The Blights of Winter
Complexity: ★
Faction Rule
Conjure Winter (Minor Arcana)
When a piece's rule says to “Conjure Winter X”:
- Reveal X cards from the deck and keep 1 aside for the rest of the game;
- Discard the rest of the revealed cards;
- Use the table below to resolve the effect of the kept card.
When a piece would Conjure Winter and each enemy piece on the board has one or more Disadvantage tokens, The Thaw[1] begins. Henceforth, when a piece would Conjure Winter by any amount, you must discard that many cards you have kept aside. For each card discarded this way, remove a Disadvantage or Curse token from an enemy piece. If there are no such tokens left on enemy pieces, instead place a Disadvantage token on one of your pieces.[2] If a piece would Conjure Winter by any amount and there are no cards to discard this way, instead give a piece from this faction 2 Disadvantage tokens for each card you would have had to discard but could not.
| Card type kept | Effect |
|---|---|
| King | Place 1 Disadvantage token on each enemy adjacent to your King. If you have no King, or there are no enemies adjacent to it, give 1 such token to an enemy piece that has none. |
| Queen | Place 1 Disadvantage token on each enemy adjacent to your Queen. If you have no Queen, or there are no enemies adjacent to it, give 1 such token to an enemy piece that has none. |
| Jack or Ace | Place 1 Disadvantage token on each enemy adjacent to one of your Rooks, Knights, Bishops, or Joker. If you have no such positionals, or there are no enemies adjacent to any of them, give 1 such token to an enemy piece that has none. |
| Numbered | Place 1 Disadvantage token on an enemy piece that has none. |
Piece Options
| Name (ranked highest to lowest) and quantity allowance | Piece Type | Additional Special Rules | Common Special Rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Father Winter
(0-1) |
King | Freezing reign (Minor Arcana): At the start of this King’s Activation, Conjure Winter 2. While you have 10 or more cards kept aside from Conjuring Winter, this King cannot be Cursed, given Disadvantage tokens, or be slain.[3] At the end of turn 10, if this King is still on the board you win the game. | Faction Leader |
| Witch of November
(0-1) |
Queen | Bone-chilling gale (Minor Arcana): When this Queen Attacks an enemy and they successfully Defend, give that enemy 2 Disadvantage tokens. When this Queen is slain, Conjure Winter 8 and keep no fewer than 4 of those cards. | |
| Jack Frost
(0-1) |
Joker | Winter wonderland (Minor Arcana): At the start of this Joker’s Activation, if a Joker card is face up you may turn it face down to Conjure Winter 2. When a piece Conjures Winter, for each Joker card facing down do one of the following:
|
Legendary;
Fool's Endeavour |
| Solstice Totem
(0-2) |
Bishop | Ancient obelisk: This Bishop cannot Attack, Move, or be relocated.[4] If an enemy slays this Bishop, remove all Blessing and Advantage tokens from them, then you may Curse them.
The next solstice approaches (Minor Arcana): At the start of this Bishop’s Activation, Conjure Winter 3. Whenever you Conjure Winter, keep up to 1 additional revealed card for each Bishop of yours on the board, if possible. Or, if it’s after The Thaw, discard 1 additional card per Bishop of yours on the board.[5] |
|
| Barbegazi
(0-2) |
Rook | Good willed: This Rook cannot Attack, be Attacked, or Cursed unless Rooks are the only pieces remaining of yours on the board.
Little jig (Minor Arcana): Immediately after this Rook Castles, Conjure Winter 3. At the end of this Rook's Activation, if it is adjacent to an ally, you may place it into an unoccupied square adjacent to that ally. |
Castle |
| Yeti
(0-2) |
Knight | Natural camouflage (Minor Arcana): This Knight can only be given a Curse or Disadvantage token by:
When this Knight successfully Attacks or Defends, Conjure Winter 4 between Activations. |
Mounted Advantage |
| Arctic Wolf
(0-8) |
Pawn | Prowl (Minor Arcana): At the start of this Pawn’s Activation you may do one of the following:
|
En Passant;
Promotion |
FAQ & Elaborations
- ↑ The Thaw itself is not an effect that resolves, it’s just a point in the game that can occur: it either has happened, or it hasn’t. The Thaw cannot occur in the middle of a Conjure Winter resolution; if, say, there is only 1 enemy without a Disadvantage token, and your Queen dies, causing you to Conjure Winter 8 and keep 4 or more cards, resolve all of those cards normally. The check for enemies with/without Disadvantage tokens happens at the start of the Conjure Winter resolution. If during the resolution of a Conjure Winter you run out of legal targets to place Disadvantage tokens on, you cannot place more Disadvantage tokens.
- ↑ An example of how this could resolve: After The Thaw, a piece from this faction Conjures Winter 3; so you discard 3 of the kept cards; you see only 2 enemies have Disadvantage/Curse tokens, so those 2 get removed, then you give 1 piece from this faction a Disadvantage token; between removing the 2 tokens and giving an ally 1 token, all 3 cards discarded this way have been resolved.
- ↑ If he would be slain while you have 10 or more cards kept aside via Conjure Winter, place him into an unoccupied adjacent square.
- ↑ Relocation includes: placement, random placement, redeployment, random redeployment, scattering, combat movement, or involuntary Moves/Attacks.
- ↑ If after The Thaw you would, for example, Conjure Winter 3 and have 2 Bishops on the board, you will discard 5 cards.
