Bravos TbF Review

     This year I’m going to change from A to F grades and am instead going to give the cards a named value to describe what I think of the card’s uses with each hero. These values are described below.

Super Hit – This is the cream of the hits. These cards go beyond a will play in the deck to a must play in the deck. An example of this is Haven, Bravos Bastion.

Hit – A card that is good enough to go into the deck. It may not be for every version of the deck, but there is a build for the hero that will likely include it.

Maybe – This is a card that is good enough to go into a deck but may get cut for numbers. It also includes cards that I think are worth trying out but may not work out in practice.

Meh – This is a card that is solid for draft, might get included for reasons of mana value or other interactions but generally is not exciting to play.

Miss – Cards that I think are actively not good and should probably not be in your deck. Generally, there will be a low number of cards in this section, but there will be some.

Mana Orb – I had to add a new category as had a card that I just couldn’t even just classify as a miss. This category means that you’d be better off with a mana orb card.

Fire Rabbit

The first card on the list is a hot one, even in these cold climates. Bravos has really lacked a good 1 cost card that can be played from the hand as well as the reserve. The best we’ve had so far is Isun Boshi, but I suspect he will be replaced or supplemented in decks by the Fire Rabbit. We are getting the same total stats as an Isun Boshi for the common, but we have a option to give the rabbit fleeting and an extra boost to another character. Now giving the rabbit fleeting might not be as bad as you think. There’s a lot of support in the set for a fleeting strategy and potentially removing it again, so we can get nearly 2 mana’s worth of stats here for 1 mana. Now we do need another character in play, but with Booda around we don’t even need to cast one.

Kojo – Hit. I think that with Arcolano Milk rare, the Fire Rabbit can get very good very quickly. You can give the rabbit two boosts, and the rabbit can give itself fleeting to give a character in the other expedition a boost. Then if you can remove that fleeting, the rabbit is a 3/3/2 for 1 and you have another boost in the other expedition as well. Really good value.

Basira – Hit. The rabbit is a cheap option that Basira can use to not only provide a cheap after you but also fire off a boost onto a seasoned character. Because the fire rabbit gives the boost from hand it allows you to start the chain to use Basira’s boost. In the past Basira struggled to be able to use her ability on turn 1, but not anymore!

Atsadi – Hit. The ability to play a 1 cost character to after you before playing your big character in Atsdai is pretty crucial. However, there are also options to use the rabbit to add an extra boost to gigantic characters, meaning that

Haven Seringar

We are now two for two of good cards for Bravos. In Beyond the Gates Bravos lacked any common card draw. This has now been rectified. Now this card draw is only just as you are about to lose him, but I’ll take a draw over none. Yes, he is one stat down on average, BUT his largest stat is in forest which given Rin’s boost in the set is a good thing. The rare for Bravos is utterly forgettable for the most part but has the odd use. The common is gold though.

Kojo – Hit. Card draw in Bravos is so rare that this has to be good. The fact that Milk can make him fleeting straight away and you can get the card draw even sooner is pretty good too. It’s a nice two cost as well, which means its quite playable in the deck.

Basira – Hit. Again, Basira needs the card draw. It’s possible that Basira could use the rare for the boost to trigger her ability, but I don’t think it’s a necessary upgrade and I would just stick to the common as Haven usually gives the boost from reserve.

Atsadi – Maybe. Atsadi has his own card draw so isn’t as sensitive to drawing that Kojo and Basira. Having said that it’s a good 2 drop that would fit Atsadi if it can be fitted in around the other bits you need to put in the deck.

Skaldi

This card is useful in that it’s a two-cost card that can sabotage / interact with the opponent. The stats from hand are a little over the odds and on the common a little under the odds (I’m currently thinking exhaust is worth about ½ a mana). So, its reasonably strong as a common, but obviously the rare is better, though will need some targeted play to get the most out of it.

Kojo – Maybe. I think its quite playable in Kojo. The fact that its over the odds in mountain is good as with rare milk it will have 5 mountain stat and completely immune to an avalanche. The interaction is nice as a little bonus and the common is definitely better than the common Pathfinder in Kojo, so I think it can have a place in the deck.

