Twipp's Energy Boots If you are looking to boost movement, Energizing Move cannot be beaten. On the first turn that you draw it, it potentially allows you move 6 additional steps on top of your racial move distance (+2 on your move and 4 for the card itself) That is basically a Sprint with the additional flexibility of being able to get +2 as long as you keep it. This is huge when looking to unexpectedly chase down wizards or fleeing enemies. It also allows your own wizards/priests to relocate completely out of range of a pursuer if the map allows. Needless to say this is far superior to Quickness Aura and Rushing Aura as it can’t be removed with armor and you have an additional move. For open maps, or a wizard heavy meta, this is a solid card to work into your build. It is also particularly useful in campaign versus fast opponents with ranged attacks, but also great for a quick close and kill on large maps. However, revealing itself is quite a big detriment. One of the things that makes movement good is that it is hidden so you can trick enemies into overextending themselves then rush in with your hidden move card. If you telegraph to everyone that you have a move in your hand, you won't be catching anyone off-guard. If you desperately need Energizing Move these are clearly the best choice, though spending on major token on them is rather questionable. Epics: Apprentice Insight Double Dodge for tokenless! You usually want traits from skills instead but I can understand if you want more Dodges. Dodges are cool. Fingerbone Of St. Ob Is the Greater Heal worth enough to have two Sapping Spears? Some people think so; others, like me, disagree. It's definitely a lot stronger when you have Frenzy buffs to turn the Sapping Spears into something more threatening. Plates Of Ixicha Nice against foes packing encumber with both Arrogant Armor and Quickness Aura helping against that. Notable Rares: Shielding Warp Boots Only way to get Force Field on boots, and only way to get Force Field for a minor token. I used to think these were the greatest boots ever as Force Field is a very powerful card, but eventually I realised movement cards on boots are pretty important. Still, these are some strong defensive boots when you've got mobility covered.
Barnum's Burning Bauble Another short one. Fire wizards don't want Firestorm as you will burn your own team. Firestorm wizards want more Firestorm than this item gives. Would not purchase. Epics: Eric's Elemental Confusotron I am confused why anyone would use this item. Pacifist Trickery Alternative to Risky Trickery. Won't really make much difference since you'll likely be using them with stuff that gets rid of handicaps like Arrogant Armor or Gene Therapy, but with Fright you can build around it by making a character with few or no attacks, especially on wizards or priests. Rapier Of Misfortune 3 great attacks, but those Bad Lucks. Looks great in comparison to Mindshrinker though. Notable Rares: Bronzebottom Cuirass Two powerful buffing cards on one armor. For those that want offense at the expense of defense. Cleansing Shroud Great armor, great heal. Cleansing Ray at the very least triggers Altruism and can randomly come in handy sometimes. Ebony Prayer Beads Decent card draw item. Excellent Rapier Cheap way to add mobility to your warrior at the expense of damage.
Boxton's Razorstaff Path of Knives is pretty weak with lots of Martyr Blessings everywhere, giving it a high chance to backfire. Vengeance is also a worry as people can traverse the whole map with the help of your Path of Knives though it does come at the cost of pain for them. Flash Flood can be very strong against melee teams but is next to useless against wizards, and it is also very map dependent. The biggest problem with Boxton's Razorstaff though is that the cards can all be found on Arcane Items instead. Staves in general should be the damage dealers and by playing Boxton's Razorstaff you sacrifice a lot of damage for not much gain. I am not against control-oriented staves like Smoke On The Water or Gusting Feystaff but Boxton's is just too weak. Epics: Clever Mobility If you really want more Flanking Moves on elves for some reason. Dragonslayer Sword You won't be slaying many creatures with this sword, much less dragons. Sundering Strikes and the Impaling Stab are the main draws to this item giving it an anti-armor theme but the other cards are far from appealing. Helm Of Reinforcement Great for people who want to fool around with Officer's Harness, Mimetic Armor, Barbed Platemail and the like. Notable Rares: Sacrificial Axe Great cycling item for support priests, and comes with a couple of good attacks to get away from people.
