Why would you sacrifice Ikiryo?

[BurkerKiing]

Hi,

 

So the title pretty much says it all. I'm going to play my first Wave 2 ME game this week and as a Kirai player from 1.5 I'd like to pick her up again. I've looked through the cards, etc, etc and as I'm looking at Ikiryo the thought comes in to my head. After looking at all the other cards I cannot see why you would want to sacrifice her - in 1.5 it could be used as a hand cycling schtick but not in M2E.

 

Thanks for your time - and advice.

[Tiny]

Off the top of my head 2 reasons.

 

- To spread adversary around to different enemy models

- so you can have her summon again and attack again.

[Nagash1959]

Yup, like TIny said. The main thing to remember is that because you sac'ed Ikiyo, the next one you summon has not activated yet. So you can repeatedly have it pop up, attack, then bounce out, like Bete on overdrive.

[bonedoc]

also to remove conditions from her like cursed object or distract 

[Veskit]

not to mention she's squishy so in the strat like Reckoning you don't want her to be left out as an easy kill for your opponent to score.

[Myth]

The three main benefits you get:

 

1) Each new Ikiryo helps you out-activate the enemy.

2) Each time you summon Ikiryo you get to hand out Adversary, which buffs all of your units quite a bit.

3) Each time you sacrifice Ikiryo, you are spending (1) AP in return for the potential to get (2) AP when she is resummoned. Also worth keeping in mind - Ikiryo sacrificing herself costs you (1) AP. But there are other ways to Sacrifice her. Kirai can Absorb Soul for cards, or can use Ikiryo as a summoning platform for other models. If Kirai is nearby, she can shunt attacks onto Ikiryo and let the enemy kill her off for you. I find this to be where the Ikiryo cycle can get especially scary, when she is showing up 2-3 times a turn, getting 2 attacks each time, while also effectively giving you a resource (Wounds) that can be used to keep Kirai alive or power Kirai's abilities.

 

The downside:

1) Each Ikiryo summon costs a card or Soulstone, so it can't go on indefinitely. (Unless you have the Take Back the Night upgrade on someone in a good position to help Ikiryo draw cards.) And in the end, if you asked me, "Would you be willing to discard a card in order to make two attacks at Ml 6, with high damage, ignoring armor, targeting the enemies lowest defense, with a +Flip to attack and great triggers?" That deal is almost always going to be worth it.

[Seb3110]

I might be blind here, but why is it that Ikiryo is not slow when summoned, since she can both hit ans sac herself on the same turn?

[Nagash1959]

She's immune to Slow and Paralyzed as part of the "Kiria's Soul" rule. So each one you summon can activate with 2 AP. The model flickers in and  out like an office light in a horror movie.

[Seb3110]

Aaah, awesome thanks.