Harry Potter Card of the Week
with Alex Rockwell

Alright, time for my next installment of card of the week!

Well, after three posts, the number of emails sent to me by people who don't like my writing is only greater than the number of fan emails by 1! (I'm just glad that people actually read what I have to say)

I figure, if everything I said was what people agreed with and already knew, then no one would learn anything!  You have to Tell someone something other than what they already think in order to have a chance of teaching them something.  (You might be wrong, but at least you'll make them test their idea out and prove its better!)

I didn't get to write a card of the week last week because I was working on a project the whole week (I am a Computer science major, and its near the end of the quarter that should explain everything)  But I finished it yesterday, so I have time to write :)

Since I missed last week, I owe you two, so this week is a DOUBLE card of the week (the second comes later down)

Well, after two articles I still haven't touched any of the cards which actually have to do with quiddich lessons, and the new card type, the matches, so I think its time for those.

So for this week, my first card of the week is:

Catch the Snitch
7Q - Spell
You win the current Match.  You get the Prize

We'll take a look at the various matches, and which ones are good or bad in what kinds of decks, and whether Catch the snitch is a good card.

First of all, when we play a match, we are expending one action to play it, and also using up a card (which could be thought of as an action, because drawing costs an action.  You can think of the turn as having 3 actions, where one must be a draw).  So we've already spent the equivalent of two actions getting the match out there.  We'd better win it, or else we're just helping our opponent beat us!  So the first thing we'll have to keep in mind when thinking about the matches are that we must be able to win it, at least almost all the time.  (Because if you waste the time playing it only to have your opponent win, its REALLY bad)

With catch the Snitch, we are guaranteed to win the match if we play the match as our first action for the turn, and catch the snitch as our second.  In this case, we have to look at whether its really worth it.  We used two cards, and two actions, to gain the prize on our match card. That had better be a good prize for the equivalent of four actions worth of work!  You could have cast two spells during that time.  Are any of the matches worth it, or is it better to use other methods of winning the match?

Here are the matches:

Ravenclaw Match
1Q - Match
To Win: Do 10 damage to your opponent while this card is in play. (That damage doesn't have to be done all at once.)
Prize: The winner searches his or her deck. He or she may take up to 2

Lesson cards from his or her deck and put them into play. Then that player shuffles his or her deck.  

Well, this one's prize doesn't help us much if we have the 7 lessons to play catch the snitch This is one that we would play early on and then try and do 10 quick damage, if we do, we gain a big early advantage.  (getting two extra lessons out early is an awesome advantage)  I think this is a REALLY good card to base your deck around.  However, its not necessary to use catch the snitch with this, since its main advantage is speeding you up, and if you have the lessons to catch the snitch, you dont relaly need this.

Slytherin Match,
1Q - Match - Healing
To Win: Do 15 damage to your opponent while this card is in play (That damage doesn't have to be done all at once.) Prize: The winner may shuffle up to 15 non-Healing cards from his or her discard pile into his or her deck.

This one has a big effect, and its hard to win, so it actually seems good for Catch the Snitch.  However, we're not going to win a game just by healing ourself if we use all our cards to play matches and win them with catch the snitch, and they just heal us, our opponent will just put out more big damaging spells.  So you wouldn't want this to be the only one you use.  Still, it's a great emergency healer!  It you are desperate, play this and catch the snitch and gain back 15 cards.

Hufflepuff Match
1Q - Match
To Win: Do 8 damage to your opponent while this card is in play. (That damage doesn't have to be done all at once.) The winner may draw 5 cards, the loser takes 5 damage.

This one is awesome!  Drawing 5 cards for winning it is a huge help, we'll probably never have to draw again.  And 5 damage to your opponent too!  I like it.

What else is there

Practice Match
1Q - Match
Do Five Damage To Your Opponent While this Card Is in Play...(You Don't Have To All At once) The Winner may Draw 4 Cards.  

