We begin our series looking at the gameplay difference between each of the playable aethermon. Our focus is the Sky Aethermon Cervistral (Cervaero and Cervaura).
Overview:
Cervistral’s moveset is built entirely around its unique (f)lying mechanic. (F)lying moves forgo an immediate impact (or reduce their immediate impact), instead giving the player a buff that will boost the next attack the player makes.
This allows Cervistral to stack these buffs to deal single attacks far more devastating than any other Aethermon could produce. Cervistral’s greatest weakness is the lack of immediate firepower, as a result Cervistral will often take two rounds to defeat opponents that similarly leveled Aethermon might defeat in a single round.
Aethermon Ability
“Gain +2/3/4 Defense when at least 1 (f)lying buff is active”
Cervistral’s Aethermon ability somewhat offsets its weakness of engaging in longer battles by applying a defensive buff while preparing for its larger attacks.
Signature Battle Moves “Swoop, Stafe, Winged Attack, Aerial Assault”
“Deal 2/4/6/8 damage, (F)lying Buff: add 2/4/6/8 to next attack”
These attacks delay some of Cervistral’s damage, but transferring this damage to a future attack allows Cervistral to maximise its value from the rest of its moveset.
2-Cost “Healing Winds”
“(F)lying Buff: Restore HP equal to damage dealt on next attack”
For only 2-cost, this move turns Cervistral’s next attack into a heal that scales throughout the game; with even a modest follow up this can provide great value. Importantly the use of this move will often guarantee Cervistral will end the combat on full health and read for its next battle.
3-cost “Dive”
“Deal 1 Damage, Double Damage from (f)lying buffs”
This is Cervistrals finisher. When combined with only Cervistral specific moves, this move can deliver a massive 45 damage combo over 3 turns, or 43 damage with a 37 HP heal over 4 turns.
3-cost “Barrel Roll”
“(R)eact: Discard all (f)lying buffs to increase df by 6 per buff, place battle cards back in hand”
(R)eact moves can be played out of turn, immediately before an opponent’s attack lands (1 per turn).
This move can provide Cervistral great value when discarding a relatively weak buff. But so many of Cervistral’s (F)lying buffs provide much more value than the 6 defense this move offers, often forcing players to make difficult decisions in PvP battles.
4-Cost “Aerial Maneuvers”
“(Q)uick, (F)lying Buff: Deal 10 damage on next attack
A vanilla 4-cost battle move will deal 10 damage – so a delayed 10 damage move doesn’t seem like an overly attractive option. However, when combined with moves such as Healing Winds it becomes a 10 damage and 10 HP recovery; or with Dive it’s a decent 2-turn 21 damage combo costing only 7 combined.
Perhaps most significantly, this move has the (q)uick attribute, meaning this move will trigger before any other non-(q)uick move. This activates Cervistral’s Aethermon Ability before the opponent can complete their first attack, in close battles this small increase in defense can be the difference between success and defeat.
Friendship Ability “Fly”
“+1 overworld movement (max 6)”
The ability to get between destinations faster in the overworld can provide a huge advantage; particularly with quests that benefit the first player to arrive at a destination.
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I hope you enjoyed our first Aethermon Focus, let us know which Aethermon you want to hear about next.
Keep your eyes to the skies AetherRen