Oscilio Blitz Deck Tutorial

Oscilio is an Elemental Wizard imbued with the power of Lightning! He uses ancient arcane symbols called Sigils to enhance instant speed plays and blast his opponents to oblivion!

How to Play Oscilio

Oscilio has the highest arcane damage burst potential of all the heroes in Rosetta (more on this damage type below), enabled by his signature weapon, Volzar, the Lightning Rod. Each time you play a Lightning card, Volzar’s ability to juice up your burn spells increases. It’s a good idea to track how many Lightning cards you have played during the turn by placing a dice on Volzar, even if you aren’t intending to use it. Lightning cards can be identified by their yellow border pattern and Lightning symbol in the card text.

Sigils are special aura cards that stay in the arena once played, until an effect makes them leave. All of the Sigils in your deck are also instants, which means you can play them on either player’s turn, and they won’t use up your action point. They have effects that activate when they leave the arena, whether it’s from their own self-destruction effect, or another card effect removing it. Some cards in your deck will mention ‘permanents’ - this simply refers to cards in play that will only leave the arena due to a card effect, like your Sigils. So an attack action card is not a permanent, because it automatically leaves the arena through normal game rules when the combat chain closes.

Oscilio has a special instant hero ability that allows him to discard instant cards and draw new ones. This is useful for two reasons. Firstly, instants don’t tend to defend, so being able to replace an instant with a defending card can make a huge difference on some turns. Secondly, Oscilio is somewhat volatile, needing several different components to make his turns work. Being able to discard a red instant to dig for more resources, or discard an excess Sigil in hopes of drawing a critical piece of your combo, means you will always have a lot of options available to you at any given time. The key is choosing the right one.

Arcane 101

Oscilio is a Wizard, which means he has a variety of ‘burn spells’ at his fingertips. These burn spells are Wizard actions that deal arcane damage. Arcane damage is a special form of damage that can’t be defended by regular means. Because Wizards have a naturally strong affinity for aether, they can deal larger bursts of arcane damage than other arcane classes, and often it’s an unavoidable lethal burn spell that will bring a Wizard victory.

Stopping your opponent’s arcane damage is a little trickier. You start the game with Sanctuary of Aria, a special token that allows you to pitch 2 resources to stop 1 point of damage, regardless of type. You can activate this multiple times in a turn, but once that turn is up, your safety net is gone! Due to the high cost of preventing arcane damage, most of the time you’ll want to use Sanctuary of Aria on the very first turn when you’re going second, or as a last resort. Other cards, like Sigil of Conductivity or Twinkle Toes, can also prevent arcane damage. Often, the best solution is just to take out the opponent before they get the chance to deal lethal damage.

Many Wizard cards in your deck have the keywords amp or surge. When a card amps, it means the next time you deal arcane damage during that turn, it deals an extra amount. Amp will always have a number next to it indicating how much extra damage is added. Amp only applies during the same turn it is activated, so if you end your turn without dealing anything, any amps you activated that turn will be lost. Surge is a payoff for amping, it gives you a bonus effect if you deal arcane damage greater than the original amount on the card. You only get the surge effect if your opponent takes the specified amount of damage. For example, if you amp 1 then play Etchings of Arcana, and your opponent uses Sanctuary of Aria to prevent 1, taking 3, you will not get the surge effect.

Tricky Stuff

Playing Oscilio involves a lot of instant speed timing, and it’s important to understand how to resolve multiple instants in a turn. When you play a card or activate an ability, or attempt to end a turn, you or your opponent may choose to play/activate an instant in response. When neither player wishes to play/activate anything else (known as passing priority), you then resolve the instants one at a time, starting with the latest one, and working your way back down to the original. Note that after each layer resolves, there is another opportunity for either player to play/activate another instant. Some examples of instant speed timing you may come across in the Oscilio Blitz Deck are:

• You have Sigil of Conductivity in play. You attack with Blast to Oblivion. After your opponent defends, you play the instant Sigil of Forethought. Blast to Oblivion triggers, and you return Sigil of Conductivity to your hand. Because Sigil of Conductivity has left the arena, it creates an Embodiment of Lightning token. You use Oscilio’s hero ability to discard the Sigil of Conductivity, and draw a new card to arsenal.

