Rat-Catch-22

While the front of Pelage’s player card may lead you to believe Pelage is a run of the mill damage dealer, the reverse of her card reveals just how unique she is.

Firstly, we have Pelage’s ‘dilemma’ mechanic Cloak of Rats. Dilemma mechanics are new to Guild Ball and specific to the Ratcatcher’s Guild. Dilemma mechanics will activate when the Ratcatcher coach wants them to, however, each one gives the opponent a choice between two different effects. These effects are always bad for the opponent; there is absolutely no way a dilemma mechanic can backfire on the Ratcatcher coach. Using Cloak of Rats as our example, this Trait triggers at the end of Pelage’s activation and affects all enemy players within its [2”] range. The opponent chooses whether Cloak of Rats will inflict the snared condition, or [3] DMG; the chosen effect is then applied to all enemy players within [2”] of Pelage.

There are some quite deep tactical implications to dilemma mechanics and how to get the best out of them. It falls to the Ratcatcher coach to know when and how to use dilemmas in order to get the most from them. Generally, it’s a good idea to use a dilemma mechanic when you can force both options to be really bad for your opponent. To take Cloak of Rats as an example again, if you catch an enemy player that is on [3] Health Points or less, they obviously won’t want [3] damage since that will result in a take out! However, they also won’t want the snared condition since this could lead to the player being taken out very easily later in the turn (or early next turn).

Pelage’s second Character Trait is the one that is most relevant to her low Health Pool of [10], Dark Allure. As simple as it is powerful, Dark Allure will make coaches who normally rely on generating momentum from causing damage think twice about attacking Pelage at all. Generally, in Guild Ball it’s always a good idea to try to generate as much Momentum as possible. In order to take out Pelage an opposing coach has to accept that almost any Influence they invest in causing damage to Pelage will not generate any Momentum at all. This is great for Ratcatcher coaches since it presents another dilemma to the opponent: ignore Pelage and allow her to cause a lot of damage to your players; or invest Influence in taking her out and accept that you’re not generating much Momentum this turn.

Pelage’s next Character Trait, Grim Caress, complements Cloak of Rats and Dark Allure very well. Enemy players already don’t want to be near Pelage since she causes a decent amount of damage in melee, causes more damage or the snared condition due to Cloak of Rats, and enemies get very little reward for damaging Pelage in return. Due to Grim Caress, if the enemy is too close to Pelage and they fail to escape, or if they try to take out Pelage and leave her on the Pitch, their punishment for failure is a further [3] damage.

Pelage’s final Character Trait rounds off her capacity to deal damage quite nicely, Killer. Killer increases Pelage’s Playbook damage when attacking enemies of the specified type, which in Pelage’s case is [Male] enemies. This will often mean that when Pelage hits those Momentous [2] and [3] damage results on her Playbook, she will actually inflict [3] or [4] damage!

Overall Pelage is a nightmare for enemy teams planning to score points through take outs. For the opponent, at best she is going to mess with their Momentum generation for a turn or two, at worst she could take out a player or two and cause another few players to also suffer heavy damage. And the rather sneaky thing is, even just messing with the opponent’s Momentum generation is huge for the Ratcatchers, considering the Disease condition and thus the increased cost of recovering health for your opponent.

From the perspective of a Mortician coach, there are a huge number of ways they can take advantage of several of Pelage’s abilities. The Mortician Captain Obulus already exerts a significant amount of pressure on an opponent’s ability to generate Momentum due to his Legendary Play Rigor Mortis, Pelage compounds that issue thanks to Dark Allure. The Singled Out Character Play is also enormously useful to the Morticians in general, who have a slightly heavier reliance on take outs than the Ratcatchers. The need to inflict take outs is another reason for Mortician coaches to consider Pelage, since she brings a significant amount of damage dealing to the Pitch.

That’s all for today! Join us again in our next Ratcatcher blog to read all about Scourge, the Pestilent Abomination.