UFS Platinum “Wood Man” Review.

Early in the morning and stiff, Wood Man rises!

Wood Man is a defensive 6 hand size character that can build foundations, and add blocks to his hand. Is his ability solid? Absolutely, maybe too solid. Let’s dive in to find out why.

 

Wood man’s ability is INSANE. He adds a block to his hand, from his staging area, and replaces it with a card form the top of his deck. Since he can pick up face down foundations, it’s soft drawing a card, since he can pick it up on defense or offense next turn. This makes his entire staging area a second hand. I call him Powerful Assassin Man, because that’s essentially what he is, especially since he give you a check bonus after using his enhance. The craziest thing about this ability is that he can recycle cards that dip into your staging area for their ability. How you Like them Apples, Maxima Press, Bounce and Roll, to name a few. Hunt for Spiders and dragons is the biggest concern however.

Hunt for Spiders and Dragons has been running amok in Standard lately. Since Ever Hopeful’s ban, it has become top dog at staging area control, but it has become almost universal consensus that the card is too strong. It can snipe answers your opponent has in their staging area, and now Wood Man can Recycle it as he pleases. Get your butt in gear if you run a lot of low attacks, because he can pick it up, block, then Reversal to activate. This is less of a problem with Wood Man and more with Spiders. As we are achieving better balanced attacks and foundations, the more toxic ones are starting to stick out, and Hunt for Spiders and Dragons is one of them.

Aside from cards that move down on activation, he can also abuse static’s on foundations that trigger when played. Call of the Dragon Queen and Push the Limit. Push the Limit is cancerous in this guy, especially if you’re playing a 5 hand size character. When you’re staring down Spinning Piledrivers, and getting hit with multiple Push the Limits every round, it gets hard to have any sort of staging area. Maxima Laser can maximize this problem. I don’t know if I would call it overpowered, but it’s certainly annoying to play against.

He walls off really well with his ability, so he also works with Reversals. Wood man’s second ability suits them really well, since it can help him push damage through, after getting full value out of his other ability.

Wood Man’s support is bonkers. His attack “Wood Man’s Leaf Shield” has a powerful defensive and offensive static, and a Deadlock ability that can cause horrendous damage to an opponent. While in Deadlock, if you open with it, it will be a 9 speed high for 12 damage if you use his ability, a second one will be 8 high for 12, and so on. I understand the decision to give a wall character a powerful Deadlock card, but this seems a bit nuts, especially with the static. It should be useful during every state of the game, so I’m positive it will see a lot of play. I’ll also give credit, as something we haven’t seen before, so kudos to Jasco for that. It’s also another Safe attack Bass can utilize.

“One With Nature” a card the creeps with power, and a card like Hunt for Spiders and Dragons, I think will stick out as toxic. I do not approve of this card. It deserves the Unique stamp in my opinion. Having multiple copies of this down, can turn any discard abilities into huge damage buff abilities(like the one printed on the card), and can put a very large amount of non-interactive speed into place. Having two down can give you +2 damage, and +4 to the block mod on any attacks. This will make killing people with one sucker punch very very easy. Hellgate Executioner likes. The fact that this card has a block is asinine. It can put numbers on board at a Bass speed. If they are going to make nutty attacks that pump out 1 million damage, they should not be making nutty foundations that do the same.

Overall Wood Man is a super powerful character, that can boast a great defense, and generate answers better than most characters. His support on the other hand is a mixed bag. It’s an interesting, good attack, and power creep probably shouldn’t exist foundation. His character looks fun, I’ll likely play him in the future.

Also here is a deck list that a community member submitted for Wood Man. Submit yours for next week guys.  I’ll also be doing a 5 hander next week, so be sure to vote on which one you want me to do.  Maybe it will be less than 5?

 

• 20x Attacks
• 3x Cowboy Battery
• 2x Cannon Crack
• 2x Slash Claw
• 3x Spreggio
• 3x Leaf Shield
• 3x Blizzard Sword
• 2x Egg Drop

 

• 47x Foundations
• 1x The Badger Club
• 4x Unpredictable Movement
• 4x Cool and Focused
• 2x Pursuing a Vendetta
• 1x Refusing to Let Go
• 3x Alpha Male
• 4x Friendly Rival
• 2x Reluctant Icon
• 3x Personal Rivalry
• 2x Darkstalkers
• 2x Formidable Task
• 1x Armor Expert
• 4x Hunters Once More
• 2x Focused and Patient
• 2x A Fighting Robot
• 4x Pulled to Majigen

 

• 6x Assets
• 2x Team Psycho Soldier
• 3x White House
• 1x Kim’s Dobok