Another good one, giving you a good boost in number of cards.  I would use damage to win this one though, not Catch the snitchits pretty easy.  And you'd better play it and then win it in one turn, or else your opponent will win!  (Unless you play it like first turn)

Well, that's all of them.  It seems like Slytherin and Hufflepuff are the matches we'd most want to use catch the snitch on.  Slytherin for a backup healing, Hufflepuff for damage and card drawing.  But none of them really destroy our opponent by themselves.  So we'll need to use lots of other cards to deal the damage

So will catch the snitch really help us very much?  In some circumstances it will.  It certainly will if our opponent like to play matches and then not win them the same turn But other than that, would we rather just include another damage spell, and try to win the matches like that?  Maybe I think catch the snitch is okay if you have lots of the right matches, and its good if your opponent also uses big matches.

Lets try to make a deck.  First, we need a character, well, I would think of going for Minerva McGonagall as a good choice, especially if your opponent uses pesky adventures.  (It would be bad to play a quiddich match, hoping to hit your opponent with damage spells, and then have him/her drop a 4 Privet Drive or Into the Mirror and forbid you from playing them!)  But in the interest of going with quiddich stuff, lets see how our quiddich instructor would work.

********

Our second card of the week:

Madam Rolanda Hooch
Witch - Unique - Provide 1Q
Once per game, you may search your deck. When you do, you may take a Broom card from your deck, show it to your opponent and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck. 

Well, the quiddich lesson is very helpful.  We aren't going to need to include any quiddich lessons in our deck now!  So we can put in whatever other lessons we want.  That extra lesson will help us get going faster so we can play matches and do damage fast.  And getting a broom of our choice is a great ability, provided there are any good brooms!  (And its free too, it doesn't take a naction to use, so it's a free draw of a broom of our choice!)

Lets look at the brooms:

Nimbus Two Thousand
7Q - Item-Broom
Provides 1 Quidditch power. Whenever 1 of your Item or Spell cards that needs Q power does damage, it does 2 more damage. If you play this card, and you already have a Broom in play, discard the old one.

Well, its costly, so it wont help us get going faster early on.  But it will be powerful when we do get it in play!  What else is there  

Comet Two Sixty
3Q - Item - broom - provides 1Q
Once during each of your opponent's turns, you may prevent 1 damage done to you. If you play this card, and you already have a Broom in play, discard the old one.  

Its fairly cheap, so you can probably play it second turn like you would another lesson.  And its ability is pretty good!  (Not as good as the Nimbus, but its much easier to get out.)  Playing with this will also give us the advantage that we don't have to play as many lessons in our deck, since we'll already have two free ones!  One from this broom (when we play it), and one from Hooch.   That means we wont have to draw as many lessons to get up to how many we need, and we therefore wont have to put as many into our deck, so we'll have more space for good spells!  Sounds good to me

Cleansweep Seven
2 Q - Item  Broom
When you play this card, look at the top 4 cards of your deck and put them back on top in any order. (If there are fewer than 4, look at all of them.) If you play this card, and you already have a Broom in play, discard the old one.
Provides: 1 Q  

Hmm, it's a little cheaper than the Comet two Sixty, but its ability isn't as great in my opinion.  (You generally can draw cards fairly fast in this game, so rearranging the top ones isn't a huge help.)  I think I'd rather have the damage prevention myself.  It'll help keep us from losing matches!

We'll I think if I got to choose one to start out with in my hand, I'll probably go with the Comet, maybe the Nimbus, but its costly, so it doesn't help us out right away.  I'm going to go for a quick deck here so we can use the Raven claw match which is really good to win early on. Having that damage prevention will make it a bit harder for our opponent to win a match we play if we cant win it the turn we play it.  (Which is probably the case if we're playing them early you don't want to have your opponent win your matches!!)

Alright, so we have:

Starting Character:  Madam Rolanda Hooch
Items:  Comet Two Sixty  

That's effectively one lesson in play and one in our hand at the start of the game!  (We need to play two other lessons before the broom, but we'll probably get two)

Now we need some matches.  Practice match is easy to win, but I think we'll have enough cards, our problem will probably be playing them out fast enough, since we going for a quick kill.  Hufflepuff match gives us cards and hurts them, so lets use some of those:

4 Hufflepuff Match

We need some more.  I think we only need about 8 matches maximum, otherwise we'll have loads of matches and not enough ways to win them.  So we want slytherin match?  Well, I'd use it for a slower, more controlling deck, with Catch the snitch, but for this one I think that healing ourself isn't too helpful, we want to kill our opponent.  How about ravenclaw?  If we can get two more lessons out, that'll help a lot. Lets use 3.

