Khan - by Steve Crow When you exhaust your Endurance, you only lose 3 Ability. You may have up to 4 Master cards. Overview Who can forget the stirring performance and sheer magnetism of Raoul Trujillo as Khubal Khan, an enigmatic character so shrouded in mystery that his very name is never mentioned on-screen? Who astounds the audience with his mystical ability to track an Immortal from Japan to New York City, and then to a hospital within that city? Oh, well almost everyone probably did forget. But thanks to Thunder Castle, we have Mr. Trujillo's memorable performance captured on a series of cards. The question is, how good exactly are those cards, and the Persona they represent? As far as game-mechanic questions, there's no Persona ability simpler than Khan's. Any time you draw the last card of your Endurance, instead of losing five Ability, you lose three. Any questions concerning the mechanics of that have been addressed elsewhere. Khan merely reduces the Ability loss by two. Persona-Specific Cards Initially, Khan started off with the mostly the standard complement of pre-WC cards. That includes: Back Away, Dodge, Power Blow, Combination, Extra Shot, and Trip. Pre-Gathering, he also had five other rares. Two of those were the then-standard Battle Rage and Flashback/Event-discard. All of these were the same as most other Personas. The three Rares he had that were his and his alone were his Armor/Object cards: Breastplate, Helmet, and Greaves. Any one of these could provide complete protection from some Slashes. All three in conjunction can protect from a column Slash, or a Duncan/Connor diagonal Slash. Only against the newer, 2 pt. Saber Slashes and Cleaves do they provide less than 100% protection. With the release of The Gathering, Khan gains additional Object-support and enhancement cards. His three new cards are Plunder, Forged Armor, and Armorer. Forged Armor gives Khan a fairly unique Persona-specific tool from preventing Event damage without having to play a card to do it. Several game notes: Forged Armor and Armorer (if the latter is in play waiting to be swept) _are_ considered to be "Armor" cards. And Forged Armor only works once per turn, although it can work against multiple sources of Event damage. In other words, if FA and two additional pieces of Armor are out, it will prevent three damage _total_ each turn from Event damage, not prevent three damage against _each_ damaging Event. Plunder allows Khan to add the number of Objects (divided by two, round down) he has in play as a bonus to the damage he does with a successful attack. Unlike most attack enhancement, this works on any attack, not just basic attacks. If Khan has six Objects in play, his basic Slashes do four damage, not one. Armorer, an Edge, is the last of his new Gathering cards. This fairly straightforward card lets Khan get his multiple Objects out quicker. Generic Cards Objects! Play them faster due to Armorer, and gain damage to your attacks from Plunder. What's on the list? Ancestral Blade, of course. Quality Blade, either one of the "generic" versions, or the one matching whichever Weapon of Choice Khan takes. Ancient Blade, particularly since with Armorer you can play a Quality Blade and then an Ancient Blade on the same turn. Extra Weapons galore, so much that Khan should almost never bother with Watcher/Fair Fight as a method of rearming. Since Khan can have multiple Improvised Weapon/Objects in play, this is good in itself or in conjunction with Extra Weapon. Regardless, Khan should almost never be disarmed for long. Don't forget using Darius to add in other Objects. Besides their inherent benefits, Hogg, Flying Machine/Wings, and Equalizer give Khan both more protection (from Forged Armor) and more damage (from Plunder). Along with Objects go Object-retrieval and protection. Alex Johnson is probably the best choice here, for reasons that we'll see below. Archaic Collection means Khan needs to slog through all those Objects in his Endurance again, putting them back into play once per turn. Since Armorer is restricted to 2, this can take a while. Conjure can get out those Objects faster, while Security Guard/Object will protect a critical one if you're worried about it being removed from play and your opponent than using Amnesia on it. With all these Objects, and Object-related Specials, Khan's decks tend to be somewhat on the large side. Use Big & Bad as necessary. Since one hope for Khan winning is getting off a few critical hits using Plunder, make sure your opponent can't escape. Carl and The Gathering