Abusing Cards: Hattori
Originally published as an article for Gwentlemen
In my earlier article I encouraged you to start deckbuilding by choosing a card with an interesting mechanic, and then attempting to abuse it into a win condition. Even though not all mechanics have the potential to form the win condition for your deck, it is important to determine the limits of each card’s capability. When examining new (and old) cards, the most important question we can ask ourselves is this:
How can I break this card?
The ways each card can be abused varies widely, of course, so in this article I will present a case study of a card that you’ve likely considered already; a card you may have dismissed as not quite good enough; one of the most intriguing cards of the new patch: Hattori.
Hattori is a 3-point Scoia’tael Silver, who acts as a Sigrdrifa-lite: resurrect a bronze or silver card, with the twin caveats that the target must be a Scoia’tael card (no Neutrals), and must have a point value equal to or lower than Hattori’s.
At first glance, this hamstrings the card, severely limiting your resurrect options, and seems to tie Hattori completely to Scoia’tael’s Handbuff archetype. The advantages Hattori has over Sigrdrifa seem paltry: agility means little on a 3-point card, and the fact that Hattori is not Doomed is largely irrelevant in a faction with no other resurrects. Hattori, then, is a shitty version of Sigrdrifa… but not quite: Hattori is a shitty version of Sigrdrifa that’s available to Scoia’tael. And that can make all the difference.
Hattori at face value
Let’s tackle Hattori at face value first. 3 points is a pretty low resurrection cap, but cards with low point values tend to have powerful abilities. With no setup requirement, this represents the most reliable and consistent usage of Hattori. So – what can we resurrect at 3 points or less?
Elven Mercenary: 4 + bronze special, and thins your deck by one.
Sage: 6 + bronze special.
Dwarven Agitator: 5 + another bronze dwarf. Good potential for abuse to get extra copies of powerful bronze dwarves.
Barclay Els: 8 + bronze/silver dwarf and thins your deck by one.
Ida Emean: up to 18 points if Overdose finds enough targets. Fog or Clear Skies generally won’t give nearly as much value, but can be situationally useful.
These are quite respectable resurrects. In a Spell’tael deck, Hattori could find consistent value from Elven Merc and Sage – both play spells to buff your Protectors, and having a fourth Merc gives you extra thinning, always valuable for Spell’tael. In a Dorfs deck, Dwarven Agitator and particularly Barclay Els are powerful cards to resurrect. A deck with both will find good value from Hattori. Ida, as a silver mage, finds a place in many decks (though less so than the other mages), and will provide a nice option for versatility and power in decks already running Hattori, though I generally wouldn’t intend her as the primary target.
Already, this is enough to warrant experimenting with Hattori in certain decks. There is good potential here. However, we’re not done with our analysis of the card yet – in fact, we’ve barely started.
Buffing Hattori (and thus raising his resurrection cap) greatly increases our options. The downside, of course, it the setup requirement, which costs us value earlier in the game and reduces the consistency of the card. This makes assessing the card’s value much more complex, but as deckbuilders we need to know the full extent of each card’s capability to decide how to use it in our decks, if we use it at all. How much value can we get from Hattori with minimal setup and investment? How do we build decks and orchestrate plays to milk it for every point possible? How can we break this card?
In this case, Hattori’s ability (resurrecting other cards) means we need to consider the usefulness and practicality of basically every other bronze or silver Scoia’tael card in the game, and that’s before we even get into the economy of how buffing Hattori works. This is the deep end as far as card analysis goes, which is perfect for an article. If everything here makes sense, you’re in good shape to apply the same principles to other cards yourself.
Analysing Resurrection Targets
Now, to start with there’s a lot of potential resurrect targets to look at. I’m going to split them into subsections based on cards that are likely to be played together or treated as a group, but this is mainly to avoid a single massive block of text. Please, don’t interpret this as me saying that these groups have any relation to how you should go about building decks – in fact, I’d urge the very opposite of that, but that’s a topic for another article.
Before we go through the cards, though, we can note some general trends that make cards useful to resurrect. We’re only looking at general trends – if you go in looking for something specific, you may miss something unexpected but equally powerful.
