Last but not least for our second Summoner Wars 2.0 faction preview is the head honcho of the Benders herself, Tacullu. And might I say, she’s never looked better. Because she’s a he now. And everyone loves a nice set of boobs, right?

I’m not certain it’s going to be possible to discuss this first set of factions without referencing the old Summoner Wars games. Partly, Plaid Hat brought this on themselves by filling the first release with a whole bunch of old factions. And since they all appear to be a refinement of their prior incarnations, a little context feels necessary.

I mentioned before how Tacullu in the original was incredibly oppressive to play against. I don’t think he was the best summoner in the game but he was certainly a strong one. However, he was pretty miserable to play against. This lay in a one-two combo of his summoner ability and his events (though his commons certainly weren’t helping much there either). He bore the dreaded Magic Drain event, which was a pretty hefty economic swing that also encouraged passive play and murdering your own units. He also had Mind Control, which let him steal commons that tread onto his side of the battlefield. Mimic let him snipe your events from your hand. 

And then there was Counter Summon as his summoner ability. 

Now, Mind Control and Counter Summon both required magic on their part. Which meant, once again, Tacullu was best served by burning all his resources so he could steal or dispel yours. Which meant that he wanted to sit back in a safe location to build up those resources while forcing your units to come in through precarious attack lanes that would allow him to steal or kill any force that came at him. Champions could easily be Counter Summoned if they were cheap or strong. And powerful commons gave him the double swing of you losing the unit and magic spent on it while he gained it. 

You would think the best tactic would then be to flood his board with cheap, weak units that weren’t ideal to steal. But then we get back to his commons which were, on average, slightly ahead of the curve for slightly less than standard price. So it wasn’t a great exchange either. 

It’s with these issues in mind that I think we need to examine Tacullu 2.

First thing’s first. Tacullu launches with arguably the best stat line of the first six summoners. This is a surprise, to be sure. It’s a bit of a dangerous line to walk, as well. I believe the reason she has 13 health and 3 range strength is because she’s stolen old Summoner Wars Gulldune’s Mind Capture ability. Frankly, this is a better way to deal with permanent mind control. I really didn’t like Gulldune and considered him one of the Bender’s worst champions. Ironically, his ability on Tacullu is way better.

First, you have access to Mind Capture from the first turn. Part of Gulldune’s issue was that you couldn’t rely on getting the champion out when you needed him. Either you could draw him in your opening hand when you had no magic, stuffing your draw if you really wanted to save. Or, worse, you never draw him because he’s in the bottom of your deck. Even with A Hero is Born in the deck, he was too unreliable to build your strategy around and too inconsistent to use opportunistically. His 2 range attack ran a decent risk of missing altogether. Furthermore, you could only really reliably capture units that had almost no health, basically feeding that magic back to your opponent when your turn ended. He was essentially best for getting those last few dice on a summoner hiding behind his own units which is a pretty niche role to fill.

Tacullu, however, always gets a benefit from Mind Capture.

Sure, you are still losing the magic from outright killing the unit so you don’t want to use it willy nilly. And yes, the units are less apt to immediately snag you the victory as you’re probably capturing those that are on your side of the board and threatening you. But that’s the beauty of having the ability on your summoner. It will always be there regardless of what best use of the ability arises. The only time you’ll miss great opportunities is if Tacullu is out of position or she misses. 

And I think that’s where the higher strength and health comes in. I get the feeling Plaid Hat wants Tacullu to be a more aggressive summoner, pushing forth with her mind controlled units to overwhelm her opponent with the brainwashed masses. She has the strength to threaten most commons on her own and the health pool to afford a few reticent dice rolls. 

Will that be how Tacullu ends up being played?

Ehhh… I’m skeptical. I think she will still work best passive: let enemies trickle in, capture choice targets and methodically pull apart the enemy’s plans and economy. But the option for aggression is there, which is to her benefit. Especially since, once again, she doesn’t really come with anything that forces uncooperative enemies to her. 

