Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares

Spirit Overview — Framing

Bringer is the terror-race driver — cannot destroy Invaders (except its own presence), and exists to hasten easier win conditions. Phantaskippy:

Your job on a team is to drive the terror level advance. Make up for your lack of destruction by hastening the easier win conditions.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Fear-generation engine that replaces would-be-destruction damage with Fear + Push. Dahan are the only source of Destroy on Bringer’s board — protect them.

Identity in one line: fear-engine + terror-race + fear-card-preview via Spirits May Yet Dream.

Complexity signal: High is correct. The damage-to-fear conversion rule inverts normal combat intuition; Dahan-preservation is existential; power-ordering matters (Call on Midnight’s Dreams Forget interaction).

Starting Setup

Put 2 Presence on your starting board in the highest-numbered Sands.

Growth Options (growthtype: “one” — pick one per turn)

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (7 slots): energy2 → air → energy3 → moon → energy4 → any → energy5
• Card-play track (6 slots): card2 → card2 → card2 → card3 → card3 → any

Starting income: 2 Energy, 2 Card Plays. Unusual — Bringer starts with 2 plays but generates no damage, so those plays feed Fear instead.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: To Dream a Thousand Deaths

Your Powers never cause Damage, nor can they Destroy anything other than your own Presence. When your Powers would Destroy (or deal enough Damage to Destroy) Explorer/Town/City, instead generate 0/2/5 Fear. The Power Pushes all Explorer/Town it would Destroy.

Every damage instance converts to Fear + Push. A Power that would destroy a City generates 5 Fear and pushes; one that would destroy a Town generates 2 Fear and pushes; one that would destroy an Explorer generates 0 Fear and pushes (no fear on Explorer, because Destroy-Explorer is 0 Fear baseline).

Innate: Spirits May Yet Dream

• Speed: Fast · Target: Any Spirit

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	2 Moon + 2 Air	Turn any face-down Fear Card face-up. (Earned/resolved normally, but players can see what’s coming.)
2	3 Moon	Target Spirit gains an element that they have at least 1 of.

Fear-card-preview + ally element-gift. L1 is Bringer’s information weapon — in 4P it can turn a panic-turn into a planned one.

Innate: Night Terrors

• Speed: Fast · Range: 0 · Target: Invaders

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	1 Moon + 1 Air	1 Fear.
2	2 Moon + 1 Air + 1 Animal	+1 Fear.
3	3 Moon + 2 Air + 1 Animal	+1 Fear.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Call on Midnight’s Dream

• 0 Energy · Fast · Range 0 · Any Land · Moon, Animal
• If target land has Dahan, gain a Major Power. If you Forget this Power, gain Energy equal to Dahan and you may play the Major Power immediately, paying its cost. OR If Invaders are present, 2 Fear.

The Major-gain engine — tied to Dahan count. Forgetting it converts Dahan to Energy for immediate Major-cast.

Dread Apparitions

• 2 Energy · Fast · Range 1 · Land with 1+ Invaders · Moon, Air
• When Powers generate Fear in target land, Defend 1 per Fear. 1 Fear.

Fear-into-Defend converter. Night Terrors generates Fear → Defend stacks. 1 Fear generated in target = Defend 1.

Dreams of the Dahan

• 0 Energy · Fast · Range 2 · Any Land · Moon, Air
• Gather up to 2 Dahan. OR If target land has Towns/Cities, 1 Fear for each Dahan, to a maximum of 3 Fear.

0-cost Dahan-Gather or Dahan-scaled Fear.

Predatory Nightmares

• 2 Energy · Slow · Range 1 from Sacred Site · Land with 1+ Invaders · Moon, Fire, Earth, Animal
• 2 Damage. Push up to 2 Dahan.

