The Prize/Extra Exertion OBJECT: While this card is in play, all players may play an additional exertion during their turn. There may be only one Prize in play by all players. The winner of the duel may claim The Prize if it is in play when the game ends. (Restricted to 3) This card has been going out in tournament packages, but it doesn't seem to be seeing a lot of use. Part of this may be due to the delayed release of Watcher's Chronicles (see below). Another reason may be that people just aren't that fond of using "You may lose this card"-type cards. Some people are willing to risk Quickenings. However, many are not. The Prize is even more vulnerable to loss, since you merely need to lose the duel, not your head. Holy Ground/Forfeit won't let you keep The Prize either. One game mechanics note: you can _not_ Exert for an attack or defense and then, by making an extra Exertion, _continue_ that Exertion. The one exception to this is if you don't play any cards from the first Exertion. Thus, if Duncan Exerts for a defense against a URA, and the best he gets is a Dodge, he can't play it and use Flashback to get a Upper Guard. A few general observations: The Prize remains the most reliable way to gain an extra Exertion each turn. Flashback and Inspiration are the other two ways to currently obtain extra Exertions. Inspiration is pretty much useless in this circumstance: if you play Inspiration you have no way to play an additional Special the same turn to take advantage of your extra Exertion. Flashback can be used to set up a sequence such as Battle Rage/Scotland the Brave. However, this is a rather elaborate combination, requiring three turns to set up (1 - Flashback; 2 - Scotland the Brave; 3 = Battle Rage and two Exertions). Here's hoping your opponent lets you keep those two Situations out that long. The Prize is an Object, which means it is more difficult to remove/counter than an Event or a Situation. Due to the "one in play" restriction, The Prize is also a good preemptive card. Jeff Barnes notes below that The Prize/Extra Exertion is not as useful as The Prize/Extra Attack. Perhaps. However, if you play The Prize/EE first, your opponent has to remove it before they can get _their_ The Prize down. This could prove restrictive, for example, to an Amanda deck trying to get three attacks per turn. The Prize/EE doesn't require you to make _any_ Exertion. It merely lets you make a second one if necessary. Because of this, The Prize is not a bad emergency card. The Prize is also handy in several emergency scenarios. If your opponent played Toadies and launched a Power Blow, you can Exert both to prevent the Toadies damage and to make a Power Block. If you need to use Angus, you can do so. Turn of Events was featured several issues ago (see CotW #17). The Prize allows you to meet the Exertion requirement for playing two Events in one turn. It is the only "generic" card that currently does so. Cards that affect Exertions, such as Master/Swordmaster and Collect, are excellent cards to supplement The Prize. So the question is, should _you_ use The Prize/Extra Exertion? The primary issue is: do you need to (or think you may need to) make more than one Exertion per turn? In many cases, the answer is no. Xavier and Amanda, for instance, probably could care less since they don't want to make Exertions at all, and are rarely required or forced to do so. Of the existing Series and Movie Edition Personas, Katana gains the most from The Prize. Using it, he can Exert to remove two Situations, or Exert to remove a Situation and then Exert for something else. This card even lets him partially bypass the effects of Psychosis. With The Prize, he can Exert to remove a Situation as required by Psychosis, and still Exert for that Power Blow, or for an attack to play with his Taunt. The Prize can also be useful for Duncan, adding to his arsenal of extra Exertion cards like Flashback and Inspiration. These cards were initially not particularly useful. However, with the emergence of promotional cards like Scotland the Brave, the ability to make multiple Exertions becomes much more useful. Slan's Berserk becomes more powerful in conjunction with Scotland the Brave. A barrage of ten Power Blows, supplemented with two or three Carls, is enough to give any opponent pause even if they have an Ancestral Blade out. Connor lacks his clansman's Flashback/extra Exertion talent. However, he is also fond of Power Blow/Exerting for the same reason as Duncan: he suffers no penalty from a counter-Hidden attack. The Prize lets him Power Blow/Exert and still have an Exertion to spare. He also has Battle Rage, and can pull the same stunt of making five attacks Power Blows via Scotland the Brave. Khan, Nefertiri and Richie have Battle Rage. An opponent with an Ancestral Blade can probably handle five Power Blows more easily then Slan's ten. They may or may not wish to use Scotland the Brave. This pretty much covers the Series and Movie Edition Personas. As we noted above, however, one long-awaited Persona from Watcher's Chronicle, the one who may benefit the most from The Prize, is Kern. While we can't go into a lot of detail at this time, Kern's Persona ability has been revealed (in Castle News) as the ability to play any number of attacks from an Exertion. As noted above, this means Kern can Exert for five cards when attacking. This leaves him with an Exertion available for Hogg, or to make one of his attacks a Power Blow, or if he needed to Exert for a defense or against Toadies. He can't extend his initial attack Exertion with the second Exertion, but he can extend his Exertions using other cards like Bowie Knife and Collect. Hugh Fitzcairn also gets a boost. As noted in Castle News, Fitzcairn can Exert to prevent an unspecified amount of damage. Like Katana's ability, the only limit on how many times per turn he may use this ability is how many Exertions he can make per turn. The Prize lets him get around the "one Exertion per turn" rule. So overall, Steve gives The Prize/Extra Exertion a _6_. It is a powerful supplement to several Personas (Duncan, Katana, Slan, Kern, and Fitzcairn). It is of limited use to the others, but can prove handy in an emergency. An opponent is very unlikely to have a deck that takes advantage of it like your deck does, or that can take advantage of it once the game begins. And The Prize/EE stops the use of The Prize/Extra Attack. Not a bad trade-off for the potential loss of the card. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - [Abstain] Jeff - Not as useful as its multi-attack cousin. In fact, I can't think of a whole lot of reasons to use it, unless you want to stick somebody else with it. Rick - What would a Katana deck be able to do with this one? Since Exertions are currently "under-utilized," Katana is the biggest winner with this one. Hank - Making an extra Exertion might be useful in particular decks (Katana, maybe, or Turn of Events) but it's not generally useful: there's never been a huge run on Duncan Flashbacks. It's useful for things like Scotland the Brave with Berserk, I suppose. I also don't like giving up cards if I lose a match. Alan - This card should be a must-have in any deck which needs to use Exertions (Katana, Battle Rage, Bloodlust, Scotland the Brave, Kern, etc.), since it is always useful to be able to do more than one Exertion in your turn. I have only recently begun to see the true value of it in my L&M Connor Battle Rage/Scotland the Brave deck. Jim - This is an extremely useful card for Katana and anyone who needs to make more than one Exertion each turn. It is pretty much a prerequisite for a deck that uses Scotland the Brave if you aren't playing Duncan. Kern should also consider using this card. Chip - [Abstain] Ratings Overall: Steve 6 Ben N/A Jeff 3 Rick 4 Hank 6 Alan 8 Jim 5 Chip N/A Average: 5.33 ------------------------------------------------------------------