AIR

## Overview

*She has waited in the sky for a thousand years; and the wait can finally pay off. Bear the summer heat, the painful curse, and your unfair fate–because the long dream was not in vain. Slowly gather up turn counters, and then strike back and score bases when all hope seems lost.*

AIR is a faction all about patience. It aims to keep its minions in play as long as possible, gathering up turn counters, then using them to make massive plays at just the right moment and finally break the ancient curse. This faction is a late-game threat, capable of making surprising comebacks; but only if you lay out your plans very carefully!

## Details

#### General

* Name: AIR
* Author: phantomic109
* Complexity: 4/5
* Version: 1.0
* Last updated: February 2, 2023

#### Special Details

Technically speaking, the faction's wording uses "turn counters." However, they are completely interchangeable with Energy, so all mentions of turn counters can just be treated as mentions of Energy.

## Cards

#### Breakdown

AIR has only 9 minions and 11 actions compared to the usual 10 and 10. They have an unusually low total minion power of 21, or an average of about 2.3 per minion. Among their actions, there are:

* 3 play-on-base actions: Potato's Companionship (2x), Millennium Curse
* 8 standard actions (7 of which affect one or more minions, **in bold**): **Avoid Responsibility (2x)**, **Magical Puppet (2x)**, **Hot Summer Day**, **Rice Coupons**, Peach Nectar, **Scalpels**

#### Minions

* **1x Yukito (4):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place a turn counter on this minion. Talent: If this minion has 4 or more turn counters on it, gain 1VP, then search your deck, hand, and/or discard pile for Sora, play it here, and place this minion on the bottom of your deck.
* **1x Misuzu (4):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place a turn counter on this minion. If this minion goes to the discard pile with 4 or more turn counters on it, place up to 5 power counters total on your minions. Otherwise, search your deck and/or discard pile for Kanna and place it on top of your deck.
* **1x Ryuuya (4):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place a turn counter on this minion. Talent: If this minion has 2 or more turn counters on it, search your deck for an action that can be played on a base and place it into your hand.
* **1x Kanna (4):** Ongoing: At the start of your turn, place a turn counter on this minion. If this minion goes to the discard pile from play, search your deck and/or discard pile for Misuzu and place it on top of your deck. Talent: If this minion has 2 or more turn counters on it, transfer one of your actions played on a base to another base.
* **4x Child (1):** Place a +1 power counter on this minion. You may increase this base’s breakpoint by 4 until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Sora (1):** Talent: Draw a card.

#### Actions

* **2x Avoid Responsibility:** Special: Play before a base scores. Move one of your minions from there to another base. If Yukito is in play, you may play this card after a base scores.
* **2x Potato's Companionship:** Play on a base. Talent: Discard a card. Remove any number of turn counters from your minions here and place an equal number of power counters on those minions, or remove any number of power counters from your minions here and place an equal number of turn counters on those minions.
* **2x Magical Puppet:** Remove up to 7 turn counters from your minions. For each one you remove, either give one of your minions +2 power until the end of the turn or draw a card. Place this card into the box.
* **1x Hot Summer Day:** Discard a card. Transfer up to 3 turn counters from your minions to your other minions OR search your deck and/or discard pile for Rice Coupons and place it into your hand.
* **1x Rice Coupons:** Discard a card. If you have no turn counters on your minions, place up to 4 turn counters total on them. Otherwise, place up to 2 turn counters total on them.
* **1x Peach Nectar:** Draw a card and play an extra action. If Misuzu is in play, play another action or place a card from your discard pile on top of your deck.
* **1x Millennium Curse:** Play on a base. Ongoing: This base’s breakpoint is increased by 5. If Kanna is in play, other players must discard a card to play a minion here.
* **1x Scalpels:** Destroy a minion with power equal to or less than the number of turn counters on your minions. If Ryuuya is in play, you may move it instead.

#### Titan

* **Fate's Hand:** Special: Once per turn, if you have 7 or more turn counters total on your minions, you may play this Titan. Ongoing: Whenever one of your actions played on a base would go to the discard pile, you may move it to another base instead. Talent: Place a turn counter on one of your minions.

#### Bases

* **(21) Embankment (4 2 1):** Once during each player’s turn, that player remove up to 3 turn counters from their minions and place an equal number of power counters on those minions, or remove up to 3 power counters from their minions and place an equal number of turn counters on those minions.
* **(25) The Sky (5 3 2):** At the start of each player’s turn, that player may place a turn counter on one of their minions here to draw a card.

## Author Notes

I think AIR was the faction I had the most fun creating. It has a lot of complexity, and that was certainly part of the reason for it being so fun, but also, it was just such a cool challenge writing the card effects so that they fit the source material thematically without upsetting the balance of the cards.