Now that the DTR Spoiler Season has come to a close and the full index has been released, I wanted to take a look through the 10 cards that I think have the potential to make the biggest impact on the competitive metagame leading in to Ascent Boston.

10. Chamber of Reflections

Since the release of Mercurial Heart Alter Edition, I’ve been testing Water Domain Tonoris pretty extensively, and got it to a point where it’s a solid Tier 2 deck with the potential to be perfectly positioned for certain metagames. Eternal Kingdom provides incredible resource generation, turning your Dormant Sacrificial Altars and Hub of Innovations into raw +1s, and removing the -1 downside from all of your utility domains (it also enables you to cheekily play Zhang Jiao :)

The deck isn’t that reliant on a Divine Relic, so it can absolutely afford to play The Looking Glass purely to enable this, frankly, broken new domain. Search effects in Grand Archive have been extremely limited, Luxera’s Map being the only example, and it’s an advanced element regalia item that comes in hindered, and *if* it isn’t destroyed it can search a card to memory on the next turn. While Chamber also comes in Hindered, it can be played turn 1, and most importantly it’s a Domain, not an Item, significantly reducing the number of ways to interact with it. While it can search far fewer cards than Luxera’s Map, Domain effects are incredibly powerful and often incredibly niche, which are perfect for a tutor effect. You can play 4 Chamber + a few 1 of utility domains, and even if none of them are applicable to your opponent’s deck, it can still simply search for Dormant Altar / Hub of Innovation to give a +1 with your Eternal Kingdom. Below are just some of the powerful cards Chamber lets you search for:

9. Manaflare Barrage

Following a similar trend to Chamber of Reflections, Manaflare Barrage is another card that fills a design role that’s so far been very heavily restricted: fast speed board wipes. There are 3 in the game so far: Polaris, Twinkling Cauldron, Cometfall, and Meteor Strike, all of which are locked to Arisanna/Astra. If you’ve come from Magic: the Gathering, you know the importance of board wipes in control decks, but the Fast speed tag might not seem as relevant; however, Grand Archive doesn’t have Summoning Sickness (an MtG rule where allies can't attack the turn they enter play), making Fast interaction essential to interact with threats before they can damage you. Furthermore, the card is just simply good. While only feasibly playable in Fire Ranger, you want to be playing Distant effects anyways, making this card a 3 cost Fast deal 3 damage to all units except your champion. 3 damage is just enough to clear early threats, without being too oppressive (4 dmg would’ve been ludicrously strong). Even if you aren’t getting X for 1 value, it’s a 3 cost non-targeting damage spell, getting around spellshroud on an annoying ally while also damaging face. AND this card is a 1 power Aethercharge, meaning that at worst its 3 cost for 4 damage to face at Fast speed, which is a perfectly playable card in a burn deck.

8. Snow White, Weiss Queen

Step aside Nia, a new tax ally has come to play. Jokes aside though, you play both. Snow White is an incredibly powerful tempo card against decks focused on turbo leveling; delaying their level up for even a single turn can give you just enough extra time to burst them on that lower life total. While her stats are rather small at 1/1, we’ve already seen Water Tempo strategies playing Nia, Mistveiled Scout and Lunete, Frostbinder Priest to great impact. Furthermore, as another Water Unique Human Ally, Snow White gives these decks that crucial 3rd generic unique to comfortably and consistently play Jueying, Shadowmare, a card that I stand by as one of the single best allies in the game.

There are more fun tricks that Snow White enables in these tempo decks as well. Combined with Freezing Hail, you can lock down your opponent from leveling up for multiple turns in a row. Keeping them rested prevents their champion from attacking, nullifying a lot of efficient removal options for your tax allies (especially when combined with Lunete, making their allies enter rested). And resting their champion gives bonus damage combined with Halocline Scout, a powerful finisher card in the Warrior and Assassin builds.

While Water Tempo has fallen a bit behind in recent formats, Snow White might be just the tool it needs to bump it back in to the metagame

7. Consumption Ring

The first (and only) card on this list that was revealed as part of the full index update, we have another Distorted card. Tariff Ring is already one of the most played regalia in the game, and it’s distorted copy does not disappoint. It perfectly copies the impact that Tariff Ring has (shutting down your opponent’s attacks) for spell decks; a 4 cost increase to all non-ally cards functionally means that your opponent can only play 1, maybe 2, spells on their turn. When timed right (just as you have to do with Tariff Ring), this guarantees you survive an additional turn before your opponent can combo-kill you. And if they get greedy and try to push for a lethal line through Consumption Ring, they’ll be much more vulnerable to any kind of interaction. What will remain to be seen is if Consumption Ring is a powerful enough effect to warrant playing The Looking Glass as your Divine Relic on its own. Personally, I expect that Consumption Ring won’t be the reason that a deck plays TLG, but that it will be in every deck that does play it.

