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Welcome, Ashes players!

Today begins another preview cycle of the upcoming Ashes expansion decks, The King of Titans and the Ghost Guardian! Today we will be looking at The King of Titans expansion deck and the Phoenixborn within it. This deck includes tons of new devastating spells, massive conjurations, and brave allies that use natural and divine magic to defend their homeland of Vallen. This band of of heroes is led by none other than Xander Heartsblood, Phoenixborn of Vallen!

Xander Heartsblood

Xander is a Phoenixborn of the people. He boasts a healthy 20 life value and is more than prepared to step into battle himself to take on incoming threats. A battlefield of 6 means he will have plenty of units to defend as he assembles an army of dinosaurs and warriors alike! Xander’s weak point lies in his spellboard of 3, meaning he will have to carefully choose which ready spells to use in battle and rely on strong action spells and allies to do the heavy lifting. Xander is a Phoenixborn deeply connected to the philosophy of divine magic, and this is best illustrated by his Reincarnate ability. This side action ability allow Xander to return an ally from the discard pile to your hand, without needing to suffer the damage cost associated with the ceremonial dice power! Being a side action means your opponent will always have to be wary of which allies are in your discard pile, and must be prepared for any threat to be called to battle at a moment’s notice! As you can see, Xander is a formidable force on his own, but this is before he has even unleashed his signature move, Earthquake!

Earthquake

Earthquake is a one-card powerhouse! This Phoenixborn-exclusive spell packs one of the highest cost-to-damage ratios in the game. Dealing 4 damage to a single unit is enough to take out nearly any unit in the game, no questions asked. Additionally, every other unit in play is going to suffer the effects of this attack by taking 1 damage. This can be a great way to level the playing field when faced with multiple threats of both high and low life. Depending on how you use it, Earthquake comes with a drawback or an additional feature for synergy! Not only do all enemies take 1 damage, but your own units do too! Being prepared with Protect or Particle Shields can help save your most vulnerable units, while units like Leech Warrior (and many other units yet to be revealed…) will revel in the power of their nasty damage-triggered effects!

That’s all for the opening preivew of the King of Titans! Remember, the King of Titans and the Ghost Guardians are both available for preorder now. I hope you look forward to seeing some of the prehestoric beasts Xander has readied for battle in next week’s preview! But first, stay tuned as later this week we will introduce Rimea Careworn, Phoenixborn of Shadowreck!

Until next time,

- Nick Conley

Posted by Nick Conley Nick Conley is the lead playtester for Ashes and a dedicated fan.