Here we are at the end. Our king of the Master Set round of Summoners is none other than the green menace himself, Mugglug. Oddly enough, Muggles hasn’t actually won a single tournament. But he’s come close each time and that top four finishing is consistent enough for him to come out on top after weighting results.

And if there is one way to describe the Swamp Orcs is that they are consistent. They’re a good faction and I’ve seen numerous players able to pick them up and do well with them. They’re not crazy but they are fairly intuitive. And their base mechanic – getting walls on the enemy’s board – is strong. Mugglug in particular is the defensive approach to spreading the swamp through the poorly named vine walls. But that isn’t to say that he doesn’t have any teeth to his side while he’s poking around his garden.

For one, Mugglug has always been a common focused deck even back when the game revolved quite strongly around champions. This mostly grows from the issue that the Swamp Orcs have, for the longest time, really bad champions. Their reliance on their commons was bred more through necessity but it helped that they had really good commons.

And there really isn’t anyway to discuss the Swamp Orcs without talking about Vine Walls. Walls are really important in Summoner Wars as they give you unprecedented board control. The high life value of walls is key to keeping defensive summoners alive and thwarting early attacks with kill lanes and creating pockets of inaccessible territory to hide your precious summoner. Then, of course, is the need to have walls on the board in order to summon your forces. Staggering walls is an important tactic to leave as many summoning spots open as possible to prevent the disruption of timely wall crowding. And anyone that has lost their starting wall and had the misfortune of their deck placing the last two on the bottom know just how important preserving summoning spots are.

So, being able to spam walls is an incredibly powerful ability and no other faction really does it quite like the Swamp Orcs. Of course, their walls are a meagre two health compared to the nine of a standard wall. This would be a weakness – and is in a select number of matchups – but isn’t quite the problem you would normally expect. Due to the restriction on the number of attacks a faction can perform a turn, a round where your enemy is attacking your wall is a round they have less attacks to throw at your forces. A lot of the game, it’s simply ineffectual to deal with the spreading swamp and the opponent is simply left being overrun. Only in the late game, when the threat of summons are reduced due to diminishing magic piles or empty draw piles, can an enemy really handle these little thorns in their side.

As such, it’s quite common for Mugglug to slowly plod through his deck, not building or playing more than he needs to keep the swamp spreading and the harassment on his enemy flying. The enemy has to respond since Vine Walls are just as effective as units as choking summon points – more effective really since they give the Swamp Orcs new avenues to summon and attack. Oh, and they block line of sight and potentially wound and stop enemy units that try to crawl over them.

Unfortunately, the major stumbling block for Mugglug is that there are simply a handful of decks that really make his match-up very difficult. The Guild Dwarves are masters as wrecking walls and destroying the hard earned swamp with one or two event cards. Rallul, the other master of wall destruction, can rip down vines while fuelling his draw power or churning out even greater economic advantages. And without vines, the rest of the Swamp Orc forces are simply not the terrors to handle as they normally are.

Mugglug (3M-7W-Rampant Growth)

Mugglug sports the standard orc high health and attack value. You’d think from his statistics he’d be a good bruiser summoner but he actually sees very little combat. His high attack value is simply good for crushing little attempts to assassinate him and not much else. The extra health means that there’s still a bit of bite if you manage to grind the Swamp Orcs to the late game as he fulfils the champion slot of his forces once there’s no threat of an instantaneous counter assault. When it comes down to summoner versus summoner, that extra little durability will give him the push through a ranged summoner’s first salvo to get up and crush his face.

Granted, that’s never the real end goal and Mugglug’s route to victory is pretty clear. Rampant Growth necessitates that his swamps are constantly fertilized and you will be providing them plenty of blood to really hydrate that soil. He is capable of sprouting roots from any body – whether it be friend or foe. During the early game, it’s going to be mostly your own forces giving their life to grow forward. While the classic example is a full regiment of imported Apprentice Mages so Mugglug can develop his economy while sowing his weeds, Shamans work well in a pinch from the base deck. The goal isn’t to make all your units grass seed. You’re just getting close enough that your opponent will have to respond to your actions and once they start stepping beside your vines, you’ve got the growth you need.

As such, Mugglug has three Vine Growth to give a free wall to push forward. Vine Guard and Ambush both grant an ability from one of your commons to the rest of your forces and are really great for it. Ambush is the least useful of the pair since you can’t stack the abilities on your Hunters and they form the backbone of your army. However, it’s fantastic for giving your Savager a surprise boost and – more importantly – the ability to extract himself from the swamp should he get overwhelmed himself.

Finally, there’s Ensnare. It’s a bit of a non-combo since it places enemies on your walls which means they can’t get you more vines but it does rip blockers away from your opponent’s summoner as well as put vulnerable archers right in the middle of your swamp where they will be surrounded and eliminated.

It might not be the sexiest collection of events but they’re all pretty solid. And, for the most part, if you aren’t playing them when you draw them they’re not so vital that pitching them immediately for magic is an issue.

Hunter (1R-2W-2M-Vinemancer Ambush)

These guys are good. For Mugglug, they’re essentially a 2 range, 2 health unit for 2 magic since you’ll almost never attack with them without dancing on or off a vine wall. For those stats, they’re pretty economic. That they’re ranged as well is just icing on the cake. The best part is, since they need to be on your swamp to get their ability, they’re really hard to surround. A lot of the time, they’ll only have one unit to return fire and that two life can get them to last an extra round or two. It’ll allow most of your exchanges to be in your favour and if you’re winning exchanges, then you’re winning the economy game.

Savager (3M-3W-4M-Fear)

The Savager is a rather fearsome unit, coming in with stats that are comparable to cheap champions. Three attack is a pretty big threat for champions and summoners alike and their Fear ability makes it a tricky proposition for melee units to retaliate. Fear is more likely than not to fail, so if you’re facing these brutal shock troopers, it’s often in your best interest to go for the attack anyway. Especially if the alternative is letting the Savager rampage through your forces. Course, ranged units are able to attack without the worry of running away in fear but Savagers also eat ranged units if they managed to catch up to them.

A point of interest is that the Savager doesn’t natively have any way to traverse the vine walls so is at mercy of getting stuck in them and picked off by ranged units as the enemy is. Course, you can rescue them with Ambush or, typically, just summon them on the edge of the swamp and run these guys into your enemy’s ranks. Savagers definitely make up for the lack of champion play on the Swamp Orc side so their prohibitive cost isn’t nearly as problematic in other decks that want to play their champions.

