Elina entered the Grand Bazaar, looking to track down the Object of Wonder people had been whispering about for Yevgeni. She saw Terrell rapidly approaching, with Matchlock Musket and Kaspar’s Panzerhand tied to his waist with twine, ready to be thrown out and retrieved in case of conflict. Clearly he intended to coerce her to move along, but she just watched him draw near, expressionless. As he came to a halt she continued to stare for a moment longer, drawing her strength, before looking to the South-East.
******
Meanwhile, at the Docks, Yevgeni was lying around. He had just punched Otto in the face after the arrogant academic accepted his manly duel. However, Otto told Yevgeni he was done with him, so Yevgeni settled in for a nap.
Suddenly, Otto was yanked into the air by his midsection, but Yevgeni with reflexes like Boar, grabbed onto his leg. “Oh no you don’t! Crafty Otto,” Yevgeni said as he knocked him out with a final punch to the gut. Yevgeni pulled himself further on top of the speeding Otto to finish his nap.
******
Confused at the lack of visible action from Elina and her constant stare to the South-East, Terrell began to look in that direction as well. He could just make out something in the direction of the docks. As he squinted, the object seemed to be rapidly growing in size. It looked like a bear on top of a plywood board. No, not a bear, it was the Boar! Yevgeni himself was hurtling towards them, lying down, gesticulating his arms up and down as if getting ready for a fisticuffs match. As he and his transport neared the ground, Yevgeni rolled off and sucker-punched Terrell. From the ground, Yevgeni kept up his fighting posture waiting for Terrell to retaliate.
As the two men fought with fist and thrown attachments, Elina scanned the crowd looking for a lead to her original goal.
For the games I own, I have included the BGG community player counts, link to my content on here if any, link to BGG entry, link to Dice Tower/Shut Up and Sit Down/etc. Youtube review [many of these Youtube reviews are over a decade old and not as good of quality as their current content]
If you see anything you would like to try and are anywhere near the Minneapolis area, I would love if you reached out and we could set up a time to play at a Friendly Local Game Store or similar. Always thrilled to meet and play games with other board gamers.
Games I own that…
I’ve played multiple times, enjoy, and actively want to play
7th Sea: City of Five Sails (Tooth and Claw, Fate and Fortune expansions) 2 player card game with pirates, musketeers, dueling, 3 locations to fight over, alternating actions, and card costs paid for by discarding other cards[2] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Air, Land, & Sea 2 player win 2 of 3 locations with small identical card pool [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
AquaticaSea-based combo card game includes getting new cards and a card that returns all your played cards to hand when played [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Baseball Highlights: 2045Deck building baseball game [1, 2, 4, best 2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Beyond the Sun (Leaders of the New Dawn Expansion) Tech Treebased gamewith area control [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Crokinole Satisfying dexterity game about flicking disks into good positions and knocking off your opponents‘ disks [2, 4] [SUSD]
Dixit (Multiple Expansions) Party game with large, full-art cards, try to get at least one person but not all people to guess your card by coming up with a clever clue (multiple expansions) [4-6, best 5-6] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower] [~30min?]
Dominion Original Deck Building game (Core Set, Dark Ages, Hinterlands, Intrigue expansions) I actively want to play Dark Ages expansion [2-4, best 3] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Dune Imperium (Immortality and Rise of Ix expansions) Deck Building + Worker Placement game with majority based conflicts(+ Rise of Ix expansion) [1-4, best 3-4] [BGG] [Dice Tower][~1-2 hours]
EarthTableau building game where a player picks an action and everyone else also gets a minor effect while all players trigger all relevant cards [1-5] [BGG] [Dice Tower] [~45-90min]
Eldritch HorrorSprawling thematic cooperative lovecraftian game [1-6, best 4 – I want to try with 8] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Galaxy TruckerRidiculous real-time space ship building followed by watching everyone’s ships blow up [2-4, best 4] [BGG] [Dice Tower][~1 hour]
Game of Thrones The Board GameCard based combat war game with a lot of political intrigue to work together against the game and your opponents/allies [4-6, best 6] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Hanamikoji Mind-bendingly elegant area control card game with only 4 actions involving picking, discarding, and creating piles of cards for your opponent to choose between [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Heat: Pedal to the Metal (Heavy Rain expansion) Card-drivenracing game [1-6, best 5-6] [BGG] [SUSD]
Just OneParty game where you try to get someone to guess a word, everyone writes down a clue secretly, if 2 people wrote the same clue, discard that clue [4-7, best 6-7] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Kahuna Card based with elegant, interesting rules for controlling islands with bridges [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Lost Ruins of Arnak (Expedition Leaders and Missing Expedition expansions) Exploration, deck building, resource management, more tactical than strategic [1-4] [BGG] [Dice Tower][30 min – 2 hours]
