Ethereal Blades, Mask of Shadows, and Crescent Spear + Cyclone mask.
Ancient Bonds Reveal Day 3 Songhai: Bangle Of Blinding Strike
I’m actually thankful to see this in Songhai over any other faction. Why? Because Songhai has the least tools to capitalize on it (next to maybe abyssian). Celerity is powerful, and the major factor that keeps it in check is the fact that it is impossible to effectively put celerity on the board and activate it at the same time. Having an artifact that grants celerity means you can use celerity before your opponent has a chance to react to it. Were this card in any other faction it would be possible to stack strong artifacts or buffs on your general, equip this artifact, and go to town on your opponent for easily 10+ damage. No thanks.
In Songhai, this artifact helps with positioning and suitability first and foremost. Yes, there are ways to buff your general in Songhai, but almost all of them are temporary. If you equip Mask of Shadows or previously gave your general backstab via obscuring blow, you deserve the damage you’ll get out of this artifact since this is reasonably hard to pull off (12 for Mask, 8 for OB, 16 if both).
I don’t expect this artifact to make waves. It will have a place in some decks as maybe a 2 of at most. If you run three you’ll frequently find this is a dead draw. If you have it in your action bar alongside the right cards (Mask of Shadows, Obscuring Blow, Etherreal Blades or Saberspine Seal) it can be powerful. I certain many will have fun using and trying to abuse this card. However, I do not believe the combos this card wants are going to be reliable enough to make a deck function off of this alone.
6 Likes
Hard card to evaluate. Needs support cards for it gain value, so playing it by itself seems too risky to be worth it.
With cyclone mask, this allows for great kiting potential, however at 6 mana cost.
With Mask of Shadows (discounting the fact you got into position to use MoS) this allows for 12 damage for 5 mana (20 for 7 mana if you have two MoS active).
Currently there isn’t a reliable way to discount artifacts in the game. So that lowers it’s potential at least for the moment.
Also two of these do not stack so that reduces its flexibility.
Last but not least, if it gets reduces to 1 durability, it is essentially “dead” if you do not have cyclone mask or Mask of Shadows equipped, since attacking with it destroys the last durability and thus disabling the celerity effect.
Honestly the expected outcome of this is a 3 mana mist walking.
Will it see play? I doubt it, at least until there are cards that reliably reduce the mana cost of artifacts.
1 Like
This card can be very powerful since Songhai have access to cyclone mask and many cheap spells that boost their generals attack. I can imagine them equipping a cyclone mask and on the next turn Saberspine seal + this for ten damage to face.
Side note, I’m not complaining, just thinking of the possibilities 
. Any ideas what artifacts the other factions get?
The real potential with this card isn’t Mask of Shadows, it’s Cyclone Mask and Obscuring Blow. Cyclone Mask shouldn’t be hard to figure out, you equip it maybe turn two P1 and then follow it up with this, gain infinite value through your ranged, and laugh at your opponent the entire game. Simple enough.
But here’s the potential I see in it for Obscuring Blow: mobility. Remember, Celerity is not only you get to attack twice, but you also get to move twice. This means potential for double backstabs, or getting behind your opponent much more easily (and this can be done relatively early at 4 mana). This also works wonders with Cyclone Mask, as it not only allows you to snipe twice, but it also lets you make more distance between you and your opponent.
But to be honest, I don’t see this being anything meta dominating. It could be good depending on what the rest of the cards in this expansion are. Exciting prospects.
edit: Also this is a 10 damage combo with Saberspine Seal, so that’s fun.
3 Likes
A couple steps closer to my minion less songhai deck looks cool.
Furthermore, artifacts are easy to remove (since we’re not talking about Lyonar). If they don’t kill you after pulling off a combo with this artifact, they very likely won’t be able to do it again.
Like I said before, the card has uses. It can be powerful with the right setup, but that setup can be hard to achieve (multiple cards plus positioning dependency). Most of the combos with this are temporary and if they aren’t, it’s easy to kill the artifact anyhow.
