Rampant Speculation: Winds of Exchange, Part Two

In KeyForge’s sixth set, Winds of Exchange (WindEx), tokens will be introduced as a game mechanic. All decks in this set will contain a token reference card, telling you what kind of token the deck makes whenever you’re instructed to “make a token creature.” Each house has three standard tokens; when your deck is generated, one of the nine available tokens is assigned to it.

Unless…

…that’s not what happens.

Each house in WindEx has a rare card which locks your token in to one specific, special token. Ghost Galaxy was kind enough to reveal the first of these cards, from House Mars.

Token Creature. One power, no armor. Trait: Blorb.

Blorb cannot reap.
Destroyed: Return Blorb Hive from your discard pile to your hand.

Artifact. Rare. Trait: Location.

Omni: Destroy a friendly creature. If you do, make 2 Blorbs. 
Then, if you control 10 or more Blorbs, 
destroy Blorb Hive and forge a key at no cost.

Blorb Hive is a key cheat – a card that lets you forge a key outside of the standard “Forge a Key” step after the start of your turn. And it costs no aember – just an army of Blorbs. But based on what we know about WindEx – and remember, we know very little, so this is rampant speculation – when is Blorb Hive good? How often will it actually go off? Will it be competitive, a meme artifact, or a total deck-ruiner since the tokens can’t even reap for aember?

Let’s start by looking at the speed it would take to get to 10 Blorbs on the field, assuming that Kerwollop, They’re Everywhere!, or Whistling Darts won’t straight-up ruin our day.

Blorb Hive is an artifact with an Omni: ability that creates two Blorbs, and then immediately checks if it has the 10 Blorbs necessary to forge a key. Without any other token-generating cards and assuming you have a non-Blorb creature to play and sacrifice every turn, it might look like this:

In this “perfect vacuum” where our Blorbs live, we have no other token-generating cards, and we have enough non-Blorb creatures to sacrifice to the mighty Blorb Hive, it takes six turns to forge one key. That’s not very fast. But that’s okay, because we have two more thing to consider: recursion, and support from the other cards in the deck.

Each Blorb can recur the Blorb Hive back to hand once its destroyed. Let’s continue our turn count, assuming Blorb Hive destroys a non-Blorb creature, creates two Blorbs, forges a key, then a Blorb is sacrificed to bring it back to hand and played back to the board the same turn.

If you can keep Blorbs on the table and continue to recur your Blorb Hive, you can forge one key per turn once you’re swimming in Blorb.

If your deck can has plentiful and consistent ways to make token creatures (especially if you’re not seeing Blorb Hive until later in the game), achieving this state of total Blorb seems possible. We don’t know how many board wipes will be present in intra-set play for WindEx, but we know there are many Blorb-removal tools in other sets. The question becomes: can you Blorb more than your opponent can remove?

Blorbs cannot reap, so your opponent is incentivized to hold their board clear – or Kerwollop – until you are at the Blorb Threshold (meaning, you end your turn with a boardstate where you can achieve ten Blorbs next turn) and play it then, removing your beautiful Blorb progress. Since Blorbs are only one power, even an opponent without a board clear could spend a few fights here and there dealing with your Blorb menace.

If you are trying to Blorb-forge all your keys in the late game, your opponent may also simply outrace you. While the Blorb Hive is a good token generator, it might not show up until later in the game, so other token-making cards will be necessary for this to be viable. Perhaps if your deck comes loaded with these two cards, you can Blorb harder:

Mk.2 Generator is a consistent source of tokens, and Space Invaders is both lets you Blorb-burst a bit harder while cycling your hand. Unlike going with only the Blorb Hive, which has Omni:, you’d need to stay in Mars to take advantage of this particular setup.

The beauty of Omni: on Blorb Hive is that you can take advantage of your token-generating engine in another house. If your Brobnar or Star Alliance come with plenty of ways to make tokens, then you may still have a viable strategy.

My rampant speculation is that Blorb Hive decks that can hold their own in Archon Solo will be about as rare as a strong Martian Generosity or Rooftop Laboratory deck. Because Blorb Hive can recur, it looks like the closest we’ve come to an “alternative win condition” – you’re still forging three keys, but you’re spending your entire game reaching the Blorb Threshold then making one key per turn.

Your opponent may be able to win before that – but, if you’re a Blorb yourself, you might not care.