Card of the Week





Revival Card of the Week

Card: Slower Brooms
Type: Item - Broom
Cost:
1 Quidditch
Set:
Heir of Slytherin
Artist:
hyenacub
Effect: All cards with a power cost (yours and your opponents') need 1 more Power to play. (If you play this card and already have a Broom in play, discard the old one.)

Jimmy: This week we're looking at Slower Brooms. Even if it isn't game-breaking, I really like it. Unlike other Brooms it doesn't provide a Quidditch Lesson. One option is to search for it and play it on your first turn with Madam Hooch. If your opponent has a deck with tight tempo where they plan on having a certain number of lessons by a certain turn, Slower Brooms is going to make them alter their game plan perhaps by an entire turn. If you were to run Madam Hooch + Wand Shop with all Charms lessons, the increase in the cost of your even powered cards won't even be a drawback.

If you're using some of the Lesson destruction cards that Transfiguration has to offer, Slower Brooms might even help keep your opponent from hitting you with their biggest Spells, Items, or Creatures.

Character based decks might be tempted to play this card since it would be a second Quidditch Lesson card they're interested in besides Vanishing Ref.


John:
One of the first HoS cards that we wanted to look at is one that brings an entirely new angle to the game – Slower Brooms. Slower Brooms changes the normal “curve” of the game, another way to say the average timeline of when certain cards can be played. Slower Brooms is best when you build your deck around it, planning to take advantage of the unique situation it creates while trying to knock your opponent off-balance.

Being a Broom card, you can ensure that you get this effect online as early as turn one if you use Madam Hooch as your starter character. By playing Slower Brooms on turn one, common Turn 2 payoffs like two creatures or a 3-lesson ramp into Picking on Neville or Dobby’s Disappearance are going to have to wait at least a turn making them much less devastating. It also somewhat protects itself, being a very small one-time investment that actually increases the cost of things your opponent has to use to remove it.

Characters and Adventures are not affected by the cost of Slower Brooms and both types of cards lend themselves well to control strategies, where Slower Brooms shines. I am excited to see a new style of control deck that capitalizes on being efficient while under the effect of Slower Brooms.

classic card of the week

Card: Hagrid's Umbrella
Type: Item - Wand - Unique
Cost:
3 Charms
Set:
Diagon Alley
Artist:
Monte Michael More
Effect:
You may use an Action and discard this card from play to search your deck. You may take a Location card from your deck, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck. If you play this card, and you already have a Wand in play, discard the old one.

Jimmy: Hagrid's Umbrella is a great example of an older card that gets new context with the release of Heir of Slytherin. Since there are plenty of new Locations for players to try out, more decks will be interested in the Umbrella. Reasons to want to use Hagrid's Umbrella:

1) You need a location to make your deck work

2) Your deck utilizes Items and doesn't prefer other wands

3) Your metagame is filled with Umbrellas and you'd like to block your opponent from using it

Ironically, even though it falls into Charms like Wand Shop, it won't get the bonus from Wand Shop. While an interesting card with new context, I don't think it rises to the level of a competitive card quite yet.

John: Hagrid’s Umbrella is an interesting wand with the ability to search your deck for any Location at the cost of one action and discarding Hagrid’s Umbrella from play. Heir of Slytherin introduces an array of new powerful locations to choose from, many of which are best if used with specific timing. Hagrid’s Umbrella ensures that you have access to a search chain that provides you the Location you need. By being able to find a path to that critical Location through any card that can search for an item or wand you can improve the consistency in strategies relying on Locations.

I
think that Hagrid's Umbrella has a good amount of potential in decks that are taking advantage of Items that don't yet play a Wand. It could work well as a first wand pre-cane with Lucius Malfoy to help get set up at Gringotts, or possibly alongside Draco Malfoy, Slytherin. Hagrid’s Umbrella will probably not find its way into many decks that don’t rely heavily on the benefit that a location provides, but is an interesting older card that is sure to be revisited as people get excited to try locations like the Chamber of Secrets.