Breakers (Air / Resolve) is represented by a deck with high control of the positioning of both enemy and friendly units. This enables the Breakers to engage in combat with a seamless and coordinated formation, while their adversaries are forced to contend with disrupted and disjointed formations.
The Breakers faction has some of the most powerful formation and movement alteration tools in the game.
Breakers have a poke style. They focus on poking the enemy units with ranged attacks while avoiding strong retaliation. Like an out-boxer in boxing, their plan is to throw jabs and move away from attacks.
Breakers have arguably the lowest damage potential in the game, they can't hit very hard but in exchange they are very hard to punish.
They want to play a very safe, ranged poke game, keeping pressure from a distance with Wind Mages and/or Wind Archers, protecting them with Deceivers and Perplexing Tempest and when the opponent comes for them, punishing with cards like Blast and Mind Control.
Breakers' weakness is that they don't have any explosive strategy. Even when given room and time they can't pull off crazy combo turns that provide great value.
Tacullu is not like other summoners that strongly lead their faction from the start or that want to join the fray of combat as soon as possible. Instead Tacullu is like a "final boss", sitting in the back watching the action going while occasionally helping here and there. Then after all the dust has settled, Tacullu comes forth to finish the job. Her events and Mind Capture ability are particularly strong in the endgame.
However she does have three important roles early on:
- The first is to slow down enemy offensives. Some factions will try to rush the Breakers, and Mind Capture can quickly slow down the tempo of an early aggression by both getting control of a unit and taking a spot (the one where the unit was), crippling and slowing down the enemy offensive.
-The second is to help the Breakers take control of the opponent summoning spots, by capturing enemy units, thus limiting opponent options.
-Finally the third is to give Breakers a third attack where they normally would have none. Sometimes the Breakers will create tight spaces with few possible avenues of attack and Mind Capture can create a new avenue once the enemy unit is controlled.
Tacullu's Mind Capture is not a "straightforward strong" ability, compared to other summoners' abilities. Its power isn’t that much economically, but rather positional.
In general if the game enters a slow state you are better off just killing the enemy unit, but if the game is at a fast pace, Mind Capture allows you to gain tempo and positional advantages like no other.
Mind control is not a particularly powerful Epic Event.
But as with Tacullu’s Mind Capture, it helps both in defense and offense, and is always a lingering threat.
Early game can be very good to stop and punish enemy rushes. Midgame it can turn around assassination attempts on Tacullu that involve the opponent's summoners. Late game when both summoners tend to clash and are not at full life, this is when Mind Control is at its peak, allowing Tacullu to turn around the opponent's army and possibly assassinate the enemy summoner.
Wind Mages are the pillar of the deck, a unit you always want. You always want to have at least 1 active Wind Mage on the board, it doesn’t matter what is going on with the game, they are always very useful, while also having solid stats.
Wind Mages could easily have their own guide, but here are the most important uses:
- Moving a unit away from blocking a friendly gate.
- Protecting a Wind Archer with another unit after it attacks.
- Moving a unit out of harm's way after it attacked.
- Placing a unit in front of a unit that just attacked for an extra, single flank attack.
- Moving a unit of yours to reach an extra space that it wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
Don’t fear to just blindly summon a Wind Mage behind a gate, as you will need to have one for Mind Witches to copy. But even regardless of Mind Witches, you will never regret having a few of them around. They combo with everything!
Wind Archers are the damage dealers of the deck. While quite squishy, their movement and reach make them extremely hard to kill, especially combined with a Wind Mage, Deceiver or Perplexing Tempest support.
Don’t be afraid to have them very far from the action to maximize their safety. When needed, they can get into attack position with ease, thanks to their speed and range.
They also tend to be the finishers, combined with Hypnotic Call and Blast, they can find their way to deal the last wounds to the enemy summoner and clinch the game.
Mind Witches are the true stars of the deck as they can copy the power of Wind Mages which in most situations is stronger in their 3/2 body. But also they can copy many powerful abilities in the game, making them one of the scariest commons around. This unit will only get better as the game adds more cards.
