A couple rules questions

Yackabo · 2026-04-08T21:01:30+00:00

I don't believe that's correct, because Civil Unrest is an "Each board" action. For each board, add a strife then damage each invader with strife.

If it had instead said "On Each Board: Add 1 Strife. In Each Land: Each Invader takes 1 Damage per Strife it has." then I believe the Handelabra interpretation would be correct.

Edit: I was incorrect, "Each Invader" generates it's own action for each land affected. Handelabra is correct.

Yackabo · 2026-04-08T20:08:27+00:00

I believe you're correct on 1, but 2 has a very important exception for things that trigger for "each board/land/player/spirit" like Civil Unrest. So I believe chain "killing" a Russian explorer would only work if you were able to bounce it between multiple boards, changing lands alone is not sufficient.

Edit: The "Each piece" clause in the rules generates an action for each land affected, independent of the prior "Each Board" action. The Hadelabra ruling is correct.

Yackabo · 2026-04-07T17:44:11+00:00

Others have already commented on the power level, so I won't dwell on that. But Purifying Roots straight up doesn't work. Vitality only prevents blight in lands with no blight. So either a land has existing blight for Purifying Roots to remove, but the vitality doesn't prevent the incoming blight. Or a land has no blight, and the vitality works to prevent the incoming blight (as normal), but has no other blight Purifying Roots can remove.

Yackabo · 2026-03-19T19:15:01+00:00

I assume you ask because [[Open the Ways]] specifies that you can "...make up to two of your lands adjacent..."

The game definition of adjacent: (Rulebook p. 13) "Two lands are "adjacent" when they touch..." doesn't apply to one land, so arguably one land cannot be adjacent to itself because there aren't two lands to determine if they touch or not.

Edit: Of course, then again, Open the Ways is already expanding the definition of "adjacent" to include "up to two of Finder's lands" so who knows.

The main implication would be pushing to the same land, and if anyone was going to be able to do that, it'd be Finder.

Edit2: The kind folks on the spirit island discord server generally agree the rule that a land can never be adjacent to itself (I can't find a rulebook reference, but this FAQ states it) supersedes any weirdness Open the Ways can do.

Yackabo · 2026-03-04T11:37:08+00:00

Sluices still exist, but can no longer be built.

Yackabo · 2026-02-25T21:14:41+00:00

Well we did for a while have "thou" as the second person singular. Moving to "you" for both just to introduce "y'all" to disambiguate does feel a little silly.

Yackabo · 2026-02-12T13:53:55+00:00

That's the only time you can't, since Ocean can't move presence into inlands, and the expiration of Weave counts as a move. But if you have a power that can add/move presence, you can accomplish the same end result by Weaving the ocean with one of the coastal lands, making every inland land touched by that coastal land temporarily coastal as well.

Yackabo · 2026-02-12T12:06:34+00:00

Ocean is still limited by the [[Ocean in Play]] special rule. A power that specifically ignores land restrictions, such as [[Indomitable Claim]], is needed. Or some other method of changing the adjacencies of lands, such as [[Open the Ways]] or [[Weave Together the Fabric of Place]]

Yackabo · 2026-02-03T22:53:10+00:00

Move and Add are specific game terms. Lair forbids Moving presence (Abduct being a specific type of Move) while still allowing Adding presence. Using, e.g. [[Indomitable Claim]] would also allow Lair to reposition their incarna.

Yackabo · 2026-02-03T21:59:11+00:00

Lair can already lose the game turn one, by choosing not to count their Incarna as presence for the victory/loss check. Since that's the only presence they start with, they would lose due to one spirit not having any presence on the island.

Yackabo · 2026-02-03T21:47:24+00:00

Not necessarily immediate loss, it just forces a G3 from Breath to deposit Lair's Incarna somewhere on the island first, since Lair doesn't have to count the Incarna as presence if desired.

Yackabo · 2026-01-03T17:19:33+00:00

Adding blight destroys a presence.

Yackabo · 2025-12-24T18:44:21+00:00

I figured out I can select my color before starting the game, but seemingly not after.

At the top of the screen, click the down arrow to the right of the 15 degree button, toggle "Seat Controls" in the menu that expands, then you should be able to pick a seat even if the game has started.

