At Your Disposal : 419 Operation

Probably one of the more interesting card in the not-so-exciting Ebony Kingdom expansion, 419 Operation however, still seems to be quite a difficult card to use. While it may not be the game-winning card, or being the foundation of mighty decks that other cards (like Shattering Crescendo, or Summon History) may present, 419 Operation is not without its kill value.

For the Osebo, 419 Operation presents another potential pool gain cum kill prey option, where the current Osebos kind of lack in the main stream style. But if one wants to use 419 as the killing engine, it requires a lot of deck space, and a lot of preparation, for a method that can sometimes be easily countered.

But what if the stars aligned, and your prey is unprepared for such an attack?

If your prey somehow couldn't get the edge, or is not willing, or unable to get the edge consistently, then 419 can slowly but eventually grind down his pool. Compound this with multiple 419s and suddenly your prey is faced with a pool-depleting attack that works by itself. Let's say you have 3 419s in operation, your prey will lose 3 pool to you every round, that's as good as a successful Govern bleed, while your vampires are still free to do what they need to do - whatever that may be.

So obviously the problem is about making sure that you have many 419s, and that your prey does not, preferably, never gets the edge.

The multiple 419 part can be handled if you have enough minions, or your immediate opponents do not want (or unable to) block them. But how does one prevent one's prey from getting the edge? Of course, the Osebo's in-clan disciplines included AUS, which if you really want to, allows the Osebo to play with enough Eagle's Sight to help your grand-prey from blocking your prey's bleeds. On the other hand, since the Osebo are quite adept at fighting, entering combat with your prey's minions and then send them all to torpor isn't that bad an idea either.

But it makes one think that, if I can already beat up everyone that my prey is working with, why bother with 419? 419 is slow, takes up deck space, and most probably doesn't work very well.

Well, I can't really argue with that, but 419s do have their little advantage if you can spare the deck space.

First, it FORCED your prey in attacking your grand prey, especially if you have 419s all the time. Your prey may, or may not attack every turn, depending on whether or not he can handle the pool lost, or is willing to take a risk on whether or not his prey will block his bleeds when you actually do get to pull counters from his pool. But I believe most of the time your prey is going to bleed for the edge. That itself creates the tension between your prey and your grand prey, and erodes the option of your prey. This might not always work - some prey pisses off the grand prey right from day 1 anyway. So, hopefully, it weakens your grand prey as it forced your prey to bleed for the edge, and if you can call out a consistent stream of 419s, you prey will be busy bleeding every turn, while your grand prey will eventually be forced to start fighting him, or be weakened.

That brings out the second good thing about 419 - it disrupts the plan of your prey when your prey is not a dedicated bleeder. Some decks requires time to set up, some decks just don't bleed very well, and some decks can't bleed until they're ready. The 419s, in such cases, stressed out the Methuselah, and forced him to commit some or even all of his minions to attack. This by itself may be worth the sacrifice of the action to put 419s onto the table.

Let's not forget that, when there's only 2 players left, 419 is directly involved in your killing plan now. If there are enough 419s, your prey may be forced to do what his deck may not be ready to do - and that is bleed you for the edge or suffers the consequences of the 419s.

But let's say all this are not attractive, why use a card that can be so easily removed?

A couple of 419s in the deck may come in handy after a while, and it helps. If you take a weenie route, or you throw in enough Bambas, your Osebo deck could potentially put down 2-3 419s in a turn. That is one turn of aggressive bleeding that your prey needs to take in order to survive an extra 2-3 pool loss next turn. If he commits his minions to bleeding, then he might not be able to block some or all of your next turn's action, who might be deadly to him.

419s can be combined with some of the more successful tactics practised by the Osebo to increase its effectiveness. First, the combat route - have Massassi and all of her Osebo friends go in and pound every single minion into oblivion, and then 419 the rest. Second, have Cesewayo and (among others) the cheap Magajis, Telepathic Vote Counting, and the efficient vote-increasing cards (such as the Kholo, Ancestor Spirit, and Kduva's Mask) to aid in minion-cutting referendums such as Banishment and Eldest Command Undeath. Or you can combine the 2 of them. If you can somehow also put in enough Bambas to call 2-3 419s a turn...

Of course we can all dream~

419s, in small quantity, still constitute as an interesting surprise element in an Osebo deck, and can be pretty effective if the prey only have one, or at least few vampires. In those cases, since vampires can only bleed once, a couple of Eagle Sights may spell the end of your prey's minions, and thus his pool.

One thing we need to remember though - the effectiveness of 419 operations is directly related to the number of minions bleeding for the prey - which is something that the Osebo is pretty well equipped to tackle most of the time.

So, why not?

(o.o)