Just got mine today. Everything pretty much closed early on Wednesday and didn't open yesterday. A storm front moved through and dropped 14.2 inches of snow on us. That's pretty much what we normally see in two years.

Im in Kansas City, that storm pretty much just left us and headed your way.

So long as the familiar isn't legendary, unique, or epic the same rules apply for as any other creature/spell limitation.

I pre ordered it from a store nearby.

I liked that one box has almost all the copies of any cards youd need in it... low level basic cards are all in 4-6 quantities, legendary expensive items all come in pairs.. theres no real need to get a second one to stock up on cards.

The only let down I had was that none of the stuff teased in that dicetower kickstarter video was included in it, so no ballista, vorpal sword, gravikar, etc.  There was also no giant killer skunk.

By in large Im pretty happy with it though.

Well, the set is out in 2-4 days... so at this point its more of a "heads up" than a spoiler.  Cat is out of the bag by the 20th regardless.

Im really trying to like Sectarus, but its too gimmicky for my tastes and lacks versatility.  Ive been hoping for a dark familiar..but I still don't see my Warlock running this.

-Its outright dissolvable, limiting its reliability
-MUST spend an action to attack to use the spell, so its not a "free" action..just budget neutral.
-MUST hit with the attack to use the spell.  Defense, Daze, and Block all can waste your preparation
-MUST damage target to use spell.. Armor or just unlucky rolls prevent you from using your familiar
-Can ONLY cast spell on the target of your attack. Can't pressure mage and debuff his creatures at the same time, and meaning Guards can prevent you from casting what you need when you need.
-Does not get its own action marker.
-Can only cast curses, unlike say Fellalia who can cast curses, buffs, blocks, decoys, traps, etc.  This limits the books that have an interest to include it.  Typically I only run a few key counter curses (finite life, enfeeble, agony..things to answer specific situations.  not things to just spam)
-Doesn't let you use the 0-2 range of curses due to the fact that they must be in melee range to cast.
-Fellalia packs etherial damage, Huugin gets to peek under hidden enchantments... this one occupies your main hand slot where you could have equiped a vorpal sword for half the cost and double the pierce or a lash of hellfire for less mana, burn chance, reach and extra damage from a fireshaper ring.

No other familiar is so limited on its spell choices, AND its cast conditions, AND its target choices AND requires an action from the mage himself.  

Its not that its bad or anything... but its too focused for me.   I get that certain cards are made for certain structures, but familiar's should be a bit more open to me... they should be able to support multiple build types for a mage to consider.  This one only appeals to very specific curse-driven, melee combat books.

Are there multiple thoughtspores? It's not legendary or epic. Could be awesome to have more than one

Yep.  4 Thoughtspores + 4 Power Strikes= Spend 4 mana for +8 attack dice every turn.

Had something come up and made me wonder..

My beloved Necropian Vampiress was guarding.
The attack was enough damage to kill her.

Does she get removed from the table and the sequence end when she takes her 14th damage?

Or, Does she still get to take her counter attack before leaving the table?

In the case of this specific creature, if her counterattack does enough damage she might actually heal herself enough to not die.

We presumed that she died before the counterattack, but was wondering if guards still get to counter even if they take a fatal amount of damage.