"I can influence your every move. At my will, simply standing becomes a burden too great for you to bear. You will walk an endless path, but it doesn't have to be this way. I can lift the weight of this long war from your shoulders." 

Welcome back, Ashes players! Today begins the preview articles of The Masters of Gravity and the Path of Assassins Expansion Decks. In this next set of expansions, we'll be exploring the rivalry between Echo Greystorm and Jericho Kill. The Masters of Gravity is an expansion deck including cards that use the newly introduced Divine and Sympathy magic classes. Train yourselves under the guidance of Echo Greystorm and learn to wield the power of gravity through a dynamic manipulation of exhaustion tokens!

Echo Greystorm

Echo brings a robust statline of 6 Battlefield and 4 Spellboard, with a respectable 17 Life. Echo's stats allow for great flexibility on the battlefield by fielding a strong amount of units, backed by plenty of space for Summon ready spells and even some utility ready spells. 

Echo has mastered the power of gravity, allowing him to flexibly maneuver exhaustion tokens around the battlefield. This theme permeates through the rest of his base deck, adding a new level of depth and complexity to the flow of the game. Echo’s ability, Increase Gravity, gives you the power to double down on exhaustion tokens whenever a unit would become exhausted, whether it be from battle, or from a card effect like Change Psyche.

Players facing up against Echo will now have to prepare with even further insight, knowing well that any unit that they use in battle may suffer the burden of Increase Gravity, placing them out of commission for another round.

Adding an extra exhaustion token to a unit is nice and all, but Echo can still take this one step further; If you aren’t convinced of the strength of adding this extra exhaustion token through Echo’s ability, check out his exclusive Action Spell, Chaos Gravity!

Chaos Gravity

Echo’s command over the power of gravity allows him to flip the tides of battle when the moment is right. In one action, Chaos Gravity can reduce an imposing army preparing for battle down to a board of exhausted units, all while preparing a unit of your own to fight again! Notice how combining Echo’s ability when using Chaos Gravity can go as far as exhausting two of your opponent’s units and unexhausting one of your own. Now that’s some power!

Against Echo, no longer can a player summon unit after unit to prepare for a single, large-scale attack. The threat of Chaos Gravity can force a player to slow down their pace and play by Echo’s rules.

If you are wondering what is going on with the play cost of Chaos Gravity, allow me to introduce Parallel Costs!

Parallel Costs

This unique costing allows players to choose how they want to afford playing a card like Chaos Gravity. Players can choose between using Divine magic OR Sympathy magic when casting this powerful spell! This allows for flexibility both in deck building and in the heat of battle.

Building a deck with Echo has a unique level of depth due to this Parallel Cost. You may choose to use Divine magic, allowing Chaos Gravity to help unexhaust a unit like Holy Knight to reactivate her Impenetrable ability, or even give a unit with Power Through attached another chance to hit hard! You may choose to use Sympathy magic, where Chaos Gravity can pave the way through your opponent’s defenses for your army of supercharged Squall Stallions! You may even run both types of magic, allowing you to pay what you can when the time comes. These are just a few of the many tricks that are possible with Chaos Gravity, and I hope you look forward to using Echo and his signature spell.

 Thank you for joining me for the beginning of another exciting preview cycle!  I hope you have enjoyed the start of this preview series. Stay tuned for the next preview on Thursday; Jericho Kill…