5 Best Thief Skills

Here we go with my list of the five best thief skills for Spellfire: The Antigonish Variant.      

#5 - Use Poison (Night Stalkers, 63/100) 

Pure, instant-kill cheese! I always enjoy making my opponent "draw and discard a card". It could be their Menzoberranzan or their Good Fortune. Even better, with Use Poison if the last digit of said card is a 3, 2, 1, or 0, their champion is instantly defeated (and in TAV a realm is razed). Lastly, the poison sticks around if not successful the first time, allowing you to use it again next battle - if your champion manages to survive despite the failure of the poison. This is a great thief skill, that even gives you a +3 level-up just in case. The fact that it is only #5 on this list is sort of surprising, until you read the four cards below.

#4 - Broad Jump (Dungeons, 85/100)

Even better than a chance to kill an enemy champion in combat and raze a realm, here's a card that offers to let you skip that pesky "combat" thing. Just toss down this baby after defender has been chosen, and if it's a wizard, cleric, or psionicist, you slip around him and instantly raze a realm, earning yourself a juicy spoils in the process, while your opponent's defender stands around, wondering where that sneaky thief went. This card also gives you a +4 level up, but if you are using this against anything but a wizard, cleric, or psionicist, things probably aren't going very well for you.

#3 - Hijacking (Dungeons, 86/100)

Because it's so difficult to counter thief skills, cards like this one are uber-powerful. Let's say your opponent tosses out a Cold Cup of Calamity or a Good Fortune. Not only do you get the cards as well, but your opponent has to immediately discard his. Talk about card advantage! You simultaneously grant yourself a fat hand, while stripping up to five valuable cards from your enemy's deck and putting them straight into his discard pile. Even better, use Hijacking on a Treasure Fleet. All players draw three? Yup, except you get six, and the guy who played the Treasure Fleet gets none, after his three are discarded. Bam.

#2 - Framed (Conquest, 16/81)

Here come the sticker-set cards! Continuing the theme that these sets contain some truly primo cards is Framed. I'm choosing to go with the Brazilian version of the art since it's not stupid. Anyway, framed is a must in any deck containing thieves. As soon as any of your champions is targeted - by anything - this baby lets you redirect the spell, psionic power, blood ability, or whatever to any champion you want, regardless of immunities. For example, let's say one of your enemies tries to Ancient Curse your Bigby, who has the Star Gem of Martek: Clear Crystal attached. But you happen to have Julio, Master Thief, in your pool. Julio casts Framed, and the Ancient Curse is retargeted to your opponent's Gib Irod, who has The Throne of the Gods attached. But wait! Isn't Gib Irod immune to events? Not this event. She dies horribly, as your opponent chokes on his own bile.

Framed is truly primo, but it's only #2 on this list.

#1 - Assassination (Conquest, 14/81)

With Assassination, you don't have to wait for your opponent to target one of your champions. During phase 3, take a long look at your opponent's pool and pick the champion you'd least like to battle. Let's say a big, honking Gib Lhadsemlo. But he's immune to thief skills, right? Not this one. He goes off to the discard pile, and you attack with confidence knowing that big oaf isn't going to be available to your opponent. For pure champion removal, you can't beat this card. Plus there's what, two cards in the entire game that can cancel it? Primo. The small (very small) downside is that you have to discard the thief casting it. How will I ever get by without my Phostrek or Jamlin? :)

There's your best thief skill of all time.

Next time: The top 5 unarmed combat cards!                   

10 Best Sticker Set Cards

The sticker sets were created by Spellfire fans after the game had been discontinued by Wizards of the Coast in 1997. Four sets were produced in all, named Millennium, Inquisition, Chaos, and Conquest. Because they were fan-designed, some of the cards were amazingly primo and some were amazingly crappy. They were all meant to be printed on sticker paper (which you can get at any office supply company) and stuck onto unwanted Spellfire cards such as 1st edition "blanks", Ravenloft commons, and Dragonlance commons.

This time I'm picking the 10 best cards from these sticker sets. Later on I'll take a trip through the worst of the bunch, as well. As always, my choices are based on the needs of the Antigonish variant, not Standard Spellfire.

Without further ado, lets go!

#10 - Kiri Allavesse (Inquisition, 29/99)

Kiri Allavesse is sort of like a poor man's Remnis. She can retrieve a used non-land card for you once a turn, but unlike the "dirty bird", she can do it only after she's razed a realm. Plus, you lose your spoils. She gets bonus points for the fact that she is a cleric able to cast wizard spells, reducing your need to add freaks like Bengoukee to your deck. Still, Kiri barely squeezes into this list at #10.

