Defiance: Sites!

December 7, 2018

We’re drawing closer to seeing the full set of Defiance cards, but there are still some places we haven’t visited yet. For the first time, we are introducing a new card type to Eternal: Sites. Let’s explore what they offer:

There’s a lot to take in here, and we will go piece by piece.

You play a Site like you’d play a unit, and it stays in play (until the opponent deals with it). It takes up two unit spots, so it’s twice as large as one unit.

So, what do Sites do for you?

Each Site does something while in play – for example, Dizo’s Office gives all your units Lifesteal. Where it gets really interesting is when you look at the Agenda associated with a Site and its Hero.

Dizo’s Agenda includes the following three cards (Dizo is a busy guy):

Dizo is a schemer, he doesn’t mind threatening people, and when all else fails he’s willing to cut ties completely.

When you play Dizo’s Office, you immediately get to choose and play any of those three cards. At the start of your next turn, you get to play one of the remaining two cards, then the turn after that you play the last card. The turn after the last Agenda card has been played, Dizo himself shows up as a unit – after all, his Agenda is complete and he’s ready to take action.

Fortunately, when an opponent’s Site hits the board you’ve got some options to prevent its Agenda from being fulfilled. Each Site starts with a Durability number – in the case of Dizo’s Office, that’s 4. When you make your attack for the turn, you must choose whether you send all your attackers at the enemy Site or straight at your opponent. You can’t split your forces during an attack – so choose your target wisely!

When it’s your Site that’s under attack, you can block as normal, but any damage that gets through to the Site is permanent and does not heal at the end of the turn. For example, if the opponent attacks Dizo’s Office with a 2/2, the Durability of Dizo’s Office is permanently reduced to 2. If a Site hits 0 Durability, it dies immediately.

Besides attacking, Sites can be damaged by spells or abilities. Cards that deal damage directly to any enemy can choose Sites, and cards that deal damage to all enemies will deal damage to Sites. Cards that deal damage only to units or players will not damage Sites, and with that comes two important card changes:

Torch and Obliterate will be changed before the release of Defiance, and cannot deal damage to Sites. When developing Sites, we had more fun and liked the gameplay better with these changes.

Some examples of cards that can damage Sites:

Because Sites are new, let’s also tackle some frequently asked questions:

Can you have more than one Site in play at once?

No; when you play a second Site, no matter what Site it is, you must sacrifice the first Site.

What if your board is full of units?

If you’re at the unit cap and try to play a Site, it will prompt you to sacrifice down to ten units. If you’re at the unit cap and complete the Agenda, you’ll be prompted to sacrifice and make room for whomever the Site is playing (Dizo, Talir, and so on). Remember, when the agenda of a Site is finished, it stays in play to provide its ongoing effect.

How does Berserk interact with attacking Sites?

If you attack and berserk a unit, it will attack whatever it attacked the first time. However, if you attack a Site and berserk a unit, if the Site dies in the first attack, the second attack will go at the enemy player.

Can you attack Sites with relic weapons?

No, relic weapons can never attack Sites. If the enemy player has a Site but no units, your relic weapons can attack the enemy player directly.

What if one of the spells on the Agenda has nothing it can choose?

If you have The Praxis Arcanum, and you choose Viper’s Bite for the agenda spell while you have no units, the agenda will advance and Viper’s Bite will have no effect. Likewise, if the opponent plays something like Svetya, Orene of Kosul, you have to choose a spell to advance your agenda, even though you can’t play it (and the spell will then be used up).

We are excited for everyone to get to explore some of the many different places that make up the world of Myria, from the offices of criminal kingpins to entire cities and everything in between. Here’s another example (and one that would have died to Torch, as a matter of fact):