Shaman (1R-1W-1M-Vinemancer Guard)

I feel like Shamans are a little underrated. Partly because they’re competing with Hunters and Savagers for your precious magic and, in comparison, the greater damage output from the other two are hard to pass up. Shamans mostly live to die and grow your swamp further, however they’re a pretty resilient unit in their own right. Requiring a 5 or 6 to hit is no insignificant amount and these guys can hold a flank like no other common. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of situations where you need to stuff a flank especially since you’ve got Vine Walls to accomplish the same and Vine Walls don’t give magic when they’re destroyed.

As a third common, they’re not the worst and you can get the odd one to hold up a champion longer than he’s worth. Mostly, though, these guys will be going to your magic pile for fuel or summoned for a vine wall instead. Ultimately, that 1 attack just holds them back too much like most single attack range units.

Blerg (2M-6W-7M-Adaptive)

And here we have a prime example of why you don’t play Swamp Orc champions. Blerg is overpriced for his stats, offering you the same threat as a Hunter but at melee and for more than three times the cost. Adaptive is certainly not worth the extra two magic that Blerg is priced beyond expectation, especially since it takes additional magic to use. If you’re looking at giving him 3 attack, you’ve now sunk 8 magic into the guy – and made him more valuable to kill to boot.

That said, his heal does trigger without spending the magic but at two attack, you’re likely looking to have other units set up the kill or he’s killing commons. Issue is, the Swamp Orc commons are already good at killing commons.

Blerg is nearly the cost of two Savagers and chances are those two Savagers would probably get you further than this Swamp Orc that trips over vines.

Glarg (2M-6W-5M-Vinemancer Reach)

Glarg is the exception to the rule. He is fantastic. For one more magic you can have twice the health of a Savager. He’s a super hunter and you should play him as such. Glarg is certainly the champion I try to get out every game and is the other reason that Mugglug at 5 magic is so scary. At a moment’s notice, a Glarg or Savager could emerge from those vine walls and start wreaking havoc.

Glarg is less exciting without Vine Wall support, however. He certainly isn’t as good in the Swamp Orc bad match-ups or reaching around walls you haven’t fully enveloped. He is the first in a line of Swamp Orc champions that work really well in the vines and so long as you’ve grown a good swamp, he’ll help you secure a victory. Also, he does stack with Ambush for scary 4 range attack turns assuming you’re standing on a Vine Wall.

Splub (3M-6W-7M-Vinemancer Sow)

Splub is, yet again, a little too expensive for what he does. Seven magic is a large investment and all Splub brings to the table is more Vine Walls. Mugglug, however, isn’t really in need of help in that department. His events and ability give Vine Walls readily enough and having an ability strictly for growing the swamp means that in champion versus champion engagements, Splub will likely lose out to those that are geared more towards the killing.

He does have three attack, however, which is a good base. And if you were ever in a situation where you need to generate Vine Walls, Splub is definitely adept at it. He just fills a niche that Mugglug doesn’t need to fill. I’m not even certain I’d deck build him because it seems more cost effective to work around the Swamp Orc summoners’ abilities for generating walls than spending lots of magic on it.

For the most part, the Swamp Orcs are pretty straightforward. I think this really lends to their popularity and their success. There aren’t unintuitive tricks you need to master with this deck. You aren’t handicapping yourself by focusing on commons and cheap champions while throwing out your events and marching your forces towards your enemy. That you get such strong units for your magic makes each summon a threat as well.

Mugglug is simply a good, well-rounded summoner. His weak base champions are easily ignored. The only blemish are those handful of decks that just ruin his swamps with hardly any effort. But if he isn’t facing his arch nemeses then chances are he’ll be playing with defenders advantage even if he’s halfway across the board.

And it’s really easy for enemies to get bogged down and drown in Mugglug’s murky waters.

The Shadow Elves are a bit of an enigma. They consistently do well in tournaments, grabbing a double fourth place finish in both. Outside of tournaments, they consistently lose matches. It’s like lady luck has a soft spot for the albinos and keeps providing them the benefit of her touch whenever the matches count. They’re a faction which we constantly underrate and under appreciate. And they’re the type of faction that can capitalize on an opponent’s lapsed judgement.

Of all the Master Set releases, the Shadow Elves are the only real faction that encapsulates the assassination style of play. They have, in general, high attack but low staying power. However, they have several tricks and movement options up their sleeves that can worm their units past defences to strike unprepared summoners. An enemy can’t really know where or how the Shadows Elves will strike next and it’s easy to forget just how far their reach can extend.

Unfortunately, they’re not the most adept as assassins. Along with playing aggressively, the assassination style has always been the hardest to perform. On one hand, it’s the most effective way to win the game. Wherein playing defensive you’re trying to create an economic advantage to turn into battlefield superiority and playing aggressive involves applying more pressure than an opponent can withstand, assassination goes right for the jugular.

Granted, because “assassinating” is kind of an easy concept to understand, your typical player is wary of leaving their summoner in easy reach. For most factions, a player is going to skulk their summoner on their back and furthest row from their enemy. That means an assassination ploy is going to involve getting a unit across the board in order to be in position. Walls and defenders will litter the way so you’ll need better movement to get around them. But unless your opponent is susceptible to assassination, like having a low starting health, then the match-up can be very difficult. You’ll have to work multiple units onto the summoner, or somehow get them to stick for a few turns. As such, it’s easy for a failed assassination plan to hand your opponent the match if you’ve got too weak an economy to defend against the inevitable counter attack.

So why would you want to play this dicey style? Well, outside of making a match very tense, the threat of assassination never really disappears. Depending on how the opponent can deliver their damage, defending against several attempts can lull your enemy into a false sense of security. If their army moves forward to crush you, your opponent may find himself quickly missing the defenders he had before to protect himself. And, since assassins generally use high attack values, their summoned defenders are still a threat to those would be avengers.

More likely, however, a player will switch styles throughout a match. You may be playing defensive, building up a decent economic pool while looking for an opening to strike your opponent. When that happens, you might throw a few assassins out before committing to a full aggressive push. Being flexible and keeping your opponent guessing is the best way to keep the threat of assassination open.

So what does this mean for the Shadow Elves? Well, they have to be adaptive in order to address their opponent’s style. If your enemy is going defensive, you can try to move a few key units forward to pull out extra defenders. If they keep hiding, you can probably pick of stragglers or draw forward walls until you get a good opening or they turn to an aggressive counter. Then you can pull back, lure them into your territory and slaughter their units. It’s much like a fencing match, with all the strikes and ripostes. A few hits on their summoner should dissuade a complete commitment to passive play and frustrate their plans.