3 Ravenclaw Match

Now, it takes 8 and 10 damage to win the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw  m matches, respectively.  That's too much for a little spell to do, so we'll try to get in with 2 spells or effects.

One good damage method is adventures such as sticking up for Neville and Unusual Pets.  If you don't remember:

Sticking Up for Neville
Adventure
Effect: Before each of your turns, your opponent takes 4 damage.
To solve: Your opponent discards his or her hand.  Opponent's Reward: Your opponent may put up to 4 non-Healing cards from his or her discard pile on the bottom of his or her deck (in any order).  

We probably cant play unusual pets too early, since they wont always have a creature, so its not as helpful. But this one is great, since they wont want to discard their original hand, and we can get in some good damage. So lets play 4.

4 Sticking up for Neville

The adventures that do less than 4 damage a turn probably aren't worth it. Lets look at spells which do quick damage.

We can choose to go with some of the quiddich spells, charms, potions, or transmogrify spells.  The transmogrify damage spells aren't that great, so lets not go with that.  We'll get quiddich for free, so lets choose one other type of spells to go with.  I like charms, since it has some good spells to hit our opponent AND hit a creature, so we can keep their creatures down to stop them from winning matches that way.  Also, charms allows us to use borrowed wand, a great card which is cheap and provides two lessons, so it helps speed us up.

What are some good charm and quiddich damage spells, that aren't too expensive?  Lets look at quiddich first:

Bludger
4Q - Item
Before each of your turns, Bludger does 3 damage to your opponent if a match is in play.  (If no match, Bludger does no damage).

Well, it takes awhile to start hitting, and your opponent can stop it if they win the match on their turn, probably there mont be a match in play for too many turns, lets go with something more immediate.  Also, if our opponent plays "no time to play" it'll kill this AND our match

Power Play
6Q - Spell
Play this card only if a Match is in play. Do 7 damage to your  opponent.

Well, its good, but 7 damage is just barely not enough to win our matches! And without one in play it can sit in our hand.

Cobbing
Spell - 7Q
Do 4 damage to your opponent.  Then, if your opponent has any cards in play,he or she chooses 1 of them and discards it.

The effect is good, but the cost is a little high for our purpose

Fouled!
4Q - Spell

Do 4 damage to your opponent.  During your opponent's next turn, he or she gets 1 fewer Action.  (If this would mean your opponent has fewer than 1 Action, he or she still gets 1 Action).  

This is the perfect card!  It even hinders our opponent from trying to win the match by getting rid of one of their actions.  We want four of these!

Ouch!
5Q - Spell
Do 5 damage to your opponent. Then, if your opponent has any cards in his or her hand, he or she chooses 1 of them and discards it.  

This is good, so we'll probably want it.

Pulling Up
4Q - Spell
Do 2 damage to your opponent. Then draw 2 cards.  

A couple extra damage for the finish off the match, and we get to draw.  I like it.  We'll consider it.  Lets look at some good charms damage spells:

Stream of Flames
5C - Spell
Do 3 Damage to your opponent.  You may also choose a Creature in play and do 3 damage to it. 

This one rules!  If we go with charms, we'll use four.

Stupefy:  Cost 6, 5 damage.  Decent, but Ouch is better.

MagicalMishap:  Cost 2, damage 3.  Hmm, doesn't do very much  

Toebiter:  Cost 3, damage 2 to opponent, 2 to creature.  Good, but not big damage either.

Maybe charms weren't the way to go, lets look at potions, and see if that better.

Here's all the potions which look decent for this:  

Jawbind Potion
4P - Spell
Do 2 damage to your opponent. During your opponent's next turn, he or she can't play Spell cards.  

The effect is good, it helps us win the match by preventing them from winning, but two damage isn't very much.

Weakness Potion
7P - Spell
To play this card, discard 1 of your Potions Lessons from play. Do 5 damage to your opponent. During your opponent’s next turn, prevent all damage done to you by your opponent's Creatures.  

This is good against creature decks, since it prevents their damage too. We'll consider it.

Bloodroot Poison
2P - Spell
To play this card, discard 1 of your Potions Lessons from play. Do 4 damage to your opponent or to a Creature of your choice  

If I discard a lesson, I want more damage.

