First Impressions: Buzzard Wasps

First Impressions: Buzzard Wasps

By Nathan Gardner

Buzzard Wasps team ability is to keep your opponent low on Chi, while you continue to buy stronger cards. Mid to late game you should be battling an opponent who is still on Basic Techniques with little to no upgrades. That's the goal, yet sadly it will never happen.

Choking Chi doesn't work in this game, when each player has so many ways to gain it.

• Gain 1 Chi during the Keep Focused phase
• Discard cards for Chi
• Catch up Chi when a bender goes in the drink
• Deploying the tricks Good Vibrations / Channel Chi 

Plus the earliest the wasps can start denying is on their second turn.

Half the time when your opponent goes first, they will start at 2 plus 1 for the turn, plus 1 to 3 for discarding cards. Before you even take a turn they are buying 3 to 6 Chi worth of cards. That is a couple of juicy advanced cards or one powerful signature. Onto your turn where you buy some Sting cards. Back to your opponent in their second round of buffing up their deck. Even if you went first, they will still buy 4 to 7 Chi worth of cards.

One tactic is to lay down some damage to force them to defend and not discard for Chi. Well, maybe for any other team. Wasps though, they have the lowest damage output in the game.

Damage output of opening hands

Wasps 3-5
Tiger 4-6
Wolfbats 6
Rab 6
Fire 6
Boar-Q-Pines 6

So maybe we have to rethink the strategy. Wasps can't fully do a choke strategy, but maybe its more of a little extra your doing in addition to a standard fighting mind set. You'll be able to keep them from buying all of their big cards, so as long as your able to stay ahead with your purchases, you can win this. Unless of course their strategy is low cost cards, then you pretty much don't have a team ability. Lets move on though. 

What are the Wasps card options?

Lets first look at the Wasps, Waterbender Loong.
His Basic Technique is Dark Waters.

• Shield 1
• 3 Range for 1 Pierce damage with 1 follow up damage into an adjacent space. 

Pretty standard stuff for the early game. For the mid/late game we need to buy stronger cards.

For 2 Chi you could get Sink or Swim. We'll compare it to Dark Waters based on us wanting to remove the Basic Technique during the Stay Sharp phase. You gain 1 moment, keep 1 shield and trade in the 1+1 damage for a solid 2 damage. It's plus one range, but that isn't noticeable on the game board. The biggest difference between the two cards is that the new one lets you defend allies for 2, where the basic defends allies for 1, but you could also defend your own space with the follow up. The damage options are pretty equal in my eyes. So, for 2 Chi, you're just gaining a move icon. No where near enough to move you into the mid game.

Riptide? For 3 Chi you also gain a move icon, but lose the shield. Then it's another way in dealing out just 2 damage. Riptide also Stings twice, but we already know Stings are just an extra afterthought. Spend 3 to deny your opponent 2 (a turn later at that)? Spend 3 to change how you deal out 2 damage? Whats the point?

We finally see a valid option in Undertow. For 4 Chi, Loong is taking the teams role of utility artist. One move, 3 pierce damage at two range, follow up with 2 holds. The range is a tad low, damage output feels like it could be better, but those 2 hold tokens are pure gold. Just as long as your team mates can dish out their fair share of damage.
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Ko the Firebender. One of the two benders in the game that can hold people down in their opening cards. Ko's Burning Embers is very good. Movement, 3 range, 1 damage, 1 hold token. Ko's early game only falls a little flat because the Wasps open volley is on the low side.

Ko is off to a good start, what else does he got?

For 2 Chi you could buy Stroke the Fires... you wont be.

Burning Embers to Stroke the Fires, you keep the one moment, keep 1 damage, lose 2 range and trade in the powerful hold token for a Sting, which is worse than normal, because of the one range. You're paying Chi to make your deck less effective.

In comes Darting Flames also for 2 Chi. This one looks to be a nice balance of offence and defense. 2 move icons will make you hard to pin down. At the same time you're launching three separate 1 damage attacks, 2 of which can be used to defend allies (the 3rd being a pierce attack). Darting Flames looks to be perfectly costed and will help you stay alive in the mid game, but doesn't have enough damage to push back. We need a finisher.

Solarspike, a 3 Chi card with one movement, 5 pierce damage with 3 range and a Sting. Incredible. You would want to take all 3 copies if it weren't for the catch. Its a yellow flag card. If you roll yellow, Solarspike is essentially a dead card in hand. Most of the time it will be to big a risk to roll the Referee dice when you already have one yellow flag. So that means Solarspike is more of a buy when your ready to finish someone off.
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Finally there is Shan the Earthbender. 

He opens up with Rolling Stone, the only Basic Earth Technique with both a moment and a shield icon. With that, Shan has the ability to stay alive until he can buy for the mid / late game.

Granite Grip is a 1 cost for two separate, 2 damage attacks, each with 1 range and follow ups of a hold token. Its also a yellow flag. This card doesn't have the power nor the range to be effect late game. Its more of a gain ground early card. Your hoping to buy and use it before Shan is knocked back a zone. The one range is a major handy cap that isn't worth rolling the referee dice.

Rock and a Hard Place is a 3 cost for a shield 2, then attack for 2 damage at 4 range with a Sting. Same range as your Basic with +1 damage. Your also trading out your movement for Shield 2 instead of 1. Your pretty much paying 3 for 1 extra damage, which isn't cost effective.

Stalagmite is a 4 cost for a 4 damage at 4 range following up with a Sting and a Hold token. This one feels average. Its not terrible, but not to great either. It has no defense items and at 4 cost, I would really hope for some. With only so much Chi to spend during a match, I would much rather purchase the 4 cost water card Undertow. One less damage but one more hold token. Plus it has a move icon.

Trick Cards

How do Trick cards help?

For Waterbender Loong, Salt Spray jumps up right away. Spend 1 Chi, Your opponent loses 2 Chi. Yellow Flag. It has the same issue as Sting. If your opponent goes first, your not stopping them from buying. In a long League or Tournament, there will be times you wont draw your Waterbender cards turn one, giving them even more time. There will be times when you go first, Salt Spray and roll Yellow on the Referee dice. Do you push your luck in future turns, or has the Chi denial strategy all ready petered out? Instead, you could use pretty much any water Trick, besides Spirit's Guidance.

For Firebender Ko, any Trick with an Amplify that you can trigger right away, will make his first turn hold token that much better. Ko is the best player on the team, you could even think about doing two fire Tricks. 

For Earthbender Shan, we are most likely not buying cards for him. So you'll need him to drawl fire through any means necessary. Best bet, make him as annoying as possible. I recommend reusable Tricks that throw out Daze or Hold tokens. 

Buzzard Wasps
Strengths

• Alpha strike with Ko

Weakness

• Low damage
• Cards over costed
• Limited deck building options

Summary

Buzzard Wasps have one cool looking color scheme, but when it comes to Pro Bending, they rank the lowest in the league.

Recommend Deck Build

Water
3x Undertow
1x Water Spout

Fire
2x Darting Flames
1x Solarspike
1x Arcing Stinger

Earth
3x Stalagmite
1x Rockfall