Avery Hoskins SITUATION - As long as Avery Hoskins stays in play, each player must make an Exertion every turn. While not to everyone's taste, I find Avery Hoskins extremely useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Game-mechanics questions first. Avery Hoskins is an Ally. He's a remarkably useless one to use Seduce/Fitzcairn on, since his effect is the same no matter whose side he's on. If you play Avery Hoskins, you have to deal with him that turn. This means you have to Exert the turn you play him. Contra-wise, if you remove him, you don't have to Exert that turn. For Katana, Exerting and removing Avery may be one and the same. Avery Hoskins has two uses. The first is to force your opponent to Exert and lose useful cards. At the same time, you intend to Exert a lot, want each of your Exertions to be useful, and want to reduce your chances of losing useful cards. This first use is why AH is typically found in "tower" decks, typically Duncan, Connor, the Kurgan, or Kern ones. The first three can make "useful" Exertions by keeping up a barrage of Power Blows. The Kurgan has a built-in way to reduce his Exertions to three cards as long as he can attack. Kern, meanwhile, can keep Exerting for attacks. The advantage of a large deck is that you don't lose as many useful cards. Repetition is the key: instead of using three or four Avery Hoskins, use all six. Instead of two or three Master's Advances, use five to seven. This doesn't help much with restricted cards such as Watcher/Treatment. Cards like Maurice and Dr. Alan Neyman (CotW #2) can help you grab a vital card for later use. The second use for Avery Hoskins is similar to the first. In this case, however, rather than relying on a large deck you rely on Exertion-reduction so that while your opponent is losing five cards each turn, you only lose 0-3. The accompanying cards you use are Master/Swordmaster and Collect. So who should use Avery Hoskins? As noted above, anyone who plans on Exerting a lot should use AH. If you're going to Exert anyway, let your opponent share the fun! The Kurgan and Kern are the obvious choices here. As long as the Kurgan can keep attacking, he can reduce his Exertions to three cards. Of course, he has to worry about counter-Hidden attacks. However, if he loads up on Misfortune and possibly Thief, he can make sure the opponent can't keep that one Ancestral Blade down. Add lots of Lunge, Catwalk, and/or Master's Advance to keep them from dodging. The Kurgan also has Diguise to partially protect Avery Hoskins. A straight-out Kern deck plans on Exerting as well: either for attacks, Power Blows, or to use the damage-avoidance capability of Hogg. PotM #8 has more details on the strategies available. If Kern mixes his attack Exertions with Rage and Flashback for extra Power Blows, he can prove quite formidable. Kern can also use Collect, mentioned above, to selectively decrease the size of his Exertions (when he Exerts for a Power Blow or to use Hogg) and increase his Exertions when going for attacks. In the case of a Power Blow-type Persona like the Kurgan and Kern, Avery Hoskins means your opponent will probably have a reason to Exert: Power Blocking, once you deal with the inevitable Ancestral Blade. Still, this means they can't Exert for something else. And they're still losing cards. As noted above, Duncan and Connor, with their partial or complete immunity to Hidden counter-attacks, have good reason to Exert every turn for Power Blows. Connor, with his powerful Restricted Master cards (Block and Lunge) may wish to avoid this strategy - these cards are easy to go past. However, currently Duncan has less to lose. What about other Personas? The two that come to mind are Katana and Fitzcairn: both of them have Exertion-related Persona abilities. However, due to recent errata for Katana, both lose their ability to play a Special the turn they Exert. They don't have to, or may not be able to, Exert to use their Abilities. However, Exerting for Power Blows is still useful if they employ Taunt (Katana) or Trip/No Dodge (Fitzcairn). Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, they both have Master's Block to protect against a hidden counter-attack. As an aside, Avery Hoskins is vulnerable to Katana's ability. However, with recent errata he must forfeit a turn's play of a Special to remove it. This makes AH essentially a Renee Delaney that forces Katana to Exert past five cards. Either that, or he Exerts for something else, plays a Special, and AH remains in play . . . Another, sometimes overlooked Persona, is Khan. He has Armor, the only unique card currently going for him, that he'd rather not Exert past. However, if he does Exert past his Armor, he can use Alex Johnson to recover them. Exerting every turn means that Khan and his opponent will both Exhaust more quickly. Khan is better suited to handling Exhaustion burn because of his Persona ability. Mix well with Desert and Khan has a strategy that can run his opponent through quite a few cards. He should load up on Alertness/Hidden if he chooses to use the Exertions for Power Blows. Who else should use Avery Hoskins? The list is rather small. If you plan on pursuing a Power Blow strategy based on Exertions (such as suggested for Kalas - see PotM #9), you may wish to add AH to your deck. Amanda and Xavier have no real reason to use Avery. Ditto for Luther and Slan, who can Power Blow and/or Power Block without Exertions. There seems no real reason for Nefertiri, Richie, Kalas, or Nakano to Exert constantly either. That's not to say they _can't_ if you come up with a good reason for them to do so. Typically, however, they are better off relying on drawing what they need rather than Exerting past it. This leaves two Personas. The first, Annie Devlin, has a way to partially protect Avery Hoskins: Escape. A Power Blow/Exertion tossed in on top of a Run Through can give her three Hidden attacks, making one a Power Blow. If she can prevent damage (thanks to the two Doctors: Jackson and Lindsey) while still being "successfully" attacked, playing three Flurry Strikes from her hand and Exerting to make one a Power Blow can also prove potent. The last Persona is Kastagir. His Persona ability is also Exertion-related. As long as he Exerts for an attack or defense, he can stop after one card (whether it's playable or not). This allows him to pursue the strategy mentioned above: minimizing his own Exertions while making his opponent lose cards. However, Kastagir must _legally_ Exert for a defense or attack. Be warned: it is currently somewhat vague which anti-attack cards and circumstances prevent you from Exerting for an attack, and which don't. So overall, Steve gives Avery Hoskins a _7_. He's the kind of card you build a deck around. The resulting deck can be quite formidable, since card loss to Exertions (and the subsequent Exhaustion burn) is something few decks are built to cope with. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - Avery Hoskins is one of the (tragically) few cards that give an advantage to larger decks. Duncan and Kastagir seem to gain the most advantage with Avery, Duncan because he is built to Exert and Kastagir because he can (hopefully) find a way to exert a card at a time. Nice card, one I'd like to see used more often. Rick - Abstain Hank - Avery is a great card for several kinds of strategies. I've used him in big decks or in decks where I have lots of Collects and/or Master/Swordmasters. He helps greatly in a strategy that's not abusive but is fun to build decks around. Alan - Abstain Jim - One of my favorite cards. Avery is a must-have in "marathon deck". He's great at making Lean and Mean decks burn through their Endurance. Avery also helps screw up the timing on optimized decks. The only problem is that Avery is a double-edged sword. You need to be able to survive Endurance burn if you use Avery. He works well with Exertion reducers such as Collect, Master/Swordmaster, 0-card Exertion cards, and Kurgan's 3-card Power Blow/Block capability. Wayne - Avery Hoskins is a somewhat annoying card that tends to work well with Kastagir's ability. The major downside of this card is that it takes too long to have any effect on your opponent. I consider this more of a gimmick card than a good card for tournaments. Prodipto - Avery Hoskins strategies can be extremely useful. If your opponent doesn't have a strategy for dealing with Exertions (and a _lot_ of them!), then their strategy is likely to be blown out of the water as they Exert past those valuable cards they need. This is a great card for Lean and Mean format. It's particularly good if used with Exertion-decreasing cards like Collect, Master/SE, or the Kurgan's special ability. Of course it's a must for the infamous "Duncan MacLeod Exert Like A Crazed Wolverine" deck. Allen - Avery can serve a dual purpose: force your opponent through his deck, and force him past valuable cards. The latter is a bit random, but the former makes him a required tool in any Marathon deck. Avery is sweet, simple, and to the point. Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Jeff 6 Rick N/A Hank 8 Alan N/A Jim 6 Wayne 4 Prodipto 7 Allen 6 Average: 6.29 ------------------------------------------------------------------