Mandala2 Player Area Majority interesting scoring [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Mindbug Elegant card game where you play simple creatures to attack your opponent, but you each have 2 Mindbugs that can steal an opponent’s creature when played (+expansions) [2] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
RaAuction/set collection game with simplified auction rules [2-5, best 3-4]
Race for the Galaxy (Gathering Storm expansion) Engine building card game where you pay the cost of cards by discarding other cards (Base, 1st expansion) [2-4] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower][~30-60 min]
Radlands (Cult of Chrome expansion) Beautifully neon 2 player card game where you try to destroy your opponent’s bases with interesting/efficient combos [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Skull Super simple, exhilirating bluffing game [3-6, best 5-6] [BGG] [SuSD]
So CloverWord association cooperative party game [2-6, best 3-4] [BGG] [Dice Tower] [~30 min]
Specter OpsHidden movement game with character and one-time use abilities [2-5, best 2 or 3] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [SUSD]
Suburbia Suburb (Tableau) building game with tile market [1-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Wordsy8 available letters. Simultaneously come up with a word that uses as many as possible. Can include any letters that aren’t shown as well. [1-6] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
I’ve played very little if at all that I am excited about and actively want to play (don’t yet know how much I like them)
51st State [1-4, best 2]
Arcs (Blighted Reach expansion) Trick taking-esque-driven 4x-ish game. Also has a 3-game campaign expansion which looks incredibly thematic [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [SUSD]
Beer and Bread2 Player drafting resource management [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Caper: Europe 2-player area majority set collection [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Deus Engine building game [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
(The) DukeChess-like where the units have a variety of movement options and you can randomly pull extra units into play [2] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Evolution Evolution based survival of the fittest; Use traits to make your species thrive in the shared environment of traited species [2-6, best 4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
(The) Fox in the Forest2-player trick taking game [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Frosthaven Massive campaign game with elegant card based combat [1-4, best 3 – I want to try 4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Fury of DraculaHidden movement game trying to hunt down and kill Dracula before he kills you[2-5, best 3 or 5] [BGG] [SUSD]
Gosu XCombo-based card game where you try to win 2 of 3 rounds by having more power in play than your opponent[2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Incan Gold [3-8, best 6-8]
Jump DriveRace for the Galaxy light [1-4, best 3]
Oceans Sea based Evolution game with tons of unique “Deep” traits [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Onitama Abstract strategy game where there are 5 move options on cards that rotate between the 2 players as they are used[2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Puerto RicoClassic [2?-5, best 4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Ready Set BetRealtime Horse betting game that introduces asymetric bonuses [3-9, best 6-8] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Res ArcanaEngine building game [2-4, best 2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Seasons Dice Drafting tableau building game (decent number of intro games, but not enough full drafting starts) [2-3, best 2] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Shogun Cube based war game? [3-5, best 4-5] [BGG] [SUSD]
Smartphone Inc. [3-5, best 5]
Spy x Family: Mission for PeanutsSpy Family themed Love Letter-esque game [3-5] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Undaunted 2200 CallistoAsymmetrical card driven campaign game [2] [BGG] [SUSD]
War of the Ring: Second EditionMulti-hour epic Lord of the Rings game [2]
Wavelength Party game about giving a clue on a spectrum to guess where it lands [4-12, best 6, 8]
I have loved, but I have grown a bit tired of, whose spark could be reignited
Arkham Horror LCG (multiple expansions) Campaign based co-op lovecraftian card game where you build your deck and upgrade it after each scenario [1-4] [BGG] [SUSD]
Epic Card Game (all expansions) My forger card game obsession, dueling card game where every card cost 1-gold or 0-gold. Timing is everything, the strategic depth is deep, and great 2-player limited formats [2] [TomSEpicGaming, most of this blog] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Heroscape (couple core sets + a bit more) Miniature and dice based asymetrical combat game with multi-dimensional terrain [2-4, best 2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
I’ve played multiple times and would happily play if someone wanted to
52-card deck games (Cribbage, Euchre, Hearts, etc.)
