Fasil - by Steve Crow If you successfully block an attack, your next attack that turn may be Hidden. You may have up to 5 Master cards. [Text based on pre-release material forwarded by TCG.] Overview Here are the first of our reviews of The Gathering Personas. As such, the question is, how do they stack up to the pre-existing Personas? Fasil is beyond a doubt the most formidable swordfighter of this expansion. Pound for pound, he can probably match all but the most formidable of swordfighters (Connor, Slan, "new" Duncan). His Persona ability is fairly straightforward. He cannot attack to an area he just blocked, unless using cards that specifically permit this (Parry, the Duncan "attack to any area" Quickening). Unlike Riposte, which specifies if the last defense you played a block (whether successful or not), Fasil must have simply played at least one block. It needn't be the last defense he played, but it must have been successful. Even if Fasil can make multiple attacks, only the first one can be made Hidden because of his Persona ability. Of course, he can make later attacks that turn hidden by using Riposte as appropriate. Persona-Specific Cards Fasil has the standard Back Away, Continuity, and Power Blow. His version of Left and Right Side Step is the same as Amanda's. His Duck is dissimilar from both the Connor/Duncan/Nakano version (can't go to an upper area) and Annie's (the attack is Hidden). Fasil has one Signature card: Fleche. This Edge allows him to attack normally after playing Back Away, Side Step, or Duck. Unlike Superior Tactics/Methos or Duncan, it does not allow him to ignore the text on the card. Thus, he can attack normally after playing Back Away. However, Back Away will fail to work against Ranged Attacks and thus be illegal to play against them. Fasil has four Reserved cards. The simplest is Stalk. It is Restricted to 2, unlike Xavier's. Otherwise, it is very similar. It requires a Location in play to be unblockable. However, typically this isn't much of a problem. Master's Lunge is identical to Connor's version. Backflip, Restricted to 4, is a dodge version of Connor's Master's Block. It can be used with Master's Lunge as appropriate, or mixed with Lunge. The downside is that as a dodge, it is a bit more vulnerable to cards like Challenge/SE and Kiss Your Butts Goodbye, can't be used against a Lunged attack, etc. Fasil's last Reserved card is Master's Disarm. We'll talk a bit more about this under How to Win. The thing to be careful about here is that Master's Disarm is _not_ Disarm - the card. Cards such as Circular Block, which specifically enhance _a Disarm_, are referring to the card of that title, not the action of disarming. Cards that refer to the act of Disarming, such as Forged Steel (which states, "...if you successfully Disarm your opponent...") _will_ enhance Master's Disarm. The die roll allowed by Master's Disarm may also be enhanced in the normal fashion (Iron Will, Practice Practice). Generic Cards The limitation on Fasil's ability is that if he uses it, you've got a good idea where the attack is coming. If he plays a LRB, you know those four areas are _not_ where the Hidden attack is coming from. The solution: use Parry. Play this, and you deprive your opponent of what can often be a vital clue in defending against your Hidden attack. Fasil's ability in no way makes him immune to Hidden attacks: use Alertness/Hidden as necessary. Fasil may also wish to use both of the other Alertness cards, since he gains benefits from both blocking and dodging. Like Amanda, Spinning Attack is useful after a Backflip or a Side Step. Unlike Amanda, Fasil four damage with it (two against a normal block). Lunge is always good when used in conjunction with Fasil's Hidden counter-attack, or Backflip. Oddly, I found Courage/Attack (CotW #5) sometimes useful with Fasil. An opponent reluctant to attack (see How to Win below) means that Fasil may expend his attacks fairly quickly. If he has to Exert for attacks, at least he can use this Courage to hold on to one for his next turn. As noted above, Iron Will and Practice Practice are good when used with Master's Disarm. Fasil is meant for swordfighting. Use cards like Discipline/Attack and Trenchcoat to make sure your opponent doesn't stop you from swinging your blade. Snake Bar, like Lighthouse (see Locations below) can inhibit an opponent's defensive response, particularly if you blocked and made a Hidden attack. Still, it is dependent on that opponent attacking. Master's Advance can burn them through dodges. This is useful both if Fasil is making lots of Hidden attacks, or if he has disarmed his opponent. Advance Warning recovers those Backflips. 'nuff said. If Fasil goes with a disarm strategy, Watcher/Counter will deal with Watcher/Fair Fight. Misfortune will deal with Extra Weapon. As we will see, Fasil can do well without a heavy reliance on Specials. Renee Delaney, Wargames West, and Honor Bound are all good choices if you pursue this strategy (see How to Win). You have a somewhat better chance of hitting with a basic attack (Parry/Hidden, Backflip/Lunge). Hideo Koto can help you here, adding to your damage. Due to an attack- reluctant opponent, Louise Marcus might prove of some use to you. Ripostes are pretty much useless to Fasil, unless he can find a non-Persona related way to make multiple attacks (The Prize/Extra Attack, Master Race). So are Flurry Strikes. Slashes can be tricky to play, particularly the vertical one. The left/right column Slashes from The Gathering may prove useful in conjunction with your Side Steps. Still, Fasil is better off using regular, two- point attacks. Since you'll need