Bards

## Overview

*You can keep your Warriors and Thieves, your Clerics and, uh, Mages. Everyone's favourite adventuring class has come to take the stage, the Smash Up Bards! Delight your friends and intimidate your foes with your songs, poems, and ballads. Don't get discouraged if people say cruel things, like "why are you playing a lute in the middle of a dungeon" or "please go away" - it just means your music hasn't reached their soul yet, and you need to play louder! Your delightful jigs and annoying Earworms can unlock the potential of even the Toughest Crowd. Master your musical arts (with a 6 week remote learning course from Bardic College) and you'll be ready to soothe the most savage beasts with your dulcet tones!*

The Bards faction is designed and intended as a pure support deck. It comes with a wide mix of tools to kick your partner faction into overdrive and to allow it to achieve its highest possible potential. Although they primarily focus on bringing out the best in your partner deck, they do have ways of using and abusing their own abilities to pull off some exciting combos; though they may seem frail at first, they can quickly turn weakness into strength with the power of their bardic music.

Image Album: https://imgur.com/a/Sh0wXaz

## Details

#### General

* Name: Bards
* Author: ludichrisness and normieleon
* Complexity: 2/5
* Version: 1.0
* Last updated: May 1, 2023

#### Special Details

Although this faction doesn't use any new mechanics per se, it does feature several cards with wording never before seen in Smash Up; make sure to read the Clarifications section carefully in case of any rules confusion!

## Cards

#### Breakdown

Bards 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. Among their actions, there are:

* 2 play-on-base actions: Another Round!, Cacophony
* 8 standard actions (4 of which affect one or more minions, **in bold**): Earworm, Heroic Ballad (2x), **Mostly Harmless (2x)**, **Pied Piper**, **Starving Artist,** Tough Crowd
* No actions that directly increase a minion's power

#### Minions

* **1x Skald (5)**: Search your deck for a card. Draw it without revealing it.
* **2x Troubadour (4)**: Special: Before this base scores, one of your other minions here may repeat its On-play ability. Only use the Troubadour ability once per scoring base.
* **3x Daffodil (3)**: Choose another minion here. Until the start of your turn, it has +2 power and adds 4 less power to its controller.
* **4x Minstrel (2)**: Ongoing: Once per turn before you play an action, you may give this minion -2 power and give another minion here +3 power until the end of the turn.

#### Actions

* **2x Heroic Ballad**: Choose up to two of your minions with Ongoing or Special abilities which have "before," "when," or "after" triggers. Immediately trigger their abilities if possible (ignore all other limits).
* **2x Mostly Harmless**: Give one of your minions -3 power until the end of the turn to either play an extra minion OR play two extra actions.
* **1x Another Round!**: Play on a base. Ongoing: Once per turn after a minion here has its power increased, draw a card. Talent: Transfer this card to another base and cancel its abilities until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Earworm**: Special: After you change a minion's power, play this card to flip that power change between positive and negative until the start of your turn. You may shuffle this action into your deck.
* **1x Starving Artist**: Destroy one of your minions to search your deck for a minion with up to 1 more printed power and play it there as an extra minion.
* **1x Tough Crowd**: Switch your deck and discard pile. Shuffle your deck.
* **1x Pied Piper**: Choose a base. Shuffle all minions there (owned by any player) who are adding 0 power to their controllers' total power there into your deck. Special: You may play this before a base scores; choose the scoring base.
* **1x Cacophony**: Play on a base. Talent: Move one of your minions from another base to another different base.

#### Bases

* **(18) Flying Tavern (3 2 1):** Before another base scores, the player with the most power here may swap this base for it and continue scoring (all cards remain behind on each base).

* **(22) Bardic College (4 2 1):** After a card here triggers its ability, place a counter on this base. Once on your turn you may remove any number of counters on this base to play an extra minion here with power equal to the number of counters removed.

