The moment your eyes hit Thermo Beam, you know something’s gone catastrophically wrong.
There’s no subtlety here—just raw, red-hot collapse. A radiant core, now split apart, sends jagged metal into the air like shards from a dying sun.
It’s not just destruction. It’s detonation. A final moment frozen mid-blast.
Illustration Breakdown
Max Grecke captures violence mid-birth. The image centers on a spherical device—likely some sort of Arcane core or containment unit—cracked open at the seams.
White-hot energy surges outward, overwhelming the frame in a wash of reds and oranges.
The outer casing fractures like a ribcage being torn open, while inner beams of light pulse with a life of their own.
Everything feels like it’s caught in an instant before total annihilation. There’s no visible background. No figures. No world.
Just this: the object and its collapse. The composition forces you to confront the intensity, with jagged pieces flying outward, cutting across the canvas.
It’s claustrophobic and bright, like staring at a sun that just bit back.
Gameplay Integration
Mechanically, Thermo Beam is a five-cost Spell with the Action keyword, allowing it to be played on your turn or during Showdowns.
The effect is blunt and absolute: Kill all gear.
This brutal simplicity mirrors the art’s central theme—cataclysm through overload. In gameplay, it punishes boards reliant on Gear synergy, disrupting any setup-dependent strategy in a single cast.
The spell doesn’t ask who’s winning. It resets the table, ends the timeline, and walks away without apology. Just like the image, it’s all-or-nothing, no survivors.
What’s powerful about the connection between illustration and mechanics is how unified the intent is.
No tactical strike, no surgical removal. Thermo Beam is what happens when you “turn the limiter off,” and both the card text and flavor quote sell it with deadpan finality.
Collector Details / Value Mention
Thermo Beam is card 022/298, illustrated by Max Grecke. Rarity hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the design screams meta staple.
If foil versions exist—and they play with the glow or shimmer effect across the fracture lines—this will be a collector magnet.
There’s potential for an alt-art version or even an overnumbered collector edition that shows the aftermath of the explosion.
Given how central Gear seems to be in Riftbound’s early mechanics, cards like Thermo Beam will sit comfortably in high-value playsets, sideboards, or even sealed product appeal.
Thermo Beam doesn’t just depict destruction—it embodies it.
A card with no restraint, no room for doubt, and a perfect example of Riftbound’s visual-mechanical storytelling at its most volatile.
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