Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares/breppert's Opening
With Bringer I often find that there’s a pretty specific opening that doesn’t match what’s laid out in Antistone's opening, and I think that at the very least it is well worth considering. You will gain your major power a turn later, but you will be much better equipped to use it at that point and you will be dealing with a clearer board. Here goes:
-Turn 1-
Growth
Place Presence (1 away, top track to uncover Air), Gain Power Card (minor)
Cards
Predatory Nightmares (2 Damage + Dahan Push)
Dreams of the Dahan (Gather Dahan or Fear per Dahan)
Use Dreams of the Dahan to gather Dahan into a land that you will defend on turn 2, ideally gathering a total of 3 Dahan into a land with Explorer + Town + City, and next turn you will defend 5 there next turn giving you the ability to wipe them out.
Predatory Nightmares should be played to “destroy” a town somewhere that was explored during setup and built during turn 1. The Dahan push here really depends on availability, but it’s standard “leave behind to take out the explorer” rules, and if you have another Dahan to push you should probably push it along with the town in order to set up a defend take-out whenever that land next goes through the invader process. You may also end up combining Predatory Nightmare’s Dahan Push with Dreams of the Dahan’s gather if you really need to move the Dahan a long way.
You also get to activate level 2 Night Terrors (2 Fear) and flip over the top fear card with Spirits May Yet Dream, which are very nice bonuses.
-Turn 2-
Growth
Place Presence (Likely Dahan Land you intend to defend + 2 Energy)
Placement can be from either track as neither of Bringer’s tracks are all that compelling so which is more important really depends on your fellow spirits and the adversary you’re up against. If you make the decision to run for 3 card plays though, stick with it until you get there.
Cards
Dread Apparitions (1 Fear, defend by Fear),
Call on Midnight’s Dream (Gain Major or 2 Fear)
You get another 2 fear here through level 2 Night Terrors (choosing the land you’re defending), and you’re also activating Spirits May Yet Dream level 1 again to flip another fear card.
Play Call on Midnight’s Dream for the fear, and then with the additional fear from Dread Apparitions you’re defending 5, and if you were able to get 3 Dahan in the land this means you’re taking out an Explorer + Town + City as planned, which is a monstrous turn 2 when you factor in how much fear you’re generating. You’ll be a little behind with preventing blight on your board on turn 3, but hey, you can’t do everything.
-Turn 3-
This turn somewhat depends on what power card you drew turn one. If it’s even remotely worth playing, then it’s probably best to reclaim one, use the 0 away presence placement to make one of your T1 or T2 presence placements sacred, and use that reclaim one on Call on Midnight’s Dream and get ready to convert it into a major. You will probably have at least 4 Energy _before_ the Dahan energy boost, so you should be able to play just about anything you draw, even with potentially having to pay for your other minor power.
Don’t worry too much about trying to prevent all of the blight this turn. You should have prevented all of the blight on turn 2 with the caveat of letting the second invader card build unimpeded, and you will have a major power that will probably be able to help you take good control over your board pretty quickly here, even with your limited card plays. And you’re doing all of this while massively helping with the fear pile, which will help all Spirits across the board. Remember with fear spirits you will feel as if you’re letting your board get a little out of control, but you’re helping out with the fear pile so much that the other spirits will benefit greatly from that even if your land is getting built up.
Starting at turn 4 you will likely reclaim all and then things will start to vary wildly depending on draws and board conditions. But those first 3 turns are really compelling ones, I find, when playing with Bringer.