The Final Gambit

New Eldar warlord, bringing to the game 'yet another Stracken problem'  Buffs for all your units is good, Having to be present in the fight is less good.  Unless you have a way of not dieing that buff is going to go away quickly  And Eldar just don't have that many ways of staying alive, outside the dire avenger exarch.  Stracken is interesting at least because of his signature squad though.  Lets see how this guy?/girl? fares.  Very severly limited by the lack of good psykers in the gamer at present (there are 5 non sig psykers)



Dedent stats,and moving is a good thing.  Sadly the movement is after you have attacked, opening them up to a counter atatck on your opponents combat turn.  Also, if said pskyer is with Talyesin it can enable the +1 attack if not already active.


Not quite as good stats, but readying is a good thing indeed.  And lets face it, during combat all those units are probably sitting in your hand doing nothing anyway.  Obviously though if they get buffed by Talyesin, they are much better.


Nope.  top 3 is a very small amount of cards.  I guess if you are playing Talysin, you have packed your deck with warriors and psykers, but you are probably picking warrior since there just isn't that many psykers in the game.


Well if you were to rate cards by versatility, then this card is a solid 10/10....but we don't.  That said, it's a free event, and moving and the +1atk (especially considering it's until end of phase) are both worth it.


Is there any army unit you would consider putting this on?  probably not.  maybe the uniques.  Turning them into 4/5 atatck and 5hp when with talyesin is a very very good thing.  Probably making your warlord 3/7 is a much better use though.


Maybe worth including in mavros for the BT synergy.  But frankly not as good as the Chaos one at the same price point, and hes not that great either.  Some might say hes better than  void pirate, and maybe it is.  but Void Pirates cost 1, thats 99% of the reason you take them.   Without the card bonus, this is trash.


Hell of an expensive support and vulnerable to all the support hate,   But Space Marines don't tend run many 4 cost cards, and anything 5 cost and up isn't eligible.  So turn 1 for this is a net loss in all likelihood.  Being a deploy action makes this a lot weaker.  But if you consider if as a cost reducer, the savings can be huge is you get repeat use out of it.


Big scary tank.  If it gets to keep attacking, it just gets bigger and bigger.  I cant think of a reason not to include this in Gorzod.  Also the spoiled Guard warlords from next cycle has a an event that can ready this unit for more pain.  Ragnar can have a Leman Russ is his deck now.  yay him.


Imperial Guard are all about supports. Ambushing one is great.  Watch out though, it only counts army units.  Your army of tokens do not count.  Most supports are 2 cost, so meeting the requirement probably isn't that hard.  Also a way to get more that one troop transport out a turn.  And everyone knows how bonkers broken that card is.


Really good for that 1 game in 3 when you have 2  planets, and your 3rd winning is further along, and your opponent can't win before then.  So you can just mass stuff there.  Otherwise no, leave it at home.


Designed to make goes fasta work everytime.  The problem with that is there are 3 goes fasta cards in the game, and one of them is signature, one of them is a decent elite.  but thankfully the Rickety Warbuggy is really good.  5hp makes him Nazdreg friendly, and he may consider for the warbuggy.  Gorzod may like a couple for his sig squad.


Good effect.  Getting the damage on your units is the issue (just like the core set Bad Dok)



Holy crap  it's big and scary and expensive.  And there is very little anyone can do to it to stop it wrecking house.  Imperial Guard have Markis and Suppressive Fire I suppose.  Zarathur has a good chance of killing something pre combat to enable that juicy 8+ armorbane attack as first attack.,


Nifty for delaying a planet victory for your opponent, or bringing your victory condition closer.  Attachments on the planet stay with the planet, as do infestation I beleive.  Unsure about deep strike.


Resources are good I hear,  3 cost is not, but's a kabalite, so yay for Morn.  But see below.


See that unit above?  imagine have a couple of these out and you could move the slaver down the line just making ALL the money.  Thats a dream scenario.  and requires having a decent amount of red out.  But maybe worth it in Morn, Netting command wins, but more importantly denying command wins for opponent.



Pretty good way of dealing with Honored Librarians.  2 shields is nice, as is 2 cost for the effect that can save for later.


So pseudo Morn discount in one package for Tau.  Worth it?  no.


Has the very niche use of getting command win on a contested planet where both warlords went.  Ands thats it.  Niche cards are rarely worth including.


I've beeen on the receiving end of these things, they can net Subject Omega a crap ton of resources.  be wary. Worth including in any deck heavy on infest, and definitely put them in subject omega.


If your infest strategy didn't quite work out, this a pretty good backup plan to enable infest for ambush goodness in Subject Omega, especially when you only need one other genestealer present with Omega to trigeer,



Stats for money.  Worth it every time.  Even has two shields. so good.

Wrath of the Crusaders

Running out  of steam writing these.  I've just not played enough lately to be enthused at writing.  Sad times.


