I don't think this one will see as much play as these guys think. Unless your opponent loves to play those pieces with the wand type.

You know Death Stars? No more. Thanks to this, they will be slaguhtered. Place it on a MI figure, and you got yourself a new Mageslayer.

Bye bye Atlantis Guild, or whatever they are called now. This will tear through Magus' and that pesky Ananub. Go Black Powder Revolutionaries.

36 pts for +2 attack and double damage vrs a limited selection of figs? Im not sure its gonna "probably see a lot of play" For 36 pts you can get a very solid warrior (or two!). Not enough oomph for me... :)

Now the mountain pass domain... thats another story!

Bshugg is right.

Oh and don't for get the 'rule of 3' probably applies here too.

What if your army build is very strong but you notice it is susceptable to magic blast.

Add the Relic.

thsi relic is like getting a free sneak attack (read insta death) agianst all mage types. not only that but its adds +2 to attack and has no down side other then the cost.

now in the begining when the only wand types will be under 10 figs i dont see this being great but once a few more wand types are released or the next uber unique (there WILL be one) just happens to ahve a wand type... thsi will be worth its weight in gold (whitch, sadly isnt much, like waht? 2 onces?)

Will the damge be multiplied by 4, by 3, or saty unmodified??

It may not be the most played relic, but knocking out the magic figures in one blow has its uses. Luiguifi, in looking at the partially completed 2.0 special abilities card, I doubt any of the 2.0 uniques will have sneak attack, so that may not be an issue.

Sneak attack is not listed as an ability on the 2.0 SAC. I am under the opinion that 2.0 figures will only have abilities from the 2.0 SAC. That is how they did the DC version of HC. It was designed to be an entry point, just like they say 2.0 is going to be for MK. It is still a valid question though.

This relic says "double the unmodified damage", Sneak attack says "double the damage". Therefore, I think the relic doubles the damage, then the Sneak attack doubles that, then the rule of three kicks in.

What do you guys think?

This relic will let you do up to 3 additional damage to certain figures (double damage, capped by the rule of 3). For about the same cost, you could take a *** Blade Golem which does 4 damage regardless of the target figure's attack type. From what we've seen so far, I think most of the relics are going to be too expensive for what you get, especially considering how expensive most of the uniques we've seen are.

I guess to make it worth it you would have to use this relic on a unique that does at least 3 but preferably 4 natural damage. In that instance you would do 6 or 7 damage to those magic wielders. But don't forget the +2 to the attack. That could mean the difference between succeeding or failing in the attack. In any event, if your opponent has no magic figures this would be a waste of 36 points.

In casual fun games artifacts are gonna be really cool. Its neat to think of giving some big honkin' axe to your favorite figure and let them go to town with it. They are point costed appropriatly to keep them out of the competive playing field. This is a good thing and I really hope wizkids takes extra effort to keep from making them too competitive.

From anyone who as ever played a card game like Magic, the worst problems come not from a lone card or figure being too powerful, but from the interaction of two cards. Its very difficult to balance and sometimes a powerful use for something doesn't pop up in playtesting.

I think the key areas to worry about in MK with artifacts are :
Defense (especially with the defend ability)
Damage reduction
Threat range (ie bounding range, charge range etc)

If any of these three are allowed to get out of hand they can break the environment. Wizkids needs to be extra careful when making thing artifacts of this nature. An artifact that grants these kinds of bonus may be too powerful even at a much higher cost than 30-40 when combined with other figures and abilities.

For example a figure with 19-20 defend equipping an artifact that grants +3 defense, makes your entire army almost impossible to hit. Even if the figure and artifact costs 150 pts, they will virtually ruin Conquest or anything larger than 200 pt games.

I agree Bshugg, but Defend is the biggest worry...along with Relics that grant Speed Bonuses, since they may grant them to a 12" Charge figure one day or a 12" Bounder - but, if costs properly, maybe it's not so dangerous?? If a Unique for 120 points or so has an atack of 13 or 14, and gets a relic that gives it a +2 or +3 Attack, it will hit any Defend unit out there, even if the Defend unit had a relic...but what it leads to is that you MUST field these types of figures to compete, and therein lies the power creep problem. If we all HAVE to plan on facing a 19 Defend hero that has the Magestone Shield or whatever, we will be limited in army-building...