And so it comes.

So, there was this little release back in Summoner Wars original run called Alliances. It was an interesting big box packed full of goodies and surprises. The concept behind it was the various game’s factions paired up like an elementary school’s Valentine’s Day social and then awkwardly stepped on each other’s toes at the evening dance while realizing with sinking despair they had nothing in common. 

No doubt they hung out with each other afterwards regardless of this fact. 

It was a fascinating little project, however, as it created interesting thematic and mechanical mashups. The decks featured some of the most complicated rules and some of the most creative ideas. But were they good?

Well, that’s a different story. 

Alliances came out near the end of Summoner Wars life cycle and so the designers had a better eye for what was strong and what was not. Alliances thus… struggled with trying to present interesting, innovative and compelling decks that did not tip the balance for those that had come before and were still dominating the discussion amongst the enthusiast community. Which is to say the decks were hobbled in their design to make sure that their parent factions wouldn’t be grossly unbalanced from their release.

As such, the mashups of the generally considered weaker factions were better than those that were formed from the originals considered powerful.

Which led us to the Tundra Guild.

I hate the Tundra Guild. Frothingly so. 

And here we have the Tundra Guild returned. 

Don’t be fooled by Plaid Hat’s marketing speak. The Polar Dwarves are not the first new faction. They’re those disgraced little snow midgets trying to sneak into the club with some fresh fake IDs. You thought no one would notice? Ha! We notice. And we’re keeping a close eye on you. 

I’ve been skeptical of Svara and her little frostbitten fleas since they first previewed. And now, getting my grubby little hands on them I am proud to proclaim…

… well, I must admit that they aren’t half-bad. I so desperately wanted to hate them. But, dare I say, they’re actually quite good. And the more I play them the more I like them. Are they strong? I actually think they are. There’s a fair bit of layers beneath this ice. They’ve also got their own unique tempo compared to the other factions. 

Furthermore, they absolutely abuse the new Build Phase and I love them for it. 

My initial impression of the faction was in the gutter due to my preconceived bias. But I think they’re the third strongest in the box. Perhaps, with some time, I may even consider them the second? And hey, at this rate, they could be the best deck by the end of the year!

So what makes Svara stand tall amongst giants?

It’s certainly not her stock standard stats. Her ability is further unremarkable on first blush. Pushing around gates like some frigid, battlefield Sisyphos. 

Granted, this is some mild spoilers, but her ability is meant to address the weakness of her slow cursed common yet to be previewed. However, shuffling around gates isn’t necessarily a terrible idea. You can’t really talk about Svara without getting a little into the weeds about the new Build Phase so, I suppose, let’s get into it. 

The original Summoner Wars had the infamous walls that rather dominated the discussion and tactics of its release. These 10 health absolute units could only be placed on your side of the board and, for the most part, once down they never moved. You only had three of them, giving the tantalizing prospect of smashing all your enemy’s walls and leaving them unable to summon anything for the rest of the game.

Course, you didn’t, because 30 health worth of attacks in the last game where health pools were tiny and attacks were off the chart meant that you never really had a chance to swing for the fences when it was always better to be eating our opponent’s forces for lunch and preparing to have your champions duke it out in the mid or late game. 

But here, in new Summoner Wars, things are different. For one, your bonus gates are half the health now. But you have an extra one to compensate. Furthermore, gates can be placed anywhere so long as they’re adjacent to your summoner (as well as the back three rows of your board). This means you can get aggressive summoning points rather handily on your enemy’s side which is a terrific source of pressure. 

Svara, naturally, has these same capabilities. But even more than that, she can drag her gates with her. So any gate dropped early for funnelling or to clear your hand can eventually migrate like the ancient glaciers to your opponent’s side. And there’s really no better way to block an enemy’s summoning point than parking your own gate right in front of it. 

Svara draws this weird ice curtain with her cold war, shrinking your opponent’s movement options as the game drags on. Naturally, “just shoot the gates” is a reasonable suggestion. Except it’s hard to do when feral bears are ripping your face off at the same time. 

Not to mention Svara has the amazing Parapet. This is a stupid waist high wall of the shooting genre fame. It won’t let you summon from it but you can fire over it while your opponent is absolutely baffled that you disappear from sight mere moments after lobbing some snowballs in their face. It doesn’t just provide your units a shifting shield of five health – it actually shuts down lanes as no one wants to leave their units vulnerable to the parapets’ defenders while they try to blow up the stupid thing. 

Then, to lend Svara a hand with her gate rolling, she has Glacial Shift. Once again, we’ll get into how this event helps your little construct common later but even having it for repositioning all your gates and parapets is pretty damn helpful. And while I’m starting to find myself burning gates in other decks for the magic, you can be assured Svara is going to play all three of hers. 

And with all these structures littering the field, Ice Ram becomes such a lovely little tool. 

This is worthy of Svara’s epic slot. The dream, of course, is to pair Ice Ram with Glacial Shift to just come crashing into your enemy’s face with all your buildings. However, I find even getting 1 or 2 assured damage and some reshuffling of enemy units to be worth it. Svara has some decent tricks in her event suite that she isn’t reliant on to secure an advantage. They’re merely additional threats that may, or may not, come out and this keeps your opponent on their toes.

Finally, if those poor fools do think “Man, these ice gates and walls really are ruining my day, why don’t I just kill them?” Svara has Ice Repair to make them regret having this entirely justified and rational thought. This is, perhaps, the best healing card we’ll see. Costless, two health across the entire battlefield is probably not going to be replicated for anyone else. And I’m not mad about it either. 

And this is what I find beautiful about Svara. She’s got an excellent suite of event cards that you don’t need to hold for the best moment. On the other hand, you can carry one or two for an opportune moment and still get a good payoff for it. I never really find myself saving a card for “just the right moment.” I can squeeze some value from her events at any point. 

Thanks Svara for making me eat my words.