Everyone over at Pax East in the U.S. this weekend got to enjoy a bunch of new spoilers for Whispers from the Maze. These cards were all permanents and were revealed as giant cards that were prizes for various events. Photos were taken so that the rest of the Altered world could see the new cards. Some of these cards are the in-faction cards, and some of them are the out of faction (OOF) version. Here I’ll break them all down for you.

Axiom

The Refinery is a new Landmark Permanent for the engineers of the Axiom faction. Unlike most of the first sets this site is a Construction. We don’t yet know what the mechanical difference there is between sites and constructions, but there is sure to be something (perhaps in unique cards) that key off constructions.

The Refinery costing two mana is definitely not really a card from Sierra but looks set to being completely perfect for Treyst. Having lost the Haven and only recently gained a lesser version back, I think that this card will replace even that. Treyst thrives off playing cards from reserve and I think it will be relatively likely that the deck will be able to get three sap counters every turn and give those cards boosts. Not just that, but those boosts can be distributed however you want. So, whilst Haven can give one boost a turn for its two mana, this card can give three boosts.

This could see some play with Subhash also, but I think it’s more a Treyst card.

The second Axiom card to be revealed is an OOF permanent (in faction is Yzmir). This one is another construction and costs three mana, which makes it likely good for Sierra. Since it costs three mana, Sierra will get a bonus Brassbug, then this card will build up counters when you play permanents. That is any permanent, no matter the type or cost. So, this card will gain an arcane counter whether it’s a one cost landmark permanent or an expedition permanent. Now we’d need some really cheap gear I think to make this card really tick I believe, but it has potential.

Bravos

The Bravos member of this cycle of Permanents gains counters when a non-token character leaves the expedition. So if you play a removal spell on a character, the permanent also gets a counter. Once you have four food counters on it, you get to exhaust it to draw a card. Bravos desperately needs card draw, so this will be a welcome addition to the faction. Like most of these you are likely to get about 3/4 of the way to achieving the goal each turn. It’s possible you can get a full four counters in a turn, but definitely not every turn. I think this will definitely see some play.

Lyra

Lyra has the Refinery OOF. Instead of being able distribute three boosts in your reserves to any card you want, this version gives you a charge effect to all characters in your reserve. This seems to me to be a really good Fen card (who gets the extra cards in reserve) and can swap spells in reserve with characters in hand. The fact that you are getting a boost on all your characters in reserve is a kind of pre-cast Haven effect. This is pretty powerful and you can probably feed it each turn with three counters based on casting cards from your reserve. Now it won’t get all the boosts every turn, but it will probably get them two turns in three.

The Stage is Lyra’s in-faction card in this cycle. This card gains counters when you play a Song spell or an Artist subtype character. You only need three of these counters to be able to exhaust it to remove fleeting from the next Song spell or Artist character you play. My assumption is that there will be a bunch of Artist subtype characters that will be themed around Auraq’s ability to trigger off zero biome stats. This might belong with Auraq, though the generic nature might make it applicable elsewhere as well. We currently have three Song spells and eight Artist characters, but I expect Whispers from the Maze to build on that.

Muna

The Farm is Muna’s permanent construction in this cycle. The card gains food counters per characters you have at noon, which will largely be Anchored and Eternal characters, though also characters that were Asleep would also count. The reward for getting two such counters is a resupply. This plays right into Arjun’s hand, which needs a card in the reserve to be able to anchor their next character. This will then feed into the next turn to give another counter on The Farm. Now the card could also be used by Rin and Teiga, but I think this is more aimed at Arjun’s playstyle.

The OOF card in Muna is from the Ordis faction and it is identical to the Ordis in faction version (below). Since the card gets counters from cards in play at dusk, the Muna faction is a little less likely to get the counters than Ordis is. It means that they are likely to get the charge effect approximately once every other turn, but it’s still a strong effect.

Ordis

Unlike all the other permanents, The Town Square in Ordis is a Site rather than a construction. This site costs three mana and gains a counter at Dusk for every character you control. Since it needs six counters to trigger, it might not trigger every round. But later in the game it could do so with Sigismar or Gulrang. Open the Gates together with an Ordis Carrier creating a recruit each turn will largely give you most of those six counters. With Gulrang late game those tokens will then potentially have two boosts on them, giving you an effective 9/9/9 on both sides. Now you likely won’t get a full set of counters every round but with both Sigismar and Gulrang it’s possible to do. A free charge most rounds is not to be sniffed at.

The Farm from Muna is OOF in Ordis. Considering it is looking at characters you control at noon, the likelihood is that you will get one food counter per turn. Sigismar will get one counter for his recruit, two if he has a Carrier in play. Similarly, Waru can get counters via bureaucrats who have been Asleep the previous turn. This gives you the capability to give up two of those counters to give you a resupply. My question is whether this is needed in Ordis, given that it already has good card advantage. Given that it already costs three mana, I’m not sure that this one will prove worth it at the end of the day.

Yzmir

This is an Yzmir OOF version of the Bravos permanent construction called The Mess. We already know that The Mess is Bravos from the triptych that we saw in the Whispers from the Maze mechanics article. We know that Yzmir loves drawing cards, but will this two-mana permanent be suitable for them? Considering it triggers getting a food counter on a non-token character leaving the expedition, it is unlikely a card for Afanas, since he plays very few creatures. One hero who might see more value out of this card is Lindiwe. She sacrifices characters for fun and profit and that would trigger them leaving the expedition. If there are more good character targets for her to sacrifice in Whispers of the Maze (other than tokens), then I could see her wanting this card to recover the cards she’s lost through the sacrifice.

The Stage is another OOF Yzmir card, this time the construction’s originating faction being Lyra. Since it triggers on playing spells any Yzmir hero could play it, but it really suits Afanas’ playstyle. With three performance counters you can tap this to avoid losing that critical fleeting spell and potentially cast it a second time from reserve. With a good headwind, you can use this in conjunction with the unique cards that bring back your one-use spells.

Once again Yzmir is getting three Permanents in the expansion. The Nilam Spires is the in-faction permanent in this cycle and gains counters from playing spells. Once you have three counters, you can exhaust it to give you a Mana Moth in either expedition. This is very handy for Afanas who already casts lots of spells and also suffers from having a lack of characters on which to put his counters. Being able to reliably cast three spells a turn means that you can profit from this. If you are just looking for a random character a turn though, you might be better off playing an Ordis Carrier instead. It is possible that there is more moth synergy in the expansion though. With that, this card might be better as its also a 2/2/2 and it can be played into either expedition.