Overpowered Trick Cards

Overpowered Trick Cards?
By Nathan Gardner


I love the extra element of strategy and tactics that the trick cards bring to the game. But I wonder if all 48 were properly play tested. Lets take a look at some of the strongest ones.

Arc Lightning

• Remove 2 of your Fire tokens from your Firebender's Space:
• Choose an opposing Bender and knock their miniature down. That Bender cannot activate next Turn. 
• Yellow Flag. 

Knocking down a miniature adds a whole new rule to game with no references anywhere.

Removing 2 of your own Fire tokens at first glance looks to be a high cost. Most Firebenders can't due it for the first so many turns. But there is one Firebender who can do it on the turn one, Adi of the Rabaroos. She sends out two fire damage to an agent space, moves over and proceeds to activate Arc Lighting. You then use your other two cards in hand to lay down as much damage tokens as you can onto the knocked down bender. The trick is even more devastating when you wait until an opponent buys a card. They buy an Earth card, knock down their Earthbender. The knocked down bender cannot activate. So on their turn they will at least have one Earth card in hand, maybe more (you also have the knowledge of the cards they just played). Those cards can't be played this turn for actions, which also means no green trick cards either. If your opponent can't defend the knocked down bender with their 1-2 cards, you just got a free K.O. Plus you are making your opponent skip 1/3, 2/3 or even 100% of their turn pending on how many Earth cards they had in hand. 

As the game continues, they will be removing cards from their deck from the fallen bender, making a second Lightning strike even stronger. If they only have water and fire cards, knocking down the Waterbender will defiantly effect many cards in hand.  Being a Yellow Flag card is a benefit for Arc Lightning. If you didn't roll yellow the first time, your clear to use it again just fine. If you roll yellow, just don't use it again. You already got a lot out of it. 

Finally, if you're playing vs a single bender, you 100% auto win the game. There is no counter. 

Arc Lightning  

• Free K.O.
• Free Turn
• Reusable 
• Auto Win vs Single Benders

Game designers have unofficially stated on reddit that the card slipped through the cracks and recommend not playing with it. 

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Lets move on to a set of 3 cards I've been play-testing in almost 20 games vs opponents, mock games and plenty of theory crafting.  

Gravel Blast (Water)

• If your Waterbender and Earthbender are in the same Space:
• Put 1 Water and 1 Earth token in any 1 Space on the board. Then, Daze 1 Bender in that Space. 

Boulder Blitz (Earth)

• If there is an opposing Bender in a Space adjacent to your Earthbender:
• Put 3 Earth tokens in that opposing Bender's Space. 

Adrenaline Surge (Fire)

• If your Firebender is isolated:
• Amplify 4

All 6 teams can use the above three cards to great effect, but the Buzzard Wasps and Tigerdillos really shine. This is because each of those teams has a bender that can place a Hold token with basic starting techniques. I'll be focusing more on the Tigerdillos for examples, since the Wasps can still lose, even with super strong opens. When the Tigerdillos go first, in a hand of all 3 elements, they will be throwing out 14 Element tokens, 1 Hold token, and 1 Daze token. The worst I've seen is two benders getting knocked out. The mildest is just one bender knocked out. Average sees one knock out, with the other 1-2 benders getting pushed back. We really need to question if burning two trick cards and rolling the Referee dice is a fair cost for knocking out 1-2 benders plus other knock backs. 

How does this work? 

"Put" is a game key word. It lets you put element tokens onto spaces that already have element tokens of the same type.

Lets look at some sample play. Placement doesn't matter to much. Ideally if you're playing with 'player one places first', the Tirgerdillos would side everyone over to the left.

Adrenaline Surge: Amplify 4

For Defense, we'll assume the Fire Ferrets have an average build.

There are way to many tokens on Mako, so Bolin is going to try and save Korra.

Korra can't move and her two damage doesn't help anyone. She is able to deflect two tokens away.

Mako can take away one token, but its not enough, you would be better off discarding for Chi.

Check for damage. One bender in the drink, another pushed back a zone.

Even if the placement of the Fire Ferrets was different, on average you will still get the above results.

Before we go ban crazy though, can this be defended at all?

Currently I have only found using these Trick cards can save you.

Weave Through Air (Water)
Blurred Motion (Fire)
Rock Slide (Earth) or All For One (Earth)

These are all the "move your bender 1 space, ignoring Hold tokens" and All For One is Shield 3.

The Tigerdillios have to attempt to pin down whichever bender is in the middle, spreading out their 14 damage into 3 different spaces. Which from a defensive stand point, is every doable.

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So here comes the discussion. Unlike Arc Lightning, there are a couple of ways to defend against the Alpha Strike. To do so, you need to being using 3-4 Tricks cards out of the 48 Trick cards the 6 teams currently have access to.

Theme Format
Do we want the game to be only a few builds, Alpha Strike and Move Tricks.

Standard Format  

Single benders auto lose to these 3 Trick cards 50% of the time. It depends on their opening hand.

What should be done?

1. Ban Gravel Blast
2. Ban Boulder Blitz
3. Ban Adrenaline Surge
4. Start a restricted list. Can only take 1 restricted card per team.  
5. Change the "Put" keyword to follow Spread Rules (This would nerf other cards like Splintered Stones)
6. Change it so you cannot activate Trick cards on your first turn (This would nerf other cards like any of the ones that require benders to be in the same space)
7. Other?

I'm not a fan of 5 or 6, because it changes the core game rules and who knows what unforeseen consequences that could cause. I also don't like banning any of the three cards because by themselves, they are not game ending cards. If it was up to me, I would pick a restricted list. Each team can only pick and use one card from the restricted list. 

I would love to hear everyone's opinion on the subject.  

Edit/Update:

By no means am I trying to implement a restricted list. I'm mostly found what I think could be an issue and want to bring it up to the community to see if something should be done. Arc Lightning is an open and shut case. The 3 trick combo, you need to go first and need to draw all 3 different element cards. In a long league, it could be pretty common.