A Conjuring at Curdle Cove has been with us for almost two weeks now, so I thought it was time to do a review article. I’ve already reviewed in detail quite a few of the cards in other articles here (Sirens), here (Freefolk), here (more Sirens), and here (Veil Chaser Voyagers), but today I’m going to look at what I consider the highlights of the set.

I challenged myself to pick just 10 cards, so, without further ado:

Adding to the list of 2Δ ±1 characters in Salum Planum, the Sea Serpent has an edge on the other cards thanks to the DIVERT keyword. Sure, the Rabid Dog is still excellent thanks to poisonous, and the Dog and the Occultist Warlock are still the best choices in an Arabella’s Recipe deck, but this character fulfils a highly important role in a deck: protecting your key characters.

I tend to build pretty action heavy decks, so Apollo has been making a number of decklists lately as a go-to chroma character. Most turns you play him you’ll be netting a least 1Δ as you’ll probably play an action. Yes, he’s rare, so is fighting with a lot of good cards, but I love him, and think he’s better than his twin sister Asa, if just because he’s rare not legendary.

The cat and dog from the Veil Chaser, both characters represent some cheap and useful tech. Bootstrap Benji has built in object disposal, like a weak Carmella, which can be very useful. Veil Chaser’s Cat is a simple +1 for 1Δ that gives you a bit of DIVERT protection for a turn, which is handy. Two solid fuzzballs. And they’re both cute.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Otrix, but I do love this new iteration of her. Not many Salum cards have a built in -2, and her ability has proven to be surprisingly useful. It’s normally a way of erasing at least one of opponent’s character as you can immediately attack with it, often dispatching two characters, but it can also be used for additional drain or gain if the opponent has the right characters on their canvas. Especially powerful against splat or squish. For instance, claim Copper Joss, splat Otrix for +3, then attack with Joss, erasing her and still gaining +3 in your resolve step.

Moonveil Harpy might seem like a bit of a weird choice, but she has a very high ceiling for just 2Δ. She’s always a -1, since she counts herself, and if you’ve played Dark Rainbow, or have a Servant of the Sirens or another Harpy on your canvas already, it can represent a sudden burst of achrom that can cripple and surprise a lot of decks.

Dark Rainbow represents absolutely phenomenal value, and I’ve been including it in all my Salum Planum decks. This is my hands down top card from the set (from a power level point of view). First of all, it’s a 5Δ card; it’s no secret how much I love 5+ cost uncommons and commons, so that’s an immediate plus. But its ability is potentially huge.

If the opponent or you have 3 cards on their canvas, it’s a net +1. But if there’s 6 cards on a canvas, it’s a net +7. Plus, if you play 2 of these, you can curse one player’s cards first, and the other player’s cards on the second play, netting you even more shards. I’ve been combining this with Cintimani Stone for absolutely crazy chroma gains. Say each player has 4 cards on their canvases:
Play Dark Rainbow (curse opponent’s cards, -5, +8: net +3).
Play Cintimani Stone (-5) to play Dark Rainbow for free from your dregs (curse the Stone as well as all your other cards, +18: net +13).
Resolve Cintimani Stone (±2).
Total net shards: +18.

OK, so it’s a bit situational, and a lot of the strength of this absurd combo comes down to how OP Cintimani Stone is, but that aside, this card is amazing. It’s almost worth including Occultist’s Stang in your deck just to pull this card. An interesting comparison is with Tankards, which costs 2Δ and is +1 for each card on your canvas. Tankards is therefore also worth +1 when you have 3 cards on your canvas, but Dark Rainbow then ramps up much faster and can target all canvases, not just yours. Unless you actually can’t afford 5Δ, or you’re worried about the opponent playing their Dark Rainbow next turn, this card is objectively better than Tankards.

My only criticism is it’s a chroma card for the curse mechanic, rather than an achrom card, but achrom does need some gain in order to function.

Tempest is a bit deck dependent, but assuming you aren’t playing lot of locations, it’s another addition to the claim/restrain theme of Salum, allowing you to take all the opponent’s locations for just 2Δ. That’s a bargain.

A bit high risk, but Summon the Harvest card is absolutely a win condition card. Playing 5 cards for free in a turn you can still play 3 more cards is crazy. It doesn’t go off very often, especially in multi-player, but when it does, it’ll often win you the game. Even if it forces the opponent to deal with your character or location holding the secrets, that at least slows them down a bit.

I’ve been previously critical of the imbalance between actions that REVEAL cards and just add them to your hands vs those that play them for free. The Veil Chaser’s Nest strikes the perfect balance to me: it costs you essentially 1Δ to play as it has a +1 resolve, and replaces itself in your hand. If it persists on your canvas next turn it will have cost nothing from hand or Δ bank, and will help you find key locations. A solid card in the right deck. More like this please.

That’s my top 10. Before I go though, a special mention of, not a card, but a mechanic: SECRET. This keyword has proven to be a lot of fun. There’s a decent number of support cards for the mechanic, and it can be a bit nutty. I don’t think it’s overpowered by any means (though Summon the Harvest is an incredibly strong standalone card), but when you can flood the board with cards, you can quite quickly reach critical mass, even if you are sometimes having to erase cheap keepers as you go.

That’s all for now. I’ve tried to just focus on the card highlights of the set, but there are so many fun and interesting cards in the set that didn’t make the cut here for one reason or another.

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