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Explored Territory is a common Immediate Terrain from Hidden City. It
says that the next time one of your cards in that battle [other than
the
terrain itself] is destroyed from a card effect, negate the
destruction,
then draw a card. This may be one of the more powerful terrains to
come
out recently.
First, it allows you to negate a destruction. The usefullness of this
varies by what you are facing. If you are facing a ranged attack deck,
this forces them to waste a ranged attack just to negate the terrain.
Granted, they will use the least useful one first, but it does make
them
use one up. If you are facing a dueling deck, it is even better as it
makes them use up one of their limited supplies of duels. It is even
worse if the only form of Pkill they have is something like Overwhelmed
or To Do What We Must, as they lose a card, and you do not.
The second thing about this terrain that is interesting is that it
allows you to draw a card after negating the destruction. This is very
powerful, though even more so in the current Lion terrain/card draw
decks. Getting a card advantage is good, and gaining one WITH the
negating of a card's destruction is just a great bonus. And it is in
the
middle of a battle!
Now for the bad points. First, it is a terrain, which means there are
multiple ways to destroy it. However, this holds true for all
terrains,
and this one is worth the chance, at least so I think. Also, if they
spent a resource to destroy it [either a card from their hand or a
holding], you have still gained some advantage.
Second, after it has done it's thing, it still hangs around. Unlike
Blocked Ground, it does not destroy itself to do it's thing. So, you
have used it up, but it hangs there, clogging you from playing other
terrains, unless you choose to destroy it yourself. If it has already
been used up, I doubt your opponent is going to destroy it, unless he
absolutely has to play a terrain of his own, in which case why didn't
he
destroy it before you used it up? So, you will likely have it hanging
there uselessly, or have to destroy it yourself. Of course, some cards
don't mind if it keeps hanging there, like Shinjo Reizo.
Third, it will not help if you are paying the cost of an action of one
of your cards that destroys another of your cards. What I mean is, if
you play Overwhelmed, this will prevent the Overwhelmed from destroying
your personality, but since you did not fulfil the cost for playing
Overwhelmed, it was negated. Whether it returns to your hand or not, I
am not sure. That depends on a Rules Judges ruling.
Still, for all it's limits, it is still a good terrain to keep in mind
for your next deck. Think about it, especially if building a Lion
deck.
Just a few thoughts on this seemingly useless card.
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