Unmatched
Shakespeare
Overview
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright who has ever lived. Responsible for timeless classics such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet, most, if not all, famous literature and cinema can be traced back to his work. In Unmatched, Shakespeare uses his mastery of the written word to prove that the pen is truly mightier than the sword.
Shakespeare is included in Unmatched: Slings and Arrows
Hero Stats
Health: 13 / Attack: Melee / Movement: 2
Special Ability: Iambic Pentameter
After you attack or defend, add your card to your line. When your line has 10 or more syllables, discard your line. If there are exactly 10 syllables, resolve the completion effect on the last card.
*This activates even if it isn’t your turn*
Sidekick: Actors
Health: 1 / Attack: Melee / x3
Strategies and Tips
Shakespeare is undoubtedly one of the more complicated heroes in Unmatched. To play him reliably, players need to constantly think ahead to plan out card sequences. Considering attacking and defending adds cards to his line, players must consider their opponent’s moves just as much as their own. Because of this, it is important to work on building his line based on what is in hand, not what has yet to be drawn. Despite his more complicated playstyle, Shakespeare has many versatile options to deal with most any Hero in Unmatched.
Primary Strengths
Powerful attack options
Healing
Multiple sidekicks which he can recover
Primary Weaknesses
Forced discard
Low card draw
His best card effects rely on activating his special ability
Tip #1: Power of the Written Word
The most important aspect to understand with Shakespeare is how his special ability works. Iambic Pentameter is a type of line used in poetry that Shakespeare excelled at. It describes the rhythm established by words using 10 syllables in each line. It is quite clever how this aspect has translated into the game.
Each card in Shakespeare’s deck lists the number of syllables in its name, so this is not something players will have to figure out for themselves. After you play an action card as Shakespeare, either for attack or defense, you add that card to his line. That means instead of discarding your card, you place it to the side. Continue doing this, placing each played card next to the last, until the number of syllables in that line equals or is greater than 10. At that point, the following will happen:
- If your line has exactly 10 syllables, read out your line (the name of each card, in order) to the other players in the game. This is not mandatory, and you are encouraged to embody the spirit of Shakespeare and really ham it up. Once that is done, resolve the completion effect on the last card in your line. The completion effect is highlighted in blue and marked with a quill. Then move all cards in your line to your discard pile.
- If your line has more than 10 syllables, place all cards in your line into your discard pile without resolving any completion effects.
- Once your line has been discarded, the next combat card you play begins a new line.
The last point to remember regarding lines is that once a line has been completed, you must immediately begin the process of resolving the effect, even if it is your opponent’s turn. Additionally, these effects cannot be canceled since the completion effect occurs after the end of combat when all cards are no longer in play. Due to this, it is extremely important for players to focus on not exceeding 10 syllables in their line. Shakespeare’s most useful and powerful card effects require the completion of a line.
Tip #2: Plan Your Verse
Since it is critical to not exceed 10 syllables per line, each line must be planned out. While each card has at the bare minimum a useful completion effect, there are three cards I want to highlight and believe should be prioritized:
- Horror – This is a set of five 4 value attack cards that hold devastating potential. During combat, the value of this card is increased by +1 for each other Horror card in your line. While it does rely on playing other horror cards sequentially, making it quite predictable, it hardly matters if your opponent sees it coming if the attack value continues to increase making it harder for them to defend against. The deadliest aspect of this card though is its line completion effect, which deals 1 damage to the opposing fighter for each other card in your line. The maximum amount of damage this can deal is 5 since there are no cards with less than 2 syllables in his deck, but 5 points of automatic, unblockable damage is nothing to scoff at. This is the play that can quickly turn the tide of any game in your favor. Alternatively, you could play a few of these cards back-to-back, then attack with The Ides of March to end your line and not only bait out an opponent’s high value defense card, but also deal 2 points of unblockable damage.
- My Kingdom For A Horse – This card does not have any effects on its own, which is great against opponents who have access to many cards that can cancel your card effects. Despite its high base attack power, the true value lies in its line completion effect, which gains you 2 actions. My favorite way to use this card is with All Are Punished. The idea is to start your turn adjacent to your opponent, then attack first with All Are Punished. Be careful with this card since its after combat effect deals 1 damage to each other fighter in your zone, including your sidekicks. This card has 4 syllables, so if you follow it up with My Kingdom For A Horse which has 6 syllables, not only do you use two strong attack cards, but you also gain 2 more actions. This basically lets you have two turns back-to-back. You can use this opportunity to maneuver away and regroup or commit to more attacks. This is an excellent play mid game to really put your opponent in a disadvantageous situation.
- Once More Unto The Breach – This card is best used defensively in order to guarantee activating it’s after combat effect, which lets you recover a defeated Actor to a space in Shakespeare’s zone. Shakespeare doesn’t have much health, so he is going to rely on his Actor’s to take a few hits. This makes activating this card’s line completion effect all the more important since it allows you to return ALL defeated Actors to spaces in Shakespeare’s zone. This card has 6 syllables, so you can attack on your turn with one of his many 4 syllable options and purposefully leave yourself vulnerable to an attack on your opponent’s turn so you can use this to defend and complete your line.
Tip #3: Actors, Take the Stage!
While Shakespeare is powerful on his own, he doesn’t have the tools to survive without his Actors. While they are vital to protecting Shakespeare from attacks, they have plenty of utility in combat.
- Again – This is an Actor only 3 value versatile card with the after combat effect of letting you return the first card in your line to your hand before this card is added to your line. This is a great way to recover a good defense card in a pinch and is vital for setting up a better line to make sure you can end with 10 syllables. This is also a good way to essentially move a card from the front of your line to the end so you can activate a better line completion effect.
- Et Tu, Brute? – This is a versatile card that can be used by any of your fighters. Its During Combat effect increases the value of this card by +1 for each of your fighters adjacent to the opposing fighter. With a base value of 3, depending on the map this card could end up with a value of 7. This will not be your best attacking option, but under the right circumstances it could prove to be a solid defensive choice. Additionally, if you end your line with this card, you will be able to place your fighters in any space. This grants you a huge advantage by letting you set the layout of the board as you see fit.
- Places, Places! – This is a rather simple card with a decent value of 3 that allows you to move each Actor up to 3 spaces after combat. If you feel so inclined to end your line with this card, then you can place Shakespeare in a zone with no Actors. Ending your line with this card pretty much allows you to place Shakespeare anywhere on the board you please.
- Such Sweet Sorrow – With a value of 4, this is the best card that the Actors have at their disposal. I recommend always using this card defensively. It will force your opponent to consider using their high value attacks on the Actors rather than Shakespeare in order to break through their defenses. The After Combat ability that allows you to move your fighter up to 2 spaces adds even more to the defensive capabilities of this card.
Final Thoughts
Shakespeare is going to be difficult to learn to play effectively. More so, he will be difficult to learn to play against effectively. Shakespeare players have to constantly be thinking how to plan out card sequences in advance and try to plan for cards they might not even have in their hand yet. Blocking and defending adds to the line, so players don’t just have to plan out their moves, but plan around when and how often their opponent attacks them as well. With that said, Shakespeare is also one of the most rewarding heroes to play. Planning out sequences and successfully getting these sequence effects to activate is one of the most satisfying gameplay loops Unmatched has to offer. Shakespeare has plenty of options to deal with most any Hero in Unmatched, but it will truly come down to the player’s skill and forethought in order to bring out this Hero’s true potential.
