Parrying Blade OBJECT: You may only have one Parrying Blade in play at a time. While Parrying Blade is in play, you may play attacks as blocks. If you are Disarmed, you may still block with the Parrying Blade, but you may not attack. (Restricted to 2) Parrying Blade is one of a number of Objects added in the Movie Edition. In this reviewer's opinion, it is one of the most useful. First of all, this is one of several cards that duplicate a Persona's abilities. Just as Alertness/Hidden lets Slan or Duncan gain the "See all Hidden attacks" ability of Connor, Parrying Blade can give Amanda or Luther the ability to use Yung Dol Kim's skill at playing attacks as blocks. Let's make sure we understand what this card does. It lets you play attacks as blocks. This does not mean they _are_ blocks. Thus, cards that cause you to discard blocks and/or defenses (Kastagir's Charm, Cat & Mouse, Battlefield) do not affect this card. This also means that in circumstances when you _want_ to discard a defense (Battlefield), you can't say that an attack is a block, and get rid of it. And finally, your attacks are still attacks, and therefore subject to cards such as Linda Plager and Caught in the Act/SE. The above provides one strong advantage when using Parrying Blade. If you are playing against a defense-draining opponent, you have an emergency cache of attack/blocks to fall back. If Connor plays Darius + Kastagir's Charm, and then his Master's Lunge, this can give you a reason to use that Thrust or horizontal Slash you've been holding on to. Unlike Kim's ability, Parrying Blade gives you another advantage: the ability to block when you are disarmed. This is not quite as good as an Improvised Weapon/Object, but it is better than the Dragon promotional card. Why? Because not only can you play attacks as blocks, but you can still play blocks normally while you are Disarmed (see the FAQ, Q11.5). This gives you a way to get rid of attacks which would otherwise stack up in your hand as you wait to regain your weapon. Parrying Blade is an Object, which makes it relatively immune to removal. Only two cards currently remove Objects: Thief and Misfortune. If you are playing with an Object-heavy deck (using, say, Khan with his Armor, or Amanda with Ancestral Blade), Parrying Blade will probably be a lower priority target for your opponent. Unless your opponent is playing with a disarm-type deck, or has plenty of the above two cards to spare, once you play a Parrying Blade it will probably stay in play. Another mixed blessing of Parrying Blade is, unless you're using Slashes, it doesn't provide you with very large coverage. This is good in one sense: if you play a URA to block your opponent's URA, you have _eight_ areas that you can counter-attack to. Someone using Fasil's ability via Quickening ("If you successfully block an attack, your next attack that turn may be Hidden.), or a large number of Ripostes, can do quite well with Parrying Blade. Instead of blocking and only being able to attack to one of five-six areas, you can attack to eight areas. In fact, if Iman Fasil is a heavy attack-type Persona, when he is released in a future Movie expansion he could be quite formidable when using Parrying Blade. Block to one area, make a Hidden area to any of the other eight. Ouch. Why is the limited coverage of an attack/block via Parrying Blade bad? Trying to block a Hidden attack becomes very difficult if you play an attack that blocks only one area. So which Personas benefit from the use of Parrying Blade? Any deck that has a lot of attacks in it. This includes Amanda (with her Persona ability), the Kurgan (with Bloodlust), Slan (with Berserk), anyone with Battle Rage (Connor, Nefertiri, Duncan, Richie, Khan), Annie, and Kern. In fact, Kern probably benefits the most from Parrying Blade. He has other, presumably more powerful Objects (Hogg and Bowie Knife) that an opponent will try to remove first. And he can enlarge his Exertions to such a degree that his odds of drawing the proper block _or_ attack-as-block are very high. Any Personas that use extra attacks for the Extra Shot and Combination cards in their deck can also benefit from the use of Parrying Blade. Amanda may benefit, but typically she prefers to dodge. Parrying Blade can still provide her with a useful "emergency" block or two, though. Parrying Blade can be a useful card in conjunction with Connor's or Nakano's Master's Disarm. Unlike Improvised Weapon/Object, Parrying Blade is _not_ considered a weapon. If you Disarm yourself via Discard Weapon, you can block (using either attacks or blocks), and then take their weapon. If your opponent refuses to attack you can use the Parrying Blade to play Guards and wait them out. As was noted above, Parrying Blade is also effective if you use Slashes. Anyone who uses the "generic" horizontal and vertical Slashes can do well here. However, Connor and Duncan, with their corner-to-corner Slashes, gain the benefit of additional block coverage when using a Parrying Blade. Annie Devlin's Master's Attack becomes much more powerful with a Parrying Blade as well. However, she cannot attack to any areas she just blocked so her attack options are rather limited the turn she uses Master's Attack as a block. If a future effort is made to release more attacks that cover two or more areas, Parrying Blade could prove useful in decks that use those cards. So overall, Steve gives Parrying Blade a _6_. It's a versatile defense card, can provide you with protection against several debilitating strategies such as defense-loss, and has several strategies you can build around it. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - Undoubtedly a great card, and a great sealed deck card. Unless you are trying to trim your deck down very slim, almost always worth playing with. Jeff - Half of Yung Dol Kim in a can. Not really my favorite anti-disarm card, but useful in heavy attack decks, such as Kern or Kurgan. Or if you want to ditch attacks, but can't bring yourself to play something as cheesy as Basset & Hotchkiss. =) Rick - This card never hurts in a deck. It's an Object so it hangs around longer than most situations. It lets you expand your defense options with attack cards in heavy attack decks. Best of all, with it you can block an attack then play Master's Disarm (Connor or Nakano). Hank - Fairly useful for attack-heavy decks, but not particularly powerful or game-changing. Alan - Admittedly, as fond as I am of Objects, this isn't a card I have used very often. It is, however, quite a useful emergency card (particularly with Slash): if your opponent attacks to an area none of your blocks cover, then there's a good chance that you'll have an attack to that area. Unless you're Connor or Duncan, you wouldn't have been able to use that attack that turn anyway . . . may as well get *some* use out of it (such as keeping your head, perhaps ;-) ) Also, when you have to Exert for a defense, you have a better chance of getting an appropriate defense, since attacks count as blocks in this case. Jim - Parrying Blade is a good card to use in attack decks, particularly when your the deck is attack-heavy. I like using Parrying Blade in Slan and Kurgan decks. Using Slash as a block against another Slash can be fun. I usually use Parrying Blade in attack decks which are light on Guards, like if I'm using Ruins as my Location of choice. Chip - If you are trying to master a nasty Bassett & Hotchkiss deck and don't have room for all those pesky blocks, this card can help tremendously. Since the Parrying Blade is an Object it has a good chance to stay in play for a while, allowing you to use those attacks as blocks. Ratings Overall: Steve 6 Ben 7 Jeff 5 Rick 8 Hank 5 Alan 7 Jim 7 Chip 5 Average: 6.25