Hello, and welcome to the final edition of our Bright Lights set review! This time, we’re looking at the handful of non-Mechanologist cards in the set, grouped by class and in alphabetical order. Even though Bright Lights focuses almost exclusively on Flesh and Blood‘s most underserved class so far, there is still plenty to talk about for us non-Mech players.

So let’s get started!

Assassins

The two Assassin cards in Bright Lights continue the theme of situational tools in specific matchups and mind games that the class has come to be known for. The legendary equipment piece Shriek Razors (one of two non-Mechanologist legendaries in the set) does this by giving you great threat of activation play. Block with it at an opportune time and then keep your opponent under threat of using it to effectively pump one of your cards over their blocks to get through an on-hit.

This is the type of card, like Mask of Momentum, that can warp games around itself (though to a lesser extent, as a card draw is much more threatening than most Assassin on-hits), and I like it a lot. You’ll usually get more value out of making your opponent play around the threat of activation than by actually using the Razors to push through an on-hit, since they cost two resources to activate.

This isn’t to say that pitching a blue card, attacking with a one-cost card like Annihilate the Armed, and then using the Razors to force through an on-hit is bad, it just isn’t likely to happen more than once per game. Maybe twice if it’s a long game.

The other Assassin card, Already Dead, is a new contract card that wants you to banish opponents’ non-action cards – so reactions, instants, resources (i.e. fabled gems), and the new kid on the block: blocks. It also features an additional on-hit, banishing not just the top card of the opponent’s deck, like other contract cards, but a defending card as well.

This makes Already Dead not just a great tech card to play into reaction- or instant-heavy decks, but a good main deck option for Uzuri, Switchblade in particular. It has the right stat-line to make use of her hero ability and thereby adds an additional layer to consider for every block your opponent makes. If they use, say, their first block of Tectonic Plating and you react with Already Dead, you can banish their equipment for the rest of the game. I love how just the printing of this card changes the dynamic of playing against Uzuri. Very nice!

Brute

The Brute class (well, let’s be honest, Levia, Shadowborn Abomination) just got a major shot in the arm in Dusk Till Dawn, so it’s not like new cards are particularly needed. But as the so-far only class to get class-specific anti-item tech, it’s no wonder they make an appearance in the almost-all-Mech set.

Smashing Performance is an alright role-player kind of card, an on-rate attack with the added benefit of usually destroying an item, which takes its rate from alright to great if it happens. It’s notable that, due to the randomized draw and discard, you’re never truly guaranteed to get the effect off. I’m not over the moon with it, but it is nice that Brutes get options other than Argh… Smash!. Even if this one has a less fun name.

Draconic

Tome of Imperial Flame surprised me, and it’s a bit of a trip to read it. A zero-cost instant that cantrips and draws you an additional card if you’re royal? What’s the downside? Oh, it’s banishing your entire hand if you don’t pitch two red cards. This sounds terrible at first blush, because you basically never want to pitch reds. But it’s very specifically meant to be used in conjunction with Flamescale Furnace to make your next activation give you three resources.

This takes you from two to five resources! I’m not sure what you’re gonna use all these resources on, but it’s a card to watch out for as more cards get released – with card filtering and resource generation, Tome of Imperial Flame has combo enabler written all over it.

Guardian

Speaking of combo enablers, Tectonic Rift kinda has the same look and is probably a deliberate riff on Awakening. There are some upsides, like having a block value, even if it’s just for two, and Tectonic Rift doesn’t need to be fused. But other than that, I don’t find much to be excited about here. It’s an action, which makes it much less flexible, and you need to spend the same amount of resources you’re getting for next turn, so there’s little advantage to be made here.

Getting to bank resources is good, but spending an entire card to do it (and probably taking some damage as you have to save some of your cards to pitch into this) just doesn’t seem worth it right now. Still an option to look out for as more humongously expensive cards like Pulverize or cards that synergize with Seismic Surge tokens get printed.

Illusionist

The two Illusionist cards in Bright Lights continue two design ideas the Illusionist class has had going for a while. Phantom Tidemaw cares about your cards being destroyed, like Ghostly Touch, Merciful Retribution or Frightmare before it. And at first blush, it seems terrible: It doesn’t block, it gets destroyed whenever you take damage due to ward, and has phantasm, so that when you do jump through all the hoops to protect it and get it to grow, your opponent always has the option to kill it.

