Set 4: Ascension of Dragons - SPOILER SERIES!

Spoiler season is upon us once again, so I will be working hard to bring you coverage on every card in set 4. That's right; I'm going to provide a review on absolutely every single card in Ascension of Dragons. It will be a lot of work, but I'm prepared for it. Are you ready to take on this arduous journey with me? I sure hope so, because I look forward to bringing you these previews and reading your comments.

Without further delay, on to the third wave of previews!

Heartless-Tin

Yellow is a fickle color that doesn't sport high cost reduction. That eludes the Heartless-Tin with a cost reduction of three; this allows him to reduce to a cost of 0! Yellow doesn't have a lot of cards that are able to reduce to a cost of 0, so that's definitely a plus in my book. His battle points are very low for a spirit with a cost of 3; however, you aren't playing this card for his aggressive prowess. Instead, you are playing this spirit to abuse his ability.

The first ability of Heartless-Tin focuses solely on White spirits. He gives them an additional one-thousand battle points during your opponent’s battle phase. You may be thinking to yourself that is mediocre at best. Many White players will tell you it is an extremely useful effect. The Timeless Ice Field and Burning Battlefield both provide an additional one-thousand battle points. Their effects become exceedingly useful when you are looking for that small edge over your opponents spirits. I foresee a White-Yellow deck hitting the scene next set; it will make use of Heartless-Tin and Gomazarashi.

The secondary ability of Heartless-Tin is why it will receive praise in most circles. Yellow is all about keeping your spirits on the field to receive the maximum cost reduction and gain effects that require three Yellow cards on your field. Heartless-Tin rewards you for playing Yellow the way it was meant to be played; he rewards you by allowing you to draw an extra card. Draw is one of the two huge reasons why Yellow lacked consistency in earlier sets. I'm curious to see what spirals from it now that it has a consistent draw card.

The FallenAngelia Azel

I commend Michael Elliott for creating cards that attempt to get people to use two color decks. Let's look at the cards that include the characteristic 'Divine Spirit'. From Sets one, two, and three Yellow has cornered the market on this characteristic. Ultimately, you are going to have to play a deck with Yellow and Purple in order to make full use of this card. That might not be such a bad thing as Purple can help Yellow recover from a shaky early game. The FallenAngelia Azel also possesses a high cost reduction and relatively strong battle points. You won't be taking down anything of size, but I could see you defeating a chump blocker and drawing a lot of cards. At the moment, there aren't a lot of cards that make it worth playing. This card has the potential to grow and become endlessly better in the future.


The BeastMaster Dvergr

This is an extremely potent card for White. The ArmoredBeast that will benefit the most from The BeastMaster Dvergr's ability is The ArmoredBeast Bear-Gelmir (Gelmir). Have you ever played Gelmir only to sit there and use him for his boosting ability? I most certainly have done this in a draft and it is very testing of my patience. It was a shame that Gelmir's battle points were going to waste, because he could only battle while your opponent had a Red spirit on their field; that is no longer the case! Gelmir can attack freely while The BeastMaster Dvergr is on the field. Go buy a Set 1 White-Purple starter to stock up on Gelmir, because he will be hitting White Beatdown decks once Set 4 has released.

The BeastMaster Dvergr's secondary ability is extremely aggressive. It forces your opponent into a tough situation; they must choose between losing two blockers to your one or taking damage to their life. This ability will create game winning situations for you as long as you have a lot of attacking ArmoredBeasts's on your side of field. White is lacking in the ArmoredBeast department at the moment. However, don't get discouraged as this is another card that will get better as we get more sets.

Hellwitch

I'm not going to sugarcoat this card for you. It is a worse version of Darkwitch. It is extremely situational and odds are that your opponent is not going to play down their six cost guy to have him destroyed. This card would be decent if it didn't cost six cores to place him at level three, however, destroying a one cost guy is not too shabby. Odds are that those guys will be hanging around your opponent’s field as chump blockers. Getting rid of them without having to battle them is a huge positive. Using six cores on one spirit to deal with a one cost spirit isn't worth the trade-off though. You could play down two more spirits and put them at relatively high battle points for the same amount of cores. You would get the same result and apply more pressure to your opponent. When it comes down to it, this card doesn't come close to registering as playable. Darkwitch is a better card with a similar ability that isn't as situational.

Sevenspot

I shouldn't be surprised that Green got more High Speed spirits this set. What I am surprised about is how unoriginal this card is. It is essentially Gularva with High Speed. Gularva is also a parasite, so it could inherit High Speed from The Soldier Ant. The only thing that stands out when comparing the two spirits is that Gularva has three-thousand battle points at level two while Sevenspot has two-thousand. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that both spirits are on equally playable. With that said, you could run both of them to increase your core generation. The only time it would be useful to have each spirit on the field would be when you play The BeastSpear Giga-Galrave. At the moment there is no reason to play both in the same deck. If you want the extra core generation then you will have to choose one or the other. Sevenspot is a better choice if you want built-in High Speed and Gularva is a good choice if you don't want to level up your spirit to get the core gaining effect.

The Illusionist Mirage

Did I read this card correctly? This must be a misprint, right? "All spirits I control are treated as their highest level on the turn this card is summoned." That's amazing! Part of the problem with a lot of Blue cards is that they require a lot of cores to become usable beatsticks. This card puts them all at their highest level without worrying about cores! This guy is a game finisher in a Crush or Beatdown deck. You can play down a monsoon of spirit with Crush, throw this guy down, and mill tons of cards through Crush. This guy’s ability also works with spirits of other colors as well. There is an endless possibility of combos you can pull off with him. One off the top of my head is The BlossomChild Lip + Angel Voice + The Illusionist Mirage.

Blue, White & Yellow on the Rise!

I am excited to see what kind of decks spawn from these cards. Heartless-Tin may create a couple Yellow-White decks and it will certainly help Yellow in the draw department. The FallenAngelia Azel has an effect that only works with Yellow spirits, which makes it not playable in a competitive environment right now, but it may be in the future. The BeastMaster Dvergr is on its way to creating the first White Beatdown deck. I can see it becoming an excruciatingly powerful deck if Red remains on top in Set 4. Hellwitch & Sevenspot were less than lackluster. I am not fond of either and I don't foresee them getting played much. The Illusionist Mirage gave Blue a huge boost! I am looking forward to Blue taking the reins and putting forth a strong showing with this card in its ranks.

I hope everyone is getting the most out of spoiler season. Check back at Eye Of The Vortex daily for more reviews and spoiler previews from Set 4: Ascension of Dragons. Good luck to all my readers in all your future deck building ventures!

In the mean time, meet me in the forums and let’s talk about these new cards! What do you think about Hellwitch and Sevenspot?

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