Basira – Maybe. Again, it will be solid in Basira, but I can see fewer arguments to play it here unless you are looking at a non-Haven build for Basira. Since it has neither sabotage nor boosts its not a traditional Basira card. However, if you are trying a new build with rare milk then it might have a place as an aggro control card in the deck.

Atsadi – Meh. I’m not sure that it has enough specific use in Atsadi to get played much. You certainly could play this, but I think it will get cut for numbers.

Bravos Trailblazer

The Bravos Trailblazer is a combo card that kind of goes with all the other fleeting matters card in the set. The common you are getting what you pay for .. a 2/2/2 for 2 and a 3/3/3 for 3 with a potential upside from hand if you playing are more characters from reserve. The rare could get very silly amounts of boosts with a big Arcolano Milk rare play on one side and then play this on the other side.

Kojo – Hit. The floor on the card is just fine, but in a rare Milk build the ceiling could be very goof. This could easily be a 6/6/6 for 2 mana in the right circumstances. Even a 4/4/4 for 2 is good.

Basira – Hit. This can gain boosts from hand or reserve for Basira which is already a good start to activate Basira’s ability. The ceiling on the rare is very good and may replace some of the less explosive cards in the deck.

Atsadi – Meh. I just don’t see enough synergies with Atsadi to make this playable with him

Bravos Rescuer

The Bravos rescuer I feel is fine, but nothing to write home about. The common is completely on stat (effectively a Bravos Pathfinder with a boost for 1 mana) but also has a neat support ability that can help the whole fleeting theme. The two things that could against the common are 1) it has a low forest stat. If Rin decks really kick off, then I feel that we don’t want to have low forest stats. 2) The common Haven Warrior has 1 more point of stats for the same cost. Now I’m not ruling this out because of the support ability but it’s not an auto include, even though I really love the illustration.

Kojo – Maybe. This has possibilities in the Bravos Milk build, but I feel that there are better cards that will push this one out. If you are playing Techno Boots, then this kind of has anti synergy with that alas.

Basira – Meh. It costs 3 mana and doesn’t have seasoned or provide boosts unless the other character has fleeting. I’m not sure Basira wants this unless there’s a really good build with Arcolano Milk.

Atsadi – Miss. I honestly can’t see Atsadi wanting this. If its not a ramp card, removal, protection of a big dude then its not really for Atsadi’s deck. Whilst giving a fleeting gigantic character is nice, I just can’t see it come up often enough to matter for the cost.

Gericht, Revered Duelist

This has the capabilities of being the broken card in the set. There are currently Unique cards out there with ‘When a character you control gains a boost, target character gains fleeting’ out there. This becomes a two-card loop that can be generated 100 times. The common therefore can get very big, but you need something to remove that final fleeting. The rare does not have that issue and is liked a souped-up Sun Wukong. Now Gericht doesn’t have quite the same stats as Sun Wukong when played fairly, BUT the rare can never ever be made fleeting to remove it since it always turns it into a boost. I think this is very strong. Having said that there are limits to the number of 3 / 4 mana cards you can play.

Kojo – Hit. This is definitely a player for Kojo. If they don’t have specific removal or sabotage, then it’s very hard to get rid of Geiricht. If you have a decent Unique to go with this, it will be very strong. When played with rare Arcolano milk he gets 3 boosts from hand and never gets that fleeting which is strong.

Basira – Hit. Geiricht will always gain a boost from reserve and is very hard to actually get rid of. I can see him doing very well in a Basira deck as he will always activate Basira’s ability from reserve.

Atsadi – Meh. Whilst I think Geiricht is strong, I just don’t see him fitting Atsaidi’s deck style. It’s possible he could be played alongside another card we’ll come to, but you’d need to have the combo in hand to play it and I think its not as strong as other interactions for Atsadi.

Akhlut

This one is more of a control card and may have trouble finding a home. Basically, it can exhaust cards in your opponent’s reserve each time it gets a batch of boosts. Now if you can put lots of individual boosts on Akhlut, then you can lock your opponent’s reserve right down for the turn. The rare makes it cheaper from reserve and gives the free boost from hand as well as reserve which means it’s a free exhaust every time you play it.

