Warmages

## Overview

*War. War never changes. The Ancient Inca waged war to gather llamas and base modifiers. Russia built an empire from its lust for bears and the high ground. Dagon shaped a battered Innsmouth into a formidable fish force. But war never changes. Or at least, that was the conventional wisdom, before the Warmages attacked. This elite force will control both the battlefield and the skies with their powerful artillery bombardments, and will harness the power of the elements to strike down opposing armies. Many factions fight battles - the Warmages win wars.*

Warmages launch powerful actions into stasis to come raining down on the bases they have in their sights. Their gameplay is centered around Deferred Demolition - they announce incoming attacks, then twist or subvert those called shots to catch people by surprise. Timing is everything with Warmages, and you typically need to think 1-2 turns ahead to ensure you have multiple angles to take advantage of your incoming attacks.

Image Album: https://imgur.com/a/TLImcoe

## Details

#### General

* Name: Warmages
* Author: ludichrisness
* Complexity: 3.5/5
* Version: 1.0
* Last updated: September 13, 2023

#### Mechanics

* Burying
* Marks
* Stasis
* Storing
* Subtypes

## Cards

#### Breakdown

Warmages have the normal 10 minions and 10 actions. They have a total minion power of 30, or an average of 3.0 per minion. Among their actions, there are:

* 3 play-on-base actions: Instant Fortress (2x), Portable Foxhole
* 6 self-stasis actions: Boulder Bomb, Kabbalistic Missile (2x), Meteor Strike, Storm Shell, Water Hammer
* 1 standard action (it does not directly affect minions): !Combine Shot
* 4 actions that directly increase a minion's power: Instant Fortress (2x), Kabbalistic Missile (2x)

#### Minions (10)

* **1x General Chaos (5)**: Ongoing: When you play an action on your turn which would directly affect a minion with its on-play ability, you may choose for that minion to instead be affected in that way before its base scores this turn. Talent: Remove a stasis counter from one of your cards in stasis.
* **2x Combat Caster (4)**: Ongoing: At the start of your turn, reveal the top card of your deck. Draw it or discard it. If it is a Salvo or if you discard it, give one of your other minions +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **3x Artillery Mage (3)**: You may place two stasis counters on an action from your hand. Special: Before this base scores you may play one of your actions in stasis which has exactly one stasis counter on it.
* **4x Bombardier (2)**: Ongoing: Once per turn when this minion's power would be increased by an ability which is not always-on, you may instead place Marks on this base equal to the power increase. The breakpoint of this base is reduced by the number of Marks on it.

#### Actions (10)

* **2x Instant Fortress**: Play on a base. Place a +1 power counter on each of your minions here. Ongoing: The breakpoint of this base is increased by 2 for each of your minions here. Destroy this card at the start of your turn.
* **2x Kabbalistic Missile (Salvo)**: Place three stasis counters on this card OR give a minion +3 power until the start of your turn. Special: When this card enters stasis, place a Mark on a base. Special: After you play this card from stasis, choose a base. You may play a minion there with power less than or equal to the number of Marks on that base.
* **1x Boulder Bomb (Salvo)**: Place three stasis counters on this card OR choose a minion for its controller to bury on its base. If its base leaves play this turn, it is moved to a replacement base. Special: When this card enters stasis, place a Mark on a base. Special: After you play this card from stasis, choose a base. For each Mark on it, you may destroy an action there.
* **1x Meteor Strike (Salvo)**: Place three stasis counters on this card OR destroy a minion of power 3 or less. Special: When this card enters stasis, place a Mark on a base. Special: After you play this card from stasis, choose a base. Until the start of your turn, other players cannot play minions there with power less than or equal to the number of Marks on that base.
* **1x Storm Shell (Salvo)**: Place three stasis counters on this card OR place three stasis counters on a minion on a base. Special: When this card enters stasis, place a Mark on a base. Special: After you play this card from stasis, choose a base. For each Mark on it, remove a stasis counter from one of your cards in stasis. If any have no stasis counters, you may play them now.
* **1x Water Hammer (Salvo)**: Place three stasis counters on this card OR move a minion of power 4 or less. Special: When this card enters stasis, place a Mark on a base. Special: After you play this card from stasis, choose a base. For each Mark on it, you may move a minion of power 2 or less to or from that base.
* **1x Portable Foxhole**: Play on a base. Ongoing: Once per turn after another player plays a minion here, you may bury one of your minions here on this base. After the first time you uncover a minion here each turn, it gains +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x !Combine Shot**: Special: When you place a Salvo in stasis you may play this card on it and store a card from your hand or discard pile under this card. Special: After you play this Salvo, you may reveal a stored Salvo and apply its Special ability to the same base chosen for this Salvo's Special ability, then return this card to your hand and shuffle the other two cards into your deck.

#### Bases

* **(22) Checkpoint Aleph (4 2 1)**: After the first time you play a minion here each turn, either place a card from your hand under the top two cards of your deck OR reveal the top card of your deck; if it is an action, play it; otherwise, discard it.

* **(21) No Man's Land (4 3 2)**: After a minion is played or moved to here, place an Energy on this base. If this base has five or more Energy, remove all Energy from it and destroy all minions here of power 2 or less either before this base scores or at the end of the turn, whichever comes first.

