Lightning's Swift Strike

Spirit Board Info

Lore

Unique Power Cards

Suggested Power Progression

Strategy

Design and Extras

Aspects

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SETUP

Put 2 on your starting board in the highest-numbered Sands.

PLAY STYLE

Virtually all offense to start with: without a more defensive teammate, Blight may become a problem. Excellent at destroying buildings, less good at containing Explorers. Using Thundering Destruction tends to be a burst affair: a turn or two of position and build up Energy, followed by a really big turn.
Starting Powers are extremely focused on Air and Fire: good for Thundering Destruction, bad for Major Power versatility.

COMPLEXITY

LOW

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Lightning's Swift Strike Official FAQ Entries

Part of the Base Game.

GROWTH (PICK ONE)

Reclaim Cards Gain Power Card Gain 1 Energy

+ 2 Add a Presence + 0 Add a Presence

+ 1 Add a Presence Gain 3 Energy

PRESENCE

Energy/Turn 1 2 2 3 4 4 5
Card Plays 3 4 5 6

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SPECIAL RULES

SWIFTNESS OF LIGHTNING
For every you have, you may use 1 Power as if it were . (Power Cards or your Innate Powers.)

THUNDERING DESTRUCTION

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

3 2 Destroy 1 .

4 3 You may instead destroy 1 .

5 4 1 Also, Destroy 1 / .

5 5 2 Also, Destroy 1 / .

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SUMMARY OF POWERS

Offense	Control	Fear	Defense	Utility

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From the Spirit Panel

The child of a passing storm-spirit, Lightning's Swift Strike danced off the shores of the island many ages ago, and liked it enough to stay. It spends much of its time resting and quiet, waking up to dance through the sky when the winds blow strong.

It only concerns itself occasionally with the Dahan, usually appearing out of nowhere to send them off on some obscure errand. The Dahan cooperate - partly out of wary respect for Lightning's power, but as much for the sake of the Thunderspeaker - Lightning's child - who is a patron and ally of their people.

Design Lore

Most spirits of storm travel the sky, never touching down or staying in any one place for too long, but a few find a place they’re sufficiently drawn to to stay - often a site with high winds or violent weather. Spirits of lightning are especially prone to this, finding the earth below more interesting than their cloud-formed bretheren.

Lightning’s Swift Strike was born long ago, of a storm-spirit off the shores of Spirit Island. It decided to stay in the instant it first struck ground, and has remained ever since. Lightning destroys with a fierce and glorious joy, not for the sake of destruction itself, but for the exultation of swiftness-in-power.

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Important note: If playing as Lightning's Swift Strike, you start the game with these Unique Power Cards in your hand.

0

Harbingers of the Lightning

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

Push up to 2 .

1 if you pushed any into a land with / .

Rocky Hammer

1

Lightning's Boon

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

ANY

Target Spirit may use up to 2 Powers as if they were Powers this turn.

Rocky Hammer

3

Raging Storm

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

1 Damage to each Invader.

Rocky Hammer

2

Shatter Homesteads

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

ANY

1 .
Destroy 1 .

Rocky Hammer

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#1.

1

Delusions of Danger

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

Push 1 .

2 .

Moro Rogers

#2.

1

Call to Bloodshed

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

1 Damage per .

Gather up to 3 .

Jorge Ramos

#3.

3

Powerstorm

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

ANY

Target Spirit gains 3 Energy.
Once this turn, target may Repeat a Power Card by paying its cost again.

IF YOU HAVE

2 2 3:

Target may Repeat up to 2 more Power Cards by paying their costs.

Nolan Nasser

#4.

1

Purifying Flame

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

1 Damage per .

If target land is , you may instead Remove 1 .

Jorge Ramos

#5.

5

Pillar of Living Flame

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

2

ANY

3 .
5 Damage.

If target land is , add 1 .

IF YOU HAVE

4:

+2 and +5 Damage.

Jorge Ramos

#6.

1

Entrancing Apparitions

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

ANY

Defend 2.

If no Invaders are present, gather up to 2 .

Moro Rogers

#7.

0

Call to Isolation

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

Push 1 / per .

Push 1 .

Graham Stermberg

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General Strategy

Some things of note:

• Growth: It can play two Presence/turn. Not all Spirits can manage this! Lightning can spread quickly, setting up a new Sacred Site (two Presence in one land) in a single turn, even 2 lands away.
• Growth: It only gains new Power Cards when Reclaiming / not placing new Presence. So it’s not going to be gaining huge numbers of new Powers unless it Reclaims a lot - which would limit its expansion.
• Presence track: It has a slow Energy ramp-up, but incredible Card Plays - better than any other Spirit in the game.
• Special Rules: Swiftness of Lightning - For every Air it has, Lightning’s Swift Strike can make one of its Powers Fast - that is, use it before the Invaders go rather than afterwards. That seems pretty good, but we’ll have to see how many of its unique powers are Air-aspected before we know how often it’ll be useful in practice.
• Innate Power: Thundering Destruction - That’s a lot of wrecked buildings at higher levels! It’ll take playing 4-5 Fire to reach the best effects, but Lightning has that awesome Plays track, so playing 4-5 Power Cards in one turn isn’t as distant a feat for it as for others. The targeting is a bit restrictive, though: it must strike from a Sacred Site, and can only reach a single land away. And we don’t know how readily it has access to Air and Fire - so let’s look at its Unique Power Cards!

