Today on Draco Temple, I’m going to look over the spoilers for the new expansion, The Last Snow Dragons of Altari. I also have an exclusive new SPOILER for you all. This set has gone to printers so is just around the corner. Get your pre-order in here now:

There are 12 cards already spoiled from this set by Realm Runner Studios, so let’s have a look. First up, Dark Hunter and the new keyword, HUNT:

Dark Hunter is a 3Δ -1 character with this new keyword. Once per turn, a character with HUNT can choose a target on another player’s Canvas to HUNT. If both characters remain on the same canvases (this was a clarification made on discord) at the start of your next turn, you get the payoff of the HUNT effect. Either way, you get to HUNT again on your next turn.

This is quite situational. In the case of the Dark Hunter, you get to erase the target, but the opponent has an entire turn to do something about it, or at the very least they get one more turn of resolving the target character before they get erased, compared with an ACTION that erases the character right away. On the flip side, in longer games if you can keep the Hunter alive (maybe with objects or through PROTECTION), they could do more damage to the opponent’s canvas than a one-off effect, as you get the ability every turn.

On balance, I like the keyword, but I don’t think I’ll be including the Dark Hunter itself in my achrom palettes.

Next up, two more Ailouros (Ancient Greek for cat) legendaries:

Bugir of Snivari also has the HUNT keyword, but in this case you put the character targeted by the HUNT in your hand. So if the opponent has a Ray on their canvas, you can hunt him, then next turn you can add him to your hand, play him on your canvas, and HUNT again. This is a rather slow and potentially expensive effect, especially given it’s coming on a 6Δ legendary with only a +2 on resolve. It could be a lot of fun in a longer game though, especially multiplayer games.

Much more likely to make my palettes however is Kocora Bri. Carrying similar stats to Tenebris, we’ve got a 6Δ achrom character with ±3. His ACTION is also an erase effect, and works similar to HUNT. Assuming he’s still on your canvas next turn, you can completely board wipe all characters on all other canvases, even those played on your opponent’s last turn. Being a delayed effect, it is a bit more situational, but could be utterly devastating. Tricky to say which character is more powerful, Tenebris or Kocora Bri; ultimately, it’ll come down to the matchup.

One final thing to add: this pair of Ailouros will probably always remind me of Little Cato and Avocato from Final Space:

The last Ailouros spoiled by Realm Runner is Ogul:

Ogul is a nice 4Δ +2 support rare for Snivari decks, allowing you a potential once per turn DIG of an Ailouros. It’s hard to evaluate at this stage, given how few cards we’ve seen. At present though, my feeling is this will be a less economical and much less consistent Mrs Potts for the snow cats of Altari.

The next keyword is brought to us by Ice Cannon:

If you FREEZE a card, it is FROZEN until the start of your next turn (again, this is a clarification of this ability made on discord). FROZEN cards cannot resolve, which includes resolve effects in card’s abilities, such as those on Detective Huxon or Vast Volitarus. The thing that makes this effect more potent is that cards remain FROZEN even if the card doing the freezing leaves play. Your Ice Cannon will definitely FREEZE at least 1 card, even if it is erased almost straight away.

This type of effect is of course much less powerful than just erasing the card, however this object demonstrates that it’s costed much more cheaply, representing a more economical method of control. I like this card, and could see myself slotting it in to a lot of decks.

Another card with the FREEZE mechanic is the formidable Harusk:

This is one scary card. A 3Δ +2 is already pretty decent, but FREEZING every single card (character, location, and object) on all other canvases is amazing. Sure, it won’t affect any cards they play on their next turn, but in a chroma deck it’ll give valuable breathing room for a turn, especially against achrom, while for achrom decks it’ll completely shut down an opponent’s gain for a turn. Combine with Materno’s Egg as a tutor assuming your deck has no other dragons, and this is a very powerful bit of tech to have up your sleeve. For a deck using the Egg/Harusk combo, check out this excellent article by achroma.tools.

Alongside Harusk, we’ve got a polar bear very reminiscent of the panserbjørne from His Dark Materials, but armoured with dragon scales rather than sky iron. Ursusma (Ursa is Latin for bear) is a rare 4Δ character with 2 prevent. Ursusma‘s strength comes in her ability to attack locations. As locations have historically been more powerful in the Draco realm, this looks to be an effective card in the right intra-realm matchup. However, if your opponent is playing no or few locations, this is an expensive card to fill up your rare slot, especially as it has no natural gain or drain.

The next two already spoiled cards are Dexter‘s friends: Boommarshka aka King Boomer, and Crackle:

Boommarshka is a 5Δ legendary with a +2 resolve and an amazing ability: while Boomer is on your canvas, all other players cannot deploy Action cards! This will competely shut down a lot of decks, or at the very least make it extremely difficult for opponents to control your canvas. In the absence of Actions, the only way of dealing with this character is through attacks, but as you have to play characters the round before they attack, this is slow and unreliable. I already can see this working its way into a lot of my palette ideas, especially when combined with a rune to pull it from my palette, such as Algiz, the yellow rune.

