In our previous posts, we’ve covered card types, Keywords, Prisms, stats, and special abilities. However, there’s one aspect of SkyWeaver’s cards we haven’t yet touched on, and which is perhaps one of the most immediately visible - their Elements!

Today, we will be going over the different Elements within SkyWeaver, what they mean for you, and how you can harness their power to rise up through the ranks and further your strategies and understanding of the realm of Sky.

Meet the Elements!

Every SkyWeaver card has an Element, displayed through the label and color of its frame. There are eight Elements within SkyWeaver - Air, Dark, Earth, Fire, Light, Metal, Mind, and Water. Elements in SkyWeaver do not have any inherent abilities - Fire is not weak to Water, Light doesn’t destroy Dark, etc. However, certain effects are more common to certain Elements. Dark likes destroying Units, Light and Earth are good at healing, Fire is good at damaging Heroes and Units, etc.

Air

Air cards are recognizable by their cyan frame. Many Air Units have keywords like Stealth, and/or enchants like Shroud, making them hard to target and destroy. Air Spells often focus on reducing costs, drawing cards, or sweeping away enemy Units via returning them to the hand or deck. Air’s Enchantments are Shroud and Silence. For more info on Enchantments, Check out Our Post on them!

Dark

Dark cards are recognizable by their dark purple frame. Many Dark Units have Death effects, or Keywords like Wither and Lifesteal, letting them weaken your enemies while healing yourself. Dark Spells can raise the dead, kill enemy Units, or give you benefits like healing or card draw by killing your own Units. Dark’s Enchantments are Hex and Fate.

Earth

Earth cards are recognizable by their green frame. Many Earth Units have high health, and defensive abilities like Guard and Lifesteal, making them excellent at protecting you. Earth Spells often grant extra Mana, power up your Units, or make use of Roots to hinder and slow enemies down. Earth’s Enchantments are Roots and Ent Mask.

Fire

Fire cards are recognizable by their red frame. Many Fire Units are aggressive, making use of keywords like Banner to control the board and overwhelm foes. Fire Spells are often great at dealing damage to enemy Units and Heroes, powering up Units, or spreading the Flames Enchantment. Fire’s Enchantments are Flames and Quest.

Light

Light cards are recognizable by their yellow frame. Many Light Units have healing abilities, effects that enhance their allies, defensive keywords like Armor and Lifesteal, or may carry Spell Shield. Light Spells often draw cards, restore health, or bestow defensive buffs to allies. Light’s Enchants are Spell Shield and Blind.

Metal

Metal cards are recognizable by their grey frame. Many Metal Units have Armor, making them very hard to take down, and may possess effects that can let them shield other Units or even the Hero. Metal Spells often focus on bestowing Armor or other defensive Keywords, or using the Enchantment Chains to strip those same keywords away. Metal’s Enchantments are Chains and Lead.

Mind

Mind cards are recognizable by their violet frame. Many Mind Units have crafty effects that allow them to Conjure Spells or synergize with them. Many Mind Spells focus on drawing more Spells, transforming cards into new cards, or stunning and confusing enemies. Mind’s Enchantment is Dazed.

Water

Water cards are recognizable by their blue frame. Water Units have a wide range of abilities, making them fairly good jack of all trades Units. Water Spells often draw more Water cards, or inflict the Frozen Enchantment on foes, making them take additional damage. Some Water cards also have bonus effects that activate only if you have spent all your Mana. Water’s Enchantment is Frozen, and it also has a special affinity for Mana Potion and Big Mana Potion.

Elemental Synergies and Strategies

As outlined above, each Element has certain specialties, but there are also effects within SkyWeaver that reward you for playing certain Elements. Learning how to build decks with such cards, and how to best take advantage of the possibilities they offer will help you excel in your journey to becoming a SkyWeaver Grand Master!

Element-Searching Effects

One of the most common effects that cares about Elements in SkyWeaver are Element “searching” effects. These cards will let you draw a card(s) of a particular Element when used. If you keep tabs on what cards are in your deck, and select your cards carefully, you can use these to increase your odds of drawing the cards you need, and add greater consistency to your deck.

For example, If you are playing a deck where you have several good low-cost Water Cards, playing a Mer Mask will allow you to draw them more reliably and have a more consistent early game. Another example would be playing Light Ranger in a deck with Prismata, he can allow you to search Prismata, and then you can use it on him to activate it, making for a potent combo, so long as you don’t draw Prismata first.

The Dark Enchantment Fate can also let you turn any Unit into a means of searching for a card of its Element. When a Unit with Fate dies, you’ll get to draw a card of that Unit’s Element, and if you play carefully, and know what cards you have in your deck, you can leverage this to get critical cards in a pinch by making use of the Elements of your Units. You can read more about Fate in our Post on Enchants.

The great thing about these types of cards and effects is that even if you draw them after you’ve already drawn the cards you wanted them to search for, they’ll still let you draw more cards for their Element from beyond deck, so they’re always useful.

Inspire Abilities

Another common type of effect that cares about the Elements of cards are Element-driven Inspire abilities. While Inspire abilities can trigger from non-Elemental cards, around half of all Inspire effects are focused around playing cards of a certain Element, rewarding you for playing many cards of that Element. Read more on Inspire and other Keywords in our Keywords Post.

Scaling Elemental Effects

These are a less common form of Elemental effect, but are quite powerful, and often worth building decks around.  Currently our strongest is Mothermander, who can fill your board with an army of Firemander if you have a lot of Fire cards in your hand. Other cards that scale from the number of Dark or Water cards in your Graveyard also exist.

Scaling effects will generally require a significant commitment to their Element to make them worth playing, since they can be very weak unless you have a large number of cards of their Element, but for those willing to make the effort, the payoffs can be huge.

Rainbow Elemental Effects

A unique type of Elemental synergy, “Rainbow” cards do not reward you for playing many cards of the same Element, but rather, reward you for having a diverse pool of Elements. They typically check for the number of different Elements that are present in a particular Zone of the game, like the Elements among the Units you have in-play, or the number of Elements present in your hand/Graveyard.

Some Rainbow effects are scaling, like Band Together and Sky Aura, which get stronger and cheaper, respectively, based on how many differing Elements you have in your hand/graveyard. Others, like Sky Phoenix, are more all-or-nothing effects. If you have cards of all eight Elements in your Graveyard when Sky Phoenix dies, it will dust 1 of each, then re-summon itself for free! With a well stocked and balanced graveyard, it is very possible to bring Sky Phoenix back 2-3 times over the course of a game, draining your opponent’s resources as they’re forced to repeatedly deal with it.

Rainbow cards can be tricky to build around, but the rewards can be fantastic, and they generally pose a less harsh a deckbuilding requirement when compared to cards that want you to focus on a single Element, as most decks will typically have a variety of cards of different Elements already.

Whatever type of deck you’re looking to build, Elements are bound to play a role, possibly in more ways than you may realize, so be sure to familiarize yourself with them, and the cards that support them, to gain an edge in your journey to become a Grand Master!

That's all for this post, check back soon for more SkyWeaver info!

Lethal Puzzle

See if you can figure out how to defeat your opponent using the game state presented below, in just one turn! Solution will be in the next post!

Hint: Note that your deck is empty, your only Unit is sleeping, and you have just 1hp!

The solution to our last post's lethal puzzle is also right below! Congratulations to everyone who solved it!

Next: Post 8 - Constructed Deckbuilding Part 1

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