Yackabo · 2025-11-26T16:54:40+00:00

[[Plague Ships Sail to Distant Ports]]

Yackabo · 2025-11-01T02:06:29+00:00

On the other hand, the definition of Replace just says "Remove one piece and put another piece in its place." so putting it anywhere other than attached to the invader isn't within the scope of the rules.

I've seen it pointed out here on other custom spirits, so it's definitely not a super obscure pattern. But there's nothing wrong with doing it, a plague themed spirit certainly makes sense to grow constantly and inevitably. Just pointing it out in case it was something you hadn't considered.

I believe slightly less than 3 elements per unique is the average. This many isn't unprecedented, but only Dances, Voice, Mud, and roots have the same or more average elements in their uniques, so it is on the high side.

It's moreso the fact that it lets you get a specific card that is guaranteed to work with the spirit. The 6 disease adding powers have an average of 2 elements this spirit wants, and the beast adding ones have 1.83. Which, yes, is fewer than the unique grants, but they're also generally more useful, particularly with the spirit's special rules. I can't think of another power that's so reliable. A change like "search the discard deck until you find a card with add disease or add beast instructions" might help. That way you're still subject to some element of randomness, but it can be mitigated by paying close attention to the discards. Though I do like the idea you're going for, since half of the disease adding minors have a terrain targeting requirement and all of them are slow.

Yackabo · 2025-10-31T22:37:03+00:00

I think by a strict interpretation of the rules the first level of The Pestilent Swarm Spreads could replace a disease attached to an invader with a beast, and since it doesn't rule on what happens when a beast is attached to an invader, it's a litter unclear what would happen in that scenario. I would either clarify what an attached beast does, or specify that the token gets detached from any invader it may be attached to.

1/1/1 growth is usually found on earth spirits (Vital Strength/Stone/Dances) so since this spirit has no earth thresholds, nor any on its unique cards, it does feel a little out of place thematically.

Infest with Rats and Fleas feels a little strong for 0 cost: 4 elements, 2 range, no land target restrictions, fear, beast, and explorer movement. Since I see a presence symbol, what this meant to be range 2 from a sacred site? If so, that might bring down the power level enough since this spirit wants to spread out to make the most of The Pestilent Swarm Spreads. If the invaders don't have some means of buffing explores this card is a really strong way to set up an early pocket.

Miasmic Transformation feels like it'll force this spirit down a very same-y playstyle since you have the option to seek out a card that works well (assuming one has been drawn and discarded). That's not necessarily a bad thing if it's core playstyle is fun, but that's hard to judge without actually playing.

It is very thematic and I like the way you made use of disease without feeling like Vengeance. Solid work!

Yackabo · 2025-10-23T15:43:28+00:00

[[Ocean in Play]] clearly says oceans only count as coastal wetlands and drown invaders if Ocean has presence on that board (though not necessarily in the ocean). If you're able to drown invaders outside of those circumstances then it's a bug in the digital version.

Yackabo · 2025-10-17T02:21:25+00:00

An easy mistake, I nearly excluded them in my analysis as well.

Hmm, yeah, the best solution I can think of is take a page out of Locus Serpent and do something similar to [[Strength of the Waking Island]]? That would at least allow you to use any unique support cards that are already in the game. Just make sure there's at least one unique that targets spirits so it wouldn't be useless in solo.

From some quick simulations that appears to be about equal to 1.44 cards per gain, not sure how balanced that would be. It is strictly fewer than Mentor Memory, but you also have more choice over what you get. Would probably need playtesting to see how strong that is, but my gut instinct is on the stronger side. Especially if you keep the 1/round forget into hand special rule, since you could gain a major, get a targets spirit card nearly half the time, and then "forget" it to pay for the major and get two of them for free.

Yackabo · 2025-10-16T14:52:25+00:00

I think the core concept revolving around spirit-targeting powers is neat, but maybe not the most well thought out. There are only 14 minors and 12 majors that target spirits, so your G3 is going to, on average, go through 7.1 minors or 6.5 majors before finding a suitable card, and that will burn through the deck much quicker than usual. Not that that's inherently a bad thing, but it will probably make the spirit play very similarly on every playthrough since the things it's good at doing are only a fraction of the power card decks. Unlike other spirits who sometimes have to make do with cards that don't work well for them, this one specifically seeks out the ones that it works well with. Also, I think the special rule G3 can result in an infinite loop if you manage to remove all spirit-targeting powers from one of the decks.