Kojo – Meh. I think that there are better cards to use with Kojo in his new builds. He doesn’t often get many individual boosts, instead getting the odd boost or group of boosts, so I don’t think this will be as useful as it will elsewhere. I don’t think it will be terrible, but I suspect that it will get cut for numbers most times.

Basira – Maybe. I can see there being a Basira more controlling build that is possible with TbF. This could use a lot of sabotage and exhaust abilities on top of seasoned cards. I don’t know whether it will be good or not, but it may be something that is worth trying out.

Atsadi – Miss. I don’t think this belongs in Atsadi. Costing four is harsh for Atsadi as it doesn’t draw a card or naturally synergize with anything else in the deck.

Amarok

This is an early reveal that I really don’t love. We are paying five mana for a 4/3/3 which is well under stats for the cost. The catch being that if the expedition is empty, we can pay two less to get a 4/3/3 for 3. This means that for Atsadi he can potentially play this turn 1 and draw a card and win a side. Now that is the high-water mark of the card. Let’s have a look at the downside for this card then. Any other character that joins the expedition gets sacrificed. So you can’t really play anything else to that lane after playing Amarok and if you want the discount you can’t play anything beforehand.

It gets worse than that. If you are playing Asadi with gigantic, then they would be entering that lane and get sacrificed. A mean Lyra or Axiom player can hook other characters into Amorak and have them sacrificed.

The rare isn't much better, though getting a boost for you sacrife can at least give you what you are paying for it (as long as the thing only costs 1 mana). Fire Rabbit made fleeting could feed it two boosts, but I don't thinks its good and I can't really see this getting played.

Kojo – Miss. I can’t see Kojo wanting to play this. I mean Booda getting eaten – Noooo!

Basira – Miss. Again, I don’t see a use for this card in Basira.

Atsadi – Miss. Despite the one potential good use case, the downsides are too great to play this.

Eros

Eros is a big card that requires seven mana to play, you are however getting a 3/6/6 for you seven mana and a free 3 cost character card. This free card should offset the slight stat disadvantage and make you a profit. The one problem though might be if you don’t have that 3-mana card in hand, in which case you are overpaying for you 3/6/6.

Kojo – Maybe. There is a Kojo ramp strategy, and this card could fit into that strategy quite nicely. I think its certainly worth trying in that strategy.

Basira – Miss. I don’t think that this card is for Basira. Sure, she can use it, but I don’t feel it fits her strategy.

Atsadi – Hit. This is just the kind of card that Atsadi loves. It will draw a card with Atsadi and allows you 2 plays with your 7 mana, meaning you are not just relying on getting one card out with it. Since most of your low-cost stuff is ramp, you should hopefully ramp as well as you big card. With Eat Me Bars he can also be a nice gigantic character too.

Geyser

This combines Intimidation and Mana Channelling into one spell, which in theory saves you a card in your deck. I can see that it’s a ‘two spells for one deal’, but I just think this is a bit expensive. Removal that costs four or more should actually permanently remove the problem, unless of course the problem is mitigated by you having something really good yourself and lots of mana.

Kojo – Meh. Generally, Kojo likes to play low to the ground and fast. I think this is a bit expensive for a glorified intimidation with ramp. There is a use case for this on turn 2 to send a big character back to an opponent’s hand and ramp so there’s no expeditions moving, but I feel that Kojo wants to go fast.

Basira – Meh. Again, I don’t think that Basira has a use case for this spell.

Atsadi – Maybe. I think this is worth trying with Atsadi because he can afford the extra mana to do the Intimidation and ramp which can further his cause and prevent a lane from the opponent advancing. I’m not sure it will definitely work, but its worth a try.

Mana Flare

Equinox game designers please look away whilst I have a rant. This is the worst card in the set, it’s not even close and I see no real good use for it. Basically, you have to pay four mana to be able to get a 5-mana discount from a character. Essentially this is almost exactly the same as the support ability on several cards that gives 1 mana discount on your next play …. Except its restricted to being played with cards that cost at least 5 and since the spell is fleeting you only get to do it once.