In the past, Illusionist decks have tried to turn Ghostly Touch into a late game win condition by using Semblance, Invoke Miragai or Passing Mirage with it to punish decks that look to load up on poppers and stall out. This is much more difficult with Phantom Tidemaw due to it having ward. In return, however, it doesn’t just trigger on attacks being destroyed through phantasm, but on any Illusionist card being destroyed and for any reason. Looking at cards like Tome of Aeo, which destroys itself and draws you a card, there’s something there.

Not enough to make it more than a jank piece probably, but still enough to warrant exploration as the ward synergies deepen. Legend Story Studios seems to want to push ward as an overarching Illusionist synergy. Or maybe they’re preparing for a blue-based Illusionist hero that cares about cards being destroyed (a fan favorite conspiracy theory ever since Frightmare got printed). I look forward to more cards that explore this niche, even if it does seem terrible right now.

In comparison, Dust from the Chrome Caverns is a straightforward card to evaluate, and thank god for that because I’m running out of space. It continues the trend of the Dust cards from Dynasty and makes it reasonable to assume that we’ll get a material for each of Dromai, Ash Artists dragons to get rid of their phantasm downside. Invoke Cromai is among her best dragons, so this card will most definitely see play.

Ninja

I like what Wax Off is doing a lot: It retroactively makes Wax On much more usable as a sideboard card against aggressive decks with lots of zero-cost cards by being so easy to put into your blue base. It costs zero, which Katsu, the Wanderer loves to see for his Harmonized Kodachis, and while it only blocks for two, it has the upside of being able to do it from arsenal as a defense reaction. It’s not amazing, but if the meta ends up in a place where you want to run Wax On in the sideboard at least, you now have a blue card to run in the mainboard to cash in on synergy.

The other use case for this is a control Ninja deck that looks to stall the game and overwhelm the opponent with a massive Crouching Tiger turn. If that kind of deck falls into place, running both defense reactions in the mainboard is looking very viable, even if both cards individually are a bit underwhelming. The Zen State token would make it much easier to get your Qi aligned for the perfect combo turn by giving you more breathing room. Very fun and thematic!

Ranger

Full disclosure: I love Riptide, Lurker of the Deep. Too much, in fact. So, keep in mind that I am biased beyond reason. That being said, Intoxicating Shot is a great card. It’s as cheap as LSS could have made it, it blocks for three, and it’s an arrow, so the opportunity cost is basically zilch.

But it’s also great in a very subtle way: In my experience playing Riptide, Lurker of the Deep as a more defensive deck, games can easily end up in a situation where both you and your opponent are very low. You’ll basically be guaranteed to see it late because you would have pitched it early.

In that scenario, where you’re running low on arrows, Intoxicating Shot is a major mind game for your opponent. Do they block it out, making you both get closer to fatigue? If so, you’re trading your one card for their two, because it’s at the ever-important four power breakpoint. If they don’t block it or only block it with one card, they still take damage and get two tokens which are an upside for them, but also turn on two of Riptides three trap conditions.

The traps then not only negate the upside of the tokens but can be absolutely devastating: They take more damage and can lose their entire turn to Collapsing Trap or Buzzsaw Trap, both blue cards you can reasonably pitch early to help you close out the late game with unavoidable damage and disruptive effects. And if you don’t have a trap, you can take the risk and hope they block, pitch it for later, or block with it yourself!

Shadow

Look, I get it. I’ve seen safety valves before. Sometimes game developers must operate under the assumption that they’ve stumbled in their balancing efforts and include cards that hose a specific card or set of cards.

Slay, then, is the ultimate safety valve to make sure that the new Prism, Awakener of Sol, does not repeat her predecessor’s meta sins. If Prism ever gets oppressive again, this card now exists for Shadow heroes to sideboard. From what I gather, this isn’t the case, so this card is a dud. Next!

