Nine Core-legal characters can stop an opposing character from challenging. Rapunzel - Ethereal Protector is one of them, she is Steel, and she is the foil promo inside the Attack of the Vine! Collection Starter Set.
- Rapunzel - Ethereal Protector is the foil promo.** Steel, 3 ink, 3/3, 2 lore, Core legal, and one of only nine Core characters that can stop an opposing character from challenging.
- Her CLONK! trigger fires on quest, not on play**, so she keeps switching off a blocker every turn she survives.
- 29 Core-legal Steel characters cost 3 ink.** Only 7 reach 2 lore, and she is the only one of those 7 with 3 in both strength and willpower.
- In the box:** four Attack of the Vine! packs of 12, a four-pocket portfolio that holds 80 cards, a collector's guide, and the foil promo.
That combination is the interesting part. Steel is the ink that wants to challenge, and this is a Steel card that takes challenging away from the other player.
What she actually does
She costs 3 ink for 3 strength, 3 willpower and 2 lore, with the subtypes Storyborn, Hero, Princess and Whisper. Her text reads: "Boost 2 (Once during your turn, you may pay 2 ink to put the top card of your deck facedown under this character.) CLONK!
Whenever this character quests, if there's a card under her, chosen opposing character can't challenge until the start of your next turn."
So there are two turns to her. Turn one you play her and spend 2 more ink to tuck a card underneath. From then on, every time she quests, one of your opponent's characters is switched off for a round.
That is a quest trigger rather than a play trigger, which means she keeps paying as long as she survives. And the thing she does is the thing that usually banishes a questing character in the first place. She protects the very thing she is doing.
The company she keeps
There are 29 Core-legal Steel characters at 3 ink. Only 7 of them reach 2 lore, and she is the only one of those 7 printed with 3 in both strength and willpower.
CLONK! fires when she quests, which means the card protects the exact thing it is doing.
Young Macintosh - Proud Son hits harder at 4 strength but is banished by a 4-strength challenge. Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem trades a point of strength for an item banish. Rapunzel is the one that is 3 in both columns, so she survives a 3-strength challenge and still quests for 2.
She was originally printed in Winterspell, and the version in this box is a foil special edition of that card rather than a new one.
What else is in the box
Four Attack of the Vine! booster packs at 12 cards each, which is the 48 randomized cards printed on the front. A four-pocket collector's portfolio with Rapunzel art on the cover, holding 80 cards. A collector's guide. And the foil promo.
The portfolio is the part people underrate. Four packs of a brand new set is exactly the amount of cardboard that ends up loose on a table, and this is the rare product that ships somewhere to put it.
What it costs
Ravensburger priced the set at $29.99 and it released on 4 September. It is trading at $75.99 on our feed as of 3 September, so the market has moved well above the box price on a set that came out this week.
For scale inside Attack of the Vine!, a single booster pack is $9.31, the Illumineer's Trove is $87.99, and a booster box is $212.36. One of every card in the set as singles is $75.00.
If you only want to try the card, the ordinary Winterspell printing of Rapunzel - Ethereal Protector is 21 cents and plays identically. The foil, the portfolio and the packs are what the rest of the money is for.
Who this is for
Somebody starting a collection, or handing one to a person who is. The portfolio and the guide are aimed squarely at a new collector, the four packs are a real taste of the current set, and the promo is a genuinely playable Core-legal card rather than a display piece.
Play the card first if you are curious, at 21 cents. If the portfolio and the foil are what you are after, the price link is below.
Prices update daily. Price any list as you build it in the deck builder, which reads the same feed as this page, and every card above links to its own page in the card library.
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