Cindra Blitz Deck Tutorial

Cindra is a Royal Draconic Ninja equipped with deadly Kunai of Retribution! She hurls her daggers at her enemies, then uses the fire flowing through her veins to retrieve them and throw them again!

How to Play Cindra

Cindra has a lot of smaller attacks with go again, delivering death by a thousand cuts. Her weapons of choice are Draconic daggers, which destroy themselves after you’ve finished attacking and have closed the combat chain. But they’re never gone for long, because you can use Cindra’s hero ability to re-equip them from your graveyard! Although Cindra’s ability costs 3 resources, you can play Draconic attacks to reduce this cost until it becomes completely free!

Draconic cards can be identified by their volcanic border pattern and dragon symbol in their card text. Many cards in your deck care about the number of Draconic chain links you control, i.e. the number of attacks on the combat chain that are Draconic-type. Often, Cindra will start by attacking with one of her Kunai, in order to unlock cards that require you to control 2 or more Draconic chain links. There are also regular Ninja cards in your deck that are not Draconic, so make sure to check the card type before you play!

Some turns you might find yourself without your daggers equipped and the cards in your hand either aren’t Draconic, or they need another Draconic attack in order to get go again. These situations are where Fealty tokens are extremely useful. By destroying a Fealty token, you can turn any card you want Draconic! In order to make a Fealty token, you’ll need to first mark the opposing hero, then hit them with an attack. There are a variety of cards in your deck that will mark the opponent, and once they are marked, they will stay marked until you land a hit!

Tricky Stuff

A chain link is an attack you control, whether it’s from a weapon, or a card played from hand. When you attack, you open what’s called a combat chain, and each new attack is a chain link. When you have no more attacks to play, or you want to play a non-attack card, you close the combat chain. This is the point where Cindra’s daggers will be destroyed. You can always open up a new combat chain with another attack.

Chain links also take on the properties of the attack, even if that attack is removed while the combat chain is still open. For example, if you ‘flick’ one of your Kunai (more on ‘flicking’ next) and the dagger is removed, you will still control the chain link, and it is still treated as a Draconic chain link because the Kunai was originally Draconic as well.

‘Flicking’ refers to card effects that allow you to essentially throw your dagger at the opponent mid-combat. It typically deals undefendable damage, and destroys the dagger immediately. Often it’s a great move to flick one of your daggers after attacking with it, since it’s going to be destroyed later when the combat chain closes anyway.

There are a range of defensive and aggressive options in Cindra’s equipment. Vow of Vengeance gives you a one-time choice between marking Arakni, or defending with it. Blade Beckoner Plating doesn’t break, but it does receive -1 counters equal to its defense. This means you can use it once defending a weapon attack (for 2), or you can use it to defend a regular attack from hand first (for 1) then use it a second time against a weapon attack (for 1).

Danger Digits can be used during the Reaction Step (after the opponent has decided blocks), to ‘flick’ a dagger. And lastly, not only can Leap Frog Leggings hop in to save you during the Reaction Step, you can even move it from a previous attack across the combat chain to a new one (as long as your opponent plays or activates a reaction).

How to Win with Cindra

Cindra wins by chipping down the opponent’s life with constant attacks until they are either forced to defend every single point, or you deal undefendable damage to them. The best way to achieve this is to constantly loop your daggers. Remember they also count themselves as Draconic chain links for the purposes of Cindra’s hero ability, so you don’t necessarily need to always attack with both in the same turn. Sometimes you can attack with one dagger to get your turn going, then retrieve the second one from your graveyard ready for next turn, letting the first one go.

That being said, some of Cindra’s most powerful turns involve attacking with your daggers several times in a single turn. When your daggers are destroyed then re-equipped, they are essentially ‘new’ daggers so their Once per Turn limit is reset. This means you can attack with your daggers, flick one so it’s destroyed, use Cindra’s ability to fetch it back, then attack with it again! These flicking abilities are particularly potent when you line them up with Wrath of Retribution.

It always pays to try and keep a Fealty token around for the late game. Not just because it saves you from awkward hands, but because there are a number of deadly Ninja attacks in your deck that can close out a game with unpreventable damage if you make them Draconic. It can be very hard for the opponent to justify defending your daggers, so they’re very likely to drop to low life totals during the game. Make sure to keep track of this so you don’t miss an opportunity to line up one of these combos and kill them out of nowhere!