Axis and AlliesSprawling war game with about 13 different units split between ground, air, and sea. Country specific objectives to increase income, dice based combat (1940 Europe, 1940 Pacific, WWI 1914) [2-5, best not 3] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Geek&Sundry sponsored 1941 edition]
Dilbert: the Board GameSilly Dilbert themed board game that implements short term restrictions on specific talking patterns or other goofy things [4-6, best 4] [BGG] [mostly a nostalgia game for me, couldn’t find a review]
Firefly: The Game (Kalidasa and Blue Sun expansions) Pick up and deliver game with a strong Firefly feel (Base, Kalidasa, Blue Sun) [1-4, best 3] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Great Western Trail: Second EditionDeck building, hand management, game where you can build locations to give you access to better actions [1-4, best 3] [BGG] [SUSD]
Hero Realms (character packs and initial co-op campaign) Heads up deck building game with fantasy theme and optional asymmetrical starting decks [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Kemet Card based combat game with large amounts of upgrades to choose from that reward attacking [3-5, best 4-5] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Mansions of Madness 2nd EditionApp-assisted cooperative lovecraftian game[1-5, best 3-4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Risk 2210 A.D.Nostalgic upgrade on risk that includes moon and underwater territories and purchasable action cards specific to purchasable commanders [3-5, best 4-5] [BGG] [older game with no reviews from creators I watch]
Solforge FusionLane-based 2 player battling card games where your cards upgrade when you play them, play 2 cards per turn and redraw to 5 at end of turn [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Star Wars RebellionStar Wars in a box. Large Rebels vs Empire where the rebels try to gain enough influence in the galaxy before their base is found and eliminated [2] [BGG] [SUSD]
Under Falling SkiesPuzzley Dice-based alien invaders solo game [1] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Wingspan Engine building game with fantastic theme [1-5, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Zombies!!! I don’t really remember, but I had a lot of fun playing, unlike the other 3 players [2-5, best 4] [BGG] [Another nostalgia game with no reviews from creators I watch]
I’ve played very little if at all, that I want to play to see if I enjoy them, but that I am not “excited” about
Android Don’t remember [2-4, best 3] [BGG] [don’t remember anything about the game, no review from a creator I watch]
Asgard’s Chosen Don’t know [1-4, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Cockroach Poker RoyalBluffing game [3-6, best 4-5] [BGG] [SUSD]
Favor of the PharaohYahtzee-esque game where you purchase upgrades that let you manipulate your dice[2-4, best 2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Heroes of TerrinothDungeon crawler maybe? [1-4, best 4] [BGG] [OneStopCoOpShop didn’t watch this fully]
Isle of Skye Tile-placement game where all players get random tiles to put up for sale for the others to buy. Any they don’t you pay that price to take them yourself [2-5, best 3-4] [TomSEpicGaming] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Jab Realtime BoxingRealtime card game with a boxing theme [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Lords of XiditProgrammed movement area majority game? [4-5] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Maglev Metro [2-4, best 3]
Niagara [3-5, best 4-5] [BGG] [cool looking game, but not thought to be very good, didn’t watch creators I don’t watch to see the review]
Nostra CityDon’t know [3-5, best 4] [BGG] [don’t know anything about this game, no review]
Panzer General Allied Assault/Russian Assault Some kind of war game [1-2, best 2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the RunelordCard based rpg style game where your deck levels up [1-4+, best 3-4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Samurai SpiritCooperative game [1-7, best 1 or 5] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
World of Tanks RushDon’t know [2-5, best 3] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Zooloretto Zoo-buildign game where you assemble busses worth of animals to take into your zoo, or something like that [3-5, 4] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
I am neutral to, the company is much more important than the game itself
5 Minute Marvel
Black Fleet
Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes2-player tug of war game with multiple tracks and rewards to balance [2] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
Boomo
(The) Downfall of Pompeii
Look Who’s Purging Now
Lovecraft Letter
Mission Red Planet
No Thanks
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Quacks of Quedlinburg
Smash Up (Multiple Expansions)
Star Wars Imperial Assault
I’ve played multiple times, enjoyed, but am a bit tired of, would play, but not “actively excited” to
Android Netrunner LCG
Biblios
Friday
Magic: The Gathering (Got a couple Chronozoa decks, and I do love Cube Draft)
Munchkin Fu/Munchkin Adventure Time
Rise of Augustus (good gateway game though)
