Elizabeth Vaughn

EVENT:  Reporter.  Your opponent is hounded by a reporter.  You may discard up
to 6 cards and replace them from your Endurance.  (errata'd text)

An interesting card.  This was initially somewhat overlooked, but seems to be
coming back into vogue big time.

First, the game mechanic questions.  Elizabeth Vaughn is both an Ally and a
Reporter.

"Duel is delayed." is flavor text and has no impact on play.

You discard, then immediately draw the same number.

So that's how she works - what does she do and how useful is it to you?  Card
cycling is _critical_ in Highlander, and becoming more so every day.  Patience
lets you draw quickly.  Master's Stratagem lets you dump cards.  Quality
Blade/ME essentially lets you have an Ability one higher, as well as letting
you draw the card at the beginning of your turn.

Elizabeth Vaughn lets you dump a big chunk of cards and redraw them
immediately.  Using her does use up your one Special for the turn.  However,
you can still play defenses and attacks.

That suggests one use for Elizabeth Vaughn.  Don't have the defense you need?
If so, discard those defenses that aren't helping you, or that attack you
don't need at the moment, and draw up to six more cards.  Hopefully the
defense will be there.

Are you faced with an unblockable/undodgeable attack and don't have that
Alertness in your hand?  Play Elizabeth Vaughn.  You may not be able to play
another Special . . . but you can play any number of Edge cards.  If you draw
a few Patience, you can play those as well.  Not only can you draw to replace
Patience, but to replace EV as well.

If you're trapped with a useless, diminishing hand of cards due to Factory or
a multi-play Encounter, Elizabeth Vaughn can give you a boost there as well.
If you've been hit with a Charm/Kastagir or a Cat & Mouse/Defense, EV can give
you an emergency draw of cards there as well.

As noted above, Elizabeth Vaughn is a card cycler.  Did you put
Alertness/Block in your deck, and you find yourself up against Luther or Annie
Devlin?  You're probably not going to be facing an unblockable attack, and you
can dump those Alertness cards at will.

In other words, Elizabeth Vaughn can help you dump those cards you don't need.
Unlike, Master's Stratagem, it lets you dump them in bulk.

Is Elizabeth Vaughn better or worse than the Movie Edition Flashback?  As an
Ally and a Reporter, Elizabeth is more vulnerable.  However, currently there
isn't much for her to be vulnerable _to_.  The only card that affects
Reporters is Sovereign Media, a promo card that you typically don't find in
many tournament decks.  Sovereign Media _is_ a powerful card, removing all
Reporters in the target's Endurance from the game.  Even Selective Memory is
no proof against it.

However, at least one of the other two Reporters, Linda Plager, is pretty
inconsequential.  If you think you'll be up against opponents paranoid about
Reporter itself and/or Elizabeth, then don't use them.

There are not currently any cards that detrimentally affect Event Allies such
as Elizabeth, so she's in no danger there.

Balanced against this are the facts that A) Elizabeth Vaughn is a Common
(compared to Flashback's Rare status); B) not all Personas have Flashback; and
C) she allows the discard of one additional card.  Taking this all into
account, EV is currently the better of the two cards.

Of course, in Renaissance-style play, Flashback is usable and Elizabeth Vaughn
is not, making it much more useful as a card-cycler.

Another issue that arises is:  is Holy Ground/SE better than Elizabeth Vaughn?
If you are expecting a lot of attacks that can't be dodged or blocked, then
Holy Ground is definitely better.  However, it also lets your opponent cycle
cards . . . and he doesn't have to play a Special to do so!  If you have other
means of avoiding attacks (Disappear, Alertness/Block & Dodge), EV is once
again the better card.  Also, Carl won't counter Elizabeth Vaughn.

Above we note the power of card-cycling.  Using Holy Ground/SE to let your
opponent ditch cards is doing his work for him.  If you are going for a lock
deck, using Holy Ground is probably not a good idea:  why give them a chance
to draw those lock-breakers?

Elizabeth Vaughn seems like a better bet for combat and non-combat decks.  Use
Alertness/Block to avoid those unavoidable attacks, and EV to cycle rapidly
and get what you need while they have to spend their turn playing Specials to
get their vital cards.

So which Personas benefit from Elizabeth Vaughn?  Probably all of them.  The
ones without Flashback/discard have no other choice but to use her for large-
scale card cycling.

Nefertiri gets no huge benefit from Elizabeth Vaughn.  She can draw to replace
EV itself, giving her an extra card in addition to the other cards she
cycled/discarded.  In fact, she can play EV, draw to replace, and then toss
the replacement card as one of the six allowed.  This is not a huge benefit
for her.

No other Persona gains specific advantages from Elizabeth Vaughn.  The dumping
of useless cards is a benefit to anyone.

So overall, Steve gives Elizabeth Vaughn a _7_ at the current time.  If future
cards have a greater impact on Reporters and Event-Allies, then this rating
could be lower.  But right now, her ready availability to any Persona, and her
ability to move mass numbers of cards, make her a force to be reckoned with.

What Our Other Raters Say:

Ben - Abstain

Jeff - Lizzie Vaughn is essentially a Holy Ground without the "Holy" part.
Useful only if you don't want your opponent to cycle as well.  Usually,
though, I'd rather have a Holy Ground: 4 Cards.

Rick - It's one of the best card cyclers in the game so it's good in an
emergency.

Hank - Elizabeth Vaughn is a good card for throughput, if you're somehow
intent on keeping your opponent from drawing cards.  Otherwise, I use Holy
Ground/SE for the same effect.  Still, it's a card with a use.

Alan - Abstain

Jim - Abstain

Wayne - This is probably the best generic event card for card cycling.  This
card allows you to play a larger deck and still dump the "trash" without it
piling up in your hand.  This card is probably second only to Master Stratagem
as far as card cycling.

Ratings Overall:

Steve                   7
Ben                   N/A
Jeff                    6
Rick                    7
Hank                    6
Alan                  N/A
Jim                   N/A
Wayne                   8

Average:                6.80