Heart of the Wildfire

SETUP

Put 3 and 2 on your starting board in the highest-numbered Sands. ( comes from the box, not the Blight Card)

PLAY STYLE

Starts with good offense and gets better from there, buyt lays down Blight as it grows. The smaller the game, the more restraint is needed to prevent tipping the island over into being completely Blighted. The Wildfire can heal the land where it is, but may benefit from other Blight removal Powers so it can add Presence to problem lands without triggering Blight cascade. Removing Blight from its own lands limits its "Firestorm" innate power, however.
In the Reprint, the complexity was changed from Moderate to High

COMPLEXITY

HIGH

Heart of the Wildfire Official FAQ Entries

Part of Promo Pack 1.

GROWTH (PICK ONE)

Reclaim Cards

Gain Power Card

Gain 1 Energy

Gain Power Card

+

3

Add a Presence

+

1

Add a Presence

Gain 2 Energy

and +1 more per Fire Showing

PRESENCE

Energy/Turn Fire 1 2 Fire and Plant 3
Card Plays Fire 2 3 Fire 4

SPECIAL RULES

BLAZING PRESENCE

Post-Setup, after your is added/moved, in the land it goes to:

For each showing on your Tracks, do 1 Damage.
If 2 or more are showing on your Tracks, add 1 .
Push all and any number of .

If you add multiple into a land at the same time, only do the above effects once.

DESTRUCTIVE NATURE

added due to Spirit effects (Powers, Special Rules, Scenario-based Rituals, etc) does not destroy your . (This includes cascades.)

FIRESTORM

SPEED	RANGE	TARGET LAND
	0

1

1 Damage per 2

you have.

3

Instead, 1 Damage per

you have.

4

2

Split this Power's Damage however desired between target land and any number of your lands with

.

7

In a land with

where you have

, Push all

. Destroy all Invaders and

. Add 1

.

THE BURNED LAND REGROWS

SPEED	RANGE	TARGET LAND
	0	ANY

4

1

If target land has 2

or more, remove 1

4

2

Instead, remove 1

.

5

2

Remove another

.

SUMMARY OF POWERS

Offense	Control	Fear	Defense	Utility

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From the Spirit Panel

A spirit of natural destruction... and renewal after destruction, though those whose lands have been scoured by flame don't usually much appreciate the latter. Thrives near human habitations, glorying in their fires and sparks, but has existed on the island since long before the Dahan arrived, a child of the Volcano and the Green.

The Wildfire is a long-standing friend of the Dahan: the early slash-and-burn agriculture which turned most Spirits against them gave it the best decades it had had in centuries. It later supported the Dahan during the Second Reckoning, backing their threats of reprisal. It doesn't interact with the Dahan often these years, but spares their villages as best it can, and fights the Invaders in large part for them.

Design Lore

Burning, blazing, rising, consuming - Heart of the Wildfire is quite fond of humans, in a general sense: they keep hearths and use fire as a tool all the time, and those sparks give birth to so many lovely conflagrations! It is the nature of Spirits to be true to what they are, so even though Wildfire knows on some level that too much fire is bad for the land, it just doesn't think about that aspect of things very much. It is also, after all, a spirit of renewal after the blaze, so it implicitly assumes that everything will regrow eventually. (Its strong ties to A Spread of Rampant Green probably contribute to this point of view.)

It fights the Invaders partly due to the exhortations of other Spirits, but more for the sake of the Dahan, as it's become clear that the Invaders have no compunctions about putting them to the sword. (The Dahan and it have a long and storied history together, beginning with the very first Dahan settlements.) It is also, it should be said, somewhat gleeful over the chance to really cut loose without the other Spirits getting all riled up and putting out its firestorms.

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Important note: If playing as Heart of the Wildfire, you start the game with these Unique Power Cards in your hand.

2

Asphyxiating Smoke

2

ANY

1

.
Destroy 1

.
Push 1

.

Nolan Nasser

0

Flame's Fury

ANY

Target Spirit gains 1 Energy. Target Spirit does +1 Damage with each Damage dealing Power they use this turn.

(Powers which Damage multiple lands or each Invader only get 1 extra Damage total. Repeated Powers keep the +1 boost. Destroy effects don't get any bonus.)

Nolan Nasser

2

Flash-Fires

1

ANY

1

.
1 Damage.

IF YOU HAVE

2

:

This Power is

.

Nolan Nasser

0

Threatening Flames

0

+ INVADERS

2

.
Push 1

/

per Terror Level from target land to adjacent lands without your

.

If there are no such adjacent lands, +2

.

Nolan Nasser

[edit]

General Strategy

Heart of the Wildfire is a high-complexity spirit. It has excellent offensive power, but its fires bring Blight to the land - and require some of that Blight to stay out in order for several of its offensive powers to work. In smaller games, it will have to be careful to avoid tainting the land (or outright losing), as the Blight it brings can be a substantial fraction of the available pool. In larger games, it'll have more leeway on Blight, but will face the problem of dilution: either the lands it sets up as deathtraps will be much sparser, or it'll concentrated be over in one corner and won't be able to help much in other portions of the board.

Understanding the Playmat

Growth: That third Growth choice grants more Energy the more Fire is uncovered on Wildfire's Presence track, granting ever-greater rewards as the game goes on. Its Energy track is relatively modest, but it'll be able to boost that substantially with Growth.
Special Rules - Blazing Presence: Every time Wildfire adds Presence, it damages Invaders - and the land. Once it uncovers 2 Fire, it'll be Blighting the land with every Presence it puts onto the board. (Fortunately, Destructive Nature keeps that Blight from destroying the Presence.) In smaller games, it'll have to be very careful about adding Presence too quickly, lest it blow through the Blight pool!
Innate Power - Firestorm: It doesn't just do damage when it adds Presence - with a small primer of Plant, Heart of the Wildfire can do Fire-based damage at one of its Presence. (Or, with more Fire and some Air, in multiple lands where it has Presence.) But those lands have to be Blighted - its fires must still be burning.
Innate Power - The Burned Land Regrows: Fortunately, it has a way to remove Blight. It's not easy, though - Heart of the Wildfire's regrowth aspect is definitely secondary to its destructive aspect - and when it heals a land, it stops being able to use Firestorm there!

Unique Powers

Unsurprisingly, all of them have Fire. Most have Plant, and a couple have Air. Triggering its Innate Powers shouldn't be too hard, once it can play enough cards.
Two of them are pretty expensive, but the other two are cheap. Heart of the Wildfire can probably make do with low Energy income, but will benefit from more.

The specific effects:

Flash-fires: fear and 1 damage, possibly Fast. This looks good for picking off Explorers.
Asphyxiating Smoke: Fear and destruction at good range - but it requires a Sacred Site, which may be tricky to set up without causing Blight cascades. (It does start with one, though.)
Threatening Flames: Frightens the Invaders, driving them away from its flames - or terrifying them even more if they're trapped! This Power is very powerful for the cost, but requires the same very specific setup as the Firestorm innate: a Blighted land where Heart of the Wildfire has Presence.
Flame's Fury: Boosts the damage of every damaging Power a Spirit uses - card or innate. This seems best as a boon for fast-and-furious lots-of-Powers spirits over slower, big-hammer allies.