“2 Damage” — but via To Dream: 2 damage to Explorer/Town converts to Fear + Push. A Town at 1 Dmg becomes 2 Fear + Push.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Moon is king. Reach Moon on the energy track by T3 — the opener’s only hard requirement.
2. Major-heavy drafts. Phantaskippy: good energy generation + easy Major access + reclaim-1 = Major-friendly. Inverts usual advice.
3. 1-damage Minors are trash. Bringer doesn’t accumulate damage across Powers.
4. Dahan preservation is existential. “Don’t lose your Dahan, even if you have to slow your advance.”
5. Preview Fear cards strategically. Spirits May Yet Dream at 4P = “extra action per player/board” value.
6. Call on Midnight’s Dreams — spend elements BEFORE forgetting. Forgetting Call removes its element contribution.
7. Reclaim-1 cadence matters — Bringer has no 2-presence growth option, so reclaim-alls cost tempo.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 2 Presence on highest Sands.
• 4 Uniques in hand: Call on Midnight’s Dream (0E Fast, Moon/Animal), Dread Apparitions (2E Fast, Moon/Air), Dreams of the Dahan (0E Fast, Moon/Air), Predatory Nightmares (2E Slow, Moon/Fire/Earth/Animal).
• Starting income: 2 Energy, 2 Card Plays.

Opening A — Phantaskippy’s canonical 🟨 (default)

Goal: unlock Moon on energy track by T3 (T4 acceptable with poor card luck). G3 every turn until Moon is unlocked.

T1 · Growth: G3 (+1 Minor + Presence top-track, place in land with Invaders/Dahan).

• Top-track placement reveals Air.

T1 · Play (2E, 2 CP): Dreams of the Dahan + Predatory Nightmares.

• Triggers Spirits May Yet Dream L1 (2 Moon + 2 Air via starters) + Night Terrors L1 (1 Moon + 1 Air).
• Predatory Nightmares: push a Town about to Ravage; ideally leave 1 Dahan to kill the leftover Explorer via counter.
• Dreams of the Dahan: gather Dahan for T2.

T2 · Growth: G3 (+2E, +1 Presence top, place in land with Invaders/Dahan).

T2 · Play (4E, 2 CP): Dread Apparitions + Call on Midnight’s Dreams.

• Resolution order matters:
  1. Dread Apparitions at Range 0 (not Range 1 — you want Range 0 for Defend stacking).
  2. Innate Night Terrors for +2 Fear in that land → Defend 3.
  3. Spirits May Yet Dream (flip another Fear card).
  4. Call on Midnight’s Dreams LAST to learn a Major (if you Forget Call to cast the Major, you lose Call’s elements — so spend elements first).
• With 2 Dahan gathered for Energy, ~5E is typically available — “enough to cast 86% of Major powers.”

T3 · Growth:

• If T2 Major was castable and good: Reclaim 1 (G2) + cast it again alongside a Minor.
• If both have Moon: top-track placement brings a 3rd Moon → Spirits May Yet Dream L2 (element-gift).
• If T2 Major wasn’t castable: take presence+card growth again for another Major shot.

T4 target: Moon unlocked on energy track, one cast-Major in hand, 2+ face-up Fear cards known, Dahan still alive.

Past T4: Phantaskippy prefers the “any” element space over the 3rd card play — widens Major-threshold access.

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A. Phantaskippy flagged Bringer as the exception to his “two good starts” rule — Bringer has one clearly better line.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — Bringer-specific ranking

1. Dread Apparitions — Fear-into-Defend stacking.
2. Call on Midnight’s Dream — Major-gain engine.
3. Dreams of the Dahan — 0-cost Gather + Dahan-scaled Fear.
4. Predatory Nightmares — Fast-pushing Fear generation.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Moon/Air, elements > damage)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (Phantaskippy’s perfect-pick list)

Cards to Avoid

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Board / Map Configuration

Boards with dense starting Dahan are best — Dahan preservation is non-negotiable. [VERIFY per-board ratings].

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• G3 every turn until Moon unlocked.
• Spirits May Yet Dream L1 on every turn with 2 Moon + 2 Air.
• Predatory Nightmares + Dreams of the Dahan cycle.

Mid (T4–6)

• Major-integration (Volcanic Eruption, Cast Down, Poisoned Land).
• Call on Midnight’s Dreams → Forget for instant Major-cast.

Late (T7+)

• Terror 2/3 race.
• Dread Apparitions board-wide Defend stack.

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• Damage-dealers who wound — VSE (Rituals half-kills), River (push+damage), Lightning (city softener). Bringer pushes wounded Towns without resetting damage.
• Presence-granters — Green’s Gift of Proliferation, Keeper — accelerate Bringer’s slow growth.
• Avoid doubling on pure fear — two Bringers / Bringer+Shadows-Madness = redundant tempo.

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/bringer-of-dreams-and-nightmares.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Primary strategy: Phantaskippy’s Wiki Guide.
• BGG openings: thread 1971193.