Saturday 20 February 2016

Boundless Hate

I was supposed to be at a Store Championship today.  But my very recent Night Shift screwed with my sleep too much I guess and I didn't quite get up in time.  Anyway so heres me writing about cards I have not played with or against.  Hurrah.
Ba’ar Zul the Hate-Bound
Ba'ar Zul the Hate Bound
Man he looks like fun.  he just isn't very good I don't think. His bloodied side has an amazing 3/11 stats.  His Hale side has a crappy 0/5 stats has an interesting reaction.  Lets you save your stuff.  But note the unit has to have actually survived whatever damaged it before you can move the damage.  It's a little bit of a trap, you want him bloodied obviously, but doing it too early could be a mistake.  The 0 attack also makes his command sniping poor, just like Coteaz.  I'd like his Hale side much more if you didn't have to be at the same planet to move the damage.
Ba’ar Zul’s Cleavers
Ba'ar Zul's Cleavers
A nice amount of HP.  A nifty damage boost ability.  As the damage is a cost, you cannot prevent it as that would cause the ability to fizzle.   Ba'ar zul moving it is ok though (naturally)  So there life is somewhat limited sadly. Strangely it's not a combat action, so you can do it 4 times a turn if you're feeling particularly Sadistic (though only one of those times will count, the combat phase)
Kaerux Erameas
Kaerux Erameas
Some oh so nifty shenanigans abound with this.  It's obvious utility is triggering battle abilities.  Pretty much any of them can greatly swing a battle.  Some more powerful ones are Atrox Prime, Ferrin, Plannum,  Tarrus and Elouith if it nets you that one amazing event.
Blood For the Blood God!
Blood for the Blood God
Not amazing, but a) it costs 1 resource.  Thats a good deal if I ever saw one. b) Would be bonkers broken in Zarathur, so thank your chosen god that he can't have it.
The Butcher’s Nails
Butchers Nails
Makes your warlord not suck.  So thats nice.
Archon Salaine Morn
Archon Salaine Morn
And having the unfortunate distinction of comparing to Packmaster Kith is this girl.  Respectable stats  and a crappy reaction, not looking good for her.  It's really is a max of 2 resources a round assuming you play 2 eligible units a turn, and the red planets happen to matter in the grand scheme of things. Also Kabalite and Raider aren't synonymous with good at the moment.
Shadowed Thorns Pillagers
Shadowed Thorns Plllagers
2/2/1 Ambush.  Makes them good, not amazing.  Still, cannot underestimate the power of surprise combat units.
The Nexus of Shadows
The Nexus of Shadows
If your rich, win more is what this card says.  You could get 4 cards a turn with this which is balls out amazing, if you are already rolling in cash.
Inevitable Betrayal
"Curse your sudden but" Inevitable Betrayal."!!"
Twisted Lab doesn't see play much nowdays, And neither would this if it wasn't signature.  It does hoewever blank Traits which is hilarious.  No more Stracken boosts for the now not soldier units,
Last Breath
Last Breath
-3 attack is 0 atatck for the vast majority of units,  This would be grade a if it affected warlords.

Sorry Salaine, no dethroning Kith for you.
Neophyte Apprentice
Neophyte Apprentice.
As ever 1 hammer for 1 resource is the golden ration.  And theres a good chance  he may become a good unit later.  Has to be Black Templar though, limiting him a little to Black Templar Decks and a problem may be getting him to survive to attack
The Black Sword
The Black Sword
A buffed Firedrake Terminators reaction for any Black Templar.  Obviously this goes best on the Emperors Champ who is coming soon.  The problem is that guy is a one off in that deck.  Has two shields though, this is a pretty amazing card in BT decks.
Sacaellum Shrine Guard
Sacaellum Shrine Guard
As if Worr needed more love.  it's a 1 cost hammer all of the time, it's  2/2 at green planets, and a 3/2 if in a Worr deck.  Bonkers, put three of them in worr deck.
Troop Transport
Troop Transport
Worr is broken being the motto of this cycle.  It's free and is an instant two tokens at green planets (so that would be 2/2's then).  if you can save these things up an get more of them, chaos insues.
