Yung Dol Kim - by Alan Murrell You may play attacks as blocks. While you have an Extra Weapon in play, you may discard the top two cards from your Endurance play an additional attack or block a Power Blow each turn. You may have up to five Master cards. Overview Here we have a Persona who was never seen in any of the movies, but who only appeared in a single scene, which ended up on the cutting room floor. Yung Dol Kim was a Japanese Immortal (editor's note: apparently Mongolian according to his Persona card) in the first Highlander film, who wielded two swords, and ended up being killed by the Kurgan. In the Highlander CCG, Yung Dol Kim has found new life. Yung Dol Kim is, in this reviewer's opinion, the best multi-attack persona available: he doesn't require an Exertion to play his attacks, nor does he have to take damage to take advantage of his multi-attack ability. All he has to do is get a few key cards out, and keep them out. In addition, he has two _very_ useful Persona powers. First, let's take care of those pesky game mechanics. Both of his abilities are designed to simulate his use of two swords. His ability to use non-Ranged attacks as blocks is pretty straightforward. If he has an attack in his hand which is to the same area(s) that his opponent's attack is to, then he may use that attack to block his opponent's attack. It is important to note here that when Kim is Exerting for a defense, he cannot pull a Special Attack from the Exertion and use it as a defense. The attack only becomes a defense when it is played, and until then, is still considered to be an attack. Kim can play Alertness/Block on an attack that he plays as a block, to block an unblockable attack. His first attack is still restricted by the last "block" he played, even if it was an attack-as-block. His second ability is also pretty straightforward. If he has an Extra Weapon out, then Yung Dol Kim may make an additional attack by discarding two cards. Note, however, that as per his Persona text, which may seem a little confusing, Kim can only play _one_ additional attack, regardless of the number of Extra Weapons he has in play (i.e., he does _not_ get an additional attack for _each_ Extra Weapon he has in play). We shall see the benefits of this further on. Kim can also Power Block, and does so more cheaply than the Kurgan. He only loses two cards, and they are discarded rather than Exerted past. This does mean he can't use cards like Collect and Master/Swordmaster to reduce the card loss. On the other hand, he can't be targeted by Zocchi Distributors, either. Kim can only use _one_ of his two discard-two-card options per turn, no matter how many Extra Weapons he has. Persona-Specific Cards The only dodge that Kim has is Back Away, which makes him fairly vulnerable to such cards as Dead End Alley, Extra Shot, Hidden attacks, and Combination. With only six Back Aways available to him, he doesn't seem to be very agile, does he? He has the "standard" Back Away, Continuity, and Power Blow. His Trip, however, is the version which makes his next attack undodgeable, which definitely has some uses. See How To Win for more details. Kim also has Power Blow and the "standard" Continuity. The former is so-so useful, although mixing in a Power Blow/Lunge during a multi-attack sequence has its uses. It's unlikely that Kim will lose an Ancestral Blade to Misfortune, since his opponent will probably be busy removing Extra Weapons. Still, in Ren-style play, Continuity can prove a life-saver, since Kim doesn't want to devote Master slots to Master Swordsman when he can use his Master's Attack instead. Going down the list of Reserved cards, the first one we come to is Cutting Room Floor. The title is obviously an inside joke, as, explained above, the sequence involving Yung Dol Kim ended up on the cutting room floor. However, this card is quite powerful, since your opponent has to discard his entire hand at the end of his Defense Phase if the attack it is played in conjunction with is successful. When used with the right combination of cards, this can be rather annoying to your opponent, if not deadly. Frenzy is perhaps one of Kim's best cards. With four of these out (five, with pre-game Darius), he can quickly run his opponent out of defenses. Currently, Security Guard/Situation lets you keep them in play. Kim's Master's Attack is the same one as Annies (covers all areas), and is the only one Restricted to 4. At first one wonders why, since if it's exactly the same as Annie's, hers is Restricted to two, and Kim gets four. Then one realizes that it also doubles as a Master's Block. This makes his Master's Attack an extremely versatile card; he can have either four Master's Attacks, four Master's Blocks, or any combination thereof. And finally, we come to Run Away. It is weaker than Luther's Disappear. First, it is a Situation, and thus must be in play for a turn (and therefore prone to the numerous way to remove a Situation), and only prevents damage, as opposed to avoiding an attack, and only from one card (be it an attack, or some sort of direct damage). It is no good against those Battle Rages, Bloodlusts, etc., and definitely does no good against a Head Shot (again, it only prevents damage, it doesn't avoid an attack). However, it's still a useful card to have, just in case Kim gets caught without an appropriate defense in