Watcher: Revealed EDGE: Watcher Revealed Play this card in conjunction with any Ally, or on any Ally in play. That Ally is now considered a Watcher and can be affected by cards that affect Watchers. If the Ally remains in play, leave this card in play with the target Ally as a reminder. This card is another new concept for Highlander introduced in Watcher's Chronicles. Watcher/Revealed "modifies" a card already in play, giving it an additional property. There are cards that modify attacks, but this is the first and only card that modifies a Situation. But first, let's look at game mechanics questions. There are several. Watcher/Revealed is a "Watcher" card - a card with the sole title of Watcher. Just because a card has "Watcher" in the title does not make it a Watcher card. Thus, Watcher Field Agent, Watcher Database, Watcher's Oath, Watcher's Chronicle, and Watcher Regional HQ are not Watcher cards. You can play Watcher/Revealed in conjunction with _any_ Ally: Situation, Event or Edge. If you're playing an Ally/Event, it is now considered a Watcher. Do you want to do this? See below. The effects of Watcher/Revealed last only as long as the card is in play. As soon as it goes to the discard pile, the enhanced card is no longer a Watcher. When played in conjunction with an Ally/Situation, Watcher/Revealed remains on the table. This means both it and the Ally it is enhancing are Watcher cards in play. If you manage to do this six times for all six of the Watcher/Revealeds you are allowed, you could conceivably have 12 Watchers in play at one time! However, if the Ally leaves your control, it is still a Watcher. Thus, Fitzcairn can Seduce your Avery Hoskins/Watcher and increase the number of Watchers that he has in play. Due to the Sweeps Phase rules, during your turn you can play Watcher/Revealed on an Ally/Event or Edge that your opponent played on his last turn. That card is "in play" and therefore a legal target. Is there an advantage to this? See below. So that's what you can do with Watcher/Revealed, and how it works. What advantage can you gain from this? Well, in our Christmas issue we'll look a bit more at the other Watcher- related cards. But there are a few things we can look at here. As far as using Watcher/Revealed on an Ally/Event or Edge . . . not much. Doing so on your own cards makes them vulnerable to Watcher/Counter. If you play Renee Delaney she can't be affected by Watcher/Counter. If you play Renee Delaney and make her a Watcher, she can be affected. Duh. There is only one Event/Ally that currently gains an advantage from becoming a Watcher. That is Kirk Matunas. The James Horton pre-game card increases the damage of any Watcher/Event that already does damage by one point. Three Watcher/Revealeds and three Kirk Matunas add up to a big eight points of damage. Of course, if you're out of TCGs and your opponent does a Do It Yourself, you could have problems. Ironically, this trick works in reverse, in conjunction with the Sweep Phase. If your opponent plays Kirk Matunas(es), they remain on the table until his Sweep Phase. Their damage doesn't resolve until your Ability Adjustment Phase. Play Do It Yourself, and then crank up their damage with your own Watcher/Revealeds. Does Watcher/Revealed help you against your opponent's Ally/Events or Edges? Well, no. Code Red returns all Watchers "in play" to their owners' hands. So you can make an opponent's Elizabeth Vaughn an Watcher, and then play Code Red. But Elizabeth's effect has already resolved. In fact, any Event that you remove from play because it hasn't been "swept" yet still has an effect. By the same token, Watcher/Agents Threatened makes everyone discard all Watchers they have "in play." But since a Watcher/Event/Ally has already established its effect, removing it from play (before the Sweep Phase would do so anyway) is of no help either. So using Watcher/Revealed on Events, except for Kirk Matunas, doesn't help much. That leaves playing it on Situations: your own or your opponent's. Making an Ally/Situation a Watcher makes it vulnerable to the cards listed above. This can be good (if you use Watcher/Revealed on your opponent's cards) or bad (if your opponent is using those cards). Is it a good idea to add Watcher/Revealed to your deck for use against your opponent? Well, perhaps. Watcher/Revealed requires that your opponent _use_ Allies. If they're not, you either have to ditch it, store it via Dojo, or use it on your own Allies to get rid of it. Keep in mind that many Ally/Situations are transitory. Carl, Rachel Ellenstein, Jack Donovan (with errata'd text), Dugal MacLeod, Garfield, Dr. Anne Lindsey, Hideo Koto, James Horton, and Joe Dawson are either discard-to- use, or easily removable through other means. Some of the other Ally/Situations are not the most powerful cards in the game. Tessa, Heather, Brenda Wyatt, and Linda Marcus come to mind here. So Watcher/Revealed against an opponent, used in conjunction with Code Red or Watcher/Agents Threatened, can give you some heavy-duty Situation removal. But it's an iffy proposition. Using Watcher/Revealed to enhance your _own_ Allies, however, works well in conjunction with a new Location: Watcher Regional HQ. This lets you choose to draw a card at the beginning of each turn, for each Watcher you have in play. As noted above, you can conceivably have twelve Watchers on the table at one time. Although ten, since you'll probably use Watcher/Treatment, is more likely. So overall, Steve gives Watcher/Revealed a _3_. Yes, it has a few limited uses. So far, though, I'm not big on Allies. Most of the existing ones are either not powerful enough, or too ephemeral for me to want to try tricky stuff to take them out faster, or keep them in longer. There are just too many useful Watcher cards (Counter, Treatment, Rearm, Involvement) for me to want to use up my allotment of six on Watcher/Revealeds. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Abstain Rick - Any Ally that also becomes a Watcher is now more vulnerable to other cards. Is that a good thing? The only bonus I see would be with Watcher Regional HQ in play. Wouldn't this card count double? Hank - Pretty interesting use of an Edge card, unique in that it can be played on a card already in play. Cards that modify cards in play, for a length of time, remind me a bit too much of Magic. However, I can see how a Watcher deck (for instance, one using the Watcher Regional HQ) might want more Watchers in play, and this use of an Edge does add a new dynamic to play. Alan - A card which can be used to advance your own strategy, or hinder your opponent's. Play on your own Situation: Allies (Carl, Signorina Arianna, etc.) then play Watcher Regional HQ. Or, play on your opponent's pesky Situation: Allies, then play Code Red, and watch all of your opponent's Allies return to his hand. Jim - This is a great card if you are using an anti-Watcher deck or if you play in an environment were lots of Watchers are used. The uses are too limited for my tastes as you need to have a good number of anti-Watcher cards in your own deck and your opponent needs to be using Allies. Although, neither of these are uncommon practices you can end up with lots of useless cards in your deck if both conditions fail to hold true. Wayne - Abstain Prodipto - This card is of limited use as well. It's good for an anti-Watcher deck. However, otherwise it's fairly valueless and mostly hand clutter. It is advisable to have a few Allies of your own to use this with, but its best value is to eliminate other player's Allies. Allen - If your opponent is using lots of Allies, Watcher Revealed helps you use Code Red to slow down his game. This is a "conditional" use, however, and I try to avoid conditional cards. For your own use, Watcher Revealed can help you cycle your hand if you are able to keep Watcher Regional Headquarters and lots of Allies in play. Generally, it's not a card I would use otherwise. Ratings Overall: Steve 3 Jeff N/A Rick 4 Hank 7 Alan 5 Jim 5 Wayne N/A Prodipto 3 Allen 5 Average: 4.14