Mythereum — Abilities Review (Hide & Annihilate)
Welcome back to Mythereum! This article is the fifth in a series of many that will cover all original abilities in the primary card sets. Genesis, Awakening and Survivor all possess unique and differing abilities assigned to their sets, with little to no crossovers for most of them! Today we will cover the special abilities: Hide & Annihilate!
Both of these abilities are both highly useful and extremely controversial. Its likely that no other collectible card game had presented cards with such raw power, and that Mythereum is setting the stage for a new aspect entirely. both these abilities are also responsible for several balance changes to the Mythereum eco-system. Hide, when activated, provides the leader card with INFINITE defense, it cannot die. Annihilate provides INFINITE attack, will kill any card (Except cards with Hide!), and if there is no opposing card, will INSTANTLY destroy the opposing warlord, resulting in a win for that battle!!!
Annihilate costs exactly one more Magick that Hide, making it better for Magick production, but also harder to maintain multiple strikes throughout the game. Hide costs exactly one black magick and three grey magick, so please take that into consideration when deckbuilding. Annihilate costs the same, with the addition of one white magick, making it harder to spec into a deck.
Above, we can see that there are exactly 7 cards in Mythereum with the Hide ability. Of these cards, two stand out specifically. However, it is important to note that only 3 classes have access to Hide: Creature, Gnome and Human. This is interesting in that there are a variety of classes, yet just these three have what is controversially the most powerful ability in the game. Luckily (or unluckily for some) Hide is limited to the Genesis block of cards, and as such — very few players have access to these cards.
With no further ado, Patches is the #1 Hide card, with Bones ranking in as #2. I did an in-depth review of these two (HERE). Basically, since it is infinite defense, the highest power is most desirable (Patches). She also has extremely low health, and thus provides you with more health. Bones is an excellent second contender, as he also has low defense and high attack, whereas all the other Hide cards have 30+ defense, and lower attack (in the 20s!). The times the other Hiders will come in handy, is when you have class wars, as both Patches and Bones are creatures.
Being diametrically opposed to the most powerful card ability in the game (Hide), Annihilate has a special place in our hearts. Annihilate is traditionally hard to spec into a Genesis pure deck, so it really and truly shines in mixed style tournaments, as the magick cost is extreme (5) total. Regardless, it has five different classes associated with it, and has an excellent natural stat provision making the base card have staying power to potentially provide card advantage in the early game, potentially even first turn.
CR28J, Melaru and Nyx are our top 3 contenders for Annihilate. Both Cr28J and Melaru have excellent defense (50 and 48 respectfully), thus being able to take a hit. Nyx has 48 attack stat, so she “could” be useful as a sacrificial glass cannon if you do not have the magick to proc the annihilate but need to do damage to take out a key card of your opposition.
Steambot takes fourth place and could potentially or arguably be better than Nyx because he too has high enough defense to acquire card advantage in early game, given your opponent has max 43 attack or less to start with. Either way, these cards have special uses, and can be used to take out your opponent in the very first round if you spec your deck right, or way later into the game.
(Protip: Even without the fast win, having an Annihilate card in your hand also has a special effect on your opposition. As long as you have nearly enough magick to proc its effect, your opponent will be unlikely willing to swap cards leaving their empty leader position open.)
So these are your four key top cards for this ability spectrum and for the entire genesis block of cards. Regardless, no matter which card you own of these ability types, they all achieve one common factor: Infinitum of a specific stat. The reason why these four are picked above the others, is that they have a matching stat (attack for hide, defense for annihilate) that couples with their infinitum to make them killing machines that can survive longer that 1 round potentially creating card advantage.
This is where infinitum cards differ from traditional Mythereum cards — they can produce massive impact on the game and provide extensive card advantage, sometimes in the 2 or 3 card range. When coupled with mixed decks that increase magick production, its even possible to activate the ability every single turn, making it near impossible for your opponent to win.
As I mentioned above these two ability type cards have all been nerfed more than once in the Mythereum history. They produce very little magick, and require magick boosting cards above and beyond normal boosting to be effective. This makes them a late bloomer, especially annihilate, which is a down side, but can still turn a win, especially in mixed decks where their natural stats can be effective until enough magick is gathered.
Either way, keep your eyes peeled for ANY card with Hide or Annihilate and snatch it up (as long as its kinda reasonable) as they will never steer you wrong. Many veterans, myself included, build decks around these cards specifically. They are our Kings and Queens, as suggested in my Chess Meta article (HERE).
