Last week we saw the first four of the last eight second summoners for Summoner Wars. Those were my “bottom picks” for who is and isn’t the best. I ran some clarifications on how I do my ranking but one thing I didn’t mention is that I also focus on general utility. I show preferential treatment to decks that are capable of facing off against multiple different opponents in Summoner Wars than those that are tooled to deal with specific match-ups or playstyles. So, while I ranked Natazga of the Swamp Orcs rather poorly, I think her cards can be really good against certain foes. For one, she can do well against her Swamp Orc brethren. Her units are obviously unimpeded by the walls of her foes and her Swamp Archers will be fantastic at sniping Mugglug’s Hunters or getting hits on Glurblub that likes to use his as blockers. All her units hit hard enough to tear down any walls that crop up from her opponents and she can halt Mugglug’s growth if she gets some early Erosions on his starting walls. Finally, her Fury of the Fen can shuffle around her own walls to corner off Mugglug’s growth if he does manage to grow beyond his confines.

So it isn’t like she’s complete rubbish. Likewise, I’d expect Brath to do better against opponents that want to play slow and defensive. And Farrah certainly fares a lot easier against factions she already has faction symbols of in her deck.

But the thing about the tip top tier decks is that they have very few tough opponents. Their gameplan is either powerful enough to dictate the pace of the game or they possess enough tools that they can adjust their strategy on the fly. And I think these last four really cover both of those options.

4. Get out of my head, Charles. (Benders – Shiva)

These middling decks I’m the least certain about. I like a lot of what Shiva is doing but she has one glaring weakness that holds her back and that I find a bit troubling. Not because it isn’t insurmountable but that it seems so uncharacteristic of her faction that I have to question how it came to be. Generally, factions are designed around certain core concepts. The Cave Goblins, for example, are cheap expendable units that basically rush zerg-like towards their enemies and try to win through sheer numbers and audacity. A four magic common with a high health pool would seem very out of character for the faction.

Likewise, you’ll notice that the Mountain Vargath are pretty hurting for ranged units. Same for the Filth.

Thus, I was a little taken aback by the sheer proliferation of melee units in Shiva’s deck. Tacullu had all ranged and laid claim to the “fragile but strong” archer archetype. Sure, parasites are a thing but not one anyone really paid much attention to. A few melee units I could live with as I can imagine continuing to make only ranged units would get difficult after awhile. But for the majority to be shirking the design space of the original seems a little… odd.

Plus it makes Shiva worse. Had she one or two more really strong ranged units, I’d feel far more comfortable ranking her higher.

For, you see, Shiva has a really strong ability. She can forgo her own Movement Phase to move her opponent’s units around instead. It’s only one space each but the board’s small enough that even one space can ruin your opponent’s formation. You can pull weaker units out of cover. You can expose enemy summoners to your attacks. You can separate units boosted by each other’s abilities, be it Moyra’s Defenders or Brath’s Gem Golems. And, of course, you can draw them to your side of the board where you can slaughter them amongst your own forces all within the safety and comfort of your walls.

Unless, of course, your units are tripping over themselves because they are all close range. I definitely think Shiva’s potential will raise when she puts several of the powerful ranged units in the Bender’s arsenal into her deck. Deceivers, Geopaths and Controllers all benefit from Shiva’s Influence. And Shiva’s units themselves are all quite powerful in their own right. Puppets are a magic cheaper than their statistics. Their negative for this discount is offset by Shiva’s strength but even if you don’t Influence that turn, Puppets can take an attack to move adjacent to a nearby friendly Bender. They can cover for Shiva if she moves in to leverage her powerful 3 ranged attack. Shiva can command them with an event and even the Puppetmaster can move them around into position. Shiva does seem locked into including the unit because of all the support she has for them so it’s fortunate that the unit has a fair bit of flexibility and use. They cover the weakness of the parasite by sporting both more health and attack so summoning them doesn’t feel much like a waste.

