As a marquee feature of Archazia’s Island, the dual ink cards provide players with unique utility, should they be up for playing the specific color combination. After two weeks since the initial release, we thought it was the best time to see how these new elements are faring under the pressures of actual play.
5. Diablo - Spiteful Raven
Starting off our list is Diablo - Spiteful Raven. Unlike his other iterations, this version of Diablo does not offer any form of utility. There's no ability to gather information like Maleficent’s Spy and no card draw like Obedient Raven/Devoted Herald.
Instead, this version of the corvid allows its controlling player to defeat any opposing glimmer with a willpower of three or less due to its Challenger +2 ability. It may be a little slower but this added strength can put in real work.
On top of this, Diablo - Spiteful Raven’s Evasive ability makes it very difficult to get rid of. Either opponents need to invest a valuable action card or have their own Evasive character on hand. If neither of these is available, then Spiteful Raven will be able to constantly keep plucking away at the Lore race, even if it’s only one lore at a time.
4. Penny - Bolt's Person
Next up, we have Amber-Steel’s Penny - Bolt’s Person. True to her Amber nature, Penny comes in as a natural healer that pairs nicely with cards like Lawrence - Jealous Manservant or Aurora - Waking Beauty who can thrive off such a cheap ink cost investment.
Additionally, as an ‘ally’ character, Penny can easily be used as a setup for Miss Bianca - Unwavering Agent to be dropped at turn 4. At 2 ink cost, Penny can easily be used at any point in the match. That’s a lot of versatility in such a small package.
3. The Troubadour - Musical Narrator
If you thought that the previous card was simple in execution then The Troubadour is as vanilla as you can get, with only Resist +1 and Singer 4.
The Troubadour’s value lies not with what he can do but with what he represents. He's a stalwart resource the opponent will have to invest heavily into to remove from the board.
The Troubadour’s Resist makes direct banishment or something like And Then Along Came Zeus the only means of removal without using more than a single card.
Finally, with Singer 4, The Troubadour’s controlling player can easily throw out a lot of staple songs. Both Amber and Steel have in spades, such as A Whole New World or Strength of a Raging Fire.
2. Pete - Space Pirate
Switching to Emerald-Steel we have Pete - Space Pirate. In a vacuum, Pete - Space Pirate looks pretty mundane with their 6 ink cost drop, relatively robust body, and 2 lore to threaten the opponent with.
Given Space Pirate’s ink combination, however, a player has access to Pete - Games Referee to literally cheat out Space Pirate a turn later. This is all thanks to Space Pirate’s Shift ability at 4 ink cost.
To further add to Space Pirate’s arsenal, he comes with the ability to stop the opposing player from exerting characters to sing as long as Pete himself is exerted.
Should the opposing player think to assassinate Pete - Space Pirate, then the additional Resist +1 that he gives to himself or other pirate allies will make him significantly more immovable than he first appears.
1. Giant Cobra - Ghostly Serpent
At the time of writing, Giant Cobra - Ghostly Serpent is the most popular Dual-Ink card from Archazia's Island. This is somewhat surprising, as its Vanish ability makes it an easy target for removal. Despite this, the added stats, and potent ability, more than make up for its shortcomings.
Giant Cobra - Ghostly Serpent offers a compelling instant return on investment upon being played. So long as you discard a card when Giant Cobra hits the field, the controlling player can instantly gain 2 lore.
In the long run, 2 lore gain isn’t much. When combined with other fast-acting lore-gaining characters, however, it puts in real work. The Queen - Jealous Beauty and Amethyst’s highly aggressive lore gain can allow Giant Cobra to turn a lore count of 14 into a game-winning match-point scenario if all the other pieces are in place.