The holidays have come early to the Frost Realm, with the release of the Wintertide Wonders box, bringing an assortment of foil Ravaged Land reprints, and reprints for The Twilight Gardens, Void Hollow, and Archon, Avenger of Light. In addition to this shiny selection, two brand new, mechanically unique cards are being added into the game, just in time for the upcoming Siege Series event on November 25.

Invitation To The Masquerade, and Beckon The Mistral Winds look to give Undead and Dwarves a push, with Invitation giving both Mortis and Mal'ady a huge board filling value card, and Beckon giving Quartzheart a new way to shatter board after board of opposing warriors. Similarly to Archon, Avenger of Light, and Lady Darksky, The Dusk Dawn Dragon, Invitation and Beckon are Set Promos that will see set printings in the future.

The promo for Opus Of The Magi: Illumination, Archon, isn't a "new" card per-say, but being a "buy-a-case" promo until now has limited the card's availability. With increased availability, it seems worthwhile to cover what it does, as it's a great piece for any Angel deck.

Archon is largely just a generically powerful warrior for any angel deck. The Brilliance ability can easily make it the biggest threat on the field when it land, as Angel decks can easily fill the board with cards. The Condemn ability is great for knocking out two warriors with one attack, or pushing damage through to your opponent's DCM through a sticky board state. The Rift ability matters more for Castiel than for Michael, but against a deck like Black Magic, randomly hitting a Rift trigger to destroy a Cathedral Of Black Magic is nice when it happens. For Castiel specifically, every rift trigger you can get is a good one, although Archon can't be eradicated off of the Veil of Condemnation or Empyrean Empire Of The Lost Messiah like Lost Messiah Corrupt-Sword, Freelia.

Being the promo card for Opus Of The Magi also means that the card may receive additional synergy when the set releases, although that's just speculation. Regardless, Archon will likely be a fantastic inclusion in any future Angel archetypes.

The simplicity of Archon's design doesn't leave much discussion for the card, but it's a powerful inclusion in any Angel deck, and an incredibly fun card to put into play.

This card might be familiar for those who attended the Booster House Siege Series, as it was publicly shown off at the tournament, although it hasn't been obtainable or legal until now.

For 25 AP, Invitation lets you fill your board with warriors from either players deck, notably letting you grab warriors from your opponent. Depending on your opponent's deck however, the end result might not be powerful enough to warrant the pricy consume cost, due to the unique name restriction. Against a deck like Frost Tempo or Fallen Control, your options will likely be slim, getting a Retrieve warrior, a warrior with Plunder or Wisdom, and miscellaneous control tools like Ecrutek, The Wandering Warlock or Frozen Adventurer, Freezalina. Against a deck like Orcs, however you might be able to get some powerful results. With Pat's 2nd place Boars list from the October 14th Siege Series you can net a Retrieve and Plunder Warrior, a couple of 5 power Warriors, and variety of utility options in Retaliate and Shockwave. Against Sylas's 7th place Doomsday Control list from the same siege series, you can net 3 Plunders, 1 Retrieve, and 1 Swipe ability, for an impressive amount of card advantage

Although it is fun to defeat your opponent with their own Warriors, it will likely be better to target yourself with Invitation. In Mortis Grimm, grabbing Baby Doom, Grimmace, Sir Grimm Crimson, Prysm, and Esmerelda nets you 4 cards, and enables the loop with Esmerelda, The Grimm Necromancer, and Prysm, Soul-Collector Of The Grimm. This roster grabs you most of the important Warriors you want to have access to, which can set the deck up to completely combo out.

It's important to note that the 25 Consume cost of Invitation is a heavy cost, and heavily impacts how many copies of Denial By Doom Fire you can represent, only giving you room for two Doom Fire from discard, or one Doom Fire from board.

The in-discard ability of Invitation is much less flashy then bringing your opponents warriors over for a party, but has plenty of utility and power in certain matchups. Against Angels, sacrifice completely side-steps holy counters which can out an otherwise indestructible Empyrean Empire Of The Lost Messiah or Ascension To The Seraphim. Aswell, with Undead you can glean plenty of value out of sacrificing copies of Windmill Of Corpses, or Imprints Of The Grimm to recur and reuse their abilities. Additionally, with Undead, most cards in your deck will inevitably end up in discard so you're likely to have access to the in-discard ability of Invitation when you need it. 25 Bloodbourne is a little easier than 25 Consume, but it's still a taxing price on your life total, especially in combination with other Undead cards like Gifts From The Grave.

Invitation seems like an explosive option for both Undead warlords, although it might be more useful in decks more aggressively trying to combo out, as the Consume may lock you out of the Denial By Doom Fire's that you need to play a more controlling game.

Out of the three set promos included, this is the only one that hasn't been yet seen, as the promo for the Cold Winds of Change set,

Similarly to Invitation, Beckon has both a powerful on field, and in-discard activated ability, although notably Beckon's in-discard ability can't be used on the same turn it's sent to discard. 

The on field effect is a backline in a box, grabbing up to 4 Frozen fortified cards and letting them be activated immediately. At the moment, there are somewhat slim pickings for this ability, with the only options currently being Shattered On The Frozen Anvil, Frozen Fortitude, and Into The Frozen Deep. Frozen Fortitude is a decent option, providing a static board buff similarly to Frostfall Fortress or Windemere Island. Unfortunately, the cards utility largely starts and ends with the board buff. The ability to buff a warrior up to +2, and activate mill synergies is interesting, but likely isn't powerful enough for the current builds of Frost Tempo. 

Into The Frozen Deep is a much more interesting piece, with the first ability stopping a warrior from attacking every turn, and the second ability removing problematic warriors, getting around Holy Counters or other indestructibility effects. This card hasn't been stock in Frost Tempo lists, but it's a very solid option that's only made stronger with Beckon.

The card that will most likely be grabbed as a playset at a time by Beckon however, is Shattered On The Frozen Anvil. Milling two cards, bouncing back a board of warriors, and potentially drawing five cards makes Shattered a strong card, and being able to tutor three copies into play at once only makes it better. This can be heavy on the DCM, with Beckon having a Bloodbourne of 12, and Shattered having a Bloodbourne of 10, but if you're bouncing a lethal board of warriors the 10 DCM is a much preferable alternative, and Dwarves can frequently recuperate the damage with Welcoming Of Wintertide.

The in-discard effect of Beckon is just as interesting as it's field ability, if not more so. By eradicating Beckon, you can lock up to four unoccupied card zones out of use for a turn. Using this on your opponent unified line gives you a Void Hollow effect, whilst targeting the warrior zones can stop a lethal board for a turn.

Beckon The Mistral Winds is likely not useful enough for Alehouse as the Frozen Fortified cards aren't super appealing to the list, but it is a fantastic boon for the Quartzheart Frost Tempo lists, and will certainly become more and more powerful as the Frozen archetype receives more tools and especially more Frozen Fortified cards.

All three of these exalted cards will be legal at the Upcoming November 25th Siege Series event, and will surely provide a nice bonus for Dwarf and Undead players competing at the tournament. Apart from the new exalted cards, having increased access to The Twilight Gardens and Majik Void Hollow is fantastic for new community members looking to gain access to these universally powerful cards.