This also means that my sister can be effective with the Shadow Elves since rushing your enemy, while not as strong as with an aggressive faction, can still have some teeth to it. I’m still not convinced that the Shadow Elves base deck is as strong as it appears – their only large victory of note in the Big Tournament was against the Swamp Orcs – but hey, if you can’t be skilled, you might as well be lucky.

Selundar (2R-7W-Out of Shadows)

Selundar is interesting in that he has a bit more health than normal for a ranged summoner. This is partly because if you’re going to get use from out of shadows you’ll probably be in place to be counter attacked. But a 2 range that can shift to a 4 melee is impressive for a summoner. He has some real potential to turn eager champions into mince meat should they blindly come after him. He’s a very dangerous assistant to your assaults. But he’s also more apt to play in the mid board position, looking for moments when he can use that four dice in effective but safe manners.

Learning when to advance and when to retreat is important for Selundar because the last thing you want is to be surrounded and “assassinated” yourself. Keeping tabs on the enemy’s magic pool is vital in order to predict what they’ll summon. If you get some units deep into enemy territory, they will naturally draw your opponent’s attention. But it won’t last long. All the Shadow Elf commons are pretty brittle so they won’t stand up to any abuse.

Selundar does have some tools to help him, however. His event Shadows is so representative of his style that it spawned an entire unit in the Alliances box. The event lets you claim a loss of one of your troops as magic for yourself. Get these early and a quick rush on your opponent can really leave their economy crippled as the money from your deaths are denied. If they had to summon a defender themself, this could leave your enemy with an additional turn or two without magic (outside of what he builds). It even lets you refund the cost of your own troops, to an extent.

And if your enemy gets emboldened by your early loses, you have Into Darkness to punish a fool hardy counter assault if they drop a hasty common retaliation. Unfortunately, Into Darkness discards the units instead of giving you the magic but if your two targets are both 2 magic, then you’ve done a significant tempo hit. Yeah, it’s a catch up event but I find it’s too situational to try and set up the conditions for it yourself. Its requirements are more apt to appear through natural gameplay and, given that the ability is almost half as effective as the other big catch up events, it isn’t as problematic for the game in general.

Stalking Advance is the Shadow Elf aggression event. It gives you as many single space moves as you have units on the board so it also doubles as a surprise event to extend the reach of your assassins. It’s a very good if incredibly unexciting event. I can understand why a new player may not be blown away by it on first blush. But after repeated games, Stalking Advance is certainly the event that can ruin your opponent.

Finally, there’s Summon the Night. Between this and stalking advance, you can create a very terrifying turn for your opponent. This event can really cinch a match. If you manage to have a strong board position and throw this out, it’s possible to get essentially “an extra turn” as your opponent stumbles in the one space restriction unable to strike anything. And it neuters ranged factions, forcing them to stumble into melee range where they are more vulnerable. This can really extend the life on your champions in particular as they and Selundar are the most susceptible to a fresh trio of summoned defenders surrounding and overwhelming them. That’s near impossible in the night. It’s also great on the defence, letting you quickly retreat Selundar from assassins or a strong attacking force while out-manoeuvring them with your defenders. It’s an all around fantastic event.

It’s a good but tricky suite and takes some practice to use well and to defend against.

Ranger (1R-1W-1M-Shadow Arrows)

Eh, rangers. I’m pretty unimpressed with them. They’re your only ranged common but they’re not particularly grand. One ranged attack is as disappointing as you get since they aren’t much of a threat against their similarly priced melee units which generally come with two health.

As such, they’re more effective when you’re on defence. Especially since Selundar’s board set up is so awkward. I mostly build them for magic more than anything else but something has to fill that role. As for their shadow arrows, they rarely ever work. First, they have to get a kill which is a tall task for one attack. They also have to be killing something that is within three clear spaces of another juicy target. And it eats up the magic that you get for the kill. Unless I can score a cheap shot on the enemy summoner or take out a more expensive archer of theirs, I usually ignore it. It is your “extra attack” for an aggressive faction however.

Scout (1M-1W-0M-Scout)

Scout’s scout scouts scouts. I can see some of the flavouring took a real long time.

I like the scouts if only because they’re free bodies. They provide the Shadow Elves a chance to always have just one more unit despite the state of their magic pile. Their ability is really good but don’t expect it to ever really trigger. The problem with it is it’s attached to a single health unit and that scout is going to chew up one of your movements in order to crawl onto your opponent’s board. Your opponent will likely then move a lone defender to go and claim the weak girl as magic.

I mean, you could protect it with a hardier target but that would mean you’re protecting a 0 magic unit with a champion or your summoner. And those are things you don’t want to be attacked either.

They’re basically a second magic fodder though it doesn’t hurt to keep a few back to assist with protecting Selundar or to attack anything that comes near your walls. With any luck they can kill things that cost more than them and you can just shoot the girls in the back with a ranger or two to deny their magic.

Swordsman (2M-1W-1M-Swiftness)

Swordsmen are hands down the best common in the Shadow Elves. I’d argue they’re one of the best commons in the game. At least they were before Alliances came out and significantly enlarged the common pool with much better units. I, personally, prefer 2 attack instead of 2 health on my melee commons if only because two health doesn’t provide that much more in terms of survivability in a game with plenty of two and three attack options in most factions. And 2 attack is twice as threatening to champions and summoners. Three of these guys springing from your walls and surrounding a newly minted champion can really ruin your enemy’s day.

But that brings them to their largest weakness. You only have three of them in your deck.

For some inexplicable reason, the Shadow Elves start with half their best units on the board. Not only does this effectively force Selundar to roll for first turn but it also means that the Shadow Elf player can’t get much use out of them. Likely, you’ll be attacking at least one because there is little chance all three of them will survive a turn and so, one turn into the game and already your best forces have been reduced significantly.

It’s one thing I haven’t mentioned but another large problem with some of the earlier summoners is that their starting line-ups really cut them off at the knees. Selundar is perhaps the worst offender of the bunch. You need to have these units in your deck so you have the chance to draw them throughout the game to gain the advantage and surprise of being summoned from your walls. Unfortunately, this is denied to the Shadow Elves unless they purchase a second box and deck build in extra swordsmen. I would have really preferred if only two or (preferably) one started on the field and there were seven or even eight of these guys in the deck. The Shadow Elves can stand to lose extra rangers and scouts.

Having so many fragile units on the board at the beginning really kills the Shadow Elves ability to field an efficient common focused force. And going first with so many melee units also hurts because you are reduced to only moving two. It’s so unnecessary to make the Shadow Elves first turn so difficult. They must stumble before through those first few rounds before they can gain the proper momentum and board state to run the clean and surgical strikes they want.

Hydrake (3M-8W-8M-Assault)

Granted, the poor setup of their commons just pushes the Shadow Elves towards a champion focused game. And they have some pretty decent champions.

