A Spread of Rampant Green/Antistone's Opening

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-Turn 1-

Growth
Place 2 presence (one from each track), +1 card play this turn

Cards
Gift of Proliferation (another spirit places 1 presence) Stem the Flow of Fresh Water (1 damage to a building; combo with innate Creepers Tear into Mortar to destroy a town)

The energy you uncover on the top track lets you play a moon element so you can trigger your first innate; uncovering 1 on the bottom track will let you get to 2 card plays next turn without choosing the same growth option again.

Watch out for range limits! Creepers is 0 range, Stem is 1 range but requires a sacred site, and you probably want to use them on the same target, so your presence placement requirements may be complex.

You often want to use your special rule Choke the Land with Green to stop invaders from building somewhere on turn 1; this removes presence before targeting your powers, so plan carefully, but it can really help to seize the upper hand at the start of the game.

-Turn 2-

Growth
Place 1 presence from bottom track, gain a power card (minor), +3 energy

Cards
Overgrow in a Night (place 1 presence or 3 fear) Fields Choked with Growth (push 1 town or 3 Dahan)

Overgrow in a Night places a presence from your top track, uncovering a plant element in the fast phase, which lets you trigger All-Enveloping Green (second innate) for Defend 2.

You also trigger Creepers Tear into Mortar again for 1 damage to a building. If another spirit can't combo with it, you might be able to combo it with a Dahan counter-attack (e.g. damage a town in a defended land with 1 Dahan so the Dahan can destroy the town plus an explorer).

-Turn 3-

Growth
Reclaim cards

Variants

Antistone's Alternate

If it has plant+moon but NOT water, then you have to choose which innate is more useful. If it's just got plant+water, you can substitute it without affecting your innates.

If another spirit has a good combo for Creepers on turn 1, you can swap the order of Stem the Flow of Fresh Water and Fields Choked with Growth. However, playing Stem the Flow on turn 1 gives you the option to play your new minor on turn 2 without giving up the Creepers+Stem combo.

Zherak Khan's Growth Spurt Alternate

=-1-=

Cards:Fields Choked with Growth (push 1 town or 3 Dahan)

If you draw a minor power with plant+moon (roughly 50% chance), play Gift of Proliferation this turn instead, and the minor next turn (unless Gift of Proliferation is better on turn 2 for some reason; e.g. if Vital Strength of the Earth can repeat it). In any other case, you can optionally play the minor this turn instead of Fields Choked with Growth (the elements on Fields aren't doing anything).

=-2-=

Cards:Overgrow in a Night (place 1 presence or 3 fear) Gift of Proliferation (another spirit places 1 presence) Stem the Flow of Fresh Water (1 damage to a building, or 1 damage to all buildings in mountains/sands)

=-3-=

Getting the temporary extra card play on turn 2 (instead of turn 1) gets you to 3 plant without needing to uncover one from your presence track, so you can use Overgrow in a Night to place another presence from your bottom track instead, which lets you get to 3 (permanent) card plays on turn 3 while reclaiming.

You also have 2 moon and 1 water elements, which gives you level 2 of Creepers Tear into Mortar (damage to buildings) and level 1 of All-Enveloping Green (defense). If your minor had all three of plant+moon+water, you get All-Enveloping Green at level 2. (There are only 3 minors with that element combo: Elemental Boon, Gift of Power, or (expansion) Growth Through Sacrifice.)

If you can find a sands or mountain with 2 towns (maybe because you pushed one in on turn 1 using Fields Choked with Growth), you can use Stem the Flow to damage both of them and then use Creepers to finish them both off. Alternately, you can take out a city (in any terrain type).

Playing Fields Choked with Growth on turn 1 alternately lets you get Dahan into the land you're defending on turn 2, if you want. And you get a little more flexibility about sacrificing presence to prevent a build, because your complex targeting requirements are delayed by a turn.

I think the main downside is that some important stuff is delayed from turn 1 to turn 2: your first Gift of Proliferation (unless you draw a plant+moon minor), and also your first building-destruction. Delaying those is often significant in the early game.

I dub this opening the "growth spurt" because you cause 4 presence placement in a single turn.

Referencehttps://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1965751/openings-spread-rampant-green