0W 0C 6F

Flavor: "Perhaps in the end," Adira considered, taking hold of the last of the Caliph's banners and tearing it down, "the best legacy we can hope for is to leave a better world behind than the one we were born into." - "The End of Age," Fin

As much as any card can, this card and its flavor text mark the end of the first story arc of Legend of the Burning Sands. The jewel of the Desert has been ransacked, the Assassins' curse is ended, the great work of the Ra'Shari and the Ashalan is complete, and the Caliph has finally been destroyed and her centuries of tyranny brought to a close. While there are portents of dangerous times to come with warring Jinn, invaders from the Yodatai and Ivory Kingdoms, and the work of the Qolat among the Dahab, they are part of a new story in a new age. The rise of Adira as the new Caliph marks the end of the Tyrant, and the old ways are transformed into the new.

The use of 'A Better World" is tied to no specific action, but to an understanding of the many workings of Legend of the Burning Sands. With no actions or effects printed on the card, there is no specific use for the card by itself. The only notable feature about the card is its fate value: six! This is higher than any other card in the game. The faction champions all have fives, and nothing else is higher than a four, Much like Focus in a certain other game, the whole point of the card is that number. So what good does the fate value do? Why is it useful enough to include in a deck, instead of something with a lower fate value and some other use?

To begin answering the first question, a look at the first three factions is in order. Back when LBS first began, the three factions were the Senpet with their focus on battles, the Moto with their focus on raids, and the Assassins with their focus on duelling. A Better World works solidly with any of these focuses. In battle, for each hero destroyed a card can be discarded to absorb damage equal to its fate value.

While this will not help against those who berserk, any other engagement is much less fatal. This means that Adnan and A Better World together can soak all the damage from Gaheris engaging! Speaking of Gaheris, fate values are critical to raids. Gaheris using a six to raid simply can not be beat. A wiser use, though, is on a raider with no raid bonus, or even a raid penalty. If Adrian goes raiding, few will bother to defend with a high valued card. Even after Adnan's penalty raiding with A Better World still produces a five, which is higher than most people would consider using as raid defence. If Gaheris or someone else with a real raid bonus should also be trying to steal water, all the better.

Of course, this works just as well on the defense. Kabdar Fassal with A Better World will stop almost any raid, and again someone with a raid penalty still has a good chance of winning with that high a fate value.

If used correctly, a fate value of six is deadly in a duel. If used as a thrust, it will almost certainly do damage - a lot of it! Adding a point from A Dying Sahir's Tale to make it seven is generally considered excessive. What makes this more effective is the justifiable tendency to use fate values of two or three when trying to parry from the hand. Of course, trying to use A Better World as a parry tends to be suicidal unless working with inside information.

While these three uses are enough by themselves to make A Better World worth while, there are other cards which rely on fate values. Should it come up randomly in a draw and discard, it makes cards like Badr al Din's Chains of Binding, Rahmid, Discorporation, Tomb Raiding, or Divination considerably more potent. Adrianna becomes a monster, with a berserk damage of eight! Similarly, when Nekhebet performs archery, a card's fate value can be added to her attack, again making a total of eight. If an opponent refuses Dairya's innate challenge, losing six ka for the duration of the turn will kill almost any hero.

This still leaves the question of why to include A Better World instead of some card with a lower fate value. As with any card, the intent of the deck must be considered. If the deck includes a lot of draw and discard actions, such as those listed above, having many cards with high fate values is important. In such a deck the faction champion, the special item or items, and some stories all have a place and A Better World rounds out the collection of high fate values. For those in the enviable position of needing a couple of cards to fill the last slots of a deck, high fate values fill out the gap nicely since they are used in so many basic game mechanics. In a deck with a focus on any of the three areas discussed above, having extra high fate value cards is useful.

Finally, there's the most trivial reason: if you happen to win a storyline tournament, who knows what effect the card may have on the story?

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