At Gen Con, Ultra Pro will premiere the next stand-alone expansion for Stone Blade Entertainment’s Ascension deck building game.  The new Valley of the Ancients set will be available in limited quantities at the show before its general release in September.

In Valley of the Ancients, players can compete for control of long-lost temples, deep in a trackless jungle filled with mutated, monstrous creatures.  The temples, built by an ancient, fallen civilization, can call upon the powers of creation for those who control them.  To control a temple, a player needs to acquire Keystones, one of the new features of this set.

Other new elements added to the game are two new keywords, called Serenity and Echo, both of which allow players to access cards in their discard pile.

Ascension:  Valley of the Ancients can be played on its own, or combined with other Ascension sets.  As a stand-alone game, it is designed fro 2 to 4 players, ages 13 and up, and takes about 30 minutes to play.  Combined with another Ascension set, it can support games with up to 6 players.  MSRP is $40.00.

Releasing next month, the Alliances expansion will add team play mechanics to Ascension (see “‘Ascension’ Introduces Team Play”).