There aren't many advantages to being at home during Pro Tour weekend, but one of them is the ability to rush this article to the front page moments after the news breaks.
Mistveil's Heroes Have Been Released
We now know the 3 heroes who will headline Part the Mistveil: Nuu, Enigma, and Zen. Each incorporates a new resource called chi, represented by blue resource symbols. We'll have to wait to learn more about those as the set is revealed, but I assume they're the defining aspect of the Mystic talent.
I'll be pulling info from the keynote summary on fabtcg.com as I go into each of these heroes below, but first, you've got to watch this trailer.
The trailer starts with Nuu, so we'll start with Nuu as well.
A seductive Assassin who visits her targets in their dreams, luring them down into the water to die by a single venomous strike. Nuu uses stealth to keep her prey guessing, hiding fatal attack reactions behind an alluring smile.
When Assassin debuted with Arakni, I was drawn to the attack reactions that saturated the card pool. But Arakni proved to be more of a mill hero - wearing down his enemies until they were too weak to resist - and it just wasn't quite the vibe I was seeking. So too, Uzuri came in with promise, but in practice the 'swap in a 6' efficiency was just too much to resist, and she ultimately proved less tricksy than I personally wanted.
Perhaps third time's the charm? We're starting from a good place with the description above, and I'm excited to see delivery on the promise that 'stealth will mean different things to different heroes'. In this case, it means a new kind of mill - one that supplies Nuu with late-game access to a stolen suite of cards. Note that, because Nuu banishes defending cards, you've got a whole new axis to complete contracts - if you can play out a contract attack before your stealth attack!
I love to discuss the art and themes of the game as well, and if you watched the video you know that LSS is diving fully into the sensual Assassin archetype. Part the Mistveil will explore new territory for a game that's already taken full advantage of its 16+ rating for blood and body horror. I recall my initial repulsion at the aesthetics of Shadow, and Brutes have never been my cup of tea; but I've also developed deep appreciation for LSS' choice to incorporate artistic themes for a wide variety of players. I'm eager to see where LSS decides to take the art of the Assassin class here, and expect some absolutely beautiful art. While a subset of the player base may find a few card arts to be... not to their liking, perhaps... I hope everyone can appreciate that there's something for everyone - but not everything is for everyone - in FAB, and that only makes the game richer.
Cards to check your binders for:
A lone Illusionist carrying centuries-old tales and traditions within her ancestral tapestry, she is an ever-changing mystery like the waxing and waning moon. Enigma uses Spectral Shields to ward off damage while building up to her true form.
Like Assassin, Illusionist is a class that I had a vision for, only to find that the reality of the class design wasn't what I was searching for. I've truly enjoyed Prism during her Awakener of Sol era, and there's definitely plenty to be said for Dromai; but every time an asynergistic Illusionist card drops in a supplemental slot, I fawn over the implied hero who these cards were being designed for. I've long called her the Blue Illusionist, and now that hero has a name: Enigma.
As we've seen before, Enigma will be a board state hero who uses auras to attack. But this time, we're leaning fully into the Spectral Shields that have long been the chaff of Illusionist design. Spectral Prowler, Spectral Procession, Spectral Rider... essentially, Dynasty's entire Illusionist card pool was presumably built for this moment.
With Enigma, I believe we'll finally see the Illusionist who hides behind the smoke and mirrors, rather than harnessing the power of legendary creatures. And while we're still looking at a wide board of repeatable attacks from auras that grow in threat, they'll all be easily shattered thanks to ward - and that, to me, is the entire premise of illusion.
Cards to check your binders for:
A balanced Ninja empowered by years of training and discipline, hunting his true purpose by following the winds. Zen uses the art of the Crouching Tiger to weave martial attacks together in quick succession.
Finally, the inevitable Ninja. Zen finally gives the cat archetype a proper hero; and furthermore, he incorporates combo in an entirely new way. But until he builds up those blue resources, his hero box is blank! Thematically, I love this, as we've learned from Katsu's lore that the people of Mysteria are forgetting things and losing sight of who they are. Zen seems to be finding his way back from that, and he's doing it with Tiger style.
From the description above, Zen is described as a balanced Ninja, which calls to mind the classic Turtle Katsu archetype. I'm eager to see if we have a defensive Ninja on our hands, and if so how they managed to design that when the class is so heavily invested in wide combat chains. Zen is by far the most physically imposing of the Ninjas in this game, giving off the vibe of a hero who stands his ground rather than ducking and weaving; if we were ever going to see a Ninja focused on short combo chains of 2-3 cards, Zen seems to fit the bill.
On the subject of art, I've got to point out a cool detail hidden in the Ninja specializations of the past. If you look at the resource spot, you'll see that, like Draconic, there's a different design behind the resource pips. That dark blue backdrop has been hinting at the regional talent of Mystic all along - and while I don't expect these cards to actually be the blue chi resources that these heroes all refer to, it's the kind of long-range planning and attention to detail that has me so wrapped up in the worldbuilding LSS is doing.
Cards to check your binders for:
We have an unusually small pool of Ninjas in CC, so Zen represents a widening of the class in a major way - and this is a class that's existed in FAB since Welcome to Rathe! It's doubly ironic because Ninja was the original 2-hero class, thanks to Ira - and yet in all these years we've only added young Benji and the Draconic Fai to the class!
But that's actually true in all 3 cases here. Illusionists have a red-focused hero in Dromai and a yellow-focused hero in Prism; rounding that out here with Enigma feels great. And Assassin is a class that's been starved for further development since Outsiders gave it its first viable archetype.
Part the Mistveil feels perfectly timed to revitalize Ninja, add depth to Assassin, and offer a new home to Dromai refugees when she inevitably attains Living Legend. It's exactly the roster the game needed right now.
