Trial by Frost – a Bravos review

Welcome to our quick review of the new cards revealed for the upcoming Altered TCG expansion Trial by Frost. This article focuses on the Bravos faction, the themes developed in this set and the overall synergies.

This article will be updated with the new cards once they are revealed.

Chin up young samuraï, the path is long to the top of the mountain.

Characters

20. Fire Rabbit

Card revealed here by Top Shelf.

Let’s start off with a cute one. With Fire Rabbit, we get a one mana character with the best potential in terms of stats in the Bravos faction. He can bring 2/2/1 to the board on the condition of having another character already. With Bravos Blade Dancer, he is the second one-drop with boost synergy. He seems to be very flexible for such a cheap card: you can play him as an “after you” effect, or use him later in the turn to push extra stats over those of your opponent.

With Bravos Tracer, he is the second card that can gain fleeting when played from hand (this fleeting aspect seems to be an overall synergy in this set, more on that later).

In his rare version, the hole in water is filled, making him able to match an Ordis Recruit token, for example, without having to use his effect. The support ability adds to his utility from the reserve. While the common version really wants you to use the effect from hand (as the card is quite bad in the reserve), the rare is more flexible and broadens your lines of play.

21. Haven Seiringar

Card revealed here by Marie Grd Jeux.

Haven Seiringar is a sexy card (and I do not talk about the illustration… or do I?). When I see “Draw a card” on something, I am usually very interested. His stats are the same as the Haven Trainee, so quite low, but he has a very different utility. While Trainee comes back with two boosts for the expensive cost of four mana, Seiringar simply gains fleeting, which means he will draw us a card on the way out, as per his effect. But if you are hasty, you can always try to give him fleeting as soon as possible. A bit of a spoiler here: there are ways to do that in this set.

His rare version loses some stats from hand, getting two holes in mountain and water for the same cost. Will the added bonus of triggering boost synergies from reserve be enough to compensate for this loss? Especially when the common is already that good.

22. Skadi

Card revealed here by Altered Lore.

On top of being the most stylish on the slopes, Skadi brings fresh ideas to the table.

First, she introduces the ability to exhaust a card in reserve. You can see it as a sort of “soft sabotage”: you don’t discard the card from your opponent’s reverve, but instead you prevent it from being played this turn. This can force your opponent to play more cards from hand and flood his reserve at the end of the day. This is also especially relevant when playing against Treyst, because exhausting instead of sabotaging doesn’t accelerate the activation of his hero power.

Second, in her rare version, Skadi cares about being in a particular biome. If she is played in mountain from reserve, her exhaust is upgraded into sabotage.

Now, what sport will the Unique be practising?

23. Bravos Trailblazer

Card revealed here by VicMan.

Bravos Trailblazer is our first payoff to having fleeting characters. In his common version, he will often be a 3/3/3 for two mana from hand, and will always be a 3/3/3 for three from reserve. He is an easy source of boosts, and the rare version can bring massive stats for just two mana on a board with a few fleeting characters.

24. Bravos Rescuer

Card revealed here by KojoMain.

For a mana cost of three, Bravos Rescuer has good stats, although they are slightly lower than those of Haven Warrior (4/2/4). The support ability is similar to the support ability of Lady of the Lake (out of faction). But in the case of Lady of the Lake, it is the next character you play who loses fleeting, so I think the ability of Bravos Rescuer is more flexible, as you can use it anytime after playing your characters.

The rare version, while losing 1 in mountain and in water, rewards you with 3/5/5 worth of statistics for just having another fleeting character. She is another payoff to “fleeting characters” strategies.

(Maybe the rescuer and Sunisa kiss in the unique version?)

25. Gericht, Revered Duelist

Card revealed here by Cartinhatv.

For Gericht, Revered Duelist, gaining fleeting is not a bad thing. In fact, you want to give him fleeting as many times as you can (by the way, go check your uniques, maybe you have a “when a character gains one boost – target character gains fleeting” somewhere).

In his rare version, he even gains boosts instead of fleeting! He never goes to the discard on his own and stays in your reserve forever if you choose so. Basira found an eternal sparring partner.

26. Akhlut

Card revealed here by Giacky Strike.

According to the lore, an Akhlut is half wolf half orca. But most importantly, he is a good boy. And he loves his mom Basira, who can provide him more boosts so he can freeze the reserve of your opponent before he even gets to play anything. What a very good boy indeed!

27. Amarok

Card revealed here by Equinox.

Amarok is a good boy too, but he tends to eat anything that comes too close to him (no muzzle, alas). Be careful when playing this card. You can have a 4/3/3 for three mana (who can draw you a card in Atsadi, by the way), but this play tells your opponent that you probably won’t play anything else in this expedition.

With the rare version though, you could technically give him a Fire Rabbit or two to eat. But we are no monsters… right?

28. Eros

Card revealed here by Kapuchon.

