Chapter Analysis - A Conjuring at Curdle Cove

Hello all and welcome back to my Chapter Analysis series; with Norso’s second Chapter now on the horizon I thought it was time to get a head start on the rest of the wave starting with Salum’s second chronicle; A Conjuring at Curdle Cove.


Chapter Overview


This set brings with it the introduction of the Keywords Curse and Secret as well the universal Divert ability and, much like the original Chapter, has quite a big focus on control-based strategies. Generally speaking the Legendaries and Rares from this set are more focused on supporting their factions' Keywords with only a couple of them breaking this pattern.


 Removal & Interaction

As is usually the case to keep the environment healthier for newer players, the set does include a couple of generic Erasing Actions, although they are more costly to deploy and not as flexible as Fireball, from the previous chapter.

There are other cards that allow you to disrupt your opponent’s Canvas but these are either more conditional or require a good setup to get the most value out of them.


 Board Wipes

Something not featuring hugely in this set although the Moonveil Coven faction lend a couple of cards that can be considered as such; one has no effect on cards that are just Blue, Cyan or Achrom while the other requires your opponent’s cards to already be Cursed; which makes them a little narrow in a competitive environment.


Strong Resolve Cards

This set brings into Salum one of the best cards for gain we’ve seen yet; versus an established board, or if you’ve managed to maintain a strong Canvas, it can get you an incredible amount of shards. Alternatively, with a Shard Value of 5 it makes fantastic Trade fodder as well. The irony of it being related to the Achrom faction by supporting Curse actually adds to its flexibility so it can be played in both Chroma and Achrom Palettes.

Aside from this, apart from Captain Cassius & Lord Eldrich Willard pictured in the Overview, the other cards that have some form of exponential Resolve or related ability are looking to Drain your opponent based on the number of Cursed cards in play.


As a niche add-on to this topic there are also the twins who, with the right Palette build & sequencing can become a powerful source of Resolve effects for you as well and a potential win condition in their own right.


 Chroma or Achrom?

When considering just this set by itself I personally find this quite a difficult question. The Achrom faction has stronger cards at its disposal however a lot of them require setup to get the most out of, let alone the fact that Curse also generally requires you to leave your opponent’s cards on their Canvas which puts it at quite a severe disadvantage if they set up well. So I’ll leave this one open to you guys; which side do you think has the upper hand from A Conjuring at Curdle Cove out of the box?


For more information on the Keywords introduced in this set, I've got some articles going deeper into the mechanics of Curse, Secret and Divert. If you’re interested in getting a hold of these cards they’re currently available in Limited First Edition on the Achroma store as either individual boxes containing two random Palettes or a full collection of the lot. If you buy the full collection you’ll also get yourself a copy of the signature location as well but there’s less than 60 of these left, at the time of writing!

That's all from me for now guys!

If you wish to purchase any product from the Achroma website use my affiliate link that will get you 5% off your purchases. Simply follow the link below or use the code ‘antinomy93’ when you checkout.

Also we are still in the Norso Winter season! Purchase £30 of product from the Achroma store (that’s before discounts!) and get yourself a copy of the limited edition seasonal promotion card Norso Winter!
See ya real soon folks! 
 

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