The common even only gives you that 1 mana discount if you let your character have fleeting as well. The rare kindly removes that restriction, but why would you not play a card with that support ability instead of giving yourself two lots of card disadvantage just to play a big character 1 turn early.

If you were going to play a big character one turn early why not ramp the turn before instead, then you’ll get the extra mana the rest of the game rather than playing a 4-mana card disadvantage do nothing spell. I’ve heard a number of corner cases for when this card might potentially be useful, but the times these cases might come up are so few and far between I’d much rather play the certain route.

Kojo – Mana Orb. Definitely not.

Basira – Mana Orb. No, just don’t do it.

Atsadi – Mana Orb. Even Atsadi does not want this and there’s a marginal case that he could possibly use it.

Technical Boots

This card doesn’t look like much, but I think it will be part of a new deck architype. Bravos suffers from two big problems at the moment. Firstly, our card throughput is really quite difficult to manage. There’s very little to no common draw in Bravos (see earlier card) and thus anything that we get needs to be analysed. Secondly Bravos has a lot of stuff that has native fleeting or can give itself fleeting. Getting rid of fleeting is a way of gaining pseudo card advantage, which will help our decks retain more cards to reuse. These boots were made for walking and the common solves the second problem, with the rare helping to solve both. The rare will potentially give us two resupplies over time.

Kojo – Hit. I think that this will form part of a Milky Boots fleeting build in Kojo and this will be played. The rare is better, but the common may be seen as good enough.

Basira – Hit. This is a technology that I think Basira can use. It can give us more resupply and potentially replace helping hand to remove fleeting more and more for your Bladedancers, Red’s and Pathfinders. Now your Pathfinders and Reds with a bunch of boosts can come back more than once.

Atsadi – Maybe. I don’t think that Atsadi wants this bit of technology, but I could see him using it. Late game you can get a third use out of your Kaibara or another big monster. It’s not a primary use case though so I can see this not being the ideal build.

Arcolano Milk

The Arcolano Milk is perhaps one the more significant new cards in the set for Bravos. It was shown off first for a reason, but I don’t think people realised just how significant it actually is in bringing forth a new archetype for the Bravosi. The set has lots of support for a fast, fleeting strategy and I think that the rare milk (which gives 2 boosts per card) is strong as the fleeting disadvantage can easily be mitigated.

Kojo – Super Hit. I’m pretty certain that there will be a new architype with the rare milk in it. Getting 2 boosts for each character played in the expedition is just too tempting with tokens and cards from reserve really won’t worrying about getting fleeting. 

Basira – Hit. I think Basira can make use out of Milk as well with a build using a targeted common milk or tow to be able to start a boost chain, using Helping Hand to maybe mitigate the disadvantage on a seasoned character. Of course, the rare would play even better, but the deck might struggle to fit the extra rare in.

Atsadi – Meh. I don’t think that Atsadi wants this as it will struggle to fit the extra card in the deck and make you avoid having to mitigate the fleeting. Milk wants lots of characters played to it, whereas Atsadi wants fewer, bigger, characters to be played.

Eat Me Energy Bars

You know what the hyperactive Bravosi needs? Eat Me Energy Bars to keep them going through the Tumult. I feel that perhaps Basira is strong enough she doesn’t need it and Kojo is already hyper. However, Atsadi is a bit too relaxed and needs to eat his energy bars. It looks like Bravos is getting its fair share of the gear in this set and not just the Axiom getting things to tinker with. The bars can make a character gigantic if it’s the only character in the expedition.

This is a very useful little tool for when you don’t have that many native gigantic creatures in your Atsadi deck. The rare Shenlong now becomes a 9/9/9 gigantic for six mana, which can’t be sniffed at. The question though is do we want to play the common or the rare version. My guess is that with the ramp we have that the common should be fine as we get to use it twice. The rare version might be one cheaper, but once our expedition succeeds that’s it gone. Whilst there are plenty of ways to remove fleeting from a character, I’ve yet to see a way to remove fleeting from a permanent.

Kojo – Maybe. There’s a Kojo ramp deck out there that might want this. I can’t see standard Kojo or Kojo Foundry wanting this, but the ramp version might try this.

