Vengeance as a Burning Plague

Spirit Overview — Framing

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Not so powerful early, but can be a late-game juggernaut, especially if things are going badly: Blight adds to its Damage and its Presence being Destroyed adds Disease. It may even want to engineer these situations, which can make other Spirits nervous (and be risky if things go poorly).

Strategic framing [VERIFY: enhance with play experience].

Starting Setup

1 of your Presence starts the game already Destroyed. Put 2 Presence on your starting board: 1 in a land with Blight, 1 in a Wetland without Dahan.

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: energy1, energy2, animal, energy3, energy4
• Card-play track: card1, card2, fireX, card2, card3, card3, card4

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule

THE TERROR OF A SLOWLY UNFOLDING PLAGUE When Disease would prevent a Build on a board with your Presence, you may let the Build happen (removing no Disease). If you do, 1 Fear . LINGERING PESTILENCE When your Presence is destroyed by anything except a Spirit action, add 1 Disease where each destroyed Presence was. WREAK VENGEANCE FOR THE LAND’S CORRUPTION Your actions treat Blight on the island as also being Badlands.

Innate: EPIDEMICS RUN RAMPANT

• Speed: fast · Range: 1 · Target: disease

(no thresholds listed in Wiki)

Innate: SAVAGE REVENGE

• Speed: slow · Range: 0 · Target: building

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	3 Air	This Power has Range +1.
2	3 Fire + 1 Animal	1 Damage.
3	4 Fire + 2 Animal	+2 Damage.
4	5 Fire + 2 Air + 2 Animal	+3 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	Swarming Wasps	0	Fast	Fire, Air, Animal	Add 1 Beasts. OR If target land has Beasts, Push up to 2 Explorers .	elements air+animal+fire → 9.6
2	Fleshrot Fever	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Water, Animal	1 Fear . Add 1 Disease.	elements air+animal+fire → 9.6
3	Call to Migrate	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Animal	Gather up to 3 Dahan . Push up to 3 Dahan .	elements air+animal+fire → 9.6
4	Steam Vents	1	Fast	Fire, Air, Water, Earth	Destroy 1 Explorer .	elements air+fire → 7.8
5	Dry Wood Explodes in Smoldering Splinters	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Plant	You may spend 1 Energy to make this Power Fast. 2 Fear . 1 Damage.	elements air+fire → 7.8
6	Hazards Spread Across the Island	0	Fast	Fire, Air, Earth, Plant	Choose a type of token from Badlands/Beasts/Disease/Strife/Wilds that exists in an adjace…	elements air+fire → 7.8
7	Lure of the Unknown	0	Fast	Moon, Fire, Air, Plant	Gather 1 Explorer /Town.	elements air+fire → 7.8
8	Desiccating Winds	1	Slow	Fire, Air, Earth	If target land has Badlands, 1 Damage. Add 1 Badlands.	elements air+fire → 7.8
9	Purifying Flame	1	Slow	Sun, Fire, Air, Plant	1 Damage per Blight. If target land is a Mountain or Sands, you may instead Remove 1 Blig…	elements air+fire → 7.8
10	Fire in the Sky	1	Fast	Sun, Fire, Air	2 Fear . Add 1 Strife.	elements air+fire → 7.8

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (from full pool)

#	Card	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)	Why this pick
1	Plague Ships Sail to Distant Ports	4	Fast	Fire, Air, Water, Animal	1 Fear . Add 4 Disease among Coastal lands (on any boards) other than target land.	elements air+animal+fire → 9.6
2	Instruments of Their Own Ruin	4	Fast	Sun, Fire, Air, Animal	Add 1 Strife. Each Invader with Strife deals Damage to other Invaders in target land.	elements air+animal+fire → 9.6
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 air+animal+fire → 9.6
4	Talons of Lightning	6	Fast	Fire, Air	3 Fear . 5 Damage.	elements air+fire → 7.8
5	Storm-Swath	3	Slow	Fire, Air, Water	2 Fear . In both origin land and target land: 1 Damage to each Invader.	elements air+fire → 7.8

HoSI Beginner Deck Bundle — for reference only

No HoSI beginner-deck bundle for this spirit.

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: 1 of your Presence starts the game already Destroyed. Put 2 Presence on your starting board: 1 in a land with Blight, 1 in a Wetland without Dahan.
• Starting income (from presence_energy_track[0] = energy1, presence_cardplay_track[0] = card1): 1 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); gain1p (Gain 1 Power Card (Minor unless otherwise noted)); energy1 ((track slot showing 1 Energy))
• G2: Vengeance ((spirit-specific: Vengeance — consult spirit panel)); Vengeance ((spirit-specific: Vengeance — consult spirit panel))
• G3: gain1p (Gain 1 Power Card (Minor unless otherwise noted)); addpresencedisease1 ((spirit-specific: addpresencedisease1 — consult spirit panel)); energy1 ((track slot showing 1 Energy))

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

energy1 · energy2 · animal · energy3 · energy4 — income as slots reveal: 1 → 2 → animal → 3 → 4

Card-play track

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

Innate Powers

• EPIDEMICS RUN RAMPANT (Speed: Fast · Range: 1 · Target: disease)
• SAVAGE REVENGE (Speed: Slow · Range: 0 · Target: building)
  • L1 — 3 Air: This Power has Range +1.
  • L2 — 3 Fire + 1 Animal: 1 Damage.
  • L3 — 4 Fire + 2 Animal: +2 Damage.
  • L4 — 5 Fire + 2 Air + 2 Animal: +3 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)
• Fast-phase L1 ceiling from Uniques alone is sufficient — you can fire L1 T1 without drafting (play enough Fast Uniques to meet the threshold).

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 Vengeance as a Burning Plague’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 Vengeance as a Burning Plague: 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 Vengeance as a Burning Plague: Front-load coastal defense or disruption before T3’s first Ravage.

Russia L3+ — Dahan under pressure + fear suppression

What changes: Russia’s L3 escalation targets Dahan directly and suppresses Fear. Spirits reliant on Dahan density (Shadows of the Dahan, Favors Called Due, Thunderspeaker synergies) lose a key engine.

Mitigation for Vengeance as a Burning Plague: Pre-empt Dahan loss with Defend-heavy Minors (Dahan/Village-fortify cards); lean on Push/Gather Majors to offset Fear deficit.

Habsburg Mining L5+ — Explorer/Town scaling

What changes: Habsburg Mining L5+ adds extra Explorers and faster builds. Aggressive fear-rush openers can get outpaced by raw Invader accumulation.

Mitigation for Vengeance as a Burning Plague: Favor Major Powers with mass destruction (Jungle Hungers, Cleansing Floods, etc.) over Minor-heavy drafts.

France (Plantation) — Dahan capture threatens your Dahan engine

What changes: France’s plantation rules convert Dahan to colonists, and Invaders occupy lands with Dahan. Spirits whose innate/card math counts on Dahan density (Shadows-of-the-Dahan, Favors, Thunderspeaker) are downgraded.

Mitigation for Vengeance as a Burning Plague: Play Defend Powers on Dahan lands; accept loss of range-extension budget.

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 Vengeance as a Burning Plague: 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.