Hello Condemned! I’m really sorry about not posting recently. Every now and again, I hit writer’s block in the worst way. It sucks, I hate it, it makes me look bad, blah… On the plus side, I have a bunch of cards that are done, and ready to spoil. So now I have a lot of writing ahead of me! Lucky me, right?

But let’s be honest, that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to see a new card! Who am I to argue? Let’s take a look:

This is one of those cards that was born out of what I believed to be a necessity. I knew there would be a need to stop multiple types of cards. Ripperstrike comes to mind. Poke-Poke has become a significant thorn in my side. There are enough solid Weapons and cards that the game needs more options for dealing with major threats. This is where today’s card comes into play.

Critical Failure is designed to be a way to interrupt your opponent’s tempo. Typically, parrying places the advantage in the hands of the attacker. It’s a good outlet for Weapons that are about to break, denying your opponent damage. Critical Failure puts the power into the hands of the defender, leaving an attacker wide open to reprisal.

There’s another angle to Critical Failure. The Condemned currently has some issues with entropy. It is very difficult to open up your opponent and force your way into dealing the damage needed to close out a game. Most removal is used to open up a hole in defenses. Stopping incoming attacks with removal is largely seen as a last ditch effort. I wanted to add removal that worked in a different way, that would allow for more opportunities to open up your opponent.

Personally, I don’t feel like this is going to be massively overpowered. You still need to parry with a Weapon, which means you need another one in your hand for the next turn. Your opponent can still bust out a Hidden Pocket to find a Weapon of their own to parry your attack. There’s still the existing removal out there, which can now be used more defensively. Which is to say, you have options for dealing with it.

Critical Failure is awesome. It’s definitely a good splash card that will provide utility in general. It’s not the only card I have to spoil, but that will come later. This one brings us up to:

14/128 cards

I have a ton of new cards to spoil, they’ll come in due time. Thanks everyone for reading, come join the brand new The Condemned CCG Discord, and I’ll see you in The Arena!