As you may recall from one of our Gates of Chaos previews, rooting out and crushing Fudoism has something of a soft spot in my heart. Last preview cycle, I was tormented with rolling out Fudoism-themed previews. This time? Not so much with the torment (well, none directed at me, anyway):

OK, OK, I’ll grant, the obliteration of the Fudoists is coming so quickly, emphatically, and universally that there’s part of me that wonders if it’s coming too easily (and, of course, because of the Monk v. Dragon results from GenCon, we know that there will be some level of Fudo support in Ivory edition). But I shall shush that part of me, and instead choose to enjoy myself delusionally thinking that this level of unity against the Fudoists is a reflection of the near-unanimity that was arranged in the condemnation of Fudoism at Winter Court 3. #HorumeWins

What about this as a card? Well, if it only worked against Fudo cards, it would be pretty unlikely to be playable. But, helpfully, purging Fudoists also gives you the chance to nuke cards with some other “undesirable” keywords like Fallen and Shadowlands. Indeed, with what we know about what’s Ivory-legal right now, Fudo seems unlikely to get score a hit, with the False Rings and Fudoist Temple seeming to show the most potential (although this may change when/if they print an Ivory-legal Fudo Stronghold and some more Fudo Personalities). Fallen appears on many more Ivory-legal cards than Fudo, and it appears in all of the factions, including some relatively nifty Uniques from Coils of Madness (look, it’s a Fallen Clan Champion!).  Shadowlands, on the other hand, so far only appears on cards for one faction so far – Spider (the only unaligned Shadowlands Personalities so far are the top-of-clan guys in Coils of Madness, plus the works-better-with-Spider Kokujin inexp).

That’s still a relatively paltry list, however – even with three keywords to choose from, it seems reasonably likely that most decks won’t have any legal targets (or maybe one), and it’s unlikely that Spider will be so good (and with a deck that actually uses Shadowlands Personalities) as to require a dedicated meta spot. So we’ll need to see a lot more Fudo/Fallen/Shadowlands on clan-aligned cards (or something like good generic holding) for Purge of Fudoism to have a chance to see the light of day. Oh, and those cards have to be good enough that a lot of other players are using them, but you aren’t, because the destruction is symmetrical.

In Emperor Edition, it’s something that Phoenix Inquisitors could really make use of, except that most of their keyword-assignment effects are temporary, and the Ivory Edition Event rules aren’t yet in effect. Oh, yeah, and it says “printed” Shadowlands keyword.