Bards (GammaMania)

## Overview

*Bards may not be particularly known for their raw strength, but they more than make up for it with their practically magical charisma and literally magical songs! Play tunes of bygone heroes and wondrous adventures for all minions to hear, and maybe even win some of them over to your side of the fight.*

The Bards focus on playing actions on their minions which can affect all players, and using those actions as a means of taking control of other players' minions.

### Details

#### General

* **Name:** Bards
* **Author:** GammaMania
* **Complexity:** 1.5/5
* **Version:** 4.0
* **Last Updated:** 08/14/23

#### Mechanics

* Control
* Card Subtypes

#### Special Details

Featured as an honorable mention in Crank it Up's Custom Faction Month #2!

### Breakdown

Bards have the standard 10 minions and 10 actions. They have a total minion power of 27, or an average minion power of 2.7. Among their actions, they have:

* 5 play-on-minion actions: Song of Bravery, Song of Confounding, Song of Grief, Song of Lessons Learnt, Song of Merriment
* 0 play-on-base actions
* 5 standard actions, all of which directly affect one or more minions (in **bold**): **x2 Inspirational Tune, x2 Seduce the Monster, There Once Was a Hero...**
* 3 actions that directly increase a minion's power: x2 Inspirational Tune, Song of Confounding

### Minions (10)

* **1x Weaver of Stories (4):** Ongoing: Your minions cannot be taken control of by other players. Talent: Cancel the abilities of an action played on a minion until the start of your next turn, or until the end of this turn.
* **2x Arcane Dancer (3):** If you have at least two total Song actions played on your minions, you may return a Song action from play to your hand to take control of another player's minion of power 4 or less until it leaves play.
* **3x Tavern Bard (3):** Ongoing: After this base scores, you may move a minion you control but do not own from here to another base OR shuffle one of your actions on a minion here into your deck.
* **4x Street Performer (2):** You may search your deck and/or discard pile for a Song action and place it into your hand.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Inspirational Tune:** Choose a base. All minions there gain +1 power until the end of the turn. If that base scores this turn, and you aren't the winner, you may search your deck for an action and place it into your hand.
* **2x Seduce the Monster:** Destroy one of your minions. Take control of another player's minion of greater power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Song of Bravery - Song:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: Minions here cannot be destroyed or moved.
* **1x Song of Confounding - Song:** Play on a minion. Talent: Give one of your minions here +4 power until the end of the turn, and move it to a random base. If you do either of these effects, each opponent, proceeding in turn order, chooses one of their minions here to gain +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Song of Grief - Song:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: Once per turn, after one of your minions goes to the discard pile from your hand or from play, you may choose another player to discard a random card. If you do, that player may choose a player to discard a card.
* **1x Song of Lessons Learnt - Song:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: After this base scores, you may return one of your minions here to your hand, regardless of owner. If you do, each opponent, proceeding in turn order, may return one of their minions of power 3 or less here into its owner's hand.
* **1x Song of Merriment - Song:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: Once per turn, after any player plays a minion of power 3 or less here, they may play an extra minion of power 3 or less here.
* **1x There Once Was a Hero...:** Special: Play when you take control of a minion. Draw a card and place two +1 power counters on that minion.

## Clarifications

**Tavern Bard:** The action does not have to be played on your own minion; it just has to be an action that you control.

**Inspirational Tune:** The secondary effect triggers when the base scores, NOT after. This means that, if the action you place into your hand can be played after a base scores, you can play it that turn.

**Seduce the Monster:** The minion destruction does not have to occur for the secondary effect to occur.

**There Once Was a Hero...:** This card cannot be played unless the specified conditions occur.

## Strategy

### General

The Bards have a relatively simple gameplan: to play lots of Song actions on their minions, and to take control of other players' minions. They are largely a support faction - they don't particularly benefit from the effects of their Song actions more than any other faction would (except for a couple key synergies, such as Song of Bravery + Seduce the Monster, or Song of Bravery + Song of Confounding). Their lower-than-average power plus their double feature which destroys their own minions puts them at a slight disadvantage when it comes to scoring bases on their own. However, their Song actions have a variety of useful abilities, and the fact that they can also draw on opponent's abilities by taking control of their minions means that the Bards can be a good partner to many different types of factions.

## Author Notes

I was absolutely ecstatic to find out that I received an honorable mention for this faction. Hopefully I've fixed the biggest problem with the original version, that being the Tavern Bard (the problem being that he was garbage). As usual, reach out to me on Reddit if you want me to send you the individual card PNGs. I'm too lazy to do it by default, but would be happy to do so if someone asks for it.

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