Magnet

Alert

Support

Combat

Type

Power to Attract

Attracts Ships to a Fleet

As an actor, after arrival, you may use this power to either force another sponsor to switch fleets or force another alien in either fleet to commit as many ships as you this invasion. Rebound any ships removed from the encounter by this effect.

Legacy: Sponsors must commit the same number of ships as their leader.

The Magnets wield a power as old as recorded history, one that continues to confound modern science to this day. In times of war, their mastery over magnetic fields can pull space ships right out of the sky. Let us just be grateful that pods are not composed of a ferromagnetic metal.

Actor: Arrival

Optional

Wild Flare

As a leader, after arrival, you may discharge this flare to name one specific encounter pod. Your opponent may not prime that encounter pod unless it is their only encounter pod.

Leader: Arrival

Super Flare

Whenever you use your power, you may discharge this flare to use both aspects of your power.

Actor: Arrival

Modifications

Original Magnet has the power to “attract or repel”. Changed to the power to “attract” to match my one-word power name edict.
Original Magnet is a retool of a version from the Eon Era of the same name. Eon Magnet forces another sponsor or bystander to either sponsor one specific leader or sponsor neither leaders.
Original Super Magnet specifies it can use both aspects of its power in either order. I didn’t feel the need to specify since I don’t consider the order meaningful. Though mine can also use the aspects in either order.
Magnet’s legacy gives leader ships a reverse magnetic pull, forcing sponsors to commit as many ships as the leader to join them. This means that leaders can commit one ship in order to make their side more inviting or four ships to deter aliens from committing halfheartedly. This legacy even restricts aliens like Parasite and Zipper who can sponsor a fleet without being commissioned. The legacy has a notable limitation with Cosmos’s Rally rule. Since the latter requires aliens to commit more ships than the ally, having both in effect at once means that sponsors cannot participate until Cosmos vaporizes the rule. If Cosmos’s legacy is in effect, sponsors are simply banned permanently, which can nullify other legacies that affect sponsors. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Magnet can be either your greatest ally or your worst nightmare if you value your sponsorships. Magnet can get you onto the side of the fleet you want to join if the enemy invites you, or it can pull enemies over to your side. Alternatively, it can be a poison on your side, forcing you to only commit one ship or bouncing another sponsor to the enemy side. Unless you have strong combat potential, don’t underestimate the power of Magnet.
As Magnet, you are limited to targeting one alien per invasion. Consider the best target for your power and also the best aspect of your power to use. If an alien on the enemy side commits four ships, it would be more valuable to pull those ships to your side than simply reduce its ship count to one. But maybe you don’t want that alien gaining a base or rewards, so reducing its ship count could be the next best choice.
If you are in a situation where everyone is ganging up against you, consider inviting Magnet. They could potentially even the odds of the fight or at the very least dump someone onto your side to share in your loss.
Magnet generally prefers pulling enemies to its own side since it will increase its combat potential. Magnet has little reason to commission someone just to throw them on the other side, but be wary that Magnet can force you to commit four ships if you do join its own side.

Development Notes

Magnet is another classic power from the Eon and Mayfair Eras that returned in FFG’s Cosmic Odyssey. The original idea is similar in concept to my Zipper, where Magnet can force any bystander or sponsor to either sponsor one target alien or not sponsor anyone. The power didn’t change between Eon and Mayfair, aside from terminology.
The primary issue with the original Eon Magnet is that it violates the 5th edict of my design philosophy: No power should deprive another alien of all choice. Original Magnet has the ability to target one other alien whenever you get involved and either force them to ally with you or prevent them from sponsoring anyone. If Magnet is the leader going for its final base as an invader and no one else has sufficient bases, it can take someone on the enemy side and force it to sponsor Magnet instead. Aside from zapping the power, other aliens have no choice in the matter and have no interesting decisions to make. Compare the original Magnet to Remote, who has the ability to force another alien to sponsor it with max ships at the tradeoff of needing to win an encounter against them first. Magnet doesn’t get to choose the number of ships they commit, but just the act of depriving those ships from the enemy side and putting one on yours can be a swing of 5 might. FFG Magnet can do perform similar feats, but bystanders are completely out of Magnet’s reach, and it cannot target one alien to force them not to participate. With Magnet in play, aliens still need to be aware that their allegiance can swap at any time if they participate, but they cannot be deprived of participation outright.
FFG Magnet is most comparable to other aliens that deal with sneaky sponsorships like Parasite, Yinyang, and my custom Zipper. Magnet gains limited control over other other aliens in either fleet, allowing it to increase the strength of its own side or reduce the strength of the enemy side. If it doesn’t want a particular alien gaining a base alongside it as a foreward, it can push it to the enemy side in hopes of beating it. Or it can pull an enemy over to its side to rob it of a base as a backward. Magnet has an interesting dynamic with my Parasite, where it can force the opponent to take on the negative might from Parasite’s ships and keeping the Parasite out of its own fleet.
Due to the timing of Grudge’s power, Grudge’s mark will be added at the same time Magnet’s power is used, so Magnet cannot be used to protect an alien from Grudge’s wrath, regardless of the timing rule. This also means that aliens can sponsor Grudge and then have Magnet swap them to dodge Grudge’s wrath while actively fighting against it.
My Bouncer invokes a similar effect of preventing all sponsors, but its power is more all-or-nothing. It cannot target specific aliens to remove from an encounter, and it needs consent to use its power as a sponsor. My Zipper can target one leader to prevent them from receiving any sponsors, but it can only use that power as a sponsor and can only target one alien. Unlike Eon Magnet or even Bouncer, it doesn’t result in an encounter where one alien is guaranteed to not participate. Eon Magnet being able to use such as power as an actor also contributed to it being too controlling.
Magnets and magnetic forces border on the supernatural in terms of what they do and how they operate, making them a very effective subject for a Cosmic power. Magnets possess both a north and south pole, which produce forces that attract one another. However, the same poles will act against one another, preventing them from coming together. Magnets are most commonly used to attract magnetic objects such as iron and steel. Strong magnets are even capable of lifting entire vehicles off the ground.
Since Magnet effectively steals power from one side, it passes the Human Test if it pulls an alien with as few as two ships over from the enemy fleet. With four ships, it can go as high as eight power. It easily passes the bar to be a combat power.
I faced a similar issue with the power name as Barbarian and Zipper. The power to “loot and pillage” and the power to “open and shut” break my one-word power naming convention, since they clearly convey two separate ideas with the words “or” or “and”. In Magnet’s case, I think the term “attract” conveys the idea well enough on its own, since Magnet can simply be attracting the ships towards wherever it is putting them.
The theme of Magnet is fairly self-explanatory, including the mechanism of how it functions. Since ships are made of metal, it can push and pull them at will like the supervillain Magneto from Marvel Comics. Whether it simply pulls enemy ships into its own fleet or converts them into some weapon that it affixes to its own fleet, the magnetic field is clearly strong enough that the ships cannot escape it. A repelling force also works to explain why the ships cannot get close to something or are pushed away from a fleet, but I don’t think it covers why a ship can’t get away from a fleet on its own.
Magnet’s power is not pointlessly optional, as there may be times when you want to use neither aspect of Magnet’s power. For instance, Magnet could commit four ships as a leader, neither side could have sponsors, and the enemy could have one ship. If Magnet’s power were mandatory, it would be forced to make its opponent also have four ships, which would only help the opponent unless it is confident of its own victory with something like a 40 pod.