Everyone loves smiting cities and towns with burst of lightning, but after each explosive burst Lightning's Swift Strike needs to recover for a turn or two, right? Wrong. After brainstorming multi-spirit openings I came up with an extremely powerful one using Lightning's Swift Strike (LSS) and River Surges in Sunlight (RSS). Testing it out against Level 4 England, I won easily with a completely clear board in the fast action phase of Turn 7. This strategy allows RSS to hit the third tier of Massive Flooding on Turn 4 and on every turn after that while also allowing LSS to hit at least the third tier of Thundering Destruction on Turn 5 and on every turn after that. Here's the breakdown:
Turn 1
RSS plays two presence from the play track and plays River's Bounty and Wash Away, triggering level 1 Massive Flooding. Focus presence placement on maximizing targeting areas from sacred sites and avoiding loss due to ravages.River's Bounty leaves you with one energy in the bank.
LSS plays two presence from the energy track and plays Shatter Homesteads. Again, focus presence placement on maximizing targeting areas from sacred sites and avoiding loss due to ravages.
Turn 2
RSS plays two presence from the play track, unlocking Reclaim 1. Reclaim either card, then play Boon of Vigor and Flash Floods, triggering level 1 Massive Flooding.
LSS plays one presence from the play track and gains three energy, then plays all three remaining cards, triggering level 1 Thundering Destruction. Thanks to Boon of Vigor, LSS ends with 4 energy in the bank.
Turn 3
RSS plays two presence from the play track and plays River's Bounty and Flash Floods, triggering level 1Massive Flooding. These will be the last presence you play, so be sure you have enough range for targeting from sacred sites. Next turn you will be triggering level 3 Massive Flooding, so try to use your pushes to build a juicy target.
LSS reclaims all, gains a minor power, and plays any two cards. The top priority for the new minor power is the fire element, then the air element, and finally the water element. Cost does not matter, as you will have enough energy to support either a 1-cost or a 0-cost card. Push/gather or defend effects are good.
Turn 4
RSS reclaims all, gains a minor power, and plays all five cards, triggering level 3 Massive Flooding. You will only have the energy to play a 0-cost minor power, but you are not picky about elements. Again, Push/gather or defend effects are good. If LSS saved Lightning's Boon for this turn, then Massive Flooding and Wash Away can be resolved either fast or slow.
LSS plays two more presence from the play track, and plays their remaining three cards, triggering level 1 Thundering Destruction.
Turn 5 - end
RSS reclaims all and plays five cards, triggering level 3 Massive Flooding. Thanks to LSS, two slow powers may be resolved fast.
LSS reclaims all and plays five cards, triggering level 3-4 Thundering Destruction (depending on element draft luck).
Nothing can stand for long against the onslaught of top tier innates from both LSS and RSS each round, plus 10 minor powers. Even England with double builds was literally wiped clean from the map by the start of the seventh turn. The key strategies were managing early ravages without losing valuable presence, then clustering invaders as much as possible for the big guns starting on turn 4. This strategy also generates tons of Dahan (by turn 7 I had 17 on the board) with decent movement every turn. They are great for picking off the lone explorers left behind during ravages. Also, RSS needs a little extra damage to destroy cities with Massive Flooding. This can either come from Flash Floods or from Raging Storm.
This strategy can be even further supercharged by the addition of A Spread of Rampant Green (SRG). If SRG gives two presence to LSS in the first three turns, then LSS can play four cards on turn 3 for level 2 Thundering Destructionand start reclaiming each turn and playing five cards on turn 4. For this to work, RSS needs to use their two reclaims on River's Bounty and Boon of Vigor, instead of River's Bounty and Wash Away.
Any other crazy combined openings out there?
This is a really fun combo! I’m personally partial to a slight variation on the LSS play though. If turn 1&2 you take +3 energy and prescence from play track you can play all 4 cards on turn 2 allowing you to destroy a city with your innate and giving you 4 energy back(assuming RSS plays boon that turn). Then I’d take a turn to finish the play track as lightning then start constant reclaiming gaining minor powers with a good chance to hit level 3 thundering turn 4. This does give you slightly weaker energy production but it feels a lot more efficient for innates and having the 6th play is nice since boon of vigor refunds the energy cost and you’ll have an easier time to hit full innate with lightning (needing 2 cards to give you fire, air, water instead of needing to get it on 1).