Ocean's Hungry Grasp/Antistone's Opening

Setup: If possible, place presence in a coastal land that starts with a town, so that you'll be guaranteed to have a target for Ocean Breaks the Shore on your first turn.

-1- Growth: 2 presence in oceans (from bottom track), +1 energy Cards: Call of the Deeps (gather 1 explorer, or 2 into ocean) Tidal Boon (ally +2 energy and pushes 1 town + 2 Dahan)

This growth gives you the 1 energy to play Tidal Boon, and in multi-player helps you quickly spread to other boards. (Make sure your allies know they can destroy invaders and give you free energy by moving invaders into your oceans.)

You trigger each of your innates at the first level. Remember Ocean Breaks the Shore is range 0, so this turn, the ONLY land you can target is wherever you placed your coastal presence during setup.

Call of the Deeps is fast, and should be used to prevent builds and/or drown explorers. If board D is in the game and the invaders explore wetlands during setup, you get to gather 2 explorers into the ocean! Otherwise, you'll probably have to settle for 1, though check for combos with other spirits (e.g. Shadows Flicker like Flame's innate).

NOTE: Call of the Deeps is your only starting power that lets you affect inland lands (it has to target coast, but since it's a "gather", the invader can come from an inland land).

Remind whichever spirit wants the energy from Tidal Boon that they should try to have presence in a land with a town they want to push. Pushing units directly into your ocean is great, of course, but just pushing them to a coastal space is also good (to get them within range of your other powers). If there's no town for you to target with Ocean Breaks the Shore, see if an ally can use your Tidal Boon to push one into your land.

-2- Growth: Push presence from oceans, place 1 presence (from bottom), gain a power (minor) Cards: Grasping Tide (Defend 4, 2 fear) Swallow the Land-Dwellers (drown 1 explorer, 1 town, 1 Dahan) whatever minor you drew

Hopefully you drowned enough invaders last turn to pay for your cards this turn.

In a 4-player game, you can get presence onto the fourth board by pushing presence into a coastal land adjacent to that board, and then placing your new presence onto it. That will give you presence on all boards, allowing spirits to drown invaders in any ocean. (However, this will limit your targeting options next turn when you reclaim, since you'll be forced to gather all your presence into oceans except on your starting board.)

In a 2-3 player game, you should probably place your new presence somewhere other than your starting board, so that you can have one non-ocean presence on that board next turn.

If you can get a minor with water+stone, you can trigger Ocean Breaks the Shore at the second level to drown a city. If you can get a minor with air, you can trigger Pound Ships to Splinters for 1 fear. Powers that gather invaders are especially good for you. In a small-player-count game, also keep an eye out for long-range powers that will help you control inland lands. (In larger games, this is less important, because you'll have your hands full with the larger coasts.)

This turn, you've got TWO zero-range powers that can drown buildings, so choose carefully where to push your presence. Try to target Swallow the Land-Dwellers on a land with NO Dahan, naturally.

Grasping Tide is range 1, so it should be easier to target. As usual, the best land to defend is one where there are Dahan to counter-attack and destroy the invaders.

-3- Growth: Reclaim

When reclaiming, you MUST gather 1 presence into each ocean (where possible). Think carefully about what cards you're going to play this turn and where you need to leave presence in order to target them.

Variants: You can reverse your growth order (pushing presence on turn 1) and play Swallow the Land-Dwellers (or a 0-cost minor) instead of Tidal Boon. However, this gives less opportunity for allies to drown invaders on turn 1, and with 2-3 players will leave you permanently with 1 less presence in non-ocean spaces compared to the given opening.

Remarks: Try to push presence as often as you gather it, or else your presence will tend to all clump up in the oceans. (This tends to lock you into pushing on every even turn and reclaiming on every odd turn.)