On Easter Sunday, Realm Runner Studios released some more spoilers for Rise of the Realm Runners. As is fast become traditional, I’m going to go through the spoilers. If you missed the video though, check it out here. There were some amazing alt arts in the stream, and details for an Easter Egg Hunt (there’s a link for that here, it was a lot of fun trying to solve the puzzles). I won’t share the teaser at the end of the Easter Egg Hunt yet.

Without further ado, Salum Planum:

We’ve got 4 really interesting cards for Salum Planum. Deadly Spores is a 2 cost object with -1Δ, which isn’t too bad, but it carries the DISPOSE keyword to drain 1Δ from all characters on all canvases. This is a pretty nice effect that you can trigger whenever you like, especially if the opponent is playing Trainee Painters, Prism Sappers, or Cave Spiders, not least of all because you can use it during the opponent’s turn.

The object that gets me most excited though is Alchemist’s Tincture. 2 cost with +1Δ, and a DISPOSE ability to REVEAL an object and deploy it for free. Assuming you include this in a deck with only more expensive objects, it’s essentially a discount on one of those objects without costing you a card from hand. Additionally, you can resolve this card and DISPOSE it midway through your resolve phase, making it essentially a 2Δ discount on another object. I am 100% going to be including this in a deck with with only Corrupted Muon Trap as my other object for the simply evil combo of disposing during the opponent’s turn to play the Trap to claim a character they’ve only just deployed, and claiming it before its resolved. Alternatively, include it with Cintimani Stone and get that monstrous 5Δ cost object and a card from the dregs out whenever you like. This is a combo that allows you to play actions during the opponent’s turn (once) thanks to Cintimani‘s ACTION, which is pretty brutal. This Tincture is going to be vicious in the right build.

Raven’s Eye and Ravensight are fun combo cards for our good friend Green Raven. The Eye is a 2Δ 2 strength object with a +1 resolve, and the funky ability to look at the top of palettes when characters are defeated. It’s a nice effect to know what’s coming next, but Ravensight makes this much more potent. For one turn only, whenever you get to look at the top card of a palette, you may draw it. So if you have Raven’s Eye on your canvas, play this, then attack an opponent’s character and both get erased, you draw the top card of both palettes. There’s the potential for obscene draw with big Drain the Woods plays, but that’s a bit of an edge case. I love that these cards make Green Raven better, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re yet good enough to actually see competitive play until we get a card with an effect like Fishing Dock or RESEARCH in salum planum to make Ravensight more consistent.

Next, Draco Planum:

Crown of Claws and Dragon Tooth Kunai are very different from the original spoilers. In my review of them I essentially said that the Crown was terrible and the Kunai was broken. I’m pleased to see that the Crown is now better and the Kunai worse, making them both good cards.

Crown of Claws is unusual in that it’s an object with steal, and it even has an extra steal as an ACTION on play. This means that it actually costs you 2Δ to play (as you immediately get 1Δ back), which is very solid for a 1 steal 3 strength object. A strong include for many decks. Dragon Tooth Kunai has lost its -2Δ in favour of a +1Δ. Additionally, now when you DISPOSE it, it only drains 2Δ from a card, rather than erasing a character. I still think this card is very good, as you can use it during the opponent’s turn to hit a freshly played and unresolved 2Δ cost card, which is exactly the kind of nasty play an achrom player is going to love.

Research Assistants is an elegant card. As much as I generally tend to play achrom, RESEARCH/Vast Volitarus has been a go-to deck of mine for a while. Turning RESEARCH cards into an additional gain with this little 1Δ action is a nice touch. It’s been confirmed that cards with ACTION: RESEARCH also count, so we’ve got 5 options: Great Cloister, Monastery Keeper, Corrupted Portal, Monastery Librarian, and Draco Planum Library. Of those cards, I tend not to play the Monastery characters, meaning most of the time I’d only be netting around 2Δ with this, but if I swapped in those characters I could be seeing this card give me a 5Δ gain late game. I don’t think this is going to be strong in 1v1, but in a multiplayer it could give this deck the extra chroma burst it needs to pull off the victory from an unassuming position.

Ancient Rituals is curious, in that it discards from the opponent’s hand, a rare effect in achroma, something we’ve only seen before on Caeruleum Draco, Floating Wasteland and Research Collection. I do think this is a strong effect for disrupting the opponent’s plans, especially in multiplayer, and more SACRIFICE support is very welcome.

On to Spirata Planum:

Funguar having babies is a fun idea. This is Mandrake for spirata planum, and a 2 cost with a 1 steal is already decent without the POISONOUS. A strong card that’ll definitely see play as it hits the Funguar fanbase as well as being a strong card. However, it may see less competitive play than the fantastic Chroma Bomb. 2 cost for +1Δ and a DISPOSE effect for SPLAT 3, means that you can play this to net yourself +2Δ in the turn you play it. Given this realm already has Full Palette (2Δ cost, +6 gain, for net +4Δ), fairy decks have another tool at their disposal for a rush chroma victory.

Cutting Cocoons at 4Δ is an expensive card to erase a character or location, but as was discussed on the stream, is in keeping with the fact that spirata planum lacks cheap ways of erasing cards, characters especially. I like this effort to continue to support the strengths and weaknesses of each realm individually, and I hope it continues. Soronno’s Glare apes Soronno’s ability, but is weaker as you don’t choose the card type. It’s essentially the ability on Impius Drake but on an action so you don’t get a character or the -1Δ resolve. A neat benefit of this card is if you are able to time it right, much like Soronno and Impius Drake it gets around protection, as it’s the opponent that is doing the erasing.

And finally, Norso Planum:

Lacringi Soothing Totem is a nice intra-realm counter to RAGE, and features a rare prevent symbol, which is useful in multi-player. I don’t think it’ll see much play in 1v1 though. Load the Carts however is huge for Trader decks. Not only will they be playing Traders Pass for +1 when they trade, they’re going to be netting another +1 with this card every time they trade AND they get to trade when they play it. Those massive trading turns just got a little bit easier.

Corrupted Orium is my kind of card. Not only does it prevent the attached character from attacking, but it makes every card the attached character’s controller deploys cost 1Δ more, which is just plain mean. If they can’t deal with this right away, it’s going to make playing the game very expensive. Enslave the Thrall is a 2 cost card that means you’ll be able to attack and erase any of an opponent’s characters with impunity so long as you have 2Δ of health on a character. A clever way of supporting the Brisgavi strategy of maintaining canvas dominance through characters. Despite being slightly situational, I could see this being very popular.

There’s lots of great cards here. Not many weeks to go until we get the lot.