Erevan

Erevan Sunshadow is considered another controversial card. Most casual D&D players (and even most experienced players) do not know what an "Eladrin" is and it is unknown why Wizards of the Coast did not simply use the more common name "High Elf" for him. Also, since he is a High Elf, powers and abilities that augment ordinary Elves do not apply to him - weakening the character.



Oh boy, what's not wrong with Erevan Sunshadow? First there is the model itself. He's too thin and too short and what is with the ugly shiny/plastic paint job? Even the Rise of Valkyrie early models don't have such a plastic shiny paint tone. And his skin is really, really pale, which is probably fine for an Eladrin, but kind of classes with other Heroscape Elves. Wait, you don't know what an Eladrin is? Neither did I before this character came out. Let's break Sunshadow down and see what we can do. We can't fix the model and I was tempted to just pass over him, but his card is simply screaming to be fixed.

1. His name is fine. Even sort of cool. Erevan reminds me of Darth Revan and Sunshadow is a cool last name, even if Heroscape Elves don't HAVE last names. . . okay so the last name has to go. Sunshadow isn't very Heroscapish anyway, no one else has a similar style name like Starkiller or anything.

2. The BIG one. Elves don't serve Jandar, they serve Ullar. Why ruin a good thing? This change goes hand-in-hand with the species thing. Few people probably know off the top of their heads what an "Eladrin" is. If he had been called an "Altmer" from the Elder Scroll games more people would probably recognize it. They both mean "High Elf" (although admittedly Altmer sounds more "elvish" in that Tolkin kind of way then "Eladrin" does) and the reason they are called "Eladrin" instead of High Elf is presumably so there is no confusing if Elf powers work for High Elves or not. Just like Drow aren't called Dark Elves. However the only reason I can see why Wizards of the Coast made him a High Elf to begin with, is to deliberately disrupt elven synergy. It is as if they didn't want us to use classic Heroscape units anymore, because now there wouldn't be a point. Perhaps if they had kept the High Elves separate and Jandar only, it would have work. Just like there are different races of Soulborgs and Kyrie after all, there could have been different races of Elves. Regular (wood) Elves serve Ullar, Dark Elves serve Utgar, High Elves serve Jandar. I would have bought that. But no, Wizards of the Coast compound their error by releasing a Ullar High Elf (Sharwin Wildborn) in the very next set! So we fix this whole mess by converting Erevan into an Ullar unit and into an proper Elf. Ta da.

Changing allegiance is mostly cosmic, but it does have a few effects on game play that might not occur to you right away. First off, the second version of Drake (Swarm of the Marro) can now shoot at Erevan with his pistol attack. Second, Erevan now can get a speed boost from starting off next to Acolarh. Thirdly, Dishonorable Attack no longer gives the Red Ninja a bonus when attacking Erevan. And. . . that's about it!

3. Species, see above. As a proper Elf, Erevan now interacts with other elf powers, such as Acolarh's Leaf of the Home Tree Aura, Arkmer's Staff of Lerkintin, Emirroon's Elven Summoning Spell and Kyntela Gwyn's Strength of Oak Aura 1.

4. Erevan is already a Wizard, a real Heroscape rank, which nicely makes him the missing Ninth Elven Wizard and is the primary reason we converted him in the first place. Stays as is. Obviously. As an proper Elf Wizard, Erevan can now integrate with: Chardris' Fire Strike Special Attack, Jorhdawn's Rain of Flame Special Attack and Ulginesh's Mind Link.

5. Precise, an odd personality of a Wizard to have perhaps, but typical of Heroscape range units and a classic personality. Stays.

6. Medium 5. His model is too short for a five, however, as we've already observed, even truescape didn't follow model scale with any kind of serious strictness, so we might as well leave that as it is.

7. Stats. Life: 5, Move: 6, Range: 1, Attack: 2, Defense: 2 and Points Value: 80. As you can see, no change. Personally I've always thought it odd that spell casting wizards have no normal range in Heroscape (with the exception of Ulginesh and the Arch-Mage Sonlen), but I'm not about to go converting them all because of it.

8. Powers, no change. Fire Blast Special Attack is fine, a sort of range version of Sir Hawthrone with an element of Major Q9 thrown in. Feystep has slight issues, its obviously intended for that small-band-of-hero-units-VS-a-group-of-squads-and-heroes. Tul-Bak-Ra's version of this power has double the range, can be use on every turn and gives him disengage when he uses it. Erevan can use his once per game. But he can teleport to any height while the Overlord can't. Of course because Erevan doesn't have normal range but a special attack, height doesn't really mean all that much to him. But I'm concerned alternating it would break the game balance, so its left as it. Besides, other units have once per game powers too, the Airborne Elite, Atlaga, Deathwalker 7000 and such.

9. Lastly, on the basic side we make him come from the same planet all the other elves do, Feylund.

Stats

 * Life: 5
 * Move: 6
 * Range: 1
 * Attack: 2
 * Defense: 2
 * Points Value: 80

Abilities
Each time you attack with Erevan Sunshadow's Fire Blast Special Attack, you may choose to roll 2, 3, or 4 attack dice. If a skull is rolled on every die, you may attack again with Erevan Sunshadow' Fire Blast Special Attack. You may continue attacking Erevan Sunshadow's Fire Blast Special Attack until you do not roll a skull on every die.
 * Fire Blast Special Attack: Range 5, Attack Special.

Once per game Erevan Sunshadow may use Fey Step. Before moving normally with Erevan Sunshadow, you may place him on any empty space within 5 spaces of his current location. If Erevan Sunshadow is engaged when he uses Fey Step, he will not take any engagement attacks.
 * Fey Step:

Behind the Game
Erevan Sunshadow is repainted from the model Eladrin Pyromancer from the Against the Giants.