Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds/Antistone's Opening

-1- Growth 1: Gain a power (minor) Growth 2: +1 energy, place a presence Except in weird circumstances, the only legal place to put presence on your first turn is in your starting land. Cards: Boon of Growing Power (target gains a power and 1 energy) (maybe) 0-cost minor with sun element

This turn, you want to get 2 sun + 1 plant while saving 2 energy. If you draft a 0-cost minor with sun (~45%), you can place a presence from your bottom track, then play that minor plus Boon of Growing Power. Otherwise, place a presence from your top track (sun element) and play just Boon of Growing Power.

If you don't see a 0-cost sun power that you want to play, you may want to start looking for a power with fire+plant (one of the more common element-pairs; ~48% chance in each draw of 4); this plan calls for one on turn 3.

2 sun + 1 plant triggers the first two effects on your second innate, Spreading Wilds. You want to use this to clear a land with just an explorer to stop an invader action chain and then place a wilds in that land (creating a valid spot for you to place presence next turn, and hopefully stopping another invader action chain in that land some time in stage 2).

-2- Growth 1: +1 energy, place a presence Growth 2: pay 3 energy, place a presence, gain a power (minor) Combined with last turn, you want to uncover 2 spaces on your top presence track and 1 on the bottom, so you have 4 energy income and 2 card plays. Cards: varies

You're spending 3 energy for an extra presence placement, but that extra presence adds +2 energy income, so it pays for itself almost instantly. (That's why you saved energy last turn.)

Second verse is much like the first: get to 2 sun + 1 plant while saving 2 energy. That means you want to play two cards with at least 1 sun + 1 plant between them and a combined energy cost of 2 or less (e.g. Sacrosanct Wilderness + any zero-cost minor, or Regrow from Roots + any minor with sun).

-3- Growth 1: +1 energy, place a presence (from bottom) Growth 2: pay 3 energy, place a presence (from bottom), gain a power (minor) Cards: Towering Wrath (2 damage per sacred site in/adjacent, 2 fear, destroy Dahan) a minor with plant+fire something with plant; e.g. Regrow from Roots (remove a blight)

Energy may be a problem; you've got 4 generation, but Towering Wrath costs 3, so you want one of the others to cost 0 (or save an extra energy on turn 2).

If you're short on energy but you have a plant+fire card, you can place both presence from your top track instead, uncovering a plant element so that you don't need a third card play (and also earning an extra energy).

Those elements let you trigger two levels of Punish Those Who Trespass, dealing 4 damage (at range 0)--maybe 5 damage, if you can squeeze in another sun element somehow. Towering Wrath can potentially deal as much as 6 damage if you planned carefully (but 4 is perhaps more realistic).

You also trigger Spreading Wilds again, this time with +1 range (from 3 plant).

-4- Reclaim

Probably play cards very similar to what you just did in turn 3.

Variants: If you need an earlier damage burst, you can play Towering Wrath on turn 2 instead of turn 3. However, it's often a significant loss of damage, because you have fewer sacred sites and you can only trigger Punish at level 1. Also, you won't have enough energy to place 2 presence on turn 3, so it slows your development.

Remarks: Keeper tends to fall behind the invaders in the early game and then catch up in stage 2 when all those wilds you've been placing start blocking explores.

Note that you start with NO way to get presence into land with blight; your growth options all require no-blight, wilds, or that you already have presence there, and all of your powers that add wilds require no-blight. (Though Regrow from Roots can remove blight in some cases.)

Keep an eye out for new powers that can add wilds at range > 0 (there aren't many). The two minors are both great. Strangling Firevine (major) is amazing for Keeper.

Also keep an eye out for powers that increase range (e.g. Reaching Grasp or Sky Stretches to Shore); they're very useful for your zero-range innate Punish Those Who Trespass.