Ian Beck

What should I buy?

Everyone asks this, so let’s get it out of the way. In Ashes Reborn, you only have one constraint: dice (many expansions require dice that are not included in the Master Set). Every Ashes product comes with a full playset of every card, and there are no repeat cards between products (which means that if you buy one copy of everything, you’ll have everything you need).

Where to go from here?

Play the game. Seriously, it’s the single best way to improve.

How do you manage the battlefield?

In many competitive card battle games, you have two basic resources: whatever you spend to play cards, and the cards themselves. One or both typically relies on luck of the draw, which means in those games, you can attack the units your opponent plays, or discard those units from their hand, or discard/destroy the resources they use to summon those units, even if you don’t really want to play units yourself.

What’s your (arche)type?

Ashes is an unusual game. The First Five rule, coupled with the ability to meditate spellboard cards, means that you can start with one strategy, then pivot into another or include multiple potential strategies for different expected opponents. However, decks still do tend to fall into natural archetypes because if you generalize your deck too much you risk being unable to push damage through quickly enough.

So should I use Espresso 3?

Not that I’m incredibly biased or anything, but yes! At the very least, if the features I described above sound interesting, you should definitely test it out. Depending on what you rely on day-to-day, some of the rough or unfinished edges might prevent you from using it as your main editor until it’s a little more fleshed out and less “beta”, but there’s a lot to love about Espresso 3.