by robb8888
I'm giving Starlight a test drive for the first time. The "gain an early major and build around it" route seems like a pretty viable one.
My first thought was to do this via Starlight's Row 2 (Gain Power Card/Move Presence), along these lines:
TURN 1:
Growth: Add Presence (from Row 2, to access "Gain Power Card/Move Presence"), +1 Energy, Gain (Minor)/Move Presence
Play: Boon of Reimagining, Gather the Scattered Light of Stars (target Starlight with both)
(This leaves Starlight with 1 leftover Energy and 5 cards in hand--3 new Minors, Peace of the Nighttime Sky, Shape the Self Anew)
TURN 2:
Growth: Add Presence (from Row 3, to access "+3 Energy"), +1 Energy, Gain Major (Forget one of the new minors)/Move Presence
Play: ??? (Probably Peace of the Nighttime Sky to stop a ravage and one of the newly-acquired minors)
(This leaves Starlight with 2 leftover Energy and 3 cards in hand, including a new Major and at least 1 of the new Minors from Turn 1.)
TURN 3:
Growth: Add Presence (from Card Plays, to expose element to power Major), +3 Energy, ??? (either Move Presence to target a power, or +1 Energy if the Major drawn requires it).
(This should give Starlight at least 6 Energy to play the Major, and possibly Shape the Self Anew to reclaim)
However, upon plotting this out, it then occurred to me that the Row 2 Growth Option (Gain Power Card/Move Presence) is pretty inferior to the Row 4 Growth Option (Gain Power Card/Gain Energy). Indeed, if you're going with the "gain a quick major" strategy, you may never use that Growth option again, since you don't need extra powers to stock your hand, and you'll probably be wanting to reclaim/play your major as often as possible. This occurred to me as maybe a better alternative:
TURN 1:
Growth:
--Add Presence (from Row 4, which gains a +1 Energy)
--+1 Energy (top row option)
--Move a Presence (top row option) (to wherever the initial explore is, to prepare for Peace of the Nighttime Sky next turn)
Plays: Same as above.
(At the end of the turn this leaves Starlight with 2 leftover Energy (1 from tracks, 2 from Growth, -1 from Boon of Reimagining) and 5 cards in hand -- 3 new Minors, Peace of the Nighttime Sky, Shape the Self Anew)
TURN 2:
Growth:
--Add Presence (from Row 4 again, gaining +1 Energy and an Element of your choice, and uncovering the "Gain Power Card/Gain Energy Growth option)
--+1 Energy (4th row option) + Gain Major
--either Move Presence -->3 (top row; if necessary to target a power) or +1 Energy (top row option; if necessary to power the new Major)
Going this route, Starlight starts turn 2 with 4-5 Energy (2 in hand, 1 from Presence tracks, 1-2 from Growth), a new Major in hand (and most likely the Energy to play it), and a free Element that can be selected to fit the newly drawn Major. Starlight can either play the Major this turn or wait until the next turn, when another element can be uncovered from the Card Plays track to possibly power it. Plus, if Starlight really needs Energy, Row 4 now has an additional +1 Energy option available.
As I see it, the one big difference between the approaches is this: Choosing the "Gain Card/+1 Energy" choice from Row 4 means that Starlight will never have a "Reclaim All" growth option. But if you're going with a "gain a major early and play it over and over" option, then maybe reclaiming all of your cards isn't that necessary, particularly with Shape the Self Anew and the other reclaim options on Startlight's board.
Any thoughts? Has anybody else thought of a different approach to gain an early major and have the energy available to play it?