Connor MacLeod (by Hank Driskill) You may attack areas you just blocked. You may look at Hidden attacks. You may have up to 7 Master cards. Overview I started using Connor when Series Edition first debuted, for several reasons. He was my favorite character from the initial batch of eight, and he had fairly simple and "generic" Persona-specific cards. Most importantly, though, Connor was a Persona which broke the rules. He has two distinct Persona abilities, both of which allow him to ignore fairly important aspects of swordplay. This made it easier to learn the game, not having to pay attention to where I just blocked or whether making a Power Blow would make me worry next turn. With the introduction of the Movie Edition, Connor has become one of the most powerful Personas in the game. He has a combination of powerful Persona-specific cards, clear strategies utilizing generic cards and "his" Location (Mountain Cave), and he has remained my favorite Persona to build decks around. Persona-Specific Cards Connor in SE was given all but one (Trip) of the "generic" Persona cards: Back Away, Combination, Continuity, Disarm, Dodge, Extra Shot, and Power Blow. This gave him a good foundation for pretty much any sort of deck, but nothing in his cards that made him unique. With Movie Edition, new cards were given to Connor, cards which made him suddenly a much more useful Persona than his younger cousin Duncan. Many of these were Master cards, which suddenly made Connor's seven Master card slots seem too small, somehow. Let's look at each of the added Movie Edition cards in turn. Battle Rage - just like Duncan's, Nefertiri's, and Richie's from Series Edition. I've never had much use for it in Connor decks but some people enjoy the mad rush. Duck - a very useful third dodge, to accompany Dodge and Back Away. Functions just like Duncan's Jump, except for the locations it covers. Flashback - a card shared by almost all the ME Personas. A fairly useful card for throughput, but one I've never used: I prefer Holy Ground from the Series Edition for this function. Master's Advice - extra Ability is always good. Master's Advice is a useful card for many decks, but with the wealth of Master's cards available to Connor, it's a card I hardly ever use. Master's Attack - exactly like the errata'ed Duncan card of the same name. It would be a perfectly useful card for some decks, but Master's Lunge (see below) has a more useful function with Connor. Master's Block - Master's Block is a _must_ in most Connor decks. It not only covers all nine squares, but it turns your next attack that turn into the equivalent of a Master's Attack (unblockable). It's also fairly useless to most other Personas, because the ability to attack after playing it is something only Connor and Duncan have (it's not on the text of the card). For some perverse reason, I really like that. More on Master's Block and its use later. Master's Disarm - A nice Disarm card, but you have to be Disarmed yourself to use it. I've seen decks which use the Generic card Discard Weapon with this card, but it's not a strategy I've seen used well. Master's Dodge - a Dodge which covers all nine slots and still lets you attack is always a good thing . . . how many Amanda decks go without Distract? Still, it uses up a Master slot, something in short supply in most Connor decks, so add them last after your strategy is settled. Master's Lunge - This does _3_ damage (one more than Master's Attack), and can't be dodged. In combination with Master's Block, it's a 3-point, undodgeable, unblockable attack . . . a very useful thing. More on this combination below. Slash - Slash is a great attack, and I use the Generic Slashes in many of my decks. Connor's Slashes are much more useful. They almost always force an opponent to use Dodges or Back Aways, which is a good thing. Any time you can help run an opponent out of a particular defense, you're furthering a strategy. Also, blocking doesn't prevent Connor from playing a Slash, unlike most Personas, so they're useful in that respect as well. Trip - The standard Trip, and useful against Standing Defenses or for making attacks Hidden. However, there are better cards for either of these functions. I've never used it in a Connor deck. Generic Cards I will focus somewhat on cards which further Connor's swordfighting talents. Like the Kurgan (PotM #1), Connor is a Persona which flourishes in swordfighting skills, but in a very different way. Connor decks focus on style rather than force, and focus on the rules his Persona breaks, so the cards which accentuate this are what I'll look at the most. It's important to remember, however, that Connor is also a well-rounded Persona. Connor can be used to build a wide variety of decks, from direct damage to Plot-based decks . . . but his strengths lie in his ability to break the rules of swordplay. Connor makes the best use out of Master's Stance, so let's mention that first. Master's Stance allows one to turn a Block into a Guard. In Connor's case, it turns his nine-area Master's Block into a nine-point Master's Guard. If an opponent attacks it (which is worthless, unless they can make their attack unblockable), Connor gets the added benefit that his response is