We also have the Siren that has one of the best abilities revealed. It’s like a mini Influence that targets only one Common or Champion near the Siren but it doesn’t require the expenditure of a movement or attack action. We saw Brath’s champions eat attacks to pull of their abilities but the Siren can just sit on the field and do nothing but lure victims towards (or away) from her. And with two attack, she also makes for a strong and cheap offensive option.

Unfortunately, with both her two main commons being melee, Shiva falls into the same problem as Tacullu. She wants to play on her side of the board but doesn’t include anything natively in her deck to encourage opponents to come at her. This can be addressed through deck building whether through Endrich’s Geopaths or Owl Gryphon but it’s troubling to see a defensive deck created without some lure to avoid stalemates. Maybe the designers thought she would be more aggressive but that seems unlikely. I can only think that Influence was meant to force opponents into Shiva’s defensive position though I imagine it’ll work only to encourage her opponent’s to hunker down on their side of the board and not summon things. Even worse, Shifters encourage your opponent to not play commons as you can simply steal them with the Shifter then Wither it to get some of your magic back. It’s a neat idea to adapt Tacullu’s mind control element and is very similar to a faction I had designed.

Shiva breaks the Bender mould even further by providing some decent champions to the faction as well. I’m not convinced of Lem’s power as it feels too inconsistent and chance based for my tastes. But both Puppetmaster and Haku are fantastic units. Haku in particular deals with champions pretty well or any unit with a low number of attacks (hi Bladed Mutant).

Finally, I should mention that Hinder is a great event for stalling a game which adds more credence to the idea that Shiva is expected to play passive and boring. Sadly, without any late game advantage, I don’t see Shiva doing well against the stronger defensive factions. Even other stalling decks like Brath can probably do some damage to Shiva as she needs to twiddle her thumbs and hope for her opponent to be drawn close enough into her trap. Which is unfortunate because even just one ranged common unit could provide her with the pressure Shiva needed to move forward and force the fight to her. Which is a pity that she has such a glaring flaw since her deck looks incredibly fun otherwise. This is why I’m uncertain about Shiva’s placing. I could see her performing worse than both Farrah and Brath though I think the general strength of her individual cards keep her from being the absolute bottom of the releases.

3. Moo, I say. (Mountain Vargath – Malenatar)

If first Summoner Wars summoners were deemed strong and had weaker second summoners, then it stands to reason that the inverse would be true. At the very least, Malenatar makes a compelling argument.

Like Shiva, however, there’s a peculiar design decision that has left me scratching my head. Granted, at first I was skeptical of Malenatar’s direction. His revealed ability required discarding cards from hand to fuel it. We’ve seen this before in the Mountain Vanguard Korbolden and I ranted about it to no end. So here we see the ability crop up again and I was readying my pitchforks. I have gently tucked them away because it seems my prior complaints were heard. While personally I thought that units with costed abilities should receive a built in discount, Plaid Hat did the opposite approach and provided renewable resources to keep paying for the ability. We saw Little Meda get her Amoeba last week. Malenatar has Battlefield Procurement. So at least these summoners aren’t starting from a weaker position than their non-costed companions.

Renewable economy, Malenatar’s got it.

The part that confuses me, however, was the lack of a discarding mechanic amongst Malenatar’s commons. Considering that Malenatar has more than Battlefield Procurement to help refund these costs, it seemed strange to devote so much of his event suite to discounting these abilities when they’re only on three units. And for Ossa in particular, her discard mechanic is really unnecessary for her power.

Personally, I would have liked to see the Commander need a discard in order to trigger her ability. Then she wouldn’t need to be so expensive. We’ve already seen two factions get a melee unit that has two attack and two health for one magic. Malenatar instead gets one at three. Oh well, she does not so Malenatar has some events that he can always build for magic. It also makes these commons more exportable to Sunderved who is more than happy to have a unit that will allow him to attack with powered up Cherubim more than once per turn. And, of course, it improves Malenatar’s damage output by squeezing in additional attacks.

Multiple attacks – Malenatar’s got it.

