By Steve Horton

The Mutant Shaman is an “Engineer”-type class, but is far different than his Biomek Constructor or Human Engineer counterparts in that his engineering ability is far more mystical in nature. This mysticism gives the Shaman the ability to regenerate armor, search for gear, and, most importantly, generate power.

The power capabilities of the Mutant starter are unmatched, thanks to the awesome vehicle ability of the Alchemy Van and the power generation of Basic Power Plant and Divine Alchemy, and you’ll need every bit of extra power to play the massive number of units contained within.

That’s your primary goal – to win by overrunning your opponent’s vehicle with units. The best time to do this is just after stashing an Infuriate, which gives every one of your units a damage bonus that turn. This means you’ll be able to swerve all but one for accuracy and still have a nice damage bonus in reserve.

You also have the ability to destroy opposing units with Collision Course and Blind Fury. If the opponent should happen to eliminate your Pikes, many of them have special abilities that trigger when they die, so even death isn’t a total loss.

Units also have the side benefit of punishing an opponent’s vehicle when assaulting. With just a few units at each location, the vehicle has little chance of winning the assault, giving you a great opportunity to pile on the damage!

Mutant vs. Biomek

The Biomek deck will try and punish you early with vehicle-on-vehicle combat, something your units can’t do anything about, so make judicious use of your damage reduction and healing capabilities. The Biomek will still be forced to assault several times during the course of the game, and this is when you’ll be inflicting the majority of the damage to his C.O.R.E. 440.

Mutant vs. Human

As the Human deck is focused on mission solving, camp your units at both locations and watch the Human try and fight its way through. The Human will have multiple ways of increasing speed and damage reduction when you attack, but if you’re attacking three times per turn (units at both locations, plus your vehicle), the Human deck will eventually run out, and its armor will not last long after that.