Pedestrian/Delay-2 Situation: Pedestrian No attacks may be played until after your opponent's next 2 turns. Discard this card at that time. (errata'd text) Another oldie-but-goodie. A one-time favorite, but has it fallen on hard time? Let's take a look. Pedestrian/Delay-2 is...well, a Pedestrian card. If we weren't sure before, we have the errata to make that clear to us now. Whew. :) It is vulnerable to cards that target Situations _and_ Pedestrians. Ped-2 has no effect until it is played. Nor should it be implied that you cannot play an attack the turn you play it (unlike, say, Disappear). Feel free to play an attack, then play Ped-2. Ped-2 does prevent both players from playing attacks, and can be bypassed by the appropriate cards that let you ignore "prevent attack" effects. And...that's it. Pretty simple. So what do you do with it? In its best days, Ped-2 basically served as a substitute Intimidate/Slan or Luther. For non-attack types like Xavier, it gave you plenty of time to play those Unholy Alliances and Alliances, get out your Forethoughts, and then sneak in a Stalk that they couldn't Holy Ground away from. All and at the same time not have to worry about someone beating up on you. Ped-2 also expanded the ability of Slan to Power Blow and not have to worry about a Hidden attack next turn. In essence, it gave him twice as many Intimidates. Then we had Movie Edition, and the introduction of General Katana, Rooftop, and Focus. Katana's Exertion may have been a bit expensive to deal with the temporary delay of a Ped-2. Focus worked both ways. It let you attack if your opponent had it out...but it also let you attack if _you_ had it out. Rooftop was not one of the more common Locations in play even then, and was used more as a anti-Angry Mob/Careful Planning deterrent. The next big change in Ped-2's fortunes came with The Gathering, where we had Trenchcoat. Besides making Rooftop obsolete, Trenchcoat makes it extremely difficult to play any Pedestrians, as there is currently no cards to temporarily Focus or Recon past Objects, and Misfortune remains the only real Object-removal tool. Since Trenchcoat works against other, more dangerous cards as well, such as Angry Mob-SE/Careful Planning and Pedestrian/Hidden-Only, it's an Object that's likely to see continuing use in the years to come. So with all that in mind, is Ped-2 still worth using? In some cases, yes. With the new rise in multi-attack decks thanks to the release of Arms & Tactics, and the existence of Ceirdwyn and Rapier in particular, a Generic card that stops _all_ attacks, rather than simply causing the loss of a single attack (Bystander/Event, Parrying Blade's block effect, etc.), can still be a useful tool. While Ped-2 makes your opponent unable to attack for two rounds, if timed properly it only affects you for one turn. Ped-2 also has the benefit of letting you "set up" an attack. Again, Parrying Blade in the hands of your opponent, as well as the necessity to block against more and more attacks, can mean that it can be difficult to play that attack to the precise area you need it. Master Swordsman helps, but there are times when you still can only make one attack, and you want to play that Stalk/Xavier to one specific area. A Ped-2 can buy you that time. And Ped-2 still makes a useful augmentation to Slan when he doesn't have Intimidates handy. Cheese decks probably don't need Ped-2, not when Ped- Hidden, Safe Haven/Sit, FM/Wings, and Grapple are out there. Ped-2 is best used as an augmentation to a combat deck, not (as in the game's early days) as part of an anti-attack stall deck. The main problem with Ped-2, and what ultimately _does_ bring it down, is that you've got to get past Trenchcoat to do it. While Trenchcoat has put a end to a great many cheese strategies, it also tends to impair certain non- cheese cards, and Ped-2 is one of those. Given the prevalence of Hogg, Flying Machine/Wings, Equalizer, and anyone with a few Darii to spare, Misfortunes should be more and more a 4+ card staple in practically any but the leanest & meanest of decks. The problem is, you're probably going to find plenty to Misfortune because of those cards, without worrying about trying to keep the board clear of Trenchcoats. If you use a Disarm deck and have to worry about Extra Weapons as well...forget it. Assuming you even want to waste time playing a Ped-2 when you're trying to disarm and skewer your opponent ASAP. So overall, Steve gives Pedestrian/Delay-2 a _2_. Maybe the pendulum will swing back again, Trenchcoat will phase out as the more extreme cheese that it deals with dies away, and Ped-2 may become viable. But right now, there are just too many other better cards out there, wheter you want to stall a game entirely or stall an opponent's attack drive. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Once a kinda-cool card, this Ped has fallen on hard times. Not only is it vulnerable to all the usual cards (Focus, Police, Katana, Rooftop, Trenchcoat), but it also has Discipline: Attacks and Dueling Grounds to get around now. Not useful outside sealed deck. Hank - A cheesy card, but it's seen use. I think it got eclipsed quite a bit by Ped/Hidden, because Ped/Hidden lasts indefinitely, but I've used it before to have a breather to get Specials out... Ped/Hidden has a lot more chance of backfiring. Prodipto - Need to buy some time from your opponent's attack deck? Need a chance to slough some defenses to cycle your hand? Then Ped-2 is your friend! With the implementation of the rule allowing you to drop a defense if your opponent didn't attack, you have two free turns of cycling in some cards that will help your strategy. I'm a great proponent of card cycling and, if it keeps your opponent from attacking, then great! Of course your opponent gets the same benefit, but in many cases that's worth the price. Allen - Ped: 2 Turn is a good 'breather' card for older Immortals who aren't up to today's five attacks per turn pace, or any deck which only wants to make carefully timed attacks, wants to conserve its defenses, buy time to play non-Attack oriented Specials (Change of Fortune, Lunge, Attack Weapon anyone?), or just not face a Hidden attack after a Power Blow. It does these jobs fairly well, and can augment such cards as Slan's Intimidate. Not much for flash, and easily abusable with cheese, but it can help you wind up for that one big swing. Bruce - When I first started playing Highlander, this card was in all of my decks! I could just count it as a defense card and everything worked out. But, it is a Pedestrian and a Situation and thus fairly easy to get around. You are probably far better off with other cards in today's environment. Stealth Dave - Abstain Jonathan - Despite the trend away from Pedestrian\Bystander strategies, this card has a number of productive uses. An intelligent player can use it to control the flow of the game, attacking without the fear of reprisal on Turn One, and finding some time to set up his next strategy on the off-turn. That said, the anti- Pedestrian nature of the game has hurt this card's potential rating. Situation removal has become quite commonplace as people need to remove Hounds and Allies at an alarming rate now. Most Situation-based strategies are doomed unless they really pile on the Situations each turn. Thus, I expect to see very little of Pedestrian-2 in the future. Charles - There are much more powerful cards capable of preventing an opponent from attacking such as Safe Haven and Duelist. There are also ways around Ped-2 that do not affect other anti-attack situations (Rooftop and Trenchcoat). Ratings Overall Steve 2 Jeff 3 Hank 6 Prodipto 6 Allen 6 Bruce 3 Sdave N/A Jonathan 4 Charles 2 Average: 4.00