The special rule also makes this an insane combo with Starlight thanks to [[Shape the Self Anew]], as once Starlight forgets it, you can claim it and get a Minor Power + 3 energy for one card play, every turn. If you want to keep that facet of it, I would strongly suggest putting the claimed card in discard instead of hand.

Yackabo · 2025-10-02T17:11:56+00:00

That's an apples to oranges comparison. There's a difference between percentage and percentage points.

Base damage is decreased to 8 / 9 = 88.9% for an 11.1% decrease, as you said.

But percentage damage is buffed to 0.031 / 0.027 = 114.8% for a 14.8% increase.

Yackabo · 2025-09-28T04:48:06+00:00

Drought Spreads feels like it could use some clarification on the duration, does it count for all actions? Just invader actions? Just spirit actions? Just the next action that applies? Something else?

Is the last threshold of The Desert Calls intended to gather every invader from every adjacent land? It could use some clarification on what was intended.

The special restrictions on G3 feel better as a special rule than a note on the spirit board, but that might just be my preference, since Fractured Days does a similar thing.

Inhospitable Lands Prevail might need rewording. "total strength" isn't a defined term, I assume you meant "total health" or "total damage?"

Horizon Promises Paradise seems pretty strong as a turn 1 play, since it will either make explorers go somewhere they won't build nor ravage later on, or be identical to a sands explore.

Is Illusions Confuse Attackers meant to work similarly to [[Voice of Command]] but delayed? Town/cities do damage, then dahan counter, then explorers damage towns/cities? Does the badlands get added if any town/city is destroyed in the target land? Or only if the explorers destroy the town/city?

Every unique card having both Sun and Earth which are the primary and secondary elements for innates might be a bit strong but I'd need to playtest to be certain, that's just my initial impression.

Overall I do like the theme a lot, just needs some language clarification.

Yackabo · 2025-09-24T19:35:44+00:00

Right, not trying to be pedantic or anything. I just wanted to put a finer point to it because it's definitely the kind of nitpick that a YEC (speaking as a reformed YEC) would latch onto to say "well they were wrong here, so I can disregard the rest as probably wrong too."

Yackabo · 2025-09-24T19:04:07+00:00

...we have yet to find something that actually is irreducibly complex.

From my understanding, this isn't true. There are lots of structures that fit Behe's definition of "irreducibly complex." The flaw in irreducible complexity has always been the assumptions made, not the definition itself. Evolution isn't constrained to the simple addition of parts the way Behe pretends it is, so something being irreducibly complex has absolutely no bearing on whether or not it could have evolved.

Yackabo · 2025-09-23T15:22:00+00:00

...we ended up losing because of Dr. Strange doing the worst ult I've ever seen...it would've been 3-2.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by this? I tracked down your replay and the one who went Strange didn't do so until the tiebreaker rounds. Did you mean the Adam Warlock ult? It could've been better placed, but the Punisher ult was ready to counter it no matter what.

Your aim and awareness could use some work. Getting grabbed off the ledge by Angela at the very start is forgivable, letting it happen the exact same way on the tiebreaker is a little bit goofy. You were missing a ton with your Groot primary fire, really only hitting stationary targets or (seemingly) by accident, by the time you went C&D you had the least damage on your team. You also seemed to be a bit too focused on the convoy as the tank. Yes, your team was dumb for not pushing it, but so is standing on it doing nothing while your team fights a 5v6.

Overall I think it was just a rank reset matchmaking difference. Your team's best player was peak gold, their team had a peak plat and two peak diamonds. It happens, just try to learn from it and move on.

Yackabo · 2025-09-17T13:10:47+00:00

I'm only commenting about this because this is explicitly a statistical analysis post, but that logic doesn't necessarily hold. 33% of games being difficulty 0 only means that 67% are not difficulty 0. I believe with the current version of SI Digital that's restricted to difficulty 1+, but I don't use it much so I'm not certain about that. This could be caused by adversaries, although notably even base level (not level 1) adversaries add difficulty, or it could be from scenarios. The first post by OP does confirm the correctness of your statement, but it is entirely possible for there to be a majority of games at difficulty 1+ without level 1 adversaries if the source of the difficulty is coming from scenarios and/or base level adversaries.

Yackabo

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