Today’s Card: The Blacksmith
The Blacksmith hails from the follower deck and was recently added in the 0.34 update along side the trader. While you cannot try to draw him at the start of your turn, and it is random who you get when obtaining followers from dungeons...he CAN appear as a quest reward, so the strategy is in deciding to choose his quest or not if presented with it, and what possibilities it opens up if you manage to obtain him.
He can be burned for a shield… though I have no idea why you would do that. Equipping him costs you 3 gold. When equipped he will provide you two shields in battle. That’s all. “But Pinstar… why are you getting so excited? Isn’t that similar to the Battle Armor?” you might say...and I say take another look.
Because the Blacksmith is a follower NOT a piece of equipment, he occupies a different place on your character sheet. This is important because while you will very quickly fill up all three of your equipment slots, it is rare to obtain more than three follower cards in a single game. Because he acts LIKE a piece of equipment but doesn’t take up a slot, he allows you to become even better in combat than you normally could given 3 pieces of choice equipment.
But to what end? Killing the King. The Combat and Rot victories both require that you go toe-to-toe against the king. The reason why many people find these victories hard to pull off is because they approach it with the wrong attitude. You are going in to kill the king, better load up on lots of offensive equipment right? Wrong. Loading yourself up with defenses is key to slaying the king, because if you kill him and YOU die as well, you lose the game. The blacksmith, along with several other pieces of defensive equipment allow you to maximize your chances of survival. Just make sure you have a few cards you can burn for attacks to ensure you actually inflict enough damage to claim victory. This is true even for rot victories as all those extra dice you get are still less than likely to generate extra shields for you in combat. Attacking the king IS still risky, as if he gets too many exploding rot dice, you might be dead all the same, but the extra defense will certainly improve your odds.
5 out of 5 stars, one of my favorite follower cards, hands down.
So what do YOU think about the Blacksmith? Let me know in the comments below and keep your eyes peeled for more Armello card reviews. Pinstar Out!