we played our first game ever last night (yeah I know 30+ years late to the party!).

At one point one of the 4 players had Clone and Miser wild flares along with the Plague artifact.

This seemed really powerful. The Plague could always be retained after play with the Clone flare and the Miser flare protected those two cards and itself from ever being discarded when a new hand was required or cards were being taken as compensation.

Can this combo get broken up?

we all enjoyed the game BTW.

thanks, Chris

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cosmic Encounter!

Certainly that's a nasty combo - stronger than any you'll usually see, I hope this hasn't tainted your view of the game. Though I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the aliens or flares in the deck, I know there are a couple that will break this up. Of course those might not have been in present your game.

Other than that, there is a Card Zap, Cosmic Quake, or possibly another Plague (if used in a timely fashion). The more players you had the more likely (and the sooner) you'll see a Cosmic Quake or another player drawing one of those cards. This game plays nicely with a small group, but it plays better with a big group. Specifically, it's easier hold a strong or seemingly unfair edge over two or three opponents than over four or five.

I won't be surprised if somebody else has an answer I haven't thought of; and we may well see more cards in future expansions that could break this up somehow.

Keep at it, I hope you enjoy CE!

So if someone played Cosmic Zap when the Clone flare was played to retrieve Plague that would Zap the Clone flare and prevent Plague from being retrieved although its effects would still be felt from that card play?

Chris

chris yates said:

Toomai said:

Alternatively you could Card Zap on the Miser when he draws a new hand, and force him to lose all three. This way you have to wait and endure more plagues, though, but that can be a good thing if they don't hit you .

Trouble is there is only one Card Zap in the whole deck. At least with the constant plaguing you'll be going through the deck faster. And again, with more players you'll go through the deck even more quickly, and the odds will be against the offending player drawing the Zap for themself.

And you can Plauge the player too. Unless they have a third flare or a second artifact, they'll lose part of the combo. Try and do it when their hand is getting low.

I suppose a Quake is never going to happen with so much plague going around.

This combo is a little hard to break, but in a game with lots of players it shouldn't last too long. Fortuneatly, the odds of drawing this combo is very slim. The odds of even having both those flares in the deck is slim (slimmer still with the expansion), and then somebody has to be lucky enough to draw them both, with a plague. A game with this many abilities and powers is bound to produce some sick combos, but they tend to be rare and not unstoppable.

nice, hadn't thought of the Card Zap on the Miser!

Chris

chris yates said:

If you don't want the Plague to take effect, you can Zap the artifact and not the flare. They'd keep the flare this way, instead of losing both, but the plague wouldn't hit.

Neat options, really:

• Zap the Plauge, take no Plague damage, but only kill one card.
• Zap the Clone flare, take plague damage once, kill two cards.
• Zap the Miser flare, take potentially multiple Plague damage, but kill all three cards.

There's a timing issue though. I'll raise it in another thread...

Or you can always try for a negotiation and take compensation and remove the cards from the hand, and if you're lucky, get them yourself! ;-)

johnwatersfan said:

It's also worth noting that the player cannot use both of those flares on the same encounter, so right after he Wild Clones the Plague (which should be at the beginning of an encounter), NOW is the time to move in since Wild Miser will be asleep for a little while.

Just_a_Bill said:

That is true ... let's hope they are not playing with freewheeling flares like my group occaisonally plays with

I forgot about that. Still, you'll need two negotiates - one for the plague and one for the encounter.

thanks guys, interesting discussion

Chris