Runeblade

Now this is very, very spicy. Again, a blue card that blocks for three is close to an auto-include. I’m not sure how much I like so many blue three-blocks running around, but after they cross a certain threshold, they all compete. Which I guess cancels things out?

Sonata Fantasmia is a Runechant generator, and what a generator it is! Granted, it costs a lot of resources to get tokens out of this, at a rate of two resources for one Runechant. On the face of it, this isn’t great. Spending two resources for one damage is pretty abysmal, but Sonata Fantasmia is tailor-made to revive the One Turn Kill, or OTK, archetype for Viserai, Rune Blood.

It not only allows you to bank Runechants to get to a critical mass, it also disrupts your opponent on the way. It takes an entire hand of blues and this in arsenal to turn it on, but when you turn it on, it turns the tempo almost entirely in your favor, with as close to an extra turn as there has been in Flesh and Blood so far.

If you can pull it off, the most your opponent can do is clap back with two cards, and that’s assuming they have an arsenal. More likely, they’ll have one card and maybe not even the pitch to use it. In the meantime, you’re building up six Runechants, which also lower the cost of your Ninth Blade of the Blood Oath. And once you get going, you’re more likely to be able to turn on your second Sonata as well.

On a side note, since any Viserai deck, not just the OTK ones, can run three of these, that means Viserai now gets absolutely silly in the late game as they’ll have three Sonatas surrounded by blue cards to ruin your day.

Warrior

Ser Boltyn, Breaker of Dawn gets the honor of the second non-Mechanologist legendary card in the set with Warband of Bellona. It blocks for two and has temper, which is a very tempting upgrade to Halo of Illumination for the Cintari Saber + Lumina Ascension combo decks.

Now, I always preferred my Boltyn decks to run Raydn, Duskbane, so I can’t say for sure, but it doesn’t seem like a straight upgrade to Halo of Illumination to me, even though it has that free block on it. It costs one more resource, and with how yellow-heavy Boltyn decks want to be nowadays, the difference between one and two resources is basically an entire card. It also requires you to attack and needs to be activated on your turn, so the decks that are all-in on the combo might still decide to run Halo over this.

What I like about it is that it incentivizes Boltyn decks to look to hybridize more – as the Warband can still fuel your soul for that big Lumina turn but can pull double duty as a charge enabler and a blocking piece in the more midrange-y Raydn style decks.

Emboldened Blade is aimed at Dorinthea Ironsong instead, and it’s another blue three-block that costs zero. It leans heavily into Dorintheas bluffing and mind-reading gameplay – but in a new way! This card lets you call your opponent’s bluffs by being an absolute blowout if you get the right read. If you don’t, it’s a blowout for you, but the opportunity cost of including it is low enough to make that not a big deal. And in the hands of very skilled Dorinthea players, this can be a massive upgrade to the deck.

Wizard

Last, but certainly not least, we have Contest the Mindfield. I love this card, but I’m scared of it. To be fair, I’m scared of almost every Wizard card because I seldom know what they do. This one, though, is scary in a new and exciting way, not by killing you out of nowhere, but by limiting your card draw when they play it at instant speed on your turn.

I like that LSS is willing to branch out the Wizard card pool into a more control-y playstyle, and I think they’ve been smart with the rate on Contest the Mindfield. It takes your Wizard opponent two cards to deny you one card, which means that they can’t just play it mindlessly, but must wait for the right moment to use it.

It’s blue, so Wizards can always pitch it, but it can make some hands awkward by only blocking for two. It’s a scary control effect to give to a class that is this adept at killing their opponents from close to full health, but it looks very skill intensive to utilize correctly and with a reasonable rate to not make it oppressive.

Conclusion

And there you have it, every non-Mechanologist card from Bright Lights! I believe that LSS did a great job with making (almost) every non-Mechanologist card in this heavily skewed set worth talking about. Even if some of them ultimately aren’t great right now, they are still full of future potential. Except Slay, that is.

Other Bright Lights set reviews:

Heroes & Weapons by Pheano Black

Equipment by Peter Buddensiek

Items by Tyler Horspool

Blocks, Instants, and Non-Attack Actions by Ethan Van Sant

Attack Actions Pt 1 by Valera

Attack Actions Pt 2 by Kenny Suzuki