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!                   

Top 3: Thieves

Here are my picks for the top three thieves in Spellfire. Note: I am not counting avatars like Mask, or the tiresome POL (Poor Oriental Lord), who is banned in TAV anyway.

#3 - Turin Deathstalker (Night Stalkers, 35/100)

Turin just edges out The Guildmaster for the #3 spot on this list. This undead dude can't be affected by unarmed combat cards, automatically discards allies of +4 or less (which makes him Loup-Garou-proof), and is immune to the powers of Forgotten Realms champions, which means he can go toe-to-toe with the Living Wall without becoming lunch. An all-around good champion who should be in any thief deck or undead deck.

#2 - Skulker (Dungeons, 40/100)

From the merely very good (Turin) to the excellent! The Skulker is a swimmer, which lets him attack any realm showing coastline. But his primo power is the ability to rifle through your opponent's discard pile during combat, pull out whatever allies, magical items, or artifacts he finds there, and use them all! With the amount of cheese flying around in the average TAV game, there is bound to be a ton of usable cards in enemy discard piles, especially later in 2-player games or just about anytime in multi-player. The Skulker often becomes a one-man (loosely speaking) realm-razing machine!                 

#1 - Gib Reltub (Night Stalkers chase, 20/25) 

Okay, let's go through this guy's abilities one at a time. Firstly, he's an earthwalker, meaning he is able to attack back realms and avoid front ones with movement restrictions. Secondly, he's immune to all events, so he won't be Slave Revolted or Trapped or Tyranthraxus-ized. Next, he ignores rule cards, which when combined with his immunity to events means it's nearly impossible to strip him of his spellcasting or other abilties. Lastly, he casts wizard spells, and any Wish spells cast by him can't be spell turned. They can still be dispelled, but...slap a Star Gem of Martek: Clear Crystal on him and he is an unstoppable, Wish-casting maniac! Gib Reltub is a staple in my Gib deck, and for me ranks as the #1 thief champion ever printed.

Next time: Take a look at my Gibs!