Single Best Ascension Expansion?

#1

Sorry, I know the topic is a little vague but I figured it would draw some responses. Let me explain a little more specifically what I am looking for.

I have a friend who, for whatever reason, bounced right off of Ascension. I think he maybe didn’t quite get the deck building mechanic, but I’m not completely sure. Anyways, this same friend loves Shards of Infinity. Shards is great, don’t get me wrong, but without expansions it becomes very samey after dozens of games. I’d like to see if he would give Ascension another try and if he takes to it a little better, I’d like to try and get him to play with one of the expansions that really shows off how versatile the game can be by adding in a new mechanic that makes him think “wow, I didn’t even know the game could do that.” Does my line of thinking make sense?

Anyways, is there a single expansion in your opinion that really helps shake up the formula and shows off how cool the game can be?

Thanks for any input.

[Season 1] Ascension League
#2

I’ve played a lot of Ascension, but I find the game pretty mediocre. If Playdek hadn’t done such a great job of making it, I probably wouldn’t have played it so much. If I had to pick a best expansion, I’d go with Dawn of Champions, but I really think you’d be better off getting him to play Star Realms.

#3

Unfortunately, and I didn’t mention this, there are three of us that play. The other already likes Ascension. That eliminates Star Realms.

#4

I enjoy the one where you start with a colour hero and you can level them up to 8 points.

I don’t like treasures, nor the “multi-unite” BS.

3 Likes
#5

And dreamscape is hit or miss for me

1 Like
#6

The expansion Baelnor mentioned is “Dawn of Champions” and it IS my favourite Ascension Expansion.

The added bonus of dicking other players out of their preferred color cards has such a nice salty taste ahem

So yeah, the newest ones are hit and miss for me especially the Dreamscape mechanics, but if it is only one try “Dawn of Champions” (DoC)

1 Like
#7

To echo the comments here, I really enjoy Dawn of Champions as well - not sure about the salty taste :flushed: but I do enjoy the bit of fuckery in taking someone else’s color.

I was also meh on Dreamscape, but adding in the one with the die helps a lot - it gives some decent choices insofar as spending your insight on the die roll vs grabbing a dreamscape card vs saving it in case you need it to bid on a dealt card…

#8

Dawn was great. I think Valley of the Ancients might have been my personal favorite, but that’s despite the overly swingy temples. Mostly, I think they made it seem different enough that it felt like a new game more than most expansions. So I support the consensus for your purposes.

1 Like
#9

Yeah, I always play with Dawn of Champions enabled.

#10

I have really enjoyed combining Dreamscape and Delirium. You get more use out of the insight tokens and have good decisions between using the insight to buy cards from your dreamscape or roll the delirium die.

2 Likes
#11

As other have suggested, Dawn of Champions is a good expansion to bring new players who’ve only seen the first set into the game.

But I’ve always felt that Rise of Vigil and/or Darkness Unleashed offered some of the best “subtle” strategy in the treasure cards. Because they allowed you to control when you draw cards during your turn, you end up being able to make some critical decisions about when to shuffle your deck. Sometimes you want to reshuffle immediately in order to keep the weak cards you are playing this turn from cycling through your draw pile until next time. Sometime you want to hold off on a draw until after you’ve made a purchase or two so that the new cards get into your draw pile sooner. And sometime you don’t want to play your treasures at all because your best cards are the ones you just played this turn and you want to make sure they don’t miss a turn through the rotation. Most player will just play all of their treasures at the start of each turn (or worse yet, hit the “Play All” button), and they end up completely missing some of the best deck manipulation decisions in the game.

5 Likes
#12

I scrolled down until I found the first Ascension thread I could raise from the dead for this.

We’ve heard the news now that the Deliverance set is on its way to Ascension digital. Does anyone have experience with this set and know if it couples well with any other sets?

#13

When Deliverance comes out on the 27th, I’m definitely up for some games of it for anybody who’s interested.

4 Likes
#14

One of the few things that annoys me about this game is the inability to adjust victory points in an online game. I’d love to raise them and make my games longer in order really get some of my combos going; most of my 1v1 games just seem to end a little too early.

Is there a single set that seems to do a better job than most in giving you crazy combos to play with?

1 Like
#15

I have a question about the portals and I’m going to tag @Strangiato here in case. Inoculated else knows.

Portals are supposed to be random, and all their text is identical, but their costs vary. Do different value portals give you different cards? I’ve seen one that cost 13. Is that identical to a portal that costs 1?

#16

You will acquire a hero or construct that costs 1 to 3 more runes than the price you paid.

There aren’t any cards that cost 14 runes and only one that costs 15 runes, so it should be easy to guess what you’re going to get when you buy the 13 cost portal.

4 Likes
#17

Thank you!