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Ascension's twist on the Dominion formula was two-fold, with (1) two currencies in the game to give you more to manage as you constructed your deck and (2) a sushi conveyor belt presentation of the cards to acquire or defeat, with not all players having a shot at each card as they emerged from the top of the deck.
The latest release in the Ascension series from Stone Blade Entertainment — Ascension: Dawn of Champions — hews to the formula of earlier sets, with players once again competing for cards that are divided into four factions (Enlightened, Void, Lifebound, Mechana) and those factions having different specialties in what they do once you acquire a hero or construct and add it to your deck. As with the 2014 release Ascension: Realms Unraveled, some of the heroes and constructs now belong to two factions and the monsters also bear faction identification since, in story terms, they represent fallen members of New Vigil that now require your forceful attention.
To help you take advantage of all those faction markers, Ascension: Dawn of Champions includes a new ability on cards — Rally — with the ability always being combined with a faction, e.g., "Rally: Mechana". When you acquire or defeat a card with a Rally ability, if the top card of the deck belongs to that faction, then instead of placing it in the row as you normally would, you simply acquire or defeat it automatically. If you get lucky on the draws, you can even rally several cards in a row. Yes, rally you can!
Those factions also come into play with the giant-sized champion cards, with each player having a champion associated with a particular faction and gaining reputation for that champion whenever they acquire or defeat a card from that faction. Pick up enough reputation, and you get a champion card for your deck that works to that faction's specialty; pick up still more reputation, and you have an automatic Rally action whenever you acquire or defeat a card from that faction, thereby allowing you to (sometimes) chain together ridiculous turns — and sometimes get nothing at all. Them's the breaks, kid!
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