SW Preview: Suffocating Darkness
Saturos will vanquish you.
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!
We're down to our final Summoner Wars previews for each faction! Over the next four weeks, you'll get a complete picture of what's in each deck and how it all works. Of course, there's nothing quite like playing with the cards yourself, so don't forget to pre-order the 8 new Summoner Wars decks!
For the Shadow Elves, we've got two champions and two events left. The first three cards are certainly exciting; the final card in this preview truly breaks new ground.
Zhant specializes in manipulating the common units around him to do the will of Saturos.
Did this guy grow up a neighbor to Shiva or something? If you give up your movement with Zhant, you can move two commons instead. And these could be commons who otherwise move during their own movement activation. So you could move 2 units each twice, or 4 units once, etc. Of course they need to be in position to be a Shadow Puppet. And the same exact concept applies to attacking.
Each of Saturos' commons synergize with Zhant in a unique way. For the Blood Drake, a blood summoned Drake could get 2 uses out of that 3-attack value. It's not easy but that kind of surprise could mean the game if it happens even one time!
For Vindicators, Zhant enables you to get 2 attack dice out of them even during turns where they moved. In fact, they could in theory move 4 spaces while still getting 2 attack dice. So you can't just hide around a corner and ignore the vindicator.
And perhaps Shadow Warriors align most closely with Zhant. If Zhant is wounded, the Shadow Warrior can be placed next to him before moving, then move a space away and either use Shadow Puppets to enhance the Warrior's range even more, or smack something close by with 4 dice instead of 2. Oh the possibilities!
I love a card that reacts to attacks. There are so few options the opponent has left after a card like this. All they can do is wrap up attacks and build magic. Sometimes Selundar's Shadows kept an opponent from getting that last magic point they needed and had planned out meticulously. But Saturos' Revenge can ruin plans even more, as what was once a solid blocker becomes a blank space to move through to hit the opposing summoner in the face.
Of course, the unit you really want in the fray is Saturos himself, so that he can activate Blood Summon as often as possible. But if you need to Revenge Saturos' death, it's already too late. That's why Saturos has his own reaction card.
With 3 copies of Revenge and 2 copies of Vanquish in the deck, your opponent will dread every attack they make. Vanquish once again clears a space, and can be saved for the more brutal common attacks available in your opponent's deck. I'll reiterate what I said in the previous 2 previews: Saturos is just scary.
Finally, we come to Uriel. He's a scary monster.
I'll leave the commentary to the rest of you in the comments and forum thread, but let me make clear how this works. It won't do anything the first turn. But the second turn Uriel is on the board, if he's already on the opponent's side, he can attack ANY unit over there. Yes, even summoners hiding in their little holes! Plus, Shiiq can help Uriel get into position.
With all the synergy Saturos gets from being on the offensive, games against Saturos often become races to the opponent's side of the battlefield. Saturos races to leverage his advantages. Saturos' opponent races to avoid them. But nothing good ever comes from running into the darkness.
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, Part 2
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Posted by Joe Ellis |
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