## Clarifications

* **Another Round!:** The Talent cancels the ability of Another Round!, not of the base it transfers to. The Ongoing ability is triggered any time a minion's power is increased, for any reason, including a negative power effect expiring.
* **Troubadour:** The minion you choose does not leave play before repeating its ability (as with Do-Over), it instead activates its ability as if it was played from hand. Do not repeat checking for any prerequisites for play (e.g. Shoggoth).
* **Daffodil:** A minion affected by Daffodil still has its full power. That power is still is added to the total power on the base for breaking it, and it counts for cards like Third Tier. Its power does not add to its controller’s total for determining VP rewards or for cards like Marking Territory. If a minion under the effect of Daffodil is adding zero power to its controller and it is its controller's only minion on the base, its presence counts for earning VP rewards there if zero is one of the top three power totals there.
* **Earworm:** Flipping a power change means that positive becomes negative and negative becomes positive. If the power change expires before Earworm expires, then Earworm implicitly expires. If the power change is the addition of +1 or -1 power counters, then while Earworm is in effect, those counters are counted as the opposite type as long as they are on the same minion as when Earworm was played. If those counters are transferred to another minion during the Earworm effect, they go back to providing their normal value. If they are transferred back to the original target during the Earworm effect, then the Earworm effect still applies. This ability does not directly affect a minion (it affects the power change). If a power change is not a scalar value of positive or negative magnitude, then it cannot be flipped with Earworm. If a minion's counted power is reduced by a scalar value (e.g. Daffodil), it may be flipped with Earworm to provide its player with more power than it actually has. If the triggering ability changes the power of more than one minion, choose only one on which the power change is flipped. If the minion with altered power moves during the duration of Earworm's effect, Earworm remains in effect on the new base. If Earworm is played again on the same turn for the same minion, keep track of all separate power boosts (flipped and unflipped) separately and add them together to determine the minion's final power.
* **Heroic Ballad:** Only use the ability if it makes sense; an ability which interacts with the triggering event (e.g. Diva, Hatchling) cannot activate its ability with Heroic Ballad. This ability can trigger abilities whose trigger is "Before [a/this] base scores". You can activate a once per turn ability even if it has already been used this turn; if it hasn't been used this turn, triggering it with Heroic Ballad's ability does not count against the once per turn limitation.
* **Minstrel, Mostly Harmless:** You can give a minion negative power to use these abilities even if it is already at zero power. Although the minion's power cannot go below zero, keep track of all separate modifiers to its power and continue to apply them, in case its power would go above zero later in the turn from other effects.
* **Tough Crowd:** Technically other players could deduce the contents of your hand by inspecting and cataloging your discard pile before and after this effect takes place (unless you have hidden cards such as those buried or stored). It could be considered sportsmanlike to reveal your hand when playing this card to avoid competitive players needing to break out the checklist and slowing the game down.

## Strategy

### General

Bards are conceived and constructed as a pure support deck, intended to bring out the best in your partner faction. This makes it very hard to talk about Bard strategy in a vacuum, but there are some general tips that you can follow.

First, make sure you understand the internal Bard strategy itself. They manipulate the power of minion to create singularly large minions with temporary power boosts, draining the power out of their weaker minions in the process. This synergizes very well with movement abilities which can move your juiced up minions around, leaving your weaker Minstrels to regain their power on a future turn. Your terminal minion is Daffodil, you creates a +2 power swing on his own which can be further enhanced with several effects. Although Daffodil buffs another minion up, it creates a temporary reduction in another player's power, making it easier for you to edge them out for first place. Your best ability synergy cards (Troubadour and Heroic Ballad) do in fact work well with Bard cards on their own (Minstrel and Troubadour trigger off of Heroic Ballad, and Troubadour can trigger Daffodil). Minstrels in particular work very well with Heroic Ballad as they can't go below zero power, allowing you to get a net gain of +8 power playing Heroic Ballad to target two Minstrels.

