SW Preview: Traitors for the Cause

Eight Summoner Wars Second Summoner decks are now up for pre-order in the PlaidHatGames.com store! You can buy them all separately, OR for a limited time, if you pre-order all eight together, get them for $59.95, $20 off the MSRP! Pre-order today!

Welcome back inside the ranks of Farrah Oathbreaker. Time to get some more inside information on the woman that has all the inside information! And speaking of inside information, we might as well start this preview off with some actual inside information.

First things first – read the card again.  You’ll probably want to read it a third time – there’s a lot there.  Like Undercover Agent, I’ll break it down for you to make it simple:

1. Get a guy with a matching Faction Symbol onto the opponent’s side of the Battlefield
2. Play Inside Information
3. Look at the top 3 cards of the opponent’s Draw Pile.  If you want one, put it in your hand and put the others back
4. If you don’t want one, put them all back and take something from the Discard Pile instead.

Now, I’ll tell you that Farrah has two of these. Two.  They’re completely devastating and can win games on their own. Information is powerful. 

This is how Farrah really cripples her opponents. It goes back to her old Cloak training (I’m sure you noticed that it greatly resembles Vlox’s Spy Event card, but Farrah is better at it.) She uses her embedded operative to learn about the other army, turning their own tools against them and sometimes changing the loyalty of the opponent’s best soldiers without their knowledge. Because that’s what makes this really so devastating – if you take a card from the Draw Pile, you don’t have to reveal it to the opponent. They have no idea what you’ve stolen and, when you steal a card they’re really counting on, it’s a crippling blow. This takes quite a bit of setup though and suffers from hand clog, which is Farrah’s main issue. But when she gets in position and pulls this Event off... man.  The power of information and persuasion should never be underestimated.

Now that the big kahuna is out of the way... you’ll remember last week I said there were more ways to get a matching Faction Symbol other than Mingle and Changelings. Of course, Inside Information can do that as well by stealing an opponent’s Unit and then playing it. But here is probably the most straight-forward way to do it:

This Event card just straight-up gives someone a matching Faction Symbol – pretty straight forward.  The other thing it does though is get Undercover Agent back from your Discard Pile.  This helps with hand clog somewhat by allowing Farrah to build Undercover Agent if she doesn’t have a good target for it yet, but still when your Disguises and Inside Infos come first, you’ll face some tough decisions as Farrah.

But hey – enough about Events and trickery today. Let’s get into some more meat of Farrah Oathbreaker. Specifically, this meaty Unit that she brought with her when she defected from the Vanguards… right under the nose of Sera Eldwyn and Samuel Farthen themselves.

These guys were Farrah’s original companions.  They believe in her leadership after watching her defend the citadel over and over. They aren’t spies like Farrah is – they’re really just Vanguards through and through that believe in her and her ideals and were sympathetic to her cause. They give Farrah some much needed stability that the other cards in her deck just don’t provide. And these guys are the definition of stability – by being immune to opponent’s cards they’re fantastic at blocking and stuffing up choke points. This, along with their 3 Life value and 2 Attack, will be something all Vanguard summoners will appreciate. I hope that Sera especially will be able to keep these guys going with healing spells and choke points since the opponents can’t find additional ways to wound or move them.

And kind of along those same lines, we present a former mortal enemy of the Vanguards turned against his master – the Augur.

These guys got sick of giving what’s left of their lives to Ret-Talus’ madness, and have learned from Farrah how to shield their minds from their master’s dead sight. They function as advisors to Farrah, but believe in her strongly enough to lay down their life to protect her when she charges into battle to use that boosted attack value, or to get information to Farrah out of the Fallen Kingdom, because when these guys are in Fallen Kingdom decks, those summoners will not hesitate to sacrifice them instead of taking wounds themselves, such as Forced Summon or one of the million ways that Mad Sirian hurts himself. And even if you don’t use them to save that wound for 2 cards, a 0-cost, 2 life blocker shouldn’t be under-appreciated.

And speaking of 0-Cost, 2 Life guys...

These Cave Goblins have grown weary of being a Cave Goblin. They don’t want to be eaten by one of their peers or children. Quite frankly, they’re scared of other Cave Goblins, and thus Farrah was able to recruit them with a promise of a society where that culture wasn’t around. So, when it's just Cave Goblins, they hide until the Summoner forces them out. When there’s other friendly Units, they’re a little more brave and willing to come out of hiding. Farrah obviously loves them as they’re 0-cost pretty much all of the time and they get her another Symbol. The Warden also gets them for 0 all the time, but he can’t mutate them so they fall out of his favor a little bit. As for Cave Goblin decks, they’ve been dreaming of a 2-Life, 0-Cost Unit since the beginning of Summoner Wars. Sneeks typically won’t mind paying the 1 Magic to get one of these guys out knowing that they work with his excellent Events, but even he can get the discount when he has no magic in his pile or he has a Cave Filth Unit on the Battlefield. Ditto for Frick. When they actually come out, these guys give those decks just a touch more staying power to hold their position, which can be just what the cannibalistic doctor ordered.

So at this point, all that’s left to reveal for Farrah is her last common (which I think I’m more proud of than any other Farrah card, save maybe Invaders), last Event and 2 Champions, which will be the last cards previewed overall. However, if you’re still curious about Farrah, check out Crimson’s thread, Summoner Wars Channel.  I’m a guest on their channel this week, and there may or may not be a spoiler there...

Catch you next week to wrap up Natazga and Saturos!

Eight Summoner Wars Second Summoner decks are now up for pre-order in the PlaidHatGames.com store! You can buy them all separately, OR for a limited time, if you pre-order all eight together, get them for $59.95, $20 off the MSRP! Pre-order today!

Second Summoner Previews:
Kynstri's Mission
Saturos: Part 1, Part 2
Natazga: Part 1, Part 2
Malenatar: Part 1, Part 2
Scraven: Part 1, Part 2
Little Meda: Part 1, Part 2
Shiva: Part 1, Part 2
Brath: Part 1, Part 2
Farrah: Part 1

Written by Frank Balog Frank Balog is the lead playtester of Summoner Wars.