The planet restriction is a bit of a bummer.  However Mavros doesn't even have to be at the same planet as whoever he wants to buff.  So thats pretty good.  is a pretty darn good way to trigger unstoppable to get all those cool triggers.



Not the best three cost unit out there.  But being able to ready them once a turn is nice assuming you can get it to trigger when you want it to.  Pretty good at Blue planets then,



Really really good.  being elite and unique makes him immune to many control effects.  it's most obvious effect is making your opponent swing with something not so dangerous so you can get a turn a kill it first.  An  more important effect is you can stop your opponent choosing to retreat his warlord for a round.


Not game breaking by any means, but a repeatable 1 shield effetivley  is ok.  Good when you see it,  Prob won't miss it if you don't.


Note the unit has to take the damage, so preventing/shielding all the damage will prevent the use of this  But +3 attck IS a lot of damage. Be afraid of this card if against Mavros



Can attach to anybody,  I don't think you will give this to anyone but Mavros.  Basically to turns Mavro's ability to Heal 1 and gain +1 atk.



So getting these for free is pretty good.  If you've already won the battle at a green planet though, odds are you won't need them.  So ignoring that, IF Worr puts this at a green it's a 4 cost 2/4/4 which is good.  Probably actually better for Straken


Does Worr really need more "Win more at green planets" effects.  It;s a good ability and being able to abuse  it every turn would be annoying as hell. but if you not seeing many green planets it's a dead card, and Worr already can have a hard time if that happens.  I've leave it at home.


Big scary elite unit ahoy.  The ability could come up big, Note it also triggers if you kill tokens.  I do think it's too expensive for what you get though.


So that drawback is huge.  There aren't many readying effects in the game, but there is a reasonable chance that you could happily murder something with +4atk.  Also can put it on your opponents big scary thing.  if  said unit ever gets stuck in the warlord train for multiple turns it might never ever ready.


Ok so this card basically has a really crappy version of ambush, you still have to pay for it.  If you killed said unit with an attack, this guy pops up and says hi.  then it's the opponents turn to attack.  And he may die.  If you do with an action though, the timing is better.  And Chaos are pretty good at destroying things.


Ranged is good, but it isn't a massive deal.  Sure there is the occasional tau gun line, and Dark Eldar have some good ranged options.  But what you would really consider this for is Imperial Guard Preemptive barrages.  This card more than any other would really shutdown Coteaz's combo turn.


See now heres where the god thing actually works, it;'s a Tzeentch card,and shock of horrors it's good with Zarathur.  Really good with Zarathurin fact.  Should really consider it. If Zarathur is present at said command struggle (hint he should be), thats 3 damage.


Ok for it's cost,  Good for getting all your units out of HQ so they are ready for the command and Combat phases.  Obviously only if your playing Salaine Morn.


Ambuish a kabalite and ready some of them aswell.  Probably only really worth using ona  red planet obviously. Would have to be truly desperate to want to ambush something in exhausted.


Yes, ok.  I wouldn't play it, but I can see why it's good.  Has no beneficial traits  a situational 1/2/2 for 1 is good.  but Eldar have some pretty good 1 cost options anyway.


Fun against that Worr dream planet line.  I don't think it's it going wo win that match up though.  Sadly doesn't kill the anxious platoon.  Which is a bummer.  I don't feel it really needed the planet type restriction.


Make warriors scary.  Enough said.  Ambush is what makes this card a solid tier 1 card  in a deck with plenty of targets.,


These card type bonus units are really ovecosted  Although if you do get the bonus to tigger, you get two of those resources back I guess.  Still...


Support destruction is a thing this is true.  Are your supports so essential to your gameplan you want to give up deckspace to yet more supports to protect them?  probably not.


Far too many conditions to be good in my mind,  Note though that the reaction doesn't specify you have to win command at THIS planet.  So it can react to infested command wins anywhere.


So you get a genestealer, and can potentially get more.  I think this is probably a given for subject Omega who is likely to have the required density of genestealers and could ambush the new card.  everyone else not so much.


Some units may not be good in a given situation.  Why not bounce it back and put a better one in.  Or even better, take out a mostly dead unit and replace it with something else.


I really like the Space Marines in this game and so am favorable to new warlords from them, this one especially since he offers a much different gameplan to Cato and Ragnar.  Otherwise I think this pack a bit of a miss all told.  I think Eldar did the best out of this pack even if it a little situational.

What Lurks below

Fourth pack in the Warlord cycle and I am well out of date with writing all this.  but here goes.  Again thanks to CardgamdDB for the images

Tyranid guy.  Plus point ambush is a very very good ability.  Having to jump through infestation hoops to do it is...less good.  it's also not limited to units, can ambush anything with the genestealer trait (except supports, they don't go to planets)  Rating him when released I would say he was iffy.  Now that we have the entire cycle he is actually quite good (spoilers!!)

