Game Demo: Open the Arsenal vs Dragon Dynasty

Welcome! Today we’re going to look at a complete game between two Wonders of The First demo decks. We have Brian playing “Open the Arsenal” (a Heliosynth Boundless deck) and we have Rider playing “Dragon Dynasty” which is a Solfera and Thalwin deck. We flip the coin and Brian gets to mulligan first. Each player has the option to mulligan by putting up to 3 cards from their hand on the bottom of their deck and then drawing enough to bring their hand back up to seven.

Brian’s starting hand… Indra’s Citadel, Techno Historian, The First, Scorpion’s Edge, Trinity Barboni, Patch Squibbler, and Solaris Stormcaster.

Rider’s starting hand… Vulcan Vale, Iron Citadel, Wartamed Manitcore, Dragon Gold, Thundercrash Axe, Sunsand Goldscale, and Koiscale.

ROUND ONE

Each player gains three actions, one energy and each player draws a card. Brian spends one action to play Residence Reach, a land that reduces the cost of all his Heliosynth cards. Rider plays The First, a multi-land that reduces the cost of all of his cards of all Orbitals. Brian spends one action and one energy to play Trinity Barboni, a Wonder that gets buffed when equipped. Rider plays Koiscale for one action and zero energy. It would normally cost one energy but The First is reducing its cost to zero. Koiscale is a baby dragon that gets buffed on defense. Brian plays Indra’s Citadel, a land that reduces the cost of all his Boundless cards. Rider spends one energy in his last action to play Sunsand Goldscale. It’s a baby dragon with flying and whenever he plays a Wonder with cost of 5 or more, he gains 2 energy to start.

ROUND TWO

Each player gains a card, gains two energy, and draws a card. Brian spends one action to play Patch Squibbler, a 3-power lizard. Rider spends an action to attach with Sunsand and Koiscale then uses his flying to move Sunsand over to Realm 2. Brian spends an action to attack in realm 2 taking the stone as his Patch Squibbler wins against Sunsand 3 to 2. Rider spends an action and two energy to play Thundercrash Axe, equipping it to his baby dragon that gives it an extra attack each round and plus two power. Brian plays Scorpion’s Edge on Trinity because it has attune it doesn’t cost him an action. Trinity is a 3-power Wonder that gets plus three when equipped so Trinity is already up to 8-power. Rider gets a free attack from his Thundercrash Axe so he attacks in Realm 2 taking the stone from the Squibbler. Brian is out of actions but he really wants to use that sword so he taps a land to harvest it and gain an extra action. Brian spends his action to attack in Realm 1 and take the stone from Koiscale.

ROUND THREE

To start Round 3, each player gets three actions, three energy, plus an extra energy for each Stone they control. Then each player draws a card. Brian spends an action and two energy to play the Techno Historian, a three-power Wonder that reduces the cost of his items. Rider uses one action and pay three energy for Dragon Gold, an item which reduces the cost of Wonders that cost five or more (but only for him.)

Dragons are greedy.

With no enemy Wonder to fight, Techno Historian picks up the Stone in Realm 3. Rider spends an action to play another Koiscale and gets to sit on his big pile of gold. Brian plays the Light Forge, another Boundless land. Rider plays another Koiscale building his baby dragon army. Rider’s flying dragon still has that axe that gives it a free attack every turn and so he attacks even though he’s already winning in Realm 2 and so he can activate flying and move to Realm 3. Both players are out of actions now and neither one wants to harvest any lands for extra actions so it’s onto Round Four!

ROUND FOUR

To start Round 4, each player gets three actions, four energy, plus an extra energy for each Stone they control. Then each players draws a card. Brian plays Professor Tiberious to threaten in Realm 4. Thanks to his Dragon Gold, Rider pays only two energy and one action to play Wartamed Manitcore, a dragon beast with flying. Brian plays Solaris Stormcaster, it costs him only one energy and no actions because it has attuned. The Stormcaster gives minus five to an enemy whenver Professor Tiberius attacks. Professor T also draws its controller a card when equipped. Rider puts an end to that nonsense with Lurking Bloodeye Dragon, a dragon that destroys an item on arrival. Rider once again exploits the axe that gives him a free attack with his Sunsand and captures the Stone from the Techo Historian and then moves his flying dragon over to Realm 4. Both players pass and we go to Round 5.

ROUND FIVE

To start Round 5, each player gets three actions, five energy for each Stone they control, and they each draw a card. Rider spends an action to attack with all his dragons in Realm 4 and then sends his Manitcore flying over to another Realm. Brian lays a Cybernetic Enhancement on his Patch Squibbler. It costs one energy and doesn’t cost an action because it has attuned. Since Heliosynth is the Orbital of Technology, a lot of its equipment will cheat by not requiring an action. Rider spends an action to attack in Realm 5 with his Manticore picking up the Stone with no resistance. Whenever that Manticore attacks for the second, third, or more time in row — it gets plus two counters every time it attacks. Brian spends an action to attack with his Enhanced Squibbler taking the Stone in Realm 2. Rider plays Dwarven Vault, which pretty much is an unfair card that says you can’t just take this Stone from me. On his turn, Brian plays a Cybernetic Enhancement on Professor T again. Because it’s a Heliosynth card with attune, he doesn’t spend an action on it and Professor T gets equipped and lets Brian draw. Now Professor T is 7-power. On his turn, Rider spends an action to play Vulcan Veil land in Realm 2. A second or third land of the same Orbital doesn’t stack and it won’t give you extra cost reductions for Solfera cards but you can harvest it for actions.