• It is your opponent’s turn and they are on 1 life. They attempt to end their turn. In response, you play the instant Shock, which deals 1 arcane damage. Before Shock resolves, you activate Volzar. You both pass. Volzar resolves, and amps 1 because Shock is a Lightning card (it’s been played, but not resolved yet). After Volzar resolves, your opponent activates the instant ability of Fruits of the Forest. You both pass, and your opponent gains 2 life. After Fruits of the Forest resolves, you activate the instant ability of Photon Splicing. You both pass, and Photon Splicing amps 1. After Photon Splicing resolves, you both pass again, and Shock finally resolves, amped by Volzar and Photon Splicing, dealing 3 damage to your opponent.

• You are on 1 life and have already used your Sanctuary of Aria on a previous turn. You have Etchings of Arcana in arsenal and you know you can win if you can amp 2 with Volzar. Your hand is a Sigil of Lightning and 3 Lightning attack actions without go again. Your opponent attacks you for 3, triggering 2 Runechants, each dealing 1 arcane damage. In response you play Sigil of Lightning, which allows you to activate Twinkle Toes, preventing the arcane damage. You then defend with a card from hand and Flash of Brilliance, using its ability to discard a Lightning card, and return Sigil of Lightning to your hand. Because Sigil of Lightning has left the arena, it creates an Embodiment of Lightning. Your opponent ends their turn. On your turn, you play the last Lightning attack action from hand, getting go again from the Embodiment of Lightning, then you play Sigil of Lightning, activate Volzar for free, amp 2, then play Etchings of Arcana.

Now let’s talk about that weird sideways card in your deck. Split-cards are a new type of card introduced in Rosetta, which are essentially two cards in one! You are allowed to play either half, or if it has the keyword meld, you can play both. If you choose to play both halves, you need to pay the resource cost separately for each half. This means you can pay 2 to play Comet Storm, or you can pay 2 to play Shock, or you can pay 4 to play Comet Storm and Shock.

When you play both halves of a split-card, they resolve right-to-left. This means if you play both halves of Comet Storm // Shock, the Shock happens first, then the Comet Storm. Note that only the Shock half is a Lightning card, so if you chose to play only the Comet Storm half, you wouldn’t be able to amp it with Volzar without playing another Lightning card.

Lastly, each half of a split-card can only be activated if the game rules allow it. This means that even though Shock is an instant, you can’t play Comet Storm during your opponent’s turn because it’s an action that needs to be played during your action phase.

How to Win with Oscilio

You might find that it’s a little tricky to consistently pull together all the components needed for a big combo turn with Oscilio. Don’t feel like you have to take huge amounts of damage just to play every card in your hand. Often a good turn will involve playing a single Lightning card, activating Volzar, and/or sending out a burn spell. The same applies to Comet Storm // Shock. Don’t feel like you always have to play the Comet Storm half, sometimes it is far more valuable to defend with it, discard it with Oscilio’s hero ability, or even just play the Shock half to enable other effects.

Going tall with arcane damage is the quickest way to kill Lightning heroes before their speed overwhelms you, or counter the life gain of Earth heroes while making it difficult for them to get Earth cards into their graveyard. The main tools you have for going tall are Exploding Aether, Hold Focus, or playing several Lightning cards into a Volzar activation. There are many cards with surge payoffs in your deck, but Glyph Overlay is one of the most rewarding. It does require some set up and careful timing, but can easily reach absurd amounts of damage while also triggering the effects of your Sigils. Most of the time Oscilio will win by dealing lethal arcane damage so always have this end goal in mind.

Blast to Oblivion is one of the most important cards in your deck. Not only does it allow you to abuse your Sigils in different ways, it also allows you to interact with your opponent’s key auras, such as removing their Embodiment of Lightning, Strong Yield, or Harvest Season. Likewise, Shock and Volzar is a nasty instant speed pairing that allows you to deal arcane damage to an opponent on their own turn! Make sure to use Oscilio’s hero ability often in order to reach this card as quickly as you can, because in many games it will likely be your last-second ticket to victory!