Wizards and Runeblades introduced us to the arcane theater of war, and now Mechanologists take to another plane to find advantage in combat: the digital world.
All three of the items we're previewing today have a decidedly cyberpunk vibe, distinct from the steampunk we've long associated with Metrix. Devoid of any lore text, we're left to decipher what we're seeing in this art. Do the guards on Security Script protect the server? Or are we looking at a gateway of some fashion?
They also serve to drastically enhance the value of our Mechanologist attack action cards - especially in tandem! Security Script, for example, raises the defense value on Mechanologist Attack Actions by 1. In a class where 3 is nearly ubiquitous, in a game where 4 is considered a safe breakpoint, in a deck where you're encouraged to stick strictly to your class... this is a huge boost.
Crank is a fascinating new keyword that, effectively, lets us choose to gain advantage that would usually wait a turn, this turn instead. The 'remove steam or lose this' text - similar to what we've seen on auras before - means that these items can be expected to last through 2 turn cycles: yours (when you play it), a defense, your next turn (when you remove a token), and another defense. But by removing the steam counter immediately, you can reclaim your action point and proceed with a turn using, for example, Penetration Script's +1 to all your attacks now.
Polarity Reversal Script stands to make the biggest impact, as it drastically reduces the effectiveness of repurposing actions to block. Your opponent will cringe to find their non-attack actions (already 2s in many cases) reduced to 1 defense; and lowering your own breakpoint from 4 to 3 makes a lot of Mechanologist blues more playable.
Mechanologists are comfortable with paying for things. Resource generation is one of their primary identities. But at 1 cost, these won't burn through your fuel, leaving plenty in the tank to run your boosted combat chain with.
This 'Scriptych' has inherent synergy with Bright Lights' iteration of Dash, who can play them from the top of your deck at instant speed. Security Script, in particular, looks absolutely cracked as a defensive play - but any of these, played unexpectedly, can drastically change the course of a game.
I've also got to mention Data Doll as a beneficiary of these new items. While she's less suited for 'springing' them on enemies unexpectedly, the added value for each of her cards is perhaps even more significant when she's only got 3 to work with.
Early Development
One of the benefits to editing for the Rathe Times is the network of incredible minds who write for us. I've tasked Tim Bierholz with developing an early alpha version of a decklist that would utilize these items prominently - while also incorporating the rapid reveals occurring all weekend! We've stalled until the 11th hour of preview weekend so he had as many cards and as much time as possible, and here is the product of that frenzied R&D. But first, let me give Tim his moment to revel in these fresh new cards.
When Bright Lights was announced, I couldn't wait to get buried deep in an entire set dedicated to my favorite class. But perhaps the largest question in my mind was, how would they reimagine Dash? With a new hero power and an influx of new items, what would the Dash of tomorrow look like?
After Dash's young hero reveal (thanks to the live-action Dash herself, Rachel Stoddard aka Max Ferocity) and a weekend full of spoilers, we now know how Dash has evolved. And taken in light of that, something became very clear to me about these Scripts: these are essentially Mechanologist reactions!
Security Script is by far the easiest to use effectively: you just play it at the end of your turn, and then use your opponent's next 2 turns to block with your attack actions. This could result in up to 4 additional block value each turn, and therefore 8 block in total!
But you probably don’t want to block with everything - which doesn't erase the value of this card. Often, 1 extra block means you keep an extra card in hand, avoid scary on-hits like Snatch, and generally serve to counteract the decreased average defense of your deck once you start to include items in your list.
Then imagine your opponent's face when you pitch a blue for a Security Script from hand and an additional one from the top of your deck!
Penetration Script seems worse when played normally, since you only get 1 turn out of it unless you've got another action point via non-crank means. Still, 3 to 4 boost attacks per turn seems realistic, so when played normally we are looking at 3-4 additional damage. When played as an instant thanks to Dash, it gets 2 turns of value; and if you flip it off the top during an attack, it transforms into a scary attack reaction - especially in light of our rising number of on-hits, like Combustible Courier or Heist.
Polarity Reversal Script seems to play a similar role to Penetration Script, with both upsides and downsides when compared to each other. First it's a red pitch instead of a yellow pitch, which can matter since you don’t always want to play it early. Then there is the constrain of your opponent controlling how much value this one generates - for example, in an aggro race where your opponent didn’t want to block anyway, you probably just wasted resources (and maybe an action point) playing this card.
Additionally, this one only impacts opposing actions; and while there are typically a bunch of actions in every deck, the first cards you want to block with are typically defense reactions which aren’t affected. But compared to Penetration Script, which needs a bunch of attacks, this one becomes better with bigger attacks that your opponent wants to block, while still performing fine if your opponent tries to block out your wide turn.
I think Polarity Reversal Script shines mostly in the late game, to finish off your opponent and win the value race for the last bits of damage. Or maybe in some decks with bigger attacks and meaningful on-hits... we'll just have to see what else Bright Lights may bring!
preview.dek
With those new items leaning both towards wide, aggressive turns as well as defensive strategies, my first instinct tells me to build some version of a hybrid list.
In this case, between wide aggro (that just became more consistent thanks to the new cheap boosts) and some kind of more 'defensive' Nitro Mechanoid combo deck to profit from Dash's ability as much as possible.
I tried to balance this list mostly about having some wide chains and attack actions to complement our new items. You can view the decklist here.
My general idea for this deck is to remain as flexible as possible. Some lines I expect to work quite nicely would be to boost at least once, and then end our turn by potentially playing an item to set up. For example, we could have a setup turn where we play an item from the top by pitching a blue, boost once with a 0-cost, and then shoot our pistol for 2 or just end on a 1-cost instead. Or we could boost once and end on Spark of Genius to set up an item and draw something we can arsenal.
Since we play a few items in this list that generate resources, these turns could easily be extended with additional boost cards, or we can set up for big High Octane combo turns.
Shoutout to the amazing new boost cards Expedite and MetEx, since you can start your turn with those and cheat in your Scripts for additional damage instead of just playing them at the end of your turn for setup.
I wanted to thank both LSS and the Rathe Times for this exciting opportunity to take part in the preview! I love the Mechanologist class, and I am excited about this future of Bright Lights and brilliant ideas.
