Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds

Spirit Overview — Framing

Keeper is a slow-starting, cluster-building sacred-site spirit — falls behind in Stage 1, catches up in Stage 2 when its Wilds tokens start choking Explores. Lennert:

Keeper tends to fall behind the invaders in the early game and then catch up in stage 2 when all those wilds you’ve been placing start blocking explores.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Wilds-placing, range-limited damage spirit. Punish Those Who Trespass is a zero-range damage innate; Spreading Wilds converts land-type into defensive terrain.

Non-obvious constraint: No way to place presence into blighted land. All three add-presence modes require no-blight, existing wilds, or existing presence. Shapes opening play more than damage numbers do.

Solo-vs-multi inversion on Towering Wrath: Wrath scales with sacred-site clustering, which fights against multi-board coverage needs. Community consensus: Wrath is phenomenal solo, weaker at 3–4p.

Complexity signal: Moderate is correct.

Starting Setup

Put 1 Presence and 1 Wilds on your starting board in the highest-numbered Jungle.

Growth Options (growthtype: “many” — pick multiple)

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (8 slots): energy2 → sun → energy4 → energy5 → plant → energy7 → energy8 → energy9
• Card-play track (6 slots): card1 → card2 → card2 → card3 → card4 → card5reclaim1

Starting income: 2 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Forbidden Ground

After you create a Sacred Site, Push all Dahan from that land. Dahan Events never move Dahan to your Sacred Site, but Powers can do so.

Sacred sites repel Dahan. Keeper’s lands are forbidden to Dahan — makes Towering Wrath’s Destroy-all-Dahan clause mostly a non-event.

Innate: Punish Those Who Trespass

• Speed: Slow · Range: 0 · Target: Any

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	2 Sun + 1 Fire + 2 Plant	2 Damage. Destroy 1 Dahan.
2	2 Sun + 2 Fire + 3 Plant	+1 Damage per Sun/Plant you have.
3	4 Plant	Split this Power’s Damage between target land and another of your lands.

Range-0 damage scales with Sun+Plant. L2 at 2S/2F/3P can reach 4–6 damage.

Innate: Spreading Wilds

• Speed: Slow · Range: 1 · Target: No-Blight

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	2 Sun	Push 1 Explorer per 2 Sun you have.
2	1 Plant	If target land has no Explorer, add 1 Wilds.
3	3 Plant	This Power has Range +1.
4	1 Air	This Power has Range +1.

Explorer-push + Wilds-seeding in empty lands. Wilds cancels Explores (see Token Economies).

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Boon of Growing Power

• 1 Energy · Slow · No Range · Any Spirit · Sun, Moon, Plant
• Target Spirit gains a Power Card. If you target another Spirit, they also gain 1 Energy.

Card-gain + partner amp. Self-target fine in solo.

Regrow from Roots

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Jungle or Wetland · Water, Earth, Plant
• If there are 2 Blight or fewer in target land, Remove 1 Blight.

Blight-remove with a cap — won’t fix cascaded lands but handles 1–2 Blight.

Sacrosanct Wilderness

• 2 Energy · Fast · Range 1 · Land with no Blight · Sun, Earth, Plant
• Push 2 Dahan. 2 Damage per Wilds in target land. OR Add 1 Wilds.

Dual-mode: Wilds-scaled damage (in already-wilded lands) or Wilds-seeder.

Towering Wrath

• 3 Energy · Slow · Range 1 from Sacred Site · Any Land · Sun, Fire, Plant
• 2 Fear. For each of your Sacred Site in/adjacent to target land, 2 Damage. Destroy all Dahan.

Cluster-scaled damage. 3 sacred sites adjacent = 6 damage + 2 Fear. The “Destroy all Dahan” clause is mostly irrelevant (Forbidden Ground repels Dahan anyway).

Key Strategic Principles

1. Cluster sacred sites. Every additional site adjacent = +2 Wrath damage.
2. Wilds tokens compound across turns. T1 Wilds = T4 Explore-cancel.
3. Draft range-extenders. Zero-range Punish desperately wants Reaching Grasp, Sky Stretches to Shore.
4. Keep 2+ energy banked T1–T2 — the +1 E / +presence growth is conditional.
5. Solo vs multi inverts Wrath priority. Solo → cluster. 3–4p → spread.
6. Strangling Firevine is the Major-draft crown jewel (Lennert).

