What Is New In Whitefang Pass?
Solbind Cards & Transform
Solbind cards are a new type of card that debuts in Battle for Whitefang Pass. They are represented as an extra double-sided card that can show up in a player’s Faction deck. This card is kept in a player’s Upgrade Pile at the start of the game. Cards in a player’s deck will reference a Solbind Card and bring that card into play from the Upgrade Pile.
If a card ability instructs a player to play a Solbind card while one of its two sides are in play, that ability will fail to play the Solbind card.
If a Solbind Card leaves play, it is put back into a player’s Upgrade Pile instead of the Banish Pile. They can’t be Reanimated.
When a Solbind card Transforms, flip that card over so that its other side is revealed without changing its lane and/or row unless otherwise specified by the card. Transforming a card counts as playing a new card and triggers any abilities that would trigger from playing a new card, but doesn’t count as replacing the previous side.
Only a card in play can be Transformed. If a card would Transform, but doesn’t have a legal place for it to go, it is returned to the Upgrade Pile.
While a double-sided card is in play, only the revealed side is in play for the purposes of game rules and effects.
Exalt
The Exalt Row is a new row added to lanes in Battle for Whitefang Pass in addition to the front row and back row.
Exalts are a new type of spell which unlike normal spells are put into play. An Exalt is played into the Exalt Row of any of its controller’s lanes. Some Exalts have Deploy abilities similar to creatures which trigger and are put on a batch when they are played. Exalts have abilities that affect the lane they are in.
When an Exalt is played, it doesn’t replace a creature in the lane it is played into. Further, a player may play a creature in the same lane in which they control an Exalt. A lane in which there is an Exalt, but no creature is still considered an empty lane.
If a player plays an Exalt into a lane in which they already control an Exalt, the previous Exalt is replaced with the new Exalt.
A player’s Exalt can’t be moved into the same lane as another Exalt they control.
Slay
Slay is a keyword that means “When this destroys an enemy creature”.
A creature’s Slay abilities can be triggered by destroying an enemy creature through combat damage, Battle, Strike, or one of its abilities.
SolForge Storyline Tournaments
Expect the Unexpected
Unlike championship tournaments, where the rules are fixed, Storyline tournaments are never the same. Storyline events often include new cards, mechanics and other wild additions to gameplay. Rounds might not be fair, but they will be fun!
The Fate of SolForge Fusion
The Forgeborn and faction you choose will have an impact on the future of Solis. You may be given choices to make, these choices often affect the gameplay of the event, but may also affect the future of Solis.
Ultimately, the story of SolForge Fusion has an impact on the characters, factions and gameplay. When you enter into a Storyline tournament you're not just affecting the story, but the art and mechanics of future sets!
How Storyline Lore is Written
The Lore for Storyline Tournaments is written while the event is happening!
The changes in story from one round to the next are ispired by unique experiences during individual matches, in addition to victories for a player, a forgeborn, or a faction.
This means a player losing a match in an interesting way can impact the story just as much as a victory.
Deck Lore
Deck Lore is custom-tailored lore about one of your SolForge Decks. Players participating in storyline events can immortalize their decks with a custom-written short story that will be permanently attached to their registered deck.
To have deck lore written, players have to attend a storytelling event and let us know about an exciting moment in a match. We will select a handful of these submissions and use the details you give us to write stories that will be attached to your deck, immortalizing them on solforgefusion.com.
Deck Lore Submissions
Please fill out this form to submit deck lore.
To complete the form you will need:
- The Name of the Deck associated with the lore
- The Deck Link from SolForgeFusion.com
- The name of the Forgeborn leading the deck
- The Event Name, in this case: FuseFest 2022
- The Lore Prompt: A blurb about what happened in your match that deserves a story!
ROUND 1
The mountain is calling and I must go.
Cercee stands at the foot of a mountain range that divides the continent, a desolate wall of ice and stone that is utterly impassable by both the living and the dead. A brave many have attempted to cross over—their corpses are now frozen into the slopes, and even Cercee's magic cannot wake them.
