If I may add my favorite opening: I actually think it is worth taking a blight in one of the lands right off the bat and commit to G2 for first two turns. On turn 2, you get reclaim and you would want to use the energy gain from River's bounty and Boon for your energy gain supplementation. This should open enough to get the loop of spamming our innate in an obscene way. The quicker we get the Reclaim and 4 card play, the faster you can start grouping with all the Control mechanics of River and triggering that final tier of our Innate to wipe the floor with the Invaders. Taking a few blight so we can become an unstoppable AOE machine is very useful and worth it. Especially against Russia who has a ridiculous Explorer mechanic...
If I may add my favorite opening: I actually think it is worth taking a blight in one of the lands right off the bat and commit to G2 for first two turns. On turn 2, you get reclaim and you would want to use the energy gain from River's bounty and Boon for your energy gain supplementation. This should open enough to get the loop of spamming our innate in an obscene way. The quicker we get the Reclaim and 4 card play, the faster you can start grouping with all the Control mechanics of River and triggering that final tier of our Innate to wipe the floor with the Invaders. Taking a few blight so we can become an unstoppable AOE machine is very useful and worth it. Especially against Russia who has a ridiculous Explorer mechanic...
Ya I think getting Reclaim 1 earlier would be great