his hand. Generic Cards The single most useful generic card for Kim is Flashing Blade. It ensures that his opponent can't avoid all of his attacks with just a single dodge, and thus forces his opponent to use more defenses, thereby running his opponent lower and lower on defenses with each turn he makes multiple attacks. Anti-dodge cards are some of Kim's best friends. Master's Advance, Challenge/SE, Watcher/Hunter, Lunge, and Stumble will make sure your opponent will stand and fight. Kiss Your Butt Goodbye may also be a good card to play the turn before unleashing a string of multiple attacks. Along the same vein, the Cat and Mouse/Defense plot may be good to use, so you can be sure that the turn you make your multiple attacks, your opponent will have very few defenses in his hand to play. See How To Win, below. Since your opponent will frequently have multiple attacks coming at them, which will generally be hard to defense against, Carl is useful in a Kim deck. Ancestral Blade should also find it's way into a Kim deck. With Back Away as his only dodge, and with his Persona ability, Kim will be blocking attacks quite frequently. Add a couple of Conjures and Alex Johnsons to get that Ancestral Blade out faster, and make it harder for your opponent to keep it out of play. Alex Johnson is better, since Kim might be going past Objects more often when he uses his discard-two-card ability. The best Plots for Kim are the Cat and Mouse/Defense and Head Hunter (original version). Use Cat and Mouse/Defense to get rid of those pesky defenses, and/or use the Head Hunter plot to limit their defensive (and attacking) options. Don't forget to use some anti- dodging cards with it, though, then have fun! Since Kim has no other way to avoid Ranged Attacks, Narrow Escape (original version) is highly recommended. And because Kim is so heavily attack-reliant, Trenchcoat is a must as well. While there are many more generic cards that can be useful to Yung Dol Kim, the above seem to work quite well with him, and his Persona abilities. They are not, by any means, the _only_ cards that work with him, just the most useful. See below, under How to Win for a few more generic cards to use with Kim. Locations The natural Location for Kim, considering his lack of dodges other than Back Away is Catwalk. It restricts his opponent's dodging ability, especially when using Lunge with his attacks. Don't forget to pack a Pistol or three, and mix with Trip as appropriate. Another excellent Location for Kim is Lighthouse. It is quite likely that Kim will have a defense (most likely a "block") for his opponent's attack, which increases the likelihood of making at least one of his opponent's attack unsuccessful, thus preventing his opponent from being able to play a dodge against the onslaught of attacks which will surely follow. Kim's lack of dodges makes it a much less riskier Location for him than for many other Personas, since Kim will probably be blocking 90% or more of the time (editor's note: and probably won't have a dodge to play anyway, given the low number he has). The Laundry Room is another good choice, since anything which restricts an opponent's defensive options rate highly in this author's book. Not as good as Lighthouse, but still not a bad choice. The rest of the Locations are not as beneficial to Kim as the three mentioned, but that doesn't mean they can't be used without success by him. Just be careful when using other Locations, and don't forget to do a little Reconnaissance before-hand. Feel free to experiment. How to Win This author has found several strategies which lend themselves well to Kim's unique capabilities. Perhaps one of the best ones this author has found is a fairly slim deck, composed of 50% attacks, an Extra Weapon or two, Frenzy's, Carls, Greenfields, Watcher/ Treatments, and Bassett and Hotchkiss. The only defenses are the six basic Blocks, plus one of each Guard. His four Master's Attacks are also essential. If your opponent is preventing you from attacking, you should have a lot of attacks in your hand. Just dump them to Bassett and Hotchkiss, and heal up with Watchers, then do it again with a second Bassett and Hotchkiss. On the other hand, if your opponent is allowing you to attack, set up the Extra Weapon and his Frenzy's, then unleash turn after turn of multiple attacks. It's a very versatile deck, capable of handling several different strategies. Adjust the deck to taste. Unfortunately, at this point in time, Kim does not do well with large decks, since his multiple-attack capabilities rely on setting up Specials, which are fairly vulnerable to removal. The trick to a successful Kim multi-attack deck is to make it fairly small to allow him to set up his multi-attack cards quicker, and thus start the onslaught as soon as possible. Honor Bound and Focus should help him somewhat here. Make sure there is at least a 50% ration of attacks. How to Defeat Unfortunately, since Kim's Persona abilities and most of his cards are attack-oriented, he is quite vulnerable to non-attack strategies, and direct damage. The only Persona-based way he has to avoid this is Run Away, but it is only good against damage coming from one card. Make sure to pack Greenfields. Simple Mind is probably the bane of Kim's existence, due to his reliance on Situations to get his multiple attacks, as opposed to the