Ice Comet
Hey Salvagers,
Today we are going to talk about the utility of one of my personal favorite action cards affectionately referred to as “Ice Comet”.
Ice Comet
As you may or may not know, this card allows you to freeze any two robots on the playing field. At first glance, and after a few games of playing you might actually be convinced that this card is one of the weaker cards in the deck. Fear not salvager, I am here to convince you otherwise. In fact, I would advocate that this card allows some very useful in game mechanics that you can orchestrate over your playing area.
Sure, you are probably thinking, wait a second, but a freeze card can be destroyed by any of the destroy cards, causing it to be at a severe disadvantage. I’ll do the math for you -- there are 16 total destroy cards that can eliminate a frozen card. Why is this card even useful if you can just play on top of it, and could be easily destroyed?
The single best utility (in my opinion) of the Ice Comet is the ability to freeze robots within your playing field, and play an action with them. Bare with me, this will all make sense soon. The way I play, I like to be able to have full control over my salvage condition with the cards in my hand. It’s sort of like in Rummy, where you have all your pairs, and then you play them at the end and win. This inevitably leads to a stacking of robots in my hand while I’m searching for the perfect selection.
Layer against your opponent
A freeze essentially acts as a second layer. I’ll usually play a very specific way against my opponent. First I’ll freeze some robots on my side. Next, I’ll swap a couple. You can actually just play three actions straight up if you would like -- which is Ice Comet, then two swaps. Next turn, if they haven’t unfrozen or destroyed the robots in front of them, I’ll start to stack robots over the freeze. This acts as a second layer -- they have to destroy this, then remember if the frozen card underneath is worth destroying. It could be that they played over their salvage condition, and now the frozen card is valuable, but they can’t remember what it is. This strategy is why I think the Ice Comet is underrated. Destroys are single level depth cards, they eliminate the surface and reveal whats underneath. Ice Comets allow a layering and a memory component. This memory component is useful to use when multiple robots have already been stacked over it.
Go for the long play
One more reason why I think the Ice Comet is so great. Freezing yourself and keeping them frozen. More often than not, your opponent isn’t as likely to unfreeze your robots in that moment because it probably at the time helps your salvage condition. They might be puzzled, why in the world would they freeze their cards that are helping them towards their salvage goal? However, strategically playing over your salvage card with a new one, and also keeping your layer underneath with the first salvage goal condition satisfied is a very relevant strategy. This allows the ability to salvage, then next turn unfreeze (which at this point your opponent probably is unaware of what’s underneath) and salvage again. This is a great combination if executed correctly. You only have to salvage 3 times to win, and with these two quick salvages you are well on your way to victory!
Got some thoughts on the Ice Comet card? Discovered some other mechanics that are effective with it? Feel free to reach out on social media and tell us about it.
Cheers, Aaron
