I'm a real Spirit Island freak these days. I'm fully in my Spirit Island era. I got the Jagged Earth expansion recently and I want to start playing more scenarios and adversaries so I made a spreadsheet to keep track of which ones I've played. that's where I'm at these days. we won our first 4-player game on sunday and my brain expanded ten times. here's my spirit takes below the cut, very loosely in order of least favorite to favorite. note: I've yet to play any JE spirit more than once, and I don't have Feather and Flame. I'll include stuff I haven't played based on how much they interest me. basically this is just me getting all my current thoughts out and rest assured I will be posting more about it in the future as I play more spirits
Vengeance as a Burning Plague: I tried Vengeance in a solo game and it was an absolute disaster. probably better when you've got more players and more blight to work with, and allies who can clean up your messes, but that comes with the stress of "sorry sorry sorry I gotta blight this. sorry!!!!" probably not for me but idk
Shadows Flicker Like Flame: I need to play as Shadows before I judge it too harshly but my impression from playing with Shadows is that it's okay at a few things and good at nothing. idk
Lightning's Swift Strike: I feel like this guy is so close to being good if Raging Storm wasn't one of my least favorite cards in the entire game
Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves: ehhh. this one feels way too restrictive for my taste. too jungle-focused, too weak to blight. whenever I play Fangs, I find myself getting increasingly frustrated by its limitations as the game goes on. not for me
Vital Strength of the Earth: my beloved rock boy. Earth was my original favorite but as I've gotten better I don't see myself going back to him much. Rituals of Destruction is a little too awkward to set up and I don't think Gift of Strength is a very thematically evocative innate. sorry bud
Volcano Looming High: the concept of a spirit that creates giant stacks of presence then blows them up is so funny but I'm a little scared to play this guy. I'm never the best with risk/reward stuff and I'd be very afraid of destroying the entire island lmao
Starlight Seeks Its Form: this is the only spirit in the game that seems so complicated to my brain that I haven't even bothered really digging into its rules, growth options, cards, innates, anything. I've heard somewhat polarized takes on how good this spirit actually is but I will say I love the concept of a spirit of starlight that has traveled so far, for so long, that by the time it reached the island, it forgot everything about its nature. I'll give it a shot eventually!
Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds: I like the idea of this guy but I haven't felt it click for me yet. I like how you get to a point where you've basically carved out a zone on the map that is completely empty, but it's not quite as satisfying as I'd like. need to play more Keeper
Many Minds Move as One: I'm not entirely sold on beasts in general as a game mechanic so I don't know if this spirit is for me. I'll have to give it a shot though. the art is top tier for sure though
Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble: I'm not sure how much depth this spirit has considering its defining power is "play a random card" but I had a great time with it anyway
Stone's Unyielding Defiance: I don't think I quite get this one just from reading about it. gotta give it a try myself. sounds vaguely similar to Earth but maybe a little crunchier? might be up my street
A Spread of Rampant Green: objectively incredibly good. Gift of Proliferation is near-broken. not generally my favorite to play, although in my last game I had max-threshold Creeper Tear into Mortar with +2 range from Reaching Grasp so I was just slapping cities off the map half the time and it was exquisite
Shifting Memory of Ages: I am a huge fan of the lore of this spirit, who got so old and so powerful that it felt itself becoming detached from the world and decided to cut itself off from its power, and then just did that cycle again and again until it knew (but forgot) how to do basically anything. haven't played this one but it sounds really strong
Thunderspeaker: only played it once but it's ridiculous how powerful this spirit is. not necessarily my style, but undeniably really really good
Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares: I love the concept of this one so much but haven't played it yet myself. I am such a huge fan of the fear mechanic in this game and I think this could be a favorite of mine. I gotta play it soon... there's just so many I want to play
Ocean's Hungry Grasp: I played this one once and it was so fun. I love the feeling of looking down at the board halfway through the game and saying "oh shit. there is literally nothing on the coasts because I ate it all." it does feel like it stalls out a bit at that point but we still won so w/e. the price of a good meal
Fractured Days Split the Sky: I tried this one in a solo game and it felt incredible. using Visions of a Shifting Future to see the "coastal lands" invader card coming up, The Past Returns Again to swap it out for something I was more prepared to deal with. Blur the Arc of Years to create a massive Dahan army, and reaching into alternate realities through the Days That Never Were power cards to make the most of them. probably way more complex in a multiplayer game, and I can't wait to try it
River Surges in Sunlight: best low-complexity spirit. the pushing is so good. I have nothing negative to say here. love you River
Lure of the Deep Wilderness: this is a big big big "need to play" for me. Lure sounds like it could possibly be my favorite spirit in the game just from what I know about it. the theme of this one is so juicy. the innate pair of Forsake Society to Chase After Dreams / Never Heard from Again is delicious (although the elements are completely different besides 1 animal so idk how feasible it is to go for both of them in a single game)
Shroud of Silent Mist: hell fucking yes. turning half the island into a fear farm is so creepy and being able to slide your presence around practically at-will is one of the best instances I've experienced so far of theme and mechanics coming together. I had the best time playing Shroud