Phoenixes

## Overview

*Phoenixes rise from their own ashes after death, continuing the cycle of life anew. They recur themselves from your discard pile when they leave play, and will get stacking rewards for doing so, mainly consisting of card draw and power. You’ll have to be careful to not destroy too many of your minions, though, or else you’ll go out in a Blaze of Glory.*

Phoenixes are a self-destruction faction that revives its destroyed minions directly from the discard pile.

### Details

#### General

* Name: Phoenixes
* Author: Berryl
* Complexity: 2.5/5
* Version: 1.5
* Last updated: June 3, 2023

### Breakdown

Phoenixes have the standard 10 minions and 10 actions. They have 29 total minion power, or an average minion power of 2.9, slightly lower than average. Among their actions, they have:

* 1 play-on-minion actions: Eternal Flame
* 4 play-on-base actions: 2x Cycles of Life, Funeral Pyre, Phoenix Nest.
* 5 standard actions, 4 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): **2x Rise From the Ashes, Blaze of Glory, Burn Again,** Sacred Ash

### Minions (10)

* **1x Dark Phoenix (4):** Ongoing: Once per turn per minion name, after one of your other minions goes to your discard pile from play, if this minion is still in play, you may play it here as an extra minion.
* **2x Bennu (4):** Talent: Place a +1 power counter on this minion. Destroy one of your minions. Ongoing: After this minion goes to your discard pile, transfer all +1 power counters from it to one of your other minions.
* **3x Firebird (3):** If one of your minions was destroyed this turn, either draw two cards OR place two +1 power counters on one of your minions.
* **4x Torch Chick (2):** Special: After this minion goes to the discard pile from play, you may play it as an extra minion on another base and place two Marks on it (one Mark if it is not your turn). Ongoing: If this minion has a Mark, cancel its Special ability. Remove a Mark from this minion at the end of your turn.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Cycles of Life:** Play on a base. Play an extra action. Ongoing: After one or more of your minions go to the discard pile from play, place a +1 power counter on this card. Talent: Transfer any number of +1 power counters from this card to one of your minions here.
* **2x Rise From the Ashes:** Destroy one of your minions. Play an extra minion.
* **1x Blaze of Glory:** Destroy one of your minions to destroy another player’s minion there. Special: Before a base scores, you may play this card.
* **1x Funeral Pyre:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Once per turn, after one of your minions here goes to your discard pile, draw a card and you may transfer this action to another base.
* **1x Eternal Flame:** Play on a minion. All of your minions here gain +1 power until the end of the turn. Ongoing: After this minion leaves play, you may return this action to your hand and play it as an extra action.
* **1x Burn Again:** Destroy one of your minions to draw cards equal to its power.
* **1x Sacred Ash:** Shuffle up to three minions from your discard pile into your deck.
* **1x Phoenix Nest:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Once per turn per base, after one of your minions on any base is destroyed, you may play a minion here off the top of your deck.

### Bases

* **(19) Flaming Aerie (4 3 2):** On your turn, you may destroy one of your minions here to play an extra minion on another base.
* **(20) Volcanic Roost (4 2 1):** Before this base scores, each player must destroy one of their minions here or discard two cards.

## Clarifications

**Dark Phoenix, Phoenix Nest:** "Once per turn per X" means the reaction can occur any number of times in a turn, provided each trigger reacts to a different X. Dark Phoenix can save each unique minion name once per turn, and Phoenix Nest can play one minion per base where one of your minions is destroyed each turn.

**Funeral Pyre:** If this is on a base that scores, it cannot save itself by reacting and transferring away, but it is able to draw a card. This is because by the time Funeral Pyre is able to react, it is already in the discard pile.

## Strategy

### General

Phoenixes, much like Hydra, are built around self-destruction. The minions they want to destroy are the easy-to-play Torch Chicks, which can be freely destroyed once per turn. All of the other minions either destroy your minions or give you payoff for doing so. Firebirds give you either a good draw ability or a large terminal boost depending on your game state, Bennus can grow slowly with the assistance of Torch Chicks, then transfer their equity away when they leave play after scoring or when destroyed. Dark Phoenix opens the self-destruction floodgates by allowing any other minion to revive from the dead, acting as a magnet for you to converge to. If Torch Chicks aren't destroyed before their bases score, they can safely move on to the next one, but be aware that their ability cancellation lasts for a whole turn, which may include one of your turns.

Pheonixes' action package encourages you to play patiently and destroy Torch Chicks often, with the two copies of Cycles of Life and Funeral Pyre as powerful engines you want to keep around as long as possible. Bennus are ideal targets to cash out Cycles of Life with in order to double-tap the counters. Phoenix Nest allows destroying Torch Chicks to result in a net positive number of minions on the board and can potentially trigger multiple times per turn if you spread your Torch Chicks out accordingly.

Once Phoenixes get an engine going, their burst potential is insane. Each Firebird can be six power, which can even be guaranteed to have their conditions fulfilled off of Phoenix Nest. If you can destroy multiple minions in a turn, Eternal Flame is a great terminal action that can start stacking large amounts of power, being replayed again and again after its attached minion is destroyed. It can even stick around after its first base if there is a minion elsewhere on the board for it to land on.

Phoenixes lack action recursion, so if Funeral Pyre or Cycles of Life are rushed off the board or destroyed, they will be set back quite a ways. They have a better chance of scoring cheap seconds with Torch Chicks, but destroying them still kicks them off the base to pull a solo out from under them.

### Partner Suggestions

Partners that help Phoenixes get to or recur key cards such as Torch Chicks and Dark Phoenix will greatly enable them. They don't necessarily need more self-destruction than they have internally, but antagonistic removal is something they lack, so a partner that provides some of that can help as well.

#### Published

* **Sharks:** Makos pair extremely well with Eternal Flame. Sharks have strong draw to see the key Phoenix minions more quickly.
* **Shapeshifters:** The ability to GELF into Dark Phoenix and get it back with Really is extremely powerful. Shapeshifters have a few more self-destruction cards to provide just a bit more fuel for your engine.
* **Wizards:** The unparalleled draw power and speed of Wizards will greatly increase Phoenixes' consistency. Chronomage has a chance to extend Phoenixes' double score chances with Dark Phoenix for a last-second action after one base cleans up, and the deck will have good options for this extra action such as Summon into Firebird or Eternal Flame.

## Author Notes

The idea for this deck came from Torch Chick and Eternal Flame. I love the idea of a minion modifier like Bewitched which stays in play all game long, and figuring out how to make this synergize with self-destruction was a really fun challenge.