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Those fancy new spirits

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AdamH
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Those fancy new spirits

I finally got a chance to play with Grinning Trickster last night. It was a 2P game and my teammate played burning plague. I had been looking forward to playing with The Joker (since there's no artwork I'm just imagining that's what it is) mostly because of the innate "Let's See What Will Happen" and let me tell you it did not disappoint.

I used it like 4 or 5 times and it did absolutely nothing about half of the time, but then sometimes it did some really amazing stuff. A+ this was exactly what I wanted :-D

After only one play and me maybe being a bit less experienced I have a couple of thoughts. Maybe the other playtesters care about this. He seemed really powerful and easy to get mileage out of.

That growth option where you move a presence and get 3 energy seemed really great. I wasn't ever hurting for energy and I just took this once. It allowed me to strife Cities without feeling like I was giving anything up because of that ability that lets you strife something else along with it for just paying an energy.

The growth track spot where I can move a Dahan is really good to get early on, along with his strife power. Particularly the innate where he gets to add a strife fast seemed really powerful. I never used the one that does one damage to all cities/towns/dahan but maybe that was because we were mostly on top of things.

Anyways I was looking forward to playing with this guy and it did not disappoint. Maybe next time we'll crank up the difficulty, even though we weren't exactly on easy mode...

dpt
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Glad you liked it! It's been a while since I've played Trickster, so I don't have substantive comments on growth options.

 I had been looking forward to playing with The Joker (since there's no artwork I'm just imagining that's what it is)...

You can see an earlier conception of Trickster on the card Unrelenting Growth. Part of the conception is also ever-shifting forms. I don't know which way the artist will go for this expansion, we'll find out soon! (In the Kickstarter.)

Ameena
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Ahh, so that's the Trickster spirit, is it? I'd wondered which of the new ones it was going to be. There's another spirit depicted on Reaching Grasp and Mists of Oblivaeon (big pinkish-purple cloud thingy).


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Bunston
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Trickster is also on Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship.

Ameena
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Just checked the card...oh, is he that guy with the glowing eyes? I always just assumed that was an Invader who'd been "tainted" by some kind of spirit power to make him fight. But being a spirit in disguise in order to get other people to start fighting is a possibility I hadn't considered.


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dpt
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Ameena wrote:
But being a spirit in disguise in order to get other people to start fighting is a possibility I hadn't considered.
Did you see the innate power "Why don't you and them fight"?
Ameena
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I've only played with the playtesty stuff twice so far, and the last time was aaaages ago, so I can't remember any of the power names (apart from one amusing-sounding name for a card which I think might be Trickster's) and haven't yet looked at the stuff that's been linked about the two spirits who've actually been revealed. I think I've been in a game with each of them (if Burning Plague is the one I think it is) but can't remember. Anyway, I'm just looking forward to generally more Spirit Island stuff and hope my brain doesn't melt too much from the more complicated ones :D.


I am the Wordweaver...

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johnjust
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Played as Plague on Friday night, seemed terrible in the first few turns (my board had a lot of plastic and couldn't stop the first two ravages) - eventually got to a point where I was just playing/rebuying Slither Across the Land every turn, and the +2 reach power made it so invaders didn't build for the rest of the game.  Might just be my new favorite spirit.

Malc
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I've played once with Plague and twice with Trickster now. I have to say, they were both far more defensive spirits than I was expecting. 

In the second game I played of the Trickster, I got the feeling it was an incredibly powerful spirit - though that may have been at least partially due to my very careful energy and card play management. By the time we won I didn't have a single card that cost more than 1 energy, half of my cards cost 0. I was instead using most of my energy for Trickster's special rule that allows him to chain Strife placement between Cities, then onto a Town and pushing said town into the Ocean's hungry maw. As a team we had a much easier time defending the island because the Cities rarely contributed to a ravage action - when playing against Sweden with their 5 damage Cities that was a very welcome boon.

I found the wording on "Let's see what will happen" slightly confusing. Do you ignore the normal range and target limitations of the card, and instead just use the drawn power card within 1 space of one of your presence? It took me a few read throughs to get that much of an understanding. The power itself felt great fun - twice I drew cards that let me add Strife.

Overall though, absolutely loving both the Spirits and I'm super excited to see the rest of them now.

speedyolrac
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And John Just, there is a line that is crossed out that make him even better. Can't wait for the expansion to be out.


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dpt
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Malc wrote:
Do you ignore the normal range and target limitations of the card, and instead just use the drawn power card within 1 space of one of your presence?
You have to first pick the target land. (Let's See What Happen is a Power, and like any other Power you first pick the target before applying any of the effects.) Then you reveal cards until you get one that targets a land, and ignore range and target limitations, as you say.

Is there a way of rewording it that would make it clearer for you? (No guarantees that any suggestion will be taken, of course.)

Malc
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dpt wrote:

 

Malc wrote:
Do you ignore the normal range and target limitations of the card, and instead just use the drawn power card within 1 space of one of your presence?

 

You have to first pick the target land. (Let's See What Happen is a Power, and like any other Power you first pick the target before applying any of the effects.) Then you reveal cards until you get one that targets a land, and ignore range and target limitations, as you say.Is there a way of rewording it that would make it clearer for you? (No guarantees that any suggestion will be taken, of course.)

I may have been just being stupid and not reading it out in full from top to bottom, but if I'm capable of doing that then more are as well.

I don't know if it would help necessarily, but changing "Immediately use its effects on target land, ignoring Range and Targeting." to "Immediately use its effects on target land, ignoring normal Range and Targeting restrictions." might have made it more clear, for me at least.