can prove useful here. Cards that burn you through your Endurance, as long as you share the pain with your opponent, can also be to Khan's advantage. Challenge/ME and Avery Hoskins can actually enhance Khan's Object-based strategy (see Winning below). The new Cull the Weak is another great card for Khan. Even the first one can prove annoying. The third one is difficult to get out (particularly if the first two make you go past it in your Endurance), but if successful, contributes to Khan winning in an Endurance-burn "race." Along those lines, Improvised Weapon/Attack can help an opponent along towards Endurance burn, and give Khan something to do on those turns when he Backs Away, if he doesn't want to use Pistols. And while you're making your opponent go through his Endurance, losing cards rather than playing them, don't forget Amnesia. Once he goes past that useful card, remove it from the game. Dr. Sonny Jackson, always a useful card, becomes even more useful when used atop the damage prevention of Khan's Armor, and Forged Armor. What may reduce damage to a point or two with Dr. Sonny becomes no damage whatsoever when Armor reduces it by another point. Forged Armor means that if Khan plays Angry Mob/SE, he can avoid the damage without relying on Careful Planning. Other then those, Khan remains "generic" enough that most cards can help him under the right circumstances. For obvious reasons, Second Wind is totally useless to Khan. Location Cards Desert. Desert. Desert. No Location is more useful to Khan than this one. In a race of Endurance burning, Khan is inevitably going to come out on top because of his Persona ability. And again, as we'll see, Khan having his Objects in his discard pile is often-times more useful than having them in his Endurance. As for the rest: it's easier to determine which Locations do _not_ particularly benefit Khan. Since Forged Armor can handle most Event damage, he probably doesn't need Spiritual Center. Mental Ward, with it's anti-Object playing capability, is probably a no-no unless Khan wishes to attempt an over-elaborate Mental Ward/Breakout strategy. A heavy anti-damage strategy, with Armor and Dr. Sonny, means that Khan can handle Lighthouse and Laundry Room a little better if they backfire. If you grow tired of your opponent running to Holy Ground, Disappearing, or Living Forever when you're ready to Plunder, Ring of Fire might prove useful to you. Slashes can also prove lethal in conjunction with Khan's Plunder. Guards are the best way to avoid them, so use Ruins, Add anti-dodge cards like Master's Advance to further restrict them. If you plan on using Claymore (see below), Sulphur Plant (due to Shifting Sands) and Rail Yard can also prove useful. Rail Yard is probably a better choice, since Hammer Blow is a Power Blow, and thus means Khan could end up taking a fall in the Sulphur Plant. Alternately, build you Khan deck with Up and At Them as well to quickly recover your feet. Other than that, take your pick as far as what to use. If you want to build a Watcher deck, take Watcher Regional HQ. Want to disarm and keep your opponent from playing Specials? Use Slaughter House. Want to use Spear? Add Catwalk and drop out Khan's Dodges. Weapons of Choice Again, Khan can potentially profit from any Weapon of Choice. He's generic enough that any particular one can work for him in the right strategy. A favorite of this author's, however, is Claymore. Again, this card can put Objects into Khan's discard, letting him access them later. It also leads to another Endurance-burn "race." All but the most elusive Personas are going to lose some cards due to blocking. And if Khan and his opponent both "burn" at about the same time, Khan comes out on top. Also, use Sulphur Plant/Shifting Sands or Rail Yard to take advantage of Claymore's Hammer Blow. Spear is a fairly reliable Weapon of Choice for anyone. Simply add Catwalk, and force your opponent into Exerting if he plays those Back Aways. How to Win Object reliance is the first step. Put in Khan's Persona-specific Armor and Forged Armor. Use Armorer to get them out faster. Add other Objects: Parrying Blade, a Quality Blade, Extra Weapon, and Ancestral Blade for starters, as these can all prove useful. If you plan on running past cards in your deck, add Alex Johnson and possibly Archaic Collection. Even if you don't, you can use these cards to get back Objects your opponent removes. Now, add Plunder. Now you've got the damage bonus. How do you hit them? Since Plunder modifies any attack, Slash is one way to pull this off. Use