Alright, there’s no way I can make a play on the Benders’ name without it coming across as slightly sexual. Let’s all just be mature adults and politely ignore the humorous oversight of Plaid Hat Game’s naming for this faction.

Snicker.

Ah, the Benders. Is there a faction more hated than this? Oh, and what a coincidence that most of the people in it are women too, huh. I’m not saying that if you hate the Benders you’re a misogynist. I’m just heavily implying it. Do you hate women? No? Then clearly, you don’t hate the Benders.

I for one love our new female overlords. Who are led by a male. Because of course we can’t have a dominant female faction without a man in the primary role. They are also the masters of mind games. This is just the way things have to be in order to appeal to our target demographic. Which, we’ve already established, aren’t misogynists.

Social justice! Down with men! Let’s burn some bras!

Alright, so who are the Benders (heh). Well, for one, they’re the champions of the Master Tournament. So they’re not someone that you can take lightly. On the other hand, they only got thirteenth in the Everyone Party Tournament, taking a low place alongside the Demagogue. So the Benders aren’t invincible either.

They are a passive faction, however, so my sister is not doing well with them. Prior I mentioned in the Deep Dwarves write-up that a passive opponent could really make the game long and tedious. Say hello to that passive opponent. The Benders are perhaps what everyone thinks when they imagine the defensive factions of Summoner Wars. I, generally speaking, consider a faction defensive if they gain some advantage by keeping to their side of the board and not rushing their opponent. There are a number of factions that occupy a rather weird position where they don’t have a good aggressive strategy, a feasible assassination strategy or an effective defensive strategy. We call those factions the Cloaks and they’re losers.

Alright, maybe not quite, but the factions with a sort of aimless design do have a tendency to default to a defensive play. But that’s not the same as being a defensive faction. The Benders are strongly encouraged to hunker down behind their walls and wait for their enemy to come at them. Unlike the Filth and the Deep Dwarves, however, they don’t have a lot of pressure that forces their opponent to rush headlong over the middle line. They have no economy game outside what the core mechanics provide. And, quite frankly, the opponent is heavily discouraged from playing ball.

This is what leads to the Benders low popularity polling. And, honestly, it’s a fault of the design. Basically, a match against the Benders is going to involve the Bender player sitting at the table, pulling everything to the back of his board and shouting, “Come at me, bro!” If the enemy complies, he’s a happy toad on a log. If, however, his enemy pulls his units to the back of the board and returns with a, “No! You come at ME, bro!” then we have a problem. The game can turn quickly into a staring match which each player waiting for the other to blink first.

For many match-ups, this isn’t an issue. Aggressive factions will take the bait and rush forward because that’s what they do. Better defensive factions will hold back and apply that passive pressure, forcing the Benders to react. But for those factions that fall in the middle? Well, the game grinds to a boring halt.

I know the designers wanted to make a faction that would cause friends to hate each other but not like this Plaid Hat. Not like this.

I think they realized their mistake. That’s why the Deep Benders have the Owl Gryphon. It’s not actually a champion for Endrich. Endrich has an economy engine (as awkward as it is) that can apply pressure on its own. He also has an aggressive game if he wishes to attack from a different angle. But Tacullu doesn’t. If Tacullu isn’t playing defensive, he really doesn’t have any (clear) route to victory. So he’s meant to take the Owl Gryphon and be the Deep Dwarves 2.0 because the designers couldn’t think of any better passive pressure to solve the issue.

Long story short, if you own both the Master Set and Alliances, take the Owl Gryphon out and shove it in with Tacullu. Give the alopecian man anything in return. He’ll just build it for magic anyway. This will make your games much better. Tacullu has a Hero is Born anyway.

But, since we don’t review based on deck building, keep in mind that the criticisms against the Benders are valid. Whatever their design, it’s fundamentally flawed to stall games in a non-insignificant number of match-ups. And asking one player to sacrifice their own best interest (whether that be the Benders going against their defensive direction or the opponent to willingly attack a faction at their strongest) to fix a design issue is not a proper workaround.

Tacullu (2R-5W-Counter Summon)

Personally, I think Tacullu has 1 health too many. And no, I’m not saying this because I just want to see the Benders lose. I think the 4 health line for summoners is interesting. It makes the player be overly protective of their summoner. This fits in with a defensive faction. It also makes them more vulnerable to assassination tactics since those factions excel at getting only one high strength strike through. I like the generic rock-paper-scissors power dynamic of defensive beats aggressive, aggressive beats assassination and assassination beats defensive. As a general design paradigm, I think that’s a pretty easy and intuitive set-up.

Oh well, Tacullu has five health and we’ll just have to deal with it. Much like a lot of the Benders other design.

With a low attack, he won’t be pulled out to do much of anything in a fight. Don’t neglect Counter Summon, however. This would, in theory, be the fear that a Bender player building up a larger economy pile would put into their opponent. Its restrictions are nice in that it could open the Bender player up to an assassination counter play. And it’s strong enough to really take the wind out of an aggressive focused force’s sails when their impervious champion or common is whisked away without having to chew through defences or health pools.