Crackle is equivalently powerful, but requires a FREEZE synergy deck, rather than being an objectively good card in a vacuum. The +X could become pretty high, especially if combined with Harusk. It does require your opponent to have a wide canvas, so is going to be best late game, and the ACTION does affect your own cards. Those issues aside, I could see this being the go-to legendary for FREEZE decks.

And the final 2 already legendaries, spoiled just yesterday, are 2 Gods of Draco Planum:

If you’ve ever wondered what a giant floating Easter Island Moai statue holding a spear made of ice looked like, wonder no longer. Hularla is an Ice God, with a 6Δ cost and a +4 resolve. It also has the FREEZE keyword, which is very handy. However, the peculiar thing about this card is the fact that while this card is a location at all times, it is also a character on your turn, with strength 6. This means that it cannot be attacked, but you will be able to attack with it, which is handy.

Unfortunately, a pretty major downside here is that strong locations are often easier to eliminate than strong characters, as ACTIONS targeting locations have typically been more economical. Spirata Planum has Carmella, Draco Planum has Breath of Ice, Salum Planum can erase this card with Fireball or Achrom Surge, or claim it with Hostile Takeover. Norso Planum can attack it with Brisgavi Rage, and, since the strength isn’t printed on the card but only kicks in when the card is a character, it won’t even be able to fight back. It’s also guaranteed to get erased if you play Chromatic Extinction, regardless whether you go for location or character. Thankfully, the resolve and FREEZE will go a long way to making up for the fragility of this card on your canvas.

A fun interaction with this card is Ornithopter. You can play this object on Hularla on your turn, while it’s a character. If Ornithopter is erased, its ability kicks in which states: “When Ornithopter is Erased, you may attach it to a Location instead.” This means you can attach it back to Hularla, as it is always a location, even on your turn. You’ll only get to do this once, but it’s quite a nice move.

Next, Mist Morgana is the first Ancient Ghost God in the game, and a pretty intimidating spectre it is. A 5Δ character with -2 is resolve is fine, but the ability is particularly interesting: “Once during your turn, replace a Character’s ability with ‘This Character must attack’ until your next turn”. For clarity, an ability is anything physically printed on the card, so includes abilities like Boomer‘s, but also resolve abilities like that on Issadora, and even +X abilities like Crackle.

It’s tricky to say whether this is better than Tenebris, who straight up erases a card. One major plus side is it gets around PROTECTION printed on cards, such as Dexter, or “cannot be erased” on, for example, Torstein. It doesn’t however sidestep protection given by Bothy, Release the Fireflies, or Jamshid Orb, as those aren’t printed on the target character. My feeling is that, while you can use this once per turn, so could chew through an opponent’s canvas if they don’t erase the God and you have enough characters that pack a punch, in most situations it’s not going to represent as much value as Tenebris if you’re looking for a powerful legendary for your achrom deck.

One final thing to note is that we now have a card for whom it matters whether you’re playing the limited or unlimited edition version of cards like Chief Detective Cronas or Chieftess Astrid of Lacringi (side note: the lack of consistency between “Chief” in Salum Planum and “Chieftess” in Norso Planum for female leaders I’m sure says something about the direction of feminism in the two realms/cultures). Both cards had no printed resolve in the limited run, but gained a resolve in the unlimited run. This means that if you’re playing limited Cronas you’ve got to remember that she now has a +3 resolve printed on the card that you can use on your turn even if the resolve in her ability has been overriden by Morgana.

And finally, the one you’ve all been waiting for, the brand new spoiler, Mist Mountain (alongside the new promo, The Last Snow Dragons of Altari):

First of all, I’m just going to admire the artwork for a moment. In the lore and hex, we have a volcano of ice, fire, and achrom, and what a stunning mountain that creates. My mind first went to Mount Doom (LotR), but then I realised that’s probably because Mount Doom is another active cone volcano, and they all kinda look similar. The geology on this card is spot on, and the way the snow is clinging to those high peaks is awesome, not to mention the lava/achrom flow descending from the cone.

Mist Mountain is a(nother) 4 cost ±2 location, so already represents excellent value. It’s a rare, but more than makes up for this downside with its incredible ability: the Shard Value of cards with HUNT or FREEZE in players’ hands is reduced by 1. This follows the templating of Water Fountain and Lava Fountain from Spirata Planum (among other cards). However, it is much more powerful for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this card is playable even without the effect. Previously cards with this effect were overcosted to make up for their ability, but that just made them end up being often uneconomical in competitive play. This one by contrast pays for itself the turn you pay it in terms of shard swing.

Secondly, it’s much more specific about the cards it affects. The problem with reducing a shard colour is it inevitably helped out your opponent a bit. However, in open achroma play, where players have the pick of the realms, the chance that the opponent has a significant number of cards with HUNT or FREEZE is going to be moderately low. This makes it much more asymmetric in your favour.

Play this card, and you can play Crackle, Harusk, Ice Cannon, Dark Hunter, Ogul, Hularla, or Bugir for 1Δ less. And there will of course be many more cards that carry these keywords. Sure, you’ll trade them for less, but that’s a minor concern. I love this card, and will definitely be including it in an achrom FREEZE palette (assuming that’s buildable) with both Draco promo locations for maximum location damage.

That’s all for now. Just about a week or so to go until we have these cards in hand. Can’t wait.

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