unblockable. Master's Stance, Master's Block, and Master's Lunge therefore make a _great_ team. If someone attacks, your nine-area Guard stops it and you respond with a 3-point unblockable, undodgeable attack. The weakness of this is that Master's Stance can be removed from play fairly easily: it's a Standing Defense and a Situation, making it very vulnerable to removal. Another kind of card which Connor uses well are Guards. Connor can play Guards as six-area Block cards, drop them in his attack phase and attack to a place he just blocked. Only Connor and Duncan share this talent, and it's terribly useful. Unless you're planning on hanging around the Ruins, Connor should play with Guards over Blocks most of the time. My Connor decks tend to use a LOT of Situations (this has led me to hate the General with a passion, but that's beside the point). Some of my favorites have included: Collect - zero-card Exertions are a wonderful thing. Zero-card Power Blows are great when you're Connor and can see the Hidden response. Zero-card Exertions are great when you play with It's a Kind of Magic, the promo card which allows Connor to Exert to avoid damage. Collects are fun with Avery as well. If you can spare a Master slot you should use Master: Sword Master as well to help the Exertions shrink more quickly. Collect is also fun with Turn of Events Pedestrian/Hidden is fun with Mountain Cave, Connor's Location of choice (see below). Connor can make Hidden attacks, and if his opponent wants to attack they have to make a Hidden attack. Connor plays the Feint/Edge card, looks at their attack, then blocks and plays Head Shot or something equally annoying. Simply unfun. Honor Bound is very useful with the Master's Stance/Block combination. Shutting down an opponent's ability to play Specials is often devastating. Again, it's little worry for the General, but a deck designed around Honor Bound and Master's Stance/Block can work quite well against anyone else. Master's Advance is a fun Situation for any swordfighting deck. If I have spare Master's slots, it's always an argument between which is more useful: MAdvance and MDodge. Master's Stratagem is a _very_ useful card for throughput, it goes in even my most Master-stuffed Connor decks. Other non-Situations of use to Connor include: Alertness/Block - being able to see a Hidden attack isn't enough, you have to be able to stop it. Connor decks often use Guards or Master's Block, but aren't often Dodge-heavy, so Alertness:Block is usually more useful. Ancestral Blade is a _must_ for Connor decks. For Connor to go toe-to-toe with Slan or the Kurgan, he needs Ancestral Blade to help slow them down while he gets his swordfighting strategy (Stance/Block, Collects, whatever) into motion. Feint/Edge card is such a threat with the Connor/Mountain Cave combo that most opponents won't dare make Hidden attacks against Connor. While this leads to potential strategies (see Ped/Hidden, above), a good Connor deck should always have at least one Feint just for effect. An opponent sees one go by, and that's usually enough to dissuade them from ever making a Hidden attack. Focus and Patience are cards I put in pretty much every deck, but Focus is especially important with the Connor/Honor Bound deck. I'll go into more detail on this deck later. Feint/Event is also useful, for attacking particular locations. More on that below as well. Many of the swordfighting cards are useful to Connor, too many to list here. Exertion cards (like Challenge/ME) are also useful, if Connor's using Collects or Master: Sword Master. Location Cards Connor's Location of choice is almost always Mountain Cave. In the Cave, Connor can make Hidden attacks every round, and his opponents (thanks to his ability to see Hidden attacks, and the threat of a Feint) won't respond in kind. It's a Location that strongly caters to his particular Persona ability, much like Battlefield or Factory with Nefertiri. Most of the other swordfighting Locations (Dead-End Alley, Catwalk, et al) can be used in Connor decks. However, Mountain Cave is definitely the most useful, because it penalizes his opponent without restricting him at all. As mentioned above, Mountain Cave can be used with two other cards as part of a strategy. Ped/Hidden is useful, because it forces your opponent to make Hidden attacks (if they're going to attack at all). This works well with the threat of a Feint Edge card, to keep them from attacking. Any turn in which you get to make a Hidden attack and your opponent isn't going to attack back is a turn you've succeeded. How to Win Master's Stance and Master's Block are a powerful combo in a Connor deck. Combined with Master's Lunge, it makes for a powerful attack-oriented deck, and using Mountain Cave makes it even nastier. A Stance/Block deck I've had success with follows: Connor Toolbox: 52 cards, Connor Persona, 1 PgDarius (HBnd), 4 TCGs. --------------------- 12 Attacks: one of each basic, +1 Thrust, 2 Master's Lunge. 11 Defenses: one of each basic, Upper Guard, 2 Duck, 2 Master's Block. 3 Events: Head Shot, Misfortune, Police/Remove. 14 Edges: Feint, Alertness/Block, 6 Focus, 6 Patience. 2 Objects: Ancestral Blade, Improvised Weapon. 