Card Types: Soldiers and Heroes

This post is the first in a series that explains each Devacurse card type and how it is used in the game.

  

Today we look at the central players of Devacurse:  the Soldiers and Heroes ready to fight to the death for their Devas.

Soldier Cards:

A Soldier Card: Kong Akkee, the Flame Guard - artwork by Jessada Sutthi

Soldier cards represent the grunts or foot-soldiers of Devacurse. Soldier cards have the following characteristics:

Anatomy of a soldier card.

  Name: 

The name of the unit is in the upper right-hand corner.  This card’s name, KongAkkee, means “The Flame Guard”.

  Set icon:

This symbol in the upper right-hand corner shows the set this card was published in.  The Flame Guard was published in the Half Blood Deal base set.

The set icon also indicates the rarity of the card for collectors.  Gold = rare, Silver = uncommon, and Bronze (red) = common.  KongAkkee’s bronze set icon indicates it is common.

  Blessing cost: 

The blessing cost is in the upper left-hand corner. 

A number value indicates a blessing cost that can be paid with either unaligned blessing points or blessing points of any elemental alignment. 

Elemental symbols indicate blessing point costs that must be paid for with blessings of matching elemental alignment.

Example:  This card has a 1, which can be paid with any color of blessing, and one fire icon, which can only be paid with one fire blessing.  Both costs must be paid to summon this card. 

  Subtype: 

The text immediately below the card illustration indicates the unit’s subtype.  This unit belongs to the “human soldier” subtype.

  Pronunciation: 

The next line of text lists the unit’s name in Thai, then in English.

  Skills and abilities: 

The next line of text describes the unit’s special powers and capabilities (in Thai), which can be used to affect the outcome of a battle.  Skills and abilities include burn, windwalk, pierce, poison, field, revive.  See the Skills and Abilities section for more information.

Flavor text: 

The last line of text describes the unit or character’s role in the fictional world of Devacurse.  Some cards, like this one, do not have flavor text.

  Attack Strength: 

The number inside the bladed circle on the lower left corner indicates the card’s attack strength.  The higher the number, the more powerful the card.

  Defense: 

The number inside the smooth shield circle on the lower right-hand corner indicates the card’s defense value.  The higher the number, the better this card can withstand attacks.

Hero Cards:

Irawat, one of the central heroes of the Devacurse story - artwork by Randis Albion (Andre Weiss).

Hero cards represent the legendary figures of the Devacurse universe.  Heroes are avatars of their controlling Devas, incarnating their will and intellect, and bringing a measure of their power to the battlefield.  Heroes are powerful agents that can shift the tides of battle, but they come at a significant price:  mystically bonded to his patron Deva, the death of a hero directly impacts the life force of his controlling deity.  

Hero cards have the following characteristics:

Anatomy of a hero card

  Set icon:

This symbol in the upper right-hand corner shows the set this card was published in.  Irawat was published in the Half Blood Deal base set.

The set icon also indicates the rarity of the card for collectors.  Gold = rare, Silver = uncommon, and Bronze (red) = common.  Irawat’s Gold set icon indicates it is rare.

  Name: 

The name of the hero (in English) is found immediately below the character illustration. 

This hero’s name is Irawat.  Irawat is a central protagonist in the ongoing Devacurse saga.

  Subtype: 

The next line of text indicates the hero’s subtype.  Irawat’s subtype is “human hero”.

  Skill / Ability Level: 

Two centered bars of text list the hero’s skill and ability levels.  All Heroes have two levels of skill or ability.

Summoning heroes with Guardians

Unlike soldier and event cards, hero cards are not summoned using blessing points generated by prayer cards in the temple zone.  The hero summoning mechanic is one of Devacurse’s most innovative and fascinating, since it is indirectly flavored by the Thai Buddhist conception of reincarnation.  

Hero cards are summoned using the discarded (“dead”) soldier and event cards in the Cenotaph pile.  Any card from the Cenotaph that is used to summon a hero in this way is called a “guardian”.  Heroes are unique personalities in the Devacurse universe, so only one card of the same hero can be in play at any time.  Devas may summon different heroes at the same time, however – as many as they can pay for with the guardian points available in their cenotaphs.

Hero cards must be summoned using the guardian cost of their first skill / ability level, and can never enter play starting at level 2.  Irawat’s first skill level has a guardian cost of 2 cards of any or no elemental alignment, shown by the number 2, and 2 discarded earth cards, indicated by two earth symbols. 

All guardian cards used to summon a hero must be filed beneath that hero. 

Upgrading heroes

Heroes can be upgraded to their second Skill / Ability levels during their second Turn Spiral in the battlefield.  To upgrade a hero, pay the difference between the guardian cost of the first and second skill levels.  Irawat has an initial skill level of 2 unaligned guardian points and 2 earth-aligned guardian points, and a second skill level of 3 unaligned guardian points and 3 earth-aligned guardian points.  Therefore the controlling player must pay 1 unaligned guardian point and 1 earth-aligned guardian point to upgrade Irawat to his second skill level. 

Upgrading is cumulative: upgraded heroes possess the skills and abilities of both skill levels. 

  Attack Strength: 

As with soldier cards, the number inside the bladed circle on the lower left corner of the hero card indicates the character’s attack strength.  The higher the number, the more powerful the card, and the more damage it can inflict on an enemy soldier, hero, or Deva.

Irawat has a formidable attack strength of 3. 

The Death of a Hero

  Avatar Points: 

The number inside the Eye of the Deva in the lower right-hand corner, unlike the shield on soldier cards, does not indicate defense.  On hero cards this number stands for Avatar points, the life force of the hero.  If this number is reduced to zero, the hero dies and the hero card is discarded to the Black Hole pile.  Heroes sent to the Black Hole cannot be retrieved and are removed for the duration of the game.  However, players may summon and use a new card of the same hero if they have a duplicate in their hand. 

When a hero dies the guardian cards beneath him are also discarded.  Guardian cards that share the hero’s current elemental cost (for Irawat, Earth) follow him into the Black Hole.  Guardians of other or no elemental alignments are returned to the cenotaph.

Since the hero is an incarnation of the controlling Deva, his life force (Avatar Points) is linked to his patron deity’s, i.e. to the controlling player’s Faith Points.  When a hero dies, his maximum Avatar Point number is deducted from the controlling player’s faith points.

Example:  Irawat has four Avatar Points.  His controlling Deva has 24 Faith Points.  Irawat is slain in battle by the opposing Deva’s hero, Tuwalo.  Irawat’s controlling Deva loses 4 Faith Points (24 FP – 4 AP = 20 FP) and places Irawat into the Black Hole discard pile.  The guardian cards beneath Irawat are placed in the appropriate Black Hole (Earth) and Cenotaph (unaligned) discard piles.

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