Purchase the Tricksters Faction on Forgefire!
Stealing things, stopping things, starting things, hiding your keys in the morning, collecting underpants for profit… for years, you've thought of these little people as pests. Now they've turned up as pesticide.
Tricksters are from the Core set and have a Titan card: Big Funny Giant.
Complexity Level: Medium
Mechanics
- Creating Hazards
- Punishing Opponents
Hopefully you might have guessed that Tricksters are full of tricks. These include punishing opponents for affecting your minions, making bases difficult, deadly, or even impossible to play on, straight up disallowing a player from playing their cards, undoing an action attached to a minion or base, and forcing your opponents to discard cards. It is no mere exaggeration to call these guys full-scale full-time nuisances. Fortunately for their opponents, all the restrictions Tricksters place on them have some condition that makes them temporary or partially ineffective.
Strategy
Tormenting your friends might be fun and all for you, but does that win you the game? Frankly, there's no guarantee that it will. There's a coin here with two sides to it:
- What should you do if your opponents ignore you, deciding you aren't worth the effort to deal with?
- What should you do if you manage to annoy your opponents and they decide to attack your minions?
Turning the game in your favor requires smart navigation between these two states of affairs. You need to hobble your opponents enough so that you win and they don't.
Punishing Passivity
If your opponent won't or can't resist your incursions, then go on the offensive. Claim any particularly advantageous bases for yourself, then when it appears your opponent won't play there, follow where they went with your Gremlins, Brownies, and Leprechaun. You want to invade bases where your opponent is and try to stop them from playing any more power there than you, so you won't have to play as much there yourself to break the base and win it. Gnomes can be used here to keep the balance of power on the base under control. Once you've got Enshrouding Mist ready, drop two minions and win the base.
Sounds like walking a fine line, right? Well, we are talking about winning the game, after all. Tricksters have no power boosts and their minions average 3 power. Tricksters play dirty and you've got to use everything they've got. This is not a simple or easy faction to win with.
In special cases where you get rewarded for destroying your own minions, such as at Cave of Shinies, put your Gremlins on the chopping block, since your opponent isn't. You still draw a card and they discard one. If you have to play Gnome for this, you need one other minion on the base with the Gremlin to fulfill Gnome's requirement.
Punishing Aggression
First of all, when it's against your Gremlins and Brownies, you might try to act distraught, but of course you're laughing inside. You should put them in the most obnoxious and dangerous places, rather than your Gnomes and Leprechaun.
A much bigger problem for you is if your opponent can get rid of your minions by out-powering you and winning first place on bases. You always have to be on the lookout for this. Tricksters aren't good at destroying cards already in play. You have to anticipate your opponents and carefully control how many of their minions finally end up on the bases and where.
Synergy
Tricksters are good at stalling out games, so factions that benefit from that help. If your goal really is inflicting pain and suffering, there are some other factions good at that, too.
- Elder Things - Pain, punishment, terror, and madness.
- Vampires - These guys have an unfortunate habit of lunching on their allies. You might as well feed them your Gremlins. Vampires are good at pulling close leads from up behind their opponents. They have a few ways to add +1 power counters on your Leprechaun, making him much better at his job.
- Aliens - Send your opponents' minions back to their hand, then block them. Also appreciates a good stall.
Cards - Minions
1x Leprechaun
Power 5 - Ongoing: After the first time each turn another player plays a minion here that has less power here than this minion after resolving its ability, destroy it.
Clarifications:
- If another player plays a bigger minion first and then plays a smaller minion, the first eligible minion to be destroyed is destroyed. If another player's minion moves to or from this base as part of its resolution (Example: Twister), it is not destroyed. If another player plays an eligible minion for destruction but it removes Leprechaun from the base during its resolution (Example: Dusty Henry), it is not destroyed.
2x Brownie
Power 4 - Ongoing: Once per turn, after another player plays a minion on another base, draw a card.
Clarifications:
- None
3x Gnome
Power 3 - Special: Before this base scores, you may destroy a minion here with less power than the number of minions and titans you have here.
Clarifications:
- None
4x Gremlin
Power 2 - Ongoing: After this minion goes to the discard pile from play, draw a card. If it was destroyed, each other player discards a random card.
Clarifications:
- None
Cards - Fusions
2x Pixie
Power 2 - Minion: If you have more cards in your hand than at least one other player, place a +1 power counter on any number of your minions here.
Action: Destroy an action to place two +1 power counters among your minions.
Clarifications:
- None
Cards - Actions
1x Block the Path
Play on a base. For each other player, name a faction they own. Ongoing: Minions of the named factions cannot be played here.
Clarifications:
- None
2x Enshrouding Mist
Play on a base. Talent: Play an extra minion here.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Flame Trap
Play on a base. Ongoing: After another player plays a minion here, destroy this card to destroy that minion. At the start of your turn, you may reduce this base's breakpoint by 4 until the end of the turn.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Hideout
Play on a base. Ongoing: Other players cannot move minions to this base. Talent: Swap this action with a play-on-base action from your hand or deck, then you may destroy a minion of power 2 or less here.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Mark of Sleep
Choose one for each other player: until the start of your turn, either they cannot play actions OR they cannot move minions.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Pay the Piper
Play on a base. Ongoing: After another player plays a minion here, that player discards a card.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Take The Shinies
Each other player discards two random cards.
Clarifications:
- None
Cards - Bases
1x Cave of Shinies
Breakpoint 23 - VPs: 4 2 1 - Once per turn, after a minion here you own is destroyed, gain 1 VP.
Clarifications:
- None
1x Mushroom Kingdom
Breakpoint 19 - VPs: 4 3 2 - At the start of your turn, if you have more cards in your hand than any other player, you may move a minion to or from this base.
Clarifications:
- None
Card - Titan
1x Big Funny Giant
Special: Instead of your regular minion play, you may play this titan. Ongoing: After another player plays a minion here, they must discard a card. At the end of each other player's turn, if they do not have a minion here, you may place a +1 power counter on this titan. Special: When this base scores, if you are the winner and at least one other player does not have a minion here, gain 1 VP.
Clarifications:
- None
