I thought I’d have a look at all 60 cards from Secrets of Spirata, and pick out some of my favourites, and thoughts on the cards as a whole. First up, the characters:

There’s a huge mix of characters in this set. We’ve got the usual 1 drop 1 resolve characters (Captured Noewborn and Bio-Engineer) but after that it starts to get pretty interesting.

Achrom:
One noteworthy point is that achrom seems to seeing a bit more steal. Non-rare pixies typically have only carried drain (Morag excepting), and even King Craven himself was only drain 2, but Surveillance B.O.T., Lone Solus, The Relinquished, and Mechanical Pixie Commander all resolve with a steal.

Mechanical Pixie Grunt has the potential to drain a lot thanks to the 7 mechanical cards in the set. The neutral faction in this set, The Forgotten, have a distinctly achrom flavour, being headed up by the “walking calamity” that is The Fallen, and backed up by The Relinquished, who on his own is a reason to play parasites. Nocturno looks like an attempt to block Rayders, even if it is going to be fairly easy to remove, as you can just send the attached character on a suicide mission against one of your characters. This will only stay on the canvas if you don’t play any decent characters.

And finally Spiral and Thrash stand out as a really interesting 4Δ rare characters. Spiral retains some of his original theme, but with a Gunnar-esque chroma or achrom choice, while Thrash has a punishing ability that is very easy to trigger in the right deck, plus will be triggered by the opponent.

Chroma
The gain on chroma cards in this set don’t quite seem up to scratch for the realm. In Spirata we’re used to characters giving you better than even return on your investment, but here we’re getting slightly less than investment. Even Copper Joss is a +2 for 4, with a situational extra +2. The standout exception is Hoffel Brown, who not only has a prevent, but gives you +1 for each character type assuming you have menagerie. Given he’s already 2 card types (fairy teacher) this will likely result in a +3/4 almost right away.

For me my favourite chroma characters are Diurno, who is a solid +2 prevent 2 for 1Δ if you can find a cheap host, Hoffel Brown, and Coffey, Lab Assistant (like the drink, only spelled different), whose once per turn FIND ability is unheard of and could really drive you to a great board state quickly if you draw him early. Just a shame he’s legendary.

We got 6 new objects in Secrets of Spirata:

Given the entire pixie faction revolves around objects, it’s unsurprising most of these are achrom heavy. I like that Sorrono’s Wing keeps up the OG Sorrono mechanic, though this rare is going to struggle to make the cut in competitive play. The Standard Issue Wings meanwhile are a nice card, even if they look very weak alongside Factory Overalls. My favourite card though is Mechanical Exoskeleton. As well as triggering Mechanical Pixie Grunt, it contains the evergreen DIVERT keyword, which I’m glad has seen a reappearance in this expansion.

Next up, 14 new actions:

Surgery is a really odd and intriguing ability (and the art inspired the cover image for this article). For a turn, you can move objects around as you wish. Not only can you steal all the opponent’s objects, but you could play Jamshid Orb tennis, and attack with a series of protected characters.

Group Huddle is a card much needed by wider Spirata decks. Assuming you have 3 character types, +2 for every character has a very high ceiling. It’s also a 4-cost uncommon so is a potential include for Rayders.

Chroma Paint is a 1-cost action to make any character 6Δ and 6 strength, which is a nice cheap way of dispatching an opponent’s big character with a little Trainee Painter. Overclock has a similar effect, except you lose the object at the end of your turn, but it does have a higher ceiling.

I really like the effect of Glide. Preventing your cards from being targeted by ACTION cards for a turn gives them a large amount of safety, and could easily secure you the win. The standout pick of the bunch though is Unfathomable Hunger. Forget the parasite ability; this is a straight up 3Δ erase a card effect, and will be in all my Spirata constructed decks for a long time.

And finally, locations:

Achrom again seem to have gotten the better deal here. We’ve got two very solid locations (Experimentation Room 001 and Morag’s Chambers) which are already fair value, but on top of that they come with 2 powerful object-based effects: making objects cheaper and feeding you hand when you play one. And the rare Craven’s Laboratory is just the icing on the cake. What I especially like from a design standpoint about Experimentation Room 001 is that if it weren’t for the object ability, I’d be tempted to slot this into my regular pixie palette. But since I’m only going to include one object in that deck (Cintimani Stone) this card will likely do my opponents a favour in the process. Therefore, it stays out of my palette unless I’m building around the intended Mechanical pixie archetype.

I’ve also already talked about Scrapyard Barrens, but again I’ll add that like all location promos, this card is a great staple if you’re looking for a card with a strong resolve and good trade fodder in a pinch. Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of Achrom Infested Forest. The fact you have to wait til next turn to use it, and it only applies to one card per turn, means I just don’t think this card is going to be good value, even if it does only benefit me.

One nice card for chroma is Shanty Town. +1 for every character is a good effect, and is costed just right. Flutterby Academy does also have a potentially high ceiling in the right deck. However, the rest of the chroma effects just feel a bit weak.

Overall, this is a fun set with a lot of interesting interactions. Menagerie creates very colourful canvases even if the effects seem a little underpowered. Parasites feel particularly intriguing, though in the limited testing I’ve done of them so far I’ve struggled to make them feel economical. I’m sure there’s a good parasite control deck out there waiting to be built though. The contender for the strongest new mechanic, in my opinion, is definitely the cyperpunk Mechanical pixies and objects. The support cards really set this one up to be powerful.

Achrom really seem to have got the better deal with this set, and I’ve been enjoying playing upgraded pixies with some of the stronger cards in the set slotted in. I’m glad there aren’t really any cards that could make Rayders better, plus after that palette and therefore chroma has been the top deck in Spirata for so long, it’s good to see pixies coming out as the winners from the set.

Now, I’m off to build some more decks. My next goal: a strong parasite palette…

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