Basira – Meh. Basira decks tend to be pretty low to the ground with the small characters getting boosts. I can’t see that changing and I really think there’s better gear out there for Basira.

Atsadi – Hit. I think that there will be builds with the Energy bars in them to give a late game push, especially with Eros who can combine your low-cost characters with a big play. Making Eros or Shenlong gigantic is a dream play, though may still suffer from being removed.

Icebound Peak

The Icebound Peak is a very interesting card. It’s a delated 6/6/6 character with a charge for all you other characters. Now charge alone costs 2 mana in Ordis, so here we are effectively paying no mana for a 6/6/6 dragon spirit token. I feel that this is actually a pretty good deal. The challenges around this card are: -

1) You will struggle to control exactly when this will activate. You opponent could set it off prematurely by giving one of your characters fleeting for instance.

2) This will take up a landmark slot for a period of time so may limit you having 2 Bravos Havens out (which is a good strategy).

Kojo – Hit. I think that with the new idea around fleeting using Arcolano Milk and Technical Boots we could see some of these as well. Characters could come in with fleeting from milk and then get it removed with boots and helping hand. This would accelerate out your charge and dragon spirit which would be very worth it. I feel the rare would be the better play here as the cost reduction is so much more usable without sacrificing an expedition, especially on a Booda turn.

Basira – Maybe.  I think it’s possible that Basira could play the odd one of these, but I see other cards coming into her deck in preference.

Atsadi – Maybe. I think that having the odd one or two of these in your Atsadi build won’t be a bad move. You will build up the counters over time and with your mana advantage should be able to play enough stuff (and big stuff) to make this addition 6/6/6 count. Plus, Atsadi doesn’t usually play a lot of other landmarks currently.

Out of Faction Bravos Cards

The Little Match Girl

The Little Match Girl only benefits you when you are poor on cards. The benefit being that you get to draw a single card. If you are down so low on cards then you need the draw, however you are not going to be in that situation many times you want to play it. It’s a nice little extra, but you’re only getting 5 stats from hand for 2 mana and those same 5 stats for 3 mana from reserve, but you are not guaranteed a draw for it.

Kojo – Maybe. If the fleeting strategy makes you run out of cards really quickly then she might be a viable option, however there are likely other options that might be better in this situation. The Common Geiricht in Bravos being one of them.

Basira – Meh. Ditto on what I said about Kojo, but probably less useful as there’s no boost synergy or seasoned on it.

Atsadi – Miss. I just don’t see Atsadi (who draws you cards already) being the one who is going to run out of cards for you.

The Snowman

The Snowman is an odd card since it’s kind of doing a weird impression of the common Bravos Tracer. Bravos Tracer common has a guaranteed 3/3/3 for 2 mana but also has a guaranteed fleeting. Now here 5/8 of the time we are getting nearly the same stats (1 stat point off) for the same mana. So, The Snowman compares favourably provided you can control when you play it. If you can’t play it from reserve, you then have a support ability to give an exhauster resupply (worth around ½ mana in my view). Now card draw is quite an issue for Bravos, but this is not instant draw, so you need to have space for this resupply in your reserves lest you may just be ditching this card anyway. There is one more thing to consider with this card. I think that the new fleeting architype might be helped by this card. It can be used to help trigger Icebound Peak faster. It can be played into Arcolano Milk when required without worry of getting that extra fleeting, so it can’t be ruled out in my view.

Kojo – Maybe. A Kojo Milky Boots build could see a use for this card using Arcolano Milk (rare) and Technical Boots (common). The main issue I could see with it is that it could get cut for rare numbers.

Basira – Meh. I don’t think that Basira wants this card. It doesn’t have seasoned nor interact with boosts, so it doesn’t fit her theme at all. Basira currently has better options.

Atsadi – Meh. I really don’t think that Atsadi wants this card. With all the ramp cards at the low end, I don’t think that Atsadi wants this. It’s not impossible to play, but I think Atsadi currently has better options.

