Ice Crest Early Review (Theorizing)

[Andrew Logan]

Here is my initial thoughts on each card

Azradhii Tempest/Maelstrom 2/5: 4 Magic resource would be nice but Inga is just too much better since she can boost all the Elementals and Fireball and can get Ranged with her Limited Use ability. It’s icon boosts Time Bubble from this set but so does Inga’s. I think my main point would be that Inga (and Wood Elf Wizard) are a little overpowered which is why this Az suffers in comparison.

Enemy of the Horde ?/5: it highly depends on the Dungeon but my one tangential thought is there appears to be only one Horde in the entire game (Goblin Horde which is in this set).

Arcane Staff 5/5: I see this as an interesting variant on a card like Backpack. Backpack tends to be a later game card where as this can have an impact immediately with the Reach and Supernatural damage type. But the tension is that it costs you a Resource point of Equipment until you are ready to cash it in.

Also, my understanding is that this won’t give the entire Party Supernatural when attacking since it is just assigned to the one Adventurer. But I could be wrong about that?

Bedroll 4.5/5: Another late game card and having to burn cards could add tension if there is any danger of decking yourself. Off the top of my head the best Skill target will be Counter Attack (but late in the game taking a would can really hurt) or possibly Brawling.

It doesn’t particularly work with the two 0 cost Skill cards in this set since those have to stay in play to function.

There quite a few good choices for Tactics. Adjust Marching Order, Cooperation, Delay Inevitable, Run Away, Search Object, Take Aim, Use Cover. That is a ton of versatility to choose from.

I took away .5 because it doesn’t do anything early in the game and burning cards can be painful but I anticipate it will be very, very useful (but not a x4 card)

Common Scroll 1.5/5 my question about this card is whether it makes sense if you don’t already play the maximum copies of a 0 cost spell. I guess 3xLight 1xCommon Scroll is better than 4xLight? But only marginally..

The reason I don’t give it the lowest rating of 1 is that if the right 0 cost spell comes along in the future this could become a staple.

Longbow 2.5/5 Adding Ranged is great both offensively and defensively and even without the Boost +4 is nice. But Harm is the worst damage type and can be a big liability. For me, Longbow is good but falls short of (boosted) Primal Strike and Magic Spear which is why I rate it average at 2.5

Blink 4.5/5 There should always be a turn where this can prevent a Wound. That is better than Healing since it also stops any negative effects of the wound. It is also easy to restock/recycle as a 1 cost Magic card. I’m dropping it .5 because late in the game when you NEED to prevent a Would it may not be able to depending on what enemies you’re facing. It’s also possible I’m wrong and this is a slam dunk 5/5. There is also the remote possibility that its not as easy to prevent a Wound with this as I’m assuming. I will be testing and report back.

Summon Air Elemental 6!/5 It doesn’t have any defensive ability like Earth and Water but Boosting an Elemental is always incredible.

Time Bubble 2/5 This is a versatile card and removing a Dungeon card or unlocking your team are both potentially very powerful. But it costs a lot at 3 Resources and the effect is niche enough where it may not make your deck. I had to lower its rating by 1 just because it can’t help you if you don’t play it. I’m going to pay attention to how often it would be useful.

Vanish 2.5/5 Stealth for 2 turns for 0 cost is good but between Faeranore and Move Silently I’m not sure there will be a huge need for this card. But like Longbow it is still pretty good at what it does.

Berserk 5.5/5 First, the card doesn’t state what type the damage is so that is important to clarify. But Cleave is insane and this card doesn’t even carry a condition. On top of that, assigning a wound to the Adventurer of your choice is a GREAT way to trigger Counter Attack. This is going to be a top Quick Thinking target for sure. It probably should rate 6/5 like Air Elemental but I want to see if the extra Wounds start to pile up which might limit how often you can (over)use it.

