Fallen Kingdom: Ret-Talus
Oof, talk about a bad makeover. Ret-Talus went from being creepy to being
Merasmus from Team Fortress 2.
Let's see how his abilities have changed:
Original: 5 life, 2 atk, ranged. Raise the Dead: Spend Ret-Talus' Attack and 2 magic to revive a FK common (from your own discard) adjacent to him.
New: 12 life, 2 atk, ranged. During Summon Phase (no longer spending an attack), deal 2 damage to Ret-Talus to grab an Undead unit from your discards and place it adjacent to him.
So, switching from paying with magic to paying with blood. I also appreciate that the new card specifies 'Undead', as a surprising number of these new commons are not Undead. I assume all 'Undead' will be commons.
Champions:
Gul-Dass: Old: 5 cost, 7 life, 4 atk, melee. When he hits for 3+ damage, deals 1 wound to the FK summoner.
New: 5 cost, 8 life, 2 atk, melee. +1 Atk for each damage
Now that's a crazy re-design. Gul-Dass is now a stand-in for Krug/Hulk. Art is completely different too. No analogous unit in the original FK packs.
Elut Bal: Old: 7 cost, 5 life, 4 atk, melee. Summoned by Blood. You can discard your own units to reduce his cost by 2 for each unit destroyed. (Notably, they end up in your discards, making re-animation easier).
New: 6 cost, 6 life, 6 atk, melee. Summoned by Fire: Forced to Destroy a friendly (triggering abilities as appropriate), and Elut-Bal replaces that unit.
Both big, strong beasts, and both use allies to help get them in play. New Elut replacing a unit is quite powerful, though the sacrifice becoming mandatory is a slight drawback. (Though Be honest, you never summoned old Elut without killing something).
Dragos: Old: 5 Cost, 5 life, 2 atk, melee, Heals 1 when he destroys a unit.
New: 6 cost, 8 life, 4 atk, melee. Before attacking, he can kill an nerby ally to make lightning symbols count as hits.
From generic Vampire to ultra-creepy, I actually approve of this re-design, especially once the Shadow Elves co-opted the traditional Vampire appearance in many ways.
That said, why would you make the ability 'Life Drain' not heal the user? Give it a different name. Old Dragos's Life Drain and Mad Sirian's Blood Drain healed them when attacking, and generally 'Drain' abilities in games do just that, rather than buffing their attack. Great art though.
Commons:
Zombie Warrior (Old): 2 cost, 2 life, 1 atk, melee. Kills a foe, you get magic, AND can revive a Zombie Warrior in its place.
Undead Carrier (New): 1 cost, 3 life, 2 atk, melee. You don't get magic when this guy kills a foe. However, he turns killed units into new Carrier. Note that it doesn't specify 'Undead' Carrier. Perhaps more Carriers will appear in other decks, kind of like how there was some Cultist synergy between Helkar, working with both Fallen Phoenix and Fallen Kingdom Cultists.
Skeletal Archer (Old): 1 cost, 1 life, 1 atk, ranged. When destroyed, 2/3 chance of ending up in owner's discard instead of foe's magic.
Undead Archer (New): 2 cost, 2 life, 3 atk, Ranged. 'Soul Shift', they partially copy Shadow Elf Rangers now. Tricky, but without the ability to immediately attack again, they seem to just become cannon fodder after warping. Note that the Undead title means Ret-Talus can raise them.
Old "Cultist": 2 cost, 1 life, 2 atk, melee. "Death Curse" 2/3 chance of dealing 1 damage to the foe that killed it.
Hellfire Cultist: 0 cost, 2 life, 2 atk, ranged. "Immolate" ALWAYS hurts all adjacent enemies when killed.
Interesting, despite 'Hellfire' being a theme of the old Fallen Phoenix, this guy is more related to the original FK cultists. While the original could harm a foe that killed it from ranged, it was die-roll dependent. The new one explodes when killed by any cause, (even your own events), but only at melee.
Undead Warrior:
Kind of like Reaper (Old): 2 cost, 3 life, 1 atk, melee. Gets +1 atk for each unit it killed (cards killed go underneath it.
New: 2 cost ,3 life, 2 atk, melee. +1 atk for each boost on it, and gets boost whenever any unit is destroyed on your turn. So, the buff is not permanent, degrading by 2 per turn, but thematically similar. The drawback is kind of like the old Ghoul, except it won't kill the Warrior.
Events:
Sacrificial Pyre: 1 cost, Each time a unit is destroyed, boost the card. When card is discarded, target a unit and remove 1 damage from the target for each boost.
Ret-Talus has a way to heal himself now, not just Sirian. Alternatively, a champion can get a new lease on life. Getting maximum potential out of all the 'unit destroyed' effects in this deck would certainly make for a single, crazy, power turn. Setup seems really difficult to pull that off well, however. This card can either come in clutch or be a dud.
Hellforged Weapon: 0 cost Buff a common unit by 2 atk permanently, but it hurts itself for rolling lightning bolts. No analogy in Sirian or Ret-Talus's decks. Except maybe Forbidden Ritual, but that only lasts 1 turn and targets all FK Commons.
Purge:
0 cost, Destroy any number of friendly units and deal 2 damage to adjacent units. Synergizes well with things like the Warrior's blood fury and Cultist's immolate.
This card was actually taken from Immortal Elien instead of Ret-Talus or Sirian. Original purge only targeted 1 *wounded* common unit, and dealt 1 damage to each adjacent unit. New Purge is any number of units, with 2 damage to one target.
Interestingly, that 'fire' symbol means the new Phoenix elves can use this event.
Blood Summon: 0 cost. Summon a unit of cost 2 or less for free adjacent to a target ally. Deal 2 damage to the target. Interestingly, while both Sirian and Ret-Talus had self-damaging-to-summon abilities, (Reanimate, Searching the Stone, and Forced Summon), Blood Summon damages an ordinary unit, and can even be used on a unit that it kills. Also kind of like the Corpse Wyrm's ability.
