Post by Fadril Adren on Feb 9, 2018 18:43:56 GMT -5
The City of Mirrors will never be the same again. Two new warbands are coming to Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, and with them, no less than 120 new cards for you to add to your decks. With 62 of these being usable by any warband, we caught up with resident Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire expert Rhu to pick his five favourites.
Since Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire was released, I’ve been thoroughly obsessed with the game, building decks and testing new strategies whenever I get the chance. I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on the two latest warbands, and while I’ve quickly fallen for the whiskered charms of the skaven (they’re like the Sepulchral Guard, but fast!), I’m very excited for what the new generic cards mean for the game as a whole. I’ve managed to whittle down my favourites to five cards which I think are going to help define the next expansion for Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire players.
As a general rule, I won’t include cards in my deck that involve significant levels of risk. This is a rule I instantly broke on seeing Rebound. With only a 1 in 3 chance of success, this ploy won’t work every game, but when it does – well, I’ll expect you to at least buy your opponent a beverage after Obryn the Bold caves in his own skull when attempting to hit a Hungering Skaven.
Rebound can be found in Spiteclaw’s Swarm, and it holds tremendous potential for any warband in the three-bout format of a Grand Clash – once your opponent’s seen it, they’re going to spend the next couple of games playing around it, making space for more defensive and objective focused warbands.
Curious Inversion is a really, really unusual card, and it’s one I absolutely love. Another cunning contribution from Spiteclaw’s Swarm, I think it’s going to be incredible for Garrek’s Reavers warbands in particular, with some benefits for the Sepulchral Guard to boot. We’ve seen ploys that make attacks more reliable, and we’ve seen ploys that allow fighters to defend themselves better, but this does both. Given the limited space for ploys in your deck (in general, you should have no more than 10) having one which works in multiple situations is superb.
I love Earthquake, simply because it can absolutely ruin even the most carefully laid plans in a single play. This card, from the Chosen Axes’ deck, is one of the oddest push cards in the game – while it (generally speaking) won’t affect threat ranges, it can be used to move larger warbands across the battlefield quickly, or just prevent your opponent from taking any objectives.
My top tip for Earthquake is combining it with Shardfall and boards with blocked hexes to pen fighters in, or to avoid moving your own fighters off key points.
There are more sensible weapons to take in your warband than Heroslayer, but it’s a card I love almost purely for the atmosphere of palpable tension it brings to the table. Suddenly, fighters like Targor or a humble Petitioner have the potential to knock out a Stormcast Eternal, and while you might only get one attack dice, there are plenty of ways around that with a bit of clever deck building. You can find Heroslayer in the Spiteclaw’s Swarm expansion.
As you can tell from the awesome artwork, my final pick is from the Chosen Axes. Free activations are always absolutely brilliant, and this is one of the best. I think this card is a superb pick in more elite warbands, and while you’ll have to ensure your positioning is good to pull it off, there are very few games where I don’t see this card coming in handy. Indeed, I think you’d do well to combine this card with Heroslayer for a very nasty surprise…
I’m hoping to take these cards for a spin at the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Open Day Grand Clash, and I’m looking forward to whatever devious combos the Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire community can devise around them!