She is here because there is a secret hidden within these hills, a power that despises life and unlife the same. It emerges from the depths of the world, making itself known to the Forgeborn through their fears and desires. Cercee sees visions of a new world—a paradise of undeath—where she reigns as a queen above all.
It is a lure. Cercee knows this, and yet, for all her power, she cannot resist. It assaults her psyche from every angle, chipping away at her will. The more she tries, the more intense and disturbing the visions become.
As a result, Cercee has no choice but to confront this power, to root it out, to grip it with both hands, break it over her knee, and teach it its true position in her immortal life—just another jewel in the dead queen's crown.
The Forgeborn will arrive soon, she can feel them approaching, it seems they all have a part to play in this new emergence. The great mystery of the SolForge revolves around the endless struggle of the Forgeborn—once again, the time to fight has come.
Mechanic
A mysterious new magic is seeping into Solis and, as a result, the Forgeborn are growing more powerful.
There are no special rules for this round—it's time to learn about your new Forgeborn abilites!
ROUND 2
The Hills Have Teeth
Sunder's blade came whistling by Ironbeard's head. He pushed the searing hot edge away with the handle of his mighty hammer, Anvillon, and then swung it around to crush her.
Sunder darted out of the hammer’s path, on bolts of lighting arcing from her boots. She was fast, this young Forgeborn.
No matter, Ironbeard thought. He channled power into Anvillon, and allowed the hammer to continue its path, strikig the ground beside Sunder. When it hit, a shockwave of force radiated from the place of impact. It knocked Sunder away, sending her tumbling through the snow, into the mountainside.
With her out of the way, Ironbeard turned his attention to the other Forgeborn. Nova and Cercee, were far off, locked in combat, hurling spells at one another in flashes of violet and green.
“You’ll have to do better than that,” Sunder shouted, drawing Ironbeard's attention once again.
The Tempys warrior looked mad as a Rex, her molten sword pointed right at him, dripping with magma. Her eyes firey as as the SolForge itself.
“Indeed,” he replied, and gestured to the mountian.
Sunder looked up. The ridge above her broke apart, releasing a wall of ice and snow, which sounded like thunder as it cascaded down the mountain. "Oh, no." Before she could act, a wave of white rolled over her, burying her in a mass of ice and snow.
When the rumbling was over and the snow had settled, Ironbeard looked up to see that the avalanche had revealed a passage into the mountain, but this was no mere cavemouth—
It was the bone white skull of a serpent, a skull so large that a giant could walk through its mouth without having to crouch, so wide that a herd of batterhides could pass between its hooked fangs.
"White Fang Pass," Ironbeard said. "Hidden in these mountians for all these ages."
But he had little time to study the ancient wonder, because a roar from deep within the pass, stole his attention. He knew the sound, but had no time to act. Soon, the lone roar was joined by innumerable more, suddenly it was was as though the snake itself had come to life, woken by Ironbeards shockwave.
"Mighty SolForge,"
Then, like a swarm of bats, Scorchmane Dragons emerged from the mouth of White Fang Pass—a thunderous whirlwind of scale, tooth and flame, all of them swirling up into the sky, all of them hungry for Forgeborn magic!
Ironbeard hefted Anvillion, and set his feet for battle.
Mechanic
Scorchmane dragons feed on the energy from the SolForge, when the mouth of the cave is opened, a swarm of dragons fly out from the tunnel. As a result use the following mechanic for this round:
Before starting this game, players may replace one of the cards in their starting deck with a Level 1 Scorchmane Dragon. This card behaves exactly as though it was part of your starting deck. Return your deck to normal at the end of the round.
ROUND 3
Forged Omens
Nova chased Cercee through the mouth of White Fang Pass. The Dead Queen was determined to claim the power within, fearlessly battling through a swarm of magic-hungry dragons to reach it first. Nova would be a fool to allow it to fall into Nekrium hands.
When Nova passed into the cavern, a mist of darkness surrounded her. She blinked, and suddenly—inexplicably—she felt like she had been transported into an Uterra cavern.
Only this place was not the under-paradise she called home; this place was a wasteland.
