The Kurgan Any of your successful attacks do an additional point of damage. If you wish to make or block a Power Blow, you may make a 3-card Exertion to do so. You may have up to 6 Master cards. Overview The Kurgan seems a rather underrated Persona. You currently don't see him used in many tournaments, and he doesn't seem to win in those where he does appear. The Kurgan is, in this reviewer's opinion, one of the most powerful current Personas. He has two useful Persona powers - an amount only equalled by Slan and Connor (and ignoring Xavier). Game mechanic-wise, the Kurgan's Exertion ability is straightforward. For any non-Power Blow attack that requires an Exertion (i.e., Stunning Blow), he must still make a 5-card Exertion. The Kurgan's damage-enhancement only works on attacks that do at least one damage. He does not do one damage with attacks such as Dirty Trick and Stunning Blow. He does add damage to Special Attacks, particularly Pistol. He gains no benefit from using his own Quickening. However, his Persona damage modifier is cumulative with Thrust and Hideo Koto. Persona-Specific Cards The Kurgan is the only ME Persona without Dodge. This makes him vulnerable to Dead-End Alley, and limits his response to Hidden attacks, Extra Shot, and Combination. He has the "standard" Back Away, Combination, Continuity, Extra Shot, Power Blow, and Trip. His version of Flashback is the standard one for Movie Edition Personas, and some future Series Edition ones as well. Elizabeth Vaughn remains a superior card to Flashback at this time. Going down the list of Reserved cards, we come to Bloodlust. This is perhaps his most formidable card. In a "friendly" game without TCG cards, a Bloodlust played on the second or third turn (those first two turns spent playing Carl) can spell a quick end to the game. Nobody has that many blocks. Assuming an opponent has 5-6 defenses in their 15 Ability, Bloodlust can do a potential 18 damage! Bloodlust is useless to most other Personas due to the "1 damage per attack" clause. And don't forget the errata: none of these attacks can be Power Blows, even if you get creative and use Slan's Quickening or Scotland the Brave. Disguise gives a huge benefit to the Kurgan. With it, he can play his Situations with a greater chance they won't by eliminated by Police/Remove Situation. If the Kurgan chooses to utilize Plots, even Simple Mind will do little to stop him. Follow-Up is an awesome card: the scourge of those who use a single dodge card to avoid two attacks from Amanda, or Specials like Combination, Extra Shot, and Hook. If the Kurgan makes a three-card Exertion to make the second attack a Power Blow, his opponent has little choice but to stand and block. Hammer Blow is a little less effective since Ancestral Blade has supplanted Continuity. If an opponent does use Continuity, Hammer Blow will remove it after a single use. HB is also effective since in conjunction with Power Blow and Head Shot, it gives the Kurgan a potential 18 "free" Power Blows! Who needs to Exert? Master's Disarm is an all-or-nothing card. If you're playing an attack-heavy deck (in conjunction with Bloodlust), this is a good gamble. A normal Disarm is probably more effective otherwise. MD is a good card to use against Amanda, whether she is Seducing you or simply hitting you for one damage. Speaking of Run Through . . . this version is the same as Slan's. Combine it with Lunge from Watcher's Chronicle, and you have a very effective counter-attack. Use when you can't avoid that Seduce damage anyway. Scare is a fairly versatile card: it can avoid Angry Mobs, but it also lets you keep attacking if your opponent uses Distraction. If played in conjunction with Disguise, it still gives you some Situation-removal capability. Taunt is not quite as effective as Katana's. It's probably not a good card to use when you Exert for a Power Blow - they may have Exerted for a Power Block anyway. Use it on those turns when you're not attacking heavily. Generic Cards The single most beneficial set of generic cards for the Kurgan are the three Pistols. His Persona ability raises these from an annoying one damage up to a seriously painful two. This is a good reason why many opponents won't choose to attack you unless they have some kind of anti-dodge card handy. A Dariused Shooting Blade is too tempting to resist: add it in if you use Pistols. If you use Pistol, conserve your Back Aways. Those same anti-dodge cards are the Kurgan's best weapon. Master's Advance, Challenge/SE, Watcher: Hunter, Lunge, and Stumble will all make sure your opponent sticks around and has to defend against you. Lunge can be particularly crippling against a heavy dodge-user like Amanda. Carl and The Gathering are useful in Kurgan decks, since your opponent will want to escape to Holy Ground often against you. If you plan on Exerting often for Power Blows, Avery Hoskins and Challenge/ME are good additions. Ancestral Blade is the bane of the Kurgan's existence. If you choose to play without Objects, use Thief. If you