Provided that you can play Eros with another character, he effectively costs four mana for a 3/6/6, which is impressive.

In the rare version, he even brings 5/7/7, and a boost synergy.

The card is expensive, but it is the kind of big play that begs to be tested. To see if we can abuse it somehow. Lovers of Bravos big mana will enjoy the card, I bet.

06. The Little Match Girl

Card revealed here by Lushen.

Let me tell you the plan: burn your entire hand, then use the Little Match Girl to draw. Rinse and repeat. Maybe it is a bad plan, maybe it is a good one. We could try and figure it out?

37. The Snowman

Card revealed here by Kaaleb.

This Snowman wants you to play him in water to avoid giving him fleeting right away. But with what we have seen so far, the possibility to choose to have him enter immediately with fleeting could prove interesting. His stats are very good for two mana, and make him look like a common Bravos Tracer.

The ability to Exhausted Resupply seems to be hard to use, but we can imagine a situation at the end of turn where you know you want something else than a Snowman on the next turn, so you replace him.

58. Saskia, Sly Naturalist

Card revealed here by La Reserva.

Saskia, apart from being terrifying in the lore, brings a solid 4/4/4 worth of stats for three mana. The problem is: you want to play her only if one of your expeditions is in forest, if you already have another character in it, and ideally if your deck relies on boost synergy. This is a lot to ask, but why not?

59. Yeti

Card revealed here by Adyboo.

The Yeti is obviously a card that you want to keep on your board as long as possible. He can sleep on his own, but you may want to add to your deck a Parvati or some other ways to anchor him on the following turns.

His static effect is really powerful, especially in Bravos with all the boost synergies. Note that he can instantly go infinite with the Foundry Armourers who can create a scarabot every time a character gets a boost. So watch out when you see a Yeti come down!

60. Mighty Simbi

Card revealed here by Rofellos.

Mighty Simbi is certainly a cousin of Mighty Djinn. She will help you ramp your mana, but only if you manage to win her expedition with the forest attribute. She is more conditional than Mighty Djinn, but complements him well in a ramp deck with her 4 in water, where Mighty Djinn is known for having a weakness.

62. Leshy

Card revealed here by Maxildan.

Leshy is a big tree who can get between zero and four boosts in 1v1. That card seems pretty situational and does not protect itself, even though a potential of 8/8/8 of statistics for five mana is juicy.

In 2v2, Leshy could be even bigger.

63. Demeter

Card revealed here by Equinox.

Demeter is a card that rewards you knowing in advance on which biome you will end up at night. Bonus points if you are lucky enough to have two successive biomes with forest ahead.

Being expensive at six mana, Demeter is a card that can be extremely strong or very dull depending on the biome situation. She will reward anticipation, for sure.

77. Valemon

Card revealed here by Süße Sammelkarten.

Valemon will reward the decks that want to get as much mana orbs as possible (hello Atsadi!). He is a really interesting payoff, with its ability to be gigantic if you have ten or more mana orbs. Ten mana orbs could seem a lot, but keep in mind that in the right deck this is not that far in terms of turns.

Earlier in the game, he could also save you from a very aggressive deck and help you try to reach the late game.

79. Benzaiten

Card revealed here by Factionnerdy.

Benzaiten is a goddess of speech, the arts and learning. She will help you catch up on lessons by allowing you to draw a card if you are behind, as well as providing a good 6/6/6 for six mana.

Drawing cards is valuable in Bravos, more than in other factions like Ordis or Yzmir. We will see if this ability makes this card more valuable than a 9/9/9 Shenlong with tough 1, for example.

If you play Atsadi, she could give you two cards (if you are at 6 counters or below and you play Benzaiten in an expedition which is behind).

92. Aroro

Card revealed here by Claedeus.

At first glance, Aroro seems a bit awkward. You usually do not want to discard characters from reserve in Bravos, as each card you can have is precious. But on the other hand, she can be a 5/5/5 for four mana on turn two that can allow a big six mana play on turn three. Maybe she has a place somewhere? Atsadi, what do you think?

Otherwise is is a very cool character. She sacrificed herself to save Asgartha, which is worthy of respect.

Spells

29. Geyser

Card revealed here by Lua Stardust.

Do you want more ramp in Bravos? Yes! Do you want ramp on a bounce (a removal that sends the card back to your opponent’s hand)? Yes! Because if you can get the tempo right, you will get to do bigger things than your opponent in the late game. At least, I think that’s the idea with this card. Slowing the pace down, while accelerating your late game options.

30. Mana Flare

Card revealed here by TalesofEnd.

Mana Flare seems a bit strange. It allows you to effectively gain one mana for this turn to play a character with cost five or more. Maybe in some situations, your opponent will not take into account this possibility and you could surprise him.

But the cost is steep: this fleeting spell puts you behind on card advantage, even more so in the common version.

64. Sow

Card revealed here by Mad’s Man Space.

