Harry Potter Card of the Week
with Alex Rockwell

01.28.02  Card of the Week (Charms Exam)
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Well, for this weeks card of the week I'd like to look at an interesting card that seems at times to be amazing and at other times to be worthless. (Sometimes it feels like whenever my opponents play it its amazing and when I play it its worthless.)

That card is:
Charms Exam
7C - Spell
Your opponent discards his/her hand. He/She may draw any number of cards

With this spell, you force your opponent to discard their ENTIRE hand, an awesome effect for a cost of only 7. However, the ability to redraw a number of cards can greatly help your opponent. Obviously, this card is not very good if your opponent has a small hand, or is killing you next turn and doesn't need to draw cards. The time when this card is good is when your opponent has a number of cards in their hand and therefore it will cost them a bunch of cards off their deck (effectively damage), in order to replace them. This way, either they lose cards, or they take damage. Of course, the best time to play it is when you have another charms exam in your handthat way if they don't draw much you can hold it and let them struggle with not having cards, and if they draw a bunch you can make them discard all of those too.

I typically draw about 3 cards if hit with one of these by my opponent. Enough so that I can still do something, but not enough that I am suffering much damage and will be very vulnerable to a second exam. One problem with this card is that it wont do much to save you if you are
already getting killed. If your opponent has lots of creatures in play, and doesn't need many cards, its not going to help you very much. So the question is, can we find some ways to ensure that this card will almost always be helpful, and not be wasted?

First of all, using it with flitwick is very good, because then you can
guarantee that your opponent wont use it to draw lots of cards, or else
you flitwick and hit them with it again.
If they draw lots again, they just took a huge amount of damage.
Hopefully, the rest of your deck should then be able to kill them.

Charms exam is also helpful against Halloween feast decks because it lets
you make them discard their hand just after the feast. Then they'll have
to find another feast and use it, spending more time. Then if they feast
again, you use flitwick and Charms Exam again.they will only be able to
get out one creature if they feast and then play it, before you make them
discard again. Against a feast deck, its probably a good idea to save the
exam for just after they feast.

Basically, the key to Charms exam is timing, and having a deck that can
deal a fair amount of damage, so that it is painful for your opponent to
draw cards.

When playing against charms exam, I recommend drawing 3 or 4 cards, that
way you aren't very vulnerable to a second, and it doesn't hurt too much,
but you can still play some cards. If you are very weak but you have
powerful creatures killing them, you might draw 0, to make sure they cant
kill you. Early on, you can probably draw more if they don't have
flitwickif they do, drawing 7 or so is just asking to get charmed again.

One problem with charms exam is its cost. 7 lessons will probably take
you some time to get to, and if your opponent can get rid of most of their
cards by then, it wont be as helpful.

To offset the cost of charms exam, since you want to play it early enough
that your opponent still has a big hand, you should include items such as
borrow wand, or other lesson producing items. (You should always include
these if possible, since they are extremely good and speed you up
signifigantly) I always play 4 borrowed wands, unless I am playing a
bigger wand, or am not using charms (which is rare, since I like to be
able to use borrowed wand)

You want to be able to cast the exam early enough that your opponent has
not already played their good spells. If you can get them shortly after
they finish playing lessons, then you will hit a hand full of good cards.
Later on however, you will probably hit a hand full of useless lessons,
and allow your opponent to draw some cards. Obviously, that's not
something you want to do. Having Flitwick enables you to hit them early,
and not worry about what happens if they draw 7 or 10 cards. If they do,
you just hit them a second time. If they draw 3, you save flitwick for
something else.

When building a deck, you can think of charms exam as being a damage spell
as well as a hand destruction (discard) spell, since it performs both
tasks. I wouldn't ever depend on it for damage however, since your
opponent can always just draw zero.

If you have a deck which already goes up to 7 or more lessons, uses
Flitwick, and can do some heavy damage with either spells or creatures,
and you feel that you would be able to cast the Charms Exam quick enough
to make it worth it, I'd recommend at least trying this card out. After
all, if you've ever been hit with a charms exam at the wrong time, then
you know ho powerful it can be.

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A note for those using apprentice on the Pojo chat,
Last week I said that Gred_and_feorge had not reported to me and others
for his losses. He has now reported the losses he owed (Thank you).
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Everyone remember to always report your losses, it's a lot easier than
getting reported and having to answer to the folks at Pojo.

For all those who havent tried playing online, I highly recommend it!


Thanks to all for reading!
Until next week.
-Alex

P.S.
If anyone would like to see a certain card featured on card of the week,
just send me an email and I'll think about it.  rockwell@u.washington.edu