Disable Trap 1.5/5 Another instance where I don’t feel it is going to be versatile enough since activating or locking a trap accomplishes virtually the same thing and there are cards that can do that and offer more flexibility. It’s not a horrible card though so I won’t rate it 1/5

Exemplar ?/5 On the surface it’s pretty similar to a Heal and only costs 0. That’s definitely a playable card. But since it’s never discarded you also can’t recycle it to use multiple times. Without testing it I can’t really hazard a guess whether it is better than Brawling or the new Blink.

Legend ?/5 Similar to Exemplar, I’m not sure how good this is going to be. The top uses cases I can think of would be Rapid Strike + 2 cost with Gypsy Thief or Summon Elemental + 1 cost with Inga. Inga could also use Delay Inevitable against a 4 cost Enemy (many of them are nasty). How good is that when Crawler deck space is at a premium? It definitely doesn’t compare to Cooperation which is about burst resources (Delay Inevitable something huge etc)

Bait 2.5/5 Activating an enemy is good but Resourceful is just so much better as it covers traps and can lock out annoying abilities. So this is another case where I think the only potential issue with the card is preferred alternatives. Use Cover is also very similar with the big upside of only costing 0.

Precision Strike 3.5/5 This is a nice offensive card but Magic Shortsword and Take Aim both fill niches that this doesn’t. Magic Shortsword gives you supernatural and comes back with Backpack and Recover Treasure (and the new Martial Expertise) while Take Aim costs 0 and works nicely with things like Fireball. I will test Precision Strike but quite a few of the best Enemies punish you for attacking at Melee is the problem (especially since that means you don’t negate their range bonuses). Still, this is better than Longsword since it doesn’t add Harm to the damage type

Resting Spot 2/5 Resetting Inga’s Ranged could be really good. I can’t envision too many scenarios where Faeranore would need more than two uses of Stealth. Kamber’s Supernatural is diminished due to Arcane Staff IMO. I found Kragodoran’s Rampage to not trigger as often as you’d think and I also think Gold Dwarf Warrior is better due to tradeoff of 4 Resource. So I’m struggling to justify playing this card with the caveat that a new adventurer with an ability you really want to spam could change my thinking (but this is still a bit clunky IMO)

Rouse Allies 2/5 I’m still trying to figure out the best use case but if you get hit with “Activate all adventurers” from the Colossus mission Rouse Allies won’t save you. It also won’t help against things like Webbed Nest since it only removes ONE total lock token. So basically it would let you do things like attack and still get back on defense.

Martial Expertise 5*/5 *assuming I understand the card correctly. I think what happens is that without the Boost you get a <=1 cost Equip back to hand. With the Boost the <=1 Equip is reshuffled and you get ANY equipment back to your hand. The card says “Restock — to your hand” which confuses me a bit.

This is basically Recover Treasure but costs 0 and and you can’t get a second card in your hand (such as Wood Shield). The only danger is having too many cards that Restock and not enough things to Restock in the first place but that’s more a matter of proper deck construction than the card’s strength.

I will be playing all of the following

Summon Air Elemental
Berserk
Arcane Staff
Bedroll
Martial Expertise

Subject to Testing
Blink
Exemplar
Legend

Keeping in mind
Common Scroll
Time Bubble
Precision Strike
Resting Spot

Useful but probably outclassed or unneeded
Longbow
Vanish
Disable Trap
Bait
Rouse Allies

[Andrew Logan]

I plan to do the enemy Characters once I’ve encountered them all. I can say that the Dragon with spook and discard non-Uniques is quite a battle. As is the Ogre Witch who Enfeebles 2 and reduces hand size by 2 (!)

I feel like the Dungeon cards explored quite a bit more new ground then the Crawler cards

For the moment I’m updating my thoughts after a play session to say that Berserk is CLEARLY the best Crawler card in the set. Summon Air Elemental is good but there is already redundancy with two other Elementals available. Also, Arcane Staff creates entirely new play patterns, especially with Martial Expertise

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