Brian pays one energy for the item called Gleaming Power Cell. It says that at the end of each round, he can put counters on it equal to his energy and then use those counters for energy in the next round. Brian is looking to really up all that hi-tech equipment he’s got. Brian spends an action to attack with Enhanced Professor T that is a 7-power against the other two baby dragons, one if which has the axe, wins the Stone. Brian puts counters on his Power Cell and now we’re ready for Round 6.

ROUND SIX

At the beginning of Round 6, each player gets three actions, six energy plus Brian gets an additional energy for each counter on his Power Cell. Then each player draws a card. Brian was the last to capture a Stone so he gets the first turn. He plays Technomad Nix, a 4-power Wonder that lets him get back an item from The Abyss. Tech Nomad Nix likes to scavage and repair things and this time he’s found himself a perfectly good Solara Stormcaster to repair but Rider is also drawing a lot of his weaponry. He puts a huge Vapor Blast Artillery on his Koi Scale. Vapor Blast gives the equipped Wonder plus three but it also allows that Wonder to blow away an enemy to a nearby Realm. On Brian’s turn, he spends an action to pick up the Stone in Realm 6 since it was lying on the ground with no defenders. On his turn, Rider spends an action to attack with his Koiscale and Vapor Blast sending the Patch Squibbler over to Realm 1. Rider’s Koiscale just strolls into the empty space and picks up the Stone. Brian spends one energy and no actions because it has attuned to play Solaris Stormcaster on Professor Tiberius... that’s the one that Tech Nomad Nix found in the garbage and repaired because Professor T really likes to be equipped. Brian gets to draw a card. Rider realizes that his baby dragons are going to get annihilated by Professor T’s Stormcaster so he spends an action to attack and uses flying to move them over into Realm 5 where they are going to be relatively safe.

Brian uses four energy and one action for the legendary Emma Shockbite. She gives all his item cards attuned — meaning they don’t use an action when played and when any of Brian’s equipped Wonders attack, they get plus two that round. Brian currently has three equipped Wonders that can benefit from this. Rider spends an action to attack in Realm 5 with his army of dragons and then flies them over to Realm 6 leaving his Stone contained in his Dwarven Vault. There is no way to get to that Stone unless that Dwarven Vault is destroyed first. Because the Manticore attacked for the second time in a round, it gets two plus one power counters. Hopefully it doesn’t attack again. Thankfully both players pass. The round ends. Brian gets to put spin counters on his Power Cell and the players move to Round 7.

ROUND SEVEN

Brian takes all the counters off his Power Cell to gain energy and then each player gains seven energy for Round 7 and gains three actions and draws a card. Rider plays Blinsworth Goldscale, the big daddy dragon of all his baby dragons. It normally costs six energy but because of all his cost reducers it only costs him three plus he gets two energy back plus when Blinsworth takes a Stone, it generates three energy for him and he draws a card. In a brilliant play, Brian plays Static Shock, a spell that says whenever an enemy attacks this round, it gets minus two. Rider can’t believe it and has to reread the card. That’ll teach you, you big bully dragons! Rider doesn’t care and he spends an action to attack with Blinsworth. He puts it on Emma Shockbite that only costs him one energy and zero actions. Now Emma turns into an 8 whenever she attacks plus she’ll deal minus 8 to an enemy. If she attached for a second time, she would become a 10 that deals minus 10 to an enemy. Emma‘s a HUGE threat on the board. Rider plays another Lurking Bloodeye in Realm 1 to destroy a Cybernetic Enhancement. Now Brian spends an action to send Emma and her Stormcaster crashing into the two remaining dragons and destroying one of them and taking the Stone. When the poor little Sunsand Dragon got destroyed, it dropped the Thundercrash Axe which automatically equip to the Mantacore giving it plus two and a free attack. Rider realized that their power was equal in the last attack and the Stone shouldn’t have moved.

What’s more, all of Rider’s cost reduction kicks in and he’s able to drop Drogar the Destroyer – a 13-power Wonder. Drogar has flying and whenever it attacks, it destroys a land or item in the same realm. Brian does a last attack with Emma, which is just enough to take back the Stone. Rider is ahead 4 to 3 and is out of actions. Brian only has one action left that he could use to attack but he has no winning attack position on the board.

It looks like the game may be over…

BUT WAIT. What’s this? Brian has a Blackhole Blunderbus which gives his Techno Historian plus one. With his last remaining action he attacks beating the Koiscale and taking the last Stone of the game! No actions left, no lands left to harvest. The game is over! Brian wins 4 to 3. Good game!

Interested in trying out the game? Download the Print and Play decks and full rules at https://www.wondersccg.com/how-to-play/.