Gods Unchained creatures that have the capacity to increase their statistics turn by turn are naturally very dangerous to play against, and very beneficial when playing with them. Because if you are playing against them, you must make it a priority to remove them from play before they become too strong, and if you're playing with them, you just want to keep building them up so that they can survive for as long as possible...all the while continuously augmenting their stats. The longer that they are in play, the more dangerous they become, and the faster the game ends. With that in mind, let's take a look at my two recent favorites to use.
Oni Spellsword:
Of all stat-increasing creatures out there in the God’s Unchained universe, I think this is definitely one of the most dangerous, and (at a cost of only 3 mana) relatively cheapest in regards to the immense value it provides. I also can say this from experience because Oni Spellsword has single handedly ruined me in a number of games haha. Let's see why. Oni is a magic creatures that gains one attack point every single time you play a card and also gives ward to the lowest health creature on your board. And if Oni is the lowest health creature on your board, then not only is it increasing its attack with every card you play, but also protecting itself with ward. Either way, it's increasing its abilities and also protecting other creatures you have so that they cannot be damaged with anything other than a direct attack. Also, if you play 2-3 low mana cards in the same turn you deploy Oni Spellsword, Oni will already be up to 3-4 attack points before the end of your turn. And the way that magic decks are built to allow you to draw many cards, you should have plenty of firepower behind your plays with Oni to keep playing cards and increasing his stats and giving out ward. Finally, if you are able to get Oni shielded behind a frontline creature, that is when this thing just explodes and has the potential to end the entire game in 2-3 turns. Because once Oni is shielded and can just continue to grow naturally through gameplay, it can become an unstoppable force. And the reason why that is so true for Oni is that unlike most of the other stat-increasing creatures (like Moon Crazed Cyclops, Thunder Caller, etc), Oni's opportunity to strengthen is unlimited per turn, whereas many other creatures can only increase their stats once per turn. Add that to the fact that other creatures increase their stats when damage is dealt to their allies (Tamed Mammoth), or to the opposing God (frenzied creatures), or to their God (Fickled Cambion), whereas Oni's increases simply through playing cards (thus why I said it can grow "naturally through gameplay"), and you have all the reasons why Oni is a devastating force in Gods Unchained gameplay! Now let’s look at a quick gameplay example of using Oni Spellsword!
Above is the turn on which I deployed Oni Spellsword in the game.
Using the Starshard Bolt, I was able to take out the opponent's Bronze Gate, and as a result of playing a card, Oni gained +1 strength and gave Ward to our Vanguard Axewoman. Having a frontline creature on the board and lot of available cards in my hand was definitely going to help my prospects of increasing Oni's attack points quickly and also keeping it in play for as long as possible.
On the next turn both our Vanguard Axewoman and our Feline Protector got taken out, but we were able to launch our Street Conjurer and also use our Wormbreath to wipe out a strong 6 health opponent creature with the +1 Spell Boost form the Street Conjurer. Playing these two cards also strengthened my Oni Spellsword to a 4/3 and gave Ward to my Street Conjurer. Slowly but surely we were protecting our Oni and also growing his strength.
My opponent didn't end up having an available card to play in the next turn, and just tried to use their God Power on my Oni Spellsword, but since it had Ward, there was no effect! And this gave us the chance to absolutely take over on the next turn. I launched my Traveling Bard, which turned my Street Conjurer into a strong 3/4 creature. And then I also launched my Amazon Spearsoul to add more pressure. This allowed me to have a ton of attack points on the board, and also in turn raised Oni's stats to an epic 6/3, as well as giving out Ward to both my Street Conjurer and the Traveling Bard. Additionally with the attacks from Oni and my Street Conjurer on this turn, we were able to drop my opponent's God to only 8 health points remaining.
My opponent ended up hitting me with a Rapture Dance, which took out both Oni and my Amazon Spearsoul but had no effect on the Traveling Bard and my Street Conjurer because they had ward. Oni was now gone, but it had more than done its job. It had completely turned the tide and also provided incredible protection to its allies with the Ward that it handed out.
I was then able to use the Rune of Strength from the Sanctum to push my Street Conjurer to 5 strength, and with the combination of attacks from it and my Traveling Bard, I was able to deal the final 8 points of damage needed to take out my opponent and achieve victory.
The interesting part of this example is that Oni didn't even increase to a massive strength level, because many times you can get it up to 8 or 10 strength before your opponent is able to take it out. However, the power of the Ward that it gives out, as well as the pressure that it puts on your opponent to prioritize taking it out ASAP can cause massive issues for your opponent. That right there is the true power of Oni Spellsword, and why it is such an incredible and powerful stat-increasing creature!
