Chapter Analysis - The Monsters of Norso
Hello all and welcome to my dive into the latest Chapter to be released! Well it's certainly been a long wait for this one but here we finally are, with the final Chronicle of the series of second Chapters and our return to Norso; The Monsters of Norso!
Just a quick refresher before I fully dive into it, as it has been a fair amount of time since my last ones; what I do with these Chapter Analysis articles is look at the set itself in a vacuum, highlight cards that fit into categories that are recognisable to an experienced TCG player and then round it off by saying which side of the conflict I feel comes out on top when taking this set into account. So without further ado, let's get stuck right in.
Chapter Overview
This is the first set in a while that has brought 3 brand new Keywords to the game; Guard, Rebound and Vengeance and these are attributed respectively to each aligned faction, Chroma, neutral and Achrom. So it's quite obvious that there's a heavy focus on these new abilities coming from the standout cards and the Legendarys display this quite clearly with them all sporting the Keywords themselves, or heavily supporting them in the case of The Abyss.
It's worth noting, before we move on, that while Rebound and Vengeance are brand new Keywords in the sense that they have new synergies to discover with older cards, etc; Guard is very much a passive support Keyword instead which is an extra bonus, but you can read a bit more about that with my article on it here.
Before we go into my standard format, I need to give a particular shoutout to Gorgon Guide; a card which has already cemented its place as a borderline staple for any Palette that finds itself wanting a particular Location as part of their strategy. This is probably the least restricted Find ability so far in the game.
Removal & Interaction
Well Norso finally has it with this set; Righteous Strike finally gives us an answer to all the other realms' generic removal options, with this one being very reminiscent of Breath of Fire from The Siege of Draco Temple.
Further to this there are several other cards that can also interact with your opponent's, some in quite clever ways, and remove them from the Canvas. These include my stand-out favourite Sigrun, Vitki Elder as well as Athen, Banished Champion Goor, The Abandoned Axe and Champion's Oath. So plenty of interaction coming with this set, which feels like a great addition after the more conditional examples we saw in The Warriors of Wishwell.
Board Wipes
This category is where this set has some very interesting cards to highlight so let's focus on each on individually.
Firstly there's Astar, The Minotaur and while it might seem strange, at first, to see me highlight it as a potential board wipe it's necessary to remind you that Vengeance can be triggered multiple times a turn. So if you attack into a 2 strength character with it the Vengeance ability would trigger and then, if you somehow hit it with another source of shard drain that it can survive, it would then trigger again, meaning you could Erase every card on your opponent’s Canvas with 4 Shard Value or less.
The next one is quite unique in how it functions in the game of Achroma; Drengora, The Fierce. I've already gone into some detail on this card in my article which you can find here. So to summarise, due to how their ability works, they are able to attack multiple Characters on one Canvas at once meaning they can act as a psuedo-board wipe of all Characters an opponent controls, so long as they have a shard value of 5 or less, even more if you throw an Object onto them.
Finally we have a Rare Action filling the role in a unique way; Disband. A great tool if you're going against someone that focuses on using Protection or Guard to give them staying power, or deploying lots and lots of small Characters as it resets the Canvas in such a way that you can regain some control.
Strong Resolve Cards
It would be criminal not to highlight the fact Norso has now joined the 3 drop +3 Location club here; Charon's Gate is one of those staple-style cards in the game of Achroma, that comes with built-in Guard to boot making it a Location that you essentially have to Erase twice to get off the Canvas.
King Orus also stands out as a very unique card for this category as it takes your opponent's resolve to use as your own with its Deployed, resulting in some very interesting situations where you could top deck it and win out of nowhere, by either Chroma or Achrom, just because your opponent is set-up and has you on the back foot.
There is also the Rebound mascot Legendaries of Aries and Sigrun, Vitki Elder that might not be a strong Resolve, per se, but they can really hit your opponent's Shard Bank hard or boost yours by a considerable amount respectively.
On the Achrom side you have The Abyss, which can rack up an incredible amount of Drain that you can choose when to trigger rather than it being locked into the resolve step alone. This goes even further when you throw Astar’s Domain onto your Canvas as, with it being able to Steal for every card that survives, you can essentially double down on the pressure you’re applying to your opponent’s Shard Bank; a truly menacing combo.
There are a few others to note here however they require more setup on your part to get the full benefit out of their Resolves and abilities.
Chroma or Achrom?
The question I have very much been dreading as I write this out; both sides have some incredble cards to highlight the potential of both sides of the conflict, honestly this is such a great boost to see for Norso as a competitive-ready realm for constructed Canvas games. Honestly, combing through all the cards, I think this is something I will happily sit on the fence for with this set; Aries and The Abyss make incredibly strong cases for Achrom here but between King Orus basically giving you a double Resolve, Queen Flora turning one Trade a turn into free shards and Sigrun, Vitki Elder giving you almost free shards by Rebounding your opponent's cards, it is so close I just can't call it. What do you guys all think about this set? Join the official discord, linked below, and let's discuss it!
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! Don’t forget to grab yourself The Monsters of Norso especially while there’s a 40% sale on that works in conjunction with my code - the whole collection could be yours for £50!
See ya real soon folks!
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