Mage Hand
Mage Hand is a common Books card and one of Books's starting cards.
Description
Costs 1 energy. When played:
Upgrades
Mage Hand A
Costs 1 energy. When played:
Mage Hand B
Costs 1 energy. When played:
Strategy
Mage Hand demonstrates Books's core mechanic - spend Shard to get powerful effects. In this case, you spend a Shard and get an efficient package of attack and Shield for 1 Energy. In your starter deck, having Shard requires the upfront investment of playing Unpolished Crystal, but once you do, you'll usually be getting 1 Shard from the Crystal Shard you get and then spending it on this card. In this best-case scenario, you paid 2 Energy for this card on your first cycle (a somewhat poor value) and 1 thereafter (good value).
Of course, sometimes you'll draw this before Unpolished Crystal, but at least in this case it's not too bad, providing the value of a Basic Block.
Some decks may want to remove this card at some point, either because they've moved away from Books or because they have more important things to spend the Shard on, making this card's absorption of Shard to be a liability.
Its A upgrade adds 1 damage to the conditional shot - an exceptionally poor upgrade since many upgrades like Basic Shot's B upgrade do that unconditionally, and there are better things than those.
Its B upgrade instead adds 1 Shield and flips the conditionality to the Shield. Again, not a great value of upgrade as it just adds 1 Shield in the ideal scenario. It could possibly be considered if you're desperate for damage and don't have Shard, but there are better options.
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