prefer to use Ancestral Blade yourself, use Misfortune. Yes, you can Power Block with a smaller Exertion . . . but it's better to not make any Power Block Exertion at all via Ancestral Blade, and use your Exertion for more Power Blows. The Alertness/Hidden and Feint Edge cards can be critical to your strategy (see below). All of the ME Plots (and Schemer) are good for you. Use Cat & Mouse/Defense to lower their resistance. Or Head Hunter to limit their defense and counter-attack abilities, and anti-dodge stuff to finish them up. Destruction gives you more free Power Blows. And Joy Ride, although sorely underestimated, can be a game- winner if you've seriously hurt them with a heavy attack strategy. If you're going to go Plot-heavy, you might wish to consider Simple Mind. You lose the advantage of a few very nice cards like Master's Stratagem and Advance, however. Narrow Escape is recommended, since the Kurgan has no way to dodge Ranged Attacks. A Shooting Blade can prove fatal to him. Attack-wise, the two generic Slashes are not bad. The Kurgan does an extra point of damage with them, and they are hard to avoid. How to use them, however? See "How to Win" below. Many other generic cards may help the Kurgan, depending on specific strategies. The above, however, are almost always useful to him regardless of strategy. Location Cards Since Locations are so critical, let's take a look at them separately. Catwalk is the obvious choice for the Kurgan. He has no Dodges, and his Pistol attacks can't be dodged while this Location is out. Once again, his opponent will have to stand and fight. In fact, Catwalk can be so important to this strategy you might wish to consider using a Master's Domain or two to speed up your draw of it. Another, less obvious choice is Ruins. This prevents the play of Guards against your Slashes (if you use them). It also prevents your opponent from using Continuity, if they choose to. The other Locations are a mixed lot. Factory + Reconnaissance and Patience is always a good choice. Rooftop makes use of Scare pretty much redundant. You should experiment with these or others. How to Win Looking at the Persona-specific and generic cards mentioned above, several strategies suggest themselves. In an end-game, the Kurgan is very deadly. Even without Specials, he can still Exert for Power Blows at a low cost and get +1 damage when he succeeds. As long as he attacks, he can be dangerous even with a five or less Ability. As noted, Slashes are hard to avoid, particularly if the Kurgan uses anti-dodge cards and Ruins. How can he unleash these attacks, since practically anywhere he blocks is going to limit his ability to use them? Either use a lot of Upper/Lower Center Blocks and Parries. Or . . . block an attack and then use Weapon Bind. Next round, you don't have to worry about any attacks and you can Slash at will. Power Blowing leaves you vulnerable to Hidden attacks. How to remedy this? Use Alertness/Hidden, and have a few Feint/Edge cards on hand. Once you sucker them into making a Hidden attack, use Feint and launch another Power Blow. You do this once and they won't take that "free" Hidden attack again. What if they don't make Hidden attacks against you? Add Master's Stratagem to your deck, and use it to discard those cards once they're useless to you. As noted above, the combat-oriented ME plots can help you a lot. Build a deck around a lot of attacks, some defenses, and . . . a six-card set of two of the four ME plots. If you complete a Head Hunter plot while you have a couple of Master's Advances out, your opponent is pretty much defeated. Since the Kurgan can do five points of damage with a successful Power Blow, two strategies suggest themselves. The first is to build a large deck and not be concerned about Exerting. Add cards like Avery Hoskins and Challenge/ME so they share the fun. This is not a good strategy if you use Plots, however. The second is to take advantage of the Kurgan's vast ability to make "free" Power Blows. Use Hammer Blow, Power Blow, and Head Shot, and toss in the Destruction plot for good measure. Keep an Alertness and Feint on hand. You're almost as good as Slan . . . and your extra point of damage makes you his equal. Bloodlust and Master's Disarm seem to work best in a small, Lean & Mean-type deck. Use two of each of these cards, 6 Lean & Mean, the six basic blocks, perhaps four Carls and two Back Aways, and . . . 