Ashes Preview: Fang and Claw

Click here to pre-order Brennen and Rin, and other new Ashes products! And be sure to try out these new cards in our Ashes deck builder!

Rin has a larger then average Battlefield Value and many of Rin's strategies revolve around creating and maintaining a superior battlefield position. Today we'll look at two of the units The Frostdale Giants include to help exert Rin's unique brand of face smashery!

And here's the unit pictured in that phenomenal Ice Buff art!

I'm going to let you in on a secret. This unit was very tough to balance. At 1 this unit's stats of 1 attack, 1 life, and 1 recovery may seem unimpressive. But looking only at the stats is a grave mistake!

Rapid Healing 1 makes this unit an awesome blocker. If only she had unit guard, she would be the perfect defensive unit! I mean, for every   you spend, you can prevent 1 damage to this unit. As I'm sure your coming to realize, Rin has an easy time keeping units around, so fewer dice need to be spent each round to keep units on the battlefield, freeing up more dice to keep this fast healing wonder around!

And this powerful ally doesn't stop there! With Battle Advantage, this unit's attack resolves first when you attack or counter. If it had more than one attack value, it could be problematic for the opponent, a problem that The Frostdale Giants is sure to exploit!

This unit was revealed on episode 198 of the Plaid Hat Podcast. If you haven't listened to it yet I recommend it; there is quite a bit of interesting content about Ashes origins there. Check it out!

For those of you that haven't heard about the bear yet, I'm sure you're asking yourself, Is this real? Why yes, yes it is. I honestly can't believe this unit made it through testing this way! It is a beast, and hands down my favorite summon in the game!

After an initial investment of 1 you can summon a unit with 2 attack value and 3 life value for 2 dice every round (or at least until you've placed all 4 of these bad boys on the battlefield.)

Those stats are huge by themselves, But even better, this unit creates a very difficult decision for your opponent. With Freeze 1, you can pay 1 to place an exhaustion token on the unit in battle with this Fury Furry, meaning that if it countered it will be unavailable next round too! And with Spite 1, the opponent won't want to absorb the 2 damage from the bear, because against a Phoenixborn that 2 damage becomes a hefty 3 wound tokens instead!

Man I love these cards! And we haven't even gotten to Rin's beefiest unit yet! Next week we'll look at what other icy buffs The Frostdale Giants bring to pile on the pain.

Thanks for reading!
Bob

Click here to pre-order The Children of Blackcloud, The Frostdale Giants, and even extra dice! Get Lulu Firststone or Dimona Odinstar FREE with each Ashes deck purchase, or buy them separately!

Rin/Brennen Previews:
Brennen: Blackcloud Ninja, Crimson Bomber and Poison
Rin: Rin's Fury

Written by Bob Klotz Bob Klotz is the lead playtester of Ashes. Follow @phuzzworthy