Aiur Protoss

## Overview

*Years ago, the Protoss homeworld of Aiur* *fell* *to the merciless Z*erg *Swarm. Now, at long last, they have raised a powerful fleet of warships known as the Golden Armada under the leadership of Hierarch Artanis and are poised to reclaim their world. But an ancient evil—Amon—threatens this destiny and the fate of the entire galaxy. Forcibly severed from the Khala after Amon’s treachery and scattered to the astral winds, Artanis must reunite the Protoss factions and defeat the coming darkness before it consumes all life in the sector.*

- StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void story summary [paraphrased].

The **Aiur Protoss** is one of the 4 factions from the *StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void* set.

Hierarch Artanis leads the forces of the Firstborn against Amon’s darkness, relentlessly whittling down his opponent’s forces until the final decisive strike. Take heed, lest you be swept away by the might of the Daelaam!

*Other factions from the same set:* Nerazim Protoss, Purifier Protoss, Tal’darim Protoss.

## Details

#### General

* Name: Aiur Protoss
* Author: SDNuKe
* Complexity: 3.5/5 (awaiting further playtesting and evaluation of complexity)
* Version: 1.0
* Last updated: 7/18/2023

#### Mechanics

* The Aiur Protoss do not have any faction specific mechanics. However, they do make use of the recently released Storage mechanic, and they refine the power reduction concepts introduced with Mermaids.

#### Special details

This faction (as do the other factions in the *StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void* set) deviates from the typical naming conventions of SmashUp factions, which often focus on singular objects, elements, and tropes of the source material. Instead, the author opted for a more story-centric focus on the card names, following the general principles below:

* The minions are units that belong to the Protoss faction, with the highest power minion named after a central character to that faction's story.
* The actions are (more often than not) direct quotes from the highest power minion during the story of *Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void*. Otherwise, they are parts of dialogue that directly or indirectly reference either the highest power minion of the faction or the faction's culture and history in general.

### Breakdown

Aiur Protoss follow a standard minion/action split of 10 minions and 10 actions (the primary exception being found in a pair of unique Power 4 minions). Aiur Protoss have 31 total minion power or an average minion power of 3.1 (due to Hierarch Artanis being slightly more powerful at Power 6); this is to compensate for the general lack of effects that directly increase power. Among their actions, they have:

* 0 play-on-minion actions.
* 4 play-on-base actions: My Mind Is Being... Consumed!, Unimaginable Heresy, Less Appealing By The Moment, En Taro Artanis!.
* 4 standard actions, 2 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): **May The Khala's Light Guide Us,** Shake The Hand Of A Friend, What Matters is That We Endure, **Unlikely Allies**.
* 0 actions directly increase a minion's power.

### Minions (10)

* **1x Hierarch Artanis (6):** You may move one of your minions from each base where you have more power than another player to another base.
* **1x Reaver (4):** Talent: Choose a base. Other players' minions there add 1 less power to their controller's counted power until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Tempest (4):** Talent: Choose another base. Reduce its breakpoint by 3 until the end of the turn.
* **3x Dragoon (3):** Talent: If no other players have 6 or more power here, reduce this base’s breakpoint by 3 until the end of the turn. Otherwise, give this minion +1 power until the start of your next turn.
* **4x Aiur Zealot (2):** Other players' minions here add 1 less power to their controller's counted power until the start of your next turn. At the start of your next turn, draw a card if no other players have 6 or more power here.

### Actions (10)

* **2x May The Khala’s Light Guide Us:** Choose a base. Move another player’s minion of power 3 or less from another base to there; OR reduce a base's breakpoint by 3 this turn if you have a minion there.
* **2x My Mind Is Being... Consumed!:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After each time a minion’s counted power is reduced here, reduce this base’s breakpoint by 1 until the end of the turn.
* **1x Shake The Hand Of A Friend:** Draw two cards OR play an extra minion of power 3 or less.
* **1x What Matters Is That We Endure:** For each base where you have a minion, shuffle a minion from your discard pile into your deck.
* **1x Unlikely Allies:** Choose a base. Other players’ minions there add 1 less power to their controllers’ counted power until the start of your next turn. Special: Before a base scores, you may play this card.
* **1x Unimaginable Heresy:** Play on a base. Talent: If no other players have 6 or more power here, draw a card.
* **1x Less Appealing By The Moment:** Play on a base. Talent: Store a card from your hand under this card OR play an action stored under this card as an extra action.
* **1x En Taro Artanis!:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After a minion’s counted power is reduced, you may reduce the breakpoint here by 1 until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, destroy this card.

### Bases

* **(23) Aiur, Reclaimed (5 2 2):** After this base scores, the winner places all cards they control on this base in the box.
* **(20) Saalok (4 2 2):** At the start of your turn, if you have 6 or more power here, you may immediately resolve the on-play ability of one of your minions here.

### Titan

* **1x Spear of Adun:** Special: On your turn, you may play this Titan on a base where you had a minion at the start of the turn and where other players have less than 6 power. Ongoing: After you return a minion to your hand from here, lower this base's breakpoint by that minion's power until the end of the turn. Talent: Return a minion you control to your hand.

## Clarifications

Here are clarifications for card effects provided by the author:

**Aiur Zealot:** “Counted power” specifically refers to the amount of power that the owner of the affected minions provide to their controller for the purposes of scoring the base. This does not impact the actual power of the minion itself for the purposes of eligibility for effects or abilities that target minions based on power or for the purposes of breaking the base. For example, a power 3 minion whose counted power has been reduced by 1 would still be considered a power 3 minion for the purposes of destroying that minion with an effect that destroys a minion of power 2 or less. However, for the purposes of calculating its controller’s power on a base for determining the winner, it would be considered a power 2 minion. Additionally, the counted power reduction from Aiur Zealot’s effect explicitly expires before the potential draw effect becomes active.

**Hierarch Artanis:** Resolving the on-play effect of this card requires that the controller of the card have more power present on bases than at least one other player in the game on those bases.

## Strategy

### General

The Aiur Protoss is an antagonistic faction, focusing on indirect tactics to diminish opponents’ effective power on bases and targeting breakpoints to win bases without direct power increases. Additionally, the Aiur Protoss minions benefit from extra utility should the opponent not choose to play into their strategy, adding to or modifying the abilities of their cards.

## Author Notes

This faction was the author’s first attempt at creating a SmashUp Custom Faction without direct assistance from other players. This faction has gone through multiple iterations but has always maintained a focus on power reduction; despite the massive changes, it has never strayed from its antagonistic strategic roots. This faction was also the author's first official submission onto the SmashUp Custom Wiki.

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