Card Highlights #6 - Tricycloid

Welcome to Card of the Week! The purpose of this series is to prompt strategy discussion and answer any rules questions about specific cards. Feel free to share stories of how you’ve used the featured card in the past, speculations of how you might use it in the future, and any strong synergies or counters you may think of. And feel free to message me with any card requests for next week! Otherwise cards will be chosen randomly.

Previously on Card of the Week

Card Highlights #5 - Hooded Executioner


This week’s card is Tricycloid:

Tricycloid is one of the more expensive Tech II units, but it is definitely worth the cost. You can spend the time runes on the same turn you play it, and it can hit heroes and tech buildings! It’s a great way to snipe that pesky hero or deal the last few damage needed to destroy a tech building, even through a full patrol zone. Alternatively, a 6/6 for 5g on defense is pretty respectable, and if it lives, on the following turn you can attack with it and then use the ability for 9 damage total. Not to mention the insane synergies with several other purple cards, as we will soon see…

In-spec Synergies
Temporal Distortion - play a Tricycloid, shoot three things, then Temporal Distortion it into the other Tricycloid from your codex, shoot three more things, and then if you’re really rich, replay the original Tricycloid for three more shots!

Now! - not only do you get to shoot, now you can swing for 6 attack first.

In-color Synergies
Time Spiral, Seer - Purple has a few other ways to give you more than three shots per Tricycloid. But be careful, once you spend all of the time runes, these can’t put any more on.

Out-of-color Synergies
???

Counters
Calamandra Moss, Mind Parry Monk, Potent Basilisk - the majority of Tricycloid’s power is in its ability, so any Untargetable things will make you very sad. Additionally, each shot counts as a use of the ability, so hitting things with Resist will drain your gold supply quickly.

2 Likes

Geiger is another in-spec synergy worth listing. His maxband functions similar to Temporal Distortion to refresh your time runes, except that you don’t need even need to draw a spell to do it. Bonus synergy if you use one of the shots to kill a hero and level Geiger for free.

5 Likes

another in color synerhy is with second chances. You summon tricycloid, spend the runes, TD him for hyperion while second C gives u a fresh new tric with all the runes!

3 Likes

Second chances blocks Temporal Distortion from completing. TD has a “if you do” clause. it would still give you a fresh triC.

hmmm, i amnnot sure about this, since the units does return to hand.
I asked this when i played mono purple and i was answered that this combo is valid.
I used that to do: attack with old hyperion, TD hype for a secon one, refresh old hype for 3 attacks and cards. Sharpo said it was a legal play.

Oh, I guess I needed to read second chances closer? Second chances is not “instead.” So you are right, my bad!

2 Likes

it did, cuz was second chances to bring the old hype refreshed. sorry, i simply forgot to say that.
I asked that in the old errata/rules thread before using that combo in an actual match.

One time I played: Now + Tricycloid, attacked, removed counters, then Temporal Distortioned him into Hyperion. Probably my favorite turn ever.

2 Likes

Out of color: Plague Lab.
All of Purple likes Plague Lab, maybe some others better than Tricycloid. (Growth likes it, too.)

1 Like

I’m not sure about plague lab. It requires 4 gold and 2 turns to set up (tech lab on the first turn, plague lab on the second, finally usable on the 3rd). Once you do, you can at most pay 2 gold for 1 time rune per turn. Compared to the in color or in spec synergies, that’s much more cost and setup for a weaker payoff.

I feel like if you’re going to go through all that setup, it should primarily be for the -1/-1 effect of plague lab, and the rune ability is just a side benefit.

2 Likes

I think the plague lab combo works better as Primary Spec Disease and use TD to get out a tricycloid as needed.

the first out of purple card I thought of was hallucination.

1 Like

You could also use Dreamscape. It turns everything into illusions, making them easier to pop.

2 Likes