Zenith of the Hive update

With the unveiling of some of the cards that are going to be in Zenith, I’m very excited about the new set and what it has to offer, especially since the Danians are my favorite tribe, and they really deserve a buff. Also with the coming of this expansion, the game should be more balanced (ala, big4 and elementalists are really overpowred, as is the entirety of the UW tribe). Anyhow, lets get reviewing!

Firstly some interesting things to note:

- Kelvedran is the first creature shown to have the ability of resistance (specifically, earth and fire resistance), so whenever he battles against an opponent of earth or fire (ahem… maxxor and tangeth beware) he gains 10 energy for every resitance, this could possibly ruin elementalist cards that also have recklessness, such as Magmon.

- There are a lot more air type cards. This is a big boon for the air element, as the air element was obviously the most ignored element of the four, since its parent tribe (mipedians) barely had any worthwhile creatures with the air element, and the air based attacks, usually had challenges that its users couldn’t complete.

- Elemental diversity, with this set its revealed that the Danians will be able to use all four types of elements, they already have fire and earth as patron elements, and they gain air and water as well.

- Also its interesting to note a few changes to the card layout. Firstly the super rare cards now have the word super across them, the discipline boxes are now have a cool white box thing and its wider, the Energy box is shorter and taller, and the code box is also taller and shorter. All these were presumably done to make the randomly generated stats easier to read.

Ok, now the following cards were revealed to us, and Occasus was kind enough too post up a list of all their abilities.

Illexia The Danian Queen
Adjacent Creature gain “Defender.”
When a Mandiblor or an infected creature is placed in a discard pile, Illexia gains [].
[]: Activate Hive until end of turn.
Hive: Mugic counters on Illexia count as Mandiblors you control.
Illexia may not enter mixed armies. Unique.

This new Ultra rare creature is very different from the other ultra rare creatures that we’ve seen. For one its obviously based more around mugic and special abilities. That means that most likely it will be useful as a buffing creature that shouldn’t really meet battle (such as with a real ant queen). Its ability to count mugic counters as mandiblors would really allow danians to do well without having more than half of their armies consisting of mandiblors, and it could allow danians to be very powerful in lower army groups. Lastly its first ability is the first mention of an “infected” creature, another feature that is to be added in Zenith

There is a lot of potential in Illexia’s abilities. Such strategies as as sacrificing a kannen to bring back one of my mandiblors, while also activating hive at the same time. With her other ability and my renewed mandiblor, hive’s effectiveness would be exponentially higher.

Kelvedran
Earth Resistant 10 (This creature gains 10 energy when it fights a creature with the earth element)
Fire Resistant 10 (This creature gains 10 energy when it fights a creature with the fire element)

A new Danian mandiblor, Kelvedran is the first ever danian card to have the air element, and the first creature to have element resistant. Also he is a common card which means that he can be easily acquired, meaning that such cards as magmon, Bareth, or other creatures relying on elements will soon have well equipped opponents.

Khavakk
[]: Deal 5 Damage to target creature
[]: Deactivate Hive Deal 15 damage to target creature (Hive must be active)

A new rare muge to add to the Danian’s already amazing mugician lineup. He is the first water elemental danian, and has both offensive and defensive abilities (kind if a damage version of zalic). The second ability can be very useful if its used after a fight (when hive is the least useful), so deactivating it doesn’t hurt you as much as it would if you were to activate it mid battle. Khavakk’s second ability is also the first ability to deal more than 10 damage, its literally stronger and more useful than an Xnova, meaning that danians can just stock chorus of the hive only to use it for khavakk’s ability for a lot of damage.

Accelerated Unity–2
Attack
Base Damage: 0
Deal 5 damage for every tribe in your army beyond the first.

An interesting attack card, one of the first common 2BP card actually. Apparently it is meant to be used in mixed decks, as it deals 5 damage for every tribe you have in your army. As there are only 4 tribes, you can deal a total of 15 damage with this card without having to rely on elements or discipline. Interesting. In theory its basically a cheaper viperlash, but some realization is that it requires all four tribes to be present in your army to be of use, so if all members of a tribe was wiped out in your army, the effectiveness would be much weaker, meaning that its only truly useful in large armies, such as 6v6s and 10v10s. Overall an interesting card that should provide incentive to start using mixed tribes.

Freeze Flash–2
Attack
Air: 10 Earth: 10 Water: 0
Water: Creature loses 25 speed.

An interesting card, its the first to have a total of 3 elements on an attack, and its also the first to have an element deal 0 damage. For 2 BP AND being common this is a really good card and probably one of the best cards revealed to us (the first obviously being illexia). Also note if you will, that this is the second air card to feature a speed reduction (the first being frost blight). So this opens up a lot of options for creatures with air and speed (perhaps, a sting blade is in order to finish this new brilliant strategy?). Anyhow 20 damage total, great effect, good BP cost, common, overall its a great attack card!

Sword of Khy’at
Battlegear
Equipped Creature gets 5 energy and 15 speed.
If equipped creature is a warrior and would deal more than 20 damage, it deals an addition 5 instead.

The first thing you’ll note is that the sword has new art (I like this, as the old sword looked really bad in my opinion). Firstly it has two abilities, it gives energy and speed (hmm.. a lot of speed esque cards in this set eh?) and deals extra damage on already strong blows from warrior type cards. (Warrior type creatures currently include: Arias, Attacat, Staluk, Tangeth toborn, Bareth beyond, Chaor, Skreeth, Zaur, Odu-bathax, Ario, and Ulfheden).

Melody of the Meek
Choose a target creature with 30 or less scanned energy. Until end of turn, any damage greater than 10 from a single source dealt to that creature is reduced to 10.

A very interesting mugic card indeed. This card can possibly increase a Mugician’s survival chance if they were thrusted into battle. Tribes with low energy bases such as Overworld and Danian could make good use of this rare mugic card, or if your creatures getting low on energy, you can simply pop one of these to give you 3 more turns. Another strategy is to use it as an opponent plays an allmegddon, effectively bringing its total damage down to only 10!

Elemental Denial
Mugic
Remove X mugic counters: Target creature loses X elements.

Another amazing card from Zenith, basically this card shuts down any elementalist, effectively making Magmon, Bareth, Blugon, etc. useless in just one burst. Being uncommon means that we’ll probably see a lot of these in battles to come, and most likely we’ll be seeing a lot of hymn’s of the elements to counter it.

The Darkended Dunes
Initiative: Air
Creatures with Earh gain “Range” and “Swift 1″

further increasing this… air-earth synergy. This time giving all earth type creature range and swift, cast a hymn of the elements on a kerric with a skeletal steed and he can literally move anywhere he wants. A very interesting move, and since most danians have the earth element a great addition if you wish to move quickly though the field.

Oipont’s Lookout
Initiative: Courage
Creature with Air gain Earth. If Hive is active, Danians gain Air.

Another air-earth combo. By activating hive, all danians gain air AND earth elements, a very interesting card. Although, the usefulness of it in other tribes is seriously lacking since it helps out danian armies soo much more than it would any other.