Sow is a cheap boost enabler that gives the turn back to your opponent. It is a cool little spell with a very powerful support ability (the only other card that had it in Beyond the Gates in Bravos was the Hatter).

The only drawback I see is if you intend to use its support ability, you want to either put it in reserve directly (with a resupply, for example) or wait a turn. This could lead you to clog your reserve in the process and lose a card to make room for Sow.

96. Freeze

Card revealed here by The Kelon Guy.

Freeze is the first “send to reserve” spell in Bravos. The good thing is that it does not care about the mana cost of the target. The downside is that it costs four mana, so you will tend to use it on more expensive targets.

The fact that exhausts the card sent to reserve prevents your opponent from replaying the card immediately, making Freeze less awkward than you could expect on cheap targets.

Permanents – Gear

31. Technical Boots

Card revealed here by Equinox.

To me, the permanents are the most exciting cards in this set. One of the reasons is the fact that Trial by Frost introduces the new Expedition Permanents – « Gear ».

Technical Boots is a piece of gear that helps you keep your best characters and replaying them multiple times. Beware of the timing, though. If you start your turn by playing Technical Boots on one side, it indicates to your opponent that you might want to play your character from reserve on this side. Or maybe not ? If everything is fleeting in this expedition thanks to Arcolano Milk, it won’t matter.

32. Arcolano Milk

Card revealed here by Equinox.

Arcolano Milk offers a very powerful effect for such a low mana cost. With all the Bravos cards in this set, we are starting to see the outline of a very aggressive strategy, centered around fleeting characters and a fast pace of resource burning.

The rare version goes even bigger, for an explosive end of race in the Tumult. Will the Red Deck Win ?

Another thing to note : Arcolano Milk goes infinite with a card like the famous Foundry Armorers that create a scarabot each time a character gains a boost. Keep that in mind if you are the lucky owner of one of those…

33. Eat Me Energy Bars

Card revealed here by TCG Madness.

Eat Me Energy Bars (sorry, all the jokes I have here are far from appropriate) is a very fun piece of Gear. It is the most expensive Expedition Permanent in Bravos, but has a powerful effect with very interesting interaction with other cards. Giving gigantic to characters that should not have it also supposes some clarifications of the rules.

When you give gigantic to a character who mentions “my expedition”, it becomes “both expeditions”. For example, Sakarabru played in the Eat Me Energy Bars expedition will make both your opponent’s expeditions move backwards.

When the card mentions “the other expedition”, there is no longer an expedition the gigantic character is not in, so the ability does nothing. (Common Ordis Gatekeeper is not in Bravos, but it would not create a token if played in the Energy Bars expedition.)

Keep in mind that the character is gigantic only if it stays alone. Your opponent could create a token in your Energy Bars expedition to counter the gigantic effect (say, with a Paper Herald…).

50. The Magic Sleigh

Card revealed here by The Coin Pusher.

The Magic Sleigh could be the juciest enabler of very aggressive “burn your whole hand” strategies. We are all glad that this thing has fleeting.

Once it is placed in an expedition, your opponent knows he must put some effort into blocking you. And this fact in itself could already give you a big advantage. You could choose to play on the other side, keep your resources, the Magic Sleigh will stay in place for the next turn and continue to be a menace.

Besides, the flavor of putting all your characters in the Sleigh and slide through the biomes is really fun!

67. Floral Tent

Card revealed here by Dice Story Gaming.

Floral Tent is an interesting card on multiple levels.

It is a cheap card, with its mana cost of two from hand and one from reserve. It helps you dig into your deck (something Bravos usually struggles to do) with the resupply effect from hand and reserve.

It protects your boosted characters in its expedition, but is truly interesting if they have a low amount of boosts. Bravos Bladedancer, for example, is not protected by Floral Tent. The best situation is if your boosts are spread out. For this reason, Floral Tent goes well with Haven, Bravos Bastion, or Arcolano Milk, as they both give one boost to each character.

Floral Tent is aslo the third card (with Parvati and The Hatter) that brings the “anchor” effect to the Bravos faction. The effect is quite rare for the moment, but will perhaps open some new ideas for deckbuilding.

Permanents – Landmark

34. Icebound Peak

Card revealed at PAX U 2024.

Icebound Peak is effectively a 5/5/5 dragon token that gives a boost to all your characters (including himself!) for two or three mana.

This can be a build-around card, but it can also work by “naturally” playing some characters from your reserve.

One thing is certain: on the turn you sacrifice Icebound Peak, the stats on the board will be hard to beat for your opponent.

Conclusion

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

With the icy mountains of Cais Adara ahead, the Bravos will not waste time on the trail. Will they give fleeting to everything with Arcolano Milk, then push as fast as they can to reach an Icebound Peak? Or, on the contrary, will they use the Geysers and summon Mighty Simbis to gather the mana necessary to overwhelm their opponents?

We cannot be sure yet.

The race begins on January 24.