6. Blazing Cindercharge

Another Fire Diana card, and oh boy, does this card deserve to be on this list. While 3 cost for 3 damage isn’t the best, it’s the whole Aethercharge part that makes this card shine. First off, it’s a 1 power Aethercharge, so its 3 cost for 4 damage, but it also loads 2 fire aethercharges from your graveyard into your Aetherbow as well for another +2 damage. That means that this is 3 cost for 6 damage (7 with your bow), bringing it on par with Heated Vengeance, an absolute staple as one of the best fire aggro cards in the game. But it’s impossible to talk about this card without also mentioning the Aetherbow spoiled alongside it, Trivariate Dream, which gets +3 attack as long as there are exactly 3 Aethercharges in your intent. Pretty convenient that this 1 card freely enables that 3 aethercharge threshold (almost like it was intentionally designed that way....), making it a 3 cost for 10!! Damage. Fire Aggro Diana will absolutely be a deck that everyone will need to be prepared to defend against this season

5. Spellward Scepter

To be honest, from here on I think every card on this list deserves to be in the top 3, but it’s a top 3 for a reason so some can’t quite make the cut. Spellward Scepter is an incredibly potent effect, but it is a bit difficult to rate just how efficient and impactful it will be until we’ve had more time to play with it. This card screams Combo, making a card like your Burst Asunder unable to be negated, but it is a hindered card and therefore susceptible to interaction (thankfully). Still, Fractals was the best deck before Dissonant Fractal’s ban (shameless plug), and TCG proved the deck is still incredibly potent during the World Championships, so be wary of an end step Quicksilver Grail activation bringing this out.

4. Fiery Interference

Right on the back of that, here we have another potent Fire Aggro card. 2 cost for 2 damage to target unit at fast speed is a passable effect, but shutting off recover means that this card is in reality 2 cost for 6+ damage at fast speed, which is an insane rate. Fast Cure? Nope. Zhang Jiao? Nope. Lineage release Serene Spirit? Nope. This card is a near-direct import of Skullcrack from Magic: the Gathering, and with how relevant Recover is for Grand Archive’s control decks, Fiery Interference will be an aggro staple for literal years (thankfully it’s only an uncommon).

Moving on to the top 3 reveals from the DTR spoiler season:

3. Cheshire Cat

Ok, I may lose some people here, but hear me out. Cheshire Cat takes a material deck investment of Looking Glass + Inert Sword, but that makes this card a 3 cost 3/3 with Stealth and Spellshroud, which is *incredibly* difficult to remove. While you can play her in a deck like Lorraine allies, where you can play her alongside other sticky threats like Shangxiang, Fierce Princess and Shimmercloack Assassin, I genuinely this Cheshire Cat fills the long- empty role of -1 allies that are worth playing in a lvl 3 deck. Allies are the name of the game in Grand Archive, and every good level 3 deck lately has efficient allies to trade board with (or is Astra and can just wipe the board with Polaris). Cheshire Cat is a -1, which is a huge deal for lvl 3 decks, but in return you have a repeatable removal spell that’s clearing a threat every turn that your opponent will struggle to get rid of. Furthermore, she copies the effects of any Distortion Regalia you control, so even if they can remove her, you may just be able to banish her for some free extra value on the way.

2. Regal Inquisition

I don’t even know what to say about this card besides that it’s broken. It gives you perfect information about the cards your opponent has and you get to strip their best cards. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t lower their influence, slow GA decks revolve around key cards to be held for the right time and this just rips them away. Shadowstrike, Strategem of Myriad Ice, Ghosts of Pendragon, or pretty much any other advanced element card is a prime target. And don’t even get me started on how this card is an auto-win vs Luxem if it resolves. One important thing to remember is that while you can rip any number of cards, you may want to leave some of their good cards be to limit the number of new cards that they see; don’t be too greedy. This card will eat a negate most of the time, which is still an excellent trade for a 2 cost, but if it resolves it is an incredibly powerful advantage that should convert to a win 9 times out of 10.

1. Excalibur, Reflected Edge

If you didn’t guess this card as my #1, you probably haven’t been keeping up with Spoiler Season. First off, let’s take a second to appreciate the absolutely stunning artwork, though I do have a minor nitpick with this new design of Merlin; when did she get her second leg? Seriously, go look at every art of Merlin from DOA and FTC, she only has 1 leg. I expect answers, Belle!

Anyways, on a serious note, this is one of the best cards in the game, hands down.

Regalia have been one of the premium ways that WotS have introduced counter- strategy cards, such as Tariff Ring, Safeguard Amulet. Excalibur (or Copycal as I’ve been calling it to avoid confusion with the other 2 Excaliburs in the game) lets you double up on the previously 1-time effects of these cards, which is already very, very strong. But it’s true power is in duplicating the floodgate regalia: Nullifying Lantern, Viridian Protective Trinket, and Censer of Restful Peace. These floodgates are so game-warping against specific strategies that they are must answers, and Copycal duplicating one of them forces your opponent to draw a second copy of that answer. Playing versus Genbu? Play Copycal and swing with it. Next turn, Materialize Lantern, then swing your Copycal again to duplicate it. What are they going to do, Fracturize your Lantern (explanation of ruling)? Go ahead buddy. And what’s better than VPT making your opponent’s water cards costing 2 more? 2 VPT’s making them cost 4 more.

You know when you’re playing Fractals and you always want to be able to materialize a second Quicksilver Grail? Well, here you go, now you can protect your Safeguard Amulet with the first one, and then use this to set up your Spellward Scepter play for later.

How does 2x Poisoned Dagger sound in Fire Zander Aggro? It’s just that easy as playing this turn 1, then grabbing your dagger t2 like you would anyways and bam, now you have 2. Or you drew it turn 2? Oh well, guess you’ll just have to play it, then Blazing Throw it for 4 damage and look you copied your Poisoned Dagger anyways. I guarantee you that at Ascent Boston, Excalibur, Reflected Edge (Copycal) will be in the Top 8 somewhere, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s in every deck in the top 8, it’s just that good.