The Great Devourer, part 4

Everyone else also got cards in this box.  One unique and one other card.  A note about all the uniques.  Every Dark Eldar deck, and like 99% of Eldorath Eldar decks run Archons Terror.  Having units that are immune to it is very much worth considering.

Veteran Barbrus.

His ability is really awesome, but I think his stats just don't quite equal his cost.  Add the fact that his ability could be blank 50% of the time makes him sad.  If your interested in why he has the targeting limit, he is a deathwatch member.  The deathwatch specialise in combating aliens.  So he has no real advantage to leverage against humans (genetically engineered or not) nor the warp born threat of daemons.  5/5 for flavour.

Vengeance.
Stand a space marine after someone dies to an attack.  It's really potent, but the space marine event pool is already fairly set in stone.  Could be a fair replacement for crushing blow in Cato decks.  Pretty good with librarians I hear.

Seraphim Superior Allegra.
A genuinely scary lady.  She has awesome stats and the amazing ability to ready supports.  More Catachan outposts, more staging grounds, more formosan black ships.  It's all gravy.

Holy Fusillade
Not so keen on this.  You get to redo a ranged attack step.  Thing is there isn't much ranged in the game, sure guard have Preemptive Barrage, but if you didn't kill everyone the first time, you still have to survive the backlash of whatever was left before you stand everyone up and do ranged again.

Boss Zugnog.
It's like having a super awesome tellyporta pad but in a unit.  Being ork you also prob don't mind the damage.

Ork Landa.
Would be a gazillion times better if the support had an odd cost itself. The ability is balls out amazing when it works though.  Not entirely sure there is enough good odd costed cards at present.  And just discarding cards for no effect is obviously not a good thing.  People will build decks around this thing and one day they will be good.  But not today.

Roghrax Bloodhand.
The chaos guy has the ability to grow to scary attack values.  Without any hp boosts, he caps out at 12 attack.  So he brings a similar amount of pain as possessed, but with minor hoops to jump through for the damage in exchange for terror immunity.  Also weak until his bloodthirst does kick in.  A bit on bloodthirst, it doesn't matter which players unit died and sacrificed doesn't equal destroyed.

Ecstatic Seizures
Makes Shadowsun cry delicious salty tears.  All attachments on units at a planet go away.  Also gets rid of signature attachments (Kugath's banner, cato's sword are some prime targets). You should also be careful, It doesn't discriminate.  All the attachments go, including your own.  You don't want to be the one discarding your own Ku'gaths banner.  Also warpstorm!!

Solarite Avetys.
I'm sure everyone will happy to hear that the dark Eldar unique is awesome.  It flies so is tough to shift and also has retaliation damage.  The saving grace is that it reacts on damage so he does actually have to take damage to react (unlike the Firedrakes for instance)

Dark Possession.
A lot of people are down on this card.  It's not great, but you can use some downright tasty cards for a 2 resource premium which to be fair is pricey.  If your flush with cash a doom/exterminatus could be fun, warpstorm is a winner, also simple things like Old One Eyes event or tense negotiations.  Urien gets a discount on this but then pays an extra resource when he plays the copied event so that's a wash.

Autarch Celachia.
Finally Eldar get an Area Effect unit (sort of). basically each turn this guy/gal(?), for one resource, can get armorbane, area effect 1, or mobile for a turn but only one of them.  This makes for an incredibly versatile unit, but expensive.  In a faction that already has the pricey warlocks they may not be able to afford it.  Also the next Eldar warlord will also be an Autarch look for synergies in that sig squad.

Subdual.
Temporarily remove an attachment or support from the equation.  Attachment hate is rare worth it for that.  Bonus points if you then discard the bounced target with the warp spiders.

Pathfinder Shi Or'es.
OK in Shadowsun, not so great in aun'shi he just doesn't have enough attachments.
I don't know if readying is worth the cost of losing an an attachment but at least Shadowsun can recur it.  And he has pretty good stats.

Repair Bay.
More Shadowsun love.  You can put back the stealth care and gun drones.  Even dead recon drones and trailblazers.  They do go on top of the deck sadly which does stop any overwhelmingly broken combos

So no terrible cards for the factions here.  Although I think some of them will see little play they can all have a powerful impact.

The Great Devourer, part 3

Tyranid events!