Star Wars Xwing (a few scum/villainy ships)
Targi
Unmatched (Cobble and Fog, Jurassic Park, Bruce Lee)
Warhammer 40k (some Astra Militarum [Imperial Guard] and a Tyranid Codex)
I wouldn’t play unless someone else really wanted to
Abyss [2-4, best 4]
Adventure Time Card Wars Finn vs Jake
Century: Golem Edition [2-5, best 3-4]
Escape the Dark Castle
Finance (more of a collectors item)
Flux the Board Game
Game of Thrones LCG Core Set
Get Lucky
Hanabi
Legend of the Five Rings LCG Core Set
Princess Jing
Resident Evil Deck Building Game
Star Wars LCG Core Set
Games I don’t Physically Have with me that I’ve played and
Enjoy/actively want to play again
Clank! In! Space! [2-4, best 3]
Gloomhaven [1-4, best 3]
Mechs vs Minions [2-4, best 4]
Merchants & Marauders [2-4, best 4]
Mystic Vale (Love the concept of building cards, but the execution felt lacking) [2-4, best 2]
Power GridEconomic game of bidding on power plants to expand your grid of cities to make money to recur the above [3-6, best 4-5] [BGG] [SUSD ‘funny quote I don’t want to spoil’]
Twilight Imperium 4th EditionMassive4X Space game with asymetrical player factions, ship combat, action selection, negotiation, etc [3-6, best 6] [BGG] [SUSD]
Enjoy and would happily play again
7 Wonders: Architects [2-7, best 4]
Camel Up {2nd edition} [3-8, best 5-6]
Cartographers Flip and write game of creating a map with shared random shapes to achieve rotating objectives [1-100, Best 3-4?] [BGG] [Dice Tower]
One Night Ultimate Werewolf : I game where the entire point is trying to figure out who all is lying to your face (for the sake of the game), especially when you might not even know which side you are on, is incredibly stressful to me.
Rising Sun : Very bad first experience
Roll for the Galaxy : Dramatically prefer Race for the Galaxy
Spirit Island [1-4, best 2] I found it to be too complicated/stressful for a cooperative game at 3 people. I agonized over optimizing my plays so as to not let my teammates down while having way too much to consider, for my own actions and how they interacted with my allies.
Games I’ve Never Played that…
If you have any of these games and enjoy/love them, I would love to play them with you. Or if you want to meet up at a Friendly Local Game Store with one of these in their open play library.
John Company [1, 3-6, best 4-5] [BGG] [SUSD] A bitingly satirical game about the East India Company with negotiation. Would require a conversation with a group of known players to consider.
Call to Action
I absolutely love tabletop games, and I actively want to play much more often with a greater number of players. These are the games I own and/or am happy to play. In addition, I am always up for trying a game I have never played before (except primarily Social Deduction games). So I am 100% serious when I say I will happily meet up with anyone at a public place to play board games with you. Any player count.
According to FedEx, my Epic Guardians of Gowana (Jungle) kickstarter is set to arrive by end of day tonight. Assuming they don’t lose it (again), I am planning on going through all of the new cards and giving my initial impressions on them Sunday May 23rd. I have seen some spoilers, and there are a few spicy ones already. After that, I’ll spend a ton of time deck building. I’ll also be more than happy to work out any suggested ideas from chat and/or give feedback on any decks. HOWEVER, I make no guarantees that my suggestions will be worthwhile because I already know I have no idea how to effectively play some of the new cards (which excites me greatly).
I’ll probably start around 8am CDT with breaks to eat some ramen and play in the Dark Draft weekly at 11am CDT.
March 2021 Constructed Monthly
I said I would put this tournament up on Youtube because there were some great games, and I have finally started doing so. The first game is up now, and I’ll post the next game at 7pm Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday until I get knocked out, followed by a deck explanation video. The deck is midrange (obviously) but also combo, built around Mist Guide Herald and a card I considered trash tier for a long time (until Duels).
I want to like this card because this plus Little Devil is a two-card combo that threatens 14 damage, but I just don’t think it’s viable. (Secret Legion + Revolt is 21.) I brought it to the No Core Constructed Monthly to help support Demonic Rising as a combo kill against Kark, got crushed by a more controlling Evil token deck without it (no one brought Kark). Overall, I was never in a position where I could play it when my opponent’s gold was down and they had no blockers, which admittedly could have been due to me building the deck sub-optimally.
As an “Or Draw 2” it’s never bad in limited, and it can always just be a blitzing 7/7 on-turn gold-punisher. Even with just two zombies that can attack, it adds 13/13 in stats to the board for a single turn. One thing I realized at the end of that tournament and nearly forgot now is that it is actually decent off-turn no stop your opponent’s onslaught. Much worse than off-turn Justice Prevails, Battle Cry, or Demonic Rising if you have a board, but okay, and it comes with a 7/7 blocker.