But while we’re on strange design decisions, the Aspirant also breaks the Vargath design space by providing a low health unit to their pool. I do like the two attack with one health for one magic option but, once again, it just seems strange for it to show up in a faction that doesn’t really support that kind of design. I get that Malenatar lacks the attack boosting power of Sunderved and having a higher attack option was necessary to bump him up into these higher predictions. Probably the best thing about Aspirants is that they provide a turn by turn use for Battlefield Procurement. Malenatar can move the Aspirant with his Strategic Positioning, allowing the Aspirant to move another nearby unit one space. Then the Aspirant can take a normal move and move the other unit or a different one an additional space. It’s a quick way to get four movement a turn – a necessity for any faction that wants to play aggressively. Also, that Malenatar can move up to five units (why do you have five units out?!) is also pretty crazy for making a strong rush down deck when you consider that any freshly summoned unit can move at least four spaces on the turn they appear. This also helps his all melee common troupe get in position to pull off their attacks.

Mobility – Malenatar’s got it.

And, of course, there’s the guard which is a fantastic unit that is pretty close to one I designed for a custom faction so I’m obligated to love it. I’m a little saddened its ability wasn’t called Light Cover so it could benefit from the Crusader’s Shining Aura but that would have been a bit too cheeky.

Additional heath – Malenatar’s got it.

Probably the biggest change Malenatar brings to the table over Sunderved is an event suite that actually benefits from containing Superior Planning. Sunderved’s events were pretty mediocre but Unify on its own gives Malenatar something to dig from his discard repeatedly. It may even be worth pulling from the Draw Pile if a good opening presents itself. Malenatar also brings some good champions to make-up for the rather disappointing options traditionally offered the Vargath. Varden offers the rare ranged attack and gives you something to play with Superior Execution. As mentioned, Ossa is fantastic and can single handedly halt a Cave Goblin rush.  Kadros is… an option if you make it to late game and have lots of magic lying around.

Powerful champions – Malenatar’s got it.

There’s really nothing more to say about Malenatar. He’s got a deck full of good units with good events. He has good attack and maneuvering making him an excellent aggressive summoner. When all your stuff is good, it’s hard to not expect a deck to do well. Basically, Malenatar addresses all my criticisms for prior aggressive summoners and why their strategy fundamentally underperformed compared to others.

Victory – Malenatar’s got it.

2. Follow the leader. (Sand Goblins – Scraven)

Malenatar provides his troops some really great movement options but Scraven takes it to a whole new level. He can grant three units free movement at the start of every turn. Even better, he automatically pulls them back as blockers at the end of the turn. It’s a mixture of Maldaria’s Save the Queen and Jexik’s Brilliant Strategist – both of which are excellent abilities in their own right. I can, however, see Scraven being hard to pick up and play if you’re not familiar with your enemy’s options. There are some units that would make you really need to change your strategy, like the Jungle Elves Archer which can shoot through Scraven’s loyal protectors to wound him directly.

But Scraven has a few of his own tricks up his sleeves. First, he’s packing a couple of Event Abilities which opens Marek’s cards up to some interesting deck building options. And some of those abilities are really wonderful. Strong Wind is perhaps the stand out, giving a unit a sort of “taunt” movement that lets you pluck enemy commons from their defenses while working your own troops into the midst of combat. Flingers also see past blockers and walls alike to throw their dice around. Once again, we’re seeing the refinement of aggressive deck design here. And Scraven really focuses on the common play, with Cyrus, Hunters and Scraven himself benefiting in multiple ways by flooding the field with goblins.

And speaking of Cyrus, it wouldn’t be a Sand Goblin deck without some truly stand out champions. I love scaling attack power. Hester is one of my favourite champions and can consistently get up to six dice on attack. I’ve had games where he’s throwing twelve on the attack. Cyrus… isn’t going to be getting that high but he can certainly build up to a respectable attack power in a hurry. And having extra bodies on the field doesn’t hurt Scraven who is happy to get more units to use with his Esteemed Leader. And even if it’s just Hunters you’re throwing down, at least they’ll be getting stronger whilst bolstering Cyrus strength. Cyrus even comes with the Sand Goblin discount to boot even though his ability isn’t really a negative and definitely not to the same level as Kreep or Biter.

