Angels and Demons
Sembali and Harold Reborn!
Welcome back Ashes players!
Our preview season is beginning to draw to a close as we finish exploring the remaining expansion deck updates for Ashes Reborn. There are still many important card updates to go over, including this preview’s two divisive Phoenixborn. Let’s dive right in!
The Spirits of Memoria
This Phoenixborn has gone through some truly transformative changes! Sembali was the Phoenixborn that introduced permanent conjuration removal to Ashes 1.0. This mechanic ended up becoming a pretty polarizing experience, either obliterating a certain strategy, or having nearly no impact to others. Whatever the case, this mechanic is no longer suited for Ashes Reborn’s lowered conjuration counts, and has thus been removed from the game. Sembali in Ashes Reborn now leans deeper into her theme of ally support with the Gift of Wings ability. Sembali can now command the battlefield with powerful angelic knights, refreshing them and taking them to the sky, making them unable to be guarded against!
Despite conjuration banishment being removed from Reborn, Sembali still boasts powerful anti-conjuration spells. Her exclusive spell, Purify, allows you to return an ally to hand and convert that into a flat-out conjuration destruction effect! Needless to say, if Sembali has an ally in play, her threat level is high.
Another special anti-conjuration spell is Chained Creations. This card can pick up the kill on lower life conjurations with ease, and further the punishment by locking down the spell that summoned them for a future round as well! If Three-Eyed Owls and Gilders are a threat to your strategy, a Chained Creations can be just the tool to seal them away.
The Demons of Darmas
This expansion deck is home to perhaps the most powerful and dreaded Phoenixborn from original Ashes: Harold Westraven. Harold has the full package; high life, dice recursion, conjuration removal, the list goes on. As such, Harold has been adjusted to meet the balance standards of Ashes Reborn.
However, not all changes to him have been power decreases. Harold can now Mark Prey for free, which has incredible synergy with his new exclusive card Consume Soul. Reborn Harold leans even more into his hunting instincts, looking to use Mark Prey and Consume Soul to repeatedly feast upon his enemies!
Harold has recruited one of the most fearsome allies in Ashes Reborn. The Master Vampire boasts incredible autonomy on the battlefield with a chunky statline and Stalk combat ability. This pairs well with the Life Drain ability, allowing you to reliably attack your prey and reap the benefits!
Adrenaline Rush helps units like Master Vampire continue the hunt with a speedy un-exhaustion effect! It is easy to see the relentless nature of Harold’s deck when it comes to combat.
Harold’s last trick for this preview is one of the most limited and unique effects in Ashes Reborn. Transmute Magic grants the ability to completely change the classes of magic available to you for the round. This can be an effective way to wield greedy dice pools or fix a hand full of the wrong types of magic.
Thank you for reading this article. Be sure to check out Team Covenant’s Wednesday livestream for more Ashes Reborn previews and content. Until next time, take care!