Many cards with ongoing abilities give diminishing returns with extra copies, so the fourth one that Hattori gives isn’t nearly as helpful as the first. Exception: if it’s a major part of the deck’s win-condition.
Cards with high point values are expensive to resurrect. The more setup required, the less reliable the interaction is.
Some cards are better played early in the game, or need to be played at the beginning of a long round, conflicting with Hattori’s requirement for setup. The higher the cost, the more setup Hattori requires, and the more difficult it is to use these kinds of cards.
Many cards boil down to points on a stick – be it damage or boosting, their value can be expressed as a single number. Obviously, we’d like that number to be as high as possible.
We want our intended resurrect targets to be consistently useful in every match.
So, with that in the back of our minds, let’s break it down. For each card I’ll list its resurrect cost (i.e. the number we need on Hattori), and the total value of the play. It would take too much space to write out all the abilities of each card, so you may find it helpful to open this link in another tab for any you may not remember.
Dwarves:
(5) Mahakam Pyrotechnician: 13/16/19
(6) Mahakam Guard: 16
(6) Dwarven Skirmisher: 17
(6) Mahakam Defender: 12, and 6 carryover
(7) Yarpen Zigrin: 14 + n, and 7 carryover
(7) Mahakam Marauder: 14 + n
(8) Dennis Cranmer: 16 + n
Pyrotechnicians (5) can be high-value, but give diminishing returns; Mahakam Guards (6) and Skirmishers (6) are points-on-a-stick. Defenders (6) and Yarpen (7) are never really available when you need them – you only get value from their resilience if played R1/R2, but that same resilience means they won’t be in the graveyard until R3. Marauders (7) are much better early and give diminishing returns. Dennis (8) is best early, and expensive enough that by the time you’re able to afford him, he’s past his usefulness.
General conclusion: you’d rather resurrect an Agitator (2) or Barclay Els (2) – it’s more points and requires no setup. Otherwise, Pyrotechnicians can give the best return, but Skirmishers are more reliable.
Movement:
(4) Malena: 8 + ongoing effect
(7) Dol Blathanna Marksman: 16 + n
(7) Dwarven Mercenary: 17
(8) Sheldon Skaggs: 16 + n
Malena (4) has a powerful ongoing effect, but at the moment she’s typically considered too vulnerable to earn a spot in most decks. If you are running her however, she’s an attractive target for Hattori, though she is best played early in a round. Dol Blathanna Marksmen (7) give diminishing returns, and Dwarven Mercenaries (7) are points-on-a-stick. Sheldon (8) could be good if you manage to run two long rounds with plenty of unit spam, but this is difficult to orchestrate.
General conclusion: not enough good targets to warrant inclusion in a dedicated Movement deck, but we should keep an eye on Malena if she gets tweaked in the future.
Mulligan:
(4) Vrihedd Officer: 8 + n, general floor 13
(5) Vrihedd Vanguard: 10 + n
(7) Commando Neophyte: 14 + n
Vrihedd Officers (4) are a good target – powerful deploy ability, respectable point swings with the right setup, and the fourth one is generally just as good as the three that came before it. Vanguards (5) are points-on-a-stick, and Commando Neophytes (7) give diminishing returns.
General conclusion: Officers are good targets, may see use in hybrid decks, or even in dedicated Mulligan decks running Iorveth, with Elven Mercs as the backup targets.
Ambush:
(6) Toruviel: 12 + 8 with setup
(7) Morenn: 14 + 5 delayed damage
AMBUSH: Toruviel (6) and Morenn (7) are both points-on a stick, though Morenn can also make plays difficult for certain decks. Note that your opponent will know exactly what you played when you resurrect one of these with Hattori, as it will be missing from your graveyard.
General conclusion: Ambush packages are popular in a variety of Scoia’tael decks at the moment, and both of these cards provide attractive targets for Hattori.
Miscellaneous:
(5) Hawker Healer: 16
(6) Dol Blathanna Archer: 16
(6) Dol Blathanna Trapper: 11 + n
(6) Hawker Smuggler: 12 + n
(8) Farseer: 16 + n
(9) Ciaran: 18 + lock
Hawker Healers (5) and Dol Blathanna Archers are points-on-a-stick. Dol Blathanna Trappers (6) may give diminishing returns, but generally you’ll run one or two in a deck rather than three, and resurrecting one can be very useful in certain matchups. Hawker Smugglers (6) and Farseers (8) give diminishing returns and are best played early. Ciaran (9) is tough to get to, but in certain situations having another lock may be worth it.
