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"The Minister with Divine Enlightenment 圣光之国士 (shèng guāng zhī guó shì)"
Why is he a Demi-God:
I wish I had an answer to this question that I am whole-heartedly convinced with. Unfortunately, I do not. "Divine Enlightenment" is an exaggeration of Lu Meng's studious discipline, where he turns from a military brute into a learned minister. His remarkable improvements are due to his own hard work and there was nothing divine about his new found enlightenment. Perhaps by giving this character a tinge of divinity, he rises to join the immortal Demi-Gods? Of course, my aim is not to pick the minor faults of this game, given the huge amount of literature references in all the cards combined.
Character ability 1: "Browse Through 涉猎 (shè liè)"
During your drawing phase, you can choose to carry out the following action to replace the drawing of cards: Flip over 5 cards from the top of the deck and take 1 card of each suit (max 4 cards: 1 heart, 1 spade, 1 clubs, 1 diamonds). Discard the remainder.
Character ability 2: "Strike at the Heart 攻心 (gōng xīn)"
During your action phase, you can view all the on-hand cards of 1 player. You can then pick 1 card with a suit of "hearts" from this player's on-hand cards and display it for every player to see. After doing so, you can choose to either discard this "hearts" card or place it at the top of the deck.
Ability's relation to story:
"Browse Through" is the very phrase that Sun Quan 孙权 used to advise Lu Meng to read more and be knowledgeable. Of course, Sun Quan's intention was not to turn Lu Meng into a PhD, so he only advocated browsing through as many books as possible to get a wider breadth of knowledge. Using a wordplay on the ability name, Lu Meng can now "browse through" the first 5 cards of the deck and take his pick. Very nice fit!
"Strike at the Heart" is also another wordplay. In his attack on Jing Zhou 荆州, Lu Meng used psychological tactics to defeat Guan Yu 关羽. He "attacked" the hearts of the civilians of Jing Zhou by treating them well and with respect. It was thus that Guan Yu's troops began deserting him.
Hello. About Ability 1: The Flipping of the 5 cards from the top of the deck must it be shown to the other players?
ReplyDeleteAbility 2: If the player got no cards that have the suit "hearts" then what happens?
Ability 1: Yes all the other players will get to see all 5 cards flipped over and which cards you keep.
ReplyDeleteAbility 2: Nothing happens. You simply return the hand of cards back to the player. At least you got to see the cards.
the second ability can only be used once a turn, correct?
ReplyDeleteYup!
ReplyDeleteif he uses the second ability to view xiao qiao's cards, will he be able to pick spade cards from her hand? because of her ability (all spades considered as hearts)
ReplyDeleteYes, he'll be able to pick a Spade card from Xiao Qiao as she turns it into a Heart card.
ReplyDeleteFor his second ability, do we show the cards to other players too? :)
ReplyDeleteYes, the card is revealed to everyone.
ReplyDeleteFor his 1st ability, you say "during the drawing phase" (versus instead of draw phase or skip draw phase to) does this mean he first draws 2 and THEN uses his ability (or maybe even use his ability first then draws 2)?
ReplyDeleteOf those 5 cards, he gets to choose which to keep, as long as it's only 1 of each suit, right?
1) The ability is during the drawing phase, but replaces the usual draw.
ReplyDelete2) Yes, he gets to keep 1 of each suit and has to discard the rest.
Hey Ricky, I'm just wondering why do you translate the characters as Demi-God ? Because in chinese, 神 (shen) means god not demi-god ? Can you explain your point of view? Thanks
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but regarding the Xiao Qiao comment above, wouldn't it be correct if you canNOT take a Spade from her hand, since Spades are only considered as Hearts by Xiao Qiao? Since this effect is Lu Meng's, doesn't he still consider her Spades as Spades?
ReplyDeleteTo the above Anonymous - no. Everybody considers Xiao Qiao's spades to be hearts at all times because it is an enforced ability. For example, if someone uses blaze on her and she shows a spade card, it is considered to be a heart, so the person who is using the blaze must discard a heart to damage her. Lu Meng's ability works in the same way - if she has a card that is printed as a spade, he (and everyone else) considers it to be a heart.
ReplyDeleteI really think that demigod Lu Meng is the best of the demigods. My friends and I sometimes just play games with official and unofficial demigods, and Lu Meng and his faction frequently triumph. His drawing power is amazing. Even if there are only two suits in the top five cards of the deck, Lu Meng still gets his choice of which ones go into his hand. Strike at the Heart is also amazing. It is bad enough that he can view someone else's hand and see if they have DODGES or ATTACKS - he can also get rid of a card! This card is truly worthy of representing the man who killed Guan Yu!
ReplyDelete^ I am not going to challenge you, since everyone has their best characters in their mind. But I would like to point out some weaknesses of DG Lu Meng.
ReplyDeleteDG Lu Meng has excellent character abilities in his turn, but he has trouble outside his turn. He has only 3 units of health but no defensive ability outside his turn. His defense comes from "Browse Through", which allows him to draw more cards, raising his choice to get defensive cards like DODGE, PEACH, armours and +1horse. In other words, characters that can break his defense, either removing his cards or direct damage, can destroy Demi-god Lu Meng fatally.
Also, all time-delay tool cards are deadly towards DG Lu Meng. RATIONS DEPLETED blocks "Browse Through", ACEDIA hinders "Strike at the Hearts" while LIGHTNING is can kill any character with 3 units of health.
Besides, DG Lu Meng's ability is so powerful that his enemies focus fire on him, except there are more "taunting" characters like Hua Tuo and Sun Shangxiang...
Nevertheless, DG Lu Meng is still powerful, and he is deadly towards DG from Shu allegiations (DG Guan Yu, DG Zhuge Liang and DG Zhao Yun), suiting the historical fact. If you use DG Lu Meng, do not reveal your roles before you hold a bunch of defensive cards by "Browse Through". Use "Strike at the Hearts" carefully, and discarding the PEACHes and DODGEs at the enemy that is most "taunting". By doing so, you can maximise the power of DG Lu Meng.