Breath is one of my favorite new spirits. Dumping pieces into offense Spirit kill sites is immensely satisfying or holding onto cities until they become nothing.
Spirits don’t get boring to me cuz there’s 37 spirits and I don’t play each of them that often. If I want to play stupid builds, than I make modifications to what invaders do or what I get. Always a way to make playing field equalized
If you want some build variety for Behemoth, my own usual strategy is G3 from bottom and then top. You end up down a presence from the standard build, but up a power card and had an extra action turn 1. The extra power card adds some variety, and usually means you can put off your second reclaim by a turn and catch up on presence.
@@RedReVenge007Sure. Turn 1 you G3 from bottom track. Not hitting a fire card on the draft here is a danger, but it's not the end of the world and I'll cover that case in the end. You play Lahar and either Exaltation or the card you drafted, discarding the other. In some unusual cases it makes sense to play or discard Rampage here instead. Turn 2 you G3 from top this time, playing Intimidation and either Rampage or the draft for this turn, discarding the other. Turn 3 is the empower reclaim, and depending on what cards you've played you might only have 1 energy here, but that's still enough for Exaltation and either one of the drafts or Rampage. Turn 4 you G2 from top track and play two more cards. Turn 5 you can G2 again from bottom track, underplaying by 1 unless someone else was able to give you a power gain. Alternatively you G3 from top track and grab a major power. Turn 6 you reclaim again, turn 7 you G2 from bottom track, turn 8 you either reclaim if you've been focusing bottom track or G3 from top for more majors. If you don't hit a fire card on the initial drafts, you almost always have still hit something that solves a land, which is what the innate was for anyway. And it's not fully wasted because you get the double incarna movement, which can set up some interesting trades in multiplayer. The real problem that you're temporarily down a card after the empower reclaim, so you lose most of the benefits of the build. In those cases I almost always go the top track major route, taking the G3 a turn early on turn 4. This is a build that really shines in multiplayer, when you're looking adaptability over consistency and might want to move around more. It also really benefits from one external power gain to avoid underplaying.
It’s fine if there is a path that is stronger than others in a spirit. We don’t need to play double adversaries. Wanna play a weaker build? Don’t play doubles. This way of thinking is making now think we should try playing triple adversaries, and now be bummed out that even more builds or spirits cannot handle it, and so feel like we can only play the best spirits and builds in the game. We should be bummed out that spirits often can’t handle 4 adversaries, and we can only play the best thing possible that exists in the game if we want to be consistently in the game
From a thematic perspective, I find it strange that Hearth-Vigil generates as much fear as it does, compared to certain other spirits. I mean, why is the friendly cocker spaniel more frightening than the walking mountain with glowing eyes, which levels cities as it rampages through the land?
I wonder if it wouldn't be more flavorful for Towering Roots to not be an Incarna spirit. If, instead, you could have something like a Super Sacred Site with 3 presence where some or all of the "Incarna" affects happen. And then just slap on a rule that prevents proliferation/presence movement in order to keep that from being a busted synergy, or otherwise nerf the abilities to not be busted if they can happen on more than one land at once. So it can spread but it has to grow into a single land for a long time in order to be really powerful. It seems like a spirit that could be a candidate for an Aspect in the future. Compared to things like Wandering Voice or Breath of Darkness where I just can't picture how you'd play or balance them without an Incarna. Spirits that are so tied into that constant movement.
The main issue I have with Vigil is that it's easy to get stuck in a reclaim loop and those aren't that fun. Also it reminds me of Lightning's Swift Strike in the sense that you're playing a very different game than your friends, ravages don't matter, blight is heavily negated.
The only time I played HV I misread the +4 health as being "just 4 health", we lost that game, but I'm not sure we would've won even had I been playing the correct health value. Also, this game on TTS has had really bad performance problems for me since NI was added that didn't happen when I was using the additive load mod, I'm not sure if something did happen to the mod (rough scripting) or if it's just something on my end. Has anyone else noticed performance issues since NI was added to TTS?
How does terrifying rampage skip Russia 3 explores? If the card makes 2 invanders not participate in ravages, doesn't that mean it went through?? I mean the last explore should still ravages, since it makes them not participate, but the ravages should still happen?
@@RedReVenge007 hmm the card says "choose when ravaging...", so i would think the ravage would go go through. If it does in fact block Russia lvl 3, i can see how behemoth would be way better into Russia.
@max I just checked with the lands. Yes it prevents the land from ravaging because two explorers do not participate in the ravage, which means the land no longer matches the ravage card. Similar interactions would be Lair Lure, or base Lure.
Build diversity: I have the feeling that this has actually gone down from JE to HoSI and NI. Bottom track dominates by quite a bit, especially in your videos. Everybody seems to play HV, EEB, WWB, SBWW the same. Voice has the infamous uniques only build. Sun only deviates between going top once or not at all. Roots might be the exception with diversity, but normally you also go further down bottom than top.