Then there’s Dinky. Here’s a champion that the opponent always has to keep in mind and that absolutely punishes champion play. Even better, you have control over Dinky’s weakness and can decide to hold off summoning him until the battlefied has cleared a little. He may seem like he’s anti-synergistic with Scraven’s common deluge but more likely he’s the answer to when your little guys inevitably die. And he’s probably the best late game champion in Summoner Wars, not to mention a fantastic wall breaker. And there really isn’t any other champion that can rival him. Little Meda better watch out because Dinky is just going to squish Nanny if he ever gets a swing on them. He’s such a large threat that likely your opponent is going to be required to spam commons in anticipation of the oaf arriving. Which works just fine for Scraven who has such cheap and strong commons that he’s apt to win the exchange.

Finally, there’s the Wraith. I don’t think you can make any comment on Scraven without talking about this guy. He’s like a super Shaman. He’s only harmed on die results of 6 though he vanishes after he makes his attack. But that’s a ranged two attack that is incredibly hard to prevent. Better yet, he’s immune to abilities that directly apply damage, absolutely ruin units with Precise and doesn’t care about events that destroy other lesser units. All of that for one magic. And that’s magic that’s never going to your opponent. He doesn’t combo with Esteemed Leader’s return ability, so there’s that to keep in mind. And he can be destroyed with enough dice thrown his way but the more attacks he eats, that’s less attacks coming at the rest of your forces. And if the enemy doesn’t attack him, well that’s fantastic too because you want him to disappear from your attack.

All of that said, I’m not sold on Hunters or the Sand Drake. Their combination seems a bit too “best case scenario”. Sand Drake itself is rather expensive, cutting into your common economy and really needs to get some units sieging with it to be scary. But it has such a slow ramp up of damage that I feel like it’ll die before it’s truly a threat. And the staggered summoning platform element is a touch too slow for my tastes as it allows the enemy to respond. As for Hunters, their strength is in their zero cost but if you have more than one they immediately lose that strength. And improving health is the weakest statistic to improve in the game. Their one attack is underwhelming as well. That said, you can set up a good Barrage turn with them and in this regard they are a “fixed” Scavenger.

Overall, it’s a powerful package and apt to really ruin players that aren’t used to opponents rushing their face from the first turn. Suddenly, the Summoner Wars battlefield got a whole lot more crowded.

1. Watch you don’t cut yourself on all this edginess. (Shadow Elves – Saturos)

And then there was Saturos.

Scraven and Malenatar might be fantastic examples of aggressive design but Saturos embodies it. This deck is filled to the brim with murder. Too bad it’s also covered in Lycra and teenage angst.

Saturos himself, however, is terrifying. He’s slightly weaker than Selundar but packs more of a punch at range. Better yet, his Blood Summon is like a beefy Glurblub Vinemancer Sow. Instead of punting two health vine walls across the board, however, Saturos is kicking enraged Blood Drakes. Any enemy unit he slays on his opponent’s side is a free summon for him. That’s a crazy amount of tempo swing. It grants you a magic for the kill, denies the board position that unit was in, gives you up to a two magic discount on a unit, gives you the board control and potentially places a unit in position to chain attacks on cowering summoners. Saturos even dodges the Burning Skeleton issue as his Blood Drakes can shift a space when they appear. And if you don’t happen to have the sanguine drakelings in hand, Vindicators are quite happy to take their place as two ranged attacks is also hard to avoid.

And holy smokes, Shadow Warriors are bloody fantastic. They’re Swordsmen replacements or, better yet, supplements. Honestly, I think they’re better than the much lauded Selundar Swordsman as Blood Step can give you far greater range once you take control of the middle board with Saturos. To clarify, they can blood step to a wounded unit before taking their regular movement so when you get some champions in play with a few scratches, the Shadow Warriors can leap immediately to the fray from them as though they had been woven from Melundak’s shadows. And you can do it with all three of these guys too.