2 Locations: 2 Mountain Cave. 8 Situations: Master's Stance, 2 Master's Stratagem, 3 Honor Bound, Ped/Hidden, Nexus. Uses Mountain Cave, the threat of a Feint, Ped/Hidden, Honor Bound to stop Specials, and Master's Stance, Block, and Lunge. Works fairly well, except against Katana. Another common Connor deck is the Exertion deck. There are a number of variations on this, but here's the gist: Use Master: Sword Master and/or Collects to minimize the number of cards lost in an Exertion. Use Avery Hoskins and/or Challenge/ME to force Exertions on your opponent. Use Power Blow and Head Shot along with zero-card Exertions to do Power Blows every turn. There is no reason for Connor not to be Power Blowing whenever he can. Use Feint/Event to retrieve attacks for reuse. This gives you 24 Upper Attacks (ed. note: 30 if you use Ripostes). Plenty to wear down an opponent's upper Defenses. It's important to remember that Connor is an extremely well-rounded swordfighting Persona. Strategies can be built around some of the Plots, around other card combinations, or even around direct damage (though I've never done a Connor direct damage deck). How to Defeat Connor decks often share the Kurgan's weakness (PotM #1) for non-attack damage. He has to rely on the same cards as other Personas (Greenfield, Police) to stop direct damage. The only card of his own that he has is It's a Kind of Magic, a promo Event which allows him to Exert to prevent damage. Connor has two Nemesis cards (or will, if the Tin Set is ever released). The first prevents him from playing any Master cards: while this does sting, it doesn't prevent him from using Power Blows or Mountain Cave. Nor does it negate Master Situations already on the table. The other Nemesis removes his talent for spotting Hidden attacks, _and_ makes all attacks against him Hidden. This could cause him a lot of trouble. Connor decks often use Situations. Both of the strategies I laid out above use a _lot_ of Situations, meaning both decks can be hurt by Police or by the General. Overall I've always considered Connor to be my favorite immortal. His ability to disregard two of the common stumbling blocks in attack decks makes him potent. With Movie Edition, Connor became one of the most, if not the most, powerful immortal. Direct damage decks seem to be the norm in tournament play, however, and of those decks the General seems to be the clear favorite. When I played in the recent e-mail tournament with the "Connor Toolbox" deck listed above, there were five Katana decks out of fourteen decks. When I went out, there were five decks left . . . the other four were all Katana. Since Connor is at his best when he's using any of a variety of swordfighting deck , I don't see him winning a lot of tournaments any time soon. In all, I give Connor a _8_. I think he's a more flexible swordsman than his competitors, and his inherent abilities combine nicely with some very powerful Persona-specific cards. I would rate him higher, a 9 or 10, if not for the current situation in the game: Katana rules over the cheese decks, and with cards like Safe Haven and Verona Italy, the cheese still rules the day. What Our Other Raters Say: Ben - Abstain Jeff - Definitely more than just Duncan's older cousin, Connor lends himself well to a denial-heavy (Renee Delaney, Wargames West, Honor Bound) deck. His gridded cards are far and away the best of any persona (as it should be), allowing him easy defense against all 9 grids (Master's Dodges and Blocks), hidden attack-making dodges (Ducks), Master's Attacks, and even a Special-less Sedarius (Master's Block + Master's Lunge). A fun, fun guy with neat cards. Rick - Abstain Steve - As Hank notes, the best thing about Connor is he ignores the rules, easing a player into the game. If you want to give a newbie a feel for the swordfighting aspect of the game, give them a Connor deck. Between learning swordfighting and using _the_ Persona of the movies, this should get them hooked. It's a much better recruiting technique then, say, giving them a Khan deck. And it will teach them more about the Swordmaster game then a Xavier deck. Alan - Connor is, of course, my favorite Persona to play with (about 90% of my decks are Connor-based). He has probably the coolest swordfighting abilities, and some of the best swordfighting cards available. There's probably no Persona that can stand toe-to-toe with him in a swordfight and expect to come out with an easy victory (if at all!) Chip - Abstain Jim - Connor is one of the best swordfighting personas. He is able to use the greatest number of Master cards and he can always see Hidden attacks. He rules the Mountain Cave, and Feint/Edge is absolutely deadly in Connor's hands. He has a wide selection of attack cards at his disposal and many will keep his opponent dodging or using Alertness/Block. Master (3 card exertions) and Master's Advance are two of the better cards to use with Connor. Since Connor can attack to the same place he just blocked, Guards are extremely useful in a Connor deck. Ratings Overall: Steve 8 Ben N/A Jeff 7 Rick N/A Hank 8 Alan 9 Chip N/A Jim 8 Average: 8.00 Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television, used under license by Thunder Castle Games. The card text is copyright 1996 by Thunder Castle Games. All rights reserved.