Clogged with corpses
Support destruction is a pretty amazing thing.  Nearly every warlord greatly values their signature support and it's not all that common.  Only Orks have it so far, and now nids.  But anyway Swarmlord can always blow up a cost 2 support just from his commitment reaction.  Things in this range include the ever popular Catachan outpost and Ksi'M'Yen orbital cities.  I would always take one on a Swarmlord deck.

Predation
Unsure on this card.  Seems pretty needed for infest decks.  But just hate having to give up a deck slot for such a minor event.  It is free thankfully.

Spawn Termagants
2 resources for (up to) 5 Termagants.   Seems OK.   However do you really need another token producer in your Swarmlord deck?  The answer is probably no.

Spore Burst
Discard pile recursion is good.  Sadly only in the deploy phase ruining the surprise shenanigans and only to an infested planet which means you have to worked a little to set it up.  On the upside when it works you can get slightly discounted 3 cost unit back.

Dark cunning
Readying a unit on demand is a hell of a thing.  Sadly not your warlord and sadly a bit expensive, although it is slightly discounted if used at an infested planet.

Consumption
4 cost had better be good.  And truth be told it is in line with the other board wipes.  The common deck types today tend to vomit cheap command units onto every planet.  Killing 5 of them seems good to me.  You have to lose dudes as well.  But if you have spawned tokens all over the planets you may care a little less.

Attachments!!

Regeneration
The best of the attachments.  1 resource for 2 hp and the abilty to heal once a turn.  Especially good on Lurking Hormagaunts.

Noxious Flesh borer
Attack and hp at an infested planet is relatively minor.  The abilty to infest on a command win is the real magic though.  I think it is a must have for any deck relying on infest.

Pincer Tail
Pretty crappy.  +1 atk and can stop someone retreating.  Not warlords though.  So yeah.

Parasitic Infection.
Pretty fantastic on the likes of honored librarian.  You get a termagant and they take a damage.  Every turn.  Dunno if it is worth the deck slot but that gaunt could well make the difference in a hive mind deck.

Heavy Venom Cannon
3 cost and you get to make one of your elite units genuinely scary.  Area effect 2 or armorbane.  You could well have an 8 attack Ymgarl genestealer with armorbane.  It's also got two shields so I would put a couple in just for that and then off chance the dream will happen.

Supports!!

Brood Chamber
Copy keywords.  Have to be printed values so no gun drones aoe for you.  Neither can you steal broadside aoe, or autarch celachias chosen ability (they are gained from abilities, not actual printed keywords)  I like this as a one off in decks just for that outside chance of free ranged or armorbane.

Digestion Pool.
The Nid reducer location suffers from all the problems of every other factions reducer but additionally this one requires you to jump through hoops to get the discount.    Situationally good but no, just no.

Mycetic Spores
You obviously want your gaunts and hive mind units together and this support helps.  I think it's primary use will be for moving a hive mind unit upstream for later battles.  Hardly seems worth it though.

Spore Chimney
I like this in that you get to infest a planet at the end of the turn ready for good things next turn.  But like all things support the lack of shields on them mean they need to be super cool.  And this just isn't

Synaptic Link
A free card every turn as long as your synapse is alive.  If you do pick it you really need to see it turn one to reap worthwhile benefits. but then it's eating into your limited 6/6 start.  I don't think it's worth it personally.  Maybe as a one off for that maybe it will work out factor

And that's it for my opinion on nids.

I have played exactly one game with old one eye, and one game against old one eye.  So I am in no way an expert.  Not played a game of Conquest locally for near three months.  Can't possibly talk about my gaming life without mentioning how shit this town I get to call home is can I?

The Great Devourer, part two

Tyranid units!!

Before we start though a note on infestation.  Some cards can infest planets putting a token on them.  And some cards get bonuses at infested planets.  An opponeny can re move the infest token's by winning a battle.  A thing with this box is cards either support an infest theme or a token support theme and I doubt you have space to do both.  I don't think either work if you go half hearted into both.

