Better Put Some Aloe Vera on That

Continuing with the fiery utility piece theme, there are some very handy abilities on the back of Burnish’s card. Firstly, we have Fire Forged, a Character Trait previously seen on Furnace that allows Burnish to ignore the burning condition the first time he suffers it each turn. Remember that Burnish can use Reduction on himself to clear something like the snared condition, and would not suffer the burning condition if Fire Forged had not yet been triggered that turn.

The second Character Trait on Burnish is one of his signature abilities, Reinforced Plating. The Blacksmiths have quite a lot of players with lower [DEF] attributes of [3+] and a couple of DEF [2+] players in Anvil and Hearth. This means that the Blacksmiths can be quite susceptible to enemy Character Plays as their high ARM attributes don’t do anything to protect them. If the Blacksmiths are able to build up a small bank of MP early in a turn, Burnish can become quite resilient to enemy Character Plays since he can pay [1] MP to ignore their effects each time he is hit by one. For example, giving Burnish the ball when playing against the Engineers Guild is a good idea. Providing the Blacksmiths have at least [1] MP, Ballista would be unable to knock Burnish down with Deadbolt in order to cause the ball to scatter. And even if any conditions do get through his Reinforced Plating, Burnish still has Reduction and Fire Forged up his sleeve!

Then we come to Burnish’s Legendary Play, Covering Fire. As with all Master Blacksmith Legendary Plays, Covering Fire has two parts, one that will always happen and one that will only happen if Burnish is chosen as the Captain for the team. The first part, the one that will always happen, allows Burnish to use one of his Character Plays without spending Influence. Reduction already costs [0] Influence to use but this could mean using Kill the Ball for free or using another Flame Belch. If Burnish is the Captain and has been allocated at least [4] Influence, he could pay Influence to use Flame Belch twice and then use Covering Fire to use Flame Belch a third time!

The second part of Covering Fire, that only triggers when Burnish is the team’s Captain, grants every friendly player within its [6”] aura Reinforced Plating. So, for one turn of a game the entire Blacksmith team can become incredibly resistant to enemy Character Plays, assuming they have the MP to pay to use Reinforced Plating. This is a fantastically useful Legendary Play to use against enemy teams with troublesome offensive Character Plays like Seduced, Puppet Master, Pinned, or Blind.

Between Furnace, Cinder, and Burnish it is possible to present a Blacksmith team that inflicts a lot of the burning condition. As a little hint for our next blog, Burnish’s Apprentice is a player that benefits quite a lot from facing enemy players that are on fire. Make sure to join us again in our next article as we discuss Burnish’s Apprentice! Tell us what you think of the Blacksmith’s Guild so far on our forums, as well as Facebook and Twitter!