I compared this (rightfully) with Inhuman Fortitude, so there's a good chance that the comparison will continue as we go on. Stats-wise, it's infinitely better. A 3/4 asset instead of a 4/2? I'll take that, thanks. Plus, the symbol spread is actually supported (unlike Inhuman Fortitude in it's time, although a pretty good case could be made against Earth's support in the last and current sets). A common deckbuilding maxim from one of our players here is this : "If it's a 2CC, it better win games." By making this card a 4 Control instead, they ensured that it would technically see play. The problem is, there's better ways to reduce damage than this card. Let's look at it's effects instead of tossing a blanket statement.

" R Commit 1 foundation: When you are taking damage, reduce that amount of damage by 1 (minimum 1). " Vanilla effect, but fair. The other, restrticted effect is as follows : " Earth Character R Remove 1 card in your discard pile from the game: When you are taking damage, reduce that damage by 2 (minimum 1). " Again, another vanilla effect. Is this card worth running? You might say no, but there's a point that says this might not be as bad as it looks, it lies in the Injury Asset ruling. It goes (and I'm heavily paraphrasing here) : It says "Reduce the damage taken to 0" as opposed to reducing the attack's damage value. It goes through Throws and staging area Injury Assets Enhances! The problem is, it cannot reduce them to zero. Then again, neither could Inhuman Fortitude, so it's a plus for Superhuman Strength - A potential -3 damage as opposed to a surefire -1.

The real treat about this card, however, is that it allows you to rig your Remove from Game pile with good cards if you are Earth. You're probably asking : Why would you honestly want to do that? There's a simple reason, really - Forgotten Memories. Chaos/Earth, due to Kyoshiro, Nagase and Demitri, is actually a very viable splash nowadays. Dancing Battle Kabuki, 100 Years of Humiliation are very good foundations sharing Chaos and Earth, and if you need your character to be an upstanding citizen, you have Arrogant and Insolent in Chaos. Earth has access to lots of amusing things, such as Absurd Strength (to prevent that momentum gain from your opponent) and various other damage reducing things, such as Superhuman Strength. Whether you chain your attacks through Chaos or Earth, you can effectively play a lot of them even though it would be realistically impossible to do so, at the cost of a momentum and a commit.

Final judgment? The fact that I had to stretch to find a use for the card that was outside the realm of actual use shows you that it's not a winner. In fact, I would be very surprised to see someone owing any measure of success with this card. Fortunately, it's only a rare, but the fact remains that in most decks, you have a better option available, either because the stats are plain better (see 100 Years of Destrruction, More Machine than Woman, etc.) or because the effect is better (pretty much the same cards again, but you can add to it if you like.) So, for once in this column, I'd pass on playing a card. Who knew I could be capable of such folly?

Oh, and for those expecting that misleading, I apologize.