By Michael Stadermann
Revenge on the Patent Office!
Event
Cost: Jam 1
Inflict 2 damage on target Character and 2 damage on the front-row Site at its location.
Revenge on the Patent Office (RotPO) is a card from the new set that has a “done” feel to it, since its effect or method of use is very similar to Disco Inferno and Close Call, two outstanding events. Given that it has to compete with both of these for deck space, what does RotPO bring to the table that the other two don’t?
First off, RotPO is the only direct damage zap event that the Jammers have that has no targeting limitations. Let me repeat that, because it’s so important. You can zap anything, anywhere, anytime. You don’t have to wait for the opponent to zap you first, you don’t have to be attacking or be attacked, and the target doesn’t have to be damaged. As soon as the opponent plays The Emperor, when he drops an Amulet on that annoying Chaos Spirit, when he plays the Tommy Gun on his Hacker and is about to mow down your weenie horde, or when he turns Father of Chaos to heal, you can show him how things are done at the Patent Office! Sure, the damage is only minor, but there is a surprising number of annoying characters with 2 or less fighting that this event smokes outright, and you’ll be surprised how often you will use RotPO in this fashion.
The second way of using RotPO is to take sites, of course. As with Close Call and Disco Inferno, you can attack a site with an apparently too low amount of fighting and then whip out RotPO to take the site anyway. In this use, RotPO will almost always lose out to Close Call or Disco Inferno. If the opponent is blocking you, Close Call almost always is best, since it makes up for a total damage difference of 6: if your 4 fighting character is blocked by an opponent’s 4-fight character, then you deal 0 damage to the site without Close Call. With Close Call, your character only receives 1 damage and can inflict 3 to the site, and another 3 are added from the redirection. RotPO will only deal 4 total damage, for the same amount of power. If the site is completely undefended, then Disco Inferno is obviously better. You can’t even play RotPO to damage a site if there’s no character in front of it. Sure, you could zap one of your own guys, which may even turn out to give you a net benefit if you zap a 1-fighting character, or a guy with Guts or Toughness, but it’ll still be 2 damage total at best (unless you are attacking with a Mutoid…).
But there are situations when RotPO actually is better than either of the other two. This is mainly the case when all your attackers are being stopped by characters with more fighting or toughness. Close Call doesn’t help in this case, since you cannot smoke the interceptor and your attacker goes home after the interception. But with RotPO, you may be able to damage the interceptor just enough to get through, and then the extra damage on the site will help. Also, when comparing RotPO to Close Call and Disco Inferno, bear in mind that it only requires a single resource. This is very important in two-faction decks, and can come into play also in the early game, say if you want to take out the damaged Market Square in your own front row.
This brings up the use of RotPO: damaging your own sites. The most obvious reason for doing this is when you’re being attacked and only have 1-2 damage left on the site. You can take out/damage an attacker, and at the same time fail an attack. Disco Inferno may be better in this application, if the site is bigger than 1-2, but it doesn’t also damage the attacker. Close Call, too, could be used to fail an attack this way, but you have to redirect your own damage, and thus are spending power, a card, and potentially a character on failing the attack, which is too inefficient to be anything but a last-ditch effort.
Sometimes, you may want damage on your sites for other reasons. Roller Rink, Mountain Fortress, and Thousand Sword Mountain all benefit from damage on them. If you are also playing with Genocide Lounge, it is possible to play RotPO for a net power benefit: play RotPO for free with the Lounge, smoke a 1-fighting character that’s in front of your Thousand Sword Mountain, and then damage the Mountain. You will now have an extra power to pay for a character, which is usually much better than having a weenie. Roller Rink and Mountain Fortress combo less well with RotPO, since they have to be in the front row for this to work, which is not a happy place for either of those two sites. Still, if you can swap locations of the front row and the back row sites after playing RotPO, say with The Monkey Who Would Be King, this combo will still work and might even be worth it. Fire Woman also likes damaged sites in your structure.
If you have enough deck space, it is a good idea to play with a mix of Close Call, RotPO, and Disco Inferno. Toss in Street Riot and Far Too Much Dynamite, and practice your poker face. Your opponent will have a hard time deciding on a course of action: intercept with weenies and get Rioted/RotPO’d, intercept with a big guy and get Close Called/Far Too Much Dynamite’d, don’t intercept at all and get Inferno’d. Just as long as you have a power in your pool and some cards in your hand, he won’t know what you’re up to. And if he gets burned a couple of times, you should be able to bluff your way through, since he may not only lose his site but also a character or two if you’re not bluffing. But remember that your opponents will always call your bluff when you’re attacking for the win.
In summary, Revenge on the Patent Office! is a fine addition to the Jammer repertoire of offense events (with some defensive applications) that can be used in the same fashion as the old ones and gives you a couple of new tricks to play with to boot!