“You seem so sure about what's real and what isn't.”- Victoria Glassfire

How exciting is this! It seems like yesterday we were exploring 2 all-new Phoenixborn and their pre-built decks. And now I get to start previewing the next 2 decks, which are already available for pre-order. Callin Flores from The Main Action Podcast will be helping with the previews this time around. Both of them are chock full of fun new cards, clever new mechanisms, and some continuations on pre-existing themes I know you've all been waiting for. Today's article is all about Victoria and her Unique card Illusionary Cycle.

The Stats

Life Value 18: 18 Life is average. You can afford to protect your units when you must, but you can't just throw her out there to take the damage for her units without considering the danger to Victoria...

Battlefield Value 5: ...and her battlefield of 5 is average as well, meaning she can execute some freedom while attacking, but she doesn't gain a great advantage here either.

Spellboard Value 4: A 4 spellboard is middle of the road too, meaning her stats allow a wide range of play styles, but nothing really stands out.

So what makes Victoria special? What gives her an edge that draws you to playing her? Why, her special ability of course!

Ability: Shadow Spring

Um, so... Shadow Spring is totally unfair. Victoria just gets to use 11 dice per round! She doesn't even have to include a card to do it! Just pay 1 and suddenly you have 2 power symbols of your choice, ready to go! Victoria's stats are average all around, but Shadow Spring provides her with magic advantage every round, and that's powerful!

And Victoria doesn't stop with Shadow Spring! Her Unique card provides extra magic too, but this time with surprise! Just think about it. You're pretending to be at the mercy of your opponent. You've spent all your dice too early, so your opponent springs their master plan. But suddenly you play Illusionary Cycle, and use Shadow Spring! Bam! 2 dice on their power side from out of nowhere! Now you can respond to your opponent's plays when they had expected you to just sit there and take a pummeling. As you'll see, Victoria's far too clever and unpredictable for the opponent to ever feel their plans are safe.

Because this card shuffles itself back into your deck, you can gain even more magic advantage round after round! As you'll see, there's just no end to the tricks Victoria can pull off.

Now I want to take a moment to talk about something that may be confusing about this card. It shuffles itself back into your deck, but its placement says “Discard.” The reason for this is that the card is placed in the discard pile before it resolves. If it were to be placed in your deck right away, you wouldn't be able to read the effects while resolving this card. Plus some boring rules stuff prevents the card from having an effect if it's not in your discard pile when it's resolving.

The Strategy of The Duchess of Deception

The Duchess of Deception never lets your opponents' plans come to fruition. Playing units that have amazing stats for their cost, turning your units weaknesses into strengths, and making any advantage your opponent thought their units had, illusory, are major themes in Victoria's deck. If you enjoy making your opponent second guess every action and every choice they make, well... you're gonna love this deck! And remember, Victoria uses all illusion dice, so if you ever gain an advantage, you can exhaust their dice to keep it that way.

Victoria sure is exciting. Make sure you come back next week to see what Callin has to say about the first parcel of her other cards. Of course, we have another Phoenixborn to preview first, and I'm keeping all his cards for myself. Stop on in and check out Leo and his 2 uniques (yep he has 2 unique cards) this Thursday, you won't regret it!

Thanks for reading!

Bob

Click here to pre-order The Duchess of Deception, The Roaring Rose, Ashes dice, and more at the PlaidHatGames.com store! Ashes pre-orders come with a FREE exclusive Phoenixborn; Orrick Gilstream now available with Victoria and Leo orders!