Fickle Cambion:
Let me just begin by saying that I have seen the Fickle Cambion go from a starting 3/3 to a 4/7 in ONE TURN with 4 Zombies and Soul Burn. That is freaking massive upgrade. The reason is because Fickle Cambion gains one strength point every time your God takes damage, and also gains one health point for every time your God is healed. So when attacking with Zombies, every attack that deals damage will heal your God, and thus add a health point to the Fickle Cambion, and then when using the Soul Burn God Power and dealing one damage to both Gods, the Fickle Cambion will gain one strength point. Additionally, and this is my favorite, if your opponent makes the mistake of attacking your God without first taking out the Fickle Cambion, every single attack will give your Fickle Cambion +1 strength. With the addition of adding to its health every turn if using Zombies, this can quickly become a devastating statistical beast and single-handedly end the game if not taken out. I think the crucial thing to do when playing with the Fickle Cambion is to find a way to keep it in play for at least 2 of your own turns and 2 opponent turns. That way, on the turn you play it, you can already begin increasing its statistics with Zombies to give it more damage protection and firepower. Thus its own defenses are prepped for when the opponent gets their first shot at it on the next turn. And then if it can survive, you finally get a chance to attack and make use of its increased strength points. Once that takes place, you’re already halfway there, and I highly recommend putting ideally a frontline creature, or another high damage creature on the board, that will demand the opponent’s attention and first strike. Again, this second opponent turn will help grow your Fickle Cambion even further, especially if your opponent can deal damage to your God (thus increasing your strength). And then on your second attacking turn with it, you can really inflict some serious damage to your opponent’s God. Since it will become the definite focus of your opponent once its stats start increasing, I think being able to have the Fickle Cambion in play for at least two attacking turns is great use of the card. And anything you can get beyond that is just absolutely awesome and bonus territory in my view. But take note, and this is super important! In order to keep growing the health points of the Fickle Cambion when using Zombies, your God needs to actually be healed. If you have a bunch of Zombies and your God is already at 30 points of max health, it will not heal any further, and thus your Fickle Cambio will NOT gain any health points on your Zombie attacks. So make sure that your God is actually down some health points and has the leeway to be healed before you put that Fickle Cambion in play! Of course, it’s also thus worth mentioning that Fickle Cambion is best played when using Zombies, but because of the functionality of Death decks having multiple options to heal/damage your God for a trade-off (all the Death God Powers), it can also be effective, albeit at a slower stat increase rate, in multiple scenarios. Thus, since the use case is very obvious with Zombies, in the example I’m about to show y’all, I used Feast On The Dead to give all my creatures in play Leech, thus giving another method for healing my God and increasing my Fickle Cambion’s stats alongside Soul Burn. Let’s take a look.
This was the board after I just completed my first turn after launching the Fickle Cambion. Using a combination of Soul Burn and taking damage to my God, the Fickle Cambion was able to add two strength points right off the bat. This also set us up perfectly to really dominate with Feast on the Dead on the next turn!
Boom. As planned, the next turn we sacrificed our 1 strength Trial Spirit to give all our creatures leech. And then here is the result of this turn after attacking:
Our Decaying Rhino took out the opponent's frontline creature and our Felid Protector took out the Switch Duelist. And since each of these creatures now have leech, every time they attacked, my God was healed and the Fickle Cambion added 1 additional health point. And then with the addition of using Soul Burn, Fickle Cambion was able to add a strength point as well, and then attack the opponent's God straight on (healing my God again and also increasing the Fickle Cambion's health by 1). This not only brought the Fickle Cambion to a dangerous 6/6 statistically, but also fully healed my God from 19 to 30, all in one turn! This is the power of these creatures man! It's wild....but let's continue!
The next turn, my opponent made a strong move and wiped out nearly my entire board with Rapture Dance, but because we had gotten the health points of our Fickle Cambion up in advance, it was able to survive. And after an attack to my face by my opponent, it gained another strength point to reach 7/2 statistically.
At this point, I knew that this card can end the game in a few turns if I play it right and am able to keep it on the board. So I followed up with Soul Burn (+1 health) and the Felid Janissary (+1/+1) to bring the Fickle Cambion to a devastating 9/4, and then attacked the opponent's God straight on, bringing it to only 9 health left, which meant that with only one more attack, the Fickle Cambion could single handedly defeat my opponent's team.
My opponent followed with an attack on my God and an attempt to take out my Felid Janissary and Fickle Cambion. While the Felid Janissary fell, the Fickle Cambion sustained the attack, and gained another strength point for the attack on my God. As unbelievable as it sounds, this 3 mana 3/3 creature now had 10 strength points in just a few turns. I hope y'all find that as mind blowing as I do. And that truly displays the potential of Fickle Cambion in Death decks.
My opponent was not able to get down a frontline creature nor take out my Fickle Cambion, so the next turn sealed the deal.
And that's a wrap. Oni Spellsword and Fickle Cambion are absolutely wild when you're able to use them effectively and give them a chance to increase their stats. They also are huge reasons why I've diversified my gameplay, instead of just using War Decks all the time. Let me know if you dig these cards as much as I do, and I hope this helps with your gameplay!
-Jumpmaster