Every “Red Rains” expansion contains four phoenixborn. None are new. As of 2025 (prior to Ashes Ascendancy) all have been previously seen, either in the master set or in individual packs. But each does have new specialty cards, and the remaining nine cards (three copies each) included in the pack are likewise new, never before seen in Ashes. Other than the fact the cards are based around one of the dice types, there is no synergy. They are intended to expand the broader player card pool rather than work together as a precon deck. To be clear, they can be played as a legal deck by adding Phoenixborn specialty cards, just not a good one. If you enjoy a particular dice-type or phoenixborn (included in the notes below), check out the relative pack as there will be new options for play.
Organized in release order, the following is a breakdown of the seven “Red Rains” packs:
“Corpse
of Viros”
“Corpse of Viros” features two hydra-esque aspects: Shadow and Fury, and throws a lot of different things at players, including regenerate abilities, exhaustion effects, evasion effects, restriction, attack blocks, and AoE damage. It is the baseline “Red Rains” boss experience, with difficulty ramping smoothly through the levels. For a first box experience, it excellently showcases the PvE mode and offers a variety of challenges.
This “showcase” aspect is particularly important given the pack includes all of the components needed to play solo or cooperative. None of the other six packs do. Repeat, none of the other “Red Rains” packs contain components, only cards. Substitutes can be used (five 6-sided dice, one 12-sided die, and seven tokens of any type), but having the bits and bobs made specifically for Ashes, as well as the Chimera board for organizing cards, dice and tokens, adds a little something extra to gameplay that is worth the investment.
The pack is based around Ceremonial dice (goats) and the four heroes included are: Coal Roarkwin, Noah Redmoon, Brennan Blackcloud, and Jessa Na Ni. One potentially important note about player cards, something unique to “Corpe of Viros”, is that the pack contains the card “Channel Magic”, which is a powerful catch up mechanism for new players. For newbies, it can help make introductions to Ashes smoother.
“Frostwild Scourge”
The Chimera in “Frostwild Scourge” features two frost giant aspects: Storm and Mighty, and introduces alteration spells the Chimera can conjure. In gamer terms, this is the stun and buff Chimera. The Storm aspect often forces players to add stun alterations to their units, freezing them until a side action is used to remove the stun. Storm also has damage prevention and big, heavy units that hit hard. The Mighty aspect also has a couple cards that stun, but has more cards that buff the Chimera's units, giving them stronger attacks. Mighty also has delayed, as well as kick-you-when-you're-down effects. Perhaps it's just my playstyle or the decks I construct, but this is an insanely difficult Chimera. I regularly lose on standard mode. Stun sucks the wind out of my sails, making for an annoying experience. (You almost have to run the new Rin.) The Mighty side is more fun. You get knocked around but have a chance to actually use your units.
The pack is based around Natural dice (frogs) and the four heroes included are: Rin Northfell, Lulu Firststone, Koji Wolfcub, and Aradel Summergaard. It's the 'fire and ice' box (aka, the dinosaurs and squirrels box) as many of the cards feature the extremes of hot and cold. I haven't tried all combinations, but Lulu is a phoenixborn who benefited most in my deckbuilding with the new cards—more go-big(ger) options.
“Blight of Neverset”
“Blight of Neverset” features the flora-based aspects Bloom and Thorn. Where “Frostwild Scourge” introduced alterations (attachments) that the Chimera can conjure, “Blight of Neverset” introduces units the Chimera can conjure. In Bloom, these units features delayed effects (like grenades) as well as defensive effects like block and guard. The Thorn aspect features poison effects, dripping out damage over time, as well as burst damage and Chimera healing. If Bloom is a drunken boxer (delayed swings and awkward rhythm), then Thorn is a classic lightweight—jabs from all angles that steadily wear you down. For players who like having a turn or two to plan moves before bad stuff happens, this Chimera is for them. Miss your timings, however, and you get hit in the jaw.
The pack is based around Charm dice (snakes) and the four heroes included are: Leo Sunshadow, Saria Guideman, Maeoni Viper, and Astrea. There are birds and bigger birds, badgers, and gardeners. Overall an odd mix of cards—as is the case with all the “Red Rains” boxes. For people tired of breaking out the same set of birds with Leo, in the same order, game after game, try the new birds. They mix it up. Meoni likewise has new options, a new lane to try. Not sure if it's better than the silver snake, but at least mixes things up.
“Siege of Lordswall”
“Siege of Lordswall” is the swarm box—the zombie swarm. (Visuals inspired by The Last of Us?) The Chimera has two aspects: Horde and Death. Horde pushes a lot of one-health minions onto players, as well as units with basic attacks. It's death by a thousand papercuts. A drop of blood here, a drop there, and before you know it, you're gushing the red stuff—one hit point from losing. The Death aspect is Horde+, aka swarm aggro. It's Horde on steroids—more swarm, more minions, and really difficult. If there is such thing as tower defense in Ashes, this is it.
The box is based around Divine dice (lions) and the four heroes included are: Odette Diamondcrest, James Endersight, Dimona Odinstar, and Xander Heartsblood. These are some of the game's hardest hitting phoenixborn, and the player cards included in the box feel great individually. But again, synergy is limited.
“Spawn of Shadowreck”
The Chimera in “Spawn of Shadowreck” is a jeweled spider whose primary mechanism is the conjured alteration Webbed. Unlike Stun from “The Frostdale Giant”, Webbed lowers units' attack and recover values by one. It's annoying, but not a (fun) blocker. The two aspects shooting webs are Lair and Horror. Lair leans into classic spider stuff like: quick strikes, poison, the eating (destruction) of webbed units, and the classic spider move: dice exhaustion. The other aspect, Horror, could have been named Jump Scare. It's unpredictable. It throws a mix of things at the player from several angles, including card removal, rage-dice rerolls, random (dice-decided) damage, and preventing players from using basic dice. It synergizes well with the Shadowreck's innate dice abilities, making for encounters that are difficult to plan.
