Duelyst's fourth expansion is out next week, take a look at 9 cards with a brand new keyword

Tactical CCG Duelyst's fourth expansion is only four days away—a 94 card set arriving on Tuesday, July 11—and I couldn't be more excited about it. After two smaller sets in a row, Counterplay Games—which recently partnered with Bandai Namco as a publisher—tells me it's switching to a pattern of swapping between big and small expansions. The newest set, Unearthed Prophecy, is also getting back to some of the ideas that made me fall in love with Duelyst in the first place.

Already announced is the addition of new types of tiles specific to the Lyonar, Magmar, and Vetruvian factions, as well as a smattering of cards that more heavily rely on board position. Effects that interact with unit movement and positioning were one of the most exciting parts of Duelyst's core set, so I'm pleased those concepts will be expanded on in Unearthed Prophecy. 

But what about the other three factions that aren't getting new tiles? Well Vanar, Abyssian, and Songhai will each get three units with a brand new keyword: Sentinel. Sentinel units all cost 3 mana and, when played, appear on the board as a generic looking 3/3. When one of three conditions is met—the opponent playing a unit, playing a spell, or attacking with their general—the Sentinel will transform into its true form.

The trick here is that only the player who played the Sentinel unit knows which one it is, so your opponent will have to tiptoe around each trigger while you can try to bluff which unit you actually played. It's something like a mix of Hearthstone's Secrets and Magic: The Gathering's Morph. 

There are only going to be nine Sentinel units total in Unearthed Prophecy—three per faction, each with one of the triggers. That means the possibilities are pretty simple to check and prepare for if you are familiar with the cards, especially if only one of the three turns out to see play in a given deck. But still, I love the idea of putting three of each into a deck and watching my opponent be utterly confused each time a faceless Sentinel hits the board, just for laughs.

You can flip through the nine new Sentinel cards we have to show off in the gallery below, along with the generic Watchful Sentinel unit for each faction. You can also find the full resolution PNGs and animated GIFs of each card here. 

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