#9 - Realm (Conquest, 66/81)

This land is immune to the Rule of the Cosmos. It can't be destroyed outside of phase 4, so no Disintegrates or Estate Transferences need apply. Realm does what it does quite nicely...it stays on the board like glue and contributes to your 6-land win. Realm is good enough for place #9 on this list.

#8 -Sacred Flame (Millennium, 37/99)

There is a lack of good cleric spells in the game, and this is the second-best cleric spell provided by the sticker sets. If only it could be used in combat, it might jump a few spots on this list. Unfortunately, Sacred Flame can only be used before (phase 3) or after (phase 5) combat. This limits its usefulness, but the ability to send any one card attached to a champion to the discard pile, regardless of its immunities, is still pretty awesome.

#7 - Bastion (Inquisition, 7/99)

This land can send any non-realm card to the void during phase zero. Sounds great, and it would be #1 or #2 on this list if it didn't have such large disadvantages. First of all, you have to also discard Bastion to the void. Secondly, you have to raze another realm in your formation at the same time. So you lose two unrazed realms, to get rid of one of your opponent's cards. Is this ever a good trade-off? Only in the most dire of situations. Because it is great as a last-ditch-effort card, I'll give Bastion the #7 position on this list.

#6 - Burned At The Stake (Chaos, 55/72)

Although there won't be tons of opportunities to use this nifty little event, when it does go off it's so sweet that it deserves spot #6 on the list. Just after Helm, Gib Reltub, Phridge, or some other loser champion casts a spell, you can slap this baby down. So long as the spellcasting champion isn't a wizard or cleric, Burned at the Stake will send them to the abyss, unless they want to discard three cards - at random, which probably isn't happening. Nice card!

#5 - Zakhata, the False God (Conquest, 63/81)

One of the best avatar-nuking cards in Spellfire. Zakhata comes into play with a level equal to the combined level of all avatars on the table, which, in a multi-player game, could give you a level 25+ false god. She also makes all avatars in play vanilla. If I were you, I'd find a place in my deck for this card, especially if you're plagued by avatars the way I am.

#4 - Domination (Conquest, 19/81)

This card is almost as good as Tyranthraxus, which is really saying something. Your opponent has a troublesome champion? Pow! He's yours. Only problem is, he becomes a useless, drooling idiot who can take no action. But...so what? At least your enemy is deprived of his services. Plus you can still sacrifice him to bring out an avatar. Domination gains extra points from me for being a psionic power, which are notoriously difficult to counter.

#3 - Dispel Evil (Millennium, 43/95)

Okay, here we go with the top 3 sticker set cards! At #3 we find Dispel Evil. Why's it so great? Well there are some really powerful, pain-in-the-butt monsters floating around out there. Gib Lhadsemlo, for example. The Gorgon. Maybe even The Living Wall. This handy spell gets rid of them all, regardless of their immunities. Quick, reliable removal like this rates highly in my book.

#2 - Kronos the Titan (Millennium, 62/99)

I've already written about this guy here, naming him the best monster champion ever printed. He can swim. He can earthwalk. He casts just about every sort of spell. Plus he shuts down all other monsters' special powers. Oh, and in case you forgot, he's level 11. Yeah, Kronos is pretty decent! In fact, only one card from the sticker sets can exceed his primo-ness...

#1 - Dispel Illusion (Inquisition, 83/99)

I've already written about this card here, naming it the best wizard spell of all time. Not only that, but it's the best sticker-set card, as well as my personal choice of the most powerful Spellfire card ever printed. It can be cast at any time, allowing you to stop one card - ANY card - from being played. It also keeps your opponent from playing that card again until his or her next turn. So that Menzo or Caer Alison they were about to use to win? No dice. The champion they were about to slap down? See you next turn. The counterspell you baited from their hand? Gone. The sixth realm? Not so fast! This card is incredible, and every deck that has wizard spellcasting needs one.

Well, I managed to do a top 10 sticker cards list without mentioning any of the three cards I designed or co-designed. Although The Forgotten Idol (Millennium, 34/99), Insanely Good Fortune (Millenium, 47/99), and Gib Cram (Chaos, 5/72) are decent cards and fun to play with (I hope), they just can't measure up to the awesomeness that is present in the top 10 cards above.

Next Time: ...er....Psionic Power cards! :)