Ruins and non-Location anti-dodge to keep them on their toes, and that Slash now does 3+ damage rather than 1. Claymore's Cleaves and Saber's Slashes can also prove useful here. Another, although somewhat predictable way, is to use the ever-popular Darius/Seduce-Amanda. If you want to make a Power Blow, use Master Swordsman or the Slan Quickening rather than Exert. A third way is to use Extra Shot. Extra Shot plus Flashing Blade still remains a reliable combo. If your opponent doesn't have Bait & Switch (or if Duncan, is using Inner Strength), they're going to have to go to some effort to avoid that second attack. For extra damage, use the "free" Power Blow tactics suggested above. And let's not forget Battle Rage. Often overlooked, it can still prove formidable if the opponent can't escape through other means (see Ring of Fire). And thanks to Plunder, only one attack has to hit for serious damage to ensue. Take advantage of the fact you can play Slashes from your Exertion. Angry Mob/SE, used in conjunction with Forged Armor, can whittle down an opponent. Unlike Careful Planning, Forged Armor not only protects Khan from his own Event damage, but his opponent's as well. Obviously, don't play Angry Mob/SE the same turn your opponent is doing direct damage to you. Use these strategies on their own, or in conjunction with Endurance-draining. Use Desert, Improvised Weapon/ Attack, Cull the Weak, Claymore, and possibly Avery Hoskins or Challenge/ME to keep them going through their Endurance and burning. You'll be doing the same, but if you use two Watcher/Treatments, you'll actually come out ahead by one Ability. How to Defeat Thief has fallen on hard times since its Gathering re- release. Playing this against an Object-heavy Khan can be the equivalent of suicide. Mental Ward can slow Khan down. Encumbrance can prove a bit more useful in penalizing Khan for heavy Object- usage. Still, Khan's probably ready to burn past cards, so Encumbrance may not hit him as hard as you might hope. Misfortune remains a reliable tool for dealing with Objects, if a bit slow. You may not be able to deal with every Object Khan puts out, but at least you can remove that Forged Armor if you hope to use direct damage Events against him. Ditto for Police against his Plunder. Don't be tempted to Police his other Situations: there's probably a Plunder lurking in Khan's deck somewhere, and you'll want to Police it just before Khan scores a successful attack for damage. Also, don't forget that a Helmet is no protection against a Head Shot. As for Khan's Nemesis, Fatigue...eh. It's probably one of the weakest Nemesis cards of the game. It only targets Khan's Persona ability. However, unlike many Persona abilities, Khan's does not work every turn. He only needs to deal with Fatigue once each pass through his Endurance. Focus and Police/Remove Sit can handle it easily. Oh, and finally...if you're Amanda, either whip out that Kurgan Q or forget it. Good luck ever getting through Khan's Armor, and it even reduces the damage done by a Seduced attack. Overall Overall, Steve gives Khan a _6_. From a minor-league wuss in his original release, Khan has become a fairly versatile Persona. He combines attack-prevention, direct-damage prevention, and attack/damage bonuses in a way that very few other Personas do. Fasil may be a great swordsman, and Ceirdwyn can do umpteeen-dozen multi-attacks, but what can they do to avoid Event and attack damage? Khan's in a unique position to take advantage of cards like Cull the Weak and Desert, and recent errata such as Thief means his primary strength is hard to negate. What Our Other Raters Say: Hank - Khan has a good Persona ability for prolonged play, so I've always tended to build Khan decks that force play to last awhile. His cards were _completely_ generic except for the Armors, which kind of sucked, but with ME2 he's got some fun cards finally. With the neutering of Thief, a Khan deck with Plunder and lots of Objects is a fun thing. Still, he's not a powerhouse by any stretch. Alan - Abstain Jeff - Before The Gathering, Khan had the unfortunate distinction of competing with Luther for worst Persona in the game. One of the stated goals for TCG was to make Khan viable. Did the changes succeed? Well, partially. He gains a strong anti-cheese card (Forged Armor), which works so well he'll usually be playing cheese to take advantage of it. He gains the ability to put out Objects quickly via Armorer. And he gains the ability to do additional damage with attacks with Plunder. He's definitely stronger