Fwiw and iirc, when Mungo and Myx'd Mess'zh tackled The Metallic Monstrosity, she equipped Evasion (legendary ) for the last battle. She really wanted more Flanking Moves for some reason. $:^ } (You'll recall, the enemy never touched the heroes...) I just realized, though, stacking Violent Spins there could be pretty funny, too -- oh! and Barge! lol
Volkov's Boots Of Pillage Team Walk is excellent and fits just about any team well. Melee teams can use this to close down enemies, wizards and support priests can use it to escape, and just being able to improve each characters' position, no matter how slight, can be enough to build an incremental advantage against the opponent. That said, Volkov's Boots of Pillage are clearly meant for melee characters, with its Prowl. It looks like the best Team Walk boots for Range 1 melee characters, with the Prowl and the Reliable Mail giving you more survivability in a 1-on-1 battle. Other strong Team Walk boots have Flanking Move which may not fit a Range 1 melee character. One problem with major token boots though is melee characters are usually hard-pressed to free up the token for them. Would I recommend buying it? I don't think they are absolutely essential and other Team Walk boots are good enough but if you have a large amount of gold you may like to try them out. Epics: Apprentice Tactics I guess if you want more blocks and Lateral Thinking? Cleansing Hide Armor Best tokenless cleansing armor along with St. Malaj's Cuirass, but this is good enough and sometimes even better than the legendary. Staff Of Burning Ice Cold and fire attacks don't go well with together, because they might push each other off. Notable Rares: Perfect Ferocity Perfect for people who want to deal lots of damage. This is the only way to get Frenzy Aura on a dwarf skill, and the Blind Rage also helps with piling on the damage. If you're using this item you kind of need a full dwarf team though to get full value from the Dwarven Battle Cry.
St. Zaadia's Spacesuit There is no doubt that Cushioning Armor is excellent, with it being especially good against melee attacks which tend to be high damage. However, neither Healing Beacon or Genetic Engineering are very appealing. Healing Beacon not offering immediate healing is one problem as when you need to heal you generally want it immediately, not at the end of the turn. It being terrain is another problem as enemies can pressure you away and get some healing themselves. Terrain can also be replaced by the enemy to deny you the healing, whereas a straightforward healing card does not have any counter other than Open Wound. Genetic Engineering can be used as a Purge on allies though you won't get any useful boosts too often as the pool is diluted with "Adapted to 'Damage Type'" cards. Overall, there isn't really a focus to this item, and the spells are a little situational and unreliable. Epics: Charring Staff Every card here is pretty good, but the only real marquee attack here is Ember Burst. Wall of Fire is plentiful on Arcane Items and Flame Spit is pretty much just Glob Of Flame/ Flame Jet, both of which can be found on Arcane Items too. Still, not too bad to fill in the gaps while you wait for one of the legendary staves. Staff Of Burning Ice Cold and fire attacks don't go well with together, because they might push each other off. Vogel's Confusotron There are better Accelerate Time options. Reality Warper for example is pretty much a direct upgrade over this. Notable Rares: Drow Rapidity Strong tokenless Fleet item. Evil Hourglass Only item with Doom, which can give you an easier time against some big bad campaign bosses.
Silver Lightning Spoiler: Previously Reviewed There are several things you can do with this staff, or more specifically, Inquisition Bolt. Firstly, you can use it to counter the metagame. The fact that it's a Silver damage attack makes it well-positioned in the metagame that’s full of Monstrous Hides and Creature Of The Nights. You can build a deck around giving your opponents forms so that Inquisition Bolt can deal more damage, through cards such asSpark Of Undeath or Walpurgis Night. Of course, there are also no shortage of werewolves running around that are good targets as well. Next, you can run a warrior with Devastating Blows to take advantage of the revealed hands. Lastly, you can simply use the knowledge you have gleaned to put your opponent in a tough spot. The next thing you should consider is whether this staff or Silver Justice is more suitable to your needs. If you need to save some tokens, Silver Justice is preferable, but if you don't mind spending more on tokens for damage then Silver Lightning is the way to go. Epics: Charging Boulder Would have been a interesting item with both defence and mobility but Shrug It Off. Maybe someone can make it work? Robes Of The Crab Flight Aura turns your Leaps into overcosted Walks. Terminator Mask You can give someone on the verge of death a Lifesaving Block with your Advanced Battlefield Training. Seems more like anti-termination to me. Notable Rares: Focused Healer One of the crucial vampire items, adding cantrip to all vamp attacks.
