Old Polly and Friends
Dominion Rogues have been a sneaky and underhanded troupe on the tabletops of Tauber for a while now, often with Muridae lending his abilities to the Dominion.
But what if Muridae turned his hand to aiding the far more noble (as they'd assure you) Rogues of the Commonwealth? And who would help enable this troupe? Well, obviously a blind old Gnome with a cockatrice and a weasel.
‘Prognostication’
“Pwease Mrs Polly, can you help me?”
Old Polly's first piece of rogue-ish support, which all Rogues are sure to appreciate, is her skill 'Prognostication'. Being able to prophesise future events is generally a useful skill, and for her, it allows her to divine the future of melee cards to come. Or simply, she and fellow Rogues nearby can see the opponent’s melee hand. Currently, this is incredibly useful for her, Loci, Muridae, and Natty.
In all cases, seeing your opponent’s hand can be incredibly good defensively. They mainly have Rising Attacks? Play your Low Guard. Falling Swings? High Guard. But where it can also be useful is turning Loci and Muridae’s previously average Melee into Melee threats, especially against enemies with a few distractions.
'Wily Old Weasel'
“Yes! I can get my wood out!”
But melee isn't the only thing Polly aids. With 'Wily Old Weasel', she can also support Rogues' Arcane actions too. She can make use of this herself to 'Petrifying Gaze', then still have energy for a melee attack. Or, she can aid Loci in his own Arcane endeavours, meaning Loci can utilise 'One with the Wind' or 'Verdant Growth' twice off his base energy, allowing him to double up on movement or blocking terrain features. Lastly, Natty can make use of this for a slightly cheaper 'Slingshot' attack, which can leave her with an extra energy for a melee attack, or more likely 'Swift'.
'Petrifying Gaze'
But what about Old Polly herself? Surely the cockatrice-wielding Rogue must be able to get stuck into combat too? Well, you'd be right!
As mentioned, Old Polly comes with the Arcane ability 'Petrifying Gaze' which, unusually for Commonwealth, allows her to drain energy and deal magical damage. Both these are for X off a pink card, but that's not the entire truth either. Befitting a sneaky, underhanded, and eclectic professor, Old Polly has a rather unusual damage bonus for melee, which also applies to her arcane ability. Instead of a flat bonus to a specific type of melee damage, she instead deals a bonus +1 to all damage, so long as she's attacking an enemy with no energy remaining. This makes Polly great at going after enemies which have activated and spent all their energy. With no energy to ‘go for it’ and ‘Prognostication’, she can carefully attack to ensure the best possible attack and deal bonus damage as she does so.
Defence
So she's great on the offence, but what about on the defence? Is she as vulnerable as some other 1" melee gnomes? Not at all!
Her signature contains the very rare ability to deal damage outside of her melee zone, and it also saps energy. Opponents will have to be careful attacking the unassuming academic in melee, as a good hand from her can leave an attacker starved of energy and vulnerable to a counterattack from the rogue who loves bullying 0 energy models!