22 attacks. Tailor to your personal preference. This is obviously an "all or nothing" deck - if you don't win with it, you'll lose quickly. But at least you'll have the satisfaction of watching them rip several TCG cards to stop you. How to Defeat Since the Kurgan is a combat monster, his weakness lies in non-attack damage. He has Scare to ward off the most powerful tactics such as Angry Mob + Careful Planning, however, so beware. If the Kurgan uses his ability to the fullest, he has a weakness for Hidden attacks. Use Twist of Fate (CotW #15) to strip him of Alertness and/or Feint. Against the Kurgan's potential incessant stream of Power Blows, Ancestral Blade is a vital addition. Due to Hammer Blow, the "standard" Continuity is even less useful by comparison. Have several, though: be prepared to lose them regularly. Nemesis/Fade Away is perhaps the most crippling Nemesis card. If the Kurgan ever becomes a more popular choice in Personas, you may wish to add this to your decks on general principles. Also, if Kurgan/Disguise ever catches on, you may wish to begin using Investigation regularly. One of the Kurgan's main strengths is Situations - both standard and Plot-specific. Have plenty of Police and Focus, and perhaps Investigation as well. Simple Mind may or may not help you, depending on the Kurgan's specific strategy. The Kurgan might use it himself! Overall As the above shows, the Kurgan is not a Persona to be underestimated. A carefully built Kurgan deck should be able to match a Connor deck blow-for-blow. Disguise makes him a peer of Xavier and Kalas, while his Persona ability lets him obtain maximum advantage from combat- related Plots. Overall, Steve gives the Kurgan a _7_. In straight swing-and-parry swordfighting, both basic and Special- enhanced, he is indeed the "Warrior Eternal." Unfortunately, the current tournament environment tends to detract from that. Still, properly equipped, the Kurgan should give almost anyone a run for their money. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - Abstain Jeff - The Kurgan is stronger than he's usually thought to be, but weaker than he should be. His inherent abilities are okay, but still rank beneath others (Katana, Nefertiri, Richie, etc.). His cards are okay, but are nothing really spectacular (Disguise is nice, Bloodlust is usually equal to a ripped TCG, Follow-Up is cool). The main problem as I see it is that the Kurgan tends to lend himself only to one narrow successful deck type, which doesn't tend to promote playing him much. If you don't mind taking almost as much damage as your opponent and exerting like crazy, the Kurgan is for you. If you prefer a bit more finesse, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. Rick - The Kurgan is excellant for building attack decks. Just by looking at his Special Abilities this becomes evident. The downside is that by playing the Kurgan Persona, you are giving away a major portion of the style of deck you are playing. Shut down attacks and you shut down the Kurgan. Try to use this to your advantage. I can't recall ever seeing a Kurgan Chessex deck. Use a Pregame Darius to increase Bloodlust to 3 and then put only 1 Bloodlust in your deck. They will be so paranoid waiting for the onslaught, that they will be hoarding defenses and Holy Grounds. That's when you bury them with the cheese. Hank - I loved the Kurgan in the movies, and the Kurgan in the game is a respectable Persona: he has a few good cards, he's got a nice Persona ability, and he's fairly balanced. His biggest fault, I suppose, is that both his cards and his Persona ability tend towards attack-heavy decks (at least, most of the decks I've built for him have been attack decks). Since I'm a fan of swordfighting decks, though, I don't consider that much of a disadvantage. Alan - I have just recently begun playing the Kurgan Persona, and find him to be a monster in the attack category. The L&M deck mentioned in the main review is an awesome deck, though it either wins very quickly or loses very quickly. A very powerful Persona. Chip - Abstain Jim - Kurgan is THE combat monster. Since the addition of Ancestral Blade to the card set, free Power Blows just don't cut it anymore. Having an additional point of damage is an excellent special ability. It works with or without Power Blows and even works with ranged attacks that do damage like Pistol. Obviously Kurgan comes from the Clint Eastwood school of firepower and carries a "BFG". Kurgan rocks on the Catwalk and as long as he can attack he remains lethal. He is very suceptible to decks that shut down attacks, though, and a Verona/Safe Haven combo is far worse than his Nemesis being in play. Kurgan has some very good cards. His Disguise can keep Police out of action, and Follow-Up is always good for getting in that second deadly attack. Bloodlust is pretty requires using TCG to pull it off consistently. Building a Bloodlust deck requires discipline and the willingness to risk everything to pull of that combo. Bloodlust decks are excessively attack heavy and tend to be prone to Head Shot. As long as Kurgan has a TCG card in reserve this doesn't matter, and as long as he can attack he usually can keep his opponent on the defensive. Kurgan's real weakness is to mega-cheese decks and lock decks. If you like swordfighting decks, Kurgan is a great persona to play. Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Ben N/A Jeff 6 Rick 8 Hank 8 Alan 8 Chip N/A Jim 8 Average: 7.5 Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television, used under license by Thunder Castle Games. The card text is copyright 1996 by Thunder Castle Games. All rights reserved.