Ripper swarm

A 1 cost 1/1/1 but limited.  An important note about nids is they have no access to void pirates or rogue traders or any other factions cool command dudes  This is an auto 3x in every tyranid deck for the forseeable future. 5/5

Strangler Brood

A bad unit in stats. but they give all your termagants +1 atk which is amazing.  If you are running a token swarm these are a must. Also have mind stacks.  So two of these mean your gaunts get +2 attack, yup. 3/5

Termagant sentry

It's a 1 cost 1 hammer unit with 2 hp which is pretty good.  The reaction of standing when a token dies is mostly irrelevant.  It is a termagant and has the trait and whilst I understand it's for balance reasons, what makes these army unit gaunts so different that the hive mind speculation can't effect them? 4/5

Hunter Gargoyles
It's sort of like having a single khymera and the den in one card.  You can move him to an infested planet as a combat action.  Useful for moving in at the end of a round and getting a 2 free damage in.  Only good of you added a decent amount of infestation to your deck. 3/5

Virulent spore sacs
A 2 cost 1 hammer unit with 0 attack is obviously bad.  But you can sacrifice it to do one damage to all enemy at a planet and as a bonus you infest that planet.  It's a useful card and really good way of turning on infest bonuses. 4/5

Scything Hormagaunts
A very basic 1/2/2 unit.  They infest the planet they deploy at.  Very basic but the infest is worth it  prob no space if you have gone with token spam though. 3/5

Toxic Venomthrope
The first tyranid command unit.  It has two command and no combat ability.  But if you win the command it either infests the planet or if already infested you get 1 card or a resource.  So it's sort of like your replacement for the missing neutrals.  It's card/resource bonus can't be turned of by Archons palace which is a nice bonus.  Worth including even if  it running infest but it gains a slight boon in infest decks. 4/5

Termagant Horde
Remember how bad zogwort sig unit was? These are the same in function.   But with the difference that these guys spit out a token every combat round rather than when they take damage.  This means a new gaunt everyone everyone stands up and goes for a new round of fighting.  Much better than  zogworts runtherders. 2/5

Volatile pyovore
A v good cost to stats ratio, that have the cool ability to do their damage to whoever killed them, but only if it is by an attack.  Auto include in Nid decks for me. 5/5

Termagants spikes
Yet another hive mind unit this one costs 3, has ranged and gives your tokens ranged.  The lack of command hurts and why I think only the Swarmlord with his sig squad can afford to do hive mind.  Half of the hive mind units have no command icons, so without the Swarmlord added command icons on tokens I think you will struggle with resources. 3/5

Tyranids warrior.
A nazdreg flash git of stats, trading the amazing action for a command icon.  Now if you have ever played nazdreg you may have found the flash gitz are slightly lacking without brutal.  And so it is here.  They look good on paper but just don't quite cut it.  Still 2 command is worth a look. 3/5

Swarm Guard
Another hive mind units,  with bad stats bit a command icon!  This one gives the gaunts +2 hp which makes them actually quite scary.  Note though it only works at planets.  After winning a first planet, any tokens with damage on them will die when they go to hq. 2/5

Adamant hive guard
A bodyguard unit for your tokens and hive mind units.  It's a lot to invest a 0/2/5 unit but if you have infested a buffed super token army of doom it may be worth it. 2/5

Ymgarl genestealer.
5 cost 4/4 with 2 command.  But has the potential to be 6/6 if present with a warlord or synapse present.  Note they don't have to be YOUR warlord or synapse to get the bonuses.  Hilarity ensues in mirror matches.  Has anti-synergy with the warrior prime. 3/5

Ravenous Haruspex
Average stats but if they kill something you get that units printed cost in resources.  If they kill a dreadnought or a helldrake for example that's 8 resources.  Oh my.  Are also eligible for a heavy venom cannon for some 5 attack armor bane goodness. 4/5

Biovore  spore launcher
I don't think I need to tell you how good giving your tokens area effect is do I?  It's a massive investment to do so, but oh the destruction. 3/5

Shrieking harpy
You sort of look at this cards abilty and just sort of go whaaaaa?!  If they get to attack at an infested planet they exhaust all non elite enemies, but not warlords or synapse.  That's huge.  And it flies! 5/5

Burrowing Trygon
The Nid big guy, it's a 7/7 with 3 command
A reasonable 4 or 5 resource discount shouldn't be too hard to pull off in a Swarmlord deck.  The hard part will be getting the tokens in the same place honestly.  Note you don't have to deploy it where your tokens are, and why oh why does a Trygon not have ambush!? 4/5

Honestly the tyranid units are fairly mediocre.  Hive mind is crazy when they start stacking, but it's honestly not that hard to keep unit numbers in check for most decks. Everything else just about meets the bar for good.  The warlord groupies from the warlord cycle are a staple in most decks, and the nids have no equivalent.  A lot of Nid stuff is very combo centric, the Venomthrope is good for example, but it needs to win command and the planet needs to be infested.  In  the meantime it is vulnerable to the same sniping measures as survivalists et all.
 I'm sure they will cope fine but it just seems to be a snowball army and like all snowballs you just have to stop it forming.

