Encanto

#### Special details

This faction is meant to expand on the Disney set, although it was designed before released. It features a lot of fanart from various sources credited under each card.

### Breakdown

This faction has the standard 10 unique minions and 10 actions and the standard 30 total minion power, or an average minion power of 3. Among their actions, they have:

* 1 play-on-base actions: Pressure like a drip that'll never stop
* 6 play-on-minion actions: 1x Waiting on a Miracle, 2x We don't talk about Bruno, 1x Something Unexpected, 1x Rows and Rows of Roses, 1x Flor de Mayo by the mile
* 3 standard actions, 1 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): 2x Candle of Miracles, **1x The Amazing Madrigals**

### Characters (minions) (10)

* **1x Mirabel (5):** Ongoing: Your character's talents, on-play and start of turn ability that say "if" may resolve their effects without fulfilling their conditions.
* **1x Luisa (4):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, if another player has more VP than you, Luisa gains a +1 power counter. Repeat for cards in hand and characters in play.
* **1x Isabella (4):** Talent: If you control at least 3 characters, you may play a character modifier as an extra action OR search your deck for a character modifier.
* **1x Camilo (3):** Talent: Choose another character. If it has a +1 power counter or modifier attached, Camillo has the same talent ability and/or printed power as that character until the end of the turn.
* **1x Dolores (3):** Name an action, then look at another player's hand. If they had that action, Dolores gains 2 +1 power counters.
* **1x Pepa (3):** If another player has less characters than yours in play, you may move a character to here and give it a +1 power counter. If another player has more characters than yours in play, you may destroy a character here of power 3 or less.
* **1x Bruno (2):** If you have no other characters here, you may look at the top 3 cards of every deck. You may place 1 from 1 deck at the bottom of its respective deck, return the rest in the same order.
* **1x Abuela Alma (2):** Talent: Play an extra character on a base where another player has character(s). Its abilities are canceled this turn.
* **1x Antonio (2):** Search your deck or discard for Mirabel and place her into your hand. If she is in play, move a character to another base.
* **1x Julieta (2):** Talent: If you have the least power here, you may place one action from your discard on top of your deck and one character from your discard on the bottom of your deck.

### Actions (10)

* **2x We don't talk about Bruno:** Character modifier. Ongoing: If you have a character here, this character's abilities are canceled. Special: Before the base scores, this character's power is decreased by 4 until the end of the turn.
* **2x Candle of Miracles:** Choose one of your characters in play. Search your deck for another character with less power and draw it.
* **1x Pressure like a drip that'll never stop:** Base modifier. You may play an extra action. Ongoing: After a character's abilities are canceled here, you may draw a card then move that character or this action to another base.
* **1x Waiting on a Miracle:** Character modifier. Cancel this character's abilities until the end of the turn. Name an action. Ongoing: While this character is in play, players must play 1 VP to play that action.
* **1x Something Unexpected:** Character modifier. Ongoing: This character's start of turn or talent abilities that say "if" may resolve its effects without fulfilling its conditions. If Mirabel is in play, it gains +3 power.
* **1x Rows and Rows of Roses:** Character modifier. Ongoing this character gains +2 power. It is unaffected by other players' actions.
* **1x Flor de Mayo by the mile:** Character modifier. Ongoing this character gains +2 power. It is unaffected by other players' characters.
* **1xThe Amazing Madrigals:** Move a character with a modifier to another base. Special: you may play this card before a base scores.

### Bases

* **(25) Cassita Madrigal (4 2 1):** When an ability that says "if" is used, place a counter on this base. Decrease the breakpoint of this base by 2 for each of those counters.
* **(19) Stream of Miracles (3 1 0):** The runner-up does not gain VP if they have less than 2 characters on this base.

## Clarifications

* **Mirabel/Something Unexpected**
* Neophyte and Hoverbot may not be use their extra action/minion plays to play the other type of card, so their effects are essentially unchanged. However, Nana and Merlin may draw the top card of the deck even if it is not a minion.

* The Librarian and Professor require you to discard a madness while you have some as the effect is non-optional. However, their abilities may be triggered without madness in hand, at which point your hand is revealed and the rest of the ability still resolves.
* Killer Queen may place a power counter on itself without having played any minions on the same turn.
* Ship's Captain may play the drawn minion even if it is above 3 power.

* Skinnie Minnie may move by herself with no accompanying play-on-base action
* Drunken Master and Lady Whirlwind may activate their talents repeatedly
* Shield maiden may steal any card from the top of the opposing deck.
* Minions like Belle, Teens or Charming Prince do not require their partners to be on their base
* **Luisa:** Her effect can place up to 3 power counters at the start of turn by testing each of the three conditions separately.
* **Camilo:** May not copy a cancelled ability as it no longer exists
* **Pepa:** Both parts of the talent may be triggered in a 3-player game. They must be resolved in order and can target different minions.
* **Bruno:** Bruno looks at 3 cards from every deck and moves one card in total, not one card from every deck.
* **Pressure like a drip that'll never stop:** This effect does not trigger retroactively if the card is played or moved to a base where some minions already have canceled abilities. However, if We don't Talk about Bruno kicks in by adding a character on the same base, the ongoing effect triggers.
* **Waiting on a miracle:** Set aside an additional piece of paper with the name or a picture of the chosen card if needed, just like block the path.

