Black Ink
Once per game, at the star of any of his activations, Kiroth can choose an opposition player he is marking. The chosen player loses their Tackle Zone until they are next activated.
Black Ink essentially works like a one off, always successful, Hypnotic Gaze. Removing an opponents Tackle Zone is useful for a number of reasons.
The obvious one is that anyone that was being marked by them can move away freely, assuming they aren’t also marked by another opponent. Any of your players that wants to run by that opponent no longer has to dodge. This can be great if they were blocking a crucial lane you wanted to run some of your players through.
It’s also useful if you wanted access to a player that’s being protected behind the Inked opponent. This could be the opposing ball carrier if you are defending, their opponents specialist Blitzer if you are attacking, or a particularly weak or fragile opponent.
The other advantage in the current Second Season rules is that a player who has lost their Tackle Zone can no longer use most of their skills to defend themselves with. This can make them a lot easier to bring down and either hurt them as a result of a Block or Blitz, or leave them open to being gang fouled if the knock down didn’t do the job.
The trickiest part of using Black Ink is marking an opponent at the start of your turn. This will be easier against stronger teams who will perhaps want to try and maintain base contact to maximise their hitting opportunities. However weaker and more agile teams may be likely to stand off, especially if it opens their players up to be taken down easier after losing their Tackle Zone.
You may find start of turn marking opportunities will happen more if the opposing player turned over part way through their turn, so didn’t get the chance to push Kiroth away, or dodge away. It will be worth keeping an eye open for chance to push opposing players next to Kiroth during your team turn, or chain push Kiroth next to an opponent before activation.
Used at the right time, Black Ink could be a very powerful ability. The tricky part will be getting Kiroth in the right position to use it to maximum affect.
