How to Use a Gamebreaker
by Carl Van Ostrand

You know when your holding a huge level 4 card and you just can’t wait to play it?! Alright easy now, calm down. We call them gamebreakers. A gamebreaker card is a high-level and/or high-cost card that rewards your patience with raw, finishing power.

These cards were designed to hit the table heavy, with authority, and cause your opponent to reach for his spare pair of pants (every Ophidian player should be so wise to carry some). A well-timed gamebreaker essentially puts any close game in your favor, and spells doom for your opponent if they fail to deal with it.

Problem #1. Being that gamebreakers are usually high level means you can’t play them until you have a nicely promoted gladiator in the right discipline. 4th Level cards are therefore limited to only ¼ of your match.

Problem #2. Since you can’t play them until late game, you don’t want many in your deck, at the risk of bogging your hand down with unplayable cards.

So what’s an ambitious Gladiator supposed to do? First and foremost, realize you cannot depend on your gamebreaker coming to you. You could stack your deck with high-level gamebreakers so that you are almost guaranteed to get one. However, then your opponent will trounce you in the early waves, while you might as well go play Jenga by yourself.

Let’s say you’ve been playing a Portal deck with some Bio-tek splashed in. Up until know you’ve depended on your low-level minions and diseases in the early game, but your only real finisher was your 3 “Gun Kipas” (wonderful card). “Peptide Growth Hormone” is also great but neither pack the wallop you’re looking for.

Then you casually open your next booster and you see “He Who Hungers” (and yes, ok it’s foil too you greedy bastard). Say hello to your first gamebreaker.

He Who Hungers
Level 4 Portal Minion (-)
P:6 M:5
Life: 3 ADMG: 5
(P)Scrap a Minion you control.
When you declare an Attack with HE WHO HUNGERS, Scrap X Minions you control: HE WHO HUNGERS deals +X ADMG

Ok so he doesn’t come cheap. You have to pay 6 CP and a minion just to get him in play. But not only does this guy come with 5 ADMG standard, but he can also eat your little “Bloaters” and “Grendels” until he’s strong enough to knock off a gladiator in one attack! THIS, packs the wallop you were looking for.

Now the beauty of a gamebreaker is that you rarely need more than one. Stuffing three “He Who Hungers” in any Portal deck would not be a wise move. You would struggle finding a way to play them all in the fourth wave, and drawing them early would only bog your hand down.

Considering “Prince of Gate’s” ability, playing two might not be so impossible. You could easily maintain two cheap minions for a total of 2CP and use the remaining twelve CP to drop two massive BOMBS on the table. I sympathize with the person on the receiving end of that abuse.