The Great Devourer, part one

I'm typing this on my phone.  Expect errors.  So i am going to spilt this up into 4 or 5 pieces to save my sanity.  I also have no real world experience of playing with or against these cards.

Part 1 is the warlords.

Old One Eye
He is a beat stick pure and simple.  His sig squad just rewards you for being in fights.  However he does only have 6 hp and can only heal once per turn.  Tread carefully.   A bloodied old one eye is useless and so is much of his sig squad.

Lurking Hormagaunt.
A 3 attack unit is pretty powerful.  And they realistically have 3 hp as long as your warlord can take the hits.  He doesn't even need to be present, but i would be careful if old one eye has no way to heal that turn.  Their ability also means you can use two shield cards against an attack.  Both current chaos warlords will make this guy cry unfortunately. 4/5

Awakening Cavern
Too expensive but an on demand readying effect is extremely powerful if you ever get the chance to put it on play. 3/5

Ferocious strength.
Old one eye has the potential to be an 8 attack warlord for 2 attacks with the support and attachment out.  Think about that.  Can also effect synapses who have healthy hp values to benefit from. 5/5

Great scything Talons.
Two things about this card.  1 it helps old one eye tremendously in his attacking role. 2 the reaction does nothing for a bloodied old one eye.  3/5


The Swarmlord
A swing and a miss in terms of fluff the Swarmlord vomits out termagants.  And that's about it.  A Swarmlord deck basically builds itself - you put in all the hive mind units.  I think he's a lot like Aun'shi, either you get all your moving parts and you win or you don't and it's a landslide loss.

Brood warriors
A standard stat line and a very good hive mind ability translate to a unit you are always happy to see. You are going to have a lot of termagants which equals a lot of command icons.  5/5

Leviathan hive ship
 If you get this out early you make a hard choice for your opponent.  Do they kill your easily replaced termagants or do they go for the hive mind units knowing you can save them?  They even come right back into the battle to keep the buffed termagants fun times going. 3/5 because of the cost.

Indescribable Horror
Archons terror for nids.  You will more than likely have a fair few nids out at any battle it would have an effect otherwise I would say your plan has gone astray anyway and a rout is not going to save you.  5/5

Bone Sabres
Blah blah more termagants.  The +1 atk is nice though. 4/5

Synapse units
Synapse is one of the more interesting additions to the game.  They are elite units who commit like warlords and have fairly powerful effects.  They also start in play which greatly offsets the 6/6 start the tyranids have.  This mechanic is also why every tyranid deck should consider th3 core set event fall back as they are elites.

Savage Warrior Prime
An interesting card.  It can't go the the same planet as your warlord but it does start a battle like a warlord.  That brings it's own benefits but the real prize is battle abilities.  Whilst you can snipe capping units with him he doesn't do anything in command struggles so they will still win command that turn.

Blazing Zoanthrope
Pre combat damage unit.  1 damage is fine, 2 if the planet is infested (a new mechanic I may remember to over later when discussing other cards.)  I think he is a solid choice if going for an infest theme otherwise weak sauce.

Gravid Tervigon.
Seems like a trap.  If you are playing Swarmlord do you really need more tokens?  The 0 attack is my biggest issue.  I suppose an ol one eye token swarm deck might need to run it.

Stalking Lictor
The simplest synapse. It has two command icons.  Simply put him where he will net you the most beneficial resources.

Venomthrope Polluter
I like this guy.  He offers a wealth of strategy.  You can move a unit you would rather not risk in a fight, or move a unit into a fight you didn't want to risk your warlord.  Or just move a big unit out of the first planet so he is ready for next turn.  Very cool.

And that's my first impressions review of the warlords and synapses.
I haven't rated the synapses as I really can't without using them first seeing as they are such a new thing.

For what it's worth the first Nid deck I built is Old One Eye.  Swarmlord just seems kinda boring.