Front line ‘Ard Boyz
Front Line 'Ard Boyz
A much better fire warrior elite,  4 cost is a lot, but 2 command icons, a nice stat line.  And they can protect Nazdreg.  Sadly unlike the fire warriors, the ability is not optional.  But with KFG's and the like, these guys could go a long way for Nazdreg.
Ramshackle Trukk
Ramshackle Trukk
Goes Fasta is an interesting specialization for sure.  It's a 7/3 if you do have the iniative (where the HP may not matter) or a 7/7 if you don't where it may prove to be impossible to kill anyway before that 7 attack kills something.  Good times.
Rok Bombardment
Rok Bombardment
I don't get why mostly not aimed anywhere Roks care if a planet is red or not.  but regardless,  Could be tasty. Orks tend to have high HP and so won't care too much.  Sadly the units get to do their attack before they take the damage.  So sheer numbers could mean that this will not win you the game anyway.
Dire Avenger Exarch
Dire Avenger Exarch
More Fire Warrior Elite-esque shenaiganes.  This guy forces warriors to die first.  Since your opponent declares attack targets, it could well be this guy that dies first.  Still, if that protects a important unit, thats nice.  Also Whatever killed him, would then be exhausted for Eldorath's Sig unit to wreck face.
Mind War
Mind War
Hilariously the arguably most powerful psyker in game right now (Eldorath) is not eligible for this.  However Starbanes Council are.  So exhasut something and kill it, all good.  Doesn't effect elites which does limit that combo significantly.
Prudent Fire Warriors
Prudent Fire Warriors
The problem with attachments is that you lose a significant investment if the unit goes away for whatever reason.  Enter these guys.  Make a uber Voltron unit out of him and the enemy is damned if they don't kill him, damned if they do.  The only resl to deal with him is to kill him when he's alone,
Exploratory Drone
Exploratory Drone
A pretty safe command unit.  Plonk it down, and if the opponent attempts to match command, just move it away,  Sadly it not going to be safe if a warlord just runs in to smack it down.  But it is a 1 cost command. Super useful unit.
Auxiliary Armor
Auxilliary Armour
As far as attachments go, 2 cost for 2/1 is not a great deal.  the one command icon is though.  Which makes this good card for Starblaze who be default is going to have non tau in the deck.  Also reasonable for Shadowsun as she can recur it,
Soaring Gargoyles
Soaring Gargoyles.
Unless you are also running the HP boost, flying a moot ability for 1HP tokens.  I suppose there is the extreme outlying case of it lets your Tokens kill a flyer easier.  How many flyers do you face on a regular basis though?
Sacaellum Infestors
Sacaellum Infestors
It's quite good in that you get the bonus when a planet is infested, which is generally easier to do than the hoop jumping that is getting a planet infested AND then making use if it whilst it matters,  it's quite bad in that it's a 2 cost unique support for a theme that is not great anyway. Very bad in fact.


Monday 8 February 2016

Decree of Ruin Review

Just as the new pack is out.  Yay punctuality.  Also the worst thing about this pack...you can't build a deck with both new warlords at the same time :(
Broderick Worr
Broderick Worr
Worr, huh, yeah, what is it good for?!! The new hotness is plain awesome.  Starting with his first line.  it makes him an amazing command sniper.  Imagine any planet with x amount of Rogue Traders or Void Pirates.  No matter what if Worr opposes them, they are dead as Worr will kill them or they will die if they try to retreat.  Also you can safely retreat your own guys if Worr retreats at the same time.
Second ability is +1atk and cannot retreat or be routed at green planets for all your Imperial guard units. First of an interesting statistic, 6 of the 10 planets have a green icon.  Secondly Worr doesn't even have to be at the planet in question.  Which is pretty much why Worr is flat out better than Stracken.  He also buffs tokens, yay.
Anxious Infantry Platoon
Anxious Infantry Platoon.
Omg the stats.  3/3/1 for 2 resources is crazy good,  The drawback can be bad, but at green planets it doesn't matter, so er put them there. There is nothing bad to say about these guys.