Shrug It Off is still sometimes useful in the campaign vs. attachment spamming foes, and the cantrip can be useful in stealing initiative. Some of the items with it were pretty good when all we had was the basic set, but with the advent of new item sets they are rarely the best choice anymore.
St. Gwendolyn's Armor One situational card and two bad ones make this a terrible item. Soothing Darkness would have been mediocre at best without the drawback of Encumber; it's nigh unplayable with it. The healing is too slow and your character becomes slow too. Mind Worm doesn't do too much other than check for blocks. Most characters can just use their cards, and if they can't, such as being out of range of an attack, you're already winning. It's slightly better against characters with defenses like Armor since they can't use it but how often do people have 2 armors in hand? Epics: Flying Carpet For a major token, there are much better movement cards you can get than Fly, and they don't come with a terrible Cloth Armor. Howling Lycanthropy Great item if you want to be a werewolf. Lattimore's Relic It's sad that the best card on this item is the Purge, not the 2 Gold cards you're paying for. Notable Rares: None.
Although there are ways you can kinda sorta make Soothing Darkness work, I don't bother either. I wanted to mention, though, I don't recall anyone else bring up another of its problems: it's Unholy, and therefore it won't even trigger Altruism! Hard to see how it's gold quality. Nevermind the potential Heal 15, it is also Encumber 1. Even Heavy Armor is merely silver quality.
Eeygonnic's Shield This is a perfectly respectable shield of you're not sure what enemies you will be facing. It's one of the few tokenless shield with all blocks that can block any and it's certainly one of the best. Surging Shield is versatile and Wounded Block can be very annoying to play against. It probably won't trigger on a weak attack that your opponent is using to try to bait out blocks, and then it becomes troublesome for them to play around it. Generally though, you don't really need these shields that can block anything as most of the time melee blocks will suffice since melee attacks deal more damage than magic ones, quite a number of magic attacks are hard to block, and melee characters are usually more common. Still, I can't fault you for wanting something that works in any situation. Epics: Ogre Plate Shimmering Aura is terrible and Enchanted Mail is overcosted. Shimmering Helm Pretty nice counter to wizards. Ztoli Idol Triple Heals and Consuming Touch are pretty weak. Notable Rares: Hexagon Shield Good tokenless shield. Incense Of Roiled Air Fine Mass Frenzy item.
St. Xarol's Mace Ask any vampire player what their worst nightmare is and they'll likely say armor. The reason for this is that the effectiveness of armor doubles against vamp attacks since it reduces both the damage and the healing gained. Couple that with the fact that vamp attacks typically are low damage to begin with and it's no wonder many vamps pack armor removal of some sort. It that respect, St. Xarol's Mace certainly delivers. Two Sundering Strikes for two minor tokens is a great deal and you get two Sapping Spears too, which are low damage but are excellent with Frenzy buffs, which you should be packing for the vampire. The package is rounded off by two heals, one good and one not so good, but at the very least they can take advantage of the Cantrip from Talented Healer. Overall, a really good item especially for vampires, but it can be used on other priests as well to good effect just for some surprise armor removal at a cheap price. Would recommend if you like vampires. Epics: Ettin's Club This is a cheaper but worse substitute for Porior's Nimble Mace. Hydrogen Staff An interesting staff. Total damage is quite low which brings it down a bit, though it does have 4 attacks that can hit multiple people. Scintillating Robes I like the sparkly sparkles on the Shimmering Aura and Hover. That's probably the only thing I like about this item. Notable Rares: Evil Hourglass Only item with Doom, which can give you an easier time against some big bad campaign bosses. Gauntlets Of The Giant Fine Frenzy Aura item, if you are wary of the Ill-fitting Armor on Cuirass Of Froth. Shielding Warp Boots Only way to get Force Field on boots, and only way to get Force Field for a minor token. I used to think these were the greatest boots ever as Force Field is a very powerful card, but eventually I realised movement cards on boots are pretty important. Still, these are some strong defensive boots when you've got mobility covered. Smoke Pin Best Smoke Bomb item. Smoke Bomb is great against wizards, as long you don't mind your own wizard being next to useless, barring cone attacks and such. It's also a good counter to Illusory Barrier in Death March.