ways other "inherent" multi- attackers (such as Kern and Annie) have. Misfortune and/or Thief is also good against Kim. Other than that, make sure you have Locations of your own, to remove his, or failing that, a lot of Reconnaissance to get past his Locations. Kim's Nemesis, Surrender, will only impair his ability to block. If you'd rather he lost his discard-two-card ability...well, tough. If you're an aggressive attacker, Surrender can help you if Kim packed the minimum in actual blocks. Overall Kim is probably one of the best multi-attacking Personas in the game. His Persona abilities and cards are very well geared towards this, and he is able to utilize them to great advantage. If he can get down all four Frenzy's, plus a Carl or two, you are usually in a heap of trouble. He benefits greatly from combat-oriented generic cards, particularly the ones which restrict defensive options. Overall, Alan gives Yung Dol Kim a _7_. He's a great multi-attack Persona, but his multi-attack strategies are still quite vulnerable. What Our Other Raters Say: Steve - The double-threat of Frenzy and Extra Weapon means you'll be spending a lot of your turns playing Specials to deal with these cards, rather than advance your own strategy. Good luck dealing with any other Objects Kim might use. Special-shutdown will hurt Kim just like it hurts most Immortals, of course. A bit too Situation-reliant, but Security Guard/Situation (appropriately enough, given Kim's profession) will help here. Flashing Blade and even a well-timed Lunge are very useful to him. Despite his Persona ability, don't skimp on the blocks, particularly Guards. And finally, make sure he uses Trenchcoat so he doesn't get stuck against non-attack types. Overall, Kim is probably the most versatile of the Gathering Personas, mixing a strong potential offense with some defensive cards. Hank - Frenzy and his Special Ability gives Kim a definite slant toward multiple-attack strategies. Run Away is a good card, as is Master's Attack. I consider Kim a reasonable swordfighting Immortal, I've built successful decks with him, but at the same time he doesn't stand out when compared to Fasil, Methos, or the newer Duncan. Jeff - Not a bad Persona by any stretch of the imagination, but one that requires too much set-up to make the top tier of Personas. A few nice cards (Frenzy, Run Away), a few lame cards (Cutting Room Floor - bleah!). A neat but not great ability. I'd say he's the most average of Personas I've seen. Prodipto - Yung Dol Kim is an attack-oriented Persona. His natural ability, in addition to Frenzy and Cutting Room Floor encourage you to put a lot of attacks in your Kim deck. Strategies based around him tend to be pretty limited, however. Attack like crazy or attack like crazy. His Master's Attacks double as Master's Blocks for all intents and purposes. While he's not a versatile Persona, his attacks definitely are. Allen - Yung Dol Kim ranks slightly behind Fasil as my favorite Immortal in the Gathering set. Kim attacks, attacks, and then keeps right on attacking. Kim, Kim, Kim; fun, fun, fun. This is how Swordmaster was meant to be played. Take all the standard steps needed to build a dodgeless deck, and Kim's ability will allow you to pack even fewer blocks. Replace your "missing" blocks with more attacks! Kim is the multi-attack Persona least likely to run out of offensive steam or get caught short on defenses. Flashing Blade is almost mandatory for Kim; Extra Weapon _is_ mandatory. Pack six Extra Weapons and you won't need many Conjure/Alex Johnsons, though they are useful. Don't overlook Kim's possession of the "good" Trip. Combine Trips with Slashes and then use basic attacks to get in a few more pokes each turn. Kim's Frenzy is a very nice card, but don't get tempted into putting too many down at one time. Bedsoe and Precinct can rob you of all of them at once. I find one Frenzy in play at a time is usually sufficient. Use other important Situations (Louise) to ensure your Frenzies aren't lonely Police-bait and enjoy! Bruce - If you are not going to use any Quickenings, Yung Dol Kim is probably your best choice for a multiple attack deck. His built-in ability to use attacks as blocks works very well with Frenzies and an Extra Weapon. He can be a fairly effective Persona, but he doesn't have a lot else to back it up. Stealth Dave - Yung Dol Kim is a surprisingly versatile persona, though not extremely powerful. His ability to play attacks as blocks makes him good at both offense and defense (at least attack-based offense and defense). If you're not careful, Cutting Room Floor can catch you off- guard and ruin your day (unless you're Nefertiri). He also sports the superior Trip (undodgeable attack). His Persona power relies upon having a specific Object in play. While it is a common Object and Thief has now been reigned it, Object defense has become mandatory with the advent of Hogg and Flying Machine/Wings. YDK may be spending too much time keeping an Extra Weapon in play to get his own strategy working. Still, overall a well- balanced and fun to play persona. Ratings Overall: Steve 7 Hank 7 Alan 7 Jeff 5 Prodipto 6 Allen 7 Bruce 6 SDave 5 Average: 6.25 Highlander is a protected trademark of Gaumont Television, used under license by Thunder Castle Games. The card text is copyright 1998 by Thunder Castle Games. All rights reserved.