Worlds Collide

From Archon Arcana - The KeyForge Wiki
Worlds Collide starter set
Worlds Collide
Houses:
Brobnar iconDis iconLogos iconSaurian iconShadows iconStar Alliance iconUntamed icon
Set Number:
3
Symbol:
Worlds Collide set symbol
Released:
Nov 8, 2019
Cards:
405
New Cards:
284
Design and Development:
Brad Andres, Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, Aaron Haltom, and Daniel Schaefer
Languages:
11 - English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Russian
Preceded by:
Followed by:

Worlds Collide is the third KeyForge set, announced at Gen Con on August 2nd 2019 and released on November 8, 2019. In the US, Target stores unintentionally leaked and then started selling Worlds Collide starter sets on October 2nd, more than one month before the official release date.

The first set to include new houses, Worlds Collide brought houses Saurian and Star Alliance, while taking out Mars and Sanctum. The total cardpool is 405 cards, of which 284 are new and 121 returning from one or both previous sets. The increased cardpool is only due to a larger number of Special rarity cards, while the “base” number of cards per house is the same as in previous sets, typically 52.

House Rotation

  • New: Saurian, Star Alliance
  • Rotated Out: Mars, Sanctum

Saurian explores the theme of hubris through the exalt keyword that was introduced exclusively with Saurians, big creatures with high risk / high reward effects define this house. Secondary themes include steal-hate, capturing and warding.

Inspired by classic sci-fi tropes, Star Alliance is thematically the opposite of house Mars. As the primary mechanics are allowing playing and using cards outside of the active house, Star Alliance brings cohesion and efficiency to decks.

Mars and Sanctum are the first houses to rotate out in KeyForge's history. Sanctum would return in the following set Mass Mutation, with Mars not returning until much later in Winds of Exchange.

New in This Set

New Status Effects: Ward and Enrage

Ward and Enrage were introduced as new status effects, joining Stun. Ward offers protection to creatures, while Enrage forces a creature into fighting if they can do so.

Exalt

The exalt mechanic, heavily featured in house Saurian, was a new shorthand term used in abilities which causes Æmber from the common supply to be placed on a creature, which could ultimately be claimed by that creature's opponent if it left play. This term is heavily featured in Saurian to emphasize their risk/reward theme of hubris.

Anomalies

Grim Reaper, an example of an Anomaly card
An Anomaly card in Worlds Collide

A new type of card introduced in Worlds Collide are Anomalies: cards that are not part of any current or past set, but from possible future sets. These very rare cards can appear in any house, have a lightning-style border treatment, and usually contain new keywords or mechanics not yet seen in any previously released card. There are 10 Anomalies available in Worlds Collide (these are in addition to the 405 standard cards in the set). About 3.5% of Worlds Collide decks contain an anomaly. Anomalies have not been included in every subsequent set, but were present in Winds of Exchange and Unchained 2023.

Other Mechanics

Some card abilities refer to the center of the Battleline (on creatures with the new Leader trait), and Worlds Collide also introduces Star Alliance creatures that can also be played as upgrades (such as CALV-1N and Explo-rover)

Gameplay

The introduction of new houses and mechanics brought a significant shift in gameplay. Boards are even more important than in Age of Ascension, new cards that prevent stealing are introduced, and there are significantly more abilities that modify key costs. All of this makes Worlds Collide’s gameplay the most intricate thus far.

House leaders are some of the best cards in the game, while Quixxle Stone, Fangtooth Cavern and Snag's Mirror are new, gameplay-warping artifacts. Some of the strongest combos are in house Saurian: Cincinnatus Rex + The Golden Spiral, or cards that take advantage of Tribute. Purging is an increasingly common mechanic in house Dis, with cards like Infurnace and E’e on the Fringes.

Special Rarity Cards

Special rarity cards in WC include Mega versions of common Brobnar creatures (each with their own Brew), a unique Blaster for each common Star Alliance creature, as well as different Banes (in Dis) and Plants (in Shadows) for different houses. Dexus and Sinestra are also variant cards.

“Fixed” cards are Hyde and Velum, Igon the Green and Igon the Terrible, Xenos Bloodshadow and Toad, as well as Ortannu the Chained with Ortannu’s Binding. Moor Wolf always appears with at least 2 copies, while Chain Gang and Grumpus Tamer always appear with another card.

Card Distribution

This table indicates how many cards are in each house of Worlds Collide and how many are of each rarity. The bottom section displays the number of reprints in each house and the set from which they originated.

Rarity Brobnar icon Dis icon Logos icon Saurian icon Shadows icon Star Alliance icon Untamed icon Total
Total 68 60 53 53 57 61 53 405
Common 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 112
Uncommon 16 16 16 16 15 16 16 111
Rare 20 20 20 21 20 21 20 142
Special 16 8 1 0 6 8 1 40
Set of first appearance:
New in WC 44 35 29 53 33 61 29 284
AoA 14 14 10 7 10 55
CotA 10 11 14 17 14 66

Reception

On the strength of new houses and mechanics, the set was widely praised by players and 100,000 Worlds Collide decks were registered in the Master Vault within 15 days of the set's official release. Worlds Collide immediately proved to be a highly competitive set, winning the first Archon Vault Tour held after its release as well as outnumbering CotA in the top cut.

