So last week, we checked out Summoner Wars’ new and improved Sneeks. We took a brief preview of his summoner card and events. Today, we’ll be examining his champions. There’s only three cards here, so this should go a lot faster. Well, it should go a little faster. 

Well, we don’t come here for brevity.

First up is the rather disgusting looking Blarf. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a fan of this art direction but I can at least appreciate that the guy looks delightfully horrible. I always appreciate a little filth in my fantasy. 

I’m intrigued by Blarf if only because he comes with two deck building symbols. I wonder what the motivation to make him available to a wider pool is. Is it because his abilities somehow perfectly represent the opera helmet and Venetian mask symbol factions? Or maybe he’s so bad that it doesn’t matter if he gets spread around a little more?

Because let’s be clear, Blarf is bad.

Alright, it’s premature to make categorical claims like that. However, he comes peculiarly weakened from his Summoner Wars original incarnation. His best feature is his cost. At zero, not only is he always affordable but, more importantly, he interacts with Sneeks Sly and events. Which is probably what doomed the poor troll… orc… ugly boy. A pool of six health is an improvement over old Blarf. He can serve as a good one turn distraction for your wee goblins. However, his strength gain is decidedly worse. First, you need to trigger Blarf’s Blood Runes at the start of your attack phase. This means you can’t fuel it with fresh kills this round but must keep some magic from the summoning phase so he doesn’t hurt himself. Granted, missing a Blood Rune trigger is only one damage. Which means Blarf can deny himself without costing you an attack but I’m not certain how often those situations will arise. 

Furthermore, you want to be paying Blarf’s toll so that he can start hitting. Otherwise you’ve a mobile wall. A mobile wall that will slowly turn into a threat that your opponent will always see coming three turns away. But when you consider old Blarf could gain +4 attack at any point, it’s a bit disappointing.

So he’s largely a Sly platform and not much else.

Next up, we have Smeg. 

I’m guessing this is Smeege’s younger cousin. 

I’m not sure what to make of Smeg. He/She/It is obviously a little anemic. Losing health from the transition over to Summoner Wars 2.0 is not a great sign. Sure, they gained a strength but Smeege essentially had 2 attack with Frick’s ability. I think, once again, comboing with Sly has seen Smeg’s effectiveness get downgraded. That said, a healthier Slinger complete with it’s free attack, is still good. And Smeg is still like Smeege where Smeg’s negative can be an upside. Your opponent doesn’t really want to attack Smeg, hoping that Magic Junkie will make their cost exorbitant. But not attacking Smeg means Smeg can lay on the damage. And failing to kill Smeg means Smeg can reliably deny themself at the end of your turn. Plus, Smeg’s upkeep cost comes after you discard for magic so you can be reasonably assured that you can afford the Magic Junkie tax. Positioning from Sneak, Sly and buffing with Enrage the Horde are all added perks. Smeg’s good and I don’t see any reason why Smeg wouldn’t show up in every battle with the sole exception of the game ending before Smeg’s drawn.

Of note, Smeg is one of a very limited sources of ranged attacks in Sneeks’ army too. 

And now, for the main course. 

The Eater was one of the best original Cave Goblin champions. The new Eater still claims that title. He’s received a (probably justifiable) price increase. He comes out heftier (9 health) and stronger (5 strength) but his ability is not as good. He only auto kills your units now at the end of the attack phase so the Eater is more vulnerable to any possible future shenanigans that can change dice rolls. At five strength, he’s likely to be killing most things he’s on, however, unless he’s going after champions. And at five melee strength, he’s apt to be exchanging well with them. The six magic cost is noteworthy if only because Sneeks doesn’t make a lot of magic and Sneeks’ other champions kind of want to skim off your low magic pool each turn. 

It might be a little obvious that you’re saving for him, is all I’m trying to say.

So there you have it. The Eater is great! Smeg is good! Blarf is barf!

See you next week!

Well, the great thing about a new Summoner Wars release is I have easy go-to content for blogging! See, Kait! At least I’m being somewhat consistent in my posting!

I want to stress the speculative nature of previews. They are clearly not based on the most rigorous data or testing and, consequently, are mostly first impressions than anything else. However, Summoner Wars 2.0 reviews are a special note. Whereas my reviews of the original Summoner Wars releases was at least founded on experience with the game, it’s really hard to judge the value of the cards when I’m not even certain of the normal momentum and average strength of units in this new version.

Which is to say, the old game had a standard evaluation equation for judging the relative worth of cards. While flawed, this system was based on observed averages of what had come before. We’re in uncharted territory here so saying what is good or bad is going to be a crap shoot at best.

But don’t worry, if you wanted baseless judgements then you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll break this down into three posts as Kait keeps telling me I jabber on too long anyway. Our starting point will be the summoner and events. I’ll save a second post for the champions. And the last for his commons. At least this is faster than Plaid Hat’s reveal schedule.

Now, I didn’t have original Sneeks so it’s kind of exciting to see his new version in a product that I have a high chance of actually getting. It’s a little hard to parse some of his card since I’m not entirely certain what everything means. I did, embarrassingly, find the online rules after I did that digital disgorging of my initial thoughts last week. So I’ve given it a thorough read even if I haven’t fully internalized everything yet. Hopefully that arms me enough to not come across as completely moronic here.

