Shade Preview - Draconic Luteoderm Suit

by Lester E. Tisdale IV

If you're like me, then every time you see a preview card you nearly jump out of your seat with excitement. Well, hold on to your butts, as they say, things are about to get jumpy...

So. Awesome.

There are SO many exciting elements to this card! Let's first talk about it's name, flavor text, and art. The name Draconic Luteoderm Suit just jumps out me! Draconic? What Gearsmith characters are dragons? None yet! And the art... So awesome! One can only assume that the tentacles in the armor are appendages of the armor itself. Very cool indeed. Of course, the flavor text goes well with the art and suggests that the suit of armor has a will of its own. This card is the PERFECT teaser... It leaves us with more questions than answers. Also, the card is UNIQUE, which tells us that it could be a big part of the storyline of Shade of the Devoured Emperor. Bonus!

This card's type is also interesting, because it's a gear and as such has the stat increase icons (+2/+2/+0) in the top right corner, but unlike most gear cards, lacks the bold text ATTACH TO CHARACTER, which means when it comes into play, it just sits there like any other item. This is interesting, because unlike other gear cards, you can play it when there aren't any characters in play, which can allow for some interesting opportunities. Even if this unique gear doesn't come into play attached to a character, it CAN still be attached to a character in play. You can use the ability equip, and pay either 2 or 0 (more on that later), but if you notice, the numeric cost of Draconic Luteoderm Suit is less than five, which makes it searchable with 700160x 31f—and yes, it attaches to him. That means you can get this thing out on turn one, which can be useful considering the next ability (which I know is making a lot of Decksters out there squirm):

If any other "gear" card is played, you may draw a card.

How cool is that? I have always liked the card Runic Field Enhancer, and have been waiting for something like this to come out. If you can keep playing cheap gear cards, you can keep drawing, which lets you play EVEN MORE gear cards! I can see some potentially HUGE characters, some might even be unblockable thanks to gear cards like Unbearably Heavy Shoes of Teleportation and Cunning Disguise. And don't forget the random times your opponent might play a gear card! You can draw then too.

This card also has a really neat linear design, as certain abilities on the card get better when very specific conditions occur. First, like Phalludrix, the Impotenator, it has EQUIP, but the character it WANTS to equip to is Jo Ciendeilio. But that doesn't mean you HAVE to equip this card to Jo. It is pretty useful to be able to pay 2 at tactic speed to give a character +2/+2/+0. If your opponent goes to kill your character, you can potentially save it, and if they DO succeed in killing the character, you can just pay 2 to attach this card to any other character in play and keep the Draconic Luteoderm Suit safe. However, if you wish to equip this card to any UNIQUE JO, its costs 0 to do so. Again, that alone can be useful for saving your precious Draconic Suit, but there's so much more that equipping Jo can do!

Perhaps the most interesting ability this card has is Seraphim Infusion. If you have the Draconic Luteoderm Suit equipped to Jo, you can pay 3 (which you will usually do depleting Jo) to destroy it and search your deck for something called Testudine Autoframe, which I imagine is extremely awesome, and put it into play. It sounds very Dominic-y to me, and considering the work and effort you have to put in to get the ability to happen, I'm sure it's something powerful. Both the terms Draconic and Seraphim are on this card, so hopefully Testudine Autoframe is something big along the lines of Shieldmane or Axeclaw Grandchest. Maybe it's just another gear that transforms Jo into a monster, or something that totally throws the game in your favor. Either way, I know it will be exciting!

So there you have it! A VERY awesome preview card that will satisfy many. I for one am excited to see more linear cards like this one, and cannot wait to see more!

What do you think of this preview card? Share your ideas/hopes/thoughts in the forums! Fave fun, play Spoils!

P.S. For those of you who don't know who Deckster and Dominic are, Ken Pilcher has an awesome post about the five profiles he and the R&D crew keep in mind when designing cards... You should go read it! http://www.thespoils.com/spoils/blog/?p=442