Can’t speak for everyone but the main thing most bottom track builds offer is consistency since you are less at mercy of bad drafts. I see plenty of people do non bottom track builds and find great success, but when a spirit has a plays focused build that can end the game, it’s usually because it’s a low variance path to victory. The big thing that shakes this up is when a spirit can’t solve an adversary with its base kit consistently, either because the adversary is high variance or because it’s a bad matchup. In these situations, having the energy and card gain freedom to flex into majors is more important to be able to get yourself out of a pickle. This is also why imo wandering voice has such a focus on using its own powers. It can both with most games with brute force fear and struggles to gain cards without sacrificing a lot elsewhere. Obviously a part of this is the nature of bad match ups. While doing flex builds into bad matchups can be fun, some of the match ups are so bad that the spirit gets demolished before getting the needed energy for its major tech builds and such. As such, people just avoid a lot of bad match ups to not have to deal with those gambles. Granted this is just my own observations/views. Lots of different play styles can work well and imo the game is at its best when spirits are encouraged to interact meaningfully with the drafting system be it minors or majors and not just spam its own cards on repeat. While it can be fun to do with some spirits, I think having spirits be equally or slightly stronger when incorporating other cards with their own is best for interesting design be it top or bottom track focused builds. Heck some of my most fun games with wandering voice were games I didn’t just reclaim my cards on loop as some of the minors and majors interact very nicely with its kit.
I disagree with this comment. HV: Has a few build paths in the early game (fast tempo T1) or value top for the energy. The spirit does diverge in the mid game aswell. The only thing is 4-5 energy tends to be worth then going for the 4th play. EEB: I agree here. WWB: I think there are multiple build paths (mainly in the cards you play and how you heal), but few decision during growth. SBWW: I prefer pure bottom track builds, but I've played with some mixed builds aswell. I think mixed builds are about equal to my underplay strat. Voice: I agree Sun: Disagree here, the spirit has 4 different builds. Pure top track, pure bottom track, mixed, and top sun finish bottom. Only pure top track is suspect, but can have some excellent matchups.
I would love to see more breath of darkness games here…I played it once a couple months ago and really enjoyed it: )
It's a spirit I keep forgetting to play.
Breath is one of my favorite new spirits. Dumping pieces into offense Spirit kill sites is immensely satisfying or holding onto cities until they become nothing.
@@blueseqperl same. I love the fear, love abducting, love dumping into a land of doom
Spirits don’t get boring to me cuz there’s 37 spirits and I don’t play each of them that often. If I want to play stupid builds, than I make modifications to what invaders do or what I get. Always a way to make playing field equalized
If you want some build variety for Behemoth, my own usual strategy is G3 from bottom and then top. You end up down a presence from the standard build, but up a power card and had an extra action turn 1. The extra power card adds some variety, and usually means you can put off your second reclaim by a turn and catch up on presence.
Doesn't this also hurt which cards you're playing since you need a second fire T1 to hit the innate?
Can you sketch out the build for me?
@@RedReVenge007Sure. Turn 1 you G3 from bottom track. Not hitting a fire card on the draft here is a danger, but it's not the end of the world and I'll cover that case in the end. You play Lahar and either Exaltation or the card you drafted, discarding the other. In some unusual cases it makes sense to play or discard Rampage here instead. Turn 2 you G3 from top this time, playing Intimidation and either Rampage or the draft for this turn, discarding the other. Turn 3 is the empower reclaim, and depending on what cards you've played you might only have 1 energy here, but that's still enough for Exaltation and either one of the drafts or Rampage. Turn 4 you G2 from top track and play two more cards. Turn 5 you can G2 again from bottom track, underplaying by 1 unless someone else was able to give you a power gain. Alternatively you G3 from top track and grab a major power. Turn 6 you reclaim again, turn 7 you G2 from bottom track, turn 8 you either reclaim if you've been focusing bottom track or G3 from top for more majors.
If you don't hit a fire card on the initial drafts, you almost always have still hit something that solves a land, which is what the innate was for anyway. And it's not fully wasted because you get the double incarna movement, which can set up some interesting trades in multiplayer. The real problem that you're temporarily down a card after the empower reclaim, so you lose most of the benefits of the build. In those cases I almost always go the top track major route, taking the G3 a turn early on turn 4.
This is a build that really shines in multiplayer, when you're looking adaptability over consistency and might want to move around more. It also really benefits from one external power gain to avoid underplaying.
It’s fine if there is a path that is stronger than others in a spirit. We don’t need to play double adversaries. Wanna play a weaker build? Don’t play doubles. This way of thinking is making now think we should try playing triple adversaries, and now be bummed out that even more builds or spirits cannot handle it, and so feel like we can only play the best spirits and builds in the game. We should be bummed out that spirits often can’t handle 4 adversaries, and we can only play the best thing possible that exists in the game if we want to be consistently in the game
I think HV’s special rule is the only dahan health buff that isn’t +2. So by nerfing it, you also make it less complex now that everything matches.
I believe Infinite Vitality makes Dahan have +4 HP.
