Power du Jour -- Anti-Matter
Rob Burns
Lower total wins
When? EON – Expansion Set 2; Mayfair - basic set; AH - basic set.
EON/AH power description: You have the power of negation. If both you
and your opponent play Attack cards in a challenge, instead of your
total being "card plus your tokens", it is card minus your tokens
(including allies). Your opponent's total is figured normally except
that allied tokens on his side are subtracted from his total. The
player with the lower total wins.
You negate after both you and your opponent reveal Attack cards.
Mandatory.
History: Spewed forth from a white hole, the worlds of Anti-Matter
careen through space negating whatever they encounter. Opposed to the
very existence of gross mass, the Anti-Matter is dedicated to reducing
all opposition to less than nothing.
Flare:
Wild: When you are a main player or an ally and another player tries
to use a Wild Flare card, you may prevent him from doing so. Use this
against only one Flare per challenge.
Super: On each challenge you may prevent one player from using a Super
Flare card, stopping him when he tries to use it.
Mayfair changes: Completely changed the Flare. Wild Flare eliminates
some of your opponents' tokens on the cone, Super is like a mass
discard. Mayfair suredly did this in making their Flares one-shot.
My changes: [none]
Strong or Subtle? Strong.
Good Power for a Beginner? Yes.
Game Impact / Resource? Helps self / Challenge totals.
Commentary:
Indeed, Anti-Matter is a "powerhouse". With many more low cards than
high cards in the deck, and the rules of the challenge swung in his
favor, A-M has a small advantage in almost every challenge, and it's
usually enough, given an EON-style deck. A- M is particularly
devastating to the powers that calculate big challenge totals. Virus
is stymied against him, and the advantages of Warrior and Warpish turn
into liabilities. I find it interesting that Anti-Matter first
appeared in EON's second Expansion Set – of the existing Powers at
that time, none was a match for Virus. So I wonder, was A-M developed
so that there could be at least one power that neutralized Virus?
Another great thing about Anti-Matter is that with the deck
distribution as it is, Compromise situations usually aren't so bad for
you. If you pull consolation, you may very well get a low card
someone was putting off playing; if you deal, your opponent may well
agree to a deal that puts some more low cards into your hand.
Anti-Matter's banes are Sorceror and Pacifist. Loser is also a major
nemesis. I would think Dragon (EON) would also be a major pain in the
neck to A-M, as Lucre is always added to the total; if A-M keeps it,
it works against him, and if A-M spends the Lucre, it goes to Dragon,
who can then spend it on cards or a Flare or a discard.
I do like the art for Anti-Matter in my (mega-customized) AH set – it
looks like a photo negative of a particularly malevolent alien. Not
that I always see A-M as a bad guy – in one game I played in, I was
dismayed to find one of the players had been dealt Virus, but relieved
when another player revealed that his Power was A-M. Half an hour
later, the Warp was quite well-occupied by Virus ships. I was Mind,
used it as best I could, and ended up sharing the win with Virus.
I thought I saw an old discussion on this newsgroup as to which Power
would you pick (if you had the choice) -- Loser or Anti-Matter? I
like them both, but I think I'd take Loser out of a preference for
Optional powers. No complaints if I got stuck with A-M though.
Like Amoeba, Anti-Matter is a classic that should be in every set that
calls itself a CE set.
Gseang3org3
Anti-Matter. Or at least offensively. Put in one token (or ship) and call for
allies. It's that token times the card minus the allies.
-Gregory
Rob Burns
Oh yeah, not bad. Still, if I'm being called by both A-M and Virus,
and Virus is attacking with one token, and let's say A-M's got one
token too, I'll ally with A-M. I was in this situation once, can't
remember what I did, but I was Mind, so I think I decided based on
what I remembered of their hands.
Patrick Riley
> Oh yeah, not bad. Still, if I'm being called by both A-M and Virus,
> and Virus is attacking with one token, and let's say A-M's got one
> token too, I'll ally with A-M. I was in this situation once, can't
> remember what I did, but I was Mind, so I think I decided based on
> what I remembered of their hands.
Of course. You also have to consider how many A-M tokens there were,
the number of bases Virus already had, if it was reverse cone, or ...
Virus attacking A-M is better than any other power attacking A-M and I
would tend to side with Virus, but the most important factor is who
you think is going to win. If the difference is 3 or fewer tokens, it
is a toss-up unless you have other knowledge, such as being Mind.
-- Patrick
www.xenongames.com