Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot

Spirit Overview — Framing

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Likes being in the same lands as Invaders, so it can use Range 0 offensive and defensive Powers. The first of its Innate Power can give some mobility, if needed. Has a poor Plays track and potent but expensive Unique Powers, so can be better at handling fewer large threats than lots of little ones.

Strategic framing [VERIFY: enhance with play experience].

Starting Setup

Put 1 Presence on your starting board, in land #5. You start with your 4 Unique Power Cards and 0 Energy.

Growth Options (one)

Growth token reference (Wiki shorthand):

• reclaim — Reclaim all discarded Power Cards.
• gain1p / gain2p — Gain 1 or 2 Power Cards (Minor).
• addpresence1 / addpresence2 / addpresence3 — Add 1 Presence from track, Range N.
• energy1 / energy2 / energy3 — +1/+2/+3 Energy.
• card1 / card2 — +1/+2 Card Plays this turn.
• (Other tokens documented on Wiki Spirit template reference pages.)

Presence Tracks

As Presence leaves each track, these values are revealed:

• Energy track: energy2, fire, energy3, energy4, animal, energy6, energy7
• Card-play track: card1, card2, animalX, fireX, card3, earthX, card4

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule

TERRITORIAL AGGRESSION Your Damage-Dealing Powers do +1 Damage. (This adds +1 Damage total for the Power, even if the Power Damages multiple Invaders or “each Invader”. It can boost Minor/Major Power Cards, too, not just your Uniques + Innate.)

Innate: DEATH APPROACHES FROM BENEATH THE SURFACE

• Speed: slow · Range: 1 · Target: invaders

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	1 Fire + 1 Animal	If you don’t have Presence in target land, Gather 1 of your Presence. (This is required.)
2	2 Fire + 1 Earth + 2 Animal	1 Damage. (+1 for your “Territorial Aggression” Special Rule)
3	3 Fire + 1 Earth + 3 Animal	2 Damage.
4	4 Fire + 2 Earth + 5 Animal	2 Fear . 4 Damage.

Unique Cards (all, Wiki-verified)

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques

No Unique cards listed.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (from full pool)

#	Card	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)	Why this pick
1	Gold’s Allure	0	Slow	Fire, Earth, Animal	Gather 1 Explorer and 1 Town . Add 1 Strife.	elements animal+earth+fire → 10.2
2	Quicken the Earth’s Struggles	1	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth, Animal	1 Damage to each Town/City. OR Defend 10.	elements animal+earth+fire → 10.2
3	Savage Mawbeasts	0	Slow	Fire, Animal	If target land is a Jungle or Wetland, 1 Fear and 1 Damage.	elements animal+fire → 8.7
4	Territorial Strife	0	Slow	Sun, Fire, Animal	3 Damage to Explorers/Towns. OR Add 1 Strife.	elements animal+fire → 8.7
5	Call to Bloodshed	1	Slow	Sun, Fire, Animal	1 Damage per Dahan. OR Gather up to 3 Dahan .	elements animal+fire → 8.7
6	Prowling Panthers	1	Slow	Moon, Fire, Animal	1 Fear . Add 1 Beasts. OR If target land has Beasts, Destroy 1 Explorer /Town.	elements animal+fire → 8.7
7	Weep for What is Lost	0	Slow	Fire, Water, Animal	1 Fear per type of Invader present. Push up to 1 Explorer /Town per Blight.	elements animal+fire → 8.7
8	Blood Draws Predators	1	Fast	Sun, Fire, Water, Animal	After the next time Invaders are Destroyed in target land: Add 1 Beasts, then 1 Damage pe…	elements animal+fire → 8.7
9	Call to Migrate	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Animal	Gather up to 3 Dahan . Push up to 3 Dahan .	elements animal+fire → 8.7
10	Fleshrot Fever	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Water, Animal	1 Fear . Add 1 Disease.	elements animal+fire → 8.7

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (from full pool)

#	Card	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)	Why this pick
1	Pent-Up Calamity	3	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth, Plant, Animal	Add 1 Disease and 1 Strife. OR Remove any number of Beasts/Disease/Strife/Wilds. For …	elements animal+earth+fire → 10.2
2	Unearth a Beast of Wrathful Stone	5	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth, Animal	After the next Invader Phase (on any turn) with no Ravage/Build Actions in target land:</…	elements animal+earth+fire → 10.2
3	Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power	4	Fast	Sun, Moon, Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Plant, Animal	Target Spirit gains a Major Power by drawing 2 and keeping 1, without having to Forget an…	elements animal+earth+fire → 10.2
4	Angry Bears	3	Slow	Sun, Fire, Animal	2 Fear . 2 Damage. If no Beasts are present, add 1 Beasts. Otherwise, +2 Damage, and Push …	elements animal+fire → 8.7
5	The Wounded Wild Turns on its Assailants	4	Slow	Fire, Plant, Animal	Add 2 Badlands. Gather up to 2 Beasts. 1 Damage per Blight/Beasts/Wilds.	elements animal+fire → 8.7

HoSI Beginner Deck Bundle — for reference only

Card	Type	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)
Devouring Ants	Minor	1	Slow	Sun, Earth, Animal	1 Fear . 1 Damage. Destroy 1 Dahan . If target land is a Jungle or Sands, +1 Damage.
Gnawing Rootbiters	Minor	0	Slow	Earth, Animal	Push up to 2 Towns .
Quicken the Earth's Struggles	—	—	—	—	(fetch error: Wiki API error for ‘Quicken_the_Earth's_Struggles’: {‘code’: ‘missingtitle’, ‘info’: “The page you specified doesn’t exist.”, ‘docref’: ‘See https://spiritislandwiki.com/api.php for API usage. Subscribe to the mediawiki-api-announce mailing list at <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-api-announce> for notice of API deprecations and breaking changes.’})
Pillar of Living Flame	Major	5	Slow	Fire	3 Fear . 5 Damage. If target land is a Jungle or Wetland, add 1 Blight .
Rouse the Trees and Stones	Minor	1	Slow	Fire, Earth, Plant	2 Damage. Push 1 Explorer .
Poisoned Land	Major	3	Slow	Earth, Plant, Animal	1 Fear . 7 Damage. Add 1 Blight . Destroy all Dahan.
Savage Mawbeasts	Minor	0	Slow	Fire, Animal	If target land is a Jungle or Wetland, 1 Fear and 1 Damage.