General conclusion: most of these cards likely won’t be your intended primary target, but can provide a good number of situational options.
Handbuff:
(4) Dol Blathanna Swordmaster: 12
(5) Braenn: 15
(6) Hawker Support: 12 + 3 handbuff
(7) Vrihedd Dragoon: 14 + n handbuff
Swordmasters (4) and Braenn (5) are points-on-a-stick. Hawker Support (6) and Dragoons (7) are points-on-a-stick plus handbuff, the value of which gets a bit complex.
The Mathematics of Handbuff
Which brings us to the meat of the analysis – handbuff points, and how to get the best use of them. At its core, handbuff is points delayed, but with the introduction of Swordmasters this patch (and to some extent previously with Braenn) handbuff can also be point magnification – each point given to a Swordmaster is worth two points later, at least while there are big enough targets for the Swordmasters to hit.
As far as Hattori is concerned, this poses a problem. For it to be worth buffing him instead of just slapping those points on a Swordmaster, every point we give to Hattori should be buying us a minimum of two points later. To work out what that actually means, we need to start counting from whatever number of points we can reliably get from Hattori at base value. Now, that varies by deck, of course, but outside of dwarf decks I would put it somewhere around 13 – Hattori (3) + Elven Merc (1) + Bronze special (9ish).
So, this gives us a point threshold of something like 2n + 13, where n is the buff applied to Hattori. Of course, there are cases when you don’t have any more Swordmasters in hand, or when your Swordmasters have already reached the level of the strongest expected enemy and are no longer yielding 2:1 point magnification. In these cases, it’s beneficial to buff Hattori at anything greater than 1:1. Now, it’s pretty unwieldy to declare the threshold to be 1.7n + 13 or something like that, so we’ll stick with 2n + 13, but with the understanding that it’s now a target rather than a minimum threshold.
The Shortlist
So, finally… let’s have a look at the shortlist of targets for a buffed Hattori. Other cards may be situationally better, but these cards give us reliable value, and the requirements for effective use are low.
Hattori (4) -> Vrihedd Officer: 13+, target (15) at a 7-point mulligan
Hattori (5) -> Hawker Healer: 16, short of target (17)
Hattori (6) -> Dol Blathanna Trapper: 11 minimum if locked, target (19) at 3.5 enemies on a row
Hattori (6) -> Hawker Support = 15, 18 with Swordmaster in hand, short of target (19)
Hattori (6) -> Toruviel = 12 minimum if locked, 20 with three other flanking units, clears target (19)
Hattori (7) -> Morenn = 19, short of target (21)
Thresholds in Handbuff Application
Toruviel and Vrihedd Officers are the only cards that reliably clear the target, but that doesn’t necessarily always make them the right choice. These numbers alone don’t give us the whole story; we must consider the setup required before we can work out which cards we should be aiming to resurrect. The difficulty of getting Hattori to our desired value is non-linear; certain numbers are much easier to get to than others. Why is this? Well, let’s take a look at our ways of buffing Hattori:
3x Dragoon: 1 point (repeating), untargeted
Iorveth: 1 point, targeted
3x Smuggler: 3 points, targeted
Francesca: 3 points, targeted
Marching Orders: 2 points, semi-targeted
Alzur’s Double Cross: 2 points, semi-targeted
To start with, Marching Orders is a terrible option. For it to be useful, you need to build your deck to facilitate the interaction, and this will cripple you. You can’t use any cards with 1-3 strength without a guaranteed way of thinning them before R3, which leaves you with no backup targets should you draw Hattori. The only way I can see this working is with Iorveth as insurance in case you draw Hattori, a Vrihedd Officer as your primary target and one or two Elven Mercs as backup targets, with Francesca and Saskia to guarantee thinning through the Elven Mercs. Okay, I’ll admit I could actually see a Mulligan deck pulling this off successfully, but this is an extreme edge case. You don’t want to run Marching Orders for Hattori.
