Storm of Souls Preview: Enlightenedon Friday, 07 October 2011. Posted in News ArchiveBy Mike Rosenberg
When heroes of Vigil need guidance, knowledge, or training, there is one world that will always have what they need: Arha and the Enlightened faction.
The Enlightened have been known for being a powerful support faction. Players have become acquainted with the knowledge-seeking world by using card-selection tools such as Temple Librarian, Monster killers such as Arha Templar, and training Heroes such as Arha Sensei. The Enlightened cards help a player smooth out their draws while improving their deck's strength.
With Ascension: Storm of Souls, the Enlightened have continued to pursue their old goals while having some more defining cards. They not only care about seeking knowledge, but also finding artifacts that help guide the player's way to victory. For those of you checking our BoardGameGeek previews, you may have seen one of those Constructs with Dreamer's Glass. There are two other Enlightened Constructs in the set. Here's one of them:
It's happened to all of us. You don't really want to clog up your Rune deck (or Power deck) with another Mystic or Heavy Infantry. That leaves you with spare Apprentices. Often in the early game your Militia may be rarely used to defeat any Monsters. Sometimes you only have two Militia, which translates to one honor.
Treasures of the Study finds value in any two cards, and is the perfect discard outlet for your starting deck cards if you have no use for them during your turn. In fact, if you are a Power or Lifebound deck, then Treasures of the Study is easily worth the discard cost each turn. 3 honor each turn adds up quick! Imagine getting this with a 5 Rune starting hand in the first two turns, and watch how quickly the honor adds up over the entire game.
Treasures of the Study is also worth a solid 3 honor at the end of the game, and is also a Construct which allows it to work well with cards like Brazer Drone.
Of course, the Enlightened are also going to be good at what they've done best in sets 1 and 2. They've always been good at filtering through your deck, finding you the key Heroes you need for your big turns. Cards like Temple Librarian have always been powerful Heroes to pick up as a result. And, unexpectedly, this one will also be popular for the same reasons.
The Elder Skeptic costs one more than Temple Librarian, but has the added benefit of letting you see the two cards before you have to decide what to discard. This is a perk that I am personally very happy with, given the number of times that the discard for Temple Librarian was a burden if I was discarding a Militia and would then have to shuffle it back into my deck once I drew my two cards.
Digging two cards before the discard also give you more options overall. Once you see those two cards, you will know what you'll need to discard, rather than having to guess which card you won't need with Temple Librarian.
Of course, there is also the possibility that you won't really need to know what to discard. On that note, how awesome would it be if you could turn one Apprentice or Militia into 3 honor instead of needing two with your Treasures of the Study?
When the Enlightened has their Event active, these things are possible.
The effect of Arha Rising can get really ridiculous, really fast for anyone with a ton of discard outlets in their deck. Elder Skeptic becomes an Ascetic of the Lidless Eye. Treasures of the Study becomes an honor gain rate matched or beaten by only Lifebound cards. If you pair the Events with the older sets for Ascension, then Temple Librarian becomes an even cheaper Ascetic, Hectric Scribe becomes an Elder Skeptic, and so on. With all the extra cards you can potentially keep in your hand over enough turns of Arha Rising being active, your turns can go from buying or defeating 5 and 6 cost cards to buying and defeating 7 and 8 cost cards!
The Event Trophy effect that the Fanatic gains is also very explosive. There's nothing like having an Always Available Minotaur Trophy effect at your disposal. Get the Fanatic Trophy, and either use it immediately to find what you need or save it and potentially use it on your next turn to set up a big buy or a big kill.
If you have a Power heavy hand, then it can often become a Tormented Soul, as you can keep Banishing your Trophy to draw more cards that let you beat up on the Fanatic even more. Draw more Power, spend more power to defeat the Fanatic, draw a card with its Trophy, and so on!
Ascension: Storm of Souls is due out in late November, and the Enlightened are bringing some sweet new tools to help you fight off Samael's old minions and the new threats that are terrorizing Vigil!
原文地址：http://www.ascensiongame.com/news-archive/item/storm-of-souls-preview-enlightened
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