Train Tactics: Umbra p.1

So I am going to come right out the gates swinging with a very controversial statement. Umbra is better than Melting Remnant and you can fight me about it. I don’t care. I said what I said and I mean what I mean. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to explaining why I believe Umbra is a powerful clan that demands respect even in the presence of the melty boys.

To understand Umbra we must first understand their champion, Penumbra.

She is an independent, strong, and consistent champion that don’t need no Burn Bright 3 . The way a champion should be.

In Monster Train, there are only three consistencies that you can readily rely on. They are your champion, the starter clan cards, and your homie the Train Steward. Because your champion will always be in your opening hand AND have a cost of zero, it isn’t too hard to recognize that the power level of a clan’s champion almost directly decides how powerful the clan will play out, especially in the higher covenant levels. Unlike the melty boy Rector Flicker (I am coming for your bumper melty boy), Penumbra has several powerful upgrade paths that each get out of hand in pretty much any combination. Since you cannot control the exact upgrades you get, in terms of overall consistency you would prefer a champion that has as many powerfully viable upgrade combinations and isn’t too reliant on any specific one.

This is a good boy. He respects those who respect Penumbra.

This honestly nothing to do with Monster Train, but I have the power to put pictures of anything, anywhere. I can’t be stopped. Let’s get back on topic.

I can, and in the future will, break down each of her individual upgrades and why I believe they are powerful, but to keep this from being the length of a book I will give a quick summary. Penumbra’s upgrades all have one similar thing in common and that is making her stats almost unreasonably bigger. There isn’t a gimmick that needs to be exploited. There isn’t much consideration you have to make in regards to card choices in order to accommodate her. Each upgrade, and in one case it is literal, makes her bigger. Glutton let’s her consume to get larger over the course of a battle and utilizes the starter cards so you don’t have to force any bad picks to make it work. Architect gives her more stats AND let’s you cram more stats on a single floor for free. Monstrous is quite literally Burn Bright with a very easy to work around “down side” (Did someone say Space Prism).

Long and short of it, Penumbra does one thing and does it well. She gets big and she doesn’t go home because she is now too big to get back in the house. It is a terrible fate. A curse that I am happy I do not have to bare.