The first expansion of Altered, titled Trial by Frost, is set to release in only a few weeks now (prerelease events will start on January 24, 2025). Since January 3, several new cards have been revealed here and there. The mountains of the Cais Adara are slowly unveiling their secrets…
It is time for the ExAlts team to participate in the Rediscovery Endeavor in this unexplored region. Thanks to Equinox, we have our own card to reveal to the world, and what a card!
I See Fire… Inside the mountain
The weather is harsh on the slopes of the icy mountains of Cais Adara. But as we all know, there is balance in the Force. Where there is darkness, there is light. And where the blizzard is freezing, we can have a huge (hot?) Forgemaster to warm us up.
I present to you Gibil, God of Fire and patron of the metallurgists (and of dad bods).
Symphonies begin with two notes, fires with a couple of sparks, and masterpieces with two drops of metal.
Let us start by the elephant in the room. Six mana is a hefty price to pay for a card in Altered. Especially when it is attached to a character in Axiom, where this kind of cost is Brassbug Hive territory.
But speaking of everyone’s favorite little robots, our big boy Gibil always comes with a brassbug. This, in itself, has many implications.
First, Gibil brings 7/7/7 worth of stats for six mana, which is above rate. This is slightly lower than common Shenlong from Bravos, but Axiom is not quite known for having commons with good stats… To compare with an Axiom common with high mana cost, Ganesha is a 5/5/5 for seven mana, which (in a vacuum), seems way below (sorry, sweetheart).
The second thing we can note is that Gibil makes a brassbug in target expedition. This means that the statistics can be split if needed, and thus makes the card a little more flexible than just a single big body. For example, it can contest a Booda token or beat an Ordis recruit while being a menace in the other expedition.
This also means that the card is less vulnerable to removal, as the only known cards that can take care of both the god and the brassbug are rare Kraken’s Wrath and Celestial Blast.
(Oh, and Beauty Sleep. We should never forget Beauty Sleep…).
In addition, the fact that Gibil creates a brassbug adds to Axiom’s robot overall synergy. I have spoiled it earlier, but to enjoyers of rare Brassbug Hive, here is a new toy!
Now, last but not least, a word on the support ability. This is the first time we see this effect on a common card. Previously, we had to play rare Jian or out of faction Inari to have it.
This seems extremely valuable for Permanent-heavy builds, but more on that later.
Gimme, gimme (more)
If the common Gibil is not enough for you, here is the rare version. He has the exact same costs, stats and support ability as the common. He always brings at least one brassbug, but if you manage to have two permanents, you get another one.
Buy one, get one free!”
Two things to note here: the two brassbugs will be created in a single expedition, and the card says nothing about landmarks. Expedition permanents, such as the new permanent type “Gear” will count…
The out of faction (OOF) Gibil is an Ordis card, and is the exact same as the Axiom rare (some people will say “as per usual with the Ordis OOFs”, but this is a debate for another day…). Let us see which Ordis heroes could want this out of faction card.
Gulrang
The first who comes to mind is Gulrang. Gibil always creates at least one token, so the floor of the card (the worst-case scenario) is getting a 5/5/5 on one side and a 3/3/3 defender on the other, all of this for six mana.
Not bad.
But if we manage to have two permanents, it becomes at least 5/5/5 on one side and 6/6/6 on the other. The ceiling (best-case scenario) is quite high for this card.
Waru
Gibil is no bureaucrat (I mean, just look at him. Does he look like he fills out documents?), so I do not think Waru will have an interest in him.
Sigismar
A Sigismar built with a lot of permanents could like 9/9/9 worth of stats for six mana, but generally benefits more from putting a lot of cheap characters on the board.
The utility of the support ability will depend on whether we get interesting permanents with arrow abilities. Currently, there are only three permanents that fit this description in Ordis: Armored Jammer, Brassbug Hub and Baba’s Isba. Which are not exactly the most played in competitive, currently. Maybe the rest of the set will give us food for thought on this matter.
Forged in Fire
“But, Delula, you didn’t even talk about the Axiom heroes!”
You are right. I saved the best part for the end, you impatient cardboard-hungry brewers.
Treyst
I do not see Treyst loving this card.
Treyst usually wants to get a lot of cheap cards out of his reserve as early as possible to activate his power. You can do this by putting Gibil directly in the reserve with a Kelon Elemental – type effect, but discarding him to his support ability requires to already have a setup in order to benefit from it. Which is difficult to have early.
Later in the game, Gibil could work, but the current builds of Treyst tend to cycle through their deck, play a lot of cheap threats from the reserve, and benefit from Haven, Bravos Bastion. Playing Gibil in Treyst would suppose another philosophy.
Sierra
Sierra will obviously have a lot of permanents, so I think it would be easy to benefit from the rare upgrade. A Sierra with a rare Brassbug Hive and another permanent laying around would get 11/11/11 worth of stats from a six mana Gibil. But if Sierra already has a Hive, the situation is already good, right?
More interesting: if you already have a Gibil in reserve (or Jian / Inari), it becomes easier to setup a Brassbug Hive on this turn. You could bring more stats after playing the Hive using the support ability. Note that I only talk about Brassbug Hive here, but the support ability of Gibil works well with several other permanents.
Subhash
Putting Gibil in reserve is trivial in Subhash. As far as this hero is concerned, Gibil could just be “step one: pay one, put Gibil in reserve, create a brassbug; step two: discard Gibil – profit”. In that case, the common is already great.
Subhash likes to play all kinds of permanents, even the cheaper ones (contrary to Sierra, who wants to play mainly permanents with hand cost three or more). So Subhash is the hero that benefits most from the versatility of Gibil’s support ability.
Conclusion
Overall, Gibil seems to be a solid card, with great versatility and good effects even in the common version. The rare and out of faction versions offer extra rewards to permanent-oriented strategies, with heavy stats split between several characters. The support ability is among the best of the best. Let’s hope that the high cost of six mana will not prevent it from being played competitively.
Enough of me rambling about a single card for this long.
Now grab your heavy coats and your fur-lined boots, adventurer. We have a mountain to climb.
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