Beside, look at that attack spread – 3 attack with a blood summoned Blood Drake, 2 attack with stationary ranged Vindicators and 2 attack off those hopping Shadow Warriors. Saturos comes swinging out of the gate hard and none of this is taking into account his events. Relentless Assault is insane, granting a free full movement to all your units. Sure it wounds Saturos in the process but this can be advantageous if you’ve been doing a good job of keeping him safe as it now makes him a jump off point for Shadow Warriors. Greater Blood Summon is plain nuts allowing you to not only Blood Summon off any unit that manages to destroy an enemy common but also to trigger on your side of the board if you manage to get overrun. Note, this occurs whenever a unit destroys an enemy – it doesn’t specify an attack. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? If you’re thinking Satara then good, because she is love and live the dream of bouncing three units in for free before your attack phase.

But what about that defender’s advantage that I’m always talking about? How does Saturos deal with that problem? We saw Scraven pulling his troops out to prevent them from falling into the enemy’s better positioning. And Malenatar can simply reinforce his frontlines like it’s nobodies business assuming his guarded units are even falling to the counter attack in the first place. Aren’t the Shadow Elves suppose to be brittle? Those Shadow Warriors still only have one health, after all. And it’s not like Plaid Hat is going to reprint Shadows.

Well, they didn’t. Instead, Saturos has Revenge. It’s like Shadows if you cared about clearing the board of enemies. Two free wounds is great against units especially tough ones like, say, Baldur who is otherwise going to be unphased by the large attack pools of the Shadow Elves. But wait, the biggest issue with Sunderved was that he had to put himself in danger in order for his aggressive force to benefit from his ability. Glurblub at least had Spore Carriers to take over the duty of growing his swamp after the first couple of turns and he had to pull back. Well, have no fear aggressive Saturos for Vanquish is here to help you. When a common strikes Saturos you can simply knock that unit back to your opponent’s hand while ignoring whatever damage he’d have done. Mugglug may have thought he had a clever flank with a Savager. Now he realizes that he’s gained nothing and is out 3 magic for his trouble. Should he try it again? What if Saturos has his second Vanquish waiting for that exact scenario?

It’s a hilarious way to both protect your summoner while also doing significant damage to the opponent’s position and economy. If Saturos is already wounded and it was a blocker that took the strike, that could mean the enemy is now exposed to your Shadow Warriors.

And all of this without considering Saturos’ champions. Zhant gets you some extra movement and attack though his range is pretty small so he’ll be tough to position properly. Uriel is there if you’ve completely overwhelmed your opponent and he’s fled to a back corner and walled himself in. Congratulations, you’ve just played yourself as Uriel can sit on the opposite side of the opponent’s battlefield and simply choke him out of the game. Finally, there’s Shiiq who brings a lovely 4 attack while also giving you some tricky swapping options at the end of the enemy’s turn. This means any common carelessly left alive can become this frightful woman or, if she’s on the enemy’s side, it can give Uriel an immediate attack on the summoner the first turn he’s summoned.

Yeah, you can basically pluck a card at random from Saturos’ deck and realize how great it is. He’s the definitive example of just making everything great to be effective. It’s telling for a Summoner Wars deck when I think Zhant and Uriel are the least impressive elements when they’d be considered highlights in others.

This doesn’t mean that Saturos is invincible, mind you. He seems oppressive from his preview but even the match-up between him and Scraven would be interesting. While Saturos can Blood Summon Scraven’s loyal guardians, Scraven has Wraiths and Dinky to deal with the fact that commons are going to be vanishing faster than cupcakes at a six-year-old’s birthday.

What I’m most happy to see, however, is that Plaid Hat finally took off the kiddie gloves when it came to designing aggressive factions. I’ve always felt they’ve been holding back either through concern that a too strong aggressive deck would utterly dominate Summoner Wars or that most people didn’t really play defensively to see just how much it hurt their prior offensive decks. Well, our complaints have not fallen on deaf ears and it seems that we have some really great standout decks for all three archetypes of the game.

So while Summoner Wars may be coming to a close, the battles have only just begun.