Got my new Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn decks!

I finally opened my two new acquisitions from Plaid Hat Games, the Masters of Gravity and the Path of Assassins expansions! Let's take a look.

I'll start by looking at the Path of Assassins expansion. There were previews here, here, and here, already, but nothing beats having the product in your hand. Jericho seems to be focused on directly killing the opposing Phoenixborn (hence the name, haha). What's really interesting about this deck is the lack of power symbols on any cost! An entire deck with cards tailored around only the basic die symbol. That's pretty awesome, and with all the basic magic symbol costs on these cards, it'll give us players a lot more options when building decks.

Back of Jericho Kill's box

Well, most of the cards that are part of the deck were already previewed in articles, and the rest will be on the Ashes deck builder in no time, so I'm going to post the rest here!

Spear Master! Well, I despise that discard cost, but a three attack Battle Advantage Unit that only costs basic magic symbols is going to find a use, I think. She'll be able to do a lot of damage to your opponent's defenders, and help you win that attrition war, or get an opening to put some real damage onto the Phoenixborn.

I'm not sure I'll get a whole lot of use from Squire outside of this expansion deck. Buuuuuuut, card draw is always nice, and with the one Deluxe, there certainly are good ways to make some use of it. Still, probably better ways to go about getting your draw.

I'm not sure what I'll do with Hand Tricks. Spend a basic die to draw a card and get a basic die... with the cost of this card as well. This feels like a card that could make some pretty great combo deck work, should such a set of cards make it worthwhile. I'll give it some thought.

The other expansion in The Masters of Gravity, with Echo Greystorm as the Phoenixborn. Previews for this were posted here, here, and here.

Back of Echo Greystorm's box

He uses dice from the two recently released deluxe expansions in roughly equal numbers (slightly more focused on Divine), including cards with Parallel Costs, that can be paid for with either Divine or Sympathy magic.

Let's take a look at the other cards in this expansion.

Law of Fear is going to be a great finishing card. Put it out, increase some attack values, and then hammer your opponent, who has to pay some precious resources (or wounds) to stop you. There's potential to set up some great endings with this card, I can't wait to actually use it!

Holy Relics seems fine. I've tried using an Orrick deck that just maxes out some Gobi Sunshields to make them brutal, and this would fit in nicely. Pretty straightforward.

This feels a bit pricey for the ability, but coupled with all the other exhaustion manipulation available in this particular deck, Enlightenment is probably a great card. There are TONS of uses for having a unit available for something else, so yeah, I bet this probably sees play, and probably will be worth its two dice.

I LOVED the Deluxe Expansions, and these cards just drive home how great this game is. I can't wait to play again, and throw these decks on the table, and then build some decks using these cards!