Personally, I am not terribly concerned about Showboating. Not yet, anyway.
First of all, this is the second set (spoiled) in an environment that is largely untested. Even as we see powerhouse cards like Showboating, we also see hard counters to the deck types which are likely to run them. As for myself, I am anxious to see how Gencon shakes out - we’ll get a better sense of how the current competitive scene looks - which will then inform The Showstopper meta.
Secondly, Showboating is not a CP dump like Nic. It requires cycling cards, occupying hand space, succeeding pulls - turn after turn. All the while, the opponent (through intentional deck construction) will have opportunities to engage and counteract.
Thirdly, it seems universally playable. Spirit Fortress may stand to benefit most, but I think every outfit could build an interesting deck around this card. Maybe hardest for 108s? But they’re awesome in other ways.
I understand the general anxiety about non-interactive CP accumulation. Perhaps it will accelerate a not-too-fun-to-play-against turtle variant. But I’m advocating for a “wait and see” attitude.
Yes, Showboating is good and enables you to play a non-interactive deck. However, it is putting your control points on your spellcasters. When you’re up against a spell deck, which dudes do you focus your spot removal on to disrupt their game plan anyway? With the meta where it’s at, decks should already be running an answer to this.
I feel if Showboating is becoming a problem for you in Spirit/Gadget Fortress then you’re already in a tricky place as the Fortress is well established. Even then if their game plan is static you should hopefully be able to keep up with them in terms of influence and hit Nic when he appears. Could now be the time for Plasma Drill and Lighting the Fuse to shine? A hex rush deck out of 4R or Sloane would be what I’d worry about.
It show à “Feat” trait.
Maybe we will have something about this in the sheet With the SB. That could say “Feat cards Ace themselves when they are used for an ability printed on them”. Or something like that.
Anyway, yes It’s non interactive but I’m Not worried about that. Our meta pack Kidnapping everywhere si I’m not impressed with CPs on dudes. They die like everyone else.
It is kind of a shame with the game winding down knowing that all these minor mechanics we’ve been seeing introduced will never be expanded on outside of the next couple sets, if they are at all.
Particularly sad to see Union and Confederate traits will never get time to shine, thought they were fun mechanics.
What was fun about Union/Confederate? The fact that the least represented in the game skilled group (Blessed) couldn’t play some of them together, so in practice Blessed decks had even less skilled dudes to chose from?
I don’t hate on Union/ Confederate as a concept, it is a very elegant way to prevent two very strong dudes that synergise too well from being played at the same time, the implentation of it in DTR is horrible though.
Edit If any faction should get those keywords at this point in time, it is 108’s and Blessed dudes should be the last.
So far we’ve had three Union dudes and two Confederate dudes; all have been either Blessed or Mad Scientists (I’m including Dead Billy as a Mad Scientist because he synergizes so well with the 'Thopter). (Additionally and oddly, all three Union dudes have been women, whereas both Confederates are men.)
On the Mad Scientist end, you’re forced to decide between upkeep reduction and increased movement; on the Blessed end, you’re forced to decide between bullet increases and better chance of passing your spell checks. Both of these are interesting decisions.
I agree with @Tredain that it’s a fun and interesting concept; and I agree with @swider that it’s not really coming across as anything but arbitrary yet.
That’s kind of my point, I feel this mechanic would’ve been more interesting in the long run had it been actually developed and the card pool with the traits grown. It’s more fun in concept than execution, as it stands now its just a novelty that hindered deck choice initially.
I would’ve liked to have seen more dudes show up with the trait, potentially even a Home with one of them.
I liked Union/Confederate- it didn’t impinge on deck construction too much initially and lent the game flavour. It probably gav the designers to print various effects as they knew they could limit potential future troublesome interactions by using the opposing keyword. Hard for us to see this after the fact, but probably opened up design space for the team.
