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Welcome back, Ashes players! Earlier this week, we began previews for The King of Titans expansion deck. Today we will begin previewing the Ghost Guardian expansion deck! This deck uses Sympathy and Illusion magic to summon ghostly creatures that manipulate the flow of battle, as well as a slew of control options for players looking to glimpse the future and plan accordingly. Leading this deck is the Phoenixborn of Shadowreck, Rimea Careworn!

Rimea Careworn

Rimea has the power to gaze into the future and even manipulate the outcomes to her desire! Visions allows you to look at the top 3 cards of a player’s draw pile and rearrange the order of the cards. This ability doesn’t even exhaust, so you can always be assessing the future when a player draws or meditates cards during the round. Once Rimea sees an outcome that may be too much to bear, she can cast aside that timeline by putting that card on the bottom of the deck! Rimea has one of the more unique Phoenixborn stat lines in Ashes. The first thing that stands out is the spellboard value of 5! This will allow Rimea plenty of options for tailoring her spellboard with a wide variety of summon books and utility ready spells, which this expansion deck includes many of! Rimea’s 20 life will help her to survive late into the game, which is advantageous for strategies revolving around building up a robust spellboard to overtake their opponent! A battlefield of 4 is Rimea’s weak point, which means she will have to be sure to field only the highest quality units. Fortunately, Rimea has enlisted the help of a premier ally: the Ancestral Army!

Ancestral Army

Rimea has called upon the spirits of her ancestors to bring forth an army of elite warriors! The Ancestral Army is one of the most reliable allies in the game, boasting a well rounded stat line that can go toe-to-toe with many other 3-dice allies, as well as 2 signature abilities. The Ancestral Army is skilled at making use of fighting on a tight battlefield with the Dauntless ability. Enemies will have to think twice about sending in small units for an attack, as the Army can make quick work of them and immediately ready for battle again! In addition, investing in the Ancestral Army is a safe bet thanks to the Inviolable ability! This spell protects your Army from incoming spells like Fear or Crescendo, as well as the much maligned alteration spells like Regress and Mark of the Goddess! Unfortunately this ability also prevents you from augmenting the Army yourself, but the preventative capabilities of this effect is well worth the lost opportunity.

Thanks for reading today’s preview! With the Phoenixborn introductions complete, next week we will take a look at an exciting new mechanic coming to Ashes featured in both of these new expansions: Mounts! Prepare to send your allies into battle riding on ghostly steeds and massive dinosaurs! Remember, both decks are available for preorder now!

Until next time,

-Nick Conley

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