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.