We have now formally kicked off spoiler season after the excitement of all the spoils from Pax East. There was a late spoil from the event via a stream thanks to Cohlrabi. Eazy got to choose which card he wanted to see and very nearly fluffed it by wanting to see the Unique version, but the stream later redeemed him but getting the common and the rare shown.

Dredger Drone

The common seems to be a nice resupply engine for Treyst and maybe also Subhash. However, you need to keep this in your reserve a turn or two to make this effective. The rare has a more interesting application in that you can spend counters from cards, which according to my conversation with the rules manager, can include heroes that can gain counters. So if Treyst gets excess counters you can get free resupplies. I’m hoping that the OOF is in Bravos!

Sap Duende

We already know that songs are going to be more significant in this expansion with The Stage benefiting from them. This two cost spell on the common allows you to make an old switcheroo of two lots of boosts (from either play or reserve). Your opponent has three boosts and you have one. No problem, you can have those 3 boosts instead. The rare is even more dirty, as the characters don’t need to be boosted first plus you get to draw a card. This means if you opponent has a Bravos Bladedancer with 4 boosts and you have a Martengale with none, then you can have those boosts on your Martengale and smile as you draw a card. Muna players will also enjoy this effect as they can move the boosts onto their anchored character and get to draw!

Sap Dispersal

Our next card is a Muna boon spell that gives all your characters in reserve a boost. I’m expecting a minor rules amendment to allow boosts on characters in reserve other than Seasoned characters as usually that was the only way you could get this effect previously. The rare doubles boosts on all your characters in play and reserve. For two mana that’s pretty good. Even better, the OOF rare is in Bravos and I know that Basira decks will love this!

License Withdrawal

You know all those lovely counters that you’ve just doubled on your character? Well the fun police are her to ruin your fun and yes the fun police are from Ordis. The common License Withdrawal for three mana lets you either discard a boosted character or a permanent. The rare is a mini fun police card, shaving a mana off the cost but restricting the targets to costing 3 or less, which is usually about 85%-90% of most decks. The fun police spread the misery in OOF to Yzmir.

The Undergrowth

The Undergrowth is yet another Landmark Permanent – Site. Costing two mana, the common allows you to exhaust it to add a boost to the next character you play this turn in forest. The rare turbo charges this by allowing you to ready it when an opponent draws a card, so you could get two or three uses from this a turn. The OOF is in Lyra though I’m not sure how play that version will see.

Evanescence

We have yet more low cost removal, this time in the base faction of Yzmir. Evanescence (also a band name) is a removal spell in the vein of Off You Go! The common can target a character with hand cost 2 or less. If you let the Arcane Counters build up on the spell in reserve it can target something with hand cost 5 or less, so the spell has some flexibility. I see Afanas being able to get those counters on this quickly and this could replace Off You Go! in that deck. The rare is more targeted at removing low cost/many-card decks. The rare can only target cards with hand cost 2 or less, but with maximum counters can get to do that 4 times. This could easily remove 4 annoying recruits or Brassbugs from the opponent’s side. The OOF card in Axiom gains counters in a different, slower way, but is otherwise the same.

The first Bravos card is another Jinn to add to the Bravos collection. This one seems well suited to Atsadi as you can play it as a scout turn for 3 and not only put a card from reserve into your mana, but also draw a card. The rare has slightly better water stats and allows you to then ready that mana orb, potentially allowing you to play something else bigger that turn. The OOF in Axiom is the same as the common, but it is notable as being the first ramp in Axiom.

When it comes to destruction of Permanents then you need to go back to a film from the 1980s for your inspiration. The Grems (Gremlins) is an Axiom card that destroys a permanent (they’re gremolition experts, after all) one way or another from reserve. Note that you have to choose one, so if your opponent doesn’t have a suitable permanent in the hand cost range (three for the common and five for the Axiom rare) then you have an option to sacrifice your own permanent for a Brassbug – preferably one that costs one mana. The stats of 1/2/2 for 2 mana are only just under par and the rare version gets to target a bigger permanent. Bravos gets the OOF but only has access to the Axiom common version.

The Maze designer extraordinaire Daedelus shows up in Lyra. The common is a card that is a little undercosted on the face of it at 0/3/3 for three mana. However you get to roll a die and target a character in reserve. If you get 4 or more then you get a boost on both Daedelus and the other card, if less than four you get the boost only on the reserve card. The rare version has a scout 1 ability on it and target another character in play instead of him. This allows you to potentially get a boost for 1 mana and then play it again for 3 from reserve. With a bit of die rolling support from Nevenka, you can probably manipulate the dice to get those 2 boosts most of the time. The OOF is in Bravos and is the same as the rare.

We’ll do another round up of new cards in a few days!