Fleche to play your Slashes with complete freedom, the three-card combo necessary typically isn't worth the one point of damage you might achieve. Spinning Attacks can actually prove useful, particularly if Fasil uses the Upper ones after a Side Step. Fasil's weakness is that he has no Persona-specific means to deal with anything _other_ than attacking. Typical generic cards like Police (both types), Simple Mind, Greenfield Hobby, and Holy Ground/Retreat are still going to be needed to deal with things like direct damage and Situations. Location Cards Rooftop has been rendered somewhat redundant with the introduction of Trenchcoat: an Object that does essentially the same thing but better (it targets Reporters as well). Multiple objects are now also less prone to removal with the errata'd Thief. Until The Gathering release, though, Rooftop was probably Fasil's best way to make sure he could attack. As a dodge-heavy opponent, Dead End Alley (CotW #51) can be useful. Fasil can lock down an opponent, particularly a low-dodge Immortal like Kane, Corda and Reno, the Kurgan, Slan, Kern, and Kalas. This is useful whether he makes Hidden attacks or disarms. By the same token, Catwalk is not a good choice for Fasil. Lighthouse may also not be because of its anti- dodge effect. Still, since Fasil typically only makes one attack a turn, and it has a higher chance of being successful, it might be worth the risk. Laundry Room, used in conjunction with Lunge, can assure an opponent can't do much against Fasil's Hidden attacks. Still, both Lighthouse and Laundry Room rely on an opponent attacking: something they may not particularly want to do. Since Guards give your opponent a better chance of defending against your Hidden attacks, Ruins can prove useful. It means Fasil will have to give up using Continuity himself, but Conjure, Alex Johnson, and Ancestral Blade usually assure that he can handle Power Blows as necessary. Spiritual Center can make sure that Fasil can handle Event damage and use his Specials for something else, if at all. Watcher Regional HQ, Mental Ward, and Desert can be of use under the right circumstances, but typically aren't strong choices for Fasil. Neither is Mountain Cave, since he can make Hidden attacks easily enough without it. What is _the_ strongest choice, Location-wise, for Fasil? Appropriately enough, Parking Garage. If Fasil can disarm an opponent, they're stuck. If they play a new Location, they still don't get a rearm roll that turn. Reconnaissance will give them a one-turn chance to rearm. How to Win As noted above, Fasil's strength is in swordfighting. All of his Persona-specific cards are aimed that way. He has nothing Persona-specific that removes Situations, or avoids Event damage, or heals. He attacks. A lot. Cards that stop Fasil from attacking are going to be a problem for him. Trenchcoat and Discipline are vital here. After that determination, it's just a question of which attack strategy you want to use. Fasil is the Disarm King, and his title is unlikely to be taken from him. Master's Disarm, Iron Will, and regular Disarms are used with this strategy. Use Forged Steel to break their weapon, and Parking Garage as the Location of choice. Keep Misfortune and Watcher/Counter on hand, then Lunge/Head Shot and Master's Lunge away. If you're really confident, use Conjure to grab Forged Steel faster, and use Dead End Alley or even Catwalk to prevent them from dodging. Who cares if Fasil can only Back Away on the Catwalk, if his opponent can't attack? Using Catwalk, he'll limited high-dodge types like Amanda and Duncan, and can use Lunge to pin down anyone using Back Away. Another strength of Fasil is the fact that he does so much without Specials. He can make Hidden attacks and Power Blows (due to his Persona ability and Duck, and Spinning Attack, respectively) without using Specials. He can make a two-point unblockable/undodgeable Stalk attack without playing a Special: all he needs is to get down one Location, or have his opponent do so. He can Backflip and make an unblockable attack, making it nearly-undodgeable as well thanks to Lunge. All Fasil need do is slap down a Honor Bound and/or Wargames West, and play the game out sans Specials. If he uses Focus, he can play the Specials such as Watcher/Treatment and Holy Ground at those key moments as necessary. Another thing to remember is that an opponent probably won't _want_ to attack you. You can't Backflip, or get a Hidden attack via your Persona ability, or play Spinning Attack if they don't attack. Fasil can probably afford to go a little light on defenses. Beware of hand jam, however, as those non-attacks pile up in your hand. Use card cycling as necessary. Or just rely on your horde of unblockable/undodgeable attacks. Backflip and Master's Lunge. Stalk. Backflip and regular Lunge. Twist of Fate can be used to deprive them of those Alertness cards if they're not Nefertiri or using her Quickening(s). A likely way you can lose is if you come up against direct damage Event decks. Greenfield Hobby and Police/Counter Damage will help here. Essentially, Fasil is a good basic Persona for building practically any swordfighting deck you want. How to Defeat Alertness. Maybe that's not it entirely, but it's a good start. Alertness/Block against Backflip attacks. Alertness/Hidden against Fasil's Hidden attacks. The problem is, until you have these cards in your hand, you may be reluctant to attack. See above for the fact that no matter how you attack Fasil, he can probably deal with it and throw something even worse back. This means you may give up initiative to Fasil, who will attack with impunity. If