Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds

Nickname: Keeper

Release: Jagged Earth

Elements: ,

Guides

Keeper - Standard

Topic - Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds

Intro

Take advantage of Keeper’s 2-presence per turn capability to bring down the might of the wilds and out-scale the invaders.

Opening

1. G2 minor FIRST
   • If drafted 0-cost that is useful this turn, G3 Bot > Boon + minor
   • Otherwise G3 Top > Boon
   • Slow Phase: Take Boon for self (unless you’ve already located a Defend card)
2. G3 into Wilds Top/Bot (whichever you didn’t last turn), G4 minor Top
3. G3 Bot, G4 minor/major Bot > play as appropriate
4. Reclaim, G3 Bot > play as appropriate. You’ll have 6-7 energy and 4 card plays this turn.

Link to original

Unique Cards

Rating	Elements	Name	Notes
B		Sacrosanct Wilderness	Good tool which sometimes costs too much
A		Boon of Growing Power	May be needed for self T1, can support T4+
A		Regrow From Roots
C		Towering Wrath	High cost, mostly just good for the

Play Patterns

Socially Awkward Dahan Tag-Team

Despite appearances, Keeper is a Dahan spirit! Your innate will do a good job eliminating invaders from YOUR lands, so make sure you are supporting the Dahan properly in the other ~3 lands that you’ve pushed them into.

Ideal coverage looks like you taking care of 1 land of each type, with Dahan on the others. Jungle/Wetlands are easier to leave undefended/without Dahan, because you start with blight removal which can target those.

Pay 2 Proliferate

Your G4 is STRONG. Aim to keep 2 energy in the bank after most turns so that you can G3 for +1 and then pay 3 for that second presence placement. It also gives you more flexibility in where you put out your presence.

Spread That Presence

Pushing all Dahan from a land is a powerful effect. When you can, take advantage of it more by making sacred sites with somewhat more thought behind them.

Having 2 or more options for placement on your G3 will avoid some awkward situations where you would have to make a 3-stack because a wilds was consumed during explore.

Innates For Gameplay

Your right innate is very easy to hit, typically you’ll only need 2 and 1 to get the “full” effect. Pushing more explorers is… sometimes useful, and the range bonuses at 3 and 1 not particularly notable.

Your left innate is what allows you to fight back invaders who DARE trespass your lands. You only need 2 to get the higher scaling out of it, after which point are what pump the damage further, minimally increasing the total to 4/5.

• The 4 threshold for this is a BIG deal. Solving 2 lands simultaneously by destroying both towns is strong, or taking out a city + explorer elsewhere.
• Keep in mind that the Dahan destruction effect here only applies to the land you target into, not the land you split the damage with.

Sacrosanct Wilderness Damage

This unique is a good combo piece, such as with right innate: explorer built town, you push explorer and place wilds in slow, next fast you deal 2 damage to town, clearing the land.

Drafting

Your first draft has some specific priorities:

1. 0-cost like Gift of Constancy/Living Energy (Huge support) or Sear Anger (perfect elements) or Call To Isolation / Enticing Splendor (good effects)
2. Defend card
3. Any useful effect / elements

You do not start with any Defend powers, so you’ll want to search HARD for a defend the first 1-2 turns. You have a ~50% chance to get a usable Defend card per draft, and even at your unluckiest only 1 in 10¹ games will have you completely whiff on a defend in the 3 drafts before first ravage (T1 G2, T1 Boon, T2 G4).

After you get a Defend card (or 2), look for minors with so that you can activate your left innate more frequently. If it also has and/or that is even better! Keep looking for these kinds of cards after you get the first one, but don’t blindly pick them. You get to play a lot of cards, so get the ones with good effects too!

Boards

• Keeper likes to start in lands with many adjacencies (more options for right innate). Ideally with each non-jungle land type adjacent. bonus points if all adjacent
• It likes boards where a single presence placed by G4 can make all lands adjacent to your presence, with more options being better
• It likes boards where the starting blight is in Jungle/Wetlands

Priority	Board	Adjacencies	One G4	Blight	Notes
1	E	5	L2/3/5	yes	Same as H but better pocketing
2	H	5	L1/6/8	yes
3	C	4	L6	yes
4	A	3	L2
5	G	3	L2
6	F	5 (-W)			Ideal G4 land starts blighted
7	D	3 (-W)
8	B	2 (-S)	L4*	yes	G4 land starts blighted, fixable w/ unique

Spirit Friends

Likes to receive range bonuses, so it’s left innate can target more freely

Credits

• RedRevenge - YouTube

Footnotes

1. The chances are slightly better than 1 in 8 (50% → 50% → 50%) because the pool of cards gets smaller as you dig for a Defend card. The actual chances are 50.8% → 52.4% → 54.1%. ↩