Priming the Prodigy: The New Dorinthea in Blitz

Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy is a new hero card available in the Classic Battles: Rhinar vs. Dorinthea box. While in some ways she may be a “new player friendly” version of the original Dorinthea from Welcome to Rathe, the Quicksilver Prodigy does have some interesting options of her own. I’ve been doing some testing recently and think there might be something there – here’s an early look at what this new hero has to offer!

Relative to the original Dorinthea, the new Quicksilver Prodigy is easier to understand: the first time you give Dawnblade, Resplendent go again in a turn, it also gains the ability to swing again. Simple! This is both a good choice for newcomers and a stronger version of WTR Dorinthea’s hero ability; instead of having to get both an effect that grants your weapon attack go again and the ability to swing again (either via a weapon hit or Twinning Blade), Quicksilver Prodigy “bundles” the two for you, meaning one less thing to worry about.

In addition to being easier to understand, this hero ability also conveys a legitimate advantage: the ability to swing twice with Dawnblade, Resplendent in a turn even if the first attack is unsuccessful. Even with a card like Spoils of War that grants the weapon attack unconditional go again, WTR Dorinthea would sometimes get blocked out and lack the ability to swing the weapon again, since the on-hit effect from her hero card was necessary in order to attack a second time with Dawnblade. Quicksilver Prodigy, on the other hand, doesn’t have to worry about that: even if the first attack is blocked out, she can swing again as long as she gave it go again (and has enough resources, of course!).

This means that, in some ways, Quicksilver Prodigy actually plays more like Kassai than WTR Dorinthea, with a playstyle that's less reliant on the on-hit pressure and more on consistent damage output via unconditional go again and multiple weapon swings.

However, the Quicksilver Prodigy deck doesn’t benefit from those cards that focus on 1-handed weapons, like Blade Runner or Outland Skirmish; nor does it have Kassai’s hero ability to provide extra efficiency (and Copper).

Further, to benefit from this hero ability, you have to run Dawnblade, Resplendent, which is in many ways an inferior version of the original Dawnblade. While it combines with Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy’s ability in order to allow for a much more reliable second swing, its first swing is at -1 strength relative to that of original Dawnblade. And more significantly, it does not have the dangerous +1 counter on-hit effect that can make the original Dawnblade so threatening.

On the other hand, there’s also one big advantage to Dawnblade Resplendent – unlike the original Dawnblade, it lacks any text allowing +1 counters to fall off of it if it doesn’t hit in a turn! This might seem trivial – why would not losing +1 counters even matter if you can’t gain +1 counters? – but another card from Classic Battles means this looks a little different.

The new Glistening Steelblade can provide multiple +1 counters in a turn if you score multiple hits; and since Dawnblade, Resplendent doesn’t have a means of losing those counters, they are actually permanent- at least assuming you don’t play some other effect that removes them. This makes Glistening Steelblade a huge threat. Giving your weapon bonus strength for the entire game is nothing to sneeze at!

So, where do these things put Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy? WTR Dorinthea has a more aggressive on-hit focused game plan, while Kassai is probably better at a purely “efficient” game plan. However, the Quicksilver Prodigy does perhaps have a niche of her own. In my testing, she seems generally a bit less efficient than Kassai but also has more “big turns” available thanks to her access to powerful Dorinthea specializations.

Both Steelblade Supremacy and Glistening Steelblade offer dangerous on-hit threats, while Singing Steelblade allows you to pull the perfect attack reaction for a given situation. This playstyle doesn’t have the pure efficiency of Kassai nor the sustained on-hit pressure of WTR Dorinthea, but the decently efficient attacks and powerful specializations, in my view, make it more of a threat than one might expect.

Here's a decklist I've been refining with Quicksilver Prodigy.

A few notes from early test games:

1. Valiant Dynamo isn’t as powerful here as with Kassai, due to less unconditional go again. I found Refraction Bolters quite helpful for Steelblade Supremacy turns in particular.

1. Kano is a difficult matchup but not an impossible one- the high blue count helps in that situation, as do some of the aggressive options (including defense reactions).
   
   
2. The so-called “Warrior fridge”- the high amount of armor provided by the “default” suite of Arcanite Skullcap, Courage of Bladehold, Braveforge Bracers, and Refraction Bolters– is, as always, a substantial benefit.

1. Landing +1 counters with Glistening Steelblade can be a huge swing. If you can get two counters on Dawnblade, Resplendent early, even relatively basic turns quickly become major threats!

Overall, I’ve been enjoying my early games with Dorinthea, Quicksilver Prodigy. I’m not sure what the meta will hold for her in the long run, but at least thus far the powerful specializations have honestly made her seem more credible than I was expecting! Kassai may have more pure efficiency and WTR Dorinthea may have more on-hit pressure, but it seems to me that the Quicksilver Prodigy may occupy an interesting niche between the two. Let me know what you think in your own testing!