Hello again fellow gamers, it's been a while! Quite a crazy past year. It was looking pretty doom and gloom for Keyforge but I am so encouraged and enthusiastic for the future now! First, we got an updated rulebook, which really should be enough for the doomsayers to know they are wrong. But then we got reports that the OP group is gearing up and excited about the future, and now, FFG has contacted content creators and given them spoilers for the new set, Dark Tidings! This is a very exciting time to be a Keyforge fan!
Yours truly was extremely thankful and excited to get an email from Evan Johnson, the Marketing Manager for Fantasy Flight Games, about the prospect of spoiling 2 cards from the new set. So thanks so much for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity to share this with the community!
So, the quickest of recaps: This fifth new set, Dark Tidings, is adding 250 new cards into the mix. There is a new House called the Unfathomable, Dis is rotating out to make room, a new mechanic called Tide (which we will get into later), and the concept of Evil Twin decks (we will also get into).
So, without further ado, let's get into it! Our first card today is Ol' Paddy!
Ol' Paddy, this moonlit beast fisherman, not relying on his animalistic instincts, but rather depending on good ol' fashioned Crucible ingenuity, is reaping for your opponent's creatures! He has a decent body, and I'm not just referring to that beautiful art! The ability is also very interesting. A Reap ability that lets me flat out destroy creatures? Yes please! I like that it can technically work even if the tide isn't with you. Since you will be discarding from your opponent, it is less likely you will be forced to destroy one of your own creatures, which is nice, but nonetheless you should be mindful this could backfire, especially if you share houses with your opponent and you have the tide! But either way, it's a pretty solid Reap ability to have. I am thankful in this instance that Dis is not in the set, because discarding creatures is something that Dis never minds. This guy is also an Evil Twin, which means that somewhere in the world, there is a deck with the more agreeable and morally attuned Paddy.
Here is our regular Ol' Paddy:
But that brings up a good point: "What does high/low tide mean again, and I need reminded as to what being an Evil Twin really means!"
I'm glad you asked, random citizen! As is mentioned in the Dark Tiding reveal article by FFG, the Tide mechanic works as follows: Each deck in Dark Tidings will come with a Tide card. It begins the game outside of play, but comes in as soon as either player raises the Tide. The Tide can be raised by either player simply by paying 3 chains as the Omni ability on the Tide card. It can also be raised by abilities on various cards found in Dark Tidings. Once in play, the tide will always be high for one player and low for the other. As is evident by Ol' Paddy, it can be useful to have high tide in your favor if you want to get the most out his Reap ability.
Ol' Paddy also mentions on his card that he is an Evil Twin. This is the new way that FFG is shaking up the deck-making algorithm of Keyforge. As FFG stated: "For example, you may open a deck that's entitled Speaker Domitia's Evil Twin. This deck is an exact copy of Speaker Domitia, a real deck that has been printed and can be found by another player out in the world. The crucial difference is that in an evil twin deck, many of your creatures look a little different."
As you can see by the Undagnathus example, they differ in both art, graphic design, and abilities! I think I prefer the evil twin in this case. That art is just too awesome!
But wait, again I hear from the crowds, the shout for justice: "You said 2 Dark Tidings Keyforge Spoilers!!! You have showed us but one! We demand restitution!"
That seems a bit extreme, but I guess I'll do what I said I'd do:
Oh my, that is some pretty art. This rare beast/ship amalgamation may start out as an Artifact, but in times of great need (and help from some Untamed crew), it can become quite the monster taunter. Time will tell how worth it it will be to exhaust your creatures rather than Reap or Fight, in order to get a creature with Taunt anywhere in your battle line. But I really like the theme of this card. In theory, you could get it quite huge as well. You do need a minimum of 1 Untamed creature to get this thing moving, but maybe it is worth it to protect a really important creature on your battle line. I just really love this art! The colors, the concept, everything! Although I do hope The Mysticeti is ok, I doubt it's simply balancing that boat on its head. Maybe it's just a fashionable and practical hat?
Well, I'm sorry to say that's all I have for you today. Write to your local congressman and voice your wishes for me to get more cards to spoil for you. If not, enjoy the many cards spoiled by all the amazing Keyforge content creators. I don't think I will be doing a running spoiler list, as I see that our friends over at Archon Arcana are already putting up quite a nice list. So check it out, I know I will. It will be a fun weekend and next week I'm sure. I'm so happy FFG is going this route in spoiling the new set with content creators. I really hope we get a nice steady stream of spoilers, unlike previous sets where we got a little trickle, and then dumped on thanks to a distributer breaking protocol. But I hope you join me in the excitement to come. New Keyforge is on the way, there is light at the end of the tunnel! Thank you so much for joining me and reading this far. Hopefully this will spark all of us to get back into the swing of things, and as always, happy gaming!
