Welcome back, Ashes players! Earlier this week we saw the preview of Harold Westraven for the Ceremonial/Sympathy Expansion Deck. Today we are going to dive into the Spirits of Memoria Expansion Deck! This deck features the winning Phoenixborn from the War Within Tournament series; Sembali Grimtongue Sembali uses Illusion and Divine magic to recall the spirits of lost allies and banish the imperfect magical conjurations of Argaia. Let's see what Sembali can do!

SEMBALI GRIMTONGUE

Sembali's greatest strength lies in her ability, Ban Manifestation. This ability allows her to start eroding away at an opponent's conjuration count by either removing a conjuration from play from the game, or remove all other copies of that conjuration from the opponent's conjuration pile! This can be a devastating control strategy if an opponent isn't prepared to lose key conjurations. This can put opponents in a tough position if they were planning to summon a wall of Butterfly Monks and Shadow Spirits throughout the game. Sembali's weaknesses come in the form of a below average statline of 5/19/3, as well as the fact that Ban Manifestation is only effective at removing all but the last of any given conjuration. Sembali fortunately comes prepared with extra personal protection and the nail in the coffin for conjuration removal; Veil of Reversal.

VEIL OF REVERSAL

Sembali's unique reaction spell boasts all the player and Phoenixborn protecting benefits that Vanish has, but for the reduced price of only 2! Besides being cheaper to play than Vanish, this also has the added benefit of being much easier to have ready to cast at a moment's notice! As long as you have 2 dice in your active pool, opponents will have no clue whether or not their Molten Golds or Sympathy Pains will be safe to play against Sembali! In addition, when you play Veil of Reversal, you have the option to return an ally you control to your hand. If you do so, you can remove a conjuration in play from the game! This has excellent synergy with Sembali's Ban Manifestation ability. If your opponent chose to keep a certain conjuration in play by removing all other copies of it from their conjuration pile, a surprise Veil of Reversal can banish the last conjuration left in play, locking out that conjuration from being summoned for the rest of the game! Tread lightly against Sembali, for you never know when your actions might spell the end for your conjurations!

As for returning your own allies to your hand, there are a number of tricks to take advantage of. This can be a great way to clear up battlefield space in tight control matchups where Regress or Blood Chains can clog up your battlefield indefinitely. Additionally, some allies have strong effects when they enter the battlefield, like Fire Archer or Iron Worker. Being able to refresh your allies to fight again can be useful on its own, and is sure to have even more benefits to be discovered in the Spirits of Memoria...

As always, thanks again for checking out this week's Ashes previews! If you missed the debut of Harold Westraven, check him out here. Stay tuned for more Ashes previews next week as we take a look at some of the twisted transformations from the Demons of Darmas!

Until next time!

Posted by Nick Conley Nick Conley is the lead playtester for Ashes and a dedicated fan.