Overclock
Overclock is a rare Max card.
Description
Costs 2 energy. When played:
- 1. Gain 2 Boost.
Exhausts when played.
Upgrades
Overclock A
Costs 1 energy. (-1) When played:
- 1. Gain 2 Boost.
Exhausts when played.
Overclock B
Costs 2 energy. When played:
- 1. Gain 2 Boost.
- 2. Draw 2 cards.
Exhausts when played.
Strategy
Overclock can turbocharge builds that look to add key Statuses to your ship, tripling the power of Ace, Stun Source, Payback, Rock Factory (with Gravel Recycler), among others. There's several different ways that you can use this to break the game - the key is to line it up with the aforementioned statuses.
The challenge is that sometimes they won't line up, and this card's 2 cost means that it's hard to play it with the Status you intend to boost with it in the same turn. Note that Evade counts as a status (but Shield doesn't), so playing any Evade-gaining cards will burn your Boost (although +2 Evade isn't too bad, on par with Scramble). You might consider not playing Evade-gaining cards while you have Boost to save it for the more powerful statuses, but this may cost you in tougher fights. Note that several Max cards might also use the Boost in a less-than-helpful way, such as Math.Max, Escape Artist, Branch Prediction, and others, so keep an eye on this too. Also beware that certain enemies can give you (negative) statuses, and if you happen to have Boost when those hit, you'll be Boosting those negative status conditions instead, so avoid this scenario.
Overall, this card can be a cool win condition, though it's hard to rely on most of the time, making it a win-more card when it does connect. Sticky Note and Lightspeed Boot Disk (or both, applied to this card or its target) can make this a reliable win condition.
Its A upgrade reduces its Energy cost by 1, which can make it easier to play it and the Status you intend to connect it with in the same turn.
Its B upgrade adds a draw 2 effect - powerful and helpful in lining up Boost and Status, if you somehow have the Energy to make this work. (Clean Exhaust can make this great, though you won't want to Boost Clean Exhaust itself as this isn't useful.)
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