She investigated the cavern, finding lacerations on plants and animals alike, all leaking a viscous black fluid. "The Blight," she muttered.
The instant the word left her mouth, a rhythmic sound began to echo through the cavern, like the beating of a dragon's heart. Nova followed the sound from one passage to the next until she entered a cavern where life still flourished. Yet, at the center of this hopeful place was an ominous sight, the source of the heartbeat: a floating red crystal as big as Oros and marred by a web of fractures.
The Heart of the Serpent, Nova thought. Yet, she could not recall having ever heard the name before. This is the source of the Blight. I must find it, I must destroy it.
This crystal, this heart of the Serpent, beat again. Tendrils of darkness extended from its fractures, reaching out toward all life in the room, reaching out toward Nova. She squeezed her eyes shut—
When she opened them, the skeletal entrance to White Fang Pass was to one side of her and Cercee was just ahead, her staff pointed in Nova's direction, alight with Nekrium magic.
Mechanic
The magic within the pass is creating illusions, showing the Forgeborn visions of their faction's destrution and altering their percepion of the surroundings. As a result use the following mechanic for this round:
Creatures may be played face down. Facedown cards are considered to be in play and may be targeted, chosen, or replaced as though they were a creature. If a creature is chosen as the target of an effect, flip it face up before resolving the effect. All remaining face down creatures are flipped face up at the start of combat. (Creatures played face down ignore any deploy effects.)
ROUND 4
The Heart of the Snake
Nova hit the wall with such force that it broke apart, leaving her laid out on a pile of stones, choking on the dust deep within White Fang Pass. She tried to get to her feet but found herself unable. Some alien presence had manifested at the back of her mind. It seemed to be growing there, spreading like a fungus through her consciousness. Likely, the dead Queen's work, some domination of the mind. How had Cercee gained such power since their last battle at the Cradle in the north?
The Dead Queen's eyes were black as she leveled her staff at Nova. Her darkbolt appeared to draw shadow into it as it gathered power. Nova rolled away, hiding behind the remaining sections of wall, as the bolts scorched the ground beside her.
Cercee chased, somehow disappearing as she stepped into the shadows and reappearing as she stepped out.
Nova drew magic from the air, summoning bioluminescent organisms to coat the walls in light to rid Cercee of the shadow's protection.
As emerald light washed over the room, the shadow of Cercee seemed to vanish. Nova rose to her feet. Was it another illusion? Had the dead Queen become invisible? She scanned the room, raising a grass field to track her adversary's footsteps.
Nova moved further into this new chamber. It was massive, large as an uterra forest cavern. What relevance did this place have to the ancient people of Solis?
Boom-boom! Boom-boom! The heart of the serpent was beating again. Its thunderous sound echoed through the chamber. She turned, and there it was—red and cracked and filled with slithering shadow. So terrible was the heartbeat that it brought her to her knees.
Nova’s head hurt, her mind pounding with the beat of the Heart, and suddenly could taste nothing but bitterness. This is what Cercee was after! I will kill the queen before letting her take its power.
A figure entered the chamber, and even though her vision was blurred, she knew who stood before her.
It was Ironbeard, the mighty Alloyin general.
At the thought of his name, the presence at the back of her mind metastasized. She tried to fight it, but—
Oh, how she loathed the Alloyin and, most of all, Ironbeard. Pathetic machinefolk! All of them so desperate to separate themselves from nature itself. As if they ever could! Why not wipe their cities from the world and rid Solis of their noise, smoke, and endless consumption?
Mechanic
Once during this round players may shout "I give in to temptation!" to do 5 damage to a creature or player. You must shout loud enough for Sceadeau to hear.
round 5
Heartbreaker
The sound of battle and the beating of the Serpent's Heart filled the chamber. All the Forgeborn and their summoned allies were here now, lashing out at one another in a cacophony of spellcraft, stone, and steel!
“Nova!” Ironbeard called out as an Armored Mantis slashed at him. “This power you wield is a dangerous one!” He swung Anvillon around and knocked the monstrous insect aside.
