At Your Disposal : No Secrets From the Magaji

This is one darn good reason to be a Magaji. Been playing with my Spider deck for a while, and it's centered on this magnificent card, so I thought it'd be good to honor this card while I remember.

No Secrets From the Magaji is the ultimate dream for wall decks, and a good addition to decks that plays with any reasonable numbers of Magaji. In theory, it allows for unlimited attempts to block your enemies' vampires' actions, as long as your vampire has the ability to sustain the repeated combat that's generally the result of successful blocks.

Let's look at how ridiculously efficient this card is. For a start it is a free card. As long as you successfully attach this card to the Magaji in question (ie. not blocked or cancelled), the Magaji untaps. In this way the Magaji gains all the benefits of this card and is ready to take another action as if nothing has happened, you don't even need a Freak Drive! Secondly, it gives the Magaji an unconditional permanent +1 Intercept that is generally difficult to get rid of by normal means - in fact, it is rather difficult to do so if one's deck is not stealthy enough. Even decks with some stealth will be hard-pressed to get through the generally high intercept condition when a deck plays with No Secret with the right support.

The final ability of the No Secrets is a god-send for walls and defense. Most of the time, Methuselahs rely on the actions taken by their vampiric lackeys to oust or attack the opponents, and the one major problem for the defensive department of any player is always the issue of how to out-react the enemy's action - which is why untap cards are important since they allow your vampire to be able to defend after taking offensive actions during your turn. No Secrets allows your Magaji to block an action despite being tapped.

With the No Secrets your vampire can do whatever he wants to do during your turn, and still remains a viable defensive obstacle during your enemy's turn. The psychological impact of this vampire always there to block is invaluable at times - and is even more deadly when the said Magaji is supported with other cards that helps with handling combat, for example, a Sniper Rifle allows the blocker to set range to long and shoots for 2R damage,requiring no other cards to make this Magaji a very effective defender (and with CEL, this one becomes a gateway to hell for the attackers); or Guardian Angel, giving the Magaji another +1 Intercept against bleeds and the ability to prevent 1 damage per combat - effectively allows the Magaji to block all those pesky weenie bleeders.

But the No Secret has it's weaknesses. The most problematic one is that it goes away when you fail to block. High stealth will of course get through you, but most of the time the No Secrets is bypassed with denial cards such as Elder Impersonation or Call of the Hungry Dead. If you rely on the No Secrets to defend your remaining 2 pool and it is burnt because of an Elder Impersonation then you will be in deep trouble.

The next major issue is its complete inability to deal with non-vampires - allies. It cannot block allies the way it blocks vampires, perhaps the allies are better at keeping secrets. So against ally decks such as the Nephandus or Infernal Servitors the Magaji has absolutely no benefit.

Another issue is that the card allows the vampire to block as if untapped, but did not give it the ability to use reaction cards such as that given by wake cards. So the vampire with no secrets cannot play stuff to add Intercepts or bounce the bleeds and so on. This is an inconvenience but not too deadly since most Magaji decks rely on permanent intercepts rather than reactive ones.

There are other exotic cards that can deal with No Secrets, but besides that, a predator that is not prepared against a No Secrets deck can be shut down when you have just a single Magaji setup for stopping his attacks. I assure you that the feeling is not something you'd want to experience often.

(o.o)