Evaluating Everfest Spoilers!
By Dimos K I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of people comment on spoilers from Everfest. But hopefully there’s something new in here for you, or something new to consider at the very least. I’m going to be taking a bit more of an in-depth look at a few specific cards: Wild Ride, Nerves of Steel, Tri-Shot and Rain Razors, Aether Wildfire, and Even Bigger than That. There will also be a general discussion on the specializations of the Crucible of War heroes, how confusing the new Warrior cards are to me, how much utility the Illusionist class received, and a brief marvel at the future of generic items. Wild Ride: I think this card is actually great. It is most analogous to Pulping but has a conditional Go Again that is less dependent on your opponent. This is exactly what I am looking for in a Brute Go Again attack because the only games I go on the offensive as Rhinar are against midrange and control decks. Both of those deck types often run defense reactions and frequently stop Pulping. Pulping is a better Dominate card, but Wild Ride is a better Go Again card. They both definitely have their uses, and even their synergies with each other. LSS has once again shown that there are not to be any yellow or blue 6-power or higher attacks that block. I am also unsure of the dice-rolling archetype that this set pushes, as when I’m building my Brute decks I’m looking to reduce variance, not increase it. Nerves of Steel: This interests me for a couple of reasons. This is the only Guardian Aura that is not destroyed at the beginning of the next turn, and has potential for sticking around. It is also a very interesting way for Guardians to deal with Aura Prism that is not racing with Go Again attacks and Action Point generation. This gives Bravo the ability to use most of his equipment without consequence to block Spectral Shields and buy himself precious time to destroy more critical Illusionist auras. It is also worth pointing out the timing of this card. All those “free” blocks can become expensive if at the end of the chain your opponent adds some surprise damage and Nerves of Steel gets immediately destroyed (before it would stop your equipment from taking their negative counters). As discussed last week, Guardians already had so much utility, and this just adds to that massive pile. As does just about every card they received this set, which was more cards than any other class to boot. I firmly believe that Guardians are in an amazing position right now, and are heavily favored if they come prepared with a deck that properly addresses the meta of whatever event they attend. Tri-shot and Rain Razors: These are two very powerful cards that could see use in any number of Ranger builds. In line with Rapid Fire and Three of a Kind, Ranger is approaching a strong potential to develop a one-turn-kill build. Add in some Opt and Reload, and one can search for the combo pieces and shoot an Endless Arrow enough times to finish off the opponent. I doubt this will be entirely viable, but very powerful combo pieces like this warrant some deep exploration in deck building. Voltaire in particular plays very well with these cards, because of how they can extend turns for Rangers. I am excited to see what these cards can do in decks, even if I do fear that they will just make Ranger’s strong turns stronger and weak turns weaker. Rain Razors in particular is a very powerful card, and represents an average of four damage for 0 resources, 2 of which likely come in the reaction phase. This outpaces both Lightning Press and Pulse of Volthaven in various ways. It doesn’t block, but it has more than enough offensive power to make up for it. Aether Wildfire: This card primarily interests me because even though it has a similar effect to Aether Flare, it looks like it will be serving the role of Forked Lightning as a finisher against decks that run a meaningful amount of Arcane Barrier. From a design perspective, it is very impressive how different a card’s role can be by only tweaking it in minor ways, like by adding a single point of damage. By having a default of four damage, Aether Wildfire naturally overcomes most Arcane Barrier equipment suites. Each point of damage added will end up being at least two points of damage (like Forked Lightning provides) because it is so difficult to block damage past that threshold. Even Bigger Than That: This card feels to me like a spiritual successor to Plunder Run. It plays faster (and doesn’t need an extra turn of lag to come out of arsenal), but creates a Quicken token instead of giving a power boost. It doesn’t block, and it’s not a non-attack action for classes that care about that (Runeblades). Effectively it works as a minor hand fix for wide decks, and as a set-up action point generator for tall decks. I think this is a very interesting design space, as the restrictions between the power of the drawn card and the damage dealt puts unique decisions on how to defend attacks from both tall and wide decks. Maybe I’ll be willing to take five damage from an attack to deny this card having any use and shut down an opponent’s turn. It is a very curious form of on-hit effect that rewards decks for getting just over the opponent’s defenses. This tension intrigues me and I’m curious to see some of the less-obvious ways this card gets used in the future. The New Specializations: Microprocessor, Spring Tidings, Blood on Her Hands, and Ready to Roll are all really great cards that very specifically accomplish what their already-specific heroes are trying to lean into. Some are flashier than others, setting up 20+ damage wide turns, where others play very good utility roles. I like this type of support, and it is nice to see that these heroes have not been forgotten, even if they have been forgotten by the last few Blitz metas. How confusing the new Warrior cards are to me: Most classes have a strong base of cards that can be shared across each hero of its class. Warrior is becoming more and more of an exception to this, between the Light-locked and attack action card requirements of Boltyn and the 1-handed and 2-handed weapon split between Kassai and Dorinthea. The cards that came out in this set have only reinforced this by providing restrictions on whether each card can be used with a one-handed or two-handed weapon. Maybe there is something I’m missing, or some future set shenanigans that introduce heroes, weapons, or other cards that make this a necessary distinction. In contrast, the previous supplemental sets came with Hit and Run, a very diverse card that has meaningful applications across a wide variety of Warrior decks. This is because its only condition is to have a weapon attack and any other attack to make on the turn it is played. Illusionist Utility: Illusionists got lots of utility in this set. With the addition of a whole set of new non-instant Spectra auras, and Phantasm attacks that provide benefits when they are destroyed, making their game against tall decks stronger. However, this would come at the cost of running fewer light cards, which would require a significant shift from Prism’s current style. I am not on the cutting edge of Illusionist deck-building, but I would love to see some Blue Prism with Iris of Reality pop up and get strong somehow. An Item for Every Occasion: Much like a real carnival, Everfest comes with a lot of tat. There is a potion for seemingly every effect in the game, and then some extra potions with effects never-before-seen. Almost all of these are almost useless to almost every class right now, but there are a few interesting uses for certain ones in certain decks. The most important thing that’s going to come from these is the diversity of board states that can be built now. I don’t think those board states are particularly good today, but a lot of these cards scream “future design” and will probably do some cool stuff in a few months or years.