Gods Unchained - New keyword added to the game with the coming expansion

While a fairly minor piece of news, I for one still think it is an exciting piece of news. And that is the addition of a new keyword to the game. And, fingers crossed, it will be coming sooner rather than later.

What are keywords?

If you are new to the game or just do not know all the "words", keyword is a a word that is featured on the card that lets you know what it does. Or what mechanism will be triggered by playing the card. Some examples of keywords you probably have come across are Afterlife, Deadly, and Roar. In these cases, they do very different things. Afterlife is triggered when a creature or relic is destroyed and enters the void (the discard pile). Deadly means that if you are able to do damage to a creature, they are destroyed no matter how much life they have left. Roar on the other hand is triggered when the creature or relic is played, then whatever is listed after the keyword Roar happens.

I hope that this very very wide overview of what keywords are, and some examples of them, have given you a better grasp of the inner workings of the game. If you already were not familiar with their inner workings. And if you would like some more information about the keywords used in Gods Unchained you will find a complete list of them and what they do here. I will end this introduction by saying that keywords are not unique to Gods Unchained, they are widely used within the gaming world, be it digital or analog. So knowing about them will most likely be of use in your gaming life.

The new keyword

Now let us move on to the exciting part. The new keyword will be part of the new expansion that is coming to the game. And just to iterate if you missed it, the new expansion is slotted for a Q4 release. That means it will be here before the end of the year, and as we already are in Q4. I will cross my fingers hoping it will be here sooner rather than later. And as the expansion is said to be a major one, meaning tons of new cards. But also it will mean the end of Mortal Judgement, as this new expansion is set to take its place in the reward structure.

The new keyword they are adding is Manasurge. The explanation for its mechanism is as follows: Manasurge X, Spend X mana on cards or god powers in a single turn while holding this card to give it a bonus effect.

Let us break down what this means for actual gameplay, and if there is anything that is similar to this already in the game. The first thing that comes to mind is the keyword Empower. Here you can choose to pay a higher mana cost when playing a card to get additional or a more powerful effect. But there is a major difference. The cards with Manasurge do not have a higher mana cost in order for you to get the extra effect. Instead, they will have their Empowered slider, if you will, get triggered automatically simply by you spending mana to play cards or activate your god power.

I therefore think that these cards will primarily be used as midgame cards. Similar to how Empowered cards for the majority of cases are used as Midgame cards. Similar to how empowered cards are used, you want to play them "empowered" in the vast majority of cases. And I think this will hold true for these cards as well. Simply due to the fact that the cards are good enough to be played in their base state. Then people will do just that. Making the whole keyword a moot point.

A feature I think that also will limit the endgame viability of cars with this keyword is that you would want to power them up before playing them. That means if you top deck a card with a high Manasurge cost, the only way you will be able to trigger that and play the card the same turn is if the cost to play the card is very low. And I for one think a 1 mana Manasurge 9 card would be just too disruptive for the game. Not saying it can't be done, just saying it would need to be done right. Also, you have to take into consideration things already in the game. Like the deception god power or the magic god power that lets you generate 1 mana card. Would you want the RNG factor of having a player be able to generate a Polyhimia from a god power, even if it is rare? I would say that's a hard pass for me.

But I would love to hear your thoughts on the new keyword Manasurge, and how you think it will be implemented in the game, and what type of cards you think we will see feature it. Please type away your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Picture provided by: Gods Unchained Media