The final card reveal for The Elder Scrolls Legends FrostSpark Collection is Wilds Incarnate, lovingly named The Moose by many. The Moose is a 7-cost 5/6 Neutral Beast with Guard and a pretty interesting Summon effect: Draw a card if you have four runes. Draw an additional card if you have five runes.

Wilds Incarnate – The Moose

Wilds Incarnate aka “The Moose” comes with good statistics for a Guard, although 5/6 is not the greatest Guard at 7-cost. Wilds Incarnate summon ability, however, gives a card draw opportunity under a rather novel condition. It draws one or two cards if by turn 6 or 7 (or higher) only one or none of your runes have been broken yet.

If you are playing against aggro this will be rather difficult to do, and there is currently only Morokei, the Deathless who can restore rune 5 or 6. Obviously, the effect of Wilds Incarnate is targeted against Combo or Control decks. Those usually do not attack the opponent’s face before turn 10 or 12 to avoid that any cards be given to them. In such match-ups, Wild Incarnate will be a good tech choice. Before we look at synergies, let’s quickly look at evaluating the card using quadrant theory.

Quadrant Theory – Wilds Incarnate aka “The Moose”

Opening

With a cost of 7 you can forget playing Wilds Incarnate from hand, the Moose has no use here. The only (meme) option you can use to get Wilds Incarnate into play early is to use Falkreath Defiler to draw the Moose from the discard pile (see Sword of the Inferno – Uses and Synergies).

Parity

A different assessment at Parity – a 5/6 Guard as a top deck card, can certainly help with a few favourable trades and stop damage. The additional potential card draw can be the “Tüpfelchen on the i”, or the icing on the cake. Thumbs up for Wilds Incarnate, here – The Moose has use at Parity!

Winning

A very similar situation when you are winning. The Moose is a big body, that can be played next to some of your smaller ones to protect them, so your damage train can roll. Similar to Parity, if you get card advantage from his Summon ability, you will likely be able to continue the steam roll.

Losing

Wilds Incarnate is also a good option when you need a turnaround. The Guard keyword will likely let you block a lane and get to trade for one or two creatures. Guard creatures are always a little bit risky to be relied on when losing, because your opponent could have removal or a silence effect which might let him continue to beat you down.

Synergies

Aggro Steam Engine to compete past turn 7

If you are running an Aggro Deck and playing against Midrange, you will have noticed it: the Midrange player will have very, very, very little incentive to break any of your runes, as this would give you additional cards. All their removal and Guards and everything is just thrown in your way to break the waves of your attacking creatures. He is fighting for the board and will oftentimes avoid to hit you below 26 health.

Usually, around turn 6 or 7 your offensive runs out of steam and the midrange player gets to control the board. How often have you been thinking – oh, I wish I had just one or two more cards to take the last 3 points of health”? Well, Wilds Incarnate is here for you. His role in an aggro deck is very similar to that of Triumphant Jarl, who has been a staple for many red aggro decks. While the Jarl is a little bit cheaper (6-cost, 4/4), Wilds Incarnate may has some advantages:

• it has Guard and can protect other creatures in a lane to make them survive another turn, which can just be the one turn you might need,
• as a Neutral card, it can be put in any aggro deck of any attribute, class or house,
• it has slightly better stats (granted: for one more magicka).

If Wilds Incarnate were to enter the meta consistently, it might make midrange players consider to break a rune (or two) a little bit earlier on. This should make games more interesting.

Singleton – Morokei, the Deathless

Morokei, The Deathless

Siege of Stros M’Kai

Seht’s Masterwork

A Night to Remember

Ulfric’s Uprising

Dark Rebirth

Doppelganger

In Singleton, you can use Morokei, the Deathless to restore one or multiple runes. This can be done by re-triggering the Morokei’s summon effect multiple times. For example, an Ulfric’s Uprising or a Dark Rebirth might help with this, or a Doppelganger. Would be quite cool to draw maybe even four cards across two turns in Singleton.

Neutral Synergy

Verminous Fabricant

Shalk Fabricant

Kagouti Fabricant

Nix-Hound Fabricant

Hulking Fabricant

Verminous Fabricant, Shalk Fabricant, Kagouti Fabricants, Nix-Hound Fabricant and Hulking Fabricant all rely on a neutral card to be in play. Granted, they do not see play very often, although they do have some value. I just thought I would highlight them for re-consideration.

Summary

I guess there was not too much to say about Wilds Incarnate. It seems like a pretty solid and straight forward card that is strong in at least two, if not three, of the four quadrants. Now, let’s hop onto the ladder and give FrostSpark Collection a try.