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Andreas Propst
Austria
enzenkirchen
upper austria
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Dear Boardgamegeeks and EC fans!
Due to lack of traffic at the blog on the TOG Entertainment site, I will be moving back here and post future articles on BGG instead.
Here my latest article. Show it some love by giving a thumbs up. Thanks!
Andi's Picks: Basic Set Power Cards - Spells:
In this short article I will present you with what, in my humble opinion, are the most potent Spells for each Element in the Elemental Clash Basic Set. If you disagree with my picks I'd be happy if you posted a comment!
Elemental Ritual:
Elemental Ritual lets you search your Spellbook for two Basic Element Stones and lets you put them into play immediately. So on turn two you could have either a 3 Stone stack or two stacks with two Element Stones in them. That gives you a terribly good head start. You could play Elemental Ritual and another Level II Spell on turn 2 or 2 Level III Spells or Creatures on turn 3. Not only does an early Elemental Ritual speed up your game, thin out your deck so you are more likely to draw more useful cards than Element Stones, and give you a huge advantage over your opponent, it also counteracts the Water Player’s array of resource control Spells and Creatures (Sweeping Wave, Mercury Shatterer and the oh so powerful Shattering Wave).
What is more, Elemental Ritual makes two color decks a lot more viable if you play Earth in your deck. The only downside is that Elemental Ritual costs you two cards in your Spellbook, so use it carefully in mid- or late-game.
Whirlwind:
Whirlwind is a Flash Spell that lets you put any Creature on top of its owner’s Spellbook. You can play it either on your turn or even on the opponent’s turn as a bad surprise for them. Whirlwind can be used in a variety of different ways. You can just send any weak Creature an opponent controls back to the top of his or her Spellbook to ruin their next draw. You can also pull off nice tricks like sending the opponent’s most dangerous Creature to the top of his or her Spellbook and then attacking with a Creature of yours to send the opponent’s Creature right to his or her Archive.
Furthermore you can use Whirlwind defensively, by targeting one of your own Creatures you want to save from imminent destruction through an opponent Creature or Spell. Lastly you can use Whirlwind defensively as well during end-game. Many games in Elemental Clash are decided by that one card remaining in your Spellbook. So if the game is about to end because you ran out of cards, you can just target one of your own Creatures with Whirlwind right before your Draw Phase, send it to the top of your Spellbook and - hey presto - you got yourself another turn that may decide the game in your favor!
Flaring Flames:
Flaring Flames captures the essence of the Fire Element perfectly. It deals 3 damage to any Creature or Player and has the ever so popular Boon ability to boot. If you run three copies of this card in your Spellbook, the opponent’s Spellbook Size is virtually reduced by 9. Unless you play a multi-element deck, get "stone screwed" ("Stone Screw" means you got the wrong Element-Stones in your hand or in play and cannot play anything due to this unfortunate situation) and are stuck with your Flaring Flames in your hand unable to play them. In most games it would be wiser however to use your Flames on opponent Creatures like Troll Grunt, Mercury Shatterer, Jupiter Stormmaster or the powerful Elder of the Skies, than deal 3 damage to the opponent directly. Creatures deal a lot of damage over the course of the game, so Flaring Flames is an ideal way of getting rid of them cheaply and before they get out of hand. Flaring Flames, sporting the Boon ability, is also a staple card for any decks trying to make use of various Boon cards. Playing Salamanders and Fiery Devils, which make you discard cards from your Spellbook to your Archive, would go along well with Flaring Flames.
Shattering Wave:
Speaking of Boon decks, here comes another staple card for any Boon deck running the Water element, or for any Water deck. My favourite card in the whole Basic Set, Shattering Wave, lets you put any Element Stone target player controls on top of their Spellbook. Being a Level II Spell, it slows down your opponent’s game early on by chopping away at their Element Stones (resources). Much like Whirlwind, Shattering Wave ruins your opponent’s next draw as well, as he or she will just draw the Element Stone he or she had just played a turn or so ago. Shattering Wave is especially dangerous to multi-element decks. If your opponent has two stacks with different Elements, you can through Shattering Wave, remove the bottommost Stone from one pile (the bottommost stone determines the type of energy the whole stack produces), possibly leaving your opponent with two stacks of the same Element.
Shattering Wave is especially dangerous as it has Boon. So you are more or less guaranteed that Shattering Wave hits bull’s eye three times if you play a playset of three in your Spellbook. Lastly, like Whirlwind, you can use Shattering Wave defensively if you are low on cards during late game. Just target one of your own Element Stones, send it to the top of your Spellbook and possibly get another turn which may or may not win you the game!
Until next time, keep on clashing!
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