SFR, Inc.

[willpell]

One of a handful of spells that SFR has dropped in the course of rules revisions is the Muck Monster spell for the Goblins, which turned a Swampland minor terrain into a monster...sort of. It didn't really fight, it just could absorb 4 damage and revert to a terrain, while gaining the ability to move as long as it stayed a "monster"; other than that, it was basically still just a terrain, and thus the spell wasn't really worth the bother of casting it.

I therefore have revised the spell to make it much more worthy of a magic cost exceeding that of one dragon, and since I don't approve of asymmetry, I've made a version of the spell for each of the four existing terrain types, assigning them to appropriate-seeming races and making each of the resulting "monsters" function slightly differently, adding a little flavor while keeping results streamlined enough to need minimal referencing. Here are the results.

Storm Elemental - Scalder spell, cost 8 Green
Target a Coastland minor terrain held by one of the caster's armies. That minor terrain instead becomes a monster unit in the controlling army. It no longer functions as a minor terrain. It cannot be taken as a casualty for its army unless there are no other valid choices to absorb damage; if this happens or if it is killed as a unit, the Elemental reverts to a minor terrain held by the containing army, unless it is in the reserve or at a non-Coastland terrain, in which case it is placed out of the game.
While the minor terrain is a monster, treat its icons as the following:
ID: As a monster ID face (may cast magic, may be doubled)
Melee: 4 Melee
Missile: 4 Missile
Magic: 4 Magic
x2 Maneuvers: 4 Maneuver
x2 Saves: 4 Save
Flood: 4 Trample ("Wash Away")
Landslide: 4 Coil ("Gripping Mud")
Revolt: 4 Volley ("Sheet Lightning")
Lost: Surprise ("Out of Nowhere")
This spell may be cast from reserve.

Dust Elemental - Amazon spell, cost 8 Blue
Target a Flatland minor terrain held by one of the caster's armies. That minor terrain instead becomes a monster unit in the controlling army. It no longer functions as a minor terrain. It cannot be taken as a casualty for its army unless there are no other valid choices to absorb damage; if this happens or if it is killed as a unit, the Elemental reverts to a minor terrain held by the containing army, unless it is in the reserve or at a non-Flatland terrain, in which case it is placed out of the game.
While the minor terrain is a monster, treat its icons as the following:
ID: As a monster ID face (may cast magic, may be doubled)
Melee: 4 Melee
Missile: 4 Missile
Magic: 4 Magic
x2 Maneuvers: 4 Maneuver
x2 Saves: 4 Save
Flood: 4 Trample ("Wash Away")
Landslide: 4 Double Strike ("Sandblast")
Revolt: 4 Counter ("Absorb Foes")
Lost: Surprise ("Dissipate")
This spell may be cast from reserve.

Muck Elemental - Goblin spell, cost 8 Yellow
Target a Swampland minor terrain held by one of the caster's armies. That minor terrain instead becomes a monster unit in the controlling army. It no longer functions as a minor terrain. It cannot be taken as a casualty for its army unless there are no other valid choices to absorb damage; if this happens or if it is killed as a unit, the Elemental reverts to a minor terrain held by the containing army, unless it is in the reserve or at a non-Swampland terrain, in which case it is placed out of the game.
While the minor terrain is a monster, treat its icons as the following:
ID: As a monster ID face (may cast magic, may be doubled)
Melee: 4 Melee
Missile: 4 Missile
Magic: 4 Magic
x2 Maneuvers: 4 Maneuver
x2 Saves: 4 Save
Flood: 4 Trample ("Wash Away")
Landslide: 4 Coil ("Gripping Mud")
Revolt: 4 Bullseye ("Mudslinging")
Lost: Surprise ("Out of Nowhere")
This spell may be cast from reserve.

Lava Elemental - Lava Elf spell, cost 8 Red
Target a Highland minor terrain held by one of the caster's armies. That minor terrain instead becomes a monster unit in the controlling army. It no longer functions as a minor terrain. It cannot be taken as a casualty for its army unless there are no other valid choices to absorb damage; if this happens or if it is killed as a unit, the Elemental reverts to a minor terrain held by the containing army, unless it is in the reserve or at a non-Highland terrain, in which case it is placed out of the game.
While the minor terrain is a monster, treat its icons as the following:
ID: As a monster ID face (may cast magic, may be doubled)
Melee: 4 Melee
Missile: 4 Missile
Magic: 4 Magic
x2 Maneuvers: 4 Maneuver
x2 Saves: 4 Save
Flood: 4 Smite ("Magma Stream")
Landslide: 4 Double Strike ("Ashblast")
Revolt: 4 Counter ("Absorb Foes")
Lost: 4 Wild Growth ("Solidify")
This spell may be cast from reserve.
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Designer of Hybrid Dragon Breaths, the Enchant Element spell, new colored Dragonkin Breaths, and various homebrew races and dragons. If you want to know where to find them...good luck, I don't remember anymore.

[chuckpint]

Since all these spells affect terrains (even if minor terrains), none should be castable from reserves. Reserve magic is only allowed on your armies, your units, your magic items, your DUA, and your BUA.

One thing I did like with the old Muck Monster spell was that the disaster face if it came up, caused the monster to revert back to a minor terrain. That seemed to be easy to remember, disaster is always a bad thing to roll. Otherwise, it seems while giving each of the 16 minor terrains a different SAI effect for disaster is going to be really hard to remember.

The part about it can't be taken as a casualty unless there are no other valid choices; what is the thinking behind that? One of the few good things about Muck Monster was that it was a cheap way to add four health to the army that could be taken as damage without penalty (assuming the monster was at the correct terrain).

There are two other cases were the minor terrain would be taken out of play if it reverts from being a monster. If the army controls an eighth face, and the monster reverts back to a minor terrain, then it is also immediately placed out of the game. And if an army has a minor terrain and a monster terrain, and the monster terrain reverts back, the ex-monster terrain must be placed out of play. You can only have one minor terrain at a time with an army.
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You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[willpell]