It's time again for a new wave of cards to be released for The Eye of Judgment, with the new Biolith Rebellion Set 3 cards. Where the original set of cards and, arguably, the second set, as well, were relatively well-rounded enough to serve as general cards to make your deck with, Set 3 features a good number of cards that are more interdependant on other cards (or card types), making them very useful for using with cards from Set 1 and Set 2, but not very useful as a deck in and of themselves. This shouldn't be a problem, in general, as Set 1 cards come with the game and it's likely that players may have picked up additional Set 1 and Set 2 cards before now. At any rate, the introduction of a new card set introduces new variables into online games; even players who don't purchase any Set 3 cards may need to rethink their strategies.

Many of the cards in Set 3 seem to be geared towards enhancing "themed" decks. For example, there are cards that offer specific boosts if you have creatures of the same faction or even type. For example, the Flame Lizard Barracks grants an extra attack action to adjacent allied Lizard creatures. Thus, it makes sense that you would likely find this card more useful if you already have several Lizard creatures to use in conjunction with it.

Another example of Set 3 cards encouraging themed decks would be the Dragon cards. I received a Flame Wyvern and Bone Drake card in my pack, and both of bestow Dragon Invocation to all other allied creatures except for themselves. Another Dragon card worth mentioning in this respect is Raging Pyrathrax; this card can only be played when there are at least two other Fire creatures on the board, so having a deck heavy in Fire creatures would make this card more useful.

Don't think, however, that all of the cards are slanted to monofactional decks. One card definitely favors a well-balanced deck and, in fact, is best used against someone with a less well-rounded deck. The Corsez Oath card grants mana to both players, but equal to the number of different elements among their creatures on the board. If you have more elements represented here, you'll come out ahead.

Apparently, the developers of The Eye of Judgment feel that the rotate action is underused. I would imagine that it isn't used a lot, since it eats up mana, which is a scarce commodity. However, in the deck I received for review, five cards had rotation-specific rules associated with them: Cloudrunner Shipmate (x2), Corsez Henchman, Goblin Chickenrider and Goblin Fanfare. Cloudrunner Shipmate's rotation allows you to draw a card. Corsez Henchman's rotation lets you peek at the top card of your deck and, if you so desire, draw that card instead of taking an attack action. When Goblin Chickenrider rotates, he gains invisibility until the end of the following player's turn. Goblin Fanfare's rotation-related rule is that allied Green Bandits creatures' rotation activation costs are reduced by one.

Another feature heavily used in the cards in Biolith Rebellion 3 is variable damage. Many of the cards have attacks that are specified as n+, where the "n" is some number and the plus sign indicates that the card has variable damage, dependant on some factor.

The Fire Witch's Familar, for example, has damage listed as "1+" and, specifically, this is 1 if attacking a non-Biolith creature, and 1 plus the number of enemy Biolith creatures on the board, otherwise.

Raging Pyrathrax is a heavy-hitter, with an activation cost of 8 and a requirement that at least two other Fire creatures are already on the board. His attack is listed as a "5+" and is based on 5 plus the number of other creatures on the board.

Several cards in Set 3 of the Biolith Rebellion allow you to cripple your opponent's ability to do certain things. Take, as an example, the Rageflame Spitter. Enemies adjacent to it can't be sacrificed. The Blue Lycanthrope (Goddess Tritona) prevents players from stealing mana when she is in your graveyard and, with a health of 1 and and attack of "0+," that's likely to happen quickly. Note, however, that this actually affects both players, so this card is best used in a deck that doesn't have cards that allow mana stealing. Another example is the Centipede Tank, which adds one to the summoning cost of enemy creatures of the same element as the field Centipede Tank is on, unless it's on a Biolith field.

The Good

I definitely like some of these cards. Toxic Intruder, for example, is a nice card; when you attack with this card, if you don't destroy the target creature, it loses half of its remaining HP (rounded down). This makes it more powerful for use against heavy-hitters, especially if it is used first, since the amount of damage it doles out depends on the total amount of HP the opponent has at the time. Vizak's Proclamation is also pretty cool, letting you "tag" a creature so that as long as it remains on the board, all adjacent enemies take 1 point of magic damage each time you summon a creature.

The Bad

I was excited when I first saw the Barrager card. I have a thing for mechs and read the description and saw that it actually will take two attacks against the same target before the enemy gets to retaliate. That sounded awesome. Until I looked over and saw that its attack is a measly one. Do the math... one plus one is two, so unless you really love watching the animations, an attack of two is nothing to brag about.

Another card that seems to be somewhat of a dud is Parmetic Castignation. This card lets you discard a creature and then choose an enemy and make them suffer damage equal to... um, your opponent's mana. I was totally expecting this to be based on the creature being discarded. In stead of making a high-cost card useful without having to save up the mana to summon it (which would have been awesome), this card is mainly about timing and is completely based on your opponents management of mana.

Another somewhat complex card with little "bang" for the buck is the Venoan Hard Bargain. When this 0 activation cost card is played, each player reveals his top card for Judgment. If you win, you gain mana equal to the number of enemy creatures on the board at the time. If you lose, your opponent gains one mana. This sounds somewhat cool, until you realize that the most you could hope to gain is four mana; if your opponent had five creatures on the board, they would have already won. This isn't the worst in the deck, but again, it's very lackluster.

The Ugly

The card in Set 3 (of the ones I received, anyway) that seems to be truly pointless is the Mandragora Triplet. This one starts off sounding cool, then gets progressively worse as you read through the description. As the name suggests, it allows multiples (though not necessarily limited to three) of the same card to attack the same target if they have not yet attacked that round. The downside is that when you're overpowered on the board, your costs for using other allied creatures are increased: +1 for Attack and +1 for Activation, making this a card that I would exclude from my deck.

If you're looking for ways to really solidify and hone your favorite themed deck, I would highly recommend getting some Set 3 cards. Even if you're happy with where you are, you're going to have to be prepared for opponents who have Set 3, so it couldn't hurt to have a deck or two yourself. Being able to limit your opponent's actions is nice, and if you already use rotation in your strategy, the cards that have extras based on rotation would give you a little extra boost as well. And, quite frankly, simply hearing the Goblin Chickenrider (who sounds very much like The Muppets' Gonzo) is worth the price of admission, in my opinion.