The box is based around Illusion dice (foxes) and the four heroes included are: Rimea Careworn, Victoria Glassfire, Hope Everthorn, and Sembali Grimtongue. The coolest cards are in the pack will be in the individual player's opinion, but for me, Rimea's new specialty is something both atypical and interesting. Sembali's has a powerful new ally (2-damage side action!), but may benefit more from some of the other player cards. Hope and Victoria both get a great assortment of control spells that make them more viable. While the phoenixborn in this pack are some of my least played, for those who know them well, there seems a strong set of cards.
“Flood of Moon Cove”
The penultimate “Red Rains” box is ”Flood of Moon Cove”. A maritime-based Chimera, it's two aspects are Wave and Abyss, both of which feature the Drowned conjuration alteration. The alteration is attached to phoenixborn and can only be removed by spending a side action to lower one die in your pool one level. Easy, simple, and for some time has little effect on game play given each conjuration only lowers your Phoenixborn's HP by one. In early game this doesn't mean much, but as late game approaches, particularly when you need a class- or power-level die to do something, it does. Where some of the other “Red Rains” expansions can hit hard and fast, this one sits off radar until it's not—a shark snapping at your toes. You're swimming along, taking measured breaths as needed, but suddenly things get dire, and all you need is oxygen/class- or power-dice to stay alive. Nicely thematic.
Both aspects, Wave and Abyss, use the Drowned conjuration. Abyss pours it on (ha!) by featuring cards which exacerbate Drowned, as well as unit exhaustion, and effects dependent on Drowned depth level. The player never seems to have the dice they need. The Wave aspect features end-of-round effects, enter-play effects, rage dice shenanigans, returning spells to hand, and outright adding red rains tokens to the chimera—on top of Drowned conjurations. All in all, these are some of the most thematic aspects featured on Chimera.
The box is based around Sympathy dice (horses) and the four heroes included are: Namine Hymntide, Echo Greystorm, Harold Westraven, and Fiona Mercywind. If Echo wasn't powerful before, he is perhaps even more powerful with his new specialty card. Harold gets a new werewolf-esque specialty and Namine gets to do more sleight of hand with cards. But the phoenixborn which perhaps benefits most is Fiona. She gets an interesting slate of conjurations that the player can choose—much like Rimea's mounts. From chrysalis to caterpillar to scarab...or to moth. Again, I have not played every card iteration, but in my limited experience Fiona is the phoenixborn who benefits most from this pack, followed by Namine and Harold. I'm far from an Ashes master, so take that as you will.
The
final ”Red Rains” Chimera is the appropriately titled ”End of
Argaia”. Its two aspects are Ruin and Rebirth, and the Chimera is
avian in appearance—like a “phoenixborn”. In fact, its main
mechanism is the conjured alteration Red Feather. Attached to enemy
units, it adds +1 Life and does one damage to a phoenixborn if
it survives til the end of the round. The Chimera's secondary
mechanism is a conjured unit: Affront to the Phoenix which appears at
Ultimate III. With an Attack value of 6, need I say more. Yes, yes
I do. Its art is phenomenal.
Looking at aspects, Ruin
features several end-of-round effects (leaving Chimera units alive is
extra punishing, made all the more difficult by Red Feather
conjurations), sudden attacks, blocking, and card discard. The
Rebirth aspect is no less punishing. On top of Red Feather
conjurations, it punishes players for taking side actions, blocks,
gives the Chimera double turns, and adds aspect cards to the
Chimera's battlefield. As a whole, if there is a boss of the
bosses, “End of Argaia” may just be that.
The box is based around Time dice (turtles) and the four heroes included are: Jericho Reborn, Tristan Darkwater, Orrick Gilstream, and Rowan Umberend. As with all the hero specialty cards in the “Red Rains” expansions, the designers try to give players new lanes to try with their favorite heroes. I have not tested each card 87 times, but of those I have used, Rowan seems to walk away from the expansion in the best shape (not that he needed it). Jericho is, unfortunately, still weak—though some of the other player cards do give her a better chance in PvP. Orrick likewise needed help, and I'm not sure he got it here; his new specialty, while thematic, doesn't give him an edge. And lastly Tristan. He gets a new lane with Ocean's Eyes (why didn't Plaid Hat give them a color spread like the Tetra Prisms?) and remains strong. As a whole, there are many new cards to supplement and inspire deckbuilding.
Summary
And that's it, all seven “Red Rains” packs. They offer a variety of challenges, which means a few things: 1) players will be able to test different types of decks, 2) there is a variety of PvE experiences to be had, and 3) everybody will have their favorite Chimera. Some may prefer the big, heavy hitters like “Corpse of Viros” or “The Frostdale Giants”. Some may enjoy planning for the timed effects of “Blight of Neverset” or “Flood of Moon Cove”. And still others might like the unpredictable behavior of “Spawn of Shadowreck”, the tower defense of “Siege of Lordswall”, or the Big Boss , “End of Argaia”.
With the introduction of Dragonborn in Ashes Ascendancy, it's possible these are the only seven Chimera the game will ever see. Time will tell. Plaid Hat have done an excellent job evolving Ashes into the future—better than any other LCG in history, if we're being honest. But still. Best to appreciate these while we can.
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