| Detestable Monolith ディテスタブルスタチュー Portalcraft Follower ネメシス フォロワー | |
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Unevolved Fanfare: Draw a card. Enhance (6): Recover 3 play points and evolve this follower. Can’t attack. Can’t be evolved using evolution points. (Can be evolved using card effects.) When you play another card using its Enhance effect, evolve this follower and change its attack and defense to X/X. X equals the Enhance cost. |
Evolved Ward. (Can attack.) |
進化前 EPによる進化ができない。（能力による進化はできる） 攻撃不能。 自分が他のカードを【エンハンス】でプレイしたとき、進化する。これの攻撃力/体力をX/Xにする。Xは「その【エンハンス】の値」である。 【ファンファーレ】カードを1枚引く。 【エンハンス】6； 自分のPPを3回復。進化する。 |
進化後 （攻撃可能） 【守護】 |
Portalcraft has always been one of my favorite classes because of its out-of-the-box and borderline strange card design. In this Order Shift mini-expansion, I had the opportunity to reveal this weird yet interesting card, Detestable Monolith. Detestable Monolith is one of the cards that you can’t really tell at a glance what it is supposed to achieve. The card’s base stats look menacing, but its effective stats are actually based on the other Enhance card that you play on the following turn. There is also the option to simply wait until turn 6 and play its Enhance effect for an auto-evolved follower with 7/7 stats and Ward, which is quite powerful tempo-wise and is able to protect your other followers on the field. In this article, let’s try to explore various things that we could do with this bizarre card.
The first thing that comes to mind is its obvious synergy with Cutthroat, Discord Convict. With Cutthroat’s leader effect active, Detestable Monolith is practically a 0-cost card when played with its enhanced effect. 0-Cost 7/7 Ward that draws you a card is definitely a powerful option that allows you to clear an opponent Ward and let your Storm followers that you play afterwards hit the opponent’s face. It also provides you with a strong board that limits your opponent’s subsequent turn. Besides playing Detestable Monolith for its Enhance effect, playing it for its base effect can be a really strong play. We’re not talking about a turn 3 play, but rather a late-game play that threatens lethal. For example, on turn 7, after playing two Enhance cards, play Monolith with the remaining 3PP. While it seems that it does nothing for the turn except draw a card, this setup is literally detestable since it forces the opponent to clear it. If this Monolith remains on the field on turn 8, any Enhance cards that we play on turn 8 will evolve this follower and it will be able to hit the opponent face with an attack that equals the Enhance cost. The most ideal case is to play Cutthroat Enhance 7, then grant it Storm ability with Dune Surfer Enhance 6. If you still have an evolve point, this combo is an exact 20 damage OTK (7 from Monolith + 5 from Cutthroat effect + 8 from the evolved Cutthroat attack).
Compared to its prime version during the Azvaldt expansion, the current Enhance Portal simply lacks power and seems unable to consistently contest the current top meta decks. The archetype’s midgame options are significantly weaker, and its late-game lethal option is far weaker compared to what we had in the past. The Judith nerf still hurts the deck a lot, and surviving until the late game is a really tall task for the deck. The addition of Detestable Monolith alone might not be enough to increase the deck’s power level; it might make Enhance Portal’s midgame a little bit stronger, but probably not massively so. It does have some ways to set up lethal, but this current meta is a bit tough since most decks are able to deal with it easily. Ultimately, a 1-of card is unlikely to make a difference. However, the addition of both Detestable Monolith and Anthenita, Spark of Change might actually spark a little bit of change in Enhance Portal.
There might be cases where we can simply play Detestable Monolith as a standard 3PP play without activating its Enhance effect; it’s still card draw that acts as a pseudo-amulet. The opponent might decide to ignore it; however, if they do, an Enhance card on a following turn might punish them for it. There’s a reason why it’s called Detestable Monolith: its presence is so annoying. However, the current card pool for Portalcraft doesn’t have a lot of Enhance cards that are good to play outside of the Cutthroat archetype. For example, Puppet Waltz and Interstellar Battlecruiser, which are used in the Control Portal archetype: Battlecruiser obviously has anti-synergy with Monolith, since the former will Banish the latter on the spot. Puppet Waltz is a strong card that might actually be decent to play in curve on turn 4, however, Enhance 4 means the 6PP Enhanced Monolith is only a 4/4… which is not so worth a slot.
Enhance cards that are seen outside of the Enhance Portal archetype. The presence of Cutthroat makes Cygames hesitant to print too many good Enhance cards, as it might ruin the meta’s balance.
Hence, I think the potential for the Monolith lies within the Puppet / Midrange archetype. Detestable Monolith might deal a decent amount of face damage when combined with Puppet Workout. It poses a real threat when it’s not getting answered because it can hit for a significant amount of face damage. Dealing with a 7/7 is also not easy, especially during the early game, where damage is quite limited. Faerie Marionette also deserves a shoutout, as Monolith will be able to protect Draco Marionette, summoned by Faerie’s Enhance ability. Another possible synergy: Evo Portal needs as many auto-evolves as possible to reach Shin, Enemy of Chaos’s 10-evolve threshold. However, Monolith usage would likely be limited to its Enhance ability in this archetype because it doesn’t make sense to play it for its Fanfare: you don’t want to put any other Enhance card except the Monolith itself inside the deck because Enhance has anti-synergy with Shin. As an Enhance card, Detestable Monolith has a limited window to be played: turn 6 and turn 7. I think this small window is good enough as it also gives you a strong tempo during the midgame, and its tall Ward might protect you from the opponent’s burst damage. However, since the window is limited, this card would be played at most at two copies because Monolith is not so useful after Shin becomes active.
In the end, Detestable Monolith is a bizarre card that is difficult to evaluate. We already discussed some possibilities for existing Portalcraft decks, but in the end, most of them are niche scenarios. I do think this card might have potential in the future, especially when there are better Enhance cards in the pool; maybe after Cutthroat rotates, when Cygames no longer needs to limit their production of Enhance cards. Until then, this card might only see a minimum amount of play appearance.
