Methos - by Steve Crow You may use Master cards from any Persona, even if Reserved. At the beginning of your turn you may discard up to two cards from your hand and replace them from your Endurance. Only Adam Pierson can be assigned as your Watcher. You may have up to 8 Master cards. Overview Well, he's here: probably the most anticipated Persona to be released since the Highlander CCG came into existence. Currently, Methos is only available through purchase of the Methos Collection. First of all, game mechanics questions. Any card with the word "Master" in the title is a Master card. One of Methos' Persona abilities is essentially the same as Master's Stratagem. As per current TCG rulings, it does not stack with Master's Stratagem itself. Nor do multiple Master's Stratagems stack. The discarding of two cards is a "may do" effect: it can only be done after any and all "must do" effects. However, it can be done in any order with other "may do" effects. Persona-Specific Cards First of all, Methos has two Premium cards: the typical +1 Ability card, and a second one that prevents the countering or removal from the game of any Master cards. Given that there are relatively few cards that counter Masters (currently only Watcher/Watcher Involvement), and a new ME2 Situation counters game-removing Events such as Amnesia, the latter may be a waste of space in your pre- game slots. An opponent can rip a TCG on Master-type Special and Edge cards, but if Methos sticks primarily to Master's attacks and defenses, this won't bother him overly much. Adam Pierson is a new pre-game Watcher, and only available to Methos. It is also the only Watcher that Methos is permitted. This card is not terribly effective, in this author's opinion. A heavy-duty Watcher-using opponent may find it inconvenient. However, if your opponent just uses Watcher/Treatment, it can actually help her cycle some otherwise-useless Specials. Still, a Persona, a Premium, and two TCG cards only take up four out of your six pre-game slots, so you have room for it if you wish. That brings us to Methos' Persona-specific in-game cards. He has the "standard" Back Away, Dodge, Power Blow, and Trip. His Flashback is the same as Duncan's SE version. Rather confusingly, his Combination is identical to the Kurgan's Follow-Up. The second attack, if a Ranged Attack, can be made undodgeable. Methos has a number of Reserved cards, all previously unseen. First of all, let's look at Treachery. Although not a Reserved card, or even a Methos card, it's availability (restricted to 3) in the Methos Collection means it will probably see use mostly in Methos decks, or in the decks of people who bought Methos. At the very least, it forces your opponent to Exert three times, if you choose to make Power Blows (Kurgan users, take note). It's potentially better than Ancestral Blade, since it lets you Exert for a Power Block, and "pass" the Exertion on to your opponent. Amanda shouldn't use it for Power Blocking, of course. Methos' first Reserved card, A Master's Focus, besides being a Master card, is a new-and-improved version of Focus. It can be difficult to find room for it in a Methos deck, but well worth the space. Dawn of Time gives Methos increased access to his Locations, being similar to Archaic Collection. This isn't necessarily critical to many Methos decks, but it can prove useful in large decks, or when you want to lock in an opponent at a restrictive locale. Master's Wisdom, the other Methos-specific Master card, essentially gives him Nakano's Persona ability. Methos? is useful for countering any number of strategies. It also works well against Methos himself, since it doesn't specify _which_ Immortal specific card you can counter. The same rationale applies to Richie, Nakano, and Kane. Superior Tactics works the same as Fasil's Fleche, and can be equally deadly. With it, Methos has no real need to use Master's Dodge, leaving him slots for other Master cards. The Gift is both more and less effective than Richie's Luck. It can only obtain Master cards, but it can also go through the discard pile. This leaves Methos' Signature cards. He currently has three. They are: Immortal Research: This essentially borrows both Nakano's and to a lesser degree Kane's powers. Not only does it let Methos increase his stock of available Master cards (by drawing on his opponent's, albeit temporarily), but it lets him escape a wide variety of other jams. Also handy for turning the tables on Kalas. Methos can wait until Kalas plays a Holy Ground, then use IR, take Kalas' Stalk, and use it and a Head Shot the next turn. Under current rulings and rules, you can