Monsters of Norso is live on the DB, and I thought I’d look at my personal highlights from the set. First up, Cerberus:

A 4Δ uncommon is rare enough, but this one not only has a +2 resolve, but an incredible ACTION: Drain 2 Shards from up to 3 separate Characters. This means an instant kill on Ray, Dracon, Carmella, Rabid Dog, Occultist Warlock, Ruber Draco, and many other favourites. It also means you can easily break the GUARD of the opponent’s Characters. And it can be used to trigger your own VENGEANCE abilities. I could see this card being an absolute staple in future custom Norso palettes.

Talking of staples, here’s Gorgon Guide:

Another absolute killer of a card, and another creature to boot. For 3Δ you get a ±1 Achroma Effect, but the ability is phenomenal. You can REBOUND to FIND a location; any location. Not only that, but it can REBOUND itself. You could treat this as a reusable 3Δ Action, or even 2Δ if you resolve the Steal before REBOUNDing (though then you can’t play the location this turn), or even better if you REBOUND a 1Δ card. This character can be used to find cards like Lake of Reflection, The Abyss, a realm rift, a tech location like Lacringi Forge, Trader’s Pass or Brisgavi Falls, or any other location you like. The function of this card seems limitless.

The only rare to make my list (and I omitted it initially somehow):

I love this Character. The VENGEANCE ability could be absolutely brutal with the right set up. If you have plenty good Characters in your dregs, and the ability to do a bit of self-damage (not hard with the new set), you could be firing off Characters multiple times per turn, for free. The sub-play you can pull off with this card, is that if that Character has GUARD, or if you can REBOUND them to your hand, they don’t get Erased. The only problem: you can’t FIND/REVEAL this Character, so it’s just luck whether you get it in your hand or now. But a great include for a VENGEANCE deck regardless.

Next, a location I’m particularly fond of:

Alliance Headquarters is another solid tech card. The ability to FIND an Action is very strong, especially in Norso which has Traders’ Lifeline, Norso Winter, or new wincon Action Scour the Abyss (Norso‘s answer to Strength in Numbers, but for locations). Sensibly capped at 3Δ, so you can’t go digging for runes, this will still see a lot of play in the right palettes.

Next, another strong location:

Charon’s Gate is a monster of a location. Following on from Rangled Wood and Monastery Nest, Norso finally have their own 3Δ +3 location, with the key differences here being it has GUARD and it is not heroic! A 2-of in every Norso deck from now on? Maybe.

Onto the only Action to make my shortlist:

Strike of Justice is Norso‘s answer to Breath of Fire, and what a card! It brings much needed control to the realm, and being a 4Δ uncommon it’s an easy include for most palettes, especially Traders. The only downside is it has a yellow shard, so you can’t safely include it in a palette with Algiz and my favourite card from the set, which of course is:

Yes, I know I’ve talked about Sigrun in two articles now, but she’s still my favourite. The strongest legendary ever printed? Time will tell.

Special mention also goes out to Unstoppable Horde, Vitki Map Rooms, and Scour the Abyss, which have both have interesting palette building potential, as well as the new Leif and Aries. I’ve got so many ideas for custom palettes. I can’t wait to try them out.

Overall, I’m really happy with the power level and range of palette building options in this release. It’s been a long time coming, but great work team.

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