Duelists of Darkwana: Adiba's character board

While this Support, Kyo, is on your side of the field, you may, at the end of each of your turns, banish 1 card from the top of ANY 1 player's deck.

Yes, you may target your own deck.

Yes, there are situations where you'll want to.

You do not get to peek at that card before banishing it.

You do it blindly and live with your choices.

When YOU banish a card from anywhere, at any time, and  Buthaynah is on your side of the field, you'll:

1) Deal 2 points of damage to an opponent's hit points.

2) Gain 1 point in 1 of your attributes.

You'll need a bit of set-up before this will pop off, but it can provide a metric mammoth amount of repetitive value.

If you end your turn with Sahmay on your side of the field, you'll gain 1 Shield.

Really not much more to say here. Pretty straightforward.

If you don't know what to do with a Shield, check Adiba's ability.

When you play this Event, you'll lower an opponent's hit points by the number of points you have in Influence.

Afterwards, you MAY banish (remove from the game) 1 card from ANY 1 discard pile.

Remember that a played Event doesn't enter its discard pile until after its final effect resolves.

That means Vognen isn't in your discard pile while its effects are resolving--MEANING you can't use Vognen to banish Vognen.

This is a great card for targeting a card in your opponent's discard pile you don't want to deal with a 2nd time.

It's also a great card to use on your own discard pile, especially with Adiba's card, Burrow (Knowledge, Event).

Items and Supports rarely ask you to spend actions to activate them once their on your side of the field (you only pay an action to play it, putting it onto the field from your hand).

Teleportation Pad proves an exception to this rule.

While this Level 3 Item is on your side of the field, you may spend 2 actions to play a banished Event (regardless of whose deck it was banished from or who banished it).

In this case, the banished event in question is considered still in the banish pool until its effects finish resolving.

Afterwards, send that Event to its discard pile (un-banishing it).

"It's discard pile" means the discard pile belonging to the player from whose deck that banished card originated.

There are so many crazy uses for this, not the least of which being a sneaky, out-of-nowhere finishing move.

Teleportation Pad basically adds the banish pool to your hand!

That's insane card selection not fit for civilized society.

However, this Item requires you to spend actions to activate it.

TWO of them!

This means you'll need to spend an action to play it from your hand (thus placing it on the field), and you'll need ANOTHER 2 actions to actually use it.

That makes this a powerful, but slow, card.

Before using this card, you'll want to consider the likelihood that your opponent holds, or will soon draw, a card capable of blowing it up, as that would put you behind tempo-wise.

Most decks have 1 card that can destroy, steal, or deactivate Items.

If you don't see that card in an opponent's discard pile, consider how many cards remain in the deck and hand. That'll give you an idea how likely it is that you'll see your Teleportation Pad blown up before you get significant use out of it.

While you this Level 4 Item is on you side of the field, you can spend your Shields to block twice as much damage as Adiba's ability usually allows.

This means that Adiba's ability allows her to gain (for an action) 2 Shields that could block up to 4 points of dmaage.

That's 1/5 of a full life bar.

While this Level 5 Item is on your side of the field, you'll enjoy 2 extra actions during each of your turns.

That's DOUBLE the moves!

Your opponents will feel like they're moving in slow-motion, like that scene in that X-Men movie.

You know the one.

Remember: you always lose unspent actions at the end of your turn.

An extra 2 actions makes it so much easier to fire off Adiba's level 3 Item, Teleportation Pad.

When you play this Event, you'll swing at an opponent's hit points for an amount equal to your Knowledge.

Aaaaand that's it.

Pretty lackluster, huh?

EXCEPT this card does something special WHILE BANISHED.

Note Burrow's passive effect (in the box).

While banished, Burrow gives Adiba (yes, specifically Adiba, regardless of who banished Burrow) a Shield at the end of each of her turns.

This is such an occasion where Adiba would want to banish her own cards with something like Vognen (Influence, Event).

Since this card works from the banish pool, it is very hard, often impossible, for your opponents to deal with it.

When you play this Event, you'll hit an opponent's hit points with damage equal to your Combat PLUS the number of Shields you have.

So, it might be worthwhile to eat some damage, rather than use your Shields to block it (unless it feels likely some big, mean opponent is about to play a token-smasher).

This card can act as a game-ending nuke, and opponents unfamiliar with Adiba's deck will never. See. It. Coming

This is the other nastiest nuke in Adiba's arsenal, but you have to set the table before you can serve it.

When you play this Event, you'll target an opponent, who'll afterwards lose hit points equal to the number of points you possess in Combat PLUS the number of ALL banished cards (even other players').

If you find yourself swallowing lethal damage when Adiba uses this card against you, know it's probably payback for some terrible misdeed from your recent past. Work on yourself.

Nearly every deck offers at least 1 "removal" card (for destroying Items), and at least 1 token-smasher (a card that destroys tokens, which often makes them removal for Supports, as those are each destroyed as soon as they have no Stamina tokens).

Adiba's deck rolls these two forms of removal into a single slap . . . a Psychic Slap.

When you play this Event, EITHER destroy a number (up to the number of points you have in Combat) of cards on the field (Items, Supports, or a mix of each) . . .

OR destroy up to that many tokens (as always, you may mix-and-match these tokens, destroying, for example, a couple Stamina tokens, 1 Bleed token, and 1 Relic).

The upside here is flexibility.

The downsize is that all of Adiba's removal rests in a single card.

However, Adiba's talent for banishing cards serves as a form of repetitive removal on its own.

Options are great!

When you play this Event, you get a choice of 3 different effects.

You could:

1) Draw up to 2 cards

2) Gain an attribute

or 3) Gain a number of Shields equal to your Combat.

Card draw and ramp are always good, and Forbidden Find offers either regardless of how many points you've invested in Combat.

In a tough spot, though, you'll really want those Shields to protect yourself.

It's also possible that you'll want those Shields to power-up Going Offensive (Combat, Event).