Rules update - Hunters becoming the Hunted?!
Hello realmrunners and welcome back!
Today I’ve got quite an exciting update as a new rules document has been released, now version 2.2, which you can read in full here.
What I really want to focus on today though is the fundamental change to, what is often regarded as, one of the weaker keywords in Achroma; Hunt. Here’s the initial ability of the keyword from when The Last Snow Dragons of Altari landed on the shelves.
The need to target an opponent’s Character; have both the Hunter and target survive a full turn; along with the delay in the effect going off, put this strategy at a severe disadvantage versus others, especially since the other keyword to emerge from the set was Freeze which has become a staple in any competitively driven Draco Palette. With the new rules update there’s quite a significant change to it that could really improve its standing. See if you can spot it in the updated description below.
The ability to target any Character, not just your opponent’s, changes a lot of the utility of certain cards that use Hunt. Admittedly ones like Dark Hunter, pictured above, don’t change a lot as you’ll be aiming for an opponent’s Characters with that sort of effect anyway, but there are a few that will feel the upgrade. It’s also notable that this alteration makes going first very advantageous for Hunt as a keyword as you don’t need your opponent to have any Characters to start your abilities off.
Ogul gains a lot more flexibility as, with the ability to target your own Characters, they become a little closer to Draco’s answer to the effects of cards like Mrs Potts, Occultist Den and The Bay of Mysteries, where it can repeatedly Dig and Trade a particular Character type every turn to gain shards, albeit still on a delay compared to the others initially.
Dari now gains a little power as a delayed, but repeatable, draw engine that has a resolve stapled onto it. Given his Uncommon rarity I feel like this Character will find more of a home in Palettes that use stronger Characters, especially given his own respectable shard value of 3.
Achrom Driller gains a lot more, I feel, out of this than the others; previously, the fact its only a 1-drop paired with the need for your opponent to already have a Character out for it to work meant it required a lot of setup to resolve successfully. With the rules update, the amount of support this card needs beforehand is greatly reduced making it much more usable and a good follow-up play to any powerful Characters if you’re aiming for an Achrom victory.
Bugir of Snivari & Saran might appear to have not had much of a boost from this change but let’s go a little deeper on their abilities; what if you could use your Characters ‘Action:’ abilities repeatedly? That’s exactly what they can now enable. Imagine steadily but repeatedly using cards like Jali or Impius Drake to cut down your opponent’s resources without costing you any extra cards, allowing you to Trade or boost your resolve every turn while they keep repairing theirs; or repeatedly Freezing all their cards with Harusk so they never get a resolve at all. Looks like some building and testing is in order for this, stay tuned on this one!
To summarise - this is only a quick touch on the changes to Hunt as a keyword; many more synergies and utilities are now possible due to this update and it’s great to see an almost forgotten keyword be given a new breath of life, let’s hope it’s enough to make it relevant when going up against the others.
That's all from me for now guys - if you want to pick up any of the Achroma product currently available on the Five Realms website, don't forget to use the code ACHROMACRAIG10 when you checkout for 10% off your purchase!
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