Hydrake is the most terrifying on appearance. This fearsome lizard single handedly won the match-up against the swamp orcs. Three melee is good. Able to strike everything around it really discourages the natural tendency for opponents to crowd a champion when it comes stomping into their home. And since high strength range units are rare, this typically translates into an extra round or two of the Hydrake running around than any other champion.

Sometimes, the strongest defence is a ridiculous offence.

That said, eight magic is a tall order to achieve and if you draw him early he’s probably not worth holding onto since you’ve got all your events that you’re trying to time properly. There is a certain satisfaction when the enemy takes casualty after casualty until they finally bring the dreaded Hydrake down and as they reach to claim their prize you drop a Shadows to the board.

Delicious.

Malidala (2R-3W-5M-Shadow Dancer)

Malidala is just plain bad. Just like the Sand Goblin scavenger, she’s a card that is rendered useless because of the grievous absence of a necessary “may.” Maybe if she had the elusive 3 range stat I could recommend her. However, she just isn’t worth the investment when you can get the Hydrake for three more magic. Three wounds is absolutely pitiful but that her ability is so easy to negate is hilarious.

All the opponent has to do is attack Malidala with a one attack common and shadow dance is completely voided. Sure, it forces an additional attack on her but if she’s in a fisticuffs with another champion she’s just going to outright lose. You can squeeze a bit more usefulness with summon the night to save her skin and this isn’t bad if you have other units benefit from the reduced attack range. Course, in that situation, any ranged champion would have been good too. I’d take just about any other option over the weird double skirted cheerleader. But I don’t have anything so straight to the magic pile for you, girl (unless you happen to be my last champion in the deck)!

Xaserbane (3M-4W-4M-Sneak)

Xaserbane, however, is the real deal. When you’re first learning to play as and against the Shadow Elves, this guy is going to get so many good stabs. With stalking advance, he’s a total of five movement. Off a forward wall, you’ve got a good chance of striking the enemy summoner and forcing her to deal with bob cut albino. But he’s the definition of an assassin, easily folding in one round. But he’s cheap as dirt so it’s not too great a loss.

As always, summon the night can extend his life expectancy but even then, chances are you’ll only get one more turn since he’ll be receiving a minimum of two dice attacks. But the threat of Xaserbane can really affect your opponent’s behaviour. Expect your opponent to keep hawkish attention on your magic pool to know when she is or isn’t safe of a sudden stalking advance from this guy. And if he manages to get on an opponent and she fails to kill him on her turn, you’re practically golden for the rest of the match.

On the other hand, there’s nothing more disheartening than getting the perfect sneak with this guy and watching all three dice come up as misses.

So, yeah, I’m still surprised by the Shadow Elves performance. Even after doing an long write-up I still can’t really see how great they are. They have a few tricks that are decent, a few cards that are decent but nothing that is outright scary. And perhaps it is this acknowledgement that they aren’t some sort of “over powered” or “broken” faction that makes us far more exacting in how we play them. Knowing that we have to squeeze every last ounce of strength we can from each card perhaps makes our strategy all the better than when my sister or I have a faction we feel will win without a challenge.

Like I said, it’s almost this idea that the Shadow Elves unimpressive deck lulls you into carelessness. All you have to really do is kill their swordsmen and keep an eye out for that sneaking Xaserbane and you’ll be fine, right? And then, you remember summon the night only as the Hydrake is chowing down on the opponent and Selundar is sliding forward with a stalking advance and striking out of the shadows in a desperate play that pulls you into the grave.

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.

ermergerd erts der derp dervs. der derp dervs der mer ferverer. ey ruv der derp dervs. derp. dervs.

I don’t know why but this is how I imagine all underground fantasy races sound. Perhaps its because Dungeons and Dragons had the svirfneblin as one of their token deep cavern races. And choosing one of the most unpronounceable Nordic mythological races as your direction just leads to stupid moments at the gaming table.

Though, I guess the D&D dwarves are called duergar. That doesn’t make it better.

We’ve arrived at the top four for the Master Set Showdown, however. The Deep Dwarves just missed the top cut, edged out by the Benders by one game. They managed a poor fifth position in this tournament but really turned things around in the Free for All with claiming a very respectable fifth place again. Just a quick reminder that the second tournament had three times the contenders and not only that but the Deep Dwarves crawled their way up through that bloody gauntlet of a loser’s bracket. Their victims were the Demagogue, the Swarmp Orcs and the Mercenaries respectably.

In fact, I can’t help but feel that the Deep Dwarves were often the loser’s army. How the second tournament worked was the winner of a round had their choice of faction in the next round (which were determined by weighted seeding). Generally speaking, the winner grabbed for their favourite faction of the pair. And Kait hates the Deep Dwarves with a passion. Invariably, this meant that I was playing them.

Part of the reason for the Deep Dwarves mediocre performance is that they do not mesh with Kait’s playstyle at all. Going over my records and I don’t see a single victory for the faction attributed to Kait’s play. This is understandable. They simply cannot smash their opponent’s face. They’re a slow, deliberate, defensive faction that relies on building up a powerful economic advantage through their inherent economy engine to cinch the game in the final moments through powerful combo pieces and a superior magic pool.

Kind of like the Filth from last week, actually.

Unlike the Filth, however, they don’t have the flexibility that mutagist provided the Demagogue. They are pretty reliant on chance draws – perhaps more so than the average summoner because of how combo focused their events are. As such, the Deep Dwarves are most vulnerable during the early and mid game as they try to establish their strong position. But they lack the cheap defenders that the Demagogue has in his 0 cost fanatics. Those first few early turns can really dictate the pace of a Deep Dwarves game.

So you’re looking at trying to capitalize on that inherent defender’s advantage as much as possible. Since Kait is really terrible at that, I have a pretty easy time destroying her in those moments – barring the magical double wall draw opening hand. Overcoming the defender’s advantage is far more difficult so her losing to the Deep Dwarves in the early tournament is understandable as she hadn’t developed the effective tactics for destroying them.

As for the games in the Grand Tournament, all three of them were very close affairs that hinged on key dice rolls and little else. The Demagogue, Rallul and Mugglug are all defensive champions in their own right and any of them could have taken the fight.

But let’s just say the battles against Krusk and Abua Shi were not.

Tundle (2R-6W-Meditate)

I’m tired of commenting on the 2 range, 6 wound spread so I’m not going to this time. Instead, let’s discuss that meditate. This ability likely won’t trigger that often in a fight. The reason for that is, if the enemy hasn’t started coming at you from the start then a turn or two of you generating “free magic” is going to prompt them across the board. And that’s what you want.

