As we near a brand new expansion featuring around 40 new cards, and with (trustworthy) rumours telling us that this one will be focusing on interactions with the general’s Bloodborn spells, it seems very appropriate to have a post where we put the spotlight on these spells and the various ways you can utilise them in your games.

A quick refresher on Bloodborn spells (hereby abbreviated as ‘BBS‘) first:

– you can start using your 1 mana cost general-specific spell from your 3rd turn onward

– First Phase – initially available on your 3rd, 5th, 7th turns, which is to say as player 1 (4, 6 and 8 mana) or as player 2 (5, 7 and 9 mana)

– Second Phase – available every turn hereafter

– importantly, the cooldown is static, which means if you don’t use your first phase BBS on the turn it is available, you can use your BBS on both the next turn AND the following turn after (effectively the cooldown doesn’t carry over to the next BBS)

– as player 1 therefore, if you skip your BBS on the 6 mana turn, you can cast it on 7, 8 and all subsequent 9 mana turns in a row

Conditional and Unconditional BBS

Conditional BBS are those spells which need something else on the board or in hand to be utilised (or even be played) effectively. As a general rule, the more conditional your BBS is, the more difficult it becomes to use it every time it comes off cooldown, and to an extent represents a rough trend among the win-rates of the Generals. It will come as no surprise if I mention Zir’an, Kaleos and Kara as the generals with observed win rates significantly lower than their own faction counterparts, and this is at least partly to do with the fact all these have to carefully time the execution of their BBS in the first phase, or simply struggle to find a good target for it.

Lyonar



Roar – Probably the easiest ‘conditional’ BBS to get value from in practical terms. Primarily used to trade up with lower cost minions, this BBS also allows you to ‘upgrade’ your minions in certain cases. Spelljammer, for example, is a 4 mana 3/5 that will draw for your opponent if they choose to keep it alive. For the same 4 mana, you can play a 1/5 Sojourner and then Roar it for a 3/5 that only draws for you when it attacks. Similarly, a 3 mana Roared Azurite Lion serves the same effective purpose as a 4 mana Lysian Brawler, 3 hp on a celerity minion often being functionally equivalent to 4.

It also allows you to create strong threats – a 5/5 Silverguard Knight, 5/10 Ironcliffe Guardian etc. can really make it difficult to react optimally at times. Late game everything is ‘bigger’, and Roar also allows for lethals involving Saberspine Tiger.

Afterglow – Designed for activating healing synergies as well as for supporting high health minions, this BBS has a fair few cards to work with, all of which have effects that trigger off of healing. Common uses involve topping up health on minions such as Ironcliffe Guardians, Silverguard Knights etc. and triggering Sunriser, Lightchaser and Sunforge Lancer. It also primes Lucent Beam, adding a bit of burst to the affair. Lastly, this is not restricted to friendly targets, so you can trigger it by healing an enemy unit if required.

The shortcoming most often experienced with Afterglow is that you need a damaged target (that is not your General) to heal, and sometimes you just don’t have any such minion. Late game this is an effective tool to keep your minions trading and brushing off 3 damage every turn.

Songhai

Blink – A conditional BBS, Blink focuses on providing mobility to your minions giving them the ability to gain more reach than any other General, along with Juxtaposition and Mist Dragon Seal. This BBS allows setting up backstab plays, as well as synergises with in-faction tools such as Onyx Jaguar, and also serves as a way to put your ranged minions out of enemy range. Blink can also be used to dodge provokes, and to extend your summoning range so you can put minions with strong passive or global effects (e.g. Four Winds Magi) far away. Defensive positioning like this often forces your opponent to use more resources to remove these threats.

Creative plays can be made with Blink – the now popular Hamon Bladeseeker into Grandmaster Zendo combination set up works well for Kaleos since he can often control the positioning of the enemy General via his BBS. The limitation is fairly simple – no friendly minion means no use for Blink.

Arcane Heart – This BBS has a tangible value since we have an existing card – Heartseeker – which is the same minion summoned. A ranged 1/1 is fragile, but very effective. It also scales the hardest of the existing BBS – due to the availability of Inner Focus, Killing Edge and even Deathstrike Seal in the right deck. Ideally placed away from the heat of the battle, range allows this minion to be always involved in the fight. Along with the buffs, it also synergises with Mirror Meld and the spellcast procs for Four Winds Magi and Bloodrage Mask. In a pinch, you can also use the BBS to body block enemy threats for a turn while you search for answers or lethal damage.

One of the bigger weaknesses of a plain 1/1 Heartseeker cast is that often you cannot avoid a Frenzy situation where the opponent gets value. Unbuffed Heartseekers are also fodder for Cassyva’s BBS, and unsurprisingly area-of-effect damage tends to result in trouble.

Vetruvian

Iron Dervish – A directly synergistic BBS for the Dervish minion type that is represented within the Vetruvian faction. A 2/2 permanent body, with support coming in from Dunecasters, Fireblaze Obelysks and Third Wish, among other cards. It is placed randomly around your general so it can be inconsistent at times, but usually serves a purpose either by turning into additional damage when trading, or by blocking enemy minions from reaching you. These can also increase your summoning range, allowing you to play cards like Starfire Scarab far away from the fight.

Generally a simple affair, casting this BBS – it was not always so simple and was a good indicator of active decision-making, but that is a story for a different time. The big weakness is the random placement, meaning you cannot always position optimally against frenzy effects.

Psionic Strike – Possibly the most difficult BBS to utilise effectively as it involves precise decision-making in the early and mid-game. The ability to deal twice your attack damage is very useful, but needs to be rationed carefully since you only get to use it every other turn and unlike many other BBS, the value gained from this ability entirely depends on your opponent’s plays. Support comes from Falcius, Wildfire Ankh, Hexblade and the upcoming Zephyr. Grove Lion is also an excellent neutral for this effect. Ankh can deal 4 or more damage to enemy units in a line, while with Falcius you deal 8 dmg and take no retaliation from it.

The idea behind this BBS is to provide a way to clear medium-health enemy minions while setting up your mid-range tools to trade and brawl their way to a win, while also threatening with Aymara Healer, Dominate Will and similar high-cost high-value cards.

That is it for this time – in the next part (soon TM) we will visit the remaining BBS and also look at the new BBS changing cards and the keyword Blood Surge related cards in more detail, since the expansion Rise of the Bloodborn should be available for us to work with!