Beastbound Assault

Our card-by-card take on the Beastbound Assault Rivals deck. Get ready to read the words minion, beast, denizen, and companion a lot.

[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, [J]OSH & [S]KYLER

P: Being a hybrid surge is nice, but both modes are relatively difficult. Mode 1 is likely much easier, but feels very risky.

B: Tough call, but some warbands may be willing to take that first condition all the time, like Hexbanes with the dog.

S: At least this scores faster than Quickroots kills. To Brian's point, Zombies and Pock's pups immediately come to mind for mode 1. Maybe Soulraid or Grymwatch consider mode 2?

P: This feels tricky to pull off unless you have a band that starts out almost all beasts, minions, or companions. Even with that, there will be times where you just can't get the kills. This is nice for ExD with their ability to revive but otherwise this one might have to stay home.

B: This card name and art kinda tip the hat towards a theme here. Exiled Dead will pair so easily with BBA that I'll refrain from mentioning it further.

S: Exiled Dead 2-Glory auto-include. Strong pick for Mollog too.

P: For 1 glory I don't really like this much. Holding 1 in enemy territory would already be a little risky, but needing to also be within 2 of a beast/minion/companion or denizen upgraded fighter requires a decent amount of setup and forethought.

B: Not too hard, but too hard for only 1 glory. 🧟

S: Wot 'e sed.

P: If you are leaning into denizen upgrades this is likely quite easy to score which is what you want from a 1 glory end phase. The question is, are the denizen upgrades good enough to justify having 3+?

B: Not going to include in Championship deck. Probably only see in Nemesis/Rivals.

S: Let's talk pre-existing Denizen upgrades. Shadeborn & Gnarlspirit Pack each bring 1 for themselves. Nethermaze & Harrowdeep together bring 4 universals (1 is an illusion). Now BBA brings with it 8 new ones. The rest is up to you. 😉

P: Similar to the last objective, this isn't too hard to achieve except you need a high volume of denizen upgrades which may be an anchor on your overall deck.

B: Oof no thanks. Don't like to risk my leader dieing and making this a dead card, and if I'm investing upgrades on my leader I want them to be doing stuff.

S: Hey Deintalos! Hold these. Don't die.

P: This is interesting. The surges for scoring a hit with a supporting fighter are often very good, but since this requires rolling the support as well suddenly makes this a bit more random. I think if you can reliably get support this will still be good but maybe not as reliable as you might think.

B: Not great, except with 🧟

S: A card that will make you resent standard successes in your rolls. Hilarious. Sometimes this will flow straight outta your hand, other times you'll be mentally screaming.

P: Ummm I don't think so. There is probably only one warband that can do this reliably and shuffling your zombies into enemy territory may not really be what you want to be doing. Spiteclaws and Grymwatch might be able to pull some revive tricks to make this happen rather unexpectedly, but it still seems like a stretch to me.

B: No thanks. Gnarlspirit could do this easily, but get reduced to 2 fighters relatively easily. 🧟🧟🧟

S: Yeah, it's not just about getting three fighters over the line. It's ensuring that *all* friendly fighters in