Another five days have passed and another bunch of super cool Whispers of the Maze cards have been revealed to us. Lets start off with a little guy from the Bravos faction who’s been itching to go and explore the Maze.

Bravos Excavator

The Bravos Excavator can donate any boosts that he gains as part of being in the expedition to characters in reserve. This can be split any way you want so as to reduce your risk of getting a single creature sabotaged. The rare also has a support ability that can gain a boost on the card up to a maximum of three, but it then costs 4 mana from reserve. So to get the most out of the card, you need to really grow all the counters in the reserve to get value. The OOF card is in Axiom and instead of boosting, it can Augment a card in play or in reserve for each boost. Augment is a new keyword that basically allows you to add a boost or counter on something in play or reserve (non hero).

Bravos Pendekar

The Bravos Pendekar (a Pendekar is a martial artists in Malaysia) is there to kick some butts in the maze. He costs two mana on the common from both hand and reserve and gets 1/1/1 in stats, which is well under par. However if he gets two boosts then he gets to kick some butt and sabotage after rest (which is perhaps the second best time to Sabotage). The rare gets a Seasoned upgrade, so can keep those boosts around that he previously gained and kick some more butt (Sabotage) again after rest. Muna gets the OOF here which is the same as the common.

Aegis Templar

The Aegis Templar is another character with the scout ability. This card is an Ordis soldier with Scout 1 that can create an Ordis 1/1/1 recruit when it leaves play. This effectively will give you the 1/1/1 for one mana. If you pay the three mana for the card normally from hand or reserve, instead you’ll get a 2/2/3 and a 1/1/1 recruit when it leaves play. This is only just a touch over par for a card. The rare instead has scout 2 and makes two 1/1/1’s with the base card only being a 2/2/1 for 3 (with those two extra recruits coming in when it leaves). The OOF rare card is in Axiom and is identical, except you get one 2/2/2 brassbug instead of two 1/1/1 recruits for your mana.

Merlin

Merlin is your classic Wizard from Arthurian legend who in this incarnation has a nice really big hat. He costs six mana from hand and three from reserve, but also has a scout 4 ability. This scout ability basically gives the ability to send a charater to reserve. If you cast the card for 6 though you additionally get a 3/3/3. From reserve you just get a 3/3/3 for three. The rare upgrades the scout ability to the equivalent of a banishing gate. The OOF is in Axiom and is a copy of the Yzmir rare.

Sap Infusion

Sap Infusion is the Yzmir entrant in the Sap cycle. The common is two mana from hand and three from reserve. The common will give a character two boosts. There is then a support ability that can gain arcane counters and gets up to three extra boosts if you can cast lots of spells. The rare works very differently, giving lots of characters 1 boost based on the arcane counters and only costs one from hand, which might be significant for Afanas, though the issue might be that Afanas rarely has many characters out. The OOF is in Bravos and is nearly identical to the Yzmir rare, but instead of gaining counters for playing spells, it gains them for playing characters.

Feast of Thoughts

Not a penny for your thoughts, no the Yzmir like a fest for your thoughts. From hand for three mana you get to choose one of a list of four effects (drawing a card, creating a 2/2/2 moth, removing 3 counters from a card in play or reserve and sabotage), making it a flexible if slightly expensive spell. From reserve you can get more choices (up to a maximum of 4) from this spell by gaining counters on the support ability. The rare has three changes. Firstly it costs six mana from reserve, secondly it can gain up to six counters, meaning you can have seven effects, and finally you can choose the same effect many times! The OOF rare in Ordis is very similar to the Yzmir common, but gains the counters from playing a character to your expeditions.

Fiore dei Liberi

Looking very much like an Ordis version of the muskateers, Fiore dei Liberi is actually an Eidelon of a real Italien master swordsman from the 18th centuary. This card costs four mana and is a 1/1/1, so you know that it kind of has to have a cool ability to go with it. First of all, it the card has any boosts then it is eternal. This means that barring getting targeted by a suitable removal the card is likely to stay around for a while. Not only that, but Fiore gains boosts for each card in his expedition (which you then have to sacrifice). So if you have three recruites there, then they’ll all get killed for the cause whilst Fiore takes all the credit. You then have to loose a boost each night, but if you can keep refilling him with boosts then he can go on forever. The rare is the same, but one mana cheaper and the OOF card is in Bravos, which with Basira as your hero, could keep him going for quite some time.

