Stone Blade Entertainment will release the next expansion set for its long-running Ascension deck-building game, Ascension X: War of Shadows, in July.

The theme for the new set is the on-going conflict between Light and Dark forces for control of New Vigil.  This conflict plays a direct role on the game, as the balance between the two forces can give players additional powers during Night and Day.  A new category of Heroes and Constructs are also introduced:  dual-cost cards require players to spend both types of game resources to purchase these powerful cards.

Ascension X:  War of Shadows can be played on its own as a 1 to 4 player game.  Players can also combine it with other Ascension products to play in games with up to 6 players.  This set will include 177 cards, 50 honor tokens, and a game board.  MSRP is $39.99.

As an incentive for retailers to support the product, Stone Blade is offering an exclusive promo card, the Chaos Rider, for each copy of the game that a store pre-orders.

Last month, Stone Blade announced that it would once again run Ascension Game Day promotions (see “Stone Blade Relaunches Game Day Program”).

(See five card preview in the gallery below.)