Lose 5 Points

by Lucas Thompson, Designer

20th July 2024

Today's card, Sinaren, is the first example of an ability wording that shows up on three different Vidiian personnel. He can do a powerful thing (in this case, reducing attribute requirements on a dilemma he's facing), and then you lose five points for each completed mission you command. It's not a cost! While you do not command a completed mission, you can use his ability at-will, even if you've already earned bonus points (though, as mentioned previously, that's not an easy thing for Vidiians to accomplish). And he's non-unique, so multiple Sinarens can make Gomtuu Shock Wave not look so dangerous.

Just, uh... just don't use his ability while facing Adopted Authority, okay? That would be bad.

Sinaren and his ilk open up a new deck-building path for the Vidiian player as well. You can aim for 100 points worth of missions like everyone else, or you can shoot for more than 100, with the plan of spending some of those points on your second mission. Even the threat of scoring more than 100 points could make your opponent overthrow dilemmas, so it may be worth using that fourth mission slot on a slightly higher point mission, just so that your opponent isn't sure if that's your plan or not. However, Vidiians aren't a great micro-team affiliation, so will you be willing to give up the protection of Alpha 5 Approach in order to have that threat?

Either way, at ten points per use, you're probably not going to get much use out of his ability at your last mission. Hopefully you have something else up your sleeve by then...

Discuss this article in this thread.