At least two new mechanics and several new cards have been revealed in a teaser article for the upcoming Whispers from the Maze set, available June 6. Prerelease events for WFM will begin May 30 and the set’s Tumult Championships will run from July 26-Sept. 7. This marks the first new information we’ve received on the set since its announcement earlier this year.

New mechanics

Passive support abilities can trigger while the character is in reserve.

Passive support abilities make their debut in the new set, indicated by a small infinity symbol in the support ability description. The example given in the article is Pastry Chef (3/5), a new Bravos card.

On the common, its support ability gives it a boost each time a character is played to an expedition, meaning that as it waits in reserve, it gains boosts to carry out into the expedition. The character also provides an incentive to play at least a few other characters (or get a Haven in play) first, as its from-reserve ability draws a card when it has two or more boosts.

This kind of support ability brings a new aspect to characters in reserve, allowing them to “charge up” or provide another use in play while they’re outside of the expeditions themselves. It also makes a well-timed sabotage or exhaustion hurt that much more.

Notably, Pastry Chef’s text specifies that it can only gain up to three boosts through the passive support method; that kind of language feels like a nod toward the designers being mindful of how this might interact with uniques and trying to stay ahead of issues similar to what’s been seen in recent patches.

Scout is a new keyword that can manipulate cost reduction and effects.

“Scout” joins the list of the game’s keywords, providing a new way to reduce mana costs while getting card benefits. The shared card is Aoife, Fire Avatar (5/5), another new Bravos card (pronounced “ee-fuh,” according to Loco_Nico – this link goes to the spoiler channel). Though a 5/5 is a heavy mana commitment, the card can also be played for 2 mana as a Scout. The mechanic gives the character the from-hand effect “Send me to Reserve,” but still triggers its from-anywhere effect of removing Fleeting from a character and giving it a boost.

Operationally, this works similar to the TBF Machine in the Ice, which also means that there are already opportunities for combo effects through Floral Tents and Issun/Yeti to reduce cost for strong stats and a Helping Hand. It also makes for a strong stat counter to cards like The Council, though it then loses its Helping Hand ability. This could open up new chances to see cards with marginal abilities gain versatility while keeping out of reach of Tiny Jail or Off You Go.

While it’s not specifically a new mechanic, the article does share The Hunger (9/3), a new Yzmir character whose from-hand ability discards all other cards in play or in Reserve, and then gains a boost for each card that goes to the discard pile. With the right resources and timing, that could help handle some current gameplay strategies around tokens, permanents or characters with Eternal.

New art and triptychs

The Junior Chef is just trying to build out their resume, but we hope they washed their paws.

A new cycle of six sets of cards will form triptychs when combined together. The cards are meant to show scenes of the camps above the maze itself from each faction’s point of view.

The example shared in the article is again from Bravos, featuring cards with the filenames “Junior Chef” and “Hestia” alongside the Pastry Chef from earlier. Filenames sometimes change between the teaser and full release, but these notes can at least point us in the right direction.

Taken together, the cards show the Bravos team working together to create the dishes that will power the athletic faction forward deeper into the labyrinth.

It’s unknown whether the cards will interact thematically or mechanically as well as artistically. This does continue the ongoing use of cycles across each faction per set, such as the Training and Icebound cycles.

The art for six additional cards was also revealed without the card names, factions or other details. Similar to the TBF teaser article, this is an opportunity to show off some of the art coming in the new set while possibly providing a few hints.

From the filenames, we have:

• Arawn – A Welsh mythological figure known as the king of the otherworld realm, associated with the hunt. Notice the pack of Corgis with him – corgis being a Welsh hunting dog.
• Ariadne – A Greek mythological figure and Cretan princess who helped Theseus escape the Minotaur by way of a string that led him out of the maze
• Daedalus – Another Greek mythological figure who was the architect who built the famous Labyrinth for King Minos
• Sap Sniffer – Less mythological, more cute small animal friend who apparently does not mind risking danger for its treasure
• Sylas, Cryptic Warlock – Referenced in multiple Altered lore posts, possibly the entity pulling the strings since the start
• The Mess – A reference here to a mess hall, a way to describe a military cafeteria commons; not necessarily messy

If this post mirrors the teaser post for TBF, then each of these six cards likely represents one of the factions. While there have been some notes in the spoilers channel of the game’s Discord server, nothing has been officially shared at this point.

Adventure cards and prerelease kits

The game’s first official prerelease kits are coming with WFM, which include the necessary materials to play a pre-release event as well as a solid starting point for the set.

They include:

• 7 WFM booster packs
• 1 set of WFM premium adventure cards
• 1 illustrated card divider with illustrations from the triptych cycle
• 1 guide to building a pre-release deck

The kit also features a character who hasn’t been officially named, but has been discussed in the spoiler channel.

Similar to TBF, the adventure cards have also been refreshed to show the advance of the expeditions away from Cais Adarra toward the City of Scholars. Props go to Wildcard (this link goes to the spoilers channel) who noticed that the Hero card for WFM begins where the Companion card in TBF ended, which doesn’t have a mechanical effect but is a thoughtful design choice.

Additionally, more than one million brand-new unique cards will be released with the WFM set.

Gamegenic has also promoted two new playmats and a new card sleeve design for the set.