Remember too, Mind Witches can copy Deceivers for Engage, which can be useful combined with Wind Mages or Blast.
Perplexing Tempest has two uses.
First it prevents a strong counter-strike from your opponent's melee units: You can play Tempest and newly summoned units can’t reach your units.
One of the reasons it is dangerous to not pressure Breakers is that it gives them space and time to set up a very good Perplexing Tempest, which can be a big turnaround point.
A turn where all of your units can attack and then your opponent can’t reach them, is a game-winning turn a lot of the time.
The second use is to make it harder for the opponent to retreat. Sometimes you can maneuver Tacullu close to the opponent summoner, and as it would like to retreat, you can just play Perplexing Tempest and make that retreat very hard, setting up for a powerful Mind Control and/or other shenanigans for the kill.
If you can just prevent a single attack from happening thanks to Perplexing Tempest, then it's well worth it's use.
Blast is hard to get good value from because it’s expensive. But it can single-handedly turn games around.
It is particularly punishing versus champions as it can drag them around to be setup for a OTK (one turn kill), but is also strong in general to disrupt formations and often can serve as the final push for an assassination, by sending that Wind Archer or Gulldune behind enemy lines to do the final hit on the opponent summoner.
As is the case for many of the Breakers events, this is not a card to hold on to much in the early game, as it’s harder in the early game for good Blast situations to present themselves. As the game develops though, those situations become increasingly common with more units on the field, summoners with low life and champions being more present. Blast then becomes a potentially game-winning threat.
Be aware of its combo with Deceivers, blasting a champion through a chain of Deceivers can OTK them.
This card's potential impact is not usually very high, but it is relatively easy to use, and extremely versatile, because of its infinite range. It’s relatively easy to find situations where you want the opponent unit in a different place. It’s particularly strong when wanting to assassinate, as it can move a unit that is protecting the heavily damaged enemy summoner out of the way.
When on defense, disrupting formations is always nice and often a way to get an extra attack, since instead of using a Wind Mage to move that unit from the front of your gate, you can use Hypnotic Call and then attack it with Tacullu to try for the dream of capturing a 3 or 4 life unit.
Sometimes it's hard to find good use for this event in the early game and you shouldn't be afraid to discard it then. As the game progresses though, the capabilities of this card tend to come more in handy.
Kalal is the grandmaster of slow-paced, ranged combat. If the game is getting into a slow pace, Kalal's entry can change the odds greatly in Tacullu's favor. She may seem relatively expensive, but with Kalal, losing slow-paced, ranged combat seems impossible. She can keep enemy melee units at bay while attacking with four ranged dice, or protect herself with cheap friendly units, that can then attack also after she puts them in position, altogether doing lots of damage from a single flank and not leaving a good counterattack opportunity for the opponent.
Trying to keep a slow game versus Kalal may be the same as conceding.
Gwalark can lead an assasination charge against a damaged enemy summoner. When chasing a summoner for the kill, Gwalark provides inescapable reach.
By far the weakest of the Breakers' trio of champions, you should only summon Gwalark in very opportune situations as his stats for his cost are poor and if his abilities don’t add any value to your situation, you are better off spending your magic on something else.
However, Wind Archers that fly over everything at 4 spaces are incredibly scary for a damaged enemy summoner!
Breakers are a poke faction with a high element of disruption, ideal for someone that enjoys influencing opponent units and frustrating enemy strategies to no end.
Despite that Breakers want to poke from a distance, they do need to be relentless in their pressure and disruption. They don't have big combos or high economic plays, so if they let some factions do their thing, they will end facing threats they can't deal with as they will get eventually out-valued.
A well played Breakers, will offer jabs non-stop while leaving the opponent no good options, hopefully force the opponent to launch a frontal assault which Breakers can quickly turn around and punish.
So don’t let the opponent breathe, pester them to no end and keep your units safe. If properly played, Breakers can be so disruptive while providing such bad options for the opponent that they will feel helpless to face.
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