The Magic Sleigh

This is a really fun card that can lead to interesting gameplay. My challenge with this card is that it costs 3 mana and can only be used once. Generally speaking, I have found 3 mana permanents harder to justify in Bravos. I tried out Spindle in Atsadi but never really found the opportunity to cast it. Now here if you play the Magic Sleigh and end up giving up an expedition you need to then make sure that it succeeds in moving forward to get your double advance. Now there is a potential that with some timing this could almost be like a small step, but it may not gain you the advantage you think and is a risky play. With Santa in Lyra playing this for free I can see it being really good, but currently there is no way to reduce permanent or gear costs, so I’m not too hopeful.

Kojo – Meh. Kojo wants to rush so I’m not sure how much opportunity that this has to get going.

Basira – Meh. I can’t see Basira giving up her play style to play this. It’s possible I guess but the mana is tight in Basira, and I can’t see them wanting to play this on top of Haven.

Atsadi – Maybe. I could see a world in which Atsadi plays the sleigh to catch back up after early loses to other heroes whilst he ramps. He is more predictable in being able to advance and sometimes will have spare mana to be able to force a double move on one side rather than trading expeditions one for one. As a result, this could be a tool for him, but he has been given several gear that he could play and we will need to look at which one ends up being the one to be played.

Saskia, Sly Naturalist

A three mana 4/4/4 is good. The problem for Saskia is that she is only a 2/2/2 and relies on having another character around to give her boosts to, and then only 5/8 ths of the time. I don’t think its unplayable, but the rare Haven Warrior is just 100% better as it always is a 4/4/4, and it has a support ability.

Kojo – Meh. I don’t think Kojo wants this. Yes, he can play the card, but I think that he can do better for the mana cost.

Basira – Maybe. Basira works off boosts for her ability to work and this gives boosts both from hand and reserve. Now the character that she boosts has to be in forest so there’s a bit of a restriction to this as well.

Atsadi – Meh. I don’t think Atsadi wants a 3-mana card that doesn’t ramp or do anything special. I mean its playable but not keyed into the strategy.

Yeti

This is a card that I’m quite excited about for Bravos. The ability to bring this in and sleep it in an expedition – say one with Milk in it that you’re going to win anyway, makes this is a strong double turn one expedition charge that you only have to pay for one.

Kojo – Hit. I am pretty excited for this card for Bravos as you can tell. Play it first and all your other characters get a boost when coming into play. Essentially a Haven for cards played from both hand and reserve that has reasonable stats of its own. It only costs 3 from hand as well so with The Hatter or Floral Tent’s support ability you can anchor it and get it for two turns to make it even more useful.

Basira – Hit. Again, I like this card in Basira. It’s another character that can give those boosts that the seasoned characters that Basira plays need without needing to cast non character spells on them. With Haven out, they will get the double boost which means that the deck can play well without finding Haven.

Atsadi – Maybe. Its not a card that screams to me ‘must play’ in Atsadi but the presence of Floral Tent gives me pause that this might be playable. However, I think that there’s two things against that. 1) Fire Rabbit is just cheaper and easier to play to give the boost required to protect the larger character and 2) you really want to be boosting multiple other characters to get the best value for this and with Atsadi you are likely only playing one large character. So you won’t get full value for it.

Mighty Simbi

Ramp is fairly prolific in Bravos so getting some ramp as an OOF means that it has to be better than what we are getting in faction to be playable. The problem for Mighty Simbi is that his brother Mighty Jinn is just out and out always better at rare for Bravos. Not only does it always ramp you, but it also gives you a choice to draw a card.

Kojo – Miss. Mighty Jinn would be played ahead of this.

Basira – Miss. Mighty Jinn would be played ahead of this.

Atsadi – Meh. It’s possible that if Atsadi needed more ramp that he could play this, though my suspicions is, that it is probable that he won’t.

Leshy

Leshy is a card on another level that might be a very god metagame call. If there are a lot of Rin decks around all playing the conversion cards that make expedition biomes as forests, then this will get much better. So, if all four expeditions are in forest, then this is a 5 mana 8/8/8 which is well above rate.

Kojo – Meh. The Kojo ramp deck might want to use this, but a normal Kojo deck will normally curve much lower than five and I think Leshy will be left behind.

Basira – Meh. Basira again wants lower costed cards, so I can’t see her using this even though there is a potentially high upside if you can afford to pay the 5 mana.