## Strategy

### General

Encanto is a faction of many game plans that will shift heavily depending on the partner and game state. Mirabel is very important to get out to unlock all other characters' abilities, and is easily found with Antonio who in turn can be searched using Candle of Miracles with a lot of characters. Luisa will be an absolute powerhouse if she is alongside Mirabel and put opponents on a fairly tight clock, especially if she has protection, which will allow her to probably get a first place by herself and the nasty threat of The amazing Madrigals to reuse her on a different base. The spying aspect of the deck is enabled by Bruno, who is also easily searched with Candle of Miracles and can give great insight as to what the opponent is capable of as well as base scouting, though the power output is much lesser, which makes it preferable if going up against opponents that rely on specials or special actions. Pressure like a drip that'll never stop is a tricky card to save for the right situation, whether it be to spread out the allies played by Abuela Alma, push someone off with We don't talk about Bruno to have a solo victory or it can also be shifted around long-term in late attrition games. Pepa can use both her effects to reel in 2-power minions and then destroy them against opponents with low recursion and pairing her up with Julieta can allow you to keep up against factions with high draw. Camilo can pile on with other engine minions like Pepa/Julieta/Isabella, or even copy interesting opposing Talents when applicable.

Be very careful against destruction factions as the unique minion structure will come up as an issue if you lose one of the minions you would have liked long-term early on such as Abuela, Bruno or Julieta, and Mirabel having no effect for herself can be a detriment against fast opponents where every minion plays count. They also have effects which stack up as they get used repeatedly, so effect cancelation will be very painful provided it is not bypassed with one Roses or Flor de Mayo.

### Partner Suggestions

Encanto will make for very exciting games if provided with partners who have restrictions on their effects and cheese them through the use of Mirabel, but they also provide a solid quantity of synergy with play-on-minion based factions, high control factions who benefit from the scouting. They are also much more effective at pulling off their growth plan with Luisa and playing modifiers to back up the other bases when paired with factions who compliment their searching.

#### Published

* **Killer Plants:** Sprouts makes for awesome consistency to get to the engine minions you need, as well as the Venus man trap having similar potential to bring out a lot of useful recruits which can be spread with Antonio or Pressure. Sleep spores is great at killing a burst potential for opponents, letting Luisa grow with little ways to overcome her.
* **Shapeshifters:** G.e.l.f. is also a great consistency tool, you offer some level of recursion if you can bring out Julieta and protect her and you can pull off neat plays with Copycat alongside Camilo.
* **Werewolves:** Great Talent Killer
* **Fairies:** The spirit of the forest only gets Isabella to change into an "And", but it's a very good one. Glimmer can debuff opposing minions to bring them within Pepa's thunderous mood and there is neat application of Tinx stealing Waiting on a Miracle to keep it in play for longer.
* **Superheroes:** Easy ways to bring out Mirabel, Mind lady has synergy with Pressure like a drip to have solid base control, and Justice friends will probably find multiple targets with the modifiers giving power.
* **Grannies:** Bruno is an additional way to make Nana more reliable, and Julietta feels tailor-made for this combo. And Abuela can bring out Granny or Grandma without feeling too bad about the effect cancelation.
* **Kung-Fu Fighters:** Cancelling conditions gets you extra card draws here and there, extra minion or action plays or +1 power counters... but Lady Whirlwind gets a truly insane buff and becomes a menace, although it also makes for a huge disincentive for opponents to ever play on her base if she cannot burst, which is were the Antonio move ability becomes very evil. An absolute massacre against factions with recurrence game plans
* **Vikings:** The spying package comes together and helps itself out, and the shield maiden becomes very nasty with no restriction on stolen cards.
* **Luchadores:** The best combo I've played, the combination of offensive play-on-minion actions really shuts opponents down. Flor Loca is a very reliable 5 and Isabella getting setups as extra plays is very good at getting free pins.
* **Grimm's Fairy Tales:** The Charming couple can be on different bases thanks to Mirabel and be a powerful engine, Mirabel does not activate the recruits but does not shut down Little red Riding hood by being an Ongoing.
* **Teens:** Basically the same as pairing them with Grimms but better because Mirabel can affect every base. They can be played brain-dead and overwhelm the opponents with extra plays without sequencing or clever positioning.

#### Custom

* **Psychics:** Effect Cancellation coming from Encanto can be used on the Psychics themselves for useful effects (though Abuela does not work similarly to materialization, but playing an angsty teen as an extra 4 is decent). The Mindfreak also has synergy with Dolores/Waiting on a miracle to make them more reliable.

## Author Notes

This is the faction I tested the most in order to make each character have thematic abilities and conditions while making for a lot of internal and external synergies. Encanto easily became one of my favorite movies so I went above and beyond upon the announcement of the Disney set to make something that would fit in, although I had no knowledge of the other faction's mechanics or the convention that the villain would be an action with a disruptive effect (which turned out fine, since the movie does not have a full-out villain). They are one of the factions which can change the most depending on their partners, changing into many game plans with what they have to work with.