he can make a Power Blow/Spinning Attack secure in the knowledge he can deal with your Hidden counter-attack, and use it to trigger something of his that's even worse, he's got the edge he needs. So if you do attack, make every attack count. Power Blows, with the usual measures for dealing with Power Blocking measures, can let you maintain the initiative. Multiple attacks are also useful. Typical anti-dodge measures will keep Fasil from bringing Backflip into play. Intimidate (the Slan/Luther version, or Katana's) and Maniacal Laugh/Corda and Reno can prove helpful here. Fasil's use of Trenchcoat will tend to hurt Pedestrian- type attack-prevention measures, though. If it wasn't necessary before the release of The Gathering, it is now. Put re-arm cards (Watcher/Fair Fight, Extra Weapon) in every deck you use! I can't emphasize this enough. Even then, Fasil may be able to deal with them via Misfortune and/or Watcher/Counter. Typically, a strong attack deck, with rearming methods and a way to deal with unblockable/undodgeable attacks while attacking back, can hold its own with Fasil. The problem is, it may be useless against other decks that don't rely on attacking. Which brings us to the other way to beat Fasil: cheese. He's got nothing except the pool of generic cards to draw on for defense here. Pile it on, and hope you can take him down. Lock/stall/healing decks will have trouble stopping Fasil from attacking. A Fitzcairn deck can probably pull it off. Fasil may use Simple Mind to remove the large number of Situations (Collect, Master/+1, Safe Haven) such decks rely upon, however, so be careful. Fasil doesn't necessarily need a lot of Situations. And finally, there's Fit of Depression, Fasil's Nemesis. It does require that you attack to keep Fasil from attacking. It's also not all that crippling, given that Fasil can still dodge and attack. Still, a Lunge-based or other anti-dodge strategy, used in conjunction with his Nemesis, means that you can pin him down and keep him from attacking. At the very least, it will keep Fasil from using his Persona ability. Overall Overall, Steve gives Fasil a _8_. I'm a sucker for swordfighting (that's why I started playing the "Swordmaster" game), and Fasil swings a blade nearly as well as the pre-Gathering heavy-hitters like Connor, Slan, and "new" Duncan. His collection of "sneaky stuff" attacks aren't as good as Connor's Master's Block/Head Shot/Lunge combo, but cumulatively, it adds up and seems a bit "fairer" than a single unblockable/undodgeable Head Shot. With the introduction of stuff like Trenchcoat and Discipline/Attack in The Gathering, and better ways to deal with Situation-removal (Bedsoe, Precinct), swordfighting will be coming back into vogue, and Fasil will be there to ride the wave. What Our Other Raters Say: Jim - Abstain Hank - Fasil is my favorite of the ME2 Personas. He makes a great Persona for Disarm strategies, works well with most of Amanda's strategies (given his scads of Dodges), and pretty fun to play without being unbalanced. Not a powerhouse, but fun to play. Alan - Fasil is, perhaps, the best swordfighting Persona, next to Connor. While at first his Persona Ability and plethora of dodges still allowing him to attack may seem contradictory, they are really complementary, in that he has a wider range of options open to him. If Fasil's opponent is able to counter his Ability (Connor, Connor Q, Alertness/Hidden, etc.), then he can fall back on his dodges, which generally give him added benefits. Another reason I like him is due to his Master's Disarm; it is the best one available (it doesn't require that you take damage, nor does it require that you be Disarmed yourself), and makes him the best Persona to use if you wish to run a Disarm deck. Jeff - Fasil is the one reason why any deck with decent cycling should have multiple Alertness. With the equivalent of four Connor Master's Blocks (except they're dodges, not blocks), two Connor Master's Lunges, and two Xavier Stalks... plus oodles of dodges _and_ a Persona ability that works well with blocks . . . well, Fasil is a combat master. On the downside, Lunge hurts him pretty badly, but that's where his cool inherent ability comes in handy. All in all, my choice for favorite persona from The Gathering. Wayne - Abstain Prodipto - Fasil is a tremendously potent Persona. He has a variety of Dodges (nearly as many as Amanda), and he has a power which is activated by blocking. While his inherent ability is useless against Connor (or Connor's Q), he is still very versatile. He can be used for an attack strategy, lock, cheese or disarm. Any of which are seeing reasonable success in tournaments. He has some useful Master cards, and his Stalk may promote the use of Get Away From It All in place of Locations. I think we'll see some strategies change as Fasil makes himself known in the tournament arena. Allen - Abstain Bruce - A power based on blocking...lots of dodges, great hidden attack potential... good Special Attacks. Fasil is a combat monster without any real focus. There is a lot that he can do, some of it well, but he has almost nothing that he does better than anyone else. His powers and cards are almost entirely defense-triggered, leaving him hurt against non-attack decks. With the large number of very effective anti-dodge cards he is hurt against other combat decks as well. It is certainly possible to make good solid decks with Fasil, but why waste your time with all the other superior choices available. Ratings Overall: Steve 8 Jim N/A Hank 8 Alan 8 Jeff 7 Wayne N/A Prodipto 7 Allen N/A Bruce 4 Average: 7.00 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.