Unfortunately, this isn’t how Counter Summon ends up playing. It basically turns the stalling game into an exercise in frustration as the enemy builds for a large champion to charge at Tacullu and the Bender player builds a large pool to kick it to the curb, leaving both players back at square one.

It’s still a strong ability if only because it turns one of the best advantages of cheap champions back on themselves. In that way, it’s kind of a cool piece of design.

But let’s take a look at those events.

First, Magic Drain. We all know the deal here. But that the Benders, who are already playing really passive and far back on their field have it means that the opponent is likely to self kill their units to try and keep on par or lower than the Benders to prevent the drain. It just encourages more cold war stare-offs.

A Hero is Born is here for reasons I cannot fathom. This card is pretty bad because there aren’t many “need to have” champions in the game that would require a tutor for them over just building five magic and drawing five cards a turn can’t find. With the Owl Gryphon it could actually see some play, perhaps, but for the most part it’s a bad event.

Mimic is both an incredibly frustrating event for your opponent and not a very good one for you. I kind of like it and with a tweaked Bender deck design, I think it would make a strong addition. It essentially punishes event combo decks. Either a player has to play their events as they draw them or build them for magic otherwise the Benders will claim them. This is doubly important for events that don’t discriminate against factions when firing like Reinforcements. However, it can lead to some interesting plays against combo factions if they’re able to fake out a few mimic plays since Tacullu does have a limited number. And while missing an event sucks with mimic, there is still some value in knowing what the opponent has in their grubby hands.

Except, in summoner wars, most cards are just magic fodder so it’s not as good as other games.

At last, we have Mind Control. This is the card that makes the Benders really want to play defensively. Well, this and they’re all low health and ranged so they naturally utilize the defender’s advantage better than others. But mind control just frustrates aggressive assaults as it not only swings the tempo in Tacullu’s favour but it can leave vulnerable enemy units suddenly exposed to an attack they wouldn’t have received otherwise. However, it’s trigger of your board means that Tacullu almost never wants to go aggressive. He’ll live and die on his side hoping for those mind controls.

Oh, and yes it only targets commons but if you think that means you just need to build champions to take on Tacullu, scroll up and re-familiarize yourself with that section I just wrote on counter summon. They’re a particularly nasty combination.

Breaker (1R-1W-2M-Memory Break)

Breakers have the auspicious title of being the first common in a deck that doesn’t start in their summoner’s opening set-up. That makes them the best bum card because you can completely deck build them out without having that awkward one or two required for the first turn of the game!

Unfortunately, breakers are the worst common in the Bender deck and, consequently, are the ones you’ll never see. It’s unfortunate because I kind of like their design. However, they’re grossly overshadowed by the controllers. So while these gals are meant to offer a rare damaging paradigm – directly attacking the opponent’s deck and, indirectly, their economy – we don’t really get to see how effective this design is. But they have the potential to create interesting situations. Say a breaker reveals a key champion like Kynder from the Deep Dwarves deck. Surely you’d pay one magic to keep the champion around. But would you pay two magic from two breaker attacks? What about three?

And to add insult to injury, the card gets buried at the bottom of the deck meaning you have to dig to get it back. And if you’re not dealing with those breakers, they could just lose it or have to pay even more when it comes up again.

Sadly, you’re just not going to spend two magic for one attack to cause this issue. That the breaker has to hit a unit and not a wall further reduces their usefulness given that your opponent likely isn’t throwing a lot of commons at Tacullu thanks to his mind controlling.

Personally, what I would have liked to see with them is their cost reduced to one magic. Maybe tweak them so they only hit on a 4+ to compensate because I do think the ability is really good. But I feel breakers should have been the cheap option in the Bender deck because their effect is so subtle and pretty chance based. I mean, if you hit one of your enemy’s bum commons, they’ll just pitch it and likely kill your breaker in the next turn for the magic that card could have provided. At two magic, this simply isn’t a worthy exchange for the Benders in a large number of cases.  At one… who knows? Maybe?

Controller (2R-1W-2M-Telekinetic Blast)

These are the all-stars of the Bender army. Two range is pretty strong though 2 magic is the general cost for things as soft as these ladies. The blast has great utility as Kynder demonstrates and they don’t spend a magic to do it. They don’t even need to hit anything so you can attack your own walls with controllers if you just want to push someone around. And I often do this to Tacullu to get him flopping away from angry players running across the board to smack him in his annoying non-face.

Unfortunately, they’re so good that they kind of overshadow the other Bender commons. Personally, I think I’d drop their attack down to 1. I’d still leave their cost at 2 magic because defensive factions should have more expensive units and I do think blasting things is worth the extra magic. But don’t think this is a nerf because I would move that 2 attack stat line to…

Deceivers (1R-1W-1M-Stun)

These girls. These girls right here. I’d make them the 2 attack at 2 magic option. Why? Because it makes them a bit of a nombo (non-combination) with stun. It makes them a little more awkward which is fine because a lot of the time you’re spending that two magic for the attack and don’t really care about the ability. Though they would make wonderful little common haters as they can stun a unit then blow their faces off with that extra attack.