now, perhaps even above the level of the average SE/ME/WC persona. Unfortunately, though, the Methos and Duncan Collections have raised the bar for Personas even higher, which means that poor Khan is still left in the dust. Overall, though, he's still not to be overlooked, even if he does tend to be slow and cycle cards poorly. Prodipto - Khan has been limited in effectiveness in most decks I've seen. While tremendously well suited to Deserts, and able to become quickly immune to Pistols and Slashes, he lacks a cohesive strategy that he can leverage in a competitive environment. In "friendly" play, Khan can make an effective turnover strategy. His best friend is Darius in a competitive atmosphere, since then he can maximize Plunder through judicious use of Seduces. Allen - Kahn has been long overlooked in the game of Highlander. While he's still not first-string material, he is getting closer. Kahn gets a big boost from the increasing ability to get and keep Objects in play. With Conjure, Alex Johnson, and Archaic Collection you should be able to keep four or five Objects in play at a time. All these Objects help protect you from sword damage (Armor), disarm strategies (Extra Weapon), cheese (via Forged Armor), _and_ they now help your offense. Once you've got four or more Objects in play, a single Slash through your opponent's defenses almost feels like a Power Blow. Kahn's defects continue to be his relatively weak Persona ability and his low number of Master Cards. Still, he can now make a decent showing for himself. Bruce - I believe that Khan has gained more from recent cards/errata/rules than any other non-expansion/ collection Immortal. You can make very effective direct damage and Object-oriented decks using Khan. It can certainly be effectively argued that this has brought him into line with other 'average' Immortals. Even so, the recent release of decent numbers of 'above-average' Personas leaves me giving Khan a below average rating. Stealth Dave - At first glance, Khan seems little better than a Generic Immortal, having only one more Master slot (with a Generic Persona) and actually fewer non-Reserved cards. Khan's power is not to be underestimated. Neither are his Armor and newer ME2 cards, especially with cards like Alex Johnson and Conjure. But with the new "Power Personas" coming out of TCG, Khan can now be called decidedly average, which is not a bad feat when competing with the likes of Methos, Duncan, Kurgan, and Iman Fasil. Jonathan - Previous to the release of the Gathering, few would consider constructing any sort of viable tournament deck with Khan. His primary strength lies in Objects, which he has access to amongst his Persona-specific cards, and the ability to play them quickly, through the use of Armorer. Thus, Khan can quickly set up a stiff defense against low damage attacks (Slash, Amanda etc.). He also fears exhaustion less than other Immortals, and can compete well with a small deck. With a means of preventing direct damage as well, Khan is beginning to sound pretty good. However, when one decides to use Khan, they might find that he has little offense. His one offensive card, Plunder, gives him the ability to do a great deal of extra damage, but he has few options with which to achieve a successful attack. He could Darius in any number of offensive cards (Seduce, etc.) but this requires more set-up than is usually desired. His best bet is to use difficult to defend attacks, such as Pistols and Slashes, and hope to wear his opponent's defense down. Traditionally, this strategy has not won Khan a great deal of tournaments. Khan can compete with a variety of different gimmicks and stall tactics, but these efforts seem less viable in today s attack environment. I ve seen some decent Khan L&M decks, but he just doesn't have the offensive tools to compete with any of the top Immortals. Charles - I like Khan a lot because the difference between winning and losing is sometimes having to take Endurance burn; three when compared with the normal five makes Khan ideal in these situations. Outside of this there is not much to Khan. He is capable of preventing up to three points of Event damage per turn with the aid of Armor and can then incorporate Angry Mob/SE in order to turn a defensive mechanism offensive. The armored Khan deck has been termed Voltron by Jim Eckhardt who I believe first built the deck. Ratings Overall: Steve 6 Hank 6 Alan N/A Jeff 5 Prodipto 4 Allen 6 Bruce 4 Sdave 5 Jonathan 4 Charles 4 Average: 4.89 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.