Today I want to highlight an ability, more so than any particular card. The ability is Interrupt, Draw 3, and Play.
I’m sure most of you thought of the Masks from Roots, and those are just over half of the cards I want to highlight in this episode.
For those not in the know, the Masks are:
Mask of Arrogance
Mask of Fear
Mask of Pride
Mask of Self-glorification
Mask of Vanity
Mask of Worldliness
All 6 Mask cards share the ability: “Interrupt the battle. You may draw 3 and play an evil Enhancement.” This is a super nice ability to be able to play. It gives your deck a little speed in battle, along with immediately being able to inflict a little more damage. What is really nice is that every current, non-retired, evil brigade has one of these masks. That means no matter what defense you choose (aside from Herods or old school Egyptians) you get to use this ability at least once.
The Heroes also have this ability in some of their current, non-retired, brigades as well. Sticking with Roots for a moment is Swift Beings for silver, and Generous Giving for clay, which both read, “Interrupt the battle. You may draw 3 and play an Enhancement.” They just dropped the word “evil” so the good guys can play their stuff.
Similarly, with wording and punctuation moved a little, purple has Reach of Desperation from the Legacy Rare series of GoC. It reads, “You may interrupt the battle, draw 3, and play an Enhancement.”
Gold steps in with Battle Cry from Israel’s Inheritance. Worded a little differently, and being able to use its full power with Joshua Heroes, Battle Cry reads, “Interrupt the battle. You may draw 1 (or 3 if used by a Joshua Hero) and play an Enhancement.”
Red and Teal have since been retired, but even they get one of these abilities in the PoC set in Jordan Interrupted. It is a red/teal dual-brigade card that reads, “Interrupt the battle. You may draw 3 and play an O.T. Enhancement (or activate a Tabernacle or Priestly Artifact if used by a Tabernacle priest).” This one is a little more restrictive, but with pretty much the same ability.
Whether on offense or defense, I really appreciate this little “shot in the arm” during a battle. I’d really love to see this in every legal brigade so that all players have that. Whether using an interrupt, draw, & play card or being the one it is used against, it immediately makes the battle more interesting. It is these turnings of the tide that make this game so fun!
Roots 2 was recently announced, and while I am really excited for it, I have no idea what it contains. May hope is that there is a blue, a green, and a white enhancement that has the “interrupt, draw 3, and play” ability that will show up in Roots 2. I guess we’ll find out.
If you haven’t been sticking at least one of these cards into your deck, I’d recommend it. Until next time.
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