Flashback/Recover Edge SITUATION: You remember a similar experience. Discard to return the last Edge card you played to your hand. (Restricted to 2) Well, here's an interesting card. There are not a lot of cards that tamper with Edge cards for good or ill. Twist of Fate (CotW #15) does. And Rachel Ellenstein does. And that's about it. Until this promotional card was released. Game mechanic-wise, there are a few issues. As with any "discard to use" card, you can't play it and then use it that same turn. Your opponent gets a chance to remove Flashback from play first. Since there is no time limit on when you can use Flashback, this is important. Your last Edge card may have been played ten turns ago, but you can still use Flashback to recover it. Flashback won't let you recover an Edge card that you discarded or bypassed due to other reasons (Twist of Fate, Cat & Mouse/Endurance, Counterfeit, etc). Flashback is, well, a Flashback card. It counts against the six total cards you can have in your deck with a title of "Flashback." Presumably, if you play multiple Edge cards simultaneously, you can choose which one you played last. This is currently not significant. Later down the road, however, if a situation arises when you can play two or more different Edge cards to modify a single circumstance, this will be important. As with Twist of Fate, Flashback's usefulness depends on the Edge cards you're using. Let's run down the list: Alertness - Block/Dodge: these are high maintenance cards since they are unplayable if your opponent doesn't use the appropriate types of attacks. Rather than add extras of these, use Flashback to double the number. Alertness/Hidden: if you're a Power Blow specialist like Slan and Kurgan and plan to use this card, use Flashback to reuse. Since you may be limited in how many you use (since you'll probably want one or more of the other Alertnesses), Flashback lets you get around this limit. Careful Planning: I'm not one to encourage cheese/damage decks. However, if you absolutely _must_ use Careful Planning + Angry Mob, you'll want Flashback to get around the 3-card limit on Careful Planning. Courage: With a CotW rating of around 3 for either version, you're probably not going to be using this, or feel any pressing need to recover it if you are. Excessive Force: Another cheese/damage card, and one that if you're going to use, you'll want to use again. Feint: An excellent card for Connor/Pedestrian/Mountain Cave decks, or if you want to make Power Blows and sucker someone in. Flashback to recover it is a good idea. Focus: A "must-use" card. Many recommend you have six of this in your deck - Flashback lets you get more than six uses out of it. Iron Will + Practice Practice: Primarily good for Disarm strategies. Flashback can let you get these cards back if you failed on your earlier attempt(s). Lean & Mean + Patience: Both of these have about the same effect - rapid card cycling. They're also good cards to play if you are locked (due to Wargames West, Renee Delaney, etc.). Since you don't have to play Flashback the turn you use it, you can discard FB to recover a Patience, play that, and satisfy the "play a card or Exert" requirements for that turn. Reconnaissance: Despite their Rare status, Locations are rapidly becoming the predominant control factor in any given game. You win or lose by who has their Location in play . . . and whether you can ignore it or not. Schemer: As with any card that is Restricted, Flashback lets you get around the restriction by reusing a card. You still can't play two Schemers in a turn, but you'll have a third one later on. A great card for a Xavier/Cat & Mouse deck. Selective Memory: A so-so card to recover, unless your opponent is hitting you heavily with discard tactics. This doesn't seem to happen very often, but can be a life-saver against Charm (particularly Kastagir's version) and Kiss Your Butts Goodbye. Weapon Bind: See CotW #16 for uses for this card. Use Flashback to recover it and stall your opponent even further. Watcher's Chronicle Edge Cards: We still can't go into much detail at this time. However, Lunge and Flashing Blade are cards that, if you're using at all, you're going to want to use a lot. Since Kern tends to be Flashback heavy, he may not wish to reduce the number of his persona-Specific Flashbacks that he can use to four. But he is heavily reliant on those Edge cards, so he'd be best off doing so. So looking over the above, it seems that Flashback is best used when you are using Edge cards that are restricted, either due to an actual Restriction number (Schemer, Careful Planning), or title limitation (Alertness). This strategy is a little iffy - your opponent may Police or otherwise remove your Flashback before you can use it. However, it lets you avoid the use of a pre- game Darius and use your six pre-game slots for something else. And if they do Police it . . . well, that's one less Situation-remover they have for something else. Xavier users take note. As a "Flashback" title card, this version does count against your six. However, currently, the only Personas that have a serious need for the existing versions of Flashback are Duncan (due to Scotland the Brave), Kern, and Fitzcairn. The Movie Edition Flashback remains at this time an inferior version of Elizabeth Vaughn. Until such time as either a card comes along to boost that Flashback's effect, or more cards are released that affect Reporters and/or Event Allies, use Elizabeth. So who should use Flashback? Looking at the above, it's an obvious choice for Kern. A plot-user, probably Xavier (or the Kurgan with Cat & Mouse) should use it if they plan to use Schemer. Cheese decks (most likely Katana) should add it for Excessive Force and Careful Planning. Power Blowers without the ability to see Hidden, and who intend to use Alertness/Hidden, should have two in their decks as well. This includes Slan, and probably the Kurgan. So overall, Steve gives Flashback a _7_. It's a surprisingly versatile card, and I'm surprised it isn't seen more often. It lets you beat the quantity restrictions on a number of very useful Edge cards, both cheese and non- cheese. Any card that lets you get around either Restriction numbers or the "six of a title" rule is handy. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - No response Jeff - A surprisingly useful "fun" card, obviously best when used with Schemer or Careful Planning. Rick - An excellent method for getting around card restrictions on Edge cards (like Careful Planning). A "Discard to use" Sacrifice without the penalty. Hank - "Play to recover" cards are typically used (like the Feint Event) to effectively have more of something in your deck. Flashback is great for Careful Planning/Angry Mob or Schemer decks, for example. Alan - This is a card that should be in almost any deck, since it can give you the equivalent of 8 of any Edge card (Focus, Patience, etc.). Being a Situation, it doesn't depend upon your opponent playing anything; it can be used any time. Jim - Flashback/Recover Edge is a good card for any deck that relies on Edges. It will help diffuse Lock Decks provided you aren't facing Katana (unfortunately, you can't count on that very often). This is very useful for reusing a Focus you played on a previous turn. FB/Recover Edge is also helpful in extending the usefulness of Edges like Schemer where you are limited to 2 per deck. Using FB/Edge, scheming immortals like Xavier can retrieve Schemer and got those plots unfolding much more rapidly. Chip - No response Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Ben N/A Jeff 6 Rick 6 Hank 8 Alan 7 Jim 6 Chip N/A Average: 6.67 ------------------------------------------------------------------