Gryselle's Arenai

Welcome to our quick rundown of all the new Arenai. You can instead (or also!) catch our podcast coverage of the warband on WTH Episode 99. Of course, we’d like to thank GW for providing our podcast a review copy of the warband.

First Impressions

[D]AVY & [P]HIL

Aggro to the core. The only positioning considerations involve enemy territory and wounded fighters. And you’ll see some Shadeborn-esque considerations where you might try to leave a fighter wounded, but alive.

Resting shout face.

P: Worth noting inspire while we are here. All fighters being guaranteed to inspire in the third round is nice, and having the second way to inspire makes for an interesting band. For Gryselle, getting a crit is an okay condition but can be frustrating if you can't get the crits to show up.

D: I think 4 wounds, two dodge and a respectable attack is a real solid start for any leader. Not sure the Priest keyword will have a ton of use, but worth keeping an eye on.

P: A speed boost and a significant accuracy jump makes an inspired Gryselle very scary indeed. She seems ready to get to work with those knives... 😬

D: Nice to have, not crucial. Which is cool because before round 3 she's crit-fishing.

When you’re so committed to speed kills, your headgear is an aerodynamic blade.

P: Wow, base speed 5 is not something we see often. The 2 wounds makes for an interesting stat line where these fighters obviously want to be aggressive but really can't take a hit. This will really test how much of an impact Acrobatic makes. The weapon here looks awful at first, but seeing that for each success you roll nets you an extra dice makes this more reliable. However, I'd be skeptical of it being reliable enough to consistently hit the inspire condition.

P: Worth noting as well that all the fighters have combo. More on that later.

D: On the flip, that inspire gets easier as you add more dice the old fashioned way. Pretty interesting rule- maybe the definition of win-more on an attack.

P: Ho boy, if you can manage to inspire Kalexis she is going to be scary. Extra move, extra accuracy, and extra damage. She likey goes from a fast disruptive fighters to a cruise missile taking out small targets trying to hide.

D: Man, 6 speed is wild. Still living on the edge with that 2 wounds.

P: Main stat line is mostly the same and we can start to see that 2 dodge 2 wounds is the pattern for the non-leader fighters. The net attack looks solid to me, range 2 with decent accuracy and innate stagger should help get the rest of the team set up. Of note, only needing to stagger to inspire is pretty solid too.

P: Vault is useful but temporary flying has never felt like a powerful ability. Niche is probably the best praise I can give it, when you want it you will be glad you have it.

D: Deintalos is not a big fan. Range *and* flying? The attack is real solid. The inspire is a little funny- you have to land a hit and not kill the target, which can be a problem against smaller fighters.

P: More speed and accuracy on inspire also seems to be a bit of a pattern. Feels similar to the stat bumps we see in some of the other hyper aggro bands.

P: Finally, we see our first follow up attack. What Thrialla lacks in quality she makes up for in quantity. Having the combo weapon be range 2 but the follow up be range 1 is a little awkward but should allow some sneaky plays where you can try to finish off or set up wounds on two different fighters. Inspiring for making an attack as a reaction should mean she is always getting inspired.

D: You'll notice that this follow-up attack doesn't require a successful first attack. Add to that the fact that defensive reactions no longer block offensive ones, and this really opens up the combo mechanic.

P: Aaand once that inevitable inspire happens we see that Thrialla breaks the pattern and gets more speed and more damage. Going to 2 damage at range 2 is pretty nice.

D: A little surprised the shield doesn't get any better, but we all know that sometimes that wolf bite or Klaq chomp just get it done.

We agreed Traxya! It's two weapons Tuesday. Two weapons, two dodge. This is just classic you!

P: I guess Traxya didn't get the memo. 1 block instead of 2 dodge is a pretty big downgrade in defense. Acrobatic is a lot less likely to be helpful with only 1 dice as well. Her attack is super accurate at least, but at only one damage she will struggle without upgrades. She has a nifty ability to deal damage to attackers when she rolls a crit defense but again, only 1 dice makes that harder. Inspires on the same thing so I don't expect to see her inspire often.

D: Crit fishing on defense is a rough ask for sure.

P: Speed and damage bumps again on inspire. Her weapon is helped a lot from that. Her crit defense ability also goes to 2 damage which is nice, but probably more cute than good.

D: The crit defense ability will certainly scare me when I'm attacking at times. Low probability, big penalty.

Objectives

P: By default this is only possible with Retaria. There is a ploy to help with this as well so maybe it is still doable. Only needing a successful attack rather than a kill does make this appealing to me, even if the flying requirement is a bit tough.

D: Kind of hingeing on Retaria in Rivals play and probably not worth building towards in champs.

*Even bloodied. It's coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.*

P: That's a lot of set up for 1 glory. You might be able to pull this off as a final activation of the round pretty easily but beyond that this feels too difficult for an end phase.

D: I think you might leave fighters wounded more often than not with all the little chippy attacks in the warband. But 1 glory EP probably need to be easier than this to see champs play.

