Hello Condemned! I hope you are having a great week so far. If you saw my last post, I mentioned that I would be showing off a new card this week. And guess what? Now is that time!
When designing cards for The Condemned, occasionally I build around certain archetypes that I see popping up. On occasion, I build an archetype and then build hate for it later. In a perfect world, every major build will have some sort of counter. That’s easier said than done, obviously, but that’s the goal. When working on Enter The Arena, the Ripperstrike combo appeared first and foremost as a major player in the space. There were ways of dealing with it in the base set that I didn’t feel like it was too much of an issue. But I knew I wanted to add other options that had specific uses elsewhere. That’s where today’s card comes into play.
Mechanical Malfunction serves as a fun little situational card. There are more cards with Multi-Hit in the pipe that will allow this to be useful elsewhere, as well. There’s also a fun nod to the Ripperstrike combo in the artwork! You’ll notice that Kona Yuki is holding The Ripper, about to swing at her opponent, only for the worst possible thing to happen at the worst possible time! As if it couldn’t be a worse time to use Alpha Strike… Like the flavor text says, it’s all fun and games until a gear pops out.
The art choice stems from a design choice in Magic The Gathering that I particularly love. In the Odyssey block, there’s a little guy named Psychatog. He’s a mean little critter. You discard a card, and he gets +1/+1 until end of turn. In a block that has a keyword called Madness, which let you cast spells that you had discarded. It was nasty, and it was a top tier deck that year. Fast forward to Onslaught block, and they put a little nod into Shock. Why was shock so important? Because the first time you see your opponent try to pump their Psychatog, you Shock the ‘tog and keep it from getting big! So of course the artwork in the next set shows a Psychatog getting shocked by lightning!
I love little metagame references like that. It’s a fun way for a game to be a little bit self effacing, while also rewarding players who really get into the game. I sold off all my Magic cards a while ago, but I kept a playset of the Onslaught Shock because I love that particular card so much. With the rise of other Multi-Hit cards in Chaotic Assault, look forward to drafting this to put a stop to their shenanigans!
Man, it feels good showing off cards again. I’ve got more in the pipe, coming soon. This card in particular, however, brings us up to:
20/128 cards
We’re plugging right along, building this out as we go. If you want to see more cards shown off at once in these posts, the best way to do so is to buy some booster packs from the shop. Every pack you buy means more money I have to spend on art! Otherwise, I have to do it out of my own pocket, after supporting my family and putting a roof over my head. Which will be significantly slower.
Oh! If you’re not part of The Condemned CCG Discord, you missed my announcement about the upcoming Theme Deck tournament. Go join the discord and sign up to try out the theme decks from Chaotic Assault before anyone else! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in The Arena!
