SP01: Seaside Memories

With Seaside Memories comes a number of very much needed reprints such as Celia, Sky Commander, Ralmia, Sonic Racer, and Orchis, Puppet Girl.

More importantly, we get seven new cards as part of the summer set - one for each class, including Neutral!

While seven cards may not seem like much, there are some extremely impactful cards, especially in Forestcraft, Swordcraft, and Neutral - let's dive into them, one card at a time.

Neutral

• Alice, Golden Afternoon: One of the strongest Neutral cards we have seen in a while. She, at worst, cycles herself. But more importantly, she is soft removal, especially when she can be put into the EX area from effects like Chipper Skipper (Evolved), Selena, Sugarkiss Assassin, and (in BP13: Darkness Reborn) Lunerian Paladin (Evolved). Additionally, every single Fable archetype benefits immensely from her existing, as Alice, Wonderland Explorer (Evolved)'s on evolve effect would put her into the EX area as well.

Forestcraft

• Spinaria, Wavering Will: We now have our second version of Spinaria, with her this time being an immense consistency booster to almost every single Forestcraft deck. One of the strongest synergies that she has is allowing you to put a Chipper Skipper in your EX area and then evolve her again, gaining you +2 and being able to search through the top 4 for a 2-cost follower again. She also has some subtle synergies with Fairy Forestcraft, being able to recur key cards like Amataz, Fairy Blader and Fairy Dragon

Swordcraft

• Amelia, Sunny Paladin: One key thing that the newest Swordcraft deck, Wasteland Swordcraft, tends to struggle with slightly is interacting with the opponent's board more meaningfully than Nahtnaught, Cursed Queen and her spell. Amelia, Sunny Paladin helps with this by allowing you to summon a 2 cost or less Officer follower, typically in Wasteland Outlaw Gunner or, as a follower that got a reprint in Seaside Memories, Ralmia, Sonic Racer.

Runecraft

• Falise, Innocent Sea Spray: While Falise does have the Academic trait, her main synergy actually lies with her other trait - Mage. Currently, and as the Mage deck evolves over time, she starts to become a way to remove boards with ease - chaining Crystal Fencer (Evolved)'s on evolve effect with Mage spells like Truth's Adjudication. You get to do a variety of these sorts of chains with future support, ensuring Mage Runecraft has a way to stay competitive as the deck itself evolves alongside the decks around it.

Dragoncraft

• Sharon, Seaside Nymph: Sharon doesn't actually have an alternate version in Evolve, but she is an important card for many Dragoncraft decks - costing 7 and refunding 5 means you can weave in some strong combo plays such as 'stunning' an enemy follower (not allowing it to attack enemies, including leaders!) alongside giving the next follower +1/+1, with one of the stronger synergies being Reggie, Peerless Artisan. Alternatively, if you need to stabilize, drawing a card and giving your leader +2 is a surefire way to help.

Abysscraft

• Queen Vampire, Sultry Evening: A small inclusion to the Vampire archetype, Queen Vampire's alternate provides removal on her fanfare. On the other hand, her ability during the end phase requires 3 other Vampire cards, which is currently a little harder to achieve on an empty board - requiring multiple copies of Gift for Bloodkin. If you do happen to have a setup to activate her condition, her damage and healing are not negligible, but she is a little more difficult to play in the current meta, given that threats typically have 5 defense or more.

Havencraft

• Zoe, Shore's Melody: As a bonus to the more heal oriented archetypes of Havencraft, Zoe's alternate offers removal and cycle if you can achieve the task of gaining at least 4 defense. There are additionally some synergies with Amulet , potentially involving Ceryneian Lighthind (Evolved) or a combination of Candelabra of Prayers and other sources of healing.