Ice Golems

## Overview

Everyone remembers when the Ignobles announced the coming of the winter. But nobody told them that, in the old town of Frío de Janeiro, winter had come to stay.

Ferocious hail storms, snow up to the neck, Bitter Cold Squalls and a tremendous Sub-zero Atmosphere fell over the peaceful town. It was madness.

It's been years since the first snow storm and the townspeople have adapted their lives and jobs. Frío de Janerio’s residents have successfully become accustomed to the weather.

And the golems.

The Ice Golems faction has a slow pace at first. They keep the game slow until they have built up enough potential power and they release it all together in a devastating avalanche.

## Details

* **Name:** Ice Golems
* **Author:** CaptainCosmic
* **Lead Playtester:** ludichrisness

* **Director of pizza:** Bandit
* **Complexity:** 3.5/5
* **Version:** 1.5
* **Last Updated:** January 18th, 2024

## Cards

Imgur album here.

The Ice golems have 10 minions and 10 actions. They have a total minion power of 22, or an average of 2.2 per minion; lower than the usual 30 and 3, respectively. Among their actions, they have:

* 4 Play-on-minion actions: 2x Freeze!, Glacial Sculpture, Overfloe.
* 2 Play-on-base actions: Cold In Them Thar Chills, Sub-Zero Atmosphere.
* 4 Standard Actions (4 that can affect one or more minions, **in bold**): **Bitter Cold Squall, Frostbite, 2x Ice As Nice.**
* 0 Actions that directly increase a minion’s power.

### Minions (10)

* **1x Fresh Prince (5):** You may place two -1 power counters on this minion to search your deck and/or discard pile for a non-standard action and draw it. Talent: Transfer a counter from one of your cards to another of your cards.
* **2x Polarshout (4):** Choose a base. Until the start of your next turn, all minions’ total power there is equal to their printed power.
* **3x Chill Bill (4):** Place two -1 power counters on this minion. Ongoing: This minion has +2 power if it has no counters on it.
* **4x Cool Kid (0):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place +1 power counters on this minion equal to the number of Cool Kids in play.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Freeze!:** Play on another player's minion. Talent: Transfer a counter from one of your minions to this action. Ongoing: This minion's total power is equal to its printed power. This minion’s owner may skip their draw cards phase to destroy this action. When this card leaves play, one of your minions gains +1 power for each counter on this action until the end of your turn. Special: Before this base scores, you may destroy this action.
* **2x Ice As Nice:** Play up to two minions of the same name as extra minions on different bases and place a -1 power counter on them.
* **1x Bitter Cold Squall:** Transfer one of your actions played on a minion to another minion controlled by the same player to use a talent on it or on that minion an additional time this turn.
* **1x Cold In Them Thar Chills:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After one or more counters are placed on a minion here, place a counter on this action. At the start of your turn, if you have a minion here, you gain power here equal to the number of counters on this action.
* **1x Frostbite:** Destroy an action played on a base or a minion OR cancel any card’s ability until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Glacial Sculpture:** Play on your minion. Talent: Transfer a counter from one of your minions to this action to draw a card. Ongoing: This minion cannot be affected by other players’ actions.
* **1x Overfloe:** Play on your minion. Talent:Transfer a counter from one of your minions to this action. Ongoing: This minion cannot be affected by other players’actions. When this card leaves play, you may destroy a minion of power equal or less than the number of counters on this action. Special: Before this base scores, you may destroy this action.
* **1x Sub-zero Atmosphere:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Other players’ minions have -2 power here. On their turn, another player may use an action play to place a +1 power counter on one of your minions on another base and cancel this action’s ability until the start of their next turn.

### Bases

* **(21) Frío de Janeiro (4 3 2):** After the first time each turn each player plays a minion here, it gains power equal to the number of minions here until the end of the turn.
* **(14) The Cooler Ice Castle (1 0 0):** After this base scores, all cards on it remain on the base that replaces it.

## Clarifications

* **Polarshout, Freeze!:** When multiple cards attempt to fix the power of a minion (such as Oogie Boogie and these cards), the card that was played first has precedence over the others.
* **Bitter Cold Squall:** This card lets you use the talents of minions you do not control.
* **Frostbite:** You can cancel the ability of any card, including bases and titans in play (this does not affect cards in Stasis).

## Strategy

Ice Golems want to stall the game until they can burst to win bases.

They have a bunch of ways to initiate a snowballing effect. Such as their Cool Kids and their Chill Bills. The former grow larger the more of them are in play; while the latter can activate their true form with the help of their actions and their Fresh Prince.

Another big part of their identity is that they use power counters and they can use them as fuel for their play-on-minion actions. Those actions also help to passively increase the power of minions by being receptors of -1 power counters.

They also can trap opponents with power manipulation, but those traps offer a cost for the opponent to get rid of them, resulting in some complex decisions to be made by both sides.

### Partner Suggestions

#### Published

* **Zombies:** Cool Kids are the easiest minions to play from this faction, and having access to them from the discard pile represents a constant threat for opponents.
* **Tornados:** The sheer amount of phase 3 specials this combo has makes it for a great base swinging play. Tornadoes don't care a lot about where they're played by Ice As Nice because they can easily converge. Fresh Prince can transfer counters to/from Category 5 if needed.

## Author notes

* The art for this faction was made using Dream AI.
* The font used for the card names is Winter City.
* This faction has the most references in a CaptainCosmic faction so far. References to pop culture, other Smash Up cards and some prior CaptainCosmic factions are present.
* Bandit provided virtual pizza in the form of inspiration from the Fighters class in Erudia: Battle of Birthrights. Thanks!
* Feedback and ideas provided by ludichrisness and Bandit. Thank you!

"This one's pretty cool."

-Cosmic