Lost Chapters
Nikola Tesla, Father of Electricity: Gold Character
Nikola Tesla (1856 to 1943) was an inventor and electrical engineer who designed the alternating current (AC) induction motor and the polyphase power system behind it. George Westinghouse bought his AC patents in 1888, and Tesla's system went on to light the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
- Cost
- 8 crystals
- Type
- Character · Inventor
- Power / Health
- 6 / 7
- Color
- Gold (Inventors & Industry)
- Rarity
- Legendary (Legacy)
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
On play: Build 2 Tinker Tokens.
Your other Inventors cost 1 less.
Legacy characters you control get +1/+1.
Visionary genius whose alternating ambitions shocked the world.
The real history
Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire and today in Croatia. He studied engineering at the polytechnic in Graz and briefly in Prague but did not earn a degree. He then worked for telegraph and electric companies in Budapest, Paris and Strasbourg.
In 1884 he came to the United States and took a job designing dynamos for Thomas Edison's company in New York. The partnership lasted only a short time, because the two men wanted different things. Working in his own shop on Liberty Street in 1887 and 1888, Tesla developed an induction motor driven by a rotating magnetic field. It made sending power over long distances with alternating current practical.
In July 1888, George Westinghouse bought the motor patents, and Tesla spent about a year in Pittsburgh training Westinghouse engineers. In 1893 his AC system lit the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a turning point in the "War of the Currents."
Tesla kept reaching further. In 1899 he moved to Colorado Springs to test ideas for sending power without wires. In 1901 he began Wardenclyffe, a laboratory and tower on Long Island backed by J. P. Morgan, but costs soared, the money ran out, and he lost the property in 1915.
He received more than 100 patents in his lifetime. Tesla died at the Hotel New Yorker on January 7, 1943, at age 86. In 1960 the international unit of magnetic flux density was named the tesla in his honor.
Sources
- Nikola Tesla, National Inventors Hall of Fame
- About Nikola Tesla, Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe
- Wardenclyffe Laboratory, National Park Service
In the game's story
In the game's invented story, Tesla is the very first arrival in Marginalia: he picks up a humming purple shard in his New York laboratory and falls through the roof of the Folded Corner, asking politely for a voltmeter. For eleven days he is the only one, filling notebooks with the strange energy of the new world. His resonance theory helps the Travelers create the chapter cards, and he stands behind the first Reader to break the Echo of the Inventor, a twisted copy of his own legend. He chooses to stay and lead the inventors of Marginalia.
How the card plays
Tesla costs 8 crystals and is a 6/7 Legendary Inventor. When he arrives, Build 2 Tinker Tokens. While he is on the field, your other Inventors cost 1 less, and every Legacy character you control, Tesla included, gets +1/+1, so he fights as a 7/8.
He is a late-game engine, so play him once you have the crystals and a plan for the turns after. The cost cut and the Legacy bonus both keep paying off, while the two Tinkers give you bodies right away.
Thomas Edison, Static Hero is the natural partner: Edison is a Legacy Inventor, so he costs 1 less and gets +1/+1. Andrew Carnegie, Steel Hero is also Legacy, and its token bonus makes your Tinkers hit harder. Watch your field limit of 5, since tokens fill it fast.
- Playable in decks led by Nikola Tesla, and by any Traveler Leader whose colors include Gold.
- In the Tesla starter deck (1 copy). Deck code:
LC2-BV8BYAFhAWICYwFkAWUCZgFnAWgBaQFqAWsCbAFtAm4BbwFwAXEBcgFzAnQBdQF2AXcBeAJ5AnoBewF8AX0BfgF_AXiK - A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about Tesla
Did Nikola Tesla work for Thomas Edison?
Yes, briefly. After arriving in New York in 1884 he designed dynamos for Edison's company, but the arrangement ended after a short time and Tesla went his own way.
What did Tesla do in Colorado Springs?
He moved there in 1899 to experiment with high-voltage electricity and wireless power transmission, work that led to his Wardenclyffe project on Long Island.
Card art
The standard version of Nikola Tesla, Father of Electricity. The Full Art above is a rare version that can appear in packs.
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Isaac Singer2 crystals · Character · Common
George Westinghouse5 crystals · Character · Uncommon
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