P: Without a fighter count requirement this should be doable later in the game. Not a big knock, but this does need at least one enemy alive so you might be forced into some awkward situations.

D: Eesh. I'll always pay attention to 2 glory objectives, but this will really push you towards some sub-optimal attack patterns. But maybe the deck rewards you sufficiently for doing so.

P: Doable early with some fighters and pretty likely round 3 if you can keep two fighters alive.

D: My first thought was that this is super easy, but most of those inspires are dice dependent. Sometimes this will just happen with minimal effort. Sometimes you'll keep losing your inspired fighters, what with their two wounds and all...

P: I don't love this kind of surge. With support this becomes a lot easier but you are still needing a lot of luck or a lot of setup.

D: The bladed buckler seems like a way you might well score this. It's tough until you get re-rolls in the mix, though.

P: This would be more appealing if there were more flourishes. There are a total of 5 so even if you run all of them the chances of having two in hand at the same time and wanting to play them both for one attack seems a bit unlikely. It does only require a successful attack though if you do manage to have the cards. I'll definitely confuse this card with grandstand at least once though.

D: You'll... confuse this card... with itself?

P: Lol I absolutely meant exult in violence 🤦‍♂️.

D: There's a way to recycle flourishes which keeps this more relevant. I really don't yet know what to make of the flourishes, but more to come on those.

P: I like the modality here. If you want to score this early you need to get in and not lose too many fighters. If you can just keep one fighter alive it is a 2 glory 3rd end phase which feels like it could help stabilize your glory total.

D: Figuring out which order to start risking fighters in enemy territory feels like the key to working towards this early. But I'd rather draw it late.

P: In best of one you probably get away with this more often than not. In best of three I have a hard time seeing this score reliably. Note certain warbands also guarantee this can't score so I'd personally leave this one at home.

D: Hexbane's dogs make this a pain in that matchup. Let’s not even talk about fish. For three glory, I'll think a bunch about it. But you start with 5 fighters, so you're probably not keeping up your end of the bargain until R2 anyhow.

P: Another flavor of the flourish plus surge. This is fine because it plays into what you are already doing but the timing may still end up being awkward at times. Drawing this after scoring a different surge may mean you just used your flourish and cannot score this.

D: Mm, didn't think about that. You'll have to manage flourishes particularly carefully if you're playing Rivals.

P: Wow, this is a combo of very good past surges in a hybrid so you get the best of both. This is a flexible and likely quite reliable surge.

D: Solid. Velmorn has this and I like it here too.

P: This feels trivial for this band. 4 attacks from 5 fighters would already be doable. 4 attacks from 5 fighters with combo is almost guaranteed.

D: Super solid. Two range 2 fighters plus ranged attack upgrades also help big time.

P: Probably can't score round one but I've managed this type of objective enough times to know it is solid and can be a reliable end phase if you need one.

D: This is one of those that feels like a 1.5 glory card. Would be too good at 2 glory, is a little lack luster at 1 glory.

Gambits

P: Our first flourish ploy. These will all per persisting until the end of the phase or until a successful attack so they are slightly more reliable than a normal ploy. However, as we can see here, they tend to have a downside as well. Daring flourish in particular is something I would want to set up to use when I'm almost guaranteed to hit so I don't risk the -1 defense crack back. This will be best in a combo or scything situation where you get multiple tries to succeed. Overall I think this is a solid accuracy boost.

D: Yeah, really playing with fire if you drop it early. +1 dice on a stick is really good though, so I'm in favor of that risky downside.

D: Which... as Phil said... you might not even have to deal with.

P: Only hitting on crits is quite bad, so you better have a wounded target you want to bring down. Even then, temporary grievous doesn't feel all that spectacular. Again, this feels best when you will have multiple tries at it.

D: Or you're throwing a ton of dice in a crit fishing situation anyways (oh hai Troggoth Greased Inspired Mange).

*Do you want to look like Reavers? Cause this is how you look like Reavers.*

P: Pretty interesting damage pump. Risky if you miss but a surprise +damage can really do a number on people. The pattern of flourishes working well with combo continues as well. This warband needs a way to push damage too so this is probably pretty necessary in rivals or nemesis.

D: Ooo boy. Might hold this one till later when your accuracy is up a little higher. Or to make Traxya get some work in.

*For when you absolutely need to reach Vortemis. Wait, Vortemis?*

P: Not sure why you would play this on the fastest fighter in the band... But a +2 move ploy has a proven track record of being great. Spectral wings remix should be an auto include.

D: Less important these days. But this could help ensure some of the objectives that want lots of charges or fighters in enemy territory, even if you get the longboard.

P: Again, the timing here can be awkward but getting to essentially have a surge in your power deck is a pretty big deal. I think this is very good and gives a small bump to the warbands glory total.

D: This sort of card helps with things like Great Gains in championship play too.

P: And here we get our additional flying support. The negative clause is situational but is something you need to keep in mind. With multiple range 2 fighters there will be times you don't want to charge so don't accidentally lock yourself out. I think you probably don't really need this effect in the deck except for the fact that you have a lot of synergy with flourishes so you might just want it because it has that one word printed on it.