Nova’s voice cut through the noise. “You would strip Uterra of life if it meant more iron for your cities!” She lifted her staff up high, and tendrils of darkness reached out from the crystal toward the mantis. “There is nothing on this planet I would not use to protect my people!” The darkness burrowed into the mantis’s carapace, and a shadow washed over the insect.
A Technohulk who’d come to Ironbeard’s side attempted to burn the reborn creature to ash with its flame thrower. The insect darted forward into the fire, absorbing the flame into its black carapace—the Technohulk came apart with no effort, its bio-metallic entrails scattered across the floor.
Other allies rushed to Ironbeard’s side, but he had never seen such power. “Stay away!” he commanded. “This creature is mine alone.”
Ironbeard launched himself into the air, with Forgeborn magic, all the way up to the chamber's ceiling. Then he rocketed downward, driving his armored boots into the insect’s shadowed carapace. He swung his hammer into its head, ending the monstrous creature’s life.
The shadow retracted from the mantis back into the crystal. There was a sound like the breaking of glass as one of the fractures along the Heart of the Serpent widened.
Nova’s face was bereft of emotion as raised her staff again. The crystal pulsed with darkness, and a thousand tendrils reached out into the chamber. They pierced flesh, scale, and armor—transforming creatures of all factions into shadowy monsters.
“Mighty SolForge,” Ironbeared said. Nova had lost control, the shadows were slaughtering anything that stood nearby. “To me, soldiers of Alloyin!” He ordered. “Regroup at my side!”
Mechanics:
This round, at the start of the game, players who did not give in to temptation last round gain 5 life. At the end of this round, tally up the number of creatures in your opponents banish pile and report this to the Tournament Organizer.
round 6
A Monument to the Ruined Age
The Heart of the Serpent beat faster now, the crystal so cracked that the darkness inside was barely visible.
Steel Rosetta lanced another shadowed yeti with her Forgeborn blade. Four of them had come for her, and four of them were dead on the ground. “Senseless,” she said. As she retracted her weapon, the tendril of black darted into the crystal—
The heart of the Serpent shattered, and time stopped.
The darkness inside swallowed the crystal fragments, drawing them into a sphere of black the size of a fist. Then, the orb burst—a shockwave of darkness split the air, drawing in light and sound as it went, growing stronger as—impossibly—it tore shadows from whatever place it might exist. Steel felt the shockwave pass through her, and a memory of her corruption at the Silver Arc in the North came and went, next passing through the walls of White Fang Pass.
Then it was gone.
Steel regained her senses. Reality found itself again. The crystal was gone, too, and disappeared as if it had never existed. The other Forgeborn looked just as confused, especially Nova, who was kneeling on the ground weeping into her hands.
Steel empathized with the ancient Forgeborn because she, herself, had been corrupted of the shadow. She knew how it clawed at your mind, using fear and ignorance to manipulate you, and just how powerful the force could be when accepted.
Plink.
She heard something like water hit the metal of her arm. She saw that the liquid was clear. “Curious.” She scanned it, finding no trace of the energy from the crystal.
Plink. Plink.
More water—
Plink. Plink. Plink.
Steel looked up, and all the sudden, there might as well have been a stormcloud in the room.
A batterhide cried out, and a stampede of Uterran creatures began.
“The pass is thawing,” someone shouted. “Run!”
Ironbeard was already moving the Alloyin soldiers out, trying to maneuver them through Uterran creatures, who had instinctively started pushing into the passageway. Same for the Tempys, fighting the Uterran beasts and Alloyin forces to cut their own path through. To make matters worse, Cercee was slaughtering them from behind—the air wasn’t a problem for her—so this was an opportunity to bolster her ranks with the corpses of anything and anyone.
It was a bloodbath. It was too much. “Mighty SolForge,” she muttered.
Ages ago, when Steel had journeyed to the SolForge to study its energy, her purpose was scientific; she wanted to save lives, to end the endless ice age. She had no intention of becoming Forgeborn. But now, as one of the most powerful beings on the planet, all she had discovered were new enemies and new ways to die. What now, she thought. What next?
Mechanic
The Heart of the Serpent has shattered, releasing and explosion of dark energy into the world. The ice of Solis is thawing in around the places where SolForge energy has gathered—places and artifacts called Exalts.