As Tundle, you don’t want to have to assault the opponent and you don’t have to either. You can recall how the Filth’s mutagist offered them a way to recur magic but needed a few turns to setup properly? Well, Tundle doesn’t have those issues. He has no free units in his deck so if you need to get magic into your discard you can summon just about anything that you draw. Not only that, but all his units let you spend magic to do things which can get you spending that money like an obedient little capitalist consumer.

What’s the hitch? You can only attack with one unit. What does this mean? You’re trash on the defensive. This is why meditate doesn’t trigger often. If the opponent has three (or more, heaven forbid you’re facing a good aggressive faction) units charging down the derpy dwarves position, you’re going to need your attacks to save your bacon. If you draw your walls and can funnel the enemy down murder lanes that only need a single entrenched gem mage to do the killing, then you’re laughing. If not, you’ll probably need Tundle and some illusions to hold back the tide while you build up that font of power to eradicate your opponent in one grand, laser fuelled turn.

Wait, lasers?

Yes, lasers.

Magic Torrent is an event that lets you deal one one wound to each enemy (barring summoners and conjurations) within 4 spaces of Tundle. It costs you one magic to do so, however. Granted, there’s no laser in the name but that’s how I imagine it’s done. I mean, these are the guys that are obsessed with gems and crystals. You know, for focusing light. Work with me.

It’s a good event that I rarely have the magic to pull of because my sister is smashing my face. But being able to clear blockers for your artillery and draw even on the cost is good. However, there are other things that invariably stuff my hand that I usually pitch this event away.

Alright, so if I’m not playing magic torrent, what am I doing with my time?

Playing every other event.

First up is Illusionary Warrior. This little baby let’s put put to the table for free any single common in your magic pile. This includes enemy commons if you happen to snag a timely savager or other expensive and scary unit. Mostly, this is looking to get a discount on gem mages but even that is good. The downside? It’s picky. You can only use this event if you have a living gem mage or a champion. Why not Tundle? Don’t know. I’m assuming he’s too busy nap-meditating to bother with light shows and magic tricks.

Second is Magic Stasis because you know what’s good? Preventing your opponent from reinforcing his attacking army. It’s especially great when your enemy drops a whole hand of four or five cards. The obvious champion build play is wonderful to delay by slapping this card on the board and giving your enemy your best shit-eating grin. Double style points if you have your second magic stasis to throw the turn after for maximum trolling. Will this win games? No. But you’re a late game powerhouse and looking for every trick you can find to slow the pace of the match and let you get there. Magic stasis is one of the best cards for accomplishing that.

Summoning Surge is your “making up for lost meditates” card. Since your opponent should be forcing you to attack with more than one unit a turn, they’re probably killing your guys to meet that pressure. If you’re losing guys then you’re meeting the requirements for the surge. It also lets you grab a good chunk of your discard pile to reclaim a juicy common to press gang as an illusionary warrior. Oh, and you can summon during this phase as well if you need just one more magic to pull out a champion that you didn’t have at the start.

Last but not least is Wake the Father Gem. This turns on your explosive turns. You know how I earlier mentioned that Deep Dwarves are looking to setup that game winning combo? This is it. If you have two or three gem mages on the board and in position, this lets you fire nine dice at range on units that can then hop back into cover for free. It lets you move units back and forth with your champions to open up firing lanes for said gem mages. And if you also have a scholar beside the target then you can simply laugh maniacally.

Realistically, however, you’ll be using it earlier while you’re trying to grow your magic pile or when you simply don’t have any magic to use abilities at all. The dream is to blow up the earth but the reality is that this lets you squeeze just a bit more from your early units before they invariably push up daisies in the bloody defence.

So, yeah. You can say Tundle has a powerful event suite.

Gem Mage (2R-1W-2M-Gem Magic)

Which is good because Tundle’s commons are rather… lacklustre.

I know this will probably get some flack under the gem mage description but it is what it is. Honestly, if it weren’t for Tundle’s ability and powerful events, gem mages probably wouldn’t be that amazing. They are because Tundle can afford them but I have to question whether anyone else could. Also, gem mages look really good when compared to the competition.

But let’s look at them. Two range attack is strong. One health is brittle. Two magic is expensive. Gem magic is costly and makes gem mages actually more expensive than they appear. Truth be told, you won’t hard pay for gem magic that often. Sure, when you really need to kill that wounded champion or managed to get a clear shot on a summoner you’ll pitch the magic to increase their attack to 3. Hopping them back behind cover for another magic is entirely dependent on how many mages you have left in your deck, how well you’ve been developing your magic economy and how safe the board really is.

Often, this means you aren’t jumping the mage. Granted, you can meditate and attack with a gem mage in a turn and use either the increase attack or jump ability and break even for magic. This is typical if you manage to draw your walls early and can limit the avenues the opponent has to get to you. But barring murder lanes, you’re probably better saving the magic unless the situation is really dire.

Miner (1M-2W-1M-Tunnel)

And then there were the bums.

Miners are your auto build card. You don’t ever want to place these guys on the board. They’re bad and there’s no way around it. Their stats are standard for a 1 magic melee unit. But tunnel is just plain awful. Note that your whole movement is spent placing the miner adjacent to another miner. Thus, for the ability to be useful, you have to be investing in miners on the board in the first place. Second, you need your first miner in a location where you’d want more miners. Third, this location has to be exactly one space away from whatever you want to target.

Basically, you literally need an enemy summoner one space away from your miner for tunnel to be useful. But an enemy summoner will never be in this location. If they’re attacking a miner it’s either in melee (so a tunnel will just have your buddies holding hands but the original miner is the only one in range) or they’re attacking three squares away so a tunnel will just leave your miner one space out of reach.

Granted, you could then tunnel another miner in front of him. But you know how else you could cover two spaces from that original miner? That’s right, by just moving him forward. Don’t forget that tunnel costs 1 magic too.

So, this is basically a naked 1 melee with two health. Maybe he could be a cheap blocker? Oh wait, no, scholars are a thing.

Really, tunnel needs to let a tunnelling miner to still move two spaces after joining their friend. Otherwise, the fact that it uses up a movement just absolutely kills this unit. For that reason you won’t even use them during a father gem awakening since you have other Deep Dwarves to putter about. You know, the ones that can hit for more than one die. More specifically, the ones that you can increase to three dice for free.

But thanks miner for giving them the energy to do their job!

Scholar (0M-3W-1M-Insight)

Scholars are… not great. You’ll mostly need them if you need those cheap blockers that miners could have potentially been. Three wounds is better on a blocker and their lack of attack isn’t really a negative in a faction that’s happy to only attack once a turn anyway. And they can increase the attack of any units shooting at whatever they’re standing at? That’s pretty great too, right? It should really stick it to champions.

