The Plagued

Four cards

The four cards of the Plagued

The four Plagued cards carry the same numbers, 7, 5, 6 and 2, each a quarter turn further on: what is on top on one is on the right on the next. Choosing the right card means choosing which rank will face the enemy.

• 7562Card 1
  top 7 · left 5
  right 6 · bottom 2
• 5276Card 2
  top 5 · left 2
  right 7 · bottom 6
• 2657Card 3
  top 2 · left 6
  right 5 · bottom 7
• 6725Card 4
  top 6 · left 7
  right 2 · bottom 5

In a duel, your eight cards come from your two Orders, four per Order, plus one card from each Order kept in Reserve for Sudden Death.

Strategy

Playing the Plagued well

• Poison where your opponent has to play

  Place the Plagued card next to the squares your opponent will want: those beside your strong cards, those in a coveted corner. They will play there at −1, or not at all.

• Early beats late

  Poison only works on the cards still to come. A Plagued card placed at the end of the game only poisons squares that will stay empty.

• You lose out too

  Your own cards suffer the poison. Except one: a Gilded card at −1 trades even better. That is the Treaty Tainted Gold.

• Shield the tide, lock the rampart

  Poison around your Abyssals is The Pit; Guardians on the clean squares and poison on the others is The Fouled Rampart.

• The Herald spares your own

  The Herald of the Plagued no longer poisons allied cards: you play on your own marks without losing anything, and only your opponent pays. On the other hand, it snuffs out Tainted Gold: your Gilded cards are no longer weakened.

Facing them

Countering the Plagued

Count the marks before placing: a square at −2 changes everything. Put cards there whose ranks have room to spare: a Guardian still shows 6 and 4 on defense there, thanks to its shield. The Gilded, for their part, love poison: place them on your opponent's marks. And attack the Plagued card through its 2, at the bottom.

Two per duel

The alliances of the Plagued

Before each duel, you choose two Orders. Some pairs have a name: these are the Treaties, which your profile tracks game after game. The Plagued sign four of them.

• Tainted Gold with the Gilded

  You poison your own ground to place your Gilded there: the weaker the card, the better the trade.

  The signA Gilded card placed on a square you poisoned yourself.

• The Venom Drag with the Cinders

  You poison the corridor, then drag the enemy through it: it arrives drained.

  The signA pulled card whose path crosses at least one poisoned square.

• The Pit with the Abyssals

  The venom makes the area unlivable while your Abyssals, the frailest cards in the game, become untouchable.

  The signAn Abyssal placed next to a square you poisoned.

• The Fouled Rampart with the Guardians

  The Rampart locks down the clean squares, the venom makes the rest uninhabitable: your opponent has nowhere left to land.

  The signA win on points with Guardians and at least three poisoned squares.

Story mode

The Herald of the Plagued

No longer poisons allied cards.

The Herald is the superior version of the Order: its four cards keep their numbers, but its ability changes. It is earned by finishing chapter IV of Story mode: seven games, from the Cellar Rat to the Great Plagued. It is played against the Echo, in Classic matches and in challenges between friends, never in Ranked or in tournaments.

Chapter IV in detail · The eight Heralds

Questions

The Plagued in three questions

Ten Orders

The nine other Orders

Each Order has its own page: its ability, its four cards, how to play it and how to counter it.

• Gilded
• Cinders
• Pikes
• Archers
• Abyssals
• Chimeras
• Guardians
• Scribes
• Cursed

All the Orders on one page · The rules of the game