Looks like @Gingrich Yurr is out, so I will jump in again... and this is an interesting day! Robes Of Foz No bad cards on this item, and for tokenless which is awesome. Reliable Mail provides survivability to squishy wizards and Dangerous Maneuver provides escapability. However.... this card does not seem to see as much usage as you might expect, why? I'm guessing that when compared to other tokenless robes, it is easy to choose a cheaper option. The two deck shrinking traits on Robe Of Lightness can't be beat; one trait, plus two solid cards on Malevolent Robes is also popular; Even Warp Robes gives you most of the utility of this item and also a trait. I have a couple of copies and have rarely used it, so I would struggle to recommend spending gold on this one unless you have a lot spare due to the multiple cheaper options out there. Epics: Cat'Leth Great weapon, sees a fair amount of play. Mostly as a source of All Out Attack, but also contains a trait, a high percentage and versatile block, plus some good attacks. Emperor's Plate Solid source of Arrogant Armor until Bern's Untouchable Mail comes along Reckless Warp Boots Can't think of anything positive to think about this one I'm afraid... Notable Rares: Ravager's Cudgel No bad cards on this item, good source of howls. Solid if unspectacular weapon. Ebony Prayer Beads Pretty good draw item for a minor token Focused Electromancy Automatic pick for deadly, deadly wizards. And other Electric builds! Gumshoe's Gumshoes If you want Investigate, this is the item for you. It has't cracked any top decks that I am aware of, but there is probably an interesting build out there using this card, as it has real power. Hefty Stout Club Solid tokenless item until some of the Epics or Legendaries come along. I have a soft spot for this because I got one early in my Cardhunter days and it was a mainstay of my SP and MP builds for a long time
Thanks for your help @mckeen Vinorkin's Cuirass Arrogant Armor is a card that opens up many deckbuilding possibilties, including using items with normally debilitating handicaps, building around radiation cards, building around Walpurgis Night, and so on. Usually you would want Bern's Untouchable Mail to maximise chances of drawing an Arrogant Armor since your entire build pretty much hinges on it but I can see some situations in which you just don't have major tokens available. In that case, Vinorkin's Cuirass is the next best thing. There's also Impervious Panoply with two Arrogant Armors but I won't fault you for not wanting to deal with Encumber. If on a budget though, it is a perfectly fine substitute. Epics: Aloysi's Cloak You get to Fumble away your Mystical Wyrmhide, all for only one minor token! Angry Jack's Boots Best minor token Enchanted Harness boots in my opinion, but it's rare to want Enchanted Harness in the first place. Quigley's Cap Chain Harness isn't that impactful. Dash, Team is just a worse version of Sprint, Team! which can also be found on minor token helmets. Notable Rares: Diamond Moccasins Great minor token boots for a melee character, with all 3 cards giving you initiative. You don't see Quick Run often and it may take people by surprise.