Draught of Living Death: Cost 8/discard 2.  12 damage.  Well, that'll win either match!

Malevolent Mixture:  Cost 5/discard 2.  10 damage. 

The perfect card.  Its cheap and will win either match.  If we use it to win a Ravenclaw match, we get to search for two lessons and get them back!  If a hufflepuff, we do 5 more damage and draw some cards.  Very awesome!

Dogbreath Potion:  Cost 6/discard 1.  8 damage.  It'll win our Hufflepuff match.  Also very good.  Looks like potions are the way to go for this deck.

Noxious Potion:  cost 3/discard 1, 5 damage.  I'd go with Ouch over this, I don't want to discard lesson when I've only got three out.

Alright, lets look at which ones were good:

Lets go with:

4 Fouled (Cost 4/damage 4, opponent loses 1 action)

4 Ouch (Cost 5/Damage 5, opponent discards a card)

2 Power Play (Cost 7/damage 7, must be match in play)

(I only use two because I don't want to get stuck with them when I have no matches.)

2 Draught of Living Death (Cost 8/Disc2 Damage 12)

4 Malevolent Mixture (Cost 5/Disc2  Damage 10)

4 Dogbreath Potion (Cost 6/Disc1 Damage 8)

If you cant get all the Draughts or Malevolent Mixtures, you can substitute weaker spells or go with charms, but I'd rather try and  trade for or buy the good cards, buy them online on ebay, or something like that Of course, I'm not saying you should try and open a million packs to get 4 of each of these rares!  You can trade or buy them individually Or use other cards, but I think that these, especially Malevolent Mixture, are really good in this deck.

Well, that's 20 damage spells.  That seems pretty good to start.  Now to finish off the deck.  We want a few more adventures.  I'd pick 4 out of the following list:

4 Privet Drive,
In the stands,
Gaze into the Mirror.

Lets say:  2 4 Privet drive, 2 gaze into the mirror.  (I'm not as concerned about creature decks, since our potions can kill them if we really need to.  But if you play against lots of creature decks, you could go with In The Stands or Unusual Pets even.

So we have so far:

Starter: Madam Rolanda Hooch

Items (1):       1 Comet Two Sixty

Matches (7):  4 Hufflepuff Match

            3 Ravenclaw Match

Spells (20):       4 Fouled
            4 Ouch
            2 Power Play
            2 Draught of Living Death
            4 Malevolent Mixture
            4 Dogbreath Potion

Adventures (8): 4 Sticking up for Neville

            2 4 Privet Drive
            2 Gaze into the Mirror

We need lessons, but since we already start with one from hooch, and one from the broom we get using Hooch's ability, we don't need quite so many. They'll need to be potions lessons.  Lets go with 22 potions.

Lessons (22):  22 Potions lessons

Well, that's 58 cards, so we have 2 left! Maybe something defensive, or both defnsive and offensive. Lets add in two Jawbind Potion. It costs only 4, deals only 2 damage, but prevents our opponent from playing spells on their next turn, so we'l have a better chance of winning our match.

So the final decklist is:

Character:  Madam Rolanda Hooch

Items (1):       1 Comet Two Sixty

Adventures (8): 4 Sticking up for Neville
            2 4 Privet Drive
            2 Gaze into the Mirror

Matches (7):        4 Hufflepuff Match
            3 Ravenclaw Match

Spells (22):       4 Fouled
            4 Ouch
            2 Power Play
            2 Draught of Living Death
            4 Malevolent Mixture
            4 Dogbreath Potion
            2 Jawbind Potion

Lessons (22):        22 Potions  

We notice that in this deck, we don't need Catch the Snitch, because our big potions perform the same purpose of winning the match, but they also do lots of damage at the same time, for the cost of a lesson or two.  I think its worth it.  I think that in most cases, I'd rather put in a big damage spell instead of catch the snitch and win matches that way.

I think the only problem this deck might have would be in dealing with adventures like 4 Privet Drive and Gaze into the Mirror, which are  really killer.  (That's why I like to play as professor McGonagall so much!)

Try it out and see what you think!  I think it looks pretty good, but of course, only testing will make a deck perfect.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed this card of the week!