Maybe you want this in a deck that’s running both Little Devil and Guilt Demon (and maybe future blitzing 0-cost Evil champions)? Overall though, it is difficult to fit 1-cost cards that primarily just buff your champions in play for attacks, and Demonic Rising will almost always be significantly better and Justice Prevails isn’t that far behind it…However, this in a Krieg deck seems like it could be terrifying. Krieg in play assuming its initial 2 zombies are gone, play Eager Necromancer into this for 3 6/6 blitzing zombies, a 3/3 blitzing zombie, a 7/7 blitzing demon and an 11/11 Krieg. This provides 19/19 worth of blitzing stats, still not great but maybe the rest of the Evil token/combo package rounds it out. (I’m really looking forward to Krieg.)
[Unfortunately this is the last rating I have written up for now. On the plus side, I am in the process of getting pre-approved for my home loan and will be interviewing real estate agents immediately afterwards, so progress on that front.]
While agonizing which tier to put this in between 5 and 7, ^that was the thought that decided it. I don’t think this is a terrible card. In fact, I think it is fairly powerful and it has worked well both for and against me; however, I think any decks that would want this card are doomed to fail because they are too susceptible to disruption.
Human tokens: I do not like 1-cost static buffs in human tokens, not Standard Bearer, not Helena’s Chosen, and not this. 1-cost static buffs for damage are unreliable. To disrupt your offense, your opponent can remove either your 1-cost static buff or your tokens it’s buffing. While their deck/draw might not be well-equipped to handle a specific one of those, odds are it can probably handle the other. Therefore, in the aggro-combo version of human tokens (which I believe to be the best), you’re only inserting another point of failure into your combo. I’d much rather force my opponent to have exactly Wither/Flash Fire than Wither/Flash Fire/Disappearing Act/Vanishing (not to mention the popular 1-cost answers like Drain Essence/Erase).
I don’t believe control-combo human token decks are particularly viable right now because they take too long to get going, and they either lose before going off enough, or your opponent draws into their necessary answers in time. This also only buffs the offense of the human tokens leaving them vulnerable to the same mass removal. At least with Forest Dweller, the +3 defense is incredibly relevant.
0-Cost Good Flyers: Another idea for Imperial Commander is to use it with 0-cost airborne champions namely: Rescue Griffin, White Dragon, Faithful Pegasus, Watchful Gargoyle, and/or Dragonling. All of those cards with +3 offense are quite frightening. This is pretty much the situation I have seen the Commander do the best, once in the no-burn showmatch v Tatian and once in a limited game. The main problems are the same things as in the Human tokens example, don’t get these cards together and/or feel bad when your opponent splits them up. Most of these zeros aren’t quite powerful enough by themselves (except Gargoyle), so even though +3 offense makes them terrifying, it isn’t reliable.
Mass Tribute/Loyalty -> Draw a card with Noble Unicorn: I’ve tried it so many times. At the end of the day, it doesn’t do powerful enough things soon enough to matter against Wild. Also, the Good 0-cost cards aren’t able to mitigate the power differential between Wild’s 1-cost plays as opposed to Good’s. If Lash/Rage and Spore Beast didn’t exist to push damage, maybe? It’s okay vs control. This card doesn’t make that archetype viable. I’m not even going to try to build that deck after finishing this review either.
Overall, this seems like a win more card. It is only particularly strong when your ahead and your opponent has nothing.
This is an incredibly effective distribution of stats both in limited and for constructed decks that can weaponize tokens (Revolt/Demonic Rising). 4 bodies for 1 gold, off-turn, is the sweet spot for viability. Three has never felt like enough, outside of Rift Summoner which threatens to produce more, all of which are out of range of 3 damage removal. Further, that 8/8 body is surprisingly resilient and threatening, especially against bounce decks. Not only are you threatening to go off with Insurgency + 0-cost buffs if your opponent spends their gold first on your turn, but your also threatening 11 damage if they don’t. On your opponent’s turn(s), those human tokens are excellent chump blockers that can shut out potential attacks for up to three turns. If you play this to an empty board when your opponent’s gold is down, it is really difficult for them to pry their way back in without a board clear.
