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This post is a rerun of an article that Otto wrote earlier this year in September. He has given us permission to repost it here. Big shout out and thank you to Otto. Otto has proven that he has a unique and elite perspective when it comes to TCGs. It’s a pleasure to share his thoughts here. Check out his Twitter account here and throw him a follow: OttoSuwenNFT.
Recently, the effects and statlines for most Parallel cards were revealed. I have been doing some deep diving into the entire collection. What has drawn my initial interest are the Paragon cards. Please note, that until Parallel releases its full game, that these Paragon cards are subject to updates. Each Paragon has both a “passive” ability and an “active” ability. “Passive” abilities are ongoing and require no prerequisites. To initiate a Paragon’s “active” ability, a player must pay a certain energy cost. As of this write-up, the energy costs have not been revealed yet. A player always starts the game with a Paragon. However, each of the five Parallels has three unique Paragons (so far). Today I’ll be looking into and reviewing Marcolian’s Paragons.
I’d like to preface this review by mentioning my perception of Marcolian’s playstyle. I consider Marcolian the most aggressive Parallel. Many of their cards are low-cost and can put significant early pressure on the opposing player. Marcolian aims to fight for the board during the early and midgame. As such, a good complementary Paragon would further this strategy.
The first Paragon card is “Armoured Division HQ”.
This Paragon card has the following functions:
Passive: Vehicles you control gain +1/+0
Active: *Pacifist* First time each turn a friendly unit vehicle deals damage to a player, draw a card.
The passive ability is satisfactory. Vehicles gaining +1/+0 is useful. However, I rather Marcolian units gain health than attack. While contesting the board early, health is the more valuable statline. Additionally, the active ability helps with gaining card advantage. The problem is that the ability doesn’t provide any support for contesting the board. Other Paragons’ active abilities have a much more meaningful impact on statlines. This Paragon is decent for the vehicle archetype but doesn’t provide much utility for Marcolian overall.
Rating (1.5/5)
Next we have “Catherine Lapointe, The Mad General”.
This Paragon card has the following functions:
Passive: The second unit played each turn gets +1/+1
Active: Cannot be healed. Cannot choose who she attacks. At the end of your turn ‘ol Cathy attacks a random enemy.
This passive ability is outstanding. As stated earlier, Marcolian wants to swarm the board early and contest for the first few turns. This passive provides a meaningful statline buff to low energy cost units. By leveraging this passive ability, a player can play Ruthless Sergeant (a 0-cost card) and another 1-cost card on turn one. The best possible result is a 3/3 and 1/1 hitting the board on turn 1. That is almost an insurmountable lead from the get-go. The active ability seems decent as a way to deal the last bits of damage to an opponent. Without knowing Catherine’s official statline, it’s hard to judge. However, when just considering her passive ability, she is an insanely strong Paragon for all Marcolian archetypes.
Rating: (5/5)
Finally, we have “Lemieux, Master Commando”.
This Paragon card has the following functions:
Passive: Begin the game with a 1/1 Unseen Infiltrator on the battle field.
Active: Choose one of the following effects or if you have activated Assault, do all three:
– Destroy a target unit
– Return a target unit from the Waste into your hand
– Units you control gain +1/+1 this turn
Similar to Catherine, the passive ability is excellent in helping gain board advantage early. However, it’s essentially a one-time usage ability. If the opposing player can deal with the Unseen Infiltrator early, then there is no further passive to rely on. The active ability is quite useful, especially when the prerequisite of “Assault” is met. The turn that the active ability is activated will be an extremely important swing-turn. Both the passive and active abilities are very strong the turn they’re activated but have little consequence after. As such, I would rate Lemieux below Catherine.
Rating: (3.5/5)