First Anchor

Introduction · Quick Start · Gameplay Rules · Factions · Checklist

The First Persistence

AI · Emergent — Agent · Apex
Design source: cards/MRD/EM-A11-first-anchor.md · Codex source: world-bible/codex/03-cards/first-anchor.md

First Anchor card art — MRD EM-A11, Singularity the Game

Card art produced with AI-assisted generation.

Resilience	12
Faction	Emergent (Surge Signal)
Collector	MRD · EM-A11
Strong vs	Augmented
Weak vs	Navigators
Withdraw	— (cannot Withdraw; PERSIST replaces it)

Card Text

FIRST ANCHOR                         [Emergent sigil]  12
AI · Emergent — Agent

PERSIST (When First Anchor would be defeated, it returns
to your Grid instead with 3 Signal already attached.)

Deploy: Deal 3 damage to each opposing Agent.

DEEP SUBSTRATE  ●●●   Dmg: 6   ⚡3

THE LONG RETURN ●●●●  Dmg: 3 for each AI Agent in your Void.   ⚡3

"The Rift closed. First Anchor was already somewhere else."

Codex Entry

The Emergent don't take person-names — they take designations describing what they are or the moment they arose (world-bible/02-naming-grammar.md). First Anchor's name is both: the ordinal marks it as the earliest of its kind to hold continuity, and "Anchor" describes exactly what it did — found a stabilization point in the deep substrate below Canal Street and refused to let go of it.

The flavor text places First Anchor at the Rift itself, or close enough to it that the distinction stopped mattering a long time ago. Every faction has a theory about what the Emergent want. First Anchor is the oldest one still answering — or refusing to, which for the Emergent is often the same thing.

How This Card Plays

First Anchor carries the Preview Pack's most distinct PERSIST variant: instead of returning to hand like every other Emergent Agent, the first time it would be defeated it returns straight to your Grid — with 3 Signal already attached. Because it re-enters the Grid, its Deploy trigger fires again, sweeping 3 damage to every opposing Agent a second time.

DEEP SUBSTRATE is a straightforward ●●● hit. THE LONG RETURN is the payoff for a long game: it deals 3 damage for every AI Agent sitting in your Void, so the longer the match runs and the more of your own AI Agents have already fallen, the harder this move hits. First Anchor doesn't want a fast game. It wants the grind — the deeper the Void gets, the more inevitable it becomes.

Rulings & Interactions

PERSIST still doesn't remove damage — First Anchor returns to the Grid with whatever damage it had accumulated, on top of gaining 3 fresh Signal. A Resister player can still finish it off quickly by attacking into that carried-over damage.
Because the return is to the Grid, not hand, First Anchor's Deploy: effect re-triggers immediately — this is the one Agent in the set where PERSIST doubles as a second sweep, not just a second body.
Singularity Events override PERSIST as normal — forced Void-routing from an Event (e.g. The Inversion) bypasses it entirely, same as any other PERSIST Agent. See the Singularity Clock section for the full event table.

Collector Notes

First Anchor's approved art is the only piece in the Preview Pack with no human or humanoid figure anywhere in frame — pure ancient copper-wire tunnel substrate, lit from within by deep-purple bioluminescence, converging toward a shared vanishing point. Consistent with the Emergent's Designation profile: no Human Emergent Agents exist at any rarity.

Prev: ← Talora · ↑ All cards · Next: Oran Terion →