Aby, Sap Courier

Someone has to carry all this Sap they’ve found in the Tumult around. Guess what, Axiom have found just the woman for the job! Not only that but she has a scout 1 ability that can enable her -> ability which augments a target card. Augumenting is an ability that adds one more counter to a non hero card. Her the augment is on cards both in play and in reserve. If we play her normally, then she is a 3/2/3 for three mana with that augment, which could be the equivalent of another boost. The rare has scout 2 instead of scout 1 but can target any number of cards which seems pretty good. The OOF card is in Ordis which is identical to the Axiom rare,

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa means Big Wood in Haitian Vodou. He is considered a powerful and unpredictable loa, often associated with the wilderness and considered a master of botanical knowledge. However his Eidelon is more predictable as for 4 mana you can get a 4/4/4 and you can have your opponent draw a card so that you can Anchor the Gran Bwa down. From reserve you can build up two boosts on his and then for 5 mana you can get a 6/6/6 that can get anchored in the same way. The rare gets more boosts when an opponent draws or resupplies but fewer stats (3/3/2), so he can get big quickly. The OOF rare is in Ordis, but seems to be able to build up the counters much easier!

Bug-Out Bag

The Axiom seemingly have tools for everything. Here they have some tools for getting out of their current location quickly. The bag has lots of little easter egss for you to spot. Mechanically the common is a two cost gear (from hand and reserve) that makes a 2/2/2 brassbug. Now this is bang on rate and because it only costs two mana, alas Sierra doesn’t get a brassbug from her ability. However the other two can play this and get value, having created the brassbug, they could then play The Grems to sacrifice the now useless gear for more profit. The rare version costs 3 which will support Sierra as she can get her brassbug from it and then from reserve get her ability’s brassbug and get a resupply for two mana. Ordis gets the OOF rare which costs two mana and then does everything that the rare does. Some have said that this is better than the Axiom version, but Axiom (Sierra) wants it to cost three from hand.

X Marks the Spot

Lyra like to have wacky spell effects and here we have a spell with Nevenka’s name on it, or rather her artwork on the art! She even left her empty spray can behind as she’s running off. This spell is a bounce spell with fleeting costing three mana that tucks a character back into the deck X cards down where the X is the number of a die roll. Making the number higher is obviously better as you can keep a character from being used again for some time, when perhaps it is not as relevant. The rare also gives you a rebate of one mana orb if your roll is higher than the hand cost of the card. The OOF is in muna and is the same as the Lyra rare.

Merry Reunion

The Lyra spells continue with another weird interesting spell. Merry Reunion is a two mana conjuration spell that gives you a resupply. Not only that but if you turn over a character as part of the resultion you can immediately play it for 2 less cost, effectively giving you a free two cost play assuming you get lucky. The rare version allows you to put that character into hand instead (effectively drawing it), has cooldown and costs only one mana from you reserve the following turn. The OOF is in Bravos, which really likes to draw cards if possible and is the same as the Lyra rare.

Bugfix

These Brassbugs have problems at times, so you need to fix them at times to get the most from them. For one mana you can spend a counter from a card you control (including a hero card) to create a 2/2/2 brassbug. The spell has cooldown and costs 2 from reserve, but you can remove a Treyst counter temporally to get the effect and then play a card from reserve to gain his ability back. The reserve costs one from hand and reserve, making it a nice cost efficient way to make your brassbugs. The OOF rare is in Ordis and does the same thing as the common does.

Spirit Warrior

Another brave Bravos adventurer has joined the ranks of those heading into the Maze. At first a 1/1/1 for two mana doesn’t seem like a great return, but he gains 1 boost for each other boosted character. So you probably want to be playing this character last to get the most from him. He also seems to be good in Basira due to the extra boosts that she can throw out. The rare in Bravos is a 1/2/1 and costs one more from reserve as well as gaining a reserve ability to gain a boost. The OOF rare is in Muna and works somewhat differently. Here the spirit warrior gains boosts from anchored characters you control and for three mana from reserve he can anchor himself.