Atsadi – Maybe. I think that Leshy is very playable, particularly in a deck utilising Eat Me bars that can make him gigantic. There are other good options for him at 5, but I feel he is definitely an option for an Atsadi player as he can get big, draw a card at 5 and potentially with Eat Me bars be gigantic.

Demeter

Demeter is actually a pretty nice card, though more so in its home faction than with Bravos. The ability to have her stay around for up to 3 turns is really nice, though unlike the Muna version you won’t have as much control in that. The best you can hope for is that you can see the region coming ahead and can play her so that she will effectively be anchored. Her stats are a little below par, but if she’s coming in effectively anchored, then they are really good.

Kojo – Maybe. It’s not that it’s a bad card, it’s just I don’t think it fits Kojo’s strategy. I could see the odd one of these getting played as a surprise within a Kojo deck, but not a full set of these.

Basira – Meh. There’s no synergy with Basira, who really wants her rares to co-ordinate with her boost ability. Demeter is not bad with Basira, but I just can’t see a reason to play her over all the other rare options available.

Atsadi – Hit. I think there’s a pretty good case for Demeter to replace Son of Yggdrasil in his deck in the six-slot. Having Demeter out for multiple turns may be better than the gigantic over one turn and you can save your mana for more big plays next turn.

Sow

Initially I was higher on this one, but I’ve tempered my enthusiasm a bit because the anchored support ability doesn’t really help Atsadi’s big guys. The second reason I’m down on this spell is that Helping Hand does more. It gives us the boost as well as removing fleeting which is something that is going to be valuable for Kojo going forward and possibly other Bravos heroes too. The support ability though is interesting and might see a little play, but the rare cost on this will be hard to justify.

Kojo – Meh. I think Kojo will play common Helping Hand instead of this if they want this effect.

Basira – Maybe. I think that the best chance of this getting some play might be in Basira as the support ability can easily anchor Pathfinders, Bladedancers and Reds. Once they’ve soaked up a number of boosts, you can use the zero-cost support ability to keep the character out and also before hand use the boost as a turn 1 play to get the Basira boost. Now I’m not sure that it will make the cut but its an option worth trying.

Atsadi – Meh. The anchored ability doesn’t really benefit Atsadi and if he wants the boost from a spell I think he’ll play common helping hand instead. It’s not unplayable with Atsadi and the boost will help a Floral Tent strategy. I just think that giving up a rare slot for this will be too much.

Floral Tent

Protecting your characters, especially for a cheap amount is a good thing to do. Getting card draw or resupply is also good. Haven only gives you the resupply once, but the tent can give you two resupplies and also has a potential to anchor down something big with its support ability. Being able to protect boosted characters is also pretty good, though there may be a limit to how good that is.

Kojo – Hit. Kojo tends to have fewer boosts, and the tent is a good way of getting card throughput as well as some protection. As a result, I think it could well have a place, but Bravos has a lot of useable gear and can only play so much. This is much cheaper than Spindle though to play.

Basira – Maybe. The main issue that I have with Floral Tent in Basira is that Basira tends to put lots of boosts on their seasoned characters, which means that if they get removed, they will potentially lose a load of boosts, which is most of their value. It maybe that there is another build which has fewer boosts and more throughput, so I’m not discounting this card in Basira.

Atsadi – Maybe. This is a cheaper way of protecting your characters, however Atsadi often does not have much of a good way of getting boosts on their characters. A build with things like Leshy in it might do okay though and I can see it possibly being used here.

Valemon

This is such a cool picture, and I like that Valemon is a noble animal. The drawback of being a defender is a big ask in Bravos and realistically the only hero that will regularly and easily get to 10 mana will be Atsadi. However generally this will be on one of the last few turns of the game, so early on this will be a 4 mana 5/5/5 with of without defender. Seeing as he doesn’t cost five he doesn’t give us a card draw from Atsadi.

Kojo – Meh. I cannot see Kojo wanting a four-cost character, especially one that is normally going to have defender. Even a Kojo ramp deck is not really going to want this. It just doesn’t do enough for us to mitigate the downside and we have no other way of cheating and doing that since Mobile Armory went to Yzmir.

