Nexus Spike

2

**Consume**.
Does not affect bosses.

**Nexus Spike** is a Clanless  Card in Monster Train. It is a Clanless card that can be acquired from a Concealed Caverns event that allows the player to combine the effects of two spells in their deck. Unlike with unit fusion, the original spells remain in the deck after the event.

## Lore

*These Divinities don’t exist on any physical plane known to Heaven or Hell, but their power leaks from their existence to ours as brief flickers of light. With each Divinity felled, those flickers became more static, and now the last remaining Divinity holds our Realm hostage for my mistakes.*

Mechanically and Lorewise **Nexus Spike** seems to be separate from the Railspikes in that it is not an   spell and was not a Railspike created by a clan to celebrate the pact of the Covenant

## Strategy

As Nexus Spike has some odd interactions for cards that are meant to be applied to only enemies or only friendly units, some cards can be used in unexpected ways:

* Burnout cards such as Wicklash, Purifying Cleanse can target enemies and will kill enemies when burnout runs out.
* Fragile works on enemies, making Onehorn's Tome a potential offensive spell.
* Shroud Mitosis can duplicate any unit, as targeting requirements get removed. However, Shroud Mitosis needs to be the second spell added. If it is the first spell added to nexus Spike, the Morsel requirement is not lifted.
* Adaptive Mutation works on enemies. As such this could be used against Mini-Bosses in The Last Divinity: Divine Intervention
* Perils of Production can be used on enemy units that you kill in the same turn to prevent Emberdrain.
* Petty Theft can be used to generate money from friendly units.

* Combining AOE and front enemy unit spells:
	+ Spells that affect friendly as well as enemy units, such as Glimmer, Inferno, affect all units on the floor. Combining this with scaling damage cards that are not targeted like Bramble Lash, Battering Ram, Memento Mori, Echo Break overwrite AOE damage from other spells. For example, apply Glimmer and Bramble Lash to deal Bramble Lash on every enemy for the Glimmer damage and then again Bramble Lash damage.

Some interactions that can not be as easily exploited:

* Restoration Detonation does not do damage to enemy units after healing, but to friendly units.
* Mortal Entrapment does not lose it's already-damaged requirement.

As Nexus Spike costs 2, it is often good to copy very expensive spells to get the added benefit of a card without the extra cost.

Upgrades are added to both effects, so two damage spells can benefit from the same Magic Power Upgrade or Status Effects from the Doublestack Upgrade.

## Mechanics

* The source cards' upgrades are completely ignored. Only the upgrades on the Nexus Spike itself will modify its functionality.
* Spells are categorized into two groups, targeted spells and non targeted spells. Spells that affect the front enemy unit are non-targeted, targeted spells are all spells that specifically require the player to select a target unit.
* Targeted Spells can only be combined with other targeted Spells.
	+ Only one target is chosen when the spell is cast and both spells will affect that target.
	+ Targeted spells that can only apply to friendly units (or to a specific unit type such as Morsels), lose that restriction.
* The same copy of a spell cannot be chosen twice, but two different copies of the same card can be used.
* If either source card naturally has Permafrost, the Nexus Spike will have Permafrost
* If either source card has Extract, Nexus Spike will copy its Extract cost
	+ If both source cards have Extract, Nexus Spike will have the higher Extract cost of the two.
* If either source card has Offering, Nexus Spike will have Offering
* If either source card is Attuned, both spells cast from the Nexus Spike will receive 5x the bonus from Magic Power.
* Slay triggers carry over into both fragments, for example Plink and Hallowed Halls gives a Morsel for every own unit death as well.
* Some spells cannot be included in a Nexus Spike, such as:
	+ Offering Token, Broken Memories and Returned Soul.
	+ Imp-portant Work, Imp-pressive, Cannibalize.
	+ any   spells.
	+ Nexus Spike itself (not possible without cheats anyway).
	+ Olde Magic
	+ Spreading Spores
	+ Preserve
	+ Unplayable cards like Bone Dog's Favor and any Scourges.
* Nexus Spike will cost 2 ember regardless of the source cards used.
* Random spell cards like Ice Tornado do not target the boss, which can be particularly useful against The Last Divinity.
* Status effects like endless and quick can be applied on enemies but don't do anything. Quick enemies do not attack out of order.