Below the ideal cost curve, a 2/3 for 3 is bad.   The reaction is obviously 100% more valuable in the combat phase.  And you can snipe any 1 cost command unit that can't be shielded which is nice. 

All told it's forgettable.  Paying 3 for a 1 time support, that is also 1 1 off in the deck is hard to swallow.  The effect is game winning though.  Make sure to make it count.

By far the best thing about Subject Omega.  This is much better than Gorzods event.  Though you are limited by cost, there is a much wider range of targets for this.  plus the unit comes back form the discard, so will be 100% healthy.  The units you can get are nearly all good.  The worst is probably Sicarius chosen, but you still get the reaction which is cute.

Can ambush this exactly once which is frightening.  Sadly cannot ambush it from the discard pile  It's a more expensive slightly worse ion rifle.  But it's an ion rifle that never goes away.

Big and scary elite etc etc.  So what applies to every elite ever applies here.  The unstoppable ability can generate very scary swings.  Imagine a  Mavros turn with three of these in hand and maybe tense negotiations +Y'varn.  Play  one to Y'varn, could trigger Mavros for a free dread, then tense negotiations for another free dread.  Basing your game plan on that isn't a great plan though.  Suffers from the same problems as all elites, which is sad.  It can also have the Black Sword since that isn't wargear, go figure.

I assume you get to look at the planets that have been  removed from the game when you play this, so you will know what any facedown planets yet to be revealed are when you play this.  You could set up a win which is bonkers good.  Suffers from the problem with ALL space marines events....Drop Pod and Indomitable are pretty much 3x staples forever.  Do you have room for a 1 shield 2 cost event?

Lets look at the potential relics you can get with this.  obviously the Black Sword (which is very good).  Iron Halo...is okay.  And thats it.  So basically you are using a card slot, to maybe ambush the Black Sword.  You do get 1hp which is a nice bonus.  Also can  go onto your warlord.  If you get 3 of these on a hale Mavros, thats +6hp to play with during the game.  Which is nifty.

Gorzod loves this just for having a 1 cost 1/2/2.  Worr probably already has too much in the 'need green planets' basket.  No one else cares.

The gun that (almost) never goes away.  +1/+1 is pretty nice.  And it's not lost card advantage if the unit dies.  I like it.

Orks need resources, and this has resources.  But really, who is going to let you have those 2 resources?  It it only a 1/2 it will be sniped, but that could be a play in and of itself.

This lets you attack with two units in a row.  Could be huge, probably won't be.

Now this is amusing.  Orks are not so hot at command, so why not just let your opponent have all the cards and punish them for it?  Orks have all the really good supports.  3 is a significant cost though.

Chaos daemons are big and scary, if only because chaos can sac cultists to pay for them.  Making them EVEN cheaper is a very good thing.  If you regularly sacrifice things for daemons, this a noteworthy include.  This + 2 promise of glory is a free* Helldrake.
*It's not, there's opportunity cost, but still.

Turns out teleporters are much better when they are corrupted.  Can move much bigger scarier things, and they can go anywhere rather than just adjacent.

It's a good combat unit, the readying effect just hasn't happened for me though in testing  Gaining resources works like you except it to. Whenever and for whatever reason the number of resources you have increases, you gained resources.  So this stands if you win command at a planet with resources, Morns reaction, Raid, Gut and Pillage etc etc. The lack of a command icon really really hurts.  But Morn is used to that with Kabalites.

It is a nuisance but the stats are weak though.

A reoccurring theme with DE this cycle is every card is amazing for Morn, less so for Kith and Urien.  This is probably the one card Kith would like this cycle.  Mo money, no problem.

One of the centre pieces in the new eldar vehicle decks floating around.  The reaction is meh, but the stats are a good good thing.

 The other centrepiece in the new eldar vehicles decks floating around.  The old reducers are universally panned.  thew ones whilst more limited offer a bigger discount, so you seeing the benefit much sooner.  For instance.  Played first turn and used every turn.  1 cost netted 0 turn one, gained 1 turn 2, 3 turn 3 etc etc.  These net 0 turn one, gain 2 turn 2, gained 4 turn 3, 6 turn 4 etc etc  The limitations are less an issue when you fill your decks with whatever you want to discount.  The danger is using them to justify bad cards for instance,  the horrid vectored vyper squad is still bad even if you paid 2 for it.  You could of used that discount on a much better card.

Reasonable stats,and could be a beefy unit at later stages.  See a lot of shadowun builds that go all in on Space Marine units, and Starblaze is prety hot on Guard units.  So can see it both those decks.


Like having AoE2 but at action speed, and only relevant if you can exhaust things.  Can go onto Vash'ya trailblazers in a pinch, but the chances of that trailblazer surviving until a sufficient number of units have been exhausted are slim.  Really pretty tasty on units that can move into battles (ie eldar wildriders)

A really good pack in the grand scheme of things.