Harry Potter Card of the Week
with Alex Rockwell

01.18.02  Well, this winter break I went to Hawaii on vacation, and then took a bit of a break from Harry Potter when I got back. Then last week I started thinking about it again, and about how I owe you all a card of the week, or else this is going to turn into card of the month!

Well, my first challenge was to pick a card to write about. After awhile I decided that I couldn't keep doing huge analyses of lots of cards every time, I needed to pick one, so that's what I'm going to do. (That way, Ill be able to actually write one every week)

A couple weeks ago I started playing HP on Apprentice online using the Pojo HPCCG chat room you can find the link to it and the apprentice program on the left side of the screen on the Harry Potter page.

Apprentice is just awesome, because you can play with people online without ever even having to own the cards you are using (a big plus for me, since now I can actually try out the decks I build and see if they are good).

A note on playing on apprentice on the Harry Potter League:
(When your playing online, you must report your losses to the league if playing a ranked game. Remember that some people are jerks and will not report their losses to you, so if you beat anyone once, make sure they report before you play them again. (Of course, this only applies to ladder games).

Also, to help you all avoid not getting a win you deserve, you must have your nickname in the apprentice program be the same as your name you registered with the league, or they dont have to report (because they dont know who you really are) If they refuse to report for this reason, they are not being jerks, just following the rules. Without that rule, someone could abuse the system by playing as a weird name, telling people to report to their real name if they win, and just disappearing if they lose. This way, they only get the win if they are willing to report the loss. (Of course, they could just not report using their real name too, but you
would know who they are at least) 

On that topic, nobody play and ladder games with the guy with the name gred_and_feorge.he is a cheater and has refused to report two losses to me after I beat him in ladder games. (Of course, the second is my fault, I shouldnt have played him again until he reported the first) Hell probably cheat you too if he loses. (Hey, I can use this column for personal vengeance if its deserved, right!)

Well, I learned a few things by playing online. The first is that once you expand your playing field beyond just a couple friends who live near you, to a community of people who live all over the place, you will be able to test your decks against a variety of different opponents, many of whom are probably much stronger than you or those who you have played before, because they will have had a lot more practice and played and tested many more decks and ideas. The first thing I found when playing online was that I was being hindered by the quantity of adventures I was using, because my opponents used methods of avoiding their effects, leaving me either wasting a lot of time playing my adventures for nothing, or else sitting with dead cards in my hand. The existence of Minerva McGonagall is in itself a very strong incentive to not play adventures, and the fact that she is used VERY frequently by good players means that against any of those decks that use her, you will find yourself with completely useless cards, since to get an adventure into play would require playing one, having it destroyed, and playing another, thus wasting two entire turns. Most of the good decks that I have seen which do not use Minerva use Flitwick, and are often based around creatures. In many of my decks, I had included 4 4 Privet Drives and some In The Stands, thinking that against creature decks the In The Stands would be devastating, and the 4 Privets would rule against other decks. Well, most of the non creature decks I played used McGonagall, nullifying my Privets, and the good creature decks I played all used one card, Halloween Feast.

So for my featured card of the week...

Halloween feast: (Cost: 4 Charms. Choose up to four creatures in your discard and put them in your hand)

This card is absolutely amazing. It single-handedly serves to both nullify the In The Stands adventure, which could be a problem for creature decks, by allowing a player to just discard the four creatures to kill In The Stands and then Halloween feast them back again. Basically, it makes it so no one plays In The Stands, since any good creature based deck will use Haloween Feasts.

It also lets you get creatures out of your discard which have been killed or even better, which you never drew but which went into your discard as a result of damage!

It thus allows you to continue to play a steady stream of creatures and overwhelm your opponent and all of his defenses. 

Better yet, look at Halloween feast in combination with Professor Flitwick. At any time, we can discard two cards to pull a Halloween feast out of our discard (once a game of course), and play it to get back four creatures! You dont even have to draw it, just have it put into your graveyard from damage, and there it is open to you, the ability to pull a bunch of creatures out of your discard and start playing them like mad. When I first went on Pojos Harry Potter chat and played on Apprentice, I played against KGB, currently the top ranked player, and probably the best builder and player of halloween decks. The two games we played opened my eyes to the power of this card and of playing a continuous stream of creatures to overwhelm your opponent. I quickly made my own version of the deck, and began playing others. In other games, I found several other players also using similar decks, all based around this one card.
 
The basis of any deck bases around the feast will be lots of creatures. What other spells to include is really up to you, though SteelClaw is an obvious possibility.

Ill give you a rough idea of a possible Halloween feast deck to start you out, and let you experiment for yourself with how to improve it.

Starting Character: Professor Flitwick
4 Halloween Feast
4 Unicorn
4 Vicious Wolf
4 Cunning Fox
4 Cobra Lily
4 Doxy
4 Boa Constrictor
4 SteelClaw

4 Borrowed Wand
14 Control of Magical Creatures
10 Transfiguration

That should be a good start, but its not the best, Ill let you find that for yourself.

(The "best" version also depends on what deck you are playing against.some cards will be good against some types of decks, some against others).

The Borrowed Wands are very important, as they will speed you up greatly.If you get a wand, you can play it on turn 2 and play a creature which costs 5, such as a Cunning Fox or Cobra Lily.

Some other cards which I have played around with in the deck include:
Guard Dog: Its a possibility, but I think he costs too much.

Charms Exam: Again costly, but quite good in the right circumstances. This card can be very annoying.

Stream of Flames: A solid defense card, great against another creature deck.

Mice to Snuffleboxes: A choice which might seem rather silly but which once completely destroyed me, after I had two unicorns bounced to my hand, and then bounced again after I got them out a second time. With all the creatures my opponent had by then, I was toast. If only this card was a charms card, and Flitwick could get it back for you, it would be really good.

Lost Notes: A very helpful card against opponents who use items to speed themselves up or get a lot of lessons in play. It will slow them down enough that you can hopefully overwhelm them with creatures. There is nothing worse than getting out lots of creatures, only to have your opponent play a big wand and cauldron and then destroy you with powerful spells like Transfiguration Exam, Charms Exam, Potions Test, and so forth, killing all your creatures, your hand, etc.

I have been left with no hand and no cards in play besides my starter while my opponent had 12 lessons in play and a bunch of cards and complete control over the whole game...all because they got out a cauldron and a big wand early on. That wasnt very fun :)

I've seen many other cards played in Halloween decks, everything from more creatures such as Trevor for defense against spell decks, to Streelers to combat other Halloween Decks and kill their Foxes and Doxys. (I have been on the receiving end of the last one and it was really annoying.)

Generally, you will play Charms, Transfiguration, and Creatures cards, either using McGonagall as your starter and playing charms lessons, or using Flitwick and Transfiguration lessons. It is possible to play just Flitwick and Creatures of course, but you lose the SteelClaws. Well, thats my card for the week.

I think Halloween Feast has got to be one of the best cards in both sets, if not the best, and a good deck based around it will certainly overpower most players most of the time.

Thanks everyone for reading!

Alex