There are no special rules for this round—use what you've learned about to win the day, putting them ahead in the race to claim the most powerful of Exalts: White Fang Pass!
Epilouge
Eyes Like Ice Don't Move
Sunder did her best to escort the Tempys clans out of White Fang Pass. She called forth fire and ice, lighting and stone, all the elements of Solis to force her way through, and she was nearly there; she could see the fangs that marked the entrance and the cloudy sky beyond.
"Keep pushing through!" Sunder shouted.
She looked back. Scanning the crowd of myriad creatures for Korok and the rest of her allies.
Cercee was hovering above them, laying waste to a crowd of their Yetis.
"Monster!" Sunder shouted. "I'll—"
The Dead Queen's gaze was suddenly upon her, but before Sunder could act, there was a flash of violet energy from Cercee's staff, and the world went sideways—
Sunder hit the ground, feeling the darkbolt peel away the flesh from her skull. Sunder tried to stand, but the massive foot of a Batterhid pressed her into the stone, its claws sinking into her back. As the creature shifted its weight, she felt her ribs snap, her spine crack, and then the world went black—
"I can save you," a voice said. "If you'll let me."
"No," Sunder replied. "You are the shadow from the mountain."
"I am," it said.
"Then, go away and let me die."
"Without me, you will die. Without you, they will die."
"The Tempys clans will never be destroyed. We are too many. We are too strong."
"Is that so?"
The visions struck Sunder like bolts of lightning. Visions of her people strewn across a battlefield, choking on uterran poisons. Visions of the mountain clans, undead, and traversing the ice fields. Visions of the Yetis being sewn together with machines—
"Enough!"
"I will help you save them, too," the voice replied. "If you'll let me."
"Yes," Sunder said.
"There will be a cost—"
"Whatever the cost," Sunder said. "For my people, anything."
Sunder woke with a start, her head was bouncing off someone's back, and they were walking uphill with her slung over their shoulder. Her arms and legs were bound together, her entire body tightly bound, from neck to toe, in black furs. It was a yeti, she knew the smell.
"Why am I wrapped in burial furs?" she asked.
The Yeti shrieked and dropped Sunder. The world spun again as she rolled down a long and rocky path. When she finally stopped moving, she tore off the furs and sprung up to her feet.
"She's alive!" roared the Yeti in her guttural language.
"Of course I'm alive!" she said, then leaped to the top of the hill on bolts of lightning. Landing beside the Yeti, who hesitantly reached out to touch Sunder's shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Sunder asked, stepping away.
The Yeti withdrew her hand. "I need to know if you are real," she said. "I have lived a long time and know that you, Forgeborn have many tricks. Returning from the dead is not one I have seen."
"Well, you've seen it now," Sunder said.
"And what did you trade for this new life, young Forgeborn?" She recognized the voice. It was Korok. His calmness always felt like judgment. Where had his elemental fury gone? The fiery rage that united the Tempys clans and made him a legend?
"I traded nothing," she said. "I'm alive because I was strong enough not to die."
"Is that so?" Korok said. “Then, how do you explain the eye?”
“What eye?” she said, “My vision is perfect, like a hawk’s.”
With a wave of his hand, Korok summoned fire, melting a patch of ice beside him into a large puddle. He gestured toward the water.
Sunder shrugged, peered into the puddle, then gasped.
One of her eyes was missing; the socket was empty. Blood was running down her cheek. She patted at it with her fingers. It was pitch black, not blood at all! Stranger still, it was unnaturally cold. Even when she transmuted her fingers to ice, she could feel its bite.
“Oh, no,” she said. “Oh, no.”
Looking into the puddle again, Sunder saw that there was no wound or scar around the missing eye. She touched the socket, only to find that the eye wasn’t missing; it was still there, only different, changed. What remained was an orb of darkness, and like shadow, it was featureless and without reflection. Sunder felt sick. "What have I done?" she muttered.
"Do not worry, young Forgeborn," a familiar voice said. "We will save them all. Whatever the cost."