Claw

Alert

Invasion

Control

Type

Power to Grab

Steals Others’ Planets

Setup: After receiving provisions, shroud a pod from your cache into your nexus as your “claw.” Your claw may not be a negotiate pod.

Whenever a pod is discharged that matches your claw, use this power to reveal your claw, return your claw to your cache, and steal a planet from the system of the alien that discharged the pod. Destroy all ships on that planet and move the planet to your system. You gain 1 dominion for each foreign planet in your system.

At the start of any warpfall, you may shroud a pod from your cache in your cache as your new claw, swapping if with the existing claw if one present.

Legacy: At the start of each upkeep, extract one pod. If alien(s) have that pod in their exhaust, those alien(s) gain 1 dominion.

Is it machine? Is it organic? No one knows. What we do know is that this avid collector of planets has a reach that extends beyond the stars. If the Claw grabs hold of you, enjoy your new home.

Any: Any

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As an actor, during contact, if both fleets have the same driver value, you may discharge this flare to blitz the opponent.

Actor: Contact

Super Flare

During any contact, when any two fleets have the same driver value, you may discharge this flare to use your power. Steal a planet from either leader’s system.

Any: Contact

Modifications

The original alien is called “The Claw.” Shortened to Claw to follow my one-name edict.
Original Claw immediately gains a new claw after using its power. My version can only use the power once per encounter and has to wait until next warpfall.
Power name is originally the power of “The Claw.” Changed to something more action-oriented since the alien name changed.
Claw’s legacy inverts the setup. Aliens will be trying to play as many pods as possible and as common of pods as possible to try and get the lucky dominion bonus at the end of each invasion. This pod has an element of chance behind it, so any alien can potentially benefit from it. Since N is the most common card, aliens that can play a lot of Ns will likely benefit most.

Tips

Claw has the highest chance of stealing a planet by using a common attack pod such as a 06 or 08. Artifacts other than the zaps don’t have duplicates, so they are inadvisable unless the dark forge is in play. Flares are unique, so those are definitely a no-go. Distress pods are also potential targets. These tips work in reverse when playing against Claw and trying to determine what is safe.
Odd attack pods are safe from claw’s reach, while even attack pods, except 00, are potential hazards.
Claw’s power applies to any discharged pod, not just drivers. Beware playing distress pods haphazardly. Only patrol and assassin pods are safe, unless the dark forge is in effect.
Poison pods and zaps can make for great claws. Even though there aren’t many of these, aliens are incentivized to play them, causing them to be drawn to the surface faster. Claw can even tell if someone else has a poison pod due to the poison damage effect.
While Claw’s dominion gaining and planet stealing ability is formidable, the claw can also be used to get a pod out of claw’s hand for requesting a resupply. Since it can swap each warpfall, it doesn’t have to stick with any one pod for long. It cannot use a negotiate pod as its claw, so it will still need to get rid of those the normal way.
Claw’s effect can make it easier to deactivate or eliminate other aliens, since stealing home planets gains Claw dominion at the cost of someone else’s authority.
Since Claw destroys all ships on the planets it steals, it can take dominion away from other aliens while increasing its own. It puts a lot of pressure on other aliens to avoid getting grabbed by the claw.

Development Notes

Claw’s original name “The Claw” is a Toy Story reference. While I am not opposed to Cosmic aliens referencing aliens from other media such as with Spiff, the reference here is forced, to the point where The Claw was the only two-word alien until three expansions later. Even without knowing the reference, the discrepancy in the naming suggests that it’s referencing something. I considered something like “Collector” as a full shift away from the theme, but it clashes with the later released Packrat. I think the idea of the claw machine alien still works on its own.
One of the biggest issues with this power isn’t related to the power itself but the forge. Claw can only benefit if a pod in its nexus is discharged, meaning there needs to be at least two copies of it. Negotiates are off the table, and many pods only have one copy. For this power to have merit, there needs to be a sufficient number of pods with duplicates. The main reason this power is red is because the user needs to know which pods don’t have duplicates. The dark forge can help to alleviate this issue, but since it’s an optional feature, it’s not a perfect fix. The base forge needs to have a sufficient number of duplicates. The best solution I found was to make it an easy shorthand. Odd pods tend to not have duplicates, while even pods do. This makes odd pods “safe” and even pods “dangerous.”
There is no need to prevent lucre from being the claw. Claw can use its claw to deter other aliens from spending their lucre, as everyone will know what it is due to the gold backing. It would prevent aliens from discharging lucre, as a tradeoff of being effectively unable to use the power. I like adding the option as an additional strategy to consider. Negotiates don’t have this backing and are too commonplace, making it too easy to get dominion from it.
Claw and Clone have an interesting dynamic in my version, since Clone physically duplicates its pods and adds them to the forge, increasing the number of viable pods for Claw’s claw. Mutant is also interesting since it forges its own pods.
Claw has to be very careful around Locust, since Locust can eat the captured planets it steals, directly targeting its dominion instead of its authority.
If two aliens simultaneously discharge the same pod that happens to be the claw, the claw will return to the cache after stealing the first planet, preventing a second one from also being stolen. Claw will be unable to steal another planet until the next warpfall, when it can gain a new claw.