Dangerous Realms

Let's take a look at a few of the more perilous realms in Spellfire.

Raurin (4th Edition, 11/500)

Attack it and you die, one way or another. At least if you win the battle, you get a spoils. Hopefully it's a champion to replace the one who just croaked. On second thought, anyone got a Cataclysm?

The Forest Ridge (Artifacts, 95/100)

Same thing here, except this time the card is explicit as to why your champion dies. Apparently feral halflings eat him. Pity they wait until after the realm is razed. If they ate the attacking champion before he successfully razed the realm and gained a spoils, they'd actually be useful. Oh well, the Forest Ridge is an excellent land, in any case. Anyone got a Disintegrate?

Falkovnia (Night Stalkers, 5/100)

This realm is far better in Standard than it is in the Antigonish variant. In a Standard game you can have many champions attacking Falkovnia during one turn, all of which would die. In TAV it's going to be one champion most of the time. But this land is still just as good as the two above. No feral halflings this time; it's poison that does in your victorious champion. Nice reward for winning a battle - an agonizing death due to poison. Anyone got an Estate Transference?

The Spiderfell (Birthright, 3/100)

Okay, now we're giving the attacker a sporting chance. He's not going to instantly croak, instead a card is drawn and discarded. If the last digit of the card number is equal to or greater than the champion's base level, he's toast. And it's poison again! This time presumably delivered via giant spider. One more salient point: this all happens before the defending player blocks, so you get to wait and see if the attacker kicks the bucket before deciding which champion to risk in battle. At least no spoils is given up by the croaking champion. Anyone got a Creeping Doom?

The Scarlet Brotherhood (3rd Edition,135/400)

Well, this is different. As long as this realm is unrazed at the start of your turn you can voluntarily raze it to discard one champion in any pool. Nice! The only downside is that you have to keep the Scarlet Brotherhood from being razed through everyone else's turn, because you can't use it when you first put it down during your phase 2. The good news is almost no champions are immune to realm powers, so you can even nuke Gib Lhadsemlo and his ilk. Anyone got a Raze?

Furyondy (4th Edition, 16/500)

Finally, we have Furyondy. What a primo land. When you first play it, you get to discard any wizard in play. You can kill Bigby, Gib Irod, Midnight, Titania, anyone, since no wizard in Spellfire is immune to realm powers. Personally, I like using Furyondy to nuke Bigby, because he annoys me. Slap this realm down, and your opponents will be yelling "anyone got a Dispel Illusion?" :)

Next Time: The Top 3 Monsters.

The Mighty Hettman!

Hettman Tsurin (4th Edition, 257/500). The name strikes fear into Spellfire players everywhere. Though he's only a level 2 hero, Hettman attracts more champion-killing cards than just about anyone else. What's all the fuss about? It's about his primo power. So long as Hettman doesn't attack during your turn, he allows you to randomly draw a card from an opponent's hand and discard it.

In a two-player game, this can quickly result in card advantage being attained by Hettman's owner. In a multi-player game, Hettman can terrorize the entire table, especially since several players will potentially have him in their deck. Once he dies, someone else will slap him out, leading to multiple turns of Hettman picking away at your best cards.

Also, just by having this guy in your pool your other champions are shielded somewhat from cards like Trapped, Mindshatter, and Death Spell. Those cards will probabaly be directed at Hettman instead of other targets. It's up to you whether you invest the time and spells to protect Hettman from the champion-wrecking cards he attracts like a magnet. If you do, he can become a resource hog as you constantly strive to keep the little bugger breathing. If not, he's likely done his job anyway by stealing a card or two before he croaks.

In TAV, Hettman is even better, since you are going to be attacking only once per turn, and if you're desperate enough to use Hettman Tsurin as your one attacker...let's just say things probably aren't going well.

Mr. Tsurin would be even better if he had some sort of immunity. With protection against either events or offensive spells, he would morph from an annoying pest into a primo beast.

Next time: The Top 5 Dragons in Spellfire.                          

Gib, Gib Trouble!

Yes, my choice of the best Gib is Gib Irod (Night Stalkers chase, 21/25). She just edges out Gib Lhadsemlo, who is also primo.

Both Lhadsemlo and Irod have a laundry list of immunities. But what puts Irod over the top is her card-drawing ability. When in combat, her controller can discard up to three cards and draw replacements. With TAV being a fast format filled with instant-kill cheese, the odds of drawing said cheese are quite good. Given that you have three chances, the odds get even better.

Irod is also immune to the powers of allies (such as the Loup-Garou) and harmful events (Trapped, Takhisis' Mirror, Wine of Eternity, etc). As well, the Wish spell does nothing to her. Did I mention that she casts both wizard and cleric spells? And she's level 13? Primo.

Why anyone wouldn't run a Gib Irod in their deck is one of life's great mysteries. This card rocks, in both Standard and TAV.

Next time: 5 overrated cards (for TAV).

That's No Lady, That's My Avatar!

Who are the other two people in the picture?

Lady of Fate, Avatar of Istus (Powers, 42/100) is one of the most powerful attacking champions in Spellfire. She's easy to bring into play - just discard any old cleric. And once she's in play - look out.

As a defender, you'd better hope your front realm has some sort of movement restriction. "Can only be attacked by flyers or swimmers" is good. "Cannot be attacked by clerics" is better! Because if Istus can get to your formation, you're in a heap of trouble.

Before combat, Istus allows her owner to grab two cards from your hand - and it's not at random. No, the opponent gets to take a good long look first, then pick your two best cards and send them to the discard pile.

In Standard, this is a brutally effective power. In TAV it's just unfair. There goes your two best instant-kills. Or both your counterspells. Or whatever Istus's owner wants you to be without.

Of course, you could avoid losing cards by letting the realm be raised without combat. Then you get to deal with the same problem next turn. Maybe you've got a Pit Trap? :)

It should be mentioned that Istus can also be used on defense, although that's not as much fun (and no sane Spellfire player is going to attack her anyway, unless they have a way around losing their two best cards).

Even if you've got a fat enough hand to beat Istus, the damage has been done.

Probably the most dangerous Avatar ever printed, this Lady is a beast no matter what version of Spellfire you're playing.   

Next time: make a Wish!