Centralized Background Check

About Centralized Background Check

Centralized Background Check, Master, designed by William O'Connor first released in May 2004 in the set Gehenna.

Centralized Background Check is best in a non-weapon deck, especially an intercept wall, bleed, political, or toolbox deck that can exploit the global tax against gun-combat and equipment-heavy opponents while suffering little itself; however, the effect is narrow, many weapons are cheap enough that an extra pool is only a modest deterrent, and spending a master action on a unique location has a real opportunity cost. There is no strictly better card for applying this exact global weapon tax, but in most metagames broader and more active answers such as **Disarm** for combat decks, or **Wash** and **Sudden Reversal** for controlling problematic master cards, will provide more consistent value. It should generally be a metagame or sideboard-style inclusion rather than an automatic choice, and deserves play mainly when weapon decks are common and your deck can reliably capitalize on the extra cost.