Security Guard SITUATION - Play on any Situation/Object in play. If your opponent attempts to remove a Situation/Object from play, discard one Security Guard assigned to that Situation/Object instead. If the Situation/Object leaves play, so do all Security Guards assigned to it. (Restricted to 3 per version) Well, here's our first in a series of The Gathering card reviews. As with many cards, Security Guard helps to protect certain cards you may wish to keep in play longer than is typically possible. Game mechanics questions first. A Security Guard that is the target of Focus is turned face down and has no effect on play, as is normal. In the case of a Guarded Situation targeted by Focus, it is _not_ considered to have been removed from play. So if the Situation is Focussed, the Security Guards remain on it. By the same token, Security Guard/Sit will not protect a Situation from being Focussed, since Focussing does not remove the Situation from play. Security Guard/Object is much more straightforward. It protects the Object. In the case of both Security Guards, if any and all Security Guards attached to a particular Ally or Object or Focused, that item can be removed with impunity. So that's how they work: what can you do with them? In general, don't use Security Guards unless you are using other Situations as well. As Allen notes below, three Security Guards and no other Situations means an opponent can easily remove them with the typical Police/Remove Sits which might otherwise clog his hand. Ditto for Focus. As of the release of the Gathering, there are 17 Ally/Situations. Of these, (Carl, Garfield, Jack Donovan, Rachel Ellenstein, Dr. Anne Lindsey, Hideo Koto, Joe Dawson, James Horton, Lt. John Stenn) are discard-to-use, or otherwise easily removable, and may not be worth protecting. On the other hand, some are more powerful and thus you may want to assure they stay in play long enough for you to use them. This can be particularly important for Dr. Lindsey, Hideo Koto, Dawson, and Horton, who may not become useful until later in the game. You may very well want to try to keep them out until you need them. Of the other Allies, some are just not that impressive (Tessa, Louise Marcus, Brenda Wyatt). Avery Hoskins can be useful in a forced-Exertion deck. The rest may prove useful to specific strategies you may design. If you think keeping that Ally/Situation out is important, put in some Security Guard/Ally cards. Situation/Allies are rarely Persona-specific, so which Personas should use them is dependent more on the particular strategy you devise using them. If Duncan is using a forced-Exertion strategy, then he should consider using Security Guards to protect Avery. And so on. Security Guard/Object's importance is clearer. The recent addition of Hogg gives an Object that you seriously want to keep in play as long as possible. Ancestral Blade, now Restricted to 1, is also an Object that you will want to keep out. New The Gathering cards like MacLeod Bagpipes, Skull Helmet, Trenchcoat, Corda and Reno's Flying Machines (particularly Wings), and Forged Armor further demonstrate that Objects will continue to increase in quantity and quality. So who should use Security Guard/Object? Any of the Personas who can use the Objects just mentioned: either MacLeod, the Kurgan, Corda and Reno, Khan, Amanda (who needs Ancestral Blade worse than practically anyone), and Kern. Kern and Corda and Reno in particular should use Security Guard, since Hogg and Flying Machine/Wings cause ability loss if they are removed from play. Hogg has forced more people to use Misfortune, and Flying Machine/Wings will further enhance that trend. Security Guard lets them both avoid the ability loss, and keep the Object in play. If you use a deck that has generic Objects, you'll have to decide whether some or all of them are worth protecting. Having a Security Guard hold your Trenchcoat can assure that you're able to continue attacking your opponent while avoiding some lock strategies. Even Watcher's Chronicle and Watcher Database can prove useful if you want to target an opponent using a Quickening, and you want to put a particular Nemesis in play. Assuming you were lucky enough to have that particular Nemesis in your deck, of course. So overall, Steve gives Security Guard/Ally a _6_, and Security Guard/Object a _9_. They are both useful cards, but as Objects become more prevalent, and if some remain as powerful as Ancestral Blade, Hogg, Flying Machine/Wings, Skull Helmet, and Forged Armor, it will be important to keep them in play using Security Guards. Allies will hopefully also become more powerful as more expansions are released, and thus be worthy of protection. What Our Other Raters Say: Jeff - [Ally] Eh. This card means that you get to keep your generic Forethoughts from ME2 (editor's note: Lt. John Stenn) or your Avery Hoskins in play even with Police. Does little good against Simple Mind, given that the Security Guards are Situations, too. Less powerful than its cousin. [Object] Icky. As if Hogg wasn't bad enough, now we have a garage for it to stay out of the elements. =( Also helps with Ancestral Blades, etc. No longer will you be able to play just one Misfortune or Thief in a deck. Mark my words: this is the card that will drive Hogg into errata. Hank - Powerful cards, especially in tournament play, with certain cards being limited to one per deck (Ancestral Blade, for example), Security Guard is very useful for supporting your cards. Alan - (Ally) Great card to protect those precious Carls, Dr. Anne Lindsay's, etc. Should see more and more use as more and more Ally/Situations become available. (Object) Must-have for any and all decks that use and/or rely heavily on Objects (especially Kern, Khan, Richie). As more and more Objects become available, this card should see more use in more and more decks of different Personae. Jim - A great pro-Ally card. This card will become more useful as the number of Situation Allies grows. As for Security Guard/Object, an essential card in any Object-heavy deck. Khan should definitely use this card. Wayne - (Ally) This cards simply serves as an extra layer of protection for Situations. Not very useful in today's environment of Renee Delaney lock decks being played everywhere, but may be a somewhat better card in the future. (Object) Great protection for Hogg, Ancestral Blade, etc. This card could possibly be used effectively in some decks. Prodipto - Abstain Allen - (Ally) ME2 will provide us with a influx of cards allowing Police to remove more than one Situation, and all Situations with the same name. Given this new wrinkle, Security Guard/Ally will become very valuable to Ally-using decks. Its use is fairly straightforward, and with the release of ME2 will often be more useful than simply playing another of the same Ally you wish to keep in play. [Object] A good boost for Object-using decks. Given the presence of Thief, simply playing a second of any Object is never a good way to ensure that you keep one in play. Besides, with many Objects you can only have one in play at a time anyway. The use of SG/Object is obvious. However, the standard Situation warning applies. If you use this card you must also use other Situations, and hopefully use ones that your opponent will want to remove. Otherwise all you are doing is giving your opponent an easy way to unclog his hand of Police and Focus. Bruce - With the availability of Precinct and Detective Walter Bedsoe in ME2, I find using a Situation to protect another Situation an odd concept. The use of a Situation to protect an Object, however, is another matter entirely. If your opponent does not remove your Object immediately, they need a more versatile deck to accomplish their goal. Ratings Overall (for SG/Ally and SG/Object, respectively): Steve 6/9 Jeff 4/8 Hank 8/8 Alan 7/8 Jim 7/6 Wayne 5/5 Prodipto N/A Allen 5/7 Bruce 4/7 Average: 5.75/7.25