Second, look carefully at your partner faction to see what their weaknesses and limitations are, because Bards probably have the tools to solve that. If they have strong On-play abilities then Troubadour can reactivate those at the best possible time before her base scores. In fact, it's not hard with Troubadour to tap the same On-play ability three times in a single turn (once on play, once with Heroic Ballad to activate Troubadour, and once naturally with Troubadour when the base breaks). If a partner has reactive abilities, especially once per turn reactive abilities, then Heroic Ballad can trigger those in a vacuum - and taken outside their normal triggering context, some triggered abilities can become significantly more powerful when spammed. If a partner faction has key engine cards they need to see, look at using Skald (potentially triggered multiple times with Troubadour) to ensure access to those crucial cards. Bards have the tools to make sure that their partner gets what they need and that they can make the most of their abilities, exceeding normal limits and timings. Skald in particular as the Bard leader draws you a concealed card, the exact tool that you need for the situation. Although it is tempting to draw the action you need to close the base (like Mostly Harmless), make sure to consider all options. Specials in particular can be very powerful because of the hidden information aspect; all other search tools reveal the card they fetch, dampening the effect of Specials when rivals know what to expect. By concealing the card draw, your rivals will know that you have the perfect card to mess them up, but they won't know exactly what that is. The other big use for Skald is having immediate access to your partner's leader, which ensures for many partners that they have the linchpin to their strategy.

Third, familiarize yourself with the unusual mix of Bard actions. They have some unusual and strong abilities among their actions, which don't always have a clear use case in any given game. Some, like Pied Piper, can be used in multiple ways - recurring your own Minstrels, or stealing minions who have been weakened with Daffodil. The trickiest card may be Tough Crowd, which is often not worth it - switching your deck and discard has pros and cons and is very situationally dependent. On the plus side, you'll know exactly which cards you can expect to see; this can capitalize on a strong early draw to be able to play all the same cards again, encouraging you to burn through your best cards early. On the other hand, if there are key cards that you haven't seen yet, Tough Crowd virtually guarantees that you will never see those cards. The best use of this ability is usually either early enough in the game that you have a thin discard pile of good cards which you want to use again, or in the midgame after repeated use of Skald and other search tools like Starving Artist have stripped the most impactful cards out of your deck, leaving you with a less desirable draw pile. Lastly, this ability is really appreciated in niche circumstances by partners who can treat the discard pile as their personal stash like Zombies or Frozen, because you can quickly accelerate to their endgame of having a rich discard pile to choose from. You will still need to be careful in these cases not to leave yourself with a very thin deck which will quickly be reshuffled, so (as in music,) timing is everything.

Overall, Bards have an interesting mix of power modification and clever tricks which can throw curveballs at your rivals in ways they may not be prepared for. Their cards are very versatile, such as Mostly Harmless to provide either a Summon or a Time Loop style effect with the hurdle of negative power to surpass or use to your advantage. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the timing of different abilities, because there are some unusual timing interactions in this faction surrounding Minstrel in particular (triggering before the action takes effect, allowing the action to remove them from play while still providing their power boost). Bards make many underpowered partners surprisingly viable, and I think you will have a lot of fun finding new meaning in cards which often are frustratingly limited.

### Partner Suggestions

The design goal with Bards was that there should be no bad pairings, because they amplify whoever they are paired with. In general it is probably best to avoid pairing Bards with another support faction like Wizards or Teddy Bears, because there won't be a clear gameplan to push towards. However, Bards do have many tricks up their sleeves and in the absence of a partner to focus on, they can certainly make the most of their own cards as well.