Basira – Miss. I cannot see Basira regularly getting ten or more mana orbs or wanting this.

Atsadi – Meh. I think this is meant to be for Atsadi, but getting 10 mana or more is going to be very late game. By this time, we can cast Kaibara. Now being able to play this for cheap is nice at that time, but before then it’s just a blocker or a slightly above average play. If Atsadi got some really super ramp, then it may be more of an option. Maybe one to r-examine next expansion.

Benzaiten

Card draw is good. Lots of stats are good. So, this is bound to be good right? Err well I’m not so sure. Big characters in Altered suffer from two issues. Firstly, they get overtaken by two or three cards that can be played more tactically to overcome them, or just plain play in the other lane from them. Being behind is not a good thing to be as well. Secondly the more you spend on a single character the more mana efficient a removal spell is against it.

Kojo – Miss. Maybe in Kojo ramp, but even then, I’m not sure it would get a spot.

Basira – Miss. I can’t see Basira wanting a six-cost card.

Atsadi – Maybe. Atsadi tends to be behind on expeditions early, so it’s quite probable that the ability will activate to draw you another card. So, this is an interesting six cost option, but its probably behind Son of Yggdrasil, Shenlong, Demeter and Asmodeus in the pecking order for that spot.

Aroro, Savior of Asgartha

This is perhaps the worst card that Bravos could get. I understand why it’s been put into Bravos as it’s a relatively big card for a midrange amount, but it is not the card we are looking for. First of all, we are paying four mana plus discarding a character from reserve to give us a 5/5/5 from hand. This is almost bang on for the mana (self-sabotage is worth about 1 mana), so here we are getting what we are paying for. However, we have to have a character card in the reserve, but with Haven we are not incentivised to get rid of our characters from reserve. Spells maybe, but not characters. We already have a 5 cost 5/5/5 in Achilles common and he comes with Tough 1. Atlas common gives us 6 points of stats across both expeditions. Now I know we are technically only paying 4 mana here, but the reserve is giving us a 3/3/3 for 3 which is bang on par and does nothing for us. What makes it even worse is that it costs 4, the man cost that the majority of removal hits.

Kojo – Miss. I cannot see Kojo wanting this. Giving up a rare slot is too big a price when there are in faction commons that are better that this all round.

Basira – Miss. Basira has a slightly better time with this as she can give Aroro an extra boost from hand, but I really don’t this is what Basira needs and there are better options.

Atsadi – Miss. Does it ramp? No! Does it cost five or more? Nope! Does it have any synergies with Atsadi? Nope! Does Atsadi want this? No!

Freeze

Freeze is Bravos’ main removal spell for the set. Although technically Geyser is removal it is not exactly permanent as they can just replay the card if they have the mana. Since this one is a rare it will mean drafting Bravos with TbF will probably need to be with factions that have good removal in them, or you’ll need to get lucky to get one of these in your packs. Now if their character isn’t fleeting then they may get to use it on the following turn, but it will at least remove the problem for now and it is not restricted by mana cost or other such state of the card or have any other downside. Indeed, making a card exhausted may mean that the opponent has to discard something good from their reserve at the end of the turn.

The main issue is that it costs four, which for a Bravos deck is quite steep, though you can use it on a subsequent turn as it doesn’t have fleeting. It’s not a bad spell; I just wish it cost 3 (though I guess you can say that for a lot of cards that I wish it cost 1 less).

Kojo – Meh. I don’t think speedy Kojo decks will want this. Its playable definitely, but I see that they need more mana efficient spells. Currently both Mana Reaping and Mana Eruption would be ahead of this for constructed for me. Bravos Kojo ramp could possibly play this, I guess.

Basira – Meh. I guess you can read the same as the Kojo section with the exception that Kojo ramp wouldn’t apply. I think this is okay but just gets beaten out by better removal.

Atsadi – Maybe. Atsadi really relies on ramping quickly to outperform the opponent on mana. The two best Bravos removal spells either a) discard one of your own mana orbs or b) ramp your opponent. Neither of these are things you particularly want to do. So, this might be a better option for Atsadi and perhaps worth a try in that deck.