Forward Barracks
Forward Barracks
Once again a guard support that produces Guardsman tokens.  This one gets you fresh new guardsman every combat round as long as you have a an Imperial guard unit present. And they have to kill that Guardsman as he fulfils the conditions to spawn another...and another.  Also Worr himself will spawn a token wherever he goes,
Summary Execution
Summary Execution
Kill a guy to make a planet green.  At times it matters will win you the game.  Also draws you a card, for times when it doesn't and you just want something else.
Commissarial Bolt Pistol
Commissarial Bolt Pistol
At present only Worr can have this.  +1atk is useful.  The reaction is powerful. But if Worr is present with his army (remembering he doesn't have to be for the oh so good +1atk for Guard units), odds are he will get singled out.  he isn't the beefiest warlord around.
Commander Starblaze
Commander Starblaze
An interesting warlord, the first of which to mess with the alliance wheel.  Starblaze can Ally with Guard, but no one else.  This leads to by far the defacto best command Warlord.  With access to the 2 command icon Psykers, Iron Guard recruits, Recon Drone and Trailblazers.   His second ability to move units is situational but potentially decisive.  The rest of his command squad necessitate a balanced deck of Guard and Tau cards, which could prove difficult.
Ardent Auxiliaries
Ardent Auxiliaries
Balanced stats, but anything that says "ready this unit" is worth a look. and these guys do exactly that when they commit to a planet with a guard unit.  I would have to check the timing, so don't quote me, but I believe if Starblaze pulls a guard unit to him, these will be able to ready.
Starblaze’s Outpost
Starblazes Outpost
The best card in his set, this support lets you bounce a guard unit to put a Tau unit of equal or less cost into play.  Funniest use of this?  Bouncing sanctioned psykers that your opponent tried to snipe with his warlord for Borkan Recruits.   4 damage to the face for the ambitious opponent.
Bond of Brotherhood
Bond of Brotherhood.
Buffs for all your guys at a planet.  It's ok.  Atk for your guard, HP for your tau.
Searing Burst Cannon
Searing Burst Cannon.
Double damage if a shield is not played when attached unit attacks.  Note it doesn't work with AoE, and secondly thank your chosen deity that Tau have no units with native Armorbane yet.
Lone Wolf
Lone Wolf
Garbage.  moving on...but seriously the fact he exhausts to move just means he is going to get punched in the face by the Warlord he attempted to solo.  It's a space wolf for what that's worth.
Righteous Initiate
Righteous Initiate.
It's merely ok.  not going to fit in any marine deck right now, or any ally deck.  Probably just waiting for the rest of the Black Templar cards this cycle.
Accept any Challenge
Accept any Challenge.
Probably the sole reason Righteous initiate is in this pack, seeing as otherwise this card does absolutely nothing. Once again Future warlord bait,
Rickety Warbuggy
Rickety Warbuggy
It's a conditional Honored Librarian for orks, but does on up the librarian by being immune to AoE.  And it costs 1, but has no command icons.  Still, 1 resource for 3atk is never ever going to be bad thing.
Lucky Warpaint
Lucky War Paint
Blue trait I just find hilarious.  Immune to events is so so good sort of.  Only event that it stops is Archons terror really, maybe the odd suppressive fire nowadays.
Ravening Psychopath
Ravening Psychopath
Again it's another non-Tzeentch card that fits amazingly in Zarathur.  He attacks for 2, takes 1 and does 2 to another army unit.  Insane value, put it in  every Zarathur deck ever from now on..  Maybe there will be more Khorne synergy this cycle and with the warlord, but if last cycle is any indication, expect them all to better in Zaruthur.
Sowing Chaos
Sowing Chaos
Destroying every low cost unit at blue planets is such an amazing meta card right now.  Imperial Guard and Kith live on 2 cost units.  It kills the ever popular amazing Warlock Destructor and Snakebite Thug.  Amazing in those situations.  Not so good vs Cato.
Stalking Ur-Ghul
Stalking Ur'Ghul
Garbage, Dark Eldar can't have all the awesome cards it turns out.  An outside extremely edge case you can
Holding Cell
Holding Cell
Has annoyance factor, but I don't think it;s worth including in decks.  Thankfully it doesn't combo with Klaivex kills, that would be too much.