And, yeah, it does. But you’ll mostly be building these guys for magic because you both need a large magic stack and you want to be drawing lots of cards. Draw them early and you’re still (hopefully) being a nuisance with your starting scholar and miners. Draw them late and chances are you’ve got better units to be using your movement and attacks on.

I suppose I should point out that you don’t spend 1 magic for each of these guys but 1 magic for all of them. Same with the miners for all that’s worth.

I just find I never pull these guys out. Their need is very niche. But they’re still ok for those rare times that come up. They’re just not great.

Kynder (2M-6W-5M-Mage Push)

Well, if I’m saving all this magic, how am I going to us it? Surely I don’t need that much magic for my gem mages.

No, you need it for your champions. Because your champions rock. Remember the Sand Goblins and how they had incredibly cheap champions that came with negatives. Well, surprise! Deep Dwarves have cheap champions that come with crazy positives!

That said, you’re paying through the nose with them. The whole Deep Dwarf shtick is that everything costs money. That’s why you’re building your bad and mediocre (and often your good gem mages too) commons for money. You need your champions and you need their abilities.

Kynder is your heartiest with 6 health for 5 magic. Two attack is ok but he really shines with his mage push. Remember how Silts was super good because he had that rare “at any time” trigger for his ability. Well, grin like a devil because Kynder has it too. Yours costs magic, however, but you’re getting essentially two free uses with your starting cost discount. Plus, you can meditate. Oh, and I guess the father gem can help as well.

But basically this is Silts’ cunning only at two range. Is it better? Eh… hm, there’s lots of factors to take into account before I’d claim that. I will say it’s just as good and, much like cunning, is game winning but at a price point for more digestible.

Lun (3M-4W-4M-Gem of Calling)

Ok, Kynder is good but where’s the real powerhouse of the faction? Where’s the Biter?

Oh, here he is. Wait, he only has 4 wounds? But you complain how 6 wounds is so fragile! How can this mewling, bald Deep Dwarf be so good?

Well, that’s because Lun can pinch your opponent’s units from the wrong side of a wall and deposit him right in the middle of a clan of angry Deep Dwarves. Do dwarves congregate in clans? Or are they more gaggles?

Either way, for a single magic investment, you’re whittling your enemy slowly down. Probably in a position where they can’t retaliate. And remember all those issues with attacking and how getting around walls is difficult and reinforcing takes time and all that jazz? Yeah, Lun makes it all apparent. You have to kill this jerk but he’s hidden in the back row behind as much obstruction he can plucking hapless victims from 4 spaces away to deposit them at a murder feast and your opponent is on the menu.

Both Lun and Kynder are actually priced at expectation but I consider both under costed simply because their abilities are that good. Yes, even with them costing a magic to use each time. You use these guys basically to isolate the weakest portions of the enemy’s forces and destroy them. Then, as your opponent’s assault is crumbling, you line up your gem mage artillery, drop down an awoken father gem and leave a pretty little crater where your enemy once stood.

Sprong (2R-6W-6M-Restructure)

Oh. I’d forgotten about Sprong. He’s pretty bad. You’ll be building him for magic almost every time.

What’s wrong with him? His numbers look fine, right? I mean, he’s priced how we’d expect him just like the other two. Well, put simply, his ability is way too niche to really ever need Sprong. He doesn’t help you on the big play turns. He doesn’t help you build to your big play turns (since his cost cuts into the magic you’re building). He simply doesn’t fit the style and game plan. Draw him early and you don’t want to waste all your magic on a guy that provides so very little to a defence. Draw him late and you’re looking for three dice gem mages or your pushy other champions.

Toss him. You won’t miss him at all. He works better as laser fuel.

I like the Deep Dwarves if only because my sister hates them. They’re certainly not a favourite of mine, however. But the interplay you get in the first couple of turns with them against your opponent are some of the tensest you’ll find in Summoner Wars. There’s this race against the clock on either side. You’re trying to stall it while your opponent is trying to break it. And struggling through the hectic rushes that come your way make your victories all the sweeter.

That said, they can really grind a game if an opponent isn’t going to co-operate. If your enemy decides to hang back they you’re going to be in for a tedious game. It may not be longer but it will certainly be less interesting. And you’ll probably win it too, assuming you don’t offend the dice gods. But the Deep Dwarves dynamism requires that an enemy is going to play ball. If you happen to match up against an aggressive summoner then it’s all good. But if you’re against a defensive one then it can really sap the enjoyment of the game.

Thankfully, my sister plays everything aggressive whether it should be or not.

So, we need to talk. This is a conversation that’s been long overdue. Please, you might want to sit for this.

You see, Summoner Wars, we need to discuss you. Who are you? What are you going for here? I’m not even certain I know you anymore. You’ve got this whole double persona going on. During the day, you’re a friendly, casual board game that’s great for pulling out during a party. You’re simple, straight forward and fun to engage. You bring a smile to player’s faces as they tensely roll for the long shot play.

And then at night you’re a completely different person. You’re this competitive and no nonsense person where everything has to be exacting. Decks must be optimized to a razor edge and you dictate your games must be played beneath the tyranny of managing every last loose scrap of magic. You’re self killing and mean, focusing on denying your opponents instead of engaging them to squeeze every advantage – real or imaginary – as you possibly can.

You’re a bit scattered, Summoner Wars, and I simply don’t know how to deal with you.

Well, actually, that’s a lie. I do know how to deal with you and have been doing so this whole time. But I haven’t actually told you why I’ve been doing this. You’ll notice, when I review you, I take a pretty strict approach. I almost solely only discuss what you offer out of the box. I may make the off handed comment here and there about deck building but, really, you need to stand on your own merits, Summoner Wars.

I like that you blend elements from traditional board gaming and collectible card games. But you’re not Magic: the Gathering or Netrunner. You’re far more board than paper. I think it’s pretty apparent when you look at your very rules. Building a deck is far more involved in an actual collectible or living card game. There’s greater mechanics and far more interactions between the cards. I mean, you can literally throw every single card you own into a deck for Magic (assuming you keep to their four copy rule). Only restrictions you have is that you must have at least sixty cards and you need to follow whatever legacy or card restriction rules your group or tournament holds. That’s it.

Netrunner’s pickier in that you have to follow influence options but, once again, you’re not restricted by a maximum card total but a minimum. You can pull your icebreakers from any faction. Or your economy. Or your hardware. You simply can’t go over the influence limit of your identity. Other than that, you have the entire pool of your identity’s factions cards to pull from including numerous icebreakers, economy and hardware.

