Their aesthetic? Chains, whips; spiked. Their mood? Afflicted, condemned, ritualistic. Their angels? Dark. Their maiden? Iron.

Friendship ended with dwarven gearsmiths; my new favorite clan in Monster Train 2 is the tortured edgelords.

The final faction being added to Monster Train 2, The Punished, arrive November 10 as a paid DLC. Their theme is self-damage, with new keywords and spells that, primarily, reward power in exchange for hurting yourself. Your pain? Enemies' bane.

Though existing MT2 clans like the Melting Remnant revolve around forms of sacrifice, The Punished are absolutely thirsty for it. They bring new keywords like Chained (enemy units take half the damage that your units take) that make damage an active solution to enemy waves. The self-flagellation angle likewise brings new purpose to some existing spells and equipment, and jives great with partner clans that provide protection from pain (Lazarus League) or more ways to inflict it (Pyreborne).

Damaging my own guys sounds like a risk-reward tactic that requires sophisticated play. In my first run as The Punished, I anticipated having to do brain-wracking calculus about how much damage to absorb. But instead, I've found the new clan to be one of the most powerful and, at least with one of their champions, easy to play.

A lot of that is down to the utility of their new gimmick, a big purple gem called the Monolith. Here's a breakdown of what makes it special:

"Level up the Monolith by sacrificing cards to earn Devotion, which grants Zeal, which buffs attack and HP for all units" kind of sounds like a line from a ProZD deckbuilder parody video (I will take any opportunity to reference the legendary Dairy Cow combo ), but it's really not complicated.

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