play Persona- Specific Reserved and non-Reserved cards using IR, but _not_ Signature cards. The newest rules only limit you from _putting_ Restricted cards in your deck, not playing them. The most recent judgement also states that you must play the card "borrowed" immediately after you play Immortal Research. Thus, if you play IR during your defense phase, you can only play a borrowed defense or appropriate Special. You can't hold on to an attack and use it seconds later during your attack phase. Live Forever: The ultimate Holy Ground/Disappear. Does everything Disappear does, and lets Methos continue attacking as well. Secret Identity: The exact functions of this card are still in dispute as of this writing, so it's hard to tell exactly what it does. At the very least, it is a combination Greenfield Hobby and Selective Memory (if Selective Memory were a Situation rather than an Edge, of course). It can also potentially let Methos avoid the effects of everything from a Head Shot to a Holy Ground. It doesn't appear to let him ignore Events that modify an opponent's attack. Other Personas' Cards Like Richie, Methos can "borrow" other Personas' cards without the use of Darius. He is a bit more limited than Richie, but his eight Masters permitted helps him. Let's run down the list: Duncan: Methos probably doesn't need Master's Advice. Master's Attack is useful, particularly if he mixes with Challenge/SE (see How to Win below). Methos can't attack through Duncan's Master's Block, making it almost useless to him. Due to Superior Tactics, Methos essentially has a two-card version of Master's Dodge: he should use his Masters elsewhere. Amanda: Master's Attack is inferior to other Personas', Master Thief requires that Methos Darius in Steal, and Master's Advice is a relatively poor choice. Not much here for him to choose from. Slan, Nefertiri, Luther, Xavier: Currently, no Master cards. Richie: Provides another version of Master's Block, and the best one that Methos can currently get. Master's Advice remains a so-so choice. Connor: Master's Block is almost useless to Methos as well. However, it might be powerful enough to consider using the "Attack to last area you blocked" (i.e., Duncan's) Quickening. Do this, and you can Master's Block/Lunge/Head Shot with the best of them. Master's Lunge + Master's Block is a fun combo. Master's Advice is still a so-so choice. Methos doesn't need Master's Dodge (see Duncan). Master's Disarm is a good precautionary card. Kastagir: Master's Guard is a so-so choice, either his original or the new one. His Master's Attack gives Methos a few more to draw upon. Katana: Master's Block is a good one for borrowing, as is Master's Attack. The Kurgan: Master's Disarm can be expensive, but since Methos can use The Gift to recover Masters from his discard pile, the price isn't necessarily as costly as one might think. Kurgan's new Master Head Shot is not a bad choice either, although not much of a surprise. It does provide a "free" Head Shot, and is somewhat harder to defend against. Master of the Hunt is a good card if Methos is going with a multiple-attack strategy. Nakano: Master's Disarm can provide you with protection against disarming. Master's Maneuver may not see a lot of use from Methos, since he may typically by making Special Attacks which he can't make Hidden anyway. Khan: None. Kalas: Master's Advice is a so-so choice. It looks as if Kalas will get other Master cards in the next TV expansion. Kern: None. Fitzcairn: Master's Block - see Katana above. Annie: Master's Attack will probably require that Methos use Parry, Dodge/Back Away + Superior Tactics, or a Master's Block he can attack through. Difficult to avoid: mix with Challenge/SE for best results. Fasil: Master's Disarm, potentially the most dangerous of the cards by this title, is very handy if Methos wants to use a disarm strategy. Since he can use eight Master cards, Methos can use this, Connor's Master's Lunge, and Fasil's Master's Lunge to disarm an opponent and then do some serious harm. Yung Dol Kim: Master's Attack: see Annie above. Corda & Reno, Kane: No Masters. Ramirez: Thanks to the special card released in The Gathering, Methos and Richie are going to be able to use Master's Advantage before it's owner does. Master's Advantage, although Restricted to two, is superior to any existing Nemesis card (since it negates all of any opponent's special abilities). Expect to see Master's Advantage banned in Renaissance. Also expect to see it pop up in most Richie and Methos decks, and be Darius'd in to a lot of others. Master's Advantage is by far the best Master card, so two of these should