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Aethereal |
Black Lotus
Welcome to Jade Rebellion week! We'll be looking at
Jade Rebellion super rares in the Barbary Coast set.
First up is the Black Lotus, which, sadly, does not
sell for hundreds of dollars on the secondary market
and is not incredibly broken. It is, however, a
solid ship for the cost. 11 points gets you an
average L movement, an above-average 5 cargo spaces,
and a pair of 3L cannons and a 2L cannon. It also
has the Junk ability (its masts don't block its line
of fire) and it gets +1 against English ships. This
is a solid mid-cost secondary gunship, with
long-range cannons that have a decent chance to hit,
fair movement, and the ability to shoot through
itself for more versatility in where you can shoot.
The L movement is the worst trait this ship has, but
that can be dealt with by adding a Helmsman. I like
this guy a lot overall.
Rating: 3.5/5
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WildWill |
Pirates of the Barbary Coast – Black
Lotus #133
Name: Black Lotus
Set: PBC
Card #: 133
Rarity: Super Rare
Type: Ship
Cost: 11 Points
Masts: 3
Cannons 3L, 2L, 3L
Cargo: 5
Movement: 1L
Faction: Jade Rebellion
Ability –
“ Junk. This ship gets +1 to
her cannon rolls against English ships.
Flavor Text – “The Black Lotus has
been seen near the Barbary Coast chasing English
merchant ships loaded with goods from the Far East.”
Sooner or later we always review the
super-rare pieces, just because we can, and some
people actually play with theirs. I don’t know why
they do, but they do. Personally, while I don’t own
this particular ship, I do have at least one of
every other Super-Rare, and I’ve never pulled them
out of their sprues, simply because they’re more
valuable to me as a collectible, rather than an
actual ship. Jade Rebellion ships will be coming
fast and furious in the NEXT set, so this week’s
pieces are just a sneak preview of what’s to come.
And BOY HOWDY are people excited over
the next set. Junks and Turtles have got a lot of
players excited for new ship types, and while the
jury is still out on Junks, Turtles (which we’ve
seen in a sneak peek) are going to be the popular
ship type. The Junk keyword only really
means that this ship’s masts do not block line of
fire. Which is a good thing, since they’re so
freaking huge.
This ship is surprisingly playable in
the current meta-game, even without a lot of crew
for her. You can get a Captain, and Zheng Li Kwan,
and that’s about it. However, with the addition of
generic crew and some more named crew in the next
expansion, you can bet the Jade Rebels are going to
be a popular faction, unlike the Barbary Corsairs.
All three cannons are long range, and they all have
at least a 50% chance of hitting. Additionally you
get to add +1 against English ships, which doesn’t
suck. FIVE cargo spots means this vessel is a
decent treasure runner who can defend herself when
needed, though she’s not particularly fast, and
there’s currently no way to upgrade her speed.
WildWill’s
Patented Ebay Auction Report 12-21-05
There are actually ZERO closed
auctions for this ship in the last 90 days. There
is one sale for the entire super-rare pack, at $37
for all the super-rare pieces. That’s WAY too
pricey for me, and if history repeats itself, the
super-rare pack will be available for some time to
come, with prices gradually dropping the farther
away from the release date we get. This ship will
most probably top out at $7-10 a piece. Several
Ebay stores have this ship between $10 and $15,
which I think is too high at the moment.
My Ratings:
Playability 4 of 5
Collectability 5 of 5
Next Time – No double this week,
because there currently is only ONE named Jade
Rebel. So we’ll look at him.
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