In this guide, the thoughts of one of the games creators, Chris, will be in Bold and Italics. This is meant to gain a little perspective in the overall scheme. He is ultimately the person building the character.

Manipulation Shards are quite fun and quirky little creations.

First, you’ll need to decide how you want to start. There are 3 Manipulation Shards to start the game, so you’ll need to figure out which direction you want to go. The Shard of Cunning and the Shard of Deception will allow you to play two cards into the field each turn. Cunning is meant toward allies gaining cards in their hands while Deception is meant more to inhibiting an enemy’s field. The Shard of Illusions is similar to Cunning in that it will assist players in gaining cards in their hand, but it can also increase the damage of basic attacks for other players through the Sacrifice ability, Imbue.

When I’m building a manipulation character, I break it down to 1 of 2 things. Am I helping my allies or am I hurting my enemies. While the goal in the end is to do both, I can only start with one. Typically, I prefer to start with the Shard of Deception. I like being able to inhibit fields where I can, especially early. Depending on the route that we take, being able to keep enemies at bay and only allow them to basic attack is a game changer. Unnatural Trickster is a remarkably powerful and underrated 3 of a Kind ability that is good early and late. Because my build will focus on deploying Unnatural Trickster as early and often as possible, my focus now will become field control. Because I’m able to play 2 cards into the field each turn, I will be discarding a lot of cards to try and make hands. I know that I need to get a Shard that has a Sacrifice ability soon.

Following the creation of your character, you’ll need to go out and try and build him. In terms of Tier 1 scenarios, the best place to find Shards is the Hunt of Rattias and any of the Scenarios contained with The Front Lines Arc. 

Hopefully by this point, your party realizes that you are wasting cards in your field because of Extra Play. With luck, they know that you need a sacrifice ability to control your field and that, you have the cards to be quite useful. Now, the Hunt for Rattias offers a unique shard choice, though it will be a tough fight to get it, especially if you have a sword using mage tank. The Shard of Enchanting within that grouping is very useful to this build and one that, you will need to fight for. The Sacrifice ability Disenchant will allow you to inhibit enemies while also keeping your field under control. With the Shard of Deception equipped and the Shard of Enchanting, you’ll be making enemies cripple for your allies to slay with relative ease. Also, if you have a sword equipped, you’ll be able to add your magical power to your basic attacks, which can be useful. By this point, you’ll be wanting to use a sword, magical shield, and then a pelt and a mask to maximize this.

With the final Shard choice, you can ultimately get creative. The goal of this build was to make a very powerful manipulator, so to ultimately do that, there is only one Shard to go, and that’s the Shard of the Levy.

The quickest way to get the Shard of the Levy is to defeat Hiermos, in, the Hunt for Hiermos. It’s a Tier 3 scenario and somewhat difficult for newer players, but doable. By defeating the large white yeti, you will have 3 Manipulation shards that will create a remarkably powerful character.

The reason why I like these three Shards in combination is because of the control that they give me. Once all 3 Shards are in place, my goal as a player is as follows: Play both of my cards every turn, sacrifice where needed, and build to either Unnatural Trickster (3 of a Kind), or one of the abilities off of Shard of the Levy, which is probably the best manipulation shard in the game. At this juncture, I’m considering offloading Shard of Deceptions for something a bit more powerful and damaging. This would be where I would consider taking an Elemental Shard if we needed it. I would sacrifice extra play, but because of Shard of the Levy’s Equip ability, I really don’t need it that much. If someone needed me to take Shard of the Solar Eclipse or Shard of the Lunar Eclipse, I would strongly consider it at this point.