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 1 Presence + 1 Wilds on highest Jungle.
• 4 Uniques in hand: Boon of Growing Power (1E Slow, Sun/Moon/Plant), Regrow from Roots (1E Slow, Water/Earth/Plant), Sacrosanct Wilderness (2E Fast, Sun/Earth/Plant), Towering Wrath (3E Slow, Sun/Fire/Plant).
• Starting income: 2 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Opening A — Lennert canonical 🟨 (default)

Saves 2E per early turn; reclaim on T4.

T1 · Growth: G1 (Minor) + G2 (+1E, place presence). Presence in starting land.

• Target elements: 2 Sun + 1 Plant; save 2E. If 0-cost Sun Minor drops, place from bottom track; play Boon of Growing Power + that Minor.
• Otherwise: place from top track (expose Sun); play only Boon.
• Hits Spreading Wilds L1 + L2 (2 Sun + 1 Plant); clear lone-Explorer land, seed Wilds.

T2 · Growth: G1 (+1E, presence) + G3 (pay 3E, presence, Minor).

• Income: 4E / 2 plays.
• Target: 2 Sun + 1 Plant again; save 2E. Legal combos:
  • Sacrosanct Wilderness + any 0-cost Minor, OR
  • Regrow from Roots + any Sun Minor.

T3 · Growth: G1 + G3 again (both bottom-track).

• Cards: Towering Wrath + Plant/Fire Minor + Plant Minor (e.g., Regrow from Roots).
• Hits Punish Those Who Trespass L2 (4 damage at Range 0, 5–6 with planning) + Spreading Wilds L3 (+1 Range).
• Energy tight — Wrath costs 3 of your 4E income; one companion must be 0-cost.

T4 · Growth: Reclaim. Repeat roughly T3 shape.

Opening B — T2 Wrath (damage-rush) 🟥

Play Wrath T2 for earlier burst. Lennert: typically a damage loss (fewer sites; only L1 Punish) and slows development — T3 can only place 1 presence.

Opening C — brunoxv’s “save 3E” 🟥

Save 3 rather than 2 on early turns so 3E growth option converts an unblighted presence into a sacred site same turn. Pushes Reclaim to T5.

Opening D — Major-rush (497328 variant) 🟥

T3 · Growth: G3 + Major (5+ Plant); forget Towering Wrath if better Major dropped.

The Jungle Hungers and Strangling Firevine are flagged as better 3-energy effects in games where site-clustering isn’t viable.

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A — Lennert’s canonical balanced line.
• Opening B/C in niche acceleration contexts.
• Opening D in 3–4p where cluster-scaling loses value.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — Keeper-specific ranking

1. Towering Wrath — site-cluster-scaled damage.
2. Sacrosanct Wilderness — Wilds-scaled Fast damage.
3. Boon of Growing Power — card-gain + partner amp.
4. Regrow from Roots — situational Blight-cleanse.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Sun + Plant + Fire)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks

Cards to Avoid

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Board / Map Configuration

Antistone: Across 12 draws, ~98.8% chance of drawing a useful land-clear. New blight rules mitigate the Board B trap further.

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• Save 2E per turn; cluster sacred sites.
• Seed Wilds T1–T3 for Stage-2 Explore cancel.
• T3 Towering Wrath for first burst.

Mid (T4–6)

• Reclaim cycle every 3 turns.
• Punish Those Who Trespass L2 for 4–6 damage.
• Major integration (Strangling Firevine).

Late (T7+)

• Wrath + Wilds cycle with 4+ sacred sites adjacent.
• Punish L3 (4 Plant) for split-damage.

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• A Spread of Rampant Green — Gift of Proliferation jumps Keeper to 5E T2 / 7E T3.
• Early-tempo partners (Sharp Fangs, Lightning) — pick up the slack T1–T2 (brunoxv).
• Avoid: other slow spirits without external acceleration.

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/keeper-of-the-forbidden-wilds.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Openings: Lennert BGG 1978655.