This brings me to her epic event Mind Control. 

This event has been incredibly reworked. And, I think it works best as an offensive tool. Which, ironically, makes it arguably her weakest event in the deck. 

For 0 magic, you can take control of all champions and commons within 2 spaces of Tacullu. This is incredibly powerful. Except it’s subject to the regular rules of the game. Primarily, this means that you can only move and attack with three units. And since you’re apt to have your own out, getting a hold of a huge army for a single turn is a lot less useful. Furthermore, you don’t get magic for killing your own units. So while you’ll probably play this as a pressure valve to turn the enemy’s troops against each other, you won’t be getting anything for your trouble. Especially since it’s played during the Summon Phase so you’re at the mercy of your opponent’s movements for how effective it is.

And now Mind Control has to contend with Tacullu’s Mind Capture itself. Why take a common or champion for one round when you can have it permanently?

Ideally, you wouldn’t. Now, I can see this event getting higher priority if you need to push in against an entrenched foe. But between your Wind Mages and Archers, you’ll likely be applying enough ranged pressure that your enemy will want to come to you. 

Also complementing this awkward “best as an offensive event but you’ll likely not be playing like that” event is Blast. With a rather mundane name, this event is anything but mundane. It’s a surprisingly flexible tool which, much like Mind Control, will likely really benefit from the discard pile changing to hidden information. 

Blast can work defensively, unlike Mind Control, as you can use it to murder weak commons during the movement phase. And, unlike Mind Control, you can actually position to use it most effectively. This can allow one of your units to get through a blocking line to deliver some surprise damage upon your enemy. Or it can soften up a choice target for Mind Capture. Or it can just move a pesky unit out of the way so you can get in a Wind Archer strike. This flexibility certainly warrants its 1 magic cost. And yet, ironically this cost generally prohibits me from using it all that often. 

I find Wind Mages generally address my movement needs most of the time while also adding another body to the board and 2 strength range to boot. So, it’s not bad, I just find it’s redundant most of the time. Certainly not something I’d be keeping in my hand.

Tacullu’s third event is the peculiar Hypnotic Call. This card is both powerful and limited. Being able to target commons and champions anywhere on the board is fantastic. Being limited in where you can move them is less ideal. It’s a good balance but moves Call into a more niche roll. Perhaps its most consistent use is providing Tacullu that extra strength on attacking that unit, helping to secure a Mind Capture on a valuable enemy with a bit more health. More rarely, you can move a blocker out of the way for a Wind Archer. You can even use it on your own units, though the movement restriction makes it a bit unwieldy to use it in that context.

Finally, we come to what I consider Tacullu’s best event. Perplexing Tempest is fantastic because it actually really helps Tacullu’s defensive game. Possibly more than her offensive though it would certainly be of benefit there too. Reducing the enemy’s movement by 1 can halt an advance or guard against a fresh defence. And getting both two turns in a row can really swing a game as it lets you just eviscerate your opponent with multiple Mind Captures and powerful ranged barrages. And the best part, there’s really no point in the game when it won’t be good. So you can play it immediately upon drawing and almost always benefit. 

So it’s not that Tacullu’s events aren’t bad. It’s just that her units are better and the events don’t compliment them as well. I mentioned that Sneeks is an event driven summoner who really revolves his strategies around their timely play. With Tacullu, however, I think you’re more apt to be building them for magic. They’re just a little too restricted. They’re a little too narrow in focus. And their payout simply doesn’t justify holding them when you could be drawing and paying for your champions. 

Now, certainly as the end game begins to crystalize, you might be able to see where some might be determining factors. A timely Blast in the last few rounds can be vital. But Tacullu largely wants to play reserved. Perhaps, if a Deep Dwarf faction releases or something else in the big box shows some surprises, these will become much stronger. But for now, they’ll mostly be filling up my magic bar.

Regardless, I’m going to make a bold prediction and say that Tacullu will be one of the strongest summoners out of the box. Perhaps one of the strongest in the game for a long time to come.