Prophetic Farseer
Prophetic Farseer
Bringing the Eldar Psyker count up to 4 (for the new eldar warlord) is this guy.  The enters play effect could win you the game, it could also do not alot but let you know how good the units he has coming are.  He's a pretty good unit at 2/4/1 though by himself.
Wraithguard Revenant
Wraithguard Revenant
Can come back from the discard, and has 3 attack.  yay.  Eldar getting some good combat focused cards.
Deathly Web Shrine
Deathly Web Shrine
Ok so the name of this card clearly is reference to the Warp Spider aspect, and it has a Warp Spider warrior right there on the card.  yet the only Warp Spider in the game doesn't move so can't trigger this.  But anyway, great in Baharroth.  It's basically like having a weaker Eldorath in your Baharroth deck, and we all know how good his effect is.  Weaker in that you can't hit elites, and it doesn't help you win command (movement tends to come too late for that)
Striking Ravener
Striking Ravaner
Tytranids have all the good elites.  This thing with a Venom Cannon could be the scariest thing ever,  Anyway once again anything that says 'Ready' somewhere in it's text is basically good.
Acid Maw
Acid Maw
Better than Armorbane in that it stops indomitable and KFG and the like.  it is good,  Sadly Tyranid attachment space is tight, with Regen being amazing and Promotion being 100% required.  Sad that it can't go on a synapse.


Decree of Ruin Review

Just as the new pack is out.  Yay punctuality.  Also the worst thing about this pack...you can't build a deck with both new warlords at the same time :(
Broderick Worr
Broderick Worr
Worr, huh, yeah, what is it good for?!! The new hotness is plain awesome.  Starting with his first line.  it makes him an amazing command sniper.  Imagine any planet with x amount of Rogue Traders or Void Pirates.  No matter what if Worr opposes them, they are dead as Worr will kill them or they will die if they try to retreat.  Also you can safely retreat your own guys if Worr retreats at the same time.
Second ability is +1atk and cannot retreat or be routed at green planets for all your Imperial guard units. First of an interesting statistic, 6 of the 10 planets have a green icon.  Secondly Worr doesn't even have to be at the planet in question.  Which is pretty much why Worr is flat out better than Stracken.  He also buffs tokens, yay.
Anxious Infantry Platoon
Anxious Infantry Platoon.
Omg the stats.  3/3/1 for 2 resources is crazy good,  The drawback can be bad, but at green planets it doesn't matter, so er put them there. There is nothing bad to say about these guys.
Forward Barracks
Forward Barracks
Once again a guard support that produces Guardsman tokens.  This one gets you fresh new guardsman every combat round as long as you have a an Imperial guard unit present. And they have to kill that Guardsman as he fulfils the conditions to spawn another...and another.  Also Worr himself will spawn a token wherever he goes,
Summary Execution
Summary Execution
Kill a guy to make a planet green.  At times it matters will win you the game.  Also draws you a card, for times when it doesn't and you just want something else.
Commissarial Bolt Pistol
Commissarial Bolt Pistol
At present only Worr can have this.  +1atk is useful.  The reaction is powerful. But if Worr is present with his army (remembering he doesn't have to be for the oh so good +1atk for Guard units), odds are he will get singled out.  he isn't the beefiest warlord around.
Commander Starblaze
Commander Starblaze
An interesting warlord, the first of which to mess with the alliance wheel.  Starblaze can Ally with Guard, but no one else.  This leads to by far the defacto best command Warlord.  With access to the 2 command icon Psykers, Iron Guard recruits, Recon Drone and Trailblazers.   His second ability to move units is situational but potentially decisive.  The rest of his command squad necessitate a balanced deck of Guard and Tau cards, which could prove difficult.
Ardent Auxiliaries
Ardent Auxiliaries
Balanced stats, but anything that says "ready this unit" is worth a look. and these guys do exactly that when they commit to a planet with a guard unit.  I would have to check the timing, so don't quote me, but I believe if Starblaze pulls a guard unit to him, these will be able to ready.
