Trade Cards Online

General description:
Retrieve Lost Mech: a command card, three turns after it is revealed, allows you to scrap it and pull a mech from your scrapheap into play, with damage counters one less than its structure value. e.g. a mech with structure 7 would have 6 damage counters on it.

Uses:
Since Retrieve Lost Mech only costs 2 (if you have Assembly) it's basically a way to get very expensive mechs into play for very cheap. Instead of paying 10-15 for a powerful late-game mech, you can pay 2, wait several turns while you keep deploying and paying for other mechs, then bring it back from scrap.

Strategies and game play:
I've used this as the core of a Wolf deck. Plays defensively early on, let some powerful mechs go to the scrapheap then retrieve them for free. Makes a devastating late-game punch if you can survive the early waves.

Combos with other cards:
Excellent with Black Market Connections. Discard your expensive, powerful mechs to bring back Retrieve Lost Mech and bring them into play. Rinse and repeat. Mech Rotation is a nice addition, to remove all damage tokens from the retrieved mechs.

Good mechs to retrieve have high cost, high attack, good abilities, and low structure. A good example is the Loki Prime, which can overheat to do a whopping 12 damage. Others in the Mad Cat series work well also.

Ways to counteract it:
With only 2 armor 6 structure, RLM is vulnerable while it has counters on it. Once mechs are brought back they are also weakened, so it's advantageous to push the attack and force your opponent to scrap their mechs again before they can repair the damage.

Strengths/Pros:
Low cost, potential game-ender when combined with other cards. The ability to bring back scrapped units is fairly rare in Battletech, so it's a fairly unique ability. Since the only way to kill you is to scrap cards from your deck, your opponent will often inadvertently give you some powerful mechs to return.

Weaknesses/Cons:
The three turn delay means that you need some defensive force in place first, or you'll lose waiting for the activation counters to go away. In the very late game, three turns is a long time, so you might never get to use this card if it's drawn too late.

Variations:
Available in both Limited and Unlimited printings.

Artwork and aesthetics:
Not bad. Shows a mech being repaired in a slip-shod fashion, which is about the spirit of the card.

Overall rating:
7.5 - very powerful with the right deck, but requires a strategy surrounding it to be effective.