All in all, very high risk (reliability) for potentially very high reward.
1 Like
This artifact would be powerful, but fair were it not for one thing; it’s not a mask. 2/10 garbage tier.
2 Likes
Songhai top tier in the next Amazing Race!
3 Likes
…
… so they went ahead and did it.
THEY GAVE SONGHAI CELERITY??? omg i can already imagine the combos, the pain, the salt… I remember we used to joke about this but now it is really happening.
Well the good thing is that songhai needed a better artifact and this actually fits the theme.
Also this card will never be used by itself as that could be kinda of a waste. I believe that this artifact will be used in One-turn-kill decks along side other spells that buff the general.
What do you guys think is the maximum damage that someone can deal in one turn using this artifact?
Kaleos is getting so many treats 
9 Mana
Mask of Shadows (4)
Bangle (3)
Saberspine Seal (2)
3 Obscuring Blows cast on general. General is behind enemy general.
(2 + 4 + 6 + 3) × 2 = 30.
2 - Basic Damage
4 - MoS backstab bonus
6 - 3x OB backstab bonus
3 - SS bonus
×2 - Celerity
2 Likes
without the SS thats still 24 damage
without the OB its still 18 damage
without MOS its 22 damage
any combonation of these could be the cause of the inevitable nerf threads
not to mention the tracer or mist walking to force the positioning
2 Likes
Its the card Obscuring blow that makes it silly,It isn’t broken out of its mind but you can obscuring blow at some point earlier and later on the game Bangles/Saberspine seal. Worse case it is casual 10 damage for 5 mana.We will see how hard it is to set up when it comes out I hoping you are right.
1 Like
To be entirely honest. I kinda wanna tweak crankyhai with these
I did notice the Obscuring Blow potential, since it’s a permanent buff. It’s entirely possible to have OB on from early in the match, then whip out the bangle when they get too aggressive and remove their kidneys from behind.
As for Bangle + Saberspine seal, we’re looking at 10 damage for 2 cards and 5 (edit: thanks Phoinexflame) mana. That’s strong, but not unlike other things Songhai has:
Spear + Double Pheonix Fire = 8 damage for 3 cards and 5 mana (still easy to do considering draw power and lantern fox)
Spiral Technique = 8 damage for 1 card and 8 mana (requires being later in the game, but greater efficiency imo)
Katara + (1-3) Inner Focus = Min 4-16 damage for 2-4 cards and 1 mana (requires positioning, but also has synergy with other buffs for even more damage)
The combo potential of Songhai is crazy. There are many ways to combine cards for a lot of damage. This is why Songhai wants card draw so badly. Having another potential damage combo found in a new artifact can be scary, but I do not find it much worse than what we already see. It’s largely a matter of identifying your opponent’s plans for killing you.
Bangle + Saberspine seal costs 5 mana not 6, you also have to take into consideration that they could’ve equipped a Cyclone mask beforehand to prevent losing the artifacts.
1 Like
Seems highly situational. Alone it is useless if you attack twice with it its already on 1 hp. Only way to get some value from it is to get backstub, ranged or atleast some buffs going.
Can’t imagine this played unless in perfectly balanced specialized deck and even than it wouldn’t be consistent. So yeah i think its bad unlrss proven otherwise
Like most (or even all) of the cards spoiled so far Bangle seems to promote a slightly slower strategy as it shows it’s potential with a little bit of set up. With a bangle already equipped there are a number of ways to transform it into massive face damage either through general buffs, backstab, or just cyclone mask.
Before the pieces lineup though Bangle could allow for some incredibly allowing kiting to occur.
Can we take a moment to point out how much better this card is than Time Maelstrom? Maelstrom cost the same and only lasts one turn while this can be used more than once. Furthermore, this artifact is only a rare while Maelstrom is legendary. And don’t give me that “it’s because Vetruvian has more synergy” nonsense. Songhai has about as much general damage synergy as Vet, if not more.
1 Like