why is immortal grapple so strong?

TobyB wrote:

So this cards is cruel vs decks that want to shoot or do anything else than hand damage, right? and it presses which means your opponent has to stay for one additional round, am I right? if you want to do additional dam you need other cards to boost your hand dam. So the strong aspect is the press and the cancellation of various sources of damage?

Combat is always tricky because there are multiple ways things go wrong or out of hand. Immortal Grapple greatly limits the number of possible scenarios so you can be more confident the combat will go the way you want.

The card is especially useful against :

• defensive strikes such as "combat ends" or "dodge" => if you spend cards to beat your opponent (Torn Signpost, Roundhouse...), you don't want your opponent to negate it with a single card (plus if you were rushing or blocking, it makes your action or block count).
• weapons. Added bonus: if your opponent used a maneuver provided by the weapon strike and you manage to end up at close range (which is why Slam is great), your opponent loses their strike
• odd strikes, such as Entombment, Coma...

But it doesn't work:

• if your opponent out-maneuvers you
• if your opponent has powerful hand strikes
• if your opponent can make their hand strikes aggravated
• against Anesthetic Touch

Also concerning defensive strikes, Immortal Grapple prevents your opponent from playing those strike cards, so your opponent will keep them for the next combat, whereas Psyche! make them use them their cards.