The first thing I want to comment on is Sneeks health. Eleven is crazy high, for the original Summoner Wars. Summoner health essentially sets the “difficulty” of your opponent since the only win condition is getting that value to zero. Only one summoner got to nine health in the first game and it just happened to fall on one of the best decks. But now, I kind of feel it’s ironically on the low end. 

It’s clear that higher health is meant to turn summoners into more active participants in the game. Which is a good change. Sneeks wants to get into the thick of the action as well. His three melee strength is of note. First, it’s one of the highest strength attacks in his deck. Second, melee is more accurate than range in this new version. Course, it still comes with its inherent vulnerability.

While I don’t think strength values have risen at the same rate as health, it feels like eleven health really only gives you one turn of vulnerability. In original Summoner Wars, you could argue that ignoring the summoner to clear the board was more advantageous. I didn’t. I thought putting pressure on the summoner would force them to position less optimally but I also concede that this prioritization of attacks was very faction dependent. With Sneeks, it feels like you definitely want to hit him whenever you can. Most of his commons are rather weak and the more damage you put on Sneeks the less aggressive Sly maneuvers he can do without risking a loss. 

Course, let’s examine Sly a little closer. This ability isn’t just a port from his first edition. It’s an upgrade. Being able to Sly step Sneeks in during your attack phase essentially ensures that any 0 cost unit which gets beside the enemy summoner is bringing an additional three melee strength attack with them. Sadly, Sneeks can’t Sly his beast riders but pretty much every other option in his deck works. Plus, he’s got other mobility options rather than charge.

Another perk of Sly is that Sneeks can get some very quick, aggressive gates down. Since the first couple of turns your opponent is unlikely to mount a terminal defence, if you happen into your gates early, you can get some very strong early board control. It’s luck dependent as gates have a tendency to be drawn when you least want them. However, since Sneeks has so many zero cost units, having more summon points is very important for him.

I’m curious to see what those deck building options will open up for him. It looks like he’s geared towards trickery and brute force. But without seeing these symbols show up later, trying to judge those options would be the equivalent of reading tea leaves. 

Now we have Sneeks’ events. Starting with his personal Epic options.

First, I’m not sure who this person is in the art but I wonder if he’s a preview of a Cave Goblin second summoner? He appears on two events with pretty consistent design. Could just be an unreleased unit, however. Possibly a champion. Certainly would be a peculiar reinterpretation of Frick and, seeing as Frick is one of my sister’s favourite summoners, I’m kind of rooting for his return. At any rate, Enrage the Horde gets into the Cave Goblin identity of swarming with a lot of cheap units. Frick let any single zero cost unit to attack twice a turn. Enrage, however, gives you a power turn where all of your free units essentially double their attack for the low cost of one magic. 

Granted, this cost isn’t insignificant. Sneeks would rather slam his commons down than build them for magic, so you’re probably running an economy that’s a little light. That’s where Enrage the Horde’s timing comes in. As a Magic Phase event, you can fuel this with any kills during your normal attack phase. The trick, however, will be positioning. Until the release of a Runt like unit that allows your slingers to attack through them, your Slingers are the easiest to assist with Enrage so their firing angles will have to be chosen carefully. 

I feel it’s worth holding until the right time. You only have two of them, so you want to keep them as a threat for the enemy summoner. Especially since they know you’ll be running these two.

The rest of these events, however, are less impressive. I’m uncertain which are worth holding in your hand, slowing down your draw speed. They can combo well but the last thing you want is to be holding two or three events each turn and giving your enemy some breathing room from your rush of commons. 

Sneak, however, is fantastic. It helps you get your army into position either for a powerful Enrage the Horde play or for sliding Sneeks in for some sneaks attacks. Of particular note is that Sneak lets your Clingers move since it’s a force effect! This can help you rescue any that have been abandoned in the boonies by forcing them to an adjacent unit then moving that unit after the event resolves. It’s free too! I don’t like to hold on to this event for more than a round, however. If it lines up for a power combo, great! If not, it can be good to get helpful positioning now.

Pile On is decent. Makes things hit harder if you’ve surrounded them. While the dream is to play this with Enrage the Horde for double the value, it can create a trap of making your hand stuck with a bunch of non-unit cards. Given that your units are generally on the weaker side, however, you want this event to take down scary champions your opponent might be holding. Given the extra attacks from Slingers and your overall low damage output from your weaker champions and commons, I find Pile On is a necessary event to hold for either risky all-in attacks on the summoner or to get favourable economic exchanges against enemy champions.

Finally, we’ve Unrelenting. It’s odd to see an economy card in Cave Goblins. Granted, this is a weird economy card as it’s more on the denial end rather than generation. It costs one magic to make the opponent’s target prioritization weird for one turn. If you have Sneeks or a champion pressuring their face, this card could have them turn all their attention to those big threats and ignore your little runts as they rush in for combat. Alternatively, you can use it after a rush to recuperate your losses. It’s strong, I’m just not certain it’s strong enough to hold. If I don’t have a lot of slingers on the board, it might just be worth letting go. 

So, for me, Sneeks is an aggressive summoner who relies heavily on his Sly ability to get in extra attacks on priority targets or place aggressive gates. He seems rather reliant on his events to compensate for his otherwise lacklustre champions and commons. So he is largely a question of whether those events are strong enough to keep him competitive with other summoners.