#### Published

* **Aladdin:** Aladdin has an interesting mix of actions themselves, and are infamous for stripping their deck of their best actions, leaving subpar Palace Guards behind. If you use Skald to pull out key cards like Aladdin himself and your better minions, then a midgame Tough Crowd can be an excellent choice to turn all those discarded actions into your new draw pile. Mostly Harmless gives you added action plays which can be significant for multiple Wishes in the same turn, and there are many Bard-friendly cards for timing manipulation like Aladdin, Rajah, and Abu. This combination ensures you will see your strongest actions over and over again, and Bards will help those actions be as impactful as possible.
* **Fairies:** This is a very strong and very natural combination, mostly based on three cards - Glymmer, Titania, and Mostly Harmless. Glymmer has an incredibly powerful negative power ability which can be turned into +4 power with Earworm. Titania has one of the strongest On-play abilities in the game which can be repeated with Troubadour. Mostly Harmless with Spirit of the Forest gives you two extra actions and an extra minion, allowing you to throw out an incredible quantity of cards. Fairies provide very good draw when combined with Spirit of the Forest and cards like Fairy Ballet, making sure you'll speed through your deck to access your key cards. A Phase 3 Titania is one of the strongest overall swings in the game before a base scores, and Troubadour lets you achieve that potential.
* **Samurai:** Samurai have always placed a lot of emphasis on Bushi to be able to generate additional VP, with their games often decided by how quickly they will be able to draw and hopefully recur that key card. Bards attack this from both sides, allowing you to search out Bushi with cards like Skald and Starving Artist, and recur them with Tough Crowd. The real headlining ability here is Bardic Music, which triggers Bushis to gain an extra VP for each one it affects. It does require setup, but the potential of a standard action which gives you 2 VP outside of any other considerations is incredibly strong and can offset the lack of a clear Samurai gameplan. You also have several other Samurai-friendly cards like zero power Minstrels to Yokai Attack, allowing you to make the most of otherwise frustrating abilities.
* **Vigilantes:** Vigilantes have a great mix of minion abilities, including some very strong On-play abilities from Stoneford and Shift, along with some powerful triggered abilities like Jacky Bill. Stoneford in particular is an excellent choice for the classic Troubadour triple tap, quickly getting you exactly the actions you want to see. The Vigilantes have always struggled with unique minions who are also situational and reactive, but Bards will make sure that you have the one you need at the right time.
* **Zombies:** Zombies are such a powerhouse that it's hard to take them seriously sometimes, but there is a lot to like with this combination above and beyond the normal zombie recursion engine. As alluded to earlier, Tough Crowd has the possibility to immediately get you to a state of a rich discard pile, but beyond that, Zombies also have the tools to keep it that way. The incredibly strong and incredibly unnecessary card Lend A Hand played after an early Tough Crowd will let you fill out your deck with the cards you don't need instant access to from your discard, ensuring that you will have a full game filled with rich recursion options. There are some other nice Zombie interactions as well like Minstrels coming off of Zombie Lord with Cacophony to consolidate them, Grave Digger's On-play ability for Troubadours, and Tenacious Z as a target for Starving Artist. These two factions complement each other extremely well, and between Bards stripping out the best of your deck and Zombies stripping out your discard pile, you'll be sure to have a powerful board presence for the entirety of the game.

## Author Notes

Bards were a really cool collaborative project with Normieleon. I was intrigued at the idea of a pure support faction and what that could look like, a faction that entirely existed to highlight the strengths of its partner. How could that be different from traditional support methods which focus on providing lots of draw and extra plays? As part of making the Bards we dug into what some common pain points were for different factions - what is often holding a faction back from achieving their highest upside? Many times, it boils down to draw order dependency, putting too much weight in too few cards, and frustrating and confusing limitations on otherwise cool abilities. I really got excited when we came up with the idea of Heroic Ballad, taking triggered abilities and moving them outside their normal timing windows - something we repeated with Troubadour. By giving more flexibility and opportunities to use their abilities to the best extent possible, a surprising number of mid to low tier factions become incredibly viable. I think you will really enjoy trying out the Bards and seeing their eclectic and unusual playstyle in action!