Vital Strength of the Earth/Antistone's Opening
VITAL STRENGTH OF THE EARTH
Vital Strength of the Earth plays fewer cards per turn than most, which ironically means you have more real options, because you're not going to burn through your whole hand in 2 turns. Additionally, while most spirits want to try to use up their whole hand before reclaiming, Vital Strength of the Earth very often does not--you have an "inexpensive" reclaim (you still get to place presence--and at increased range!) and expensive starting cards that require special circumstances to be worth their cost. This all lends itself to an opportunistic play-style, where you look for the situations where your cards are especially good and rearrange your growth in order to be able to use them there. As such, I don't really have any single recommended opening for Vital Strength of the Earth. I'm going to break from my usual format, and instead discuss several "puzzle pieces" you want to try to fit into your opening as circumstances allow.Presence Tracks
You always place 1 presence per turn, no matter what. I recommend the first two come from the bottom track so you can get to 2 cards per turn (a large proportional increase, and also makes it possible to use your innate).Growth Options
If the invaders explore in jungle during set-up, it's good to learn a power on turn 1, placing presence at range 0 to upgrade your starting jungle presence into a sacred site, giving you free defense for the ravage next turn. (In this case, you'll generally want to gain 2 energy for growth on turn 2, in order to afford 2 power cards.) If the invaders explore in any other terrain, you usually want to choose the +2 energy growth on turn 1 and place a presence in a land they just explored, so that you can upgrade that land to a sacred site on turn 2 (before they ravage). Exceptions: If you started on board C, and the invaders explore mountains, you might not have any mountains within range 1 (except the one where you started with a sacred site). But it depends on the number of other players and the placement of their boards. If you started on board D, and the invaders explore mountains, you could place presence in the second mountains on your board...but that land also starts with a blight, which makes it a good target for Guard the Healing Land, so you might want to learn a power instead (and make a sacred site in the jungle to provide range). If you started on board A, and the invaders explore sands, then you could go to the sands in land 7, but this will allow the invaders to cause a blight cascade in land 4 (sands with a starting blight). Instead, you should expand to land 1 or 5, then make it a sacred site on turn 2, to provide range to use Guard the Healing Land in land 4.Turn 1
If you start in a land with a building, and then the invaders explore it during set-up, watch out! Your free defense isn't enough to stop town+city together. If another player can get Dahan into the land, you could play Rituals of Destruction (even if this only destroys the town, that should be enough to let you defend next turn). If not, you may need to play A Year of Perfect Stillness on turn 1 to prevent the build. (Either way, this will force you to take energy for growth on turn 1, even if you normally wouldn't.)You may have similar issues if you are expanding into a land that started with a building.
Otherwise, play either Draw of the Fruitful Earth or a minor power you just learned.
Turn 2
If you can play Guard the Healing Land in a way that removes a starting blight and stops the invaders from placing a new one, you should probably do it. That's a very efficient play.
Otherwise, you might want to trigger the first level of your innate. You can do this by playing Rituals of Destruction + Draw of the Fruitful Earth, or possibly some combo involving a minor power you learned. Repeating a 1-cost power is sometimes amazing, and sometimes lackluster, depending on the board state and what 1-cost powers are available to repeat.
If you learned a minor power on turn 1, you probably need to choose energy for growth on turn 2 in order to afford to play 2 cards.
If you played a 3-cost card on turn 1 (to deal with a multiple-buildings land), then on turn 2 you can either learn a minor power and play that + Draw of the Fruitful Earth, or you can choose energy again in order to play Draw of the Fruitful Earth + another 3-cost power.
Otherwise, on turn 2 you can either learn a power...or reclaim.
Reclaiming with only 1 card in your discard may seem pretty weird (and it is), but that card is probably Draw of the Fruitful Earth, which can trigger your innate this turn (in combination with Rituals of Destruction) and it also turns out to be a pretty incredible card in its own right...
Starting Cards
Draw of the Fruitful Earth can do as many as three key things at once:
1. Gather Dahan into a land where you need them (to counter a Ravage, or to support Rituals of Destruction) 2. Stop a build by gathering a lone explorer out of an adjacent land 3. Stop a second build by gathering a lone explorer out of another adjacent land
(Notice how "push 2 explorers" will never save more than one land, but "gather 2 explorers" often can! The lands don't even need to be adjacent to each other, just both adjacent to the same third land.)
It's hard to get all 3 of those things, since you can only target one land, but even if you only get two of them, that's still a highly efficient play. It's like getting 2 cards for one. And you can usually do at least two of those in the early game. All for one energy! Great card.
You want to use your other starting cards judiciously. All of your 3-cost starting powers can act like major powers, but only under favorable conditions. In unfavorable conditions, you're basically paying 3 energy for a minor power.
Guard the Healing Land: If this removes a blight and the defense prevents a new blight, this is a great card. If it only does one of those things, you're basically paying 3 energy for a minor. (Although it is more flexible in blight removal than regular minors, which usually have targeting restrictions and are usually slow.)
A Year of Perfect Stillness: The nice thing about this card is that it always works. Indirect means of stopping the invaders (defense, damage, pushing, etc.) often fail if there are too many invaders, but this card handles any amount, so it can be great in a hard spot. In a few cases, it can even stop multiple actions in a single round. But if you're using it to handle a routine problem, you're basically paying 3 energy for a minor.
Rituals of Destruction: With 3 Dahan, this does 5 damage and 2 fear, which is a legitimate major-power-level effect (assuming you can use that much damage). With less than 3 Dahan, it does 2 damage, which is a distinctly minor-level effect. However, this has all 3 of the elements needed for your innate, which means it's often the only card that can trigger your innate (or the next level higher of your innate), which sometimes makes it worth using even if you can't get 3 Dahan together.
There's an obvious combo of Rituals of Destruction + Draw of the Fruitful Earth to trigger your innate, repeat Draw to gather 4 Dahan, and then do the big version of Rituals. But using 2 cards + 4 energy + your innate is fairly expensive just to set up one major effect; it's kinda OK, but not great. (If Draw can also gather lone explorers out of adjacent lands--without causing problems for the target land--then it's a lot better.)
Learning Powers
With only 1 starting power that costs less than 3, it's very hard to reach a point where you can sustain playing a large number of cards per turn. My last game with Vital Strength of the Earth, I think I lost because I tried to get to 3 card plays when I should have been getting energy generation and major powers. My current thinking is that you should learn a major power somewhat early, and be prepared to forget one of your 3-cost starting cards to do it.
You rely less on your innate than most spirits do; it's good, but hard to trigger with Vital Strength's low card plays. You need at least one card with all 3 of those elements in order to reach level 1/2/3 of the innate using only 2/3/4 card plays.
For reference, the only learnable powers that can provide all three of sun+earth+plant are:
Elemental Boon (minor) Absorb Corruption (minor, expansion) The Trees and Stones Speak of War (major) Twisted Flowers Murmur Ultimatums (major, expansion) Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power (major, expansion)
Remarks: Is it just me, or do the "low complexity" spirits have the subtlest openings?