almost certainly go in any Methos deck you build. Generic Cards Like Richie (PotM #11), the generic cards Methos takes depends on the strategy he employs. He has such a wide variety of strategies that practically anything can help him under the right circumstances. Cards like Upper Hand can strip an opponent of a key card at a critical moment, whether it be the Holy Ground he needs to escape, or the Hogg he has to play to avoid your attack. Amnesia can then remove it from the game at a later point. Misfortune is useful both if Methos pursues a Master's Disarm strategy (more on this under How to Win), and to remove attack-nullification cards like Hogg, Armor, and Flying Machine/Wings. Treachery can allow Methos to Power Block and avoid the Exertion, so he may even be able to use it in lieu of Ancestral Blade. This frees him up to use Thief for major Object-removal power. Again, just as with Richie, Darius becomes ever more useful when Methos can augment his eight Masters with six more "borrowed" cards. A Shooting Blade becomes much easier to play when Methos can use Dodge/Superior Tactics with a Catwalk already in play (using Recon or Master's Sanctuary, of course). Anti-dodging brings us to...Challenge/SE. Check out CotW #31 for a full review. Thanks to the various versions of Master's Attack (Annie's, Kim's, Katana's, Duncan's, Kastagir's, Connor's), it is easy for Methos to obtain and play with six. All of these are difficult to stop without a 9-area dodge. And if the opponent takes advantages of Methos' own inability to dodge to make a Power Blow, there's always Live Forever and Treachery for Methos to use. Challenge/SE is probably the best way to keep the new-and-improved Duncan from making a Master Head Shot unblockable as well (since he must play Jump to do so). If you want to be able to play those powerful Specials against an anti-Special Renee/Fast Talk deck, you'll probably want Discipline from ME2. Use Methos' Persona ability to discard them if they're not useful. As is obvious, Methos has many strong cards. Stuff that lets him hold on to as many cards as possible is even more to his advantage. Dojo (CotW #34) and Master's Endurance (#52) are helpful here. Location Cards The first thing to remember is that thanks to Dawn of Time, Methos can recycle and put more of the same Location into play than anyone else, each pass through his Endurance. This can be critical (if somewhat time- consuming) when it comes to control of the game. Thanks to Master's Sanctuary (CotW #60), many Locations that might harm Methos if he uses them are now a lot less harmful. However, that uses up valuable Master's slots. Methos has eight slots, and an inherent Master's Stratagem ability. Even so, he should possibly save them for his primary Master-related strategy. Methos' dodges are split between Back Away and Dodge (no Evade). Thanks to Superior Tactics, both are about the same: he can use Superior Tactics + Back Away to avoid Ranged Attacks, for instance. If Methos wants to use Ranged Attacks, he may wish to use Catwalk, since the Superior Tactics/Back Away combo means he can Back Away and still avoid Pistols, Shooting Blade, and The Equalizer attacks. As noted above, Methos' strength is his cards. Watcher Regional HQ lets him draw more of them, faster. He can then put them into Dojos, keep the extras using Master's Endurance, or both. Add Watchers and Watcher Field Agents as necessary. Watcher/Treatment, Watcher/Counter, Watcher/Involvement, and The Armory are all useful here. If you take an aggressive Methos deck, you may want Rooftop so that pesky Pedestrians don't prevent you from attacking, and the Bystanders don't reduce your inflicted damage into card loss. Lighthouse and Laundry Room can further foil an opponent who dares to attack you, restricting their ability to defend against your next attack. If you have a Laundry Room in play, and your opponent attacks and misses, a Master's Lunge can be extremely painful. Have Reconnaissance on hand to avoid being caught in the backlash of your own Location though. If you go past a Master due to Desert, you can use The Gift to recover it from your discard pile. Still, this Location might cost you other non-Master cards you'd rather play. As always, the use of other Locations can vary depending on specific strategies you choose for your Methos deck. How to Win There are so many ways to win with Methos that it's hard to be very specific. Methos' main strength are his easy- to-use defensive cards, which leave him free to concoct hard-hitting strategies. Live Forever, Methos?, Immortal Research, Secret Identity, Master's Wisdom, and his