Starblaze’s Outpost
Starblazes Outpost
The best card in his set, this support lets you bounce a guard unit to put a Tau unit of equal or less cost into play.  Funniest use of this?  Bouncing sanctioned psykers that your opponent tried to snipe with his warlord for Borkan Recruits.   4 damage to the face for the ambitious opponent.
Bond of Brotherhood
Bond of Brotherhood.
Buffs for all your guys at a planet.  It's ok.  Atk for your guard, HP for your tau.
Searing Burst Cannon
Searing Burst Cannon.
Double damage if a shield is not played when attached unit attacks.  Note it doesn't work with AoE, and secondly thank your chosen deity that Tau have no units with native Armorbane yet.
Lone Wolf
Lone Wolf
Garbage.  moving on...but seriously the fact he exhausts to move just means he is going to get punched in the face by the Warlord he attempted to solo.  It's a space wolf for what that's worth.
Righteous Initiate
Righteous Initiate.
It's merely ok.  not going to fit in any marine deck right now, or any ally deck.  Probably just waiting for the rest of the Black Templar cards this cycle.
Accept any Challenge
Accept any Challenge.
Probably the sole reason Righteous initiate is in this pack, seeing as otherwise this card does absolutely nothing. Once again Future warlord bait,
Rickety Warbuggy
Rickety Warbuggy
It's a conditional Honored Librarian for orks, but does on up the librarian by being immune to AoE.  And it costs 1, but has no command icons.  Still, 1 resource for 3atk is never ever going to be bad thing.
Lucky Warpaint
Lucky War Paint
Blue trait I just find hilarious.  Immune to events is so so good sort of.  Only event that it stops is Archons terror really, maybe the odd suppressive fire nowadays.
Ravening Psychopath
Ravening Psychopath
Again it's another non-Tzeentch card that fits amazingly in Zarathur.  He attacks for 2, takes 1 and does 2 to another army unit.  Insane value, put it in  every Zarathur deck ever from now on..  Maybe there will be more Khorne synergy this cycle and with the warlord, but if last cycle is any indication, expect them all to better in Zaruthur.
Sowing Chaos
Sowing Chaos
Destroying every low cost unit at blue planets is such an amazing meta card right now.  Imperial Guard and Kith live on 2 cost units.  It kills the ever popular amazing Warlock Destructor and Snakebite Thug.  Amazing in those situations.  Not so good vs Cato.
Stalking Ur-Ghul
Stalking Ur'Ghul
Garbage, Dark Eldar can't have all the awesome cards it turns out.  An outside extremely edge case you can
Holding Cell
Holding Cell
Has annoyance factor, but I don't think it;s worth including in decks.  Thankfully it doesn't combo with Klaivex kills, that would be too much.
Prophetic Farseer
Prophetic Farseer
Bringing the Eldar Psyker count up to 4 (for the new eldar warlord) is this guy.  The enters play effect could win you the game, it could also do not alot but let you know how good the units he has coming are.  He's a pretty good unit at 2/4/1 though by himself.
Wraithguard Revenant
Wraithguard Revenant
Can come back from the discard, and has 3 attack.  yay.  Eldar getting some good combat focused cards.
Deathly Web Shrine
Deathly Web Shrine
Ok so the name of this card clearly is reference to the Warp Spider aspect, and it has a Warp Spider warrior right there on the card.  yet the only Warp Spider in the game doesn't move so can't trigger this.  But anyway, great in Baharroth.  It's basically like having a weaker Eldorath in your Baharroth deck, and we all know how good his effect is.  Weaker in that you can't hit elites, and it doesn't help you win command (movement tends to come too late for that)
Striking Ravener
Striking Ravaner
Tytranids have all the good elites.  This thing with a Venom Cannon could be the scariest thing ever,  Anyway once again anything that says 'Ready' somewhere in it's text is basically good.
Acid Maw
Acid Maw
Better than Armorbane in that it stops indomitable and KFG and the like.  it is good,  Sadly Tyranid attachment space is tight, with Regen being amazing and Promotion being 100% required.  Sad that it can't go on a synapse.