Alzur’s Double Cross is even worse. You either pump a bunch of points into Hattori and then mulligan him R3 so that you can pull him back for a paltry 2 extra points that won’t actually help much with resurrecting anything, or you somehow find a reliable way of removing literally every other unit of 3 or more points from your deck.
So, disregarding Marching Orders and ADC, all of our handbuff options come in increments of one and three. Of those, the threes are much more reliable – Smugglers are targeted where Dragoons are not, and Francesca is a leader, so her availability is guaranteed. Doing any kind of statistical analysis would be exceptionally difficult without assuming your deck composition and play habits, but I would suggest the ease of getting Hattori to specific point thresholds goes something like this:
6 > 4 > 7 > 9 > 10 > 5 > 8
Good news! The easiest number to get to is also the most useful! Our shortlist gives us a wealth of 6-point targets available, including Toruviel, who for most decks is basically the best-value card that a buffed Hattori can buy.
What about bouncing Hattori with Decoy?
There is, however, one other card that I failed to mention: Decoy. Now, Decoy is interesting, because although it’s a 3-point buff, it also resets Hattori during the bounce, so any points we put on Hattori previously are lost. Ideally, then, we would want to play Hattori at base value, and then bounce with Decoy for a 6-point resurrect. This is perfect for many decks that don’t want to spare the space for a handbuff package just for Hattori’s sake.
But bouncing Hattori doesn’t necessarily yield a 6-point Hattori. In some cases, it could be worth using strengthen effects on Hattori, which won’t be reset by Decoy. We don’t want to spend an entire turn for setup, so Mandrake and Mardroeme aren’t good options (and what would we resurrect with a 12-point Hattori from Mandrake, anyway?), but there is one other card we can use to strengthen Hattori, without wasting a turn: Zoltan Chivay. Zoltan can strengthen Hattori by 2, giving us an 8-point resurrect after the bounce. And what does that get us? Well, there’s a couple of options, but the one that stands out to me would be Sheldon Skaggs for a Movement deck.
And that’s Hattori.
Thanks for sticking with me for so long; hopefully you considered some new aspects of the card that you hadn’t thought about before. Only now, having examined the limits of a card’s ability, are we able to properly pass judgement on it, and work out whether we want it in our decks. In the case of Hattori, my summary is this:
Great at base value, particularly for Dorfs, but he’ll be right at home anywhere you’re using Elven Mercs to thin your deck. If you’re tempted to run Ida, Hattori -> Ida is fantastic value.
Boosting can be good, but it’s not good enough to be worth adding a handbuff package to non-Handbuff decks. I’d consider running Francesca or Iorveth for Hattori in certain decks, however.
If you are buffing him, 6 is the number to aim for – it’s easiest to get to and gives you the best targets. Of those targets, the one that stands out is Toruviel.
Outside of Handbuff decks, consider playing Decoy alongside Hattori. Decoy’s bounce gets you that wonderful 6-point resurrect, and Movement decks should consider strengthening Hattori with Zoltan for an 8-point bounce instead.
Like many cards, Hattori won’t be the primary win-condition of your deck, but he can provide powerful and versatile support around your core. He’s not overwhelmingly powerful, but he’s certainly not underwhelming; Hattori is a good level of ‘whelming’.
A final word:
As new cards are added to the game, you will need not only to assess them, but also to reassess old cards in the light of the changes they bring. It is important to think about all aspects of a card: how to draw or play it from your deck, how it can complement other cards, how you would treat it in mulligans. Where on the board would you play it, and when? Can it be bounced? Can it be resurrected, consumed, strengthened, protected, manipulated in some way? And, if yes to any of the above, how would you go about it in the most reliable, efficient and effective way possible?
Not all of this may be immediately apparent, and that’s okay. In fact, that’s rather the point. Try to avoid making assumptions, and keep an open mind. You’ll often find there’s more to a card than meets the eye, and although most of it won’t have much potential for abuse, you can only find the best way to play a card after thinking about all the ways to play it. We need to know the limits of each card’s capability in order to break it in our favour. And, for Hattori at least, now we do.