anti- Master/counter Premium mean that whatever he's going to do, he's probably going to do it unhindered by anything you throw at him. One constant is the use of Master's Advantage/Ramirez. As soon as this comes out, get two and put them in every Methos decks you make. This card is so far superior to any single Nemesis (or any given six that you might put in your deck, given the odds you'll have the right one(s)) that to leave it out is criminal. What chance an opponent might have against you is further reduced by the stripping of his Persona ability. Another constant is speed. You can make large decks. However, they probably won't become truly viable until The Armory/TV3 is released. Thanks to his inherent ability, Methos can cycle and get what he needs faster than anyone else. Six Patience, six Lean and Mean, and six Flashing Blades mean that Methos can start with what is essentially a 28-card deck. Since he draws 15 of these cards, he can cycle through the remaining 13 cards in a mere seven turns even if he did nothing. In actuality, he'll go through his deck faster, since he'll be playing and drawing cards, hitting all of his useful cards (13 out of those 28 cards, since 15 are taken up by basic attacks and blocks) that much quicker. The first, fairly obvious strategy is Challenge/SE + Master's Attack. Methos can use six (we'll assume he uses two Master's Advantage for his remaining Master slots from here on). Methos can't dodge, but with Live Forever he doesn't need to. Twist of Fate, Carl, and Rachel Ellenstein can stop the inevitable Alertness/Block or Holy Ground response. A Disarm strategy also becomes a lot more viable. He can use two of Fasil's Master's Disarms and a few of the regular variety, relieve an opponent of his weapon (using Forged Steel and/or Parking Garage), and then launch four consecutive Master's Lunges. The various Master's Blocks, Ancestral Blade, and Head Shot means that Methos can Power Blow with relative impunity. After all, the MB will block any Hidden attack provided to an opponent by the Head Shot. Mix with Feint/Edge and respond with another Head Shot when they foolishly attack you. Want to play a healing game? Five Master's Advices (Kalas, Duncan, Amanda, Richie, Connor), the +1 Premium, and a Master/Play the Game should assure that, when used with Quality Blade/SE, your ability should stay at around 19-20 for most of the game. Lock down your opponent attack-wise and sit the 30 minutes out. Don't overlook the generic Masters. Obviously, you don't need Master's Stratagem. There's no real way for them to bypass Challenge/SE if you go with an anti-dodge/Master's Attack strategy, so Master's Advance probably isn't necessary. Master Swordsman and Master/Swordmaster are good for Power Blocking...but you've got Ancestral Blade, Continuity, and Treachery for that. Master's Endurance, when used in conjunction with Dojo, Patience, Measure of a Man, and Cat and Mouse/Draw, can let you build your hand-size up considerably, though. Master Swordsman, of course, is good for "free" Power Blowing (see the Master's Block/Head Shot/Feint strategy above). If you want to play a waiting game, use Discard Weapon. Your opponent will no doubt expect a Master's Disarm/Nakano or Connor when they attack. Keep an Extra Weapon, or a Sheathed weapon, close at hand. But otherwise you can use Methos' ability to cycle and get cards other then those attacks and Guards he can't play, whether his opponent attacks or not. An anti-Special Renee deck is just as good, if not better, for Methos as for anyone else. He can cycle through cards to get to them that much faster. Mix well with the appropriate Quickenings (typically Slan and Nefertiri/re-draw) and go to town. Other strategies are limited only by one's imagination. It's not my intent to list them all here. Just keep in mind that as the number of cards grow, so will Methos' power. How to Defeat Methos _is_ powerful: make no mistake about it. He has inherent cycling ability, powerful cards in his own right, and access to other Personas' Master cards (particularly Master's Advantage). The reliance on powerful Specials leaves him vulnerable to anti-Special Renee Delaney strategies. All the card cycling in the world won't help him if he can't play the cards he's cycling to. Honor Bound and Wargames West won't slow him too much (i.e., A Master's Focus). Mix with Power Blowing (Renee will keep Methos from using Treachery to Power Block for "free"), and go to it. The only downside to this strategy is the new ME2 Discipline, which will bypass both Fast Talk/Fitzcairn and Renee Delaney. Be prepared to rip TCGs on this one. Otherwise, solid