Unseelies

## Overview

*Everyone knows the stories of the friendly Fairies; tales of Puck always draw a crowd, and all minions know the story of Titania's return. But there is another court of Fairies, a darker court. Deep in the heart of Winter, Queen Mab waits for those mortals who are lured by the promise of her dark magic. Self-styled Winter Witches have mastered the art of summoning these Unseelie fairies, known as the Gloaming Court. They offer great power, but take care lest you too get caught in their web...*

Unseelies are a search faction which has an inverted structure to factions like Itty Critters. Their weakest minions can summon their stronger minions into play for the use of their Ongoing and Talent abilities. They plant base modifiers which harm all players, but they have ways to sneak past those traps themselves using the "place into play" mechanic. Unseelies provide immediate access to critical engine minions, and draw attention from rivals, making tough choices for where they are going to play.

Imgur Album - https://imgur.com/a/uobhe5z

## Details

### General

* **Name:** Unseelies
* **Author:** Ludichrisness
* **Complexity:** 4/5
* **Version:** 1.0
* **Last Updated:** July 26, 2023

### Mechanics

* Energy
* Placing Into Play

## Cards

### Breakdown

Unseelies have the standard set of 10 minions and 10 actions. They have a total minion power of 30, or an average of 3 per minion. Their actions feature:

* 3 standard actions, none of which directly affect a minion: Air And Darkness (2x), Looking Glass
* 7 play-on-base actions: Cold Snap, Eternal Service, Heart Of Winter, Looking Glass, Shadowstep, The Wild Hunt (2x)
* No play-on-minion actions
* 1 actions that directly increases a minion's power: Shadowstep

### Minions

* **1x Queen Mab (5) -** You may transfer an action on a base to another base. Talent: Choose a base. Until the start of your next turn, minions that would be played there are placed there, and vice-versa.
* **1x Glaistig (4) -** Move another minion from here to another base. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place a +1 power counter on one of your minions here for each base where other players have no minions.
* **1x Dullahan (4) -** Destroy a minion here of power 3 or less. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, reduce the breakpoint of this base until the end of the turn by the number of minions here.
* **1x Cat Sith -** You may play an extra minion here of power 2 or less. Ongoing: After any player plays another minion here, it gains -1 power until the end of the turn and you may place a +1 power counter on one of your minions here.
* **1x Kelpie -** If you have the most cards in hand, this minion gains +2 power until the end of your turn. Ongoing: At the end of each player's turn, the player with the most minions here draws a card.
* **1x Redcap -** You may destroy a minion here of power 2 or less to give this minion +2 power until the end of the turn. Ongoing: After any player plays another minion here, they must discard a card.
* **4x Winter Witch (2) -** Place two Energy on this minion. Talent: Remove an Energy from one of your cards here to search your hand or deck for a minion of power 3 or more and place it here. If it was placed, it does not add power to its base until the start of your turn. At the start of your turn, shuffle it into your deck.

### Actions

* **2x Air And Darkness** **-** Destroy an action to play an action on that base from your hand. Special: Play after a base scores to return one of your minions there to your hand instead.
* **2x The Wild Hunt** **-** Play on a base and place an Energy on this card. Ongoing: After another player plays an action, you may remove an Energy from this card to place a minion here from your hand.
* **1x Cold Snap -** Play on a base. Ongoing: After any player plays or moves a minion to here, place an Energy on this card. The breakpoint here is increased by the amount of Energy on this card. On their turn, any player may discard cards from their hand to remove twice as much Energy from this card.
* **1x Fairy Trade** **-** Play on a base. Place three Energy on this card. Ongoing: After any player plays a minion here, remove one Energy from this card to have them store a card from their hand under this card. Special: Before this base scores, you may play one of the stored cards under this action.
* **1x Heart of Winter** **-** Play on a base. Ongoing: After any player plays or moves a minion to this base, place an Energy on this card. On their turn, another player may use an action play to remove all Energy from this card. Talent: Reduce the breakpoint here until the end of the turn by the amount of Energy on this card.
* **1x Eternal Service** **-** Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here cannot be destroyed by other players' cards. Talent: For each player with a minion here, shuffle a minion from their discard pile into their deck.
* **1x Shadowstep -** Play on a base. Ongoing: Your minions here have +1 power. Special: Before this base scores you may return one of your minions here to its owner's hand. You may play it here as an extra minion.
* **1x Looking Glass -** Choose any number of minions in your discard pile with different names. For each one, another player must either discard a card or you may place it on the top or bottom of your deck.

### Bases

* **Misty Moors (15, 3 0 0)** **-** After you play or move a minion to here, increase the breakpoint of this base by 2 until the start of your turn.
* **Winter's Redoubt (22, 4 3 2) -** Once per turn after you discard a minion from your hand, you may place it here.

## Clarifications

**Air And Darkness:** "Instead" means instead of the non-Special ability (you do not destroy an action and play an action when played as a Special).

**Cold Snap:** Players may only discard cards for Cold Snap once during their Play Cards phase. They can discard more cards than Cold Snap has Energy to remove.

**Dullahan, Glaistig:** The start of turn effects are mandatory, so if these minions are summoned by Winter Witch then you can choose tor resolve the mandatory effects before shuffling them back into your deck.

**Kelpie:** If multiple players are tied for the number of minions they have here, then each of them draws a card at the end of the turn.

**Winter Witch:** Notice that this is power 3 or **more**, not power 3 or less. If Winter Witch leaves play before the start of your turn, the minion you summon still goes back into your deck if it is still in play. If the minion is not actually placed (e.g. due to Mab's ability) then the minion does contribute its power.

## Strategy

### Partner Suggestions

#### Published

* **Big Hero 6 -**
* **Goblins -**
* **Magical Girls -**
* **Luchadores -**
* **Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas** **-**
* **Wraithrustlers -**

## Author Notes

Unseelies are a theme I have wanted to do for a long time, and it was an example of multiple ideas coalescing in my mind at the same time, cannibalizing from multiple other draft factions. I had come up with the core idea of Winter Witch's ability to sling a higher power minion strictly for its engine-like abilities separately, and then discussion about the idea of "placing into play" crystallized it as the perfect way to implement it. The rest of the development of the faction was an interesting exercise in trying to make placing minions into play not be a gimmick in SU, which is harder than it seems. One of the crucial things to note is that the Unseelie traps can and do backfire and catch you - although you have tools to place into play and sneak past those traps, you can't do it all the time, and you will eventually get caught by your own traps. The faction requires thoughtful play and positioning, and it makes for a very engaging game with rivals as they try to work around your traps, both known and unknown. I think that the minions offer an intriguing choice between their on-play and positional abilities, and other elements like wanting to outnumber rivals, building up Energy on base modifiers, and abilities which scale based on rival placement all contribute to make placing matter. Despite all this, there are only seven cards which actually say the word "place" which I think gives the faction a lot of versatility and utility for partners. Everything is designed through the lens of Winter Witch, which provides a unique value proposition to partner factions in immediate access to their rare engine minions. Most art for this faction was made with Midjourney v5.2.