Cardboard Corner: Review of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn Red Rains expansion "Corpse of Viros"

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn (aka Ashes Reborn in its 1.5 incarnation) is one our favorite expandable card games. It's checks a lot of boxes. Great concept and art. Super tight design. Unique mechanisms. And fun back and forth gameplay. Recently, having reached a natural pause point in content production, the game's producers decided to take Ashes in a new direction, a popular direction of modern gaming—regardless board, card, or video. That area is PvE (person vs environment), and the new release is Red Rains: “Corpse of Viros” (2023).

“Corpse of Viros” kicks off the Red Rains PvE series. One release is planned for each of the seven dice types, with “Corpse of Viros” featuring Charm dice. In this new mode, one to two players take on the game-controlled Viros and all its aspects. Knock its hit points to zero, and the phoenixborn win. It kills a phoenixborn, and Viros wins. From 10,000 feet, it's that simple.

A few thousand feet lower, “Corpse of Viros” plays very similar to a standard, competitive match of Ashes. Players will be taking main and side actions in exactly the same manner, looking to deploy units, cast spells, and do damage. But in this expansion, the opponent is Viros. Rather than a single entity (like a phoenixborn), however, Viros manifests itself in multiple aspects (cards) revealed each round, and depending on the roll of a twelve-sided die, will activate in different ways (attacking, exhausting, revealing, etc.). Players need to balance their attention across the table, from the aspects to Viros itself, in order to defeat it.

But beyond its aspects, Viros has another big trick up its sleeve. Every Viros turn players will roll a special Red Rains die (five are included in the box). If it comes up on a Red Rains symbol, the player will insert the die into a slot on Viros' board. Once five such symbols are slotted, Viros gets a Red Rains token. Once Viros has collected enough Red Rains tokens (depending on scenario difficulty), its Ultimate ability activates. When this happens, several things will trigger at once, none of which are good for players—damage, destroying units, removing spells, and other effects. The next Ultimate level is then revealed, and it awaits Red Rains dice rolls, tokens, etc. Like a boss' special attack, players need to watch this “clock” of Red Rains tokens and be ready for its explosion, an explosion which gets worse each time around. Not only is this Ultimate ability wonderfully flavorful, it likewise prevents PvE mode from becoming repetitive or being too similar to standard Ashes.

It's well worth noting what is and isn't included in the Red Rains “Corpse of Viros” box. The box contains a small Red Rains board with designated spaces and slots for Viros' dice, cards, discard, tokens, etc. It also comes with five Red Rains dice, as well as a handful of Red Rains tokens. For the phoenixborn, the box comes with one complete playable deck (based on Charm dice) that includes old player cards as well as player cards that are entirely new. There are also four phoenixborn included: three from the core box (Jessa, Noah, and Coal) and one from an expansion (Brennen Blackcloud). “Corpse of Viros” does not come with anything else. For example, it does not include Charm dice or the cards for a second playable deck. The Ashes Reborn core box is necessary.

One additional point is worth mentioning. If players are interested in the new Ashes PvE format but not specifically interested in this Viros/Charm set, it's still almost necessary to purchase “Corpse of Viros.” This is because the two Red Rains expansions which have since been released include only cards. They do not include the Red Rains board, Red Rains dice, Red Rains tokens. So far “Corpse of Viros” is the sole place to get those components. They can be substituted with typical TCG bits, but be aware. Some people may consider this “cheating”, but I consider it practical. Why print and make all the Red Rains components (board, dice, tokens, etc.) for a product the majority of interested buyers will buy one of any way? Extremely few Ashes players would want seven boards, seven sets of dice, etc.

And one final point before closing this review: “Corpse of Viros” packs a solid punch when it comes to variability and difficulty. Difficulty can be set at six different levels. Likewise, Viros can manifest itself in two ways (players must choose which prior to setup). This essentially means there are twelve different experiences contained in the box: one lane with six levels of difficulty, and another lane with its six. Combine this with the dozens of phoenixborn out there (there is no requirement to use Charm-based phoenixborn) and the package contains a good degree of variability that will test and challenge all levels of players. Is it the same as having a live human on the other side of the table? No, but it does bring a challenge, and with the unpredictability of the aspects and the Ultimate ability, it offers something not available in competitive mode.

I have played a few fan-made cooperative and solo variants of popular expandable card games. They are useful for learning how to play, but wholly pale in comparison to the competitive experience. I would much rather play Game of Thrones: The Card Game or Warhammer 40k: Conquest with real people, for example. Such games, after all, were designed as two-player duels through and through. “Corpse of Viros” is not that. It is not fan made, and in no way does it sacrifice the fundamental principles of Ashes. It feels like Ashes, just with a friend rather than against them. Not cutting any corners or diluting the experience, it's a legitimate way to play. I can see players who don't like the competitive side of Ashes enjoying this cooperative PvE experience. Teamwork is required.