Terrorific and extremely powerful. Nothing conditions more the commitment decision of the opponent than this card, maybe Way of the Crab.

Not so great, I think.

The choice belongs to the opponent, so they can either attack with a couple of characters or just send in any cheap chud that has strength 2 or higher for an easy break.

If you discard my 1-cost character (with no fate) and break your province, I consider that a very successful attack, thanks.

This card is probably best when it isn't run. That way the opponent is always adjusting their plays to avoid it messing them up, and they only feel safe from it either when they're attacking the stronghold, or when they've revealed all four provinces. OTOH, if you run the card, then when it reveals you've put your opponent a quarter of the way to victory.

My opponents were close to Conceding in turn 1-2 in the last few games due to this cards. A cost 2+ card with 2 fate on it dissapearing is a great swing, specially in early game.

Playing dragon I couldn't attack until turn 3 because I didn't draw any 1 costers in the Dinasty deck, and didn't want to risk my other character with fate on them.

A 1 coster attacking is the best case scenario, wich you could responde by defending, forcing your opponent to throw everything in and then respond with an assasinate.

If your opponent is using more than 1 character to attack it Unicorn is winning. He is forced to sacrifice his weenie, he has 1 less defender for you attacks and Altansarnai can then force you opponent to discard a more expensive character.

Anyway, Unicorn is about hitting hard and breaking your opponent's provinces before  losing yours. So, considering you were not going to waste a potential attacker blocking a cost 1 weenie, it's a win win situation that will also deny your opponent the chosen ring.

Not so great, I think.

 

The choice belongs to the opponent, so they can either attack with a couple of characters or just send in any cheap chud that has strength 2 or higher for an easy break.

 

If you discard my 1-cost character (with no fate) and break your province, I consider that a very successful attack, thanks.

 

This card is probably best when it isn't run. That way the opponent is always adjusting their plays to avoid it messing them up, and they only feel safe from it either when they're attacking the stronghold, or when they've revealed all four provinces. OTOH, if you run the card, then when it reveals you've put your opponent a quarter of the way to victory.

I think you are discounting having to force your opponent to play around this province to much. 

Not at all - they still have to play round it when it isn't included, so why run it?

Because it makes your opponent lose his cost 5 character with 2 fate on it if he is not careful. If he is careful, he loses a character he had to play with no fate. So, the character may NOT find endless plains at first and have to wait more turns for another weenie, probably earning you a whole turn of attack or more, depending on the flop.

And also, you deny the whole attack to your opponent. If he overcommits to the conflit to avoid it, Unicorn has free access to province break due to less defenders.

If you don't include it, you don't deny anything at all. And once the corresponding element province is revealed the magic is lost.

Of course, if you don't include it, you may face a new player that completely ignores provinces and starts to smash your face your provinces with Toturi (or something similar), and you have no silver bullet for it. Yet, you can play without it and try some other strategy, but the reckless Unicorn rush really benefits from Endless Plains.

Reasons are many but not all of them always appliable, as this game is subtle and needs to constantly adapt.

That is the best case scenario when fighting against Endless plains where you are swinging with low cost characters or swinging with a two man party. But what if you are 2nd player, just defended an attack and now left with a big guy to swing. Do you declare the conflict and risk Endless plains? I could even assassinate your small dude and force the issue. I've won games this way time after time. Compare the impact versus running other water provinces for Unicorn and the choice is easy. Together with Altansarnai, shrinking the board state is favorable to Unicorn.

That is the best case scenario when fighting against Endless plains where you are swinging with low cost characters or swinging with a two man party. But what if you are 2nd player, just defended an attack and now left with a big guy to swing. Do you declare the conflict and risk Endless plains? I could even assassinate your small dude and force the issue. I've won games this way time after time. Compare the impact versus running other water provinces for Unicorn and the choice is easy. Together with Altansarnai, shrinking the board state is favorable to Unicorn.

just for the record if they attack this you can't play assassinate and then trigger this since its a reaction, so you'd have to play assassinate before they attack. 

Not at all - they still have to play round it when it isn't included, so why run it?

Quite frankly, because it doesn't work that way.

a) If you don't include it, then your opponent won't play around it unless it's the first time they play against you.  

b ) If the meta thought is that you don't need to include it because your opponent will play around it, then, again, they won't play around it.

c) Sometimes, they won't play around it anyway.  If your opponent doesn't have the right characters in play to play around Endless Plains, then they might consider that the lost value of not attacking is more painful than a 1-in-4 chance of losing value BY attacking.  Probably not with a Clan Champion +2 Fate, but maybe a 3-cost guy with +1 Fate.   If you don't play Endless Plains, then you miss the chance to punish what you might consider a misplay, and if they happen to flip over a Rally the Charge, they know not to worry about it for the rest of the game either.

It's an autoprovince break, indeed, even if you opponent attacks with a 1 coster: You deny him the ring.

We'll have to see what happens when crab seeker splash comes available.

just for the record if they attack this you can't play assassinate and then trigger this since its a reaction, so you'd have to play assassinate before they attack. 

Yep, I'm talking about going first round 1 and assassinating them during your conflict and leaving them with a bad situation of 1/4 chance of hitting Endless Plains.