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In the previous preview articles for The Children of Blackcloud we've seen powerful allies and chants. The engine has been revealed, and we've seen how Brennen deals with swarms of units as well as a method for dealing with any unit eventually. But in Ashes, sometimes you have to deal with a huge threat immediately, and today we'll look at the 2 cards included in The Children of Blackcloud that Brennen uses to remove huge threats quickly and efficiently!

Aaand here's the card that I've been writing about for a month now which allows you to destroy your own unit and gain extra benefits. You have to destroy one of your own units to gain any effect from Blood Chains, but when you compare the resultant effects from casting this spell to other similar effects, I'm sure you'll agree it's well worth the sacrifice.

First, it only costs 1 as opposed to 2 for Steady Gaze. That's half the cost in magic, and half the required class symbols, so even if you only place 1 exhaustion token, Blood Chains is still on par with dice cost. But Blood Chains can place far more exhaustion tokens than Steady Gaze, and The Children of Blackcloud has a method of doing so included in the box!

Secondly, Blood Chains lets you remove an exhausted unit from your battlefield, so that you can replace it with a fresh new unit. There are other benefits, including the synergy found in Brennens deck, but the last benefit of Blood Chains we'll talk about today is that in a ceremonial deck, destroying an ally can allow you to place that ally back in your hand with the ceremonial dice power symbol, effectively gaining the use of another card during that round!

Gosh this card is good!

Aw, what deck would be complete without at least one piece of adorable art? I want a stuffed baby Frostback Bear.

But this card isn't just adorable. For 2 magic you can remove all buffs from the unit you attach Regress to. Well, almost all buffs. Massive Growth does have Spell Guard, which would prevent it from being discarded, but that -5 to attack value pretty much nullifies Massive Growths' benefit anyway! Just about any unit becomes a toothless lump when you place Regress on it.

I think the overall path to victory for The Children of Blackcloud is coming into focus now. We've got 2 more cards to go and both are very powerful. Tune in next week to see what else Brennen is always ready to cast, but before that we'll see the scariest unit Rin brings to the battlefield! Thursday dear readers, Thursday. Icy death is coming!

Thanks for reading!

Bob

Click here to pre-order The Children of Blackcloud, The Frostdale Giants, and even extra dice! Get Lulu Firststone or Dimona Odinstar FREE with each Ashes deck purchase, or buy them separately!

Rin/Brennen Previews:

Brennen: Blackcloud Ninja, Crimson Bomber and Poison, Chant of Protection and Chant of the Dead, Fire Archer

Rin: Rin's Fury, Frost Fang and Frostback Bear, Crystal Shield and Frozen Crown, Deep Freeze and Ice Trap