constant-hitting strategy is still good at wearing him down. A single Bloodlust or two won't stop him (thanks to Live Forever - don't forget you can TCG rip and/or Forethought on it). Methos still has to Exert for the second attack against a Extra Shot/Flashing Blade combo, though. Taunt/Katana and Exertion-forcing strategies are also useful, making Methos burn through useful cards. Cheese/event damage can still work: Methos only has two Secret Identity Situations. Katana/Exertion will stop Methos? and Secret ID: the only two Methos Situations worth removing (but remember Master's Advantage). Defensively, Alertness/Block is more necessary than ever, as is Dojo to store them when unneeded. It will stop both a Challenged Master's Attack and Master's Lunge. Holy Ground will probably help Methos as much as yourself, but it's still better than taking damage. Dariusing in Luther's Disappear is also a good idea. Although there's no real assurance and it's not much consolation, it's quite possible you won't need to bother overly much with anti-direct damage cards: Methos has too many other ways to hurt you. The errata'd Verona may be seen more once Methos enters common usage. it slows down his ability to play those dangerous Master's Attacks and Lunges (not to mention Pistols via his Combination). Dawn of Time may give you trouble, though. You may want six of a second Location (Spiritual Center is a safe bet) to cover yourself. Overall Steve gives Methos a _9_. Is Methos balanced? Nope. But more and more, that just isn't a concern. As long as a Persona isn't blatantly "unbeatable," it seems to be that anything goes. And of course, if all Personas were equal, we'd have just a bunch of Immortals all with ratings of 5.00. :) The only real way to "balance" other Personas with Methos (or Connor, or the "new" Duncan) would be to do major overhauls on them (giving them their own Collection, or major release of new cards in an expansion). This doesn't look likely in any case, and would be years down the road at the very least. However, as long as the Highlander CCG is a game where the balancing of the primary elements (them there Immortals) is skewed due to the equivalent of a popularity contest, there's little likelihood of that happening. The fact that Methos tops out the pre-errata Katana _and_ Connor, rating-wise, speaks for itself. What Our Other Raters Say: Jim - Methos is a dream come true for any power gamer willing to spend big bucks on the Highlander CCG. For the rest of us, he represents a poorly playtested and in some cases poorly edited nightmare. Methos is allowed an unprecedented 8 Master cards. He also gets numerous cards which _should_ be Master cards based on their power level. Methos is the most powerful Persona released to date. Methos gets not one but two Premium cards and the second one is rather abusive. Not only can your Master cards not be removed from the game, they can not even be countered. Forget about using TCGs or having Xavier counter any Master's Events that Methos plays. Cards like Secret Identity and Treachery should have been Master cards, but they are not: thus Methos is even more powerful as he need not use as many Masters slots to use his own cards. His card set also steps on the capabilities of other Immortals that have non-Master cards that his normal capability does not allow him to borrow. Secret Identity is also in need of errata as TCG's ruling on the card has been inconsistent with the way the text reads. Overall, I find Methos not only extremely powerful, but abusively so. The unerrataed General Katana was masterfully designed compared to the abomination Methos represents. Poor design like this makes me question why I should continue spending money on Highlander. I hope Thunder Castle Games will do a better job in the future, but I'm afraid the company rarely learns from past mistakes. Hank - Methos is the most broken Persona since Katana. Not only does he have two very powerful abilities and a mildly broken pre-game card, but he's also chock-full of abusive cards. While I'd like to give him a low rating just because of my opinion of how broken he is, I have to give him a high rating because he's absolutely the Persona to play now... I wish my rating could be a 2. Alan - Finally, the most anticipated Persona, and boy, does he not disappoint! Probably the most powerful Persona available to date, and definitely my favorite to play. Without question, Methos is the best Persona to play against "lock" decks, due to his inherent ability to cycle cards. This is a Persona I love to play with, but hate to play against. Jeff - Saying Methos is broken