As is now, they’re generally blockers. How? They simply sit beside an enemy’s attacking unit and sing kumbaya until the enemy manages to dislodge them. At one magic, they’re dead easy to summon and pitch mindlessly at your enemy while you skulk behind your walls being a little taunting brat that refuses to put your money where your mouth is. They can slowly roll their die and whittle away their stunned partner’s health but be careful that they aren’t immediately murdered the moment that stunned enemy is dead.

I like deceivers and feel they’re a little under appreciated. Not that I can blame people, controllers are really good.

Gulldune (2R-4W-5M-Mind Capture)

So Gulldune isn’t particularly good. Granted, most the Bender champions aren’t particularly good. But Gulldune takes the cake for probably being the most not particularly good of the bunch. He’s a little pricey for 4 health and 2 range attack. What really kills him, however, is that his ability is pretty rubbish.

You have to kill the unit in order to capture them. At 2 attack, that means whatever you capture can only have a maximum of 2 health left (more likely they’ll only have one). Alright, so you’re not mind controlling any healthy units. You’re still stealing them and permanently, right?

Though if you can kill the unit in one attack, chances are the enemy can as well. And since you’re stealing them in the middle of your attack phase, you can’t move them out of harms way. You can’t move them anywhere, really.

So you now have a low health unit in the middle of the enemy’s ranks who, likely, you won’t be able to attack with him since he can’t move when you take control. What’s the first thing that’s going to happen when the opponent takes their turn? They’re going to kill that shiny unit you just stole.

And take the magic.

So you’re losing out on the magic that you’d get from the kill and are giving it to the opponent. The only way this would be advantageous to you is if you get a good attack with the unit you steal since it’s not going to live very long. Really, the only way this will happen is if your opponent doesn’t see Gulldune coming but once he hits the table, the enemy will be more careful about where potential mind capture victims may be.

Also, he’s four health so he won’t last long. Especially if he fails to kill his target and they run up to him and punch him in his face.

Ultimately, you’re better off just murdering the target and claiming the money than trying to work around this cumbersome ability.

Kalal (3R-5W-7M-Glimpse the Future)

Kalal is your tank in the Benders. She has 5 health. One thing I haven’t touched on is the fragility of the Benders. They’re paper tigers that don’t stand up to repeated punishment. Which is good because they’re all ranged and kind of annoying.

Kalal is nice since she has 3 attack at range. Unfortunately, five health doesn’t make her quite a bruiser. You can use deceivers and controllers to limit the amount of hate that will come her way. And glimpsing the future is a rather interesting ability. You can control, to a degree, your enemy’s draw. Have them pull their bum commons while stuffing their combo events and champions at the bottom of their deck. Or, you can ensure your good cards come up while throwing your bum ones for later.

Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s worth the extra magic that Kalal costs. I get that it’s suppose to combo with the breakers but the breakers themselves aren’t really enticing on their own. And 7 magic is quite an investment for something that’s only ok. Kalal doesn’t really push you towards a direct path for victory. You’re not really going to pitch 7 magic and how many breakers to pursue this circuitous route of burning the enemy’s deck to win.

You’re just going to mind control, kill and unsummon what they bring out.

And if you only want Kalal to kill, wouldn’t you just take a champion with 3 attack that was cheaper?

Sorgwen (3R-3W-5M-Telepathic Command)

Speak of the devil.

Sorgwen is basically the go to champion for the Benders. She has that three ranged attack that is the draw for Kalal. She has a fairly low cost of 5 magic so she won’t break the bank and leave lots of magic for counter summoning. She has telepathic command that gives you an extra attack in the turn as if the Benders were an aggressive faction. I’m guessing that’s because the Benders are suppose to be “a little of everything.”

She’s really hard to compete against and nothing has. Her ability is so good that when they put it on a summoner, they had to give it a cost. In fact, the only difference between her and Endrich is that he has one more health and you don’t lose the game if Sorgwen falls. She makes your controllers all the better. And just think what her and breakers would be like if you actually played them!

Just make sure she’s well protected through controller blasts and deceiver stuns. She’ll probably still be assassinated but, hey, that’s three damage that wasn’t done to Tacullu.

Many words have been said about the Benders and how to “balance” them. I don’t think people really mean that they’re unbalanced but just that they’re not fun. I would like to have seen them provide a reason for the enemy to have to engage them. They have decent weaknesses as is. And with better developed assassination factions, they’ll continue to drop games.

It’s just a shame that some of their more interesting ideas were abandoned amongst the torrent of bad publicity. There was an interesting design space to explore here that was just dropped in the later releases. We’ll have to see if the second summoner picks up this idea of attacking the opponent’s draw pile and economy. I feel like there’s still many interesting interactions left to explore in the system. My hope is that Plaid Hat will realize them.