Now, getting to the actual article, I intend to show you why I feel that Drusilla is a good choice for the current metagame.
Let's take a look at her Essence:
Drusilla
Essence
Vampire
If Spike is in play, Drusilla gains +1 to all her talents.
Obviously, the best way to take advantage of this power is to pack Spike in your deck. However, thanks to Spike's popularity, you'll probably play a lot of games where your opponent's main character is Spike. Not to worry though, Dru's essence doesn't specify that you have to control Spike, just that he must be in play. Because of this, if your opponent is playing Spike, Drusilla gets an immediate advantage, becoming a 1/3/3/3. With those stats, she has access to a bunch of great cards, including Circle of Kayless, I Quit, Sunset, and Join the Pep Squad. Further, if she's at the Warehouse, she'd have 4 Smarts, allowing her to use Dig Up the Corpses for card advantage. Speaking of which, let's look at her level 1 ability:
Drusilla
0 Butt-Kicking
2 Smarts
2 Weirdness
2 Charm
Level 1 Villain
Vampire. Fatigue Drusilla during the Resource Step to either draw a
card or make your opponent discard a card.
As you've probably figured out by now, card advantage (having access to more cards, and thus more options, than your opponent) is a key strategy in Buffy (as well as almost every other CCG.) The ability to generate card advantage on a regular basis is certainly a valuable asset. Of course, using the ability fatigues Drusilla, so she can't use it and attempt a fight or challeng in the same turn, unless you have a way of refreshing her, such as the Hospital. Her stats are average in every department except Butt-Kicking, meaning that she's adequately equipped for any type of Challenge that doesn't involve bashing heads. She also has access to Studying and every item and skill except Stake & Crossbow or the promo card Quarterstaff. Now let's look at her level 2 and 3 abilities:
Drusilla
0 Butt-Kicking
2 Smarts
3 Weirdness
2 Charm
Level 2 Villain
Vampire. Fatigue Drusilla during the Resource Step to look at the
top 5 cards of your Resource Deck. Put one of them into your hand
and the rest in the discard pile.
Drusilla
0 Butt-Kicking
3 Smarts
3 Weirdness
2 Charm
Level 3 Villain
Vampire. Fatigue Drusilla during the Resource Step to look
at the top 5 cards of your Resource Deck. Put two of them into your
hand and the rest in the discard pile.
At level 2, she can start using Sunset and Circle of Kayless without any other card effect boosting a talent, and at level 3 she can use Dig Up the Corpses if she's at the Warehouse or if Spike is in play. Sunset is a very useful card for Vampires, allowing them to make 4 moves while the opponent only gets 2. Circle of Kayless is great for getting pesky Companions out of the way, and reams Giles decks unless they're packing 3 copies of Varsity Training. Dig Up the Corpses is great for augmenting Dru's already formidable card-drawing (one might almost say card-searching) ability at these levels. Added to her ability to use Empty Puppet Case at any level, DUtC can help you finish the game quickly.
In conclusion, let's look at the miscellaneous benefits of using Drusilla as your Main Character:
It stops Promo Spike from using his ability.
It stops any deck except another Drusilla deck from using Dru.
This is Haplo781, hoping you liked this article and signing of,
until next time.
Check out my Buffy CCG page at www.geocities.com/spikndru4ever
Email the webmaster any additions, corrections or dead links.
Revised 3-Feb-2002