Song Decks and Singers: A Tempo Engine

Songs are a special action type with a hidden discount: instead of paying a song's ink cost, you may exert a character whose cost is equal to or greater than the song's cost to sing it for free. Build around that, and you generate tempo out of thin air.

The Singer keyword

A character with Singer N counts as cost N for singing, no matter its actual ink cost. So a cheap 2-cost character with Singer 5 can belt out a 5-cost song for free — paying with an exert instead of ink.

The value is obvious: a 2-cost body with Singer 5 lets you "play" a 5-cost song without spending any ink, freeing that ink for the rest of your turn.

Why it's tempo, not just value

Singing isn't free in the absolute sense — you exert a character, who then can't quest or challenge that turn. But you're converting a body's action into a spell's effect while keeping your ink for board development. On a turn where your singer wasn't going to attack anyway, that's pure upside.

Building a song deck

• Curve your singers below your songs. Cheap singers that sing expensive songs are the engine. A board of small singers can unleash huge effects.
• Pick songs with impact. Removal songs, card-draw songs, and lore-swing songs are worth bending your deck around. Filler songs aren't.
• Mind your inkable count. Songs are often inkable, which helps you keep a healthy inkwell while still running a lot of them.

The Amber/Amethyst home

Song strategies historically love Amber (which is full of supportive, song-friendly cards) and a partner like Amethyst for card flow. But any deck with a couple of strong songs and cheap singers can splash the package. Test the sequencing in the goldfish simulator — knowing when to sing vs quest is the whole skill.