Welcome back everyone!
It seems as though we were just doing previews for Darkness Pervades. Time flies on Dragon’s Wings. That’s how the saying goes right? I’m pretty that’s how it goes. Even if the dragon in question doesn’t have wings.
Look, this is my article. I’ll make as little sense as I want.
You aren’t really here for the insanity though right? You’re here for the freshest, hottest, juiciest, most sumptuous, mouth-watering….sorry I’m hungry as I’m writing this. You’re here for previews. Well here’s a mouth full for you:
Does that satiate you? No? Well I can understand if you missed the earlier preview from the official Runestrike team. Let’s take a quick peak:
Forest Fae is actually fairly impressive. We’ve already witnessed the power a simple 2/2 flier for one can have when we received the recent buffs to Whispering Imp. Notably another fae but we’ll come back to that. The imp immediately replaced itself due to the warcry and almost single handedly captapulted the entire tribe up multiple tiers. Fae represent a very real threat within the Runestrike metagame so you better make sure that you have more more than a mere shaker of salt ready because there is likely to be an armada bearing down on you.
Forest Fae continues in that vein because it is simultaneously an early threat but also one that provides more gas. Sure in an aggressive list you aren’t dancing an eternal jig (you said thank you to a leprechaun didn’t you?) when you are presented with a Grove Nymph but the value of free cards should not be underestimated. Any body you play can end the game if it sticks around enough. Or maybe the fae King shows up and convinces the Nymph to hit the gym? Swole Nympgh is swole.
Although Forest Fae isn’t officially my preview, it is an integral part of Hidden Grotto so I had to point it out. One other thing that needed to be pointed out was the fae tendency to this point to be the high velocity aggressive deck of the moment. They come out of the gates fast and there’s a whole freakin’ army! From turn one on you are going to be under pressure to avoid an messy demise at the hands, wings, and magic of a thousand paper cuts.
Not a way I’d want to go.
We now have a slightly different threat here. Hidden Grotto allows you to play a similar but modified gameplan. The fae may not be fond of shovels, iron being one of their detested banes afterall, but it turns out that there are a variety of ways you can bury your opponent and card advantage happens to be one of them.
We’ve seen the power level of more recent enchantments. We’ve also had some less than stellar ones. Hidden Grotto represents something that is likely to fall closer to the powerful end than not. We are being presented with what is essentially a draw engine. Since it is a recover effect there’s no additional requirement once you slap down the Grotto. Just slide gracefully towards your end turn button and out pops a fae. As mentioned above that fae brings with it a friend so you’re getting essentially 2 cards just for playing the grotto. For an aggressive deck there are two scenarios that this card represents a panacea for.
The first is likely obvious, you are running out of gas. Either you are never hitting that scenario thanks to the constant stream of bodies or you are recovering (loooooooool) very quickly from it. Any aggro player will tell you that sometimes your opponent just has it. They can match you play-for-play and you are left out as their haymakers start getting played off the top. Now you are getting multiple bodies to replenish your forces.
The second major benefit flows from that scenario. There are times where you just need to finish the game out, but your opponent has managed to present a faster clock. You can’t afford to waste threats by blocking but you simultaneously can’t just give them free run at your face. Enter Hidden Grotto! The fae shows up, the fae brings a friend, the friend gets sacrificed by standing in front of the rampaging monsters.
Classic love story.
Sort of.
If it turns out you’re just tired of screaming “It’s like free real estate!” each and every turn then just go ahead and occupy the space. There’s no law saying that the Grove Nymph you got off the first Grotto activation can’t just stand on the corpse of their recently eliminated friend. It might get a little weird but I mean it could be done.
With friends like the fae who needs enemies?
Hidden Grotto nicely ties all these advantages into a single nature rune package. Continual card advantage? Check. Tribal synergy? Check. Gets immediate value due to recover? Check. You could even look to branch out from fae and just explore this particular card as a value engine in other nature builds. Maybe Ogma or Hyperia would possibly be interested in generating fodder turn after turn? Just throwing ideas out there. You don’t need to be all-in on fae in order to find a way to leverage Hidden Grotto.
Many thanks once again to the Runestrike team for allowing me to preview a card. Make sure you check out the official Runestrike previews as well as the other Woodlands previews from the other content created.
As always everyone, thanks for coming by and Black Lives Matter.
Random('s) Thoughts 