D: Concur. I think these fighters have enough speed that they can often get where they want to anyways, but should make for a cool moment or two.

*You ever just like…* ***feel*** *your face?*

P: Haven't seen an inspire ploy in a minute. Getting to sidestep their normal inspire triggers can be pretty good for this warband. Having a heal 2 in a warband of 2 wound fighters seems a little odd but Gryselle could have this save her every so often.

D: I like seeing a card like this with dual clauses. I'm not in the camp that we "should never see an inspire-cheat power card", so I'm glad to see a conservative take on that idea. And in a deck that has some fighters who are fishing for dice, it's nice to have this option available.

P: Had to get the dictionary for this one. Turns out, the flavor text has the definition 🙃 the more you know. Anyway, back to card evaluation. Rerolls are a solid accuracy boost. I'd almost always prefer+dice but this is still solid. Again, works nicely with combo.

D: The scenario where a re-roll is important is with the Faultless display in hand to be scored.

P: So getting scything is cool, but only three fighters can use this effectively. This might as well just be another mighty swing. You likely will find a use for this with some of your harder hitting fighters at least.

D: Ooo, though. I like an in faction Mighty Swing. It might be a little slow. Scything is generally more useful early, but you'll probably want an Inspired attacker to run with this.

P: Similar to plenty of other damage reduction ploys. This will almost always save a fighter from getting one shot. Just know that once an enemy is 4 or more damage this starts to lose value.

D: I like this more conservative take on this type of card. Gives the opponent a little agency back. But the persist really elevates this card.

Upgrades

P: Very good upgrade. We have seen it plenty of times and it always performs well.

D: I'd think this was not great on a warband with two wound fighters, but Cold Blooded Resilience has really chapped my hide on any number of skinks in the past. Closest comparison point for me is Hearthstone Amulet. Which is probably better in Nemesis than Champs.

P: Again, a solid effect. Limiting it to the small fighters is probably a good choice and should help to make whichever is your favorite much harder to down. This gives Acrobatic a lot more opportunity to make a difference.

D: Yeah, great fortitude in faction is great, and I'm glad to see it with some sort of caveat.

*Traxya, watch and learn. You shield-toting amateur!*

P: Pretty interesting upgrade to make a fighter more defensive and get a slight accuracy boost. That being said, cleave seems to be more prevalent again so maybe being on block isn't that good.

D: I'm less sold on the prevalence of cleave, but I'm always looking for a way to get through Beast-Gorl's defense.

P: Being able to be on guard from upgrades is strong. However, I can see setting this up to be difficult. If your opponent can move their wounded fighter or heal their fighter your upgrade turns off. This probably doesn't make the cut in champs.

D: It's tricky road to walk. With so many two dodge fighters, guard is really powerful in this warband. I'd try it out to see if it needs cutting for sure.

P: Reach 2 and ensnare as your combo follow up feels very flexible. While this is definitely a weapon upgrade I prefer to think of this as added accuracy and damage on one upgrade. Anyone who has faced rippas knows that small extra attacks add up over time.

D: Two fury is meh, but range 2 is a big deal for sure.

P: Wow, 2 smash grievous on the follow up hurts. Apt that this fighter is in the art since getting this follow up after a stagger would be mean.

D: I like that the way this warband is going to stack damage is with a flood of these little attacks.

P: I think this will be good, though being leader restricted gives me some pause. Essentially getting to draw up to two extra ploys in rounds 2 and/or 3 is an effect no one should overlook though. The persisting across rounds clause probably doesn't matter though because they still go away on a hit.

D: I like both these mechanics a lot. More discard pile manipulation is always interesting to me. And I actually like that second caveat. You can get a boost on your first activation even if you win the roll-off and go first. That's potentially a big deal. The dream scenario is that you already have a couple flourishes in the discard, play one or more to last till next turn and then you're playing the next round with effectively an extra 3-4 gambits.

<hits one click purchase. Overnight shipping.>

P: Wow, this is so pushed. Accuracy, damage, or defense based on the situation. Not even fighter locked to reign it in either. If this warbands ends up being a terror this would be my vote for restricted card.

D: Ah wha wha wha wha????? I read this card several times trying to figure out where the downside was. This is one of the greatest upgrades of all time. And I really hate hyperbole.

P: Cleave variant of Kruiplash. Still very solid bonus attack.

D: Same thoughts here. Cleave generally more useful, so if you have to pick one...

*Alright Traxya, you've earned it. Report card: ⭐*

P: Nice bonus accuracy. Having it be inspired restricted is a nice touch to make sure this doesn't turn on right away.

D: This will help retain accuracy through Executioner's Flourish and makes some of those "Follow Up" attacks a *lot* more accurate.

Summary

Well it really is aggro all the way down. We’re excited to see if the two dodge plus acrobatic is enough to keep these ladies in it for longer. As Nemesis becomes more established it also becomes more interesting to think about how the relative strengths of a warband line up in different formats. Share your experiences with us in the comments or over on our discord!

The Mortal RealmsMarch 4, 2023Comment