Then we have Summoner Wars. What are the deck building options? You can’t have a deck greater than 34 cards. Period. You must have 18 commons and no more than 10 of a single common. You must have 3 champions. And you must have your summoner and the nine events unique to him. Oh, and your walls. You can only tweak your commons and champions and only amongst a very limited number.

I mean, it’s nice that there’s a deck building element but it’s pretty bare bones. Because, ultimately, it’s not an important part of the game. It’s an option, like playing with four players. The game’s design is far closer to that of a board game where you pull out the board and players pick their assigned pieces.

Just to be clear, this isn’t to say one type of game is better than the other. You can have very competitive board games and card games as well as really fun and casual ones as well.

So, while I appreciate the option to further tweak and customize your favourite faction, I only really care about what comes in a deck’s core. I’ve played Summoner Wars in many different settings and, really, whenever it occurs out it’s always someone grabbing the box and us digging in and pulling out some armies to fight. You don’t expect someone to show up with their constructed deck like you would if you were getting together for Magic or Netrunner. And the interest for sorting through each faction’s different options is rarely present when the board is unfolded.

Furthermore, none of my friends have a complete collection which also reduces the prevalence of deck building. While having played everything that’s been released, I myself only own about half the product. Long story short, base decks are the primary method of play and, I feel, it’s the standard the vast majority of players will interact with the game. So while you may pick up the expansions for your favourite faction, you’re not likely to have all the cards that are available.

This is why in my discussion of decks I don’t mention any sort of solutions that a faction may have in their supplementary releases. I don’t think prospective players should have to inform their buying purchases with additional materials. The product should stand on its own. Thus, it doesn’t matter to me how super broken Hogar is if you purchase every single Guild Dwarf and Tundra Orc product and shove their best champions and commons from each into him. He’ll still be treated by the merits of what he came with.

Also, these reviews are long enough without having to take into consideration of every possible permutation of a faction and their opponents. Basically, it should go without saying, that if you replace every bum card in a base deck with a better card in an expansion than the faction will be better.

I bring up this point now because we’re going to talk about a faction that was, essentially, designed to be deck built. Alas, I didn’t purchase their reinforcement deck and when I finally got the Alliances box, they had to face their alliance deck in the tournament so couldn’t deck build.

I am, of course, going to talk about The Filth.

The Demagogue (2R-6W-Mutagist)

Good old Demi managed third in our Master Set Tournament. He then took a shocking thirteenth place in our All In Brawl. Kait and I have always considered the Filth really strong so for them to be eliminated so early was quite the blow. But despite their power, there’s some very specific flaws in the Filth base deck that can be exploited.

To understand these flaws we must first look at the Demagogue’s mutagist ability and what the faction is all about. Mutagist is one of the strongest summoner abilities in the game. It’s a built in card tutor that lets the Demagogue search either his deck or his discard for a mutation and put it in his hand. It does cost an attack so not only does this mean that the Filth player will only have two attacks that turn but you can’t use that mutation that turn. But this doesn’t prevent the Filth from building that mutation for magic. And if you just pulled it from your discard than that’s creating a point of magic that didn’t exist in the game!

I’ve mentioned before how tight economy is in Summoner Wars. Since your cards act as both army and economy and your deck is constrained by an exact number of cards, it means there’s only so much magic to go around. Being able to break that limit is power. As such, most summoners that can squeeze extra magic from the game must do so with a cost. The Demagogue’s is less strict than the other summoner in this tournament who can do this but the Demagogue’s is trickier to use. To generate magic, he must have mutations in his discard. To get them there, they have to be spent from his magic pile. The Filth have to spend money to get money in this game as there is no other way for him to get his mutations into the discard from hand.

Wait… what are mutations?

Mutations are the Filth. They’re the core of the deck serving as magic (mentioned above) and army. See, they’re a common that follows their own rules. First, you can’t summon them directly to the field. They must grow from a target, bursting forth from their hapless victim in as gruesome a manner as possible. This doesn’t remove the poor soul, however, who must remain tortured and broken beneath the mutation. In game terms, this means that every mutation on the field rewards two magic when its dies. But to compensate for its downside and requirement, the mutations are stronger than typical commons. They’re more like mini-champions. Which reflects their nature in deck building.

See, I was getting around to that.

Mutations can occupy either a common or champion slot in your deck. For the Demagogue, this means he only has one champion in his entire deck. Personally, I’d rather there weren’t any. But there’s certainly a lot of variation available to the Demagogue should he ever want to tweak his deck.

Alright, so he has a good ability that makes magic. Oh, and it also gives him flexibility in that he can pull out whatever mutation he needs in his next turn. Sure, this makes him pretty reactionary but being able to get the cards you need is always a strong power. But how do his events look?

Well, they look pretty damn good.

One other downside with mutations is that they cost a decent chunk of magic. Sure, they’re cheaper for their stats and abilities than if any other faction had them but they still average about three magic. Don’t worry, you have Channel Corruption to make up for that. There’s not much to say about this event because it’s good and obviously so. I mean, I guess it’s a combo card which is a bit problematic but since you can use mutagist to pull the mutation you want so long as it’s not locked in your magic pile it’s not much of an issue.

Then there’s Heretic’s Rebuke. Which is also fantastic. Granted, it’s not saving you money but it does something even better: it kills an enemy common and gives you a mutation target. This is pretty big since the Demagogue is weakest at the start. Invariably, when the enemy comes knocking, Heretic’s Rebuke will be turning their dangerous units into your little monsters. It can also be used to peel defenders and get your mutations in forward positions if you have the upper hand. And you can use it to eliminate costly commons like savagers for nothing. Yeah, it’s good.

Possessed Wall is the Filth’s worst event but it’s sort of like a less interesting magic drain. It’s really draw dependent, needing you to pick them up before your opponent can get his walls out to ignore it. Even if you do block his wall, however, it’s not difficult to remove it. It can be discarded at any time and the opponent will be drawing before they want to summon. It’s a speed bump and a minor one but it costs you a card and little effort.

Shield of the Hopeful is incredibly important and, appropriately, you have three of them. Your mutations mean nothing if you don’t have anything to mutate and while you’re building your economy you’ll be relying on your non-mutation commons to protect the Demagogue in the early stages. Shield of the Hopeful will see your little cthulu cultists stick around for their otherworldly blessings. It’s also helpful to keep a target breathing when you mutagist a needed mutation and have to wait your turn to play it. Requiring your opponent to spend more attacks killing your cultists can throw a real wrench in their plans. And if your opponent is trying to play around Shield, doubling up their attacks on pathetic cultists then they’re using their units inefficiently and, well, that’s a victory too.

