What is good and bad in The Unaligned?

We bet you wonder what the Stockholmjyhad bloggers think of The Unaligned, the new official set from VEKN, allowed for tournament play 4 November. Below we grade the minion cards on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is Tortured Confession or Mummy´s Tounge or something like that, and 5 is Govern the Unaligned or Villein or something like that.

Note: This is our views a couple of weeks after the release. We will try to do a follow up on this in a year or so - it will be very interesting to see how our views have changed then!

Bear's Skin

Ashur: 2 “Fun, but I don´t really see a need for this.”

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 2

Randyman: 3 “Nice but not broken. Surprisingly strong at inferior.”

Blight

Ashur: 2

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 2

Randyman: 1 “Wallpaper IMHO.”

Dam the Heart's River

Ashur: 2

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 2

Randyman: 2 “An ok card, but not what the assamites need.”

Ennoia's Theater

Ashur: 4

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 4 “Good, well-balanced. A barrens with a bonus.”

Focus the Blood                         

Ashur: 3 “Notice that it stays on the vamp if not used = way superior to Inner Essence.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 3 “A nice card, but hard to find card slots for.”

Funeral Wake

Ashur: 2 “Sure, nice to both rush and block with Shamblings, but I think it´s hard to find card slots in that type of deck.”

Tomas: 4 or 5

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 3 “Totally ok and well-balanced.”

Gianna di Canneto

Ashur: 4 “Just compare stats and cost to Felix Fix Hessian! And it´s ability is very useful for removing that annoying equipment. The other ability is just plain better than Neighborhood Watch Commander.”

Tomas: 4

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 3 “Strong!”

Gift of Proteus

Ashur: 1 “Ain´t nobody got time for that!

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 2 ”Protean decks seldom has the need to discard stealth or combat cards.”
Randyman: 3 “Ok, but hard to fit into a deck.”

Giulia Giovanni Abruzzina

Ashur: 3

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 3 “Strong.”

Hall of Mirrors

Ashur: 3 “Manuever is great, and you can both use it to avoid dangerous strikes and cancelling s:ce. This card is better than Deathseeker.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 2 “Weird card. We´ll see if this makes ravnos combat decks more popular.”

Illusory Resources

Ashur: 2 “Ain´t nobody got time for that! Maybe had been better as a master, although master slots are scarce.”

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 2

Randyman: 2 “A bit good-bad. A nice way to make sure you don´t lose the Edge in a heads up.”

In Memory of the Two Lands

Ashur: 2 ”Master slots are scarce. Would have been more interesting if the set would have had a playable non-unique mummy ally, but that didn´t happen.”

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 2 ”I don´t see how any mummy decks will turn up in the meta.”

Nar-Sheptha

Ashur: 3

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 2 “This is somewhat what the assamites need – enhanced card flow and forcing opposed minion to be acting saves you blood and cards.”

Ophidian Gaze

Ashur: 2

Tomas: 2

Myrdin: 2 ”Bleed reduce is always worst than bleed bounce.”
Randyman: 3 “A rather well-balanced card.”

Priority Contract

Ashur: 3 “The trifleness makes this playable, but it being usable only forward is a BIG drawback.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 4 “Nice because it forces you to go forward.”

Rewilding

Ashur: 1 “The card sucks. As do Arson and Rampage. Cards like this needs more effects to be playable. Haunt is ok (if you have locations to protect), as is Conceal.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 1 ”I can´t see myself using this, not even as toilet paper.”

Saatet-ta

Ashur: 4

Tomas: 4

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 3 “Strong ally that will see play.”

Sanguine Entrapment

Ashur: 3 “Like Immortal Grapple some time, this card makes all Assmates prerange stuff playble, maybe even Thin Blood.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 3 “More combat, which isn´t needed.”

Serpent's Numbing Kiss

Ashur: 3

Tomas: 4

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 4 “Funny card. Nice at inferior becaused it´s free.”

Skaald

Ashur: 3 “Ain´t nobody got time for that!”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 1 “A weak card, because it´s only good when you are voting.”

Spiritual Guidance

Ashur: 2 “The problem is it sucks in the early part of the game, and I don´t think it´s good later either. Maybe with Liquidation.”

Tomas: 4

Myrdin: 2

Randyman: 3 “An ok complement, but it presupposes Giovanni combat, which is subpar.”

Suspension of Disbelief

Ashur: 2 “I guess that if you play a Ravnos bleed deck, without dominate and with no intention to rush/tap minions (with Deep Song), this is good.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 2 ”This doesn´t bleed hard enough for anyone to need to bounce it. It´s not a Govern.”

Randyman: 2 “Just slightly better than Computer hacking. It need´s an action modifier to motivate a bounce in the first place.”

Thing

Ashur: 4 ”I can´t really see this card becoming such a boring combo-nuisance as Reunion Kamut, as Gangrel don´t have cards equivalent to Recruitment Exercise and Watchtower: Wolves Feed. It´s rather like a nice crypt acceleration-THING that gives an incentive to mix smallcaps and bigcaps in the same deck.”

Tomas: 4

Myrdin: 3

Randyman: 3 ”An ok card that will see some play, but not much.”

Velvet Tongue

Ashur: 2

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 4

Randyman: 4 “One of my favourites in the set. It might have tough competing with Bewitching Oration, but I think I will try it to some tricky deck.”

Zephyr

Ashur: 3 “Act. Get blocked. Zephyr at inferior. Majesty. Act. Untap at end of turn = Fun. Although I don´t like playing cards that presupposes failure.”

Tomas: 3

Myrdin: 3 ”It´s like a Change of Target.”
Randyman: 4 “A good card that will see play. I like that it has an built-in motivation to play a lot of them as you have to fail your action to play it.”

So, according to the Stockholmjyhad jury, the best cards in The Unaligned are:

Saatet-ta: 15 of 20

Ennoia's Theater: 14 of 20

Serpent's Numbing Kiss: 14 of 20

Thing: 14 of 20

The worst cards are:

Blight: 7 of 20

Rewilding: 8 of 20

Illusory Resources: 8 of 20

Gift of Proteus: 8 of 20

Dam the Heart's River: 8 of 20

 

Myrdin: “I think more cards of this set will see play compared to Danse Macabre. The vampires are more measured when it comes to what other vampires they can be combined with. More of the the minion cards gives opportunity to new decks. Good work design team!”

Randyman: “Yes, it is clear that the design team now have more ‘kött på benen’ and has evolved in their work.”

Ashur: ”I would like to give extra credit to Damnans (Ginés) and the other artists. I think the artwork is very important, and I feel it´s on the same level as White Wolfs sets, if not better.”

The pdfs of all cards can be downloaded for free at vekn.net.