## Clarifications

* **Bombardier:** An ability which is not always-on is any ability that increases power which is not a constant Ongoing like Sword Lord, a persistent base effect like Central Brain, or an ability in the form "until X do Y" like Wasabi. Both temporary power and power counters can be converted into Marks, and Marks do not expire like temporary power would have. Negative power expiring is not the same thing as power being increased by an ability, so e.g. Glymmer's negative power expiring does not allow you to place Marks on Bombardier's base.
* **General Chaos**: An action's on-play ability is what happens when it is played, without any other distinct ability label other than Special. This includes the effects of most standard actions as well as the effects of actions like Tomb Trap. It does not include the "bottom half" of Salvo abilities because those Special abilities are reactions to "after" the action is played.
* **No Man's Land**: As soon as there are five or more Energy on this base, remove them, even in the middle of another card's resolution. Example: Playing three Groupies immediately onto No Man's Land queues up three Energy to be placed on it as an "after" reaction. The reactions occur one at a time after all Groupies have been played. If it starts at four Energy, then after the first reaction occurs, all Energy is removed and then the other two Energy are added.
* **Salvos**: When a Salvo is played from stasis, resolve its on-play ability (the second OR), then resolve the second Special (after it is played).
* **Storm Shell**: Placing a rival minion in stasis does not steal control of it.
* **!Combine Shot**: You don't need to store a Salvo; if you store a non-Salvo, it is still shuffled into the deck. If you store from your hand, you do not need to reveal what card you store. Storing a Salvo does not put it directly into stasis, so you don't place a Mark for the stored Salvo.

## Strategy

### Partner Suggestions

Warmages have a versatile toolkit to offer partners, but a lot of their synergy revolves around their minions. Bombardier benefits from any kind of power boosting effect with being able to store that as Marks on a base. This makes Salvos more effective (or can let you surprise pivot to a different base for a Salvo strike) and also amplifies with other Bombardiers, making the Marks do double or even triple duty. Artillery Mage can give a new timing and threat to powerful actions, threatening to bring them down in Phase 3 on someone else's turn, or to use it yourself the next turn in phase 2. General Chaos solves the classic KAIMUL problem by deferring removal abilities until Phase 3, allowing you to queue up different attacks and then execute on them only once the base scores. Partners who can provide a new toy for one of these three minions to play with, or who can provide good access or recursion to those minions, will fit very nicely in the Warmage gameplan.

#### Published

* **Backtimers:** As an obvious have/have combination, Backtimers can pull your Salvos out of stasis faster, but they can also do what Warmages can't, and prolong those cards in stasis to strike at the right time. Salvos place Marks no matter how they enter stasis, so cards like 99 MPH work really well for them. They also have some very impactful minions like General Chaos and Combat Casters who are good choices to find with cards like Letter and Help. Bombardiers appreciate granular power counters each turn from Sidelined Girlfriends.
* **Changerbots:** Extra actions go a long way for Warmages with Solarshout, and the +2 power from Leader Two is perfect to get extra Marks out each turn with a Bombardier. Movement is also extremely potent for Warmages as it lets Bombardiers converge onto a base to double or triple the effect of the Marks there. Some Changerbot actions like Change Into A Gun are much more powerful in Phase 3 with General Chaos than Phase 2.
* **Killer Plants:** Artillery Mage is an amazing Sprout target. Blossoming into three Bombardiers to receive a Kabbalistic Missile to play the fourth has been done, and it is incredible.
* **Mythic Horses:** Mythic Horses have great CAM/CFY potential and Warmages lean into these tendencies by providing the missing ingredient of the threat of removal. They have several ways to dispatch minions both with conventional destruction and unconventional removal like burying or stasis. Horses provide the extra plays that Warmages want, as well as some great actions to throw into stasis.
* **Vigilantes:** Vigilantes have a lot of problems, but they work really well with Warmages as their powerful removal cards like Knocked Into Next Week or Dusty Henry can be used in service of breaking a base. Stoneford is a very good on-play ability to use with Portable Foxhole to strip your deck repeatedly of the actions you need. Vigilantes provide some good draw ability as well as the stalling that Warmages want to use their delayed cards most effectively.
* **Skeletons:** Skeletons love the bury interactions here, especially Portable Foxhole, and being able to bring back Bombardiers and Artillery Mages freely and flexibly makes Warmages really hum. The added power counters from Lord of Bones and similar cards work great for buried Bombardiers, and burying is a perfect way to avoid power creep while you wait for the right time with your Salvos.

#### Custom

* **Conquerors:** A big win both for theme and gamplay. Artillery can be a hard minion to use effectively but it works much better in conjunction with General Chaos to defer that mass destruction. Meteor Strike provides the easy destruction that Conquerors want to make their Infantry work consistently, and Golden Cavalry can be a free source of Marks every turn as soon as you win a base or two. Once this combo starts winning, it can be very hard to stop them from continuing to win.

## Author Notes

Warmages are awesome. Theme wise, it came from an idea of the "Military Mage" in fiction that I really enjoy seeing, and it's a fantasy class niche that I wish was visited more often. For their gameplay, I really like the threats you can set up with this faction to come raining down, and each of the minions has a different take on the idea of forecasting or telegraphing your attacks. General Chaos and Bombardier give new meaning to a lot of old abilities that don't work very well, so that factions that have too many terminal power boosts or phase 2 removal can become a lot more effective. They just work well, and it's incredibly satisfying to set up a 2-turn plan for a threat in stasis and then having several different options to be able to pay it off in one way or another.

All of the art for this faction was made with Midjourney v5.2