Cards to Avoid (anti-synergy flagged)

Key Strategic Principles

[VERIFY and enhance] — strategic principles should be derived from Wiki-verified mechanics above.

1. Use the Special Rule to its fullest (see above for exact text).
2. Element thresholds drive innate firing — see the innate tables above.
3. Suggested draft cards are Wiki-recommended; pattern-match to your matchup.

Opener Mechanics — starter reference

Starting state

• Setup: Put 1 Presence on your starting board, in land #5. You start with your 4 Unique Power Cards and 0 Energy.
• Starting income (from presence_energy_track[0] = energy2, presence_cardplay_track[0] = card1): 2 Energy · 1 Card Play
• Hand at start: 4 Unique Power Cards (listed below)
• Growth type: one — pick one growth option per turn

Growth options

• G1: reclaim (Reclaim all discarded+played Power Cards); addpresence0 (Place 1 Presence from a track (Range 0))
• G2: gain1p (Gain 1 Power Card (Minor unless otherwise noted)); addpresence1 (Place 1 Presence from a track (Range 1))
• G3: addpresence2 (Place 1 Presence from a track (Range 2)); energy3 ((+3 Energy this turn — growth effect, not track reveal))

Presence-track reveal rules: placing Presence (via a growth option with addpresence*) reveals one track slot — either the next Energy slot or the next Card-Play slot, not both. The choice determines your permanent-income trajectory from that turn onward.

Energy track

energy2 · fire · energy3 · energy4 · animal · energy6 · energy7 — income as slots reveal: 2 → fire → 3 → 4 → animal → 6 → 7

Card-play track

card1 · card2 · animalX · fireX · card3 · earthX · card4 — CP as slots reveal: 1 → 2 → animalX → fireX → 3 → earthX → 4

Innate Powers

• DEATH APPROACHES FROM BENEATH THE SURFACE (Speed: Slow · Range: 1 · Target: invaders)
  • L1 — 1 Fire + 1 Animal: If you don’t have Presence in target land, Gather 1 of your Presence. (This is required.)
  • L2 — 2 Fire + 1 Earth + 2 Animal: 1 Damage. (+1 for your “Territorial Aggression” Special Rule)
  • L3 — 3 Fire + 1 Earth + 3 Animal: 2 Damage.
  • L4 — 4 Fire + 2 Earth + 5 Animal: 2 Fear . 4 Damage.

Fast-phase element ceiling from Uniques

Fast innates resolve in Fast phase and can only see elements from Fast cards played before the innate. Slow-card elements arrive too late to feed a Fast innate. This is the element ceiling Fast plays from your Uniques alone can contribute each turn:

• Fast-phase Unique elements: (no Fast Uniques — all innate firings require drafted Fast cards)

Unique Power Cards

No Unique cards parsed.

Invader phase by turn (base deck)

Adversary escalation can shift this — check the adversary JSON for deviations (Sweden front-loads a Build; some Habsburg levels add early Builds).

Pause-point before writing T1 prose

Adversary Matchup Matrix

[VERIFY all grades] — template only; fill in per-adversary notes after play.

Strategy Cliffs — per-adversary-level shifts that change Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot’s math

England L5 — Buildings +1 HP

What changes: Towns become 3-HP (was 2), Cities become 4-HP (was 3). Damage-only Powers dealing 2 or 3 may no longer kill a Town/City in one go.

Mitigation for Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot: Stack damage from multiple plays or use downgrade Powers (Crops Wither, Tangled Trees) to soften before finishing.

England L3 — Coastal Lands build faster

What changes: England’s L3 escalation adds an extra Build in coastal lands. Ocean-adjacent spirits see compounded pressure on their home terrain.

Mitigation for Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot: Front-load coastal defense or disruption before T3’s first Ravage.

Brandenburg-Prussia — Cities drive Fear-per-kill (favorable swing)

What changes: BP’s escalation puts Cities on the board early, and each destroyed City dumps Fear into the pool. Damage-dealing spirits benefit from an inflated Fear curve; weaker spirits may struggle against pre-City pressure.

Mitigation for Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot: Aim at City-dense lands with your highest-damage plays for outsized Fear returns.

Board / Map Configuration

[VERIFY via play] — base boards A–D, Jagged Earth E–H, and thematic ratings pending per-spirit play experience.

Game-Phase Strategy

[VERIFY: needs play data].

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

[VERIFY: needs multi-spirit play data] — archetype-based hints from Archetype Index are the starting point.

Common Mistakes

[VERIFY: collect from play].

Tempo Profile

[VERIFY: per-round targets need playtest].

Expansion Sensitivity

• Base only: core Uniques + Innate + Special Rule functional if expansion = Base.
• + Branch & Claw: events + blight deck introduce variance.
• + Jagged Earth: Major/Minor pool deepens.
• + Nature Incarnate: additional aspects may unlock; check the aspect column above.

Per-expansion specifics [VERIFY].

Stat Snapshot

Source Notes

Chapter draft generated from Wiki data 2026-04-19. Strategic prose needs enhancement from play experience. See templates/SPIRIT_TEMPLATE.md for the full Rei-format spine.