Lost Chapters
Edward Teach "Blackbeard": Garnet Character
Blackbeard was a pirate who raided the Caribbean and the coast of colonial North America from about 1716 to 1718. He is usually named Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, but even his real name is uncertain, and much of his fearsome reputation rests on a carefully built image.
- Cost
- 7 crystals
- Type
- Character · Rebel
- Power / Health
- 6 / 6
- Color
- Garnet (Rebels, Pirates & War)
- Rarity
- Ultra-Rare (Legacy)
- Set
- Liberty & Lightning (Set 1)
- Keywords
- Double Chapter
Charge: your opponent discards a random card.
Terror of the seas who realized early that personal branding and literal fuses in your beard boost negotiating leverage.
The real history
Almost nothing about Blackbeard's early life is certain, starting with his name. Records from his own time spell the surname Teach, Thatch, Thack, Theach and more, and the Queen Anne's Revenge Project says his true name is uncertain. Bristol, England, is the birthplace most often given, but that is tradition rather than proof.
He is reported to have sailed with privateers out of Jamaica during Queen Anne's War (1701 to 1714) and to have turned pirate after the fighting ended. By about 1716 he was based in the Bahamas, learning the trade under the pirate captain Benjamin Hornigold. The earliest surviving document that mentions him by name dates from the summer of 1717.
Late that year, near Martinique, Blackbeard's small fleet took the French slave ship La Concorde. The pirates put her French crew and many of the captive Africans ashore on the island of Bequia, then kept the ship for themselves. Renamed Queen Anne's Revenge, she became his flagship, armed with about 40 guns.
The classic picture of Blackbeard was drawn mainly by A General History of the Pyrates, a 1724 book published under the name Captain Charles Johnson. It describes a coal black beard twisted into small braids tied with ribbons, a sling of pistols across his chest, and slow burning fuses tucked under his hat when he went into battle. Some modern accounts, including the National Park Service's, place the burning fuses in his hair and beard instead. Historians handle these details carefully, because few other sources confirm them. The effect, though, is well recorded: many merchant crews gave up without a fight.
His career ended almost as fast as it began, when he was killed in battle at Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina, in November 1718.
Sources
- Blackbeard: History of the Dreaded Pirate, Queen Anne's Revenge Project, North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
- Blackbeard the Pirate, NCpedia, State Library of North Carolina
- Blackbeard (aka Edward Teach), National Park Service
In the game's story
In the game's invented story, Blackbeard hauls up a glowing purple stone in a net during his 1718 blockade of Charleston, and it carries him, his crew and Queen Anne's Revenge out of a rift into Errata Harbor in Marginalia. A healer there hands him a chest of medicine for his sick crew for free, and he signs the Queen's Writ and starts plundering Echoes instead of the locals. He laughs as a Reader defeats his Echo, a monster made of his own legend, and he now leads the rebels and pirates of Garnet.
How the card plays
Edward Teach "Blackbeard" costs 7 crystals (6 under the Blackbeard Leader, since he is one of that Leader's Signature cards) and is a 6/6 Garnet Rebel. Double Chapter means each hit on the enemy Leader takes 2 Life instead of 1. Every time he charges, your opponent discards a random card, whatever the target.
He is a finisher. Land him once the rival's field is thin, then charge every turn so each attack strips their hand. Under his own Leader the Rebel passive also makes him a 7/6.
The Queen Anne's Revenge equips +3/+2 and Explore, and makes your opponent discard a random card when you control Blackbeard. Bartholomew Roberts adds another discard if you play him after Blackbeard has charged that turn. Whiskey Rebellion rests every enemy character, so none of them can block his charge.
- Playable in decks led by Edward Teach "Blackbeard".
- A Signature card of Edward Teach "Blackbeard": it costs 1 less while Blackbeard leads your deck.
- In the Blackbeard starter deck (2 copies). Deck code:
LC2-Aj4BPwFAAUEBQgFDAUQCRQFGAkcBSAFJAkoBSwFMAU0BTgFPAlACUQFSAVMCVAFVAVYBVwFYAVkBWgFbAVwBXQJeAW9C - Works with The Queen Anne's Revenge.
- A deck holds up to 3 copies of this card.
Questions about Blackbeard
Did Blackbeard really put lit fuses in his beard?
Maybe, but treat it as part legend. The 1724 book by "Captain Charles Johnson" describes slow burning fuses under his hat in battle, and some modern accounts place them in his hair and beard. Few other records back the story up.
What was Blackbeard's real name?
Nobody knows for sure. Edward Teach and Edward Thatch are the usual versions, and documents from the early 1700s spell the surname in several different ways.
Card art
The standard version of Edward Teach "Blackbeard". The Full Art above is a rare version that can appear in packs.
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Rebel, Two Sided Hound1 crystal · Character · Common
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