Advanced Insight Here's my advanced insight for this item: it's not good. Great level 9 items are a rarity as they are right at the bottom of the minor token items in terms of quality, and this is no exception. The main offender here is the paper quality Dangerous Maneuver which can easily be upgraded to a better card and have the item remain at a minor token. Instead, you're stuck drawing a card strictly worse than your racial move. Violent Spin and Dodge are pretty good, but not quite enough to make up for the Dangerous Maneuver. Dangerous Maneuver isn't bad, by the way; it's just that it's less desirable on a minor token item, especially for an elf. Epics: Cybernetic Boots Trip is one of the worst handicaps in the game. Don't count on drawing the lone Warp Run in your deck to remove it. Mouse Boots Excellent tokenless boots. Flanking Move is great and Cautious Sneak is a bit worse than a Run but still good. Nimbus Blade If you want to Nimbus and don't need the token discount from Duality Mace. Notable Rares: Epigenetic Eraser Nice item for when you are running items with handicap traits. Malevolent Robes Tokenless Arcane Shell with a mostly harmless cycling trait. Big Zap can come in handy too as a finisher when a warrior comes too close. Staff Of Winter Good cold staff for a major minor token. Pairs well with Instant Snowman.
The Softener Cushioning Armor is great. It is the armor with the potential to prevent the greatest amount of damage, particularly against high damage melee attacks. Usually, armor is strong against magic and weak against melee since magic attacks are typically lower damage so armor prevents a higher percentage of the damage against magic. However, Cushioning Armor reverses this by being next to useless against magic and being great against melee. If you are anticipating a melee heavy metagame, The Softener can be a great choice. Another note is that if you have another armor to the right of your Cushioning Armor it can further reduce the 5 damage you take. Epics: St. Amarack's Cudgel One of two tokenless divine weapons with Mass Frenzy. This is the better one for Altruism. Superb Stoutness One of two dwarf skills with two Ducks. Good if you have a hankering for Ducks. Zachary's Boots One of two boots with two Violent Spins. Say, do you see a pattern in today's Daily Deal? It's only marginally worse than the legendary Pergop's Slippers and the armor isn't the card you care about anyway. Notable Rares: None.
Boxton's Red Pendant Some people like Boxton's to get some control on a fire wizard. Others think a fire wizard should focus on fire attacks to make the most of their Firestarter. I'm with the latter, outsourcing control or defence to another character. It's up to you to decide which line of thinking you prefer. Epics: Lightfoot Robes Only robes with Flanking Move. Simin's Glowing Mirror Epic substitute for Chartwell's Amulet. Staff Of Immolation Don't get suckered by those Ember Bursts hiding the Fire Sprays beneath. Notable Rares: Ravager's Cudgel Several strong attacks, and some Howls which are always good. Not a bad major minor weapon choice, but could use with some mobility. Twirling Dervish Decent way to add Violent Spin to your warrior.
Filling in for @Gingrich Yurr again... Elemer's Diadem This one is a little bit too unfocused to be of much use... None of the cards are bad per se, but you the best legendaries fit a more defined need Epics: Atchocl's Spear I really likePunishing Strike, but unfortunately there are no good items of warriors that use it... it is really this or Blackeye Hammer (Although I do get some use taking down rust creatures with the hammer) Ring Of Apropriation Best minor token control item, along with Luke's Iron Hand. Depending on the maps the hand may be better or worse. You will always find a use for multiple copies of this item. Yoloxl's Staff Weird item here... The intent apears to be an electrical/control hybrid staff. The control side is good with the assumption that you will be supplying additional Illusory Barrier and control from you arcane items for more consistency. However Jumpspark is just too low damage to change the game, even with penetrating. Notable Rares: Hexagon Shield Solid tokenless shield, with 3 good blocks Smoke Pin The premier Smoke Bomb item and additional TK is always useful. Superb Evasion If you want to run Elvish Scamper this is the item for you. However, elvish scamper is a flawed card IMHO. With the biggest drawback being that if your opponent has any elves, they move after you. meaning that you are surrendering some initiative, and you're at the mercy of their reaction most of the time. Very risky..
True for PvP, but in the campaign you know your opponents beforehand. @Scarponi pointed out the usefulness of Elvish Scamper in the Geomancer adventures quite a while back, and since then I've been using triple Elf vamps. (Also good in Melvelous, the Slimes, and Scales.) If you have the cards for a good vamp build, I recommend giving this a try.