is like saying water is wet: in either case, the proper response is, "Well, duh." As if his card-cycling and Master-using abilities weren't powerful enough, he also has broken cards. A Premium that prevents his Masters from being removed or countered. An Edge that allows him to ignore any and all Situations in play. A Location-regaining Event with no penalty. A (poorly-worded) Event which allows you to play cards from your opponent's hand. A Disappear that you can have three of that doesn't end your turn. An Event that makes him Nakano. A Situation that allows him to counter any Persona-specific card. A SITUATION THAT ALLOWS HIM TO IGNORE EVENTS! Fasil's Fleche with another name. A discard-to-use Luck for Master cards. Ugh. People have focussed so much on Secret Identity that they've ignored the other equally-broken cards. A pity TCG decided to waste so many powerful cards (that are broken only by belonging to the same persona) on one Persona. Remember 1997 being the Year of Katana? Expect Methos to be 1998's Persona of choice, unless TCG plans on rolling out banning/errata. Just call me Adam Pierson until then... Wayne - Abstain Prodipto - Abstain Allen - Ah, Methos. The ultimate schemer and survivor. Want to play him? Too bad. Instead you can play Power Boy, the Combat Monster. Methos has eight Master Cards, another built into his Persona, another he can get from UR Darius, another 3 cards that _should_ be Masters, and a lot of others that he can steal from players' hands via Immortal Research. All these Master cards make him one very fine swordsman. Want to stop him from doing any of this? His Premium says you can't. Missed one? Use The Gift to go get it. He gets Luther's Disappear, except that he gets three of them and can still attack. Superior Tactics makes him more nimble than Amanda or Duncan, and Dawn of Time controls the locale enough to make this work for him. With his immortal ability he makes a mean Renee/Fast Talk L&M deck. Can I beat him? Yes. Usually when I know what I'm facing and build a deck _specifically_ for the task at hand. Not a lot of fun. A glance at the Duncan Collection makes it look seem much better designed. Hopefully, Duncan will outsell Methos and TCG will realize it doesn't have to make unbalanced cards to generate funds. Bruce - If you have a deck concept that you like to play that uses a couple of Qs, you might want to try tweaking it to work with Methos. Until the release of Duncan's Collection, I see Methos dominating the competitive scene in a fashion similar to that of the pre-Movie Xavier or pre-errata Katana. Methos' limit of eight Master cards is certainly enough to allow him to fully utilize Master cards from any Persona, especially if you examine how many of his good cards are not Masters and enhancements afforded by his new Premium, The Gift, and Premium Darius. With Ramirez's Master's Advantage being released almost simultaneously, you can certainly see how effective his power can be. Having Master's Stratagem as a second Persona ability allows him to tighten his decks, include extensive toolbox cards, or both. It also makes it pretty much impossible to hand-lock Methos. He has a versatile set of Persona-Specific cards, many of which are not available to other Personas even through borrowing because they are Signature cards. Secret Identity, A Master's Focus, Immortal Research, Master's Wisdom, and Methos? work well together to minimize the effect of your opponent's strategy. Live Forever is superior to both Disappear and It's a Kind of Magic. Superior Tactics and his own Promo card, Inner Strength (editor's note: hmmm? Bruce apparently knows something I don't... :) ), will assure that he can be a potent fighter even if he chooses not to borrow combat Master cards. His non-Reserved cards are mostly the standard ones from the limited sets, giving him greater defensive potential than he would have with the newer WC stuff. While his inability to use Pre-Game Watchers besides Adam Pierson is limiting, it is certainly not crippling. Overall, I would say that Methos just has a versatility that makes him very potent and difficult to defeat. I can certainly see how he has stayed in the Game so long. Methos is the one Persona that I would be tempted to include a Nemesis for in my decks in the near future, if he was not the only Persona without one. Ratings Overall: Steve 9 Jim 9 Hank 10 Alan 10 Jeff 10 Wayne N/A Prodipto N/A Allen 10 Bruce 9 Average: 9.57 Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television, used under license by Thunder Castle Games. The card text is copyright 1998 by Thunder Castle Games. All rights reserved.