Before we go into specific cards, we can see two things right off the bat:

• Every single Power has both Air and Fire - which makes sense; that’s Lightning for you. That means it’ll have a really easy time finding the Elements to use Swiftness of Lightning and Thundering Destruction!
• A couple of those Power Cards cost 2 or 3 Energy to play - destructive power takes some oomph! Playing both of those together would require 5 Energy, far more than Lightning starts out getting in a single turn. So Lightning is going to be somewhat Energy-hungry, and may want to occasionally hold some Energy in reserve to build up for a massive strike the following turn.

The cards themselves:

• Shatter Homesteads is a workhouse power, destroying those Towns that crop up all over the place in a particularly intimidating fashion. Like the Thundering Destruction innate, it must be used from a Sacred Site, but has better range.
• Raging Storm hurts every Invader in a land, damaging buildings and wiping out Explorers entirely. The more Invaders there are, the more Lightning can pound on them - but it’s not cheap to do. It can be used from any of Lightning's Presence, though.
• Lightning’s Boon grants Lightning’s overwhelming speed to other spirits, amping up their ability to pre-empt the Invaders. It could in theory self-target, but with Swiftness of Lightning, that’ll rarely be necessary!
• Harbingers of the Lightning asks some Dahan to warn the Invaders about what Lightning’s Swift Strike is going to do to them if they stick around. It also asks the Dahan to move, setting up shop near the Invaders - perhaps simply a threatening gesture, perhaps a setup for a counterattack.

Overall: Most of Lightning’s Powers do a small amount of Fear, plus any Fear caused by destroying Towns and Cities - so we can expect that Lightning will be decent at helping frighten the Invaders. The only way it has to destroy Explorers is Raging Storm, which is expensive: Lightning isn’t good at wiping out small groups of people hidden away in the jungle. But while it has a hard time stopping the Invaders from Building, it’s really good at wrecking those buildings once they show up! It can do this best in bursts - playing lots of Power Cards to trigger Thundering Destruction - but setting those up may take a turn of gathering strength.

Links to Guides

Lightning's Swift Strike/Antistone's Opening[1]

Lightning's Swift Strike/Phantaskippy's Guide[2]

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Spirit Spotlight

Theme Music

Gallery

Island Avatar

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Immense

AN IMMENSE SPIRIT, TOWERING AND SLOW

Your top Presence track grants you twice as much Energy during the Spirit Phase. Any ongoing modifiers are counted after doubling.

Playing Power Cards during the Spirit Phase costs 2 Card Plays instead of 1. (So if you have 3 Card Plays, you will only be able to play 1 Power Card.) If you have any unused Card Plays at the end of the Spirit Phase, gain 1 Element of your choice.

For each Major Power you play, gain 2 different Elements of your choice.

Pandemonium

Replaces Innate Power: Thundering Destruction

LIGHTNING-TORN SKIES INCITE PANDEMONIUM

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET LAND

1

INVADERS

3 2 2 . Add 1 .

4 3 2 . Add 1 .

5 4 1 3 . Add 1 .

5 5 2 4 . Add 1 .

Sparking

Replaces Innate Power: THUNDERING DESTRUCTION
Setup: Replace RAGING STORM with SMITE THE LAND WITH FULMINATION

GIFT OF THE SPARKING SKY

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

ANY

2 5 3 Once this turn, after target Spirit uses a Power that targets a land, they may do 1 Damage to each Invader in that land. (This is their Action and gets all benefits and penalties that apply to their Powers.)

2 2 Target Spirit gains a Minor Power.

1 3 2 Target Spirit may play a Power Card by paying its cost. (If you target yourself, its Elements arrive too late to apply to prior thresholds of this Power.)

Wind

Replaces Special Rule: Swiftness of Lightning

EXALTATION OF THE STORM-WIND

SPEED

RANGE

TARGET

ANOTHER

1 You and target Spirit may each make one of your non-Major Powers .

3 You and target Spirit each gain with all your Powers this turn.

4 1 You and target Spirit may each Push up to 2 from one of your respective lands.

5 2 Repeat this Power.

Rulings for Lightning's Swift Strike

There are no rulings at this time.