I do think a flat +2 HP boost to Dahan is another possible nerf.
Hello other spirit island creator
i would love if warrior thunderspeaker got a similar special rule like HV but maybe increase dahan damage in some way
From a thematic perspective, I find it strange that Hearth-Vigil generates as much fear as it does, compared to certain other spirits. I mean, why is the friendly cocker spaniel more frightening than the walking mountain with glowing eyes, which levels cities as it rampages through the land?
You and me both. I think cutting some fear on it would be reasonable.
On towering roots G3: Why 3 range or 0? Would 1 range be a good option?
I wonder if it wouldn't be more flavorful for Towering Roots to not be an Incarna spirit. If, instead, you could have something like a Super Sacred Site with 3 presence where some or all of the "Incarna" affects happen. And then just slap on a rule that prevents proliferation/presence movement in order to keep that from being a busted synergy, or otherwise nerf the abilities to not be busted if they can happen on more than one land at once. So it can spread but it has to grow into a single land for a long time in order to be really powerful.
It seems like a spirit that could be a candidate for an Aspect in the future. Compared to things like Wandering Voice or Breath of Darkness where I just can't picture how you'd play or balance them without an Incarna. Spirits that are so tied into that constant movement.
The main issue I have with Vigil is that it's easy to get stuck in a reclaim loop and those aren't that fun. Also it reminds me of Lightning's Swift Strike in the sense that you're playing a very different game than your friends, ravages don't matter, blight is heavily negated.
The only time I played HV I misread the +4 health as being "just 4 health", we lost that game, but I'm not sure we would've won even had I been playing the correct health value.
Also, this game on TTS has had really bad performance problems for me since NI was added that didn't happen when I was using the additive load mod, I'm not sure if something did happen to the mod (rough scripting) or if it's just something on my end. Has anyone else noticed performance issues since NI was added to TTS?
Lonk build mentioned!
How does terrifying rampage skip Russia 3 explores? If the card makes 2 invanders not participate in ravages, doesn't that mean it went through?? I mean the last explore should still ravages, since it makes them not participate, but the ravages should still happen?
From my understanding, the land no longer matches the ravage card and won't ravage.
@@RedReVenge007 hmm the card says "choose when ravaging...", so i would think the ravage would go go through. If it does in fact block Russia lvl 3, i can see how behemoth would be way better into Russia.
@max I just checked with the lands. Yes it prevents the land from ravaging because two explorers do not participate in the ravage, which means the land no longer matches the ravage card.
Similar interactions would be Lair Lure, or base Lure.
@@RedReVenge007alright cool, thx. That really makes behemoth so much better into Russia
Build diversity: I have the feeling that this has actually gone down from JE to HoSI and NI. Bottom track dominates by quite a bit, especially in your videos.
Everybody seems to play HV, EEB, WWB, SBWW the same. Voice has the infamous uniques only build. Sun only deviates between going top once or not at all.
Roots might be the exception with diversity, but normally you also go further down bottom than top.
Can’t speak for everyone but the main thing most bottom track builds offer is consistency since you are less at mercy of bad drafts. I see plenty of people do non bottom track builds and find great success, but when a spirit has a plays focused build that can end the game, it’s usually because it’s a low variance path to victory.
The big thing that shakes this up is when a spirit can’t solve an adversary with its base kit consistently, either because the adversary is high variance or because it’s a bad matchup. In these situations, having the energy and card gain freedom to flex into majors is more important to be able to get yourself out of a pickle. This is also why imo wandering voice has such a focus on using its own powers. It can both with most games with brute force fear and struggles to gain cards without sacrificing a lot elsewhere.
Obviously a part of this is the nature of bad match ups. While doing flex builds into bad matchups can be fun, some of the match ups are so bad that the spirit gets demolished before getting the needed energy for its major tech builds and such. As such, people just avoid a lot of bad match ups to not have to deal with those gambles.
Granted this is just my own observations/views. Lots of different play styles can work well and imo the game is at its best when spirits are encouraged to interact meaningfully with the drafting system be it minors or majors and not just spam its own cards on repeat. While it can be fun to do with some spirits, I think having spirits be equally or slightly stronger when incorporating other cards with their own is best for interesting design be it top or bottom track focused builds. Heck some of my most fun games with wandering voice were games I didn’t just reclaim my cards on loop as some of the minors and majors interact very nicely with its kit.
I disagree with this comment.
HV: Has a few build paths in the early game (fast tempo T1) or value top for the energy. The spirit does diverge in the mid game aswell. The only thing is 4-5 energy tends to be worth then going for the 4th play.
EEB: I agree here.
WWB: I think there are multiple build paths (mainly in the cards you play and how you heal), but few decision during growth.
SBWW: I prefer pure bottom track builds, but I've played with some mixed builds aswell. I think mixed builds are about equal to my underplay strat.
Voice: I agree
Sun: Disagree here, the spirit has 4 different builds. Pure top track, pure bottom track, mixed, and top sun finish bottom. Only pure top track is suspect, but can have some excellent matchups.