. Ability loss caused by either version of Scorn occurs during the target's first Ability Adjustment phase after it is played. Ability regained when Scorn leaves play is regained during the target player's next Ability Adjustment phase as well (the last sentence of Scorn/ME is somewhat misleading). So if Player A plays Scorn/SE on Player B on turn 2A, it will reduce his Ability by two at the end of 2B, during the target's next Ability Adjustment phase. It will be removed at the end of turn 3B, but Player B will not regain two Ability until the Ability Adjustment phase of 4B. When your lost Ability returns when Scorns leave play, you _are_ considered to "gain" Ability. Thus, you are now a legal target for cards such as Incense of Pain and Kate. Regaining Ability due to a discarded Scorn will _not_ make you a target for an "enhanced" Stalk/Martin Hyde, since you didn't play a card that let you gain Ability. If you Focus Scorn/ME, you do not lose Ability that turn. However, Scorn/ME is still "in play" and so you don't recover your lost Ability that turn. Scorn/ME will still know when the target's fourth turn is, and remove itself. You can heal your Ability up during the turns when you are under the effect of Scorn. However, Ability regained when Scorn leaves play will not raise you above your maximum. So that's how the Scorns work. When are they useful? The first thing to consider is the difference between the two. Scorn/SE has a somewhat lesser impact (-2 Ability instead of -3), but it occurs right away, rather than spread out over three turns. Scorn/SE's most immediate function will probably be to keep an opponent from drawing at the end of their next turn. Typically, they'll play roughly two cards. They lose 2 Ability, and thus draw nothing. After that, they'll be at two less Ability for the next two turns. This is probably not a substantial advantage to the Scorn-user unless it is late in the game, Scorn can still force the target player out of the game if it reduces his Ability such that he is at 0 at the beginning of an attack phase. Scorn/ME does much the same thing, but its effect is cumulative. This means you won't be able to restrict the drawing of his cards quite as much, since he'll still be able to draw at least one card each turn that his Ability drops by one. However, it also means at the end of three turns he'll be, however, briefly, -3 Ability. This also means that when its effect fades, your opponent regains 3 Ability. Why is that more important than regaining 2 Ability from Scorn/SE's removal? Incense of Pain. Which brings us to who should use Scorn? Because of Incense of Pain, Luther is an obvious choice. It is Reserved, so Richie can use it a little more easily, but not much better than anyone else using Darius. So what do you with Incense of Pain? Very simple. Play Scorn/SE on turn 1A, and on turns 2A and 3A play Incenses of Pain. Your opponent will lose 2 Ability on 1B, regain it at the end of 2B, and it will actually increase by two during his Ability Adjustment phase on 3B. He loses a big _12_ cards from the top of his Endurance. How many Cat & Mouse cards would Xavier have to play, in how many turns, to accomplish the same effect? And those two Incense of Pains are out there for you to play another Scorn/SE and make them lose another 12 cards. Get down three more for a total of five (the fifth from a pg Darius), and your opponent will be losing _18_ cards from his Endurance each time he "recovers" from your Scorn. Anybody have a problem with that? Play six Scorns, and that's a potential 126 cards each pass through Luther's Endurance. Even Khan is going to feel a bit weak in the knees after that. All your opponent can really do is Police the Scorn as soon as it hit the table, before his first Ability Adjustment phase. This costs him the use of a Special that turn, and makes him waste the Police on something other than your other Situations. Scorn/ME take a bit longer, but has a few minor advantages and one big one. The minor ones include the somewhat slower, but psychologically more grinding effect of having your Ability tick down. Never underestimate psychology in a game of Highlander. Another advantage is since you only have to play one Scorn/ME every three turns (although you _can_ play them quicker), you have more time to play other Specials like Disappear and Continuity (w/Endure Pain), and slow down those newly- minted multi-attacker types with Taunt. The really big advantage is that when they regain that Ability, they'll lose 9 cards, rather than the six from Scorn/SE. That ads up to a potential 24 cards lost per Scorn/ME, or a potential _144_ per pass through your Endurance. The other Ability-gaining related card is Kate. Since anti-Event damage is still a common phenomena, sight, this Ally isn't nearly as effective as Incense of Pain. But if you can use those extra turns granted by Scorn to Police those Greenfield Hobbies, you might be able to come out ahead. If Luther tries this stunt in conjunction with Incense of Pain, Disappear will give him some added protection if the opponent uses Do It Yourself/General Katana or Unexpected Assistance to "bounce" the damage back. So overall, Steve gives Scorn/SE a _3_ and Scorn/ME a 4. At best, they're a minor annoyance under most circumstances. However, their use with Incense of Pain is so painful if successful that I've got to bump it a point or two. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Scorn/SE is by and large a waste of time unless you just happen to need an extra 2 points to take your opponent to zero. The ME Scorn is, perhaps, a bit better with its longer duration, but is really not that useful. The presence of Police, Focus, and Katana along with their transient nature suggests to me that the slots used for these cards could be better used. Hank - I've used these cards before, it's sometimes useful and sometimes forcing an opponent to gain Ability (when the Scorn leaves play) is also a good thing, sets up combos (Kate, Incense of Pain, etc). Neither card is all that powerful, though. I'd give a slight edge to the SE Scorn: it's over with more quickly and you can combine it more often because of that. Prodipto - Scorn is a fairly decent way to temporarily put your opponent at a disadvantage. The key is to take advantage of the 2-3 turns that Scorn is out to further your own strategy. Kane, Fitzcairn and Kastagir all come to mind as Personae who have support cards that further force your opponent to discard, putting them at a severe disadvantage. Kalas can also wreak havoc with the Scorn cards by damaging his opponent and leaving them holding few cards. Most importantly, Police/Counter Damage and Rules of the Game don't affect Scorn, although Focus does. So, in the end, for a narrow strategy, Scorn is decent, but generally of limited use. Allen - Neither Scorn seems very impressive on its own, but are beginning to have some effect in conjunction with other cards; but not a lot. They do guarantee you a use for Kate if your opponent doesn't heal otherwise, but that's two widely space Specials to do less than a Careful Mob or Careful Watcher+Watcher/Hunter+Horton. Several of Luther's Incense of Pain, however, can rob your opponent of _many_ cards after a good Scorn. Use in conjunction with Diane Terrin etc. and you're on to something. Scorn isn't much except for this one combo, however, and thus doesn't rate high in my book. Bruce - There is not a lot to say here. Temporarily reducing your opponent's ability can certainly be useful. If your opponent is not drawing cards, it can severely hamper their strategy. I have even seen some marginal strategies that use these cards as their core components. But, a permanent effect is usually what is called for if you want to win. Stealth Dave - Abstain Jonathan - Ability loss from a Situation is a nice idea, but the loss of these cards after a few turns makes them less than phenomenal. They (particularly ME version) are nice sealed deck cards, but very often do not find their way into competitive decks. They are helpful most specifically in the end game, but tend to work poorly early on in a game. For their Sealed Deck value, they have some value, but I'd never put them into a traditional deck. Charles - Temporary effects do not appeal to me. I much prefer to use Poison Gas because, even though it is temporary, I control when the effect will end, and if I am patient, and play the Gas at the right time, the effect can be permanent. Ratings Overall (SE/ME) Steve 3/4 Jeff 3/4 Hank 5/4 Prodipto 4/5 Allen 3/3 Bruce 4/4 Sdave N/A Jonathan 2/3 Charles 2/2 Average: 3.25 / 3.63 ------------------------------------------------------------------