Mythereum — Abilities Review (Strength)
Welcome back to Mythereum! This article is the third 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 Hybrid ability: Strength!
Strength is a “Hybrid” ability, in that it produces a beneficial stat boost regardless of whether you are attacking or defending (as long as you have the magicks to cover it) of course. This ability provides a +55 attack power boost, and a +40 health boost on defense. It requires Two Black, One grey magick and one white magick to activate. This means if you want the defense portion to proc, you will need to have at least four black, two grey and two white magick available while as the leader card (the attack portion will always fire first).
This ability is quite…..controversial, and a power base for any Genesis player. The additional fact that this ability set also possesses the two most powerful base stat cards in the game also says alot (Mammoth & Ghudurk). There is a total of 16 cards with the Strength Ability, and they all reside within the Genesis block set of cards. It also has a wide variety of classes, with even a single orc and a single gnome representing the strength aspect of their class!
Strength plays a unique role in the genesis dynamics, and has utility cross set blocks as well. it is one of the few areas from which genesis can achieve near 4 magick production, and is as mentioned above, hybrid — allowing massive defensive and offense boosts. As such, having a high defensive strength card is ideal, in that it is more likely to survive, providing card advantage in mid to late game.
With that being said, it is no wonder that Ghudurk comes out in first place. having a combined base stat of 82, he is the second most powerful card in the entire game, not even including his special ability strength. Although Mammoth has 3 more maximum base stats, it is focused largely on offense, and if you have read my other articles, you may come to the same conclusion that it is not needed as much — yet the common player would likely choose it over defense. However, having a high defense (Ghudurk) provides maximum viability allowing him to survive longer, and to possibly get off more attacks turn to turn.
#1 Ghudurk
#2 Mammoth
#3 Lion
Mammoth and Lion provide enough stats to do high damage, and potentially survive a little longer with some MX pumped into them, or enough magicks saved up for late game antics to keep them going. Ultimately it is very difficult to determine whether Mammoth or Ghudurk is the #1 Strength card, so it really boils down to who you’re facing, your own personal skill, and whether boosted MX stats are allowed/disallowed.
Specimen 39, Specimen 77, and The Soldier are your three runner ups here. Each of them provide generally the same stat blocks (Specimens better defense, Soldier is glass cannon), and can be boosted with some MX if need be to get similar statistical health/attack to the Top 3. The two specimens attack is quite low however if playing pure Genesis, so either dump MX into them, or save for late game with magick to boost with ability procs.
These cards can be good in a pinch, or strictly used as magick boosters for Genesis pure matches (other sets have better magick bumps). The top 3, and maybe the top 6 even, are worthwhile acquisitions. If you can trade/buy/acquire one or more of these, your Genesis family will be thankful!
