Analysing Uniques

     Now that we’ve seen a lot of Uniques having been generated people are already rating them on a site that Exalt Ilad has put together. Now there are a few obviously powerful Uniques (Bravos Foundry Armorer Brassbug spam, Double Robin Hood and double Mana Orb), but outside of them there’s a lot more of a variance as to how people rate them.

    For instance, the following card is rated 2^nd best on the site, but I don’t agree it is bonkers good. Yes it is strong, but not deserving to be second highest rated Unique. 

     Now the card is good, but I don’t know that I’d say that the card is bonkers good. Let me explain. The normal Bravos Bladedancer rare is a 1 for a 1/1/1 and with Basira you get a 2/2/2. The card above is slightly better as you get a 2 mana 3/5/3, so you are getting an extra 2 points in mountains. Then from the reserve on the rare you will likely get (well assume Haven for both) a 4/4/4 on the rare for 3 that you can reuse again to get a 7/7/7 for 3 that can then be used a 4^th time to get a 10/10/10 all for 3 mana. Here we are paying 4 to get a 7/9/7, which is good, but not that much better than a Sun Wukong from the same zone assuming a Haven as well.

     So how do I evaluate at a Unique card then? I divide it into four parts.

1. The Quest. Often the card will have some hoop you have to jump through to get the effect. This can range from -> which will happen 100% of the time, through to needing 4 characters in play. Now the easiness of being able to achieve the quest will tell you how much you’ll be able to get the payoff. An ability in Bravos that I’ve seen is having two other boosted characters in play. I rate this as quite hard to achieve at around 25% of the time.
2. The Payoff. The payoff for the effect is the prize that you are getting to jump through the hoops of the quest. It can range from exciting results like discarding a permanent, drawing 3 cards right through to less exciting results like giving a character fleeting. So when analysing the card we should pair the chance of the effect happening with the effect itself.
3. What you are losing. Some Uniques lose the ability of the rare. The example of the Bladedancer above loses the ability to remove fleeting out of the reserve when less than 4 boosts. Sometimes this loss makes the card much less appealing.
4. The Biome Stats. One thing you need to analyse is the base stats that you are getting. Often this will vary from the rare and you need to add this into the cost of what you are (and aren’t) getting for your mana.

By comparing all these things, you will get a view on the power of your Unique. Now there are a few other things that you should bear in mind. Sometimes a Unique will get something that is rare on not available to that faction, and this might be much more valuable as a result.

If we are talking bonkers Uniques then these are two of my top ones. The Robin Hood below I rate above the other one with the double Robin ability. Getting a landmark in play is a relatively low bar and in a bureaucrat deck you’ll likely be playing three Bountiful Meadows anyway.

The Foundry Armorer below (currently rated 25^th on the leaderboard) is bonkers. Not only does it have the Brassbug spam ability with boosts, but it also has a card draw tied to those boosts from hand and reserve. If I had a fantasy Bravos Unique, this would be it.