Competitive Success

Most Popular Cards in WC Vault Tour
Winning Decks, by Rarity
Commons
Logos icon EDAI “Edie” 4x4 (6)
Logos icon Eyegor (4)
Saurian icon Thero Centurion (4)
Star Alliance icon Com. Officer Kirby (3)
Dis icon Harbinger of Doom (3)
Dis icon Infurnace (3)
Saurian icon Rhetor Gallim (3)
Dis icon Rotgrub (3)
Logos icon Wormhole Technician (3)
Uncommons
Star Alliance icon Helmsman Spears (2)
Dis icon Hysteria (2)
Star Alliance icon Lay of the Land (2)
Dis icon Library of the Damned (2)
Saurian icon Orator Hissaro (2)
Dis icon Snag (2)
Rares & Specials
Not enough data

A Worlds Collide deck won the first Archon Vault Tour after the release of the set. This was the first ever time that a non-Call of the Archons deck won an Archon Vault Tour. Although many fewer Worlds Collide decks have been opened than Call of the Archons ones, Worlds Collide proved that it could compete head to head with earlier sets by placing well in several high-level Archon tournaments since its release. Cards such as Infurnace are very effective in mitigating the impact of powerful cards like Dust Pixie and Ghostly Hand that are popular for their bonus Æmber. The set also features many anti-steal cards like Odoac the Patrician and Discombobulator that directly counter Call of the Archons Shadows.

Most Popular Cards in
WC Vault Tour Winning Decks
Card House Rarity Count
EDAI “Edie” 4x4 Logos icon Common icon 6
Eyegor Logos icon Common icon 4
Thero Centurion Saurian icon Common icon 4
Com. Officer Kirby Star Alliance icon Common icon 3
Harbinger of Doom Dis icon Common icon 3
Infurnace Dis icon Common icon 3
Rhetor Gallim Saurian icon Common icon 3
Rotgrub Dis icon Common icon 3
Wormhole Technician Logos icon Common icon 3
Armsmaster Molina Star Alliance icon Common icon 2
Commander Chan Star Alliance icon Common icon 2
Gron Nine-Toes Brobnar icon Common icon 2
Helmsman Spears Star Alliance icon Uncommon icon 2
Hologrammophone Logos icon Common icon 2
Hysteria Dis icon Uncommon icon 2
J. Vinda Shadows icon Common icon 2
Lay of the Land Star Alliance icon Uncommon icon 2
Library of the Damned Dis icon Uncommon icon 2
Orator Hissaro Saurian icon Uncommon icon 2
Praefectus Ludo Saurian icon Common icon 2
Quant Logos icon Common icon 2
Ronnie Wristclocks Shadows icon Common icon 2
Snag Dis icon Uncommon icon 2
Tautau Vapors Logos icon Common icon 2
Thorium Plasmate Logos icon Common icon 2
Titan Guardian Logos icon Common icon 2
Tremor Brobnar icon Common icon 2
Twin Bolt Emission Logos icon Common icon 2
Wild Wormhole Logos icon Common icon 2

Last updated on February 9, 2020

Most Successful Houses

Although every house from Worlds Collide has won a Vault Tour at least once, the most common houses in Worlds Collide decks that reach the top cut are Logos, Saurian, and Star Alliance. Brobnar has been the least successful. The following is a graph containing the house breakdown of all Worlds Collide decks that reached the top cut of a Vault Tour.

(Note: For the sake of simplicity, decks can be counted more than once for this data.)

House Breakdown of All Top
Worlds Collide Decks
All Time
11
16
24
36
17
28
15
Set
Brobnar.png
Dis.png
Logos.png
Saurian P.png
Shadows.png
Star Alliance.png
Untamed.png
Total
WC 11 16 24 36 17 28 15 49


Last updated on February 12, 2020

Products

Different KeyForge products for Worlds Collide
Name Model Description
KeyForge: Worlds Collide Archon Deck KF05a
KeyForge: Worlds Collide Display KF05d Contains 12 Worlds Collide Archon Decks
KeyForge: Worlds Collide Deluxe Archon Deck KF06 Contains:
  • 1 Worlds Collide Archon Deck
  • 3 Key tokens
  • 1 Chain tracker cards
  • 17 Æmber tokens
  • 21 Damage tokens
  • 4 Stun, 6 Ward, and 4 Enrage tokens
  • 10 +1 power tokens
KeyForge: Worlds Collide 2 Player Starter Set KF07 Contains:
  • 2 Worlds Collide Archon Decks
  • 6 Key tokens
  • 2 Chain tracker cards
  • 22 Æmber tokens
  • 24 Damage tokens
  • 6 Stun, 9 Ward, and 9 Enrage tokens
  • 20 +1 power tokens
  • 2 Poster paper playmats
  • Quick rules insert
KeyForge: Worlds Collide Premium Box KF08 Contains:
  • 2 Worlds Collide Archon Decks
  • Chain tracker dial
  • 10 Stun, 10 Ward, and 10 Enrage tokens
  • 24 +1 power tokens
  • 15 Armor tokens
  • 5 Deck boxes
  • 1 Token box
  • 1 Collector's box

See also

All cards in Worlds Collide
• Cards with an errata: Auto-Legionary
Deck registration data
Competitive success among houses


KeyForge Sets
Standard: Call of the Archons • 
Vault Masters: 2023
Non-Tournament Legal: Unchained 2023 • 
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