Cultist (1R-1W-0M-Hex Thrower)

One of the two Filth commons, the cultist is your range devotee to the cause. Since your mutations are all good, your commons are bad. Or, at least, they’re suppose to be. In any other faction you’d likely be unimpressed (though a 0 cost ranged unit is actually pretty good in-of-itself). But the idea isn’t that you’re keeping your cultists around for long. As a unit to thwart and annoy your enemy, they’re good.

As they’re ranged they’re a little harder for the enemy to eliminate. They’re a thing. Oh, I should mention they can’t attack things beside them because that’s bad.

Zealot (1M-1W-0M-Bloodlust)

So this is your melee version of your cultist. It can’t attack walls. So don’t expect to be able to apply a lot of pressure with him.

Like I said, these guys are basically here to slow the enemy down and give you something to mutate. So let me talk about an issue with the deck. There’s just way too many of these guys. It’s a funny thing that the Demagogue has a decently strong economy engine but all his little weenie units cost nothing. As I mentioned earlier, you need to spend money (mutations) with the Filth in order to make money (pull those mutations from the discard). Your cultists don’t help with this. So you want to use your first few mutations as magic fuel in your recurring engine but in order to get that engine going you need to spend it on mutations.

What the Demagogue wants is a common he can spend money on. But without further purchases, you’re going to hope that you get a few mutations in your early draws and hope you don’t draw too many cultists that you might have to throw out for magic just so you can draw more cards on your next turn.

Long story short, you can get very screwed by your draws in the first couple of turns. And if the opponent is rushing into your face you kind of need to throw your cultists to the field to protect yourself. But if you end up throwing too many cultists in an early defence, you could run out of targets to mutate once you’ve established a large economic advantage to afford an army of gibbering mutants.

And the great unspeakable ones forbid that you don’t manage to draw any walls to defend yourself in that early rush.

Bestial Mutant (2M-3W-2M-Greater Swiftness)

So, to summarize the mutations really quickly, they’re all good. Some let you be an aggressive bruiser. Some can easily let you go for an assassination. Some let you just smash face real good.

What I want to talk about instead is the weaknesses of mutations. And yes, they have them. Mainly, you only have eight of them. And if these things end up in your opponent’s discard pile, you’re stuffed. Losing mutations, especially key ones, can be crippling to the Filth game. It’s why even the mewling Cloaks can be a threat if they’re floating an Assassinate event to murder your horror mutant. And if you’re trying to use them for your economy, you’re kind of cutting into how many you can be throwing to the field.

So there’s this weird game of who gets the last whack on your mutant moles. While most factions will often try and kamikaze their high attack value injured units to maximize damage, the Filth kind of rush to get the last kill so they can grab that mutation from their discard again. And if you go in for assassination attempts and lose the mutation, it is a rather troubling loss. That said, you can swap mutations during your summoning phase, so rescuing an important mutation is easy if it survives the enemy’s turn. And if you use a lower health mutation you can even get the magic for the death when the wounds transfer.

So you need to kind of baby these little guys. Not too much, though, because they are monsters. But don’t get lulled into a false sense of invulnerability if you manage to get four or so of these guys on the board at once.

Anyway, the bestial mutant is good for rushing into an enemy’s face but isn’t so valuable that you’re sad to lose him.

Claw Mutant (1M-4W-4M-Crushing Grip)

This guy is your answer to champions. Because, you know, you’re not really running them yourself. And he’ll straight up murder them. He can be used for money if your opponent is only going commons on you. If they decide to switch gears later, just yank him from the discard and you’re good to go.

Corpulent Mutant (1M-4W-4M-Ignore Pain)

I use this guy to get my economy going. He’s decent as a roadblock early on not a terrible loss if he goes into the enemy’s magic pile. I never get ignore pain to do anything for me but my sister manages to eat tons of wounds with him.

Edible Mutant (1M-6W-3M-Feed the Brethren)

Another excellent engine starter. I get that he’s meant to assist your mutant assault by taking wounds off your guys but I find that it’s rare to have him around by then. He’s good at blocking lanes and delaying the game with that six health for three magic. I mostly use him for magic, though.

Horror Mutant (3M-3W-3M-Demonic Visage)

Horror mutant is a terror (har har) for melee factions and a very strong attacker. Three attack at 3 magic is a good price point and her wonderful face will limit the number of people that can beat her up. If you do have an edible mutant out, you want him on her coat tails to keep the horror mutant going as long as possible. Take note that she scares everyone including summoners which can be legitimately terrifying for your enemy. Try not to lose her even though the enemy will be putting everything into killing her.

Spew Mutant (2R-3W-3M-Acidic Vomit)

Spewie is pretty good, especially if you need a strong defender. Her stomach acid works on walls too if you really want to try and bust them. There’s not a long of range option in the mutation pile which makes her stand out.

Tentacle Mutant (2M-2W-1M-Insidious Reach)

I actually really love the tentacle. It can reach anywhere and gets into the most difficult spots. And he’s just the right fit too.

I find that’s he’s one of the best early defensive options. You can plop the tentacle behind the wall and keep attackers from hurting your summoning point. He’s a threat behind shielded cultists and zealots. And he costs next to nothing so you can afford him nearly from the get go. Honestly, if I don’t draw him in my opening hand (or if I’m going first because the enemy is a jerk), I’ll usually mutagist him out. He doesn’t have a lot of use late game either, so losing him isn’t terrible.

Winged Mutant (3M-3W-3M-Greater Flight)

This is probably my favourite mutation. Wingie wins games. She’s hard to hide from and she hits like a twenty pound gorilla truck. This is the mutation you want to save as much as possible. Though, it’ll be hard because she’s apt to fly over several walls and be on her own.

So, yeah. As you can see, the Filth are really strong. They’re also really fun. Both of us love playing the demon cult even if they have such a profound effect on the game. They do kind of force your opponent into being aggressive, allowing you to leverage that sweet, sweet defender advantage. But when you get a bestial, winged and horror mutant bearing down on their screaming, trembling, and pant-wetting summoner, it’s hard to not have a crazed grin on your face.

Also, can I just take a moment to say how much I love the art? I normally do nothing but rag on it but whoever directed this faction was really, really good. Using the cultist and zealot as bases for the mutation and also keeping their designs distinct and interesting was just brilliant. And some of those mutations are quite horrifying, lending a very strong visual representation for that delightfully wicked theme.

Oh, am I forgetting something? Do we really have to talk about it?

Fine!

The Abomination (0M-7W-8M-Writhing Spawn)

He truly is an abomination. Play this guy only if you really want to throw your game.