In limited this is always a solid ambush champion, so you can pick it even if you aren’t going tokens generally or human tokens specifically, and I strongly recommend against actively going human tokens in limited. However, after picking this up, cards like Revolt become a lot more threatening than just a simple draw 2 when passed to you. In constructed, this is primarily a human tokens card, but it works perfectly reasonably in a pure token Demonic Rising/Justice Prevails shell as well (but that might not be quite viable yet).
This is another excellent card. It is a zero with arguably 3 distinct, highly specialized and powerful effects. Further, none of them are card draw and yet this card feels complete and is absolutely playable.
First off, starting from the bottom, “Banish target 0-champion,” excellent. It is particularly strong against Dark Knight (unbreakable), Bodyguard (Recall from discard pile), and Ankylosaurus (big butt). Also Warrior Golem to prevent the recycle and plenty of others, but rule of threes.
Secondly, jumping to the top, “Deal 4 damage to target attacking champion,” excellent. This answers all current “unblockable” champions (not for long though) as well as many other champions. Importantly though, unlike Spike Trap/Hands from Below this does target so it can’t hit untargetable champions (Crystal Golem), and it can’t hit all current attacking champions. Both of those situations have come up for me so those distinctions do matter.
Finally, “It gets -8 offense this turn,” which is attached to the deal 4 damage effect, which can be relevant together but frequently isn’t. (It does prevent the -8 from being used on a blocker though.) This is fair Fumble. 0-cost gain 8 health. The primary application for this, in my eyes, is to largely negate the damage from an on-turn gold-punisher played against you when your gold is down. It can also be used as a combat trick to help one of your other champions break an attacking champion and potentially survive.
Overall in limited this is an excellent card because you are almost guaranteed to have a situation where one of these three effects are great. In constructed, you will usually include this because you specifically want one of the three effects, and one of those is significantly more likely than the other two to be the reason. Which one do you think it is?
Both removing a 0-cost champion and dealing damage to an attacking champion are done better by other cards in most situations: Raxxa’s Curse (excluding Bodyguard) and Hands from Below/Spike Trap. The -8 offense ability is currently more unique, and I find it particularly valuable for Midrange decks against hyper-aggressive decks. Cards like Watchful Gargoyle and Rescue Griffincan do this job better, but they both have a window for your opponent to react to them before they have effect (possibly by playing Ensnaring Rune). Rune’s -8 is unpreventable (against non-untargetable champions).
That being said, even when against control instead of hyper-aggro, I can banish Bodyguards and more…
When I started this rating, I was struggling with whether this should be Tier 2 or Tier 3 for constructed. Then I remembered it answers Muse AND Thought Plucker.
This card has a lot of solid potential for abuse. At minimum it is an on-turn board clear earning it a stable B-tier status minimum. In can also function as a hard-hitting non-evasive on-turn gold-punisher, great with Lash/Rage.
(As of now, there is no way to make this unbreakable before it breaks to its own Tribute effect. There would either need to be a static effect or an ally effect that grants unbreakable to make that a possibility. For example, Evil Ally-> Target champion gains unbreakable is in play. Play Endbringer Ritualist, choose to resolve Ally effect first targeting Endbringer, then resolve Endbringer’s break all effect.)
However, while getting that strong airborne body for 0 is powerful, having no immediate effect leaves it devastatingly susceptible to Raxxa’s Curse/Siren’s Song punishes. Its stats also won’t save it from Ensnaring Rune/War Machine. All of those are powerful and highly desirable cards in limited, so if your opponent has a chance to draft them, they probably will (unless they got even better choices). That being said, with an ever expanding card pool, your opponent might not get offered them, let alone draw them in game. Of those, Raxxa’s Curse sees a ton of constructed play, Ensnaring Rune sees some (me), and Siren’s Song/War Machine sees very minimal fringe play.
If your opponent doesn’t have an effective/efficient answer to this (and it does survive all 6 or less damage removal [Smash and Burn]), this is a serious threat. It can’t be effectively chump blocked, it kills in 5 attacks by itself, and it is challenging to remove in combat. I will generally pick cards with greater immediate effects and/or card draw over this, but if I’m ahead of the curve on card draw and have a few solid reestablishing cards, this is a high priority pick I’d be thrilled to get.
In constructed I am incredibly reluctant to bring 0-cost champions without blitz that have no immediate effect because of the popularity of both Raxxa’s Curse and control. Playing against control, especially Kark, a 6/7 airborne champion isn’t enough threat/damage on its own, and combining it with other champions makes you more susceptible to board clears. Slow champions without blitz, even 0-cost evasive ones, usually just don’t cut it.
