The Spoils TCG Set 4 Preview: Thought Crime

First, I want to say I am pleased as ever to see The Spoils engine up again and also to see that there are actually final products (or at least close to final) being used and inspired from the Open R&D forums. Hopefully there will be an official set announcement soon along with OP. Now, on to the preview card itself.

Thought Crime is an interesting beast. The text:

Cost – Play this only in response to a tactic being played. Pay X, where X is its numeric cost.
Effect – Duplicate the tactic. Terminate the tactic.

Any game I have ever played that has let you duplicate a tactic (or event, etc.) generally leads me into trying to find ways to break it. However there is an interesting limitation on this card:

only in response to a tactic

This really limits this card (in a good way). I know at GenCon this year there were several decks floating around that attempted to duplicate their own tactics over and over again to have some really powerful results. Although I could go in to that here, I’m going to stick to the previewed card.

Another limit on the card is that you have to pay X, where X is the numeric cost. This means if your opponent drops an Operation 1337 Haxor (pardon the english) you can’t just pay 3 to duplicate it. The last limitation is that the threshold is 3, so you are going to have to be going pretty heavy arcanist to make this card usable. Although there are some clear limits to the card, there are some very obvious benefits to the card as well.

When looking at a card, I naturally want to consider constructed first. However, because the card is from a set that is currently largely unknown, it is really hard to speculate the usefulness of a card in constructed. That being said, let’s get to sealed.

I imagine that if you have this card you will almost always save 3-4 resources just in case your opponent drops some big card. Other than making your opponent uneasy, leaving these resources doesn’t really hurt you because you’ll use it to draw and play resources. In the event that they do drop a great tactic, you’re covered.

In sealed there are a few types of cards that are necessary to be successful:
1. Removal – let’s face it, there are some big dudes in sealed. If you cannot remove said big dudes, you lose. Period.
2. Big Dudes – You need a big drop  on turn 2-4 that your opponent has to deal with. If they can’t and therefore don’t have any good cards from 1 above, you’ll win rather quickly.

Although there is more to it, those are the two must haves. In sealed, there are times when you come up a few removal cards short in a particular faction, even though the rest of the cards are great. That being said, if Arcanist is one of those factions, then having this card is almost like having removal, but more versatile (with some timing limitations). In draft, it’s likely that pure removal will be chosen before this card, so it’s not a bad alternative.

Yet, let’s not stop here. The last little bit of the card:

Terminate the tactic

How fantastic. Now not only do you get the benefits, but your opponent just spent resources, a card, AND made a move thinking they could benefit with said card. This could be a game changing move. Let’s consider a few examples with some very commonly seen cards:

1. 1337! – Your opponent drops 1337! thinking they can play something that costs 4 for free and draw a card. You respond with Thought Crime. Now they just spent 3 resources and a card and get nothing for it. You spend 3 and then get to draw a card and your next cost is minus 4.
2. Quotidian Assassination – Your opponent attacks and you choose a blocker. He spends 2 and a card thinking he can remove your character. You respond stopping his tactic, removing one of his characters, and then killing the attacking character because he didn’t remove your blocker.
3. Noble Sacrifice – Your opponent either flips up for 0 (losing a resource) or pays 2 and loses a card. In response you play Thought Crime. Now you get to pick which characters go.
4. Strength in Numbers – Your opponent is going for the win. As pure denial you respond with Thought Crime and stop SIN in it’s tracks

This card could be epic good. Although there is no way to honestly say yet, this card should be good in sealed if you are already going Arcanist. It’s not good enough to go Arcanist because you have this card, but a nice fit if it works in to your current build. In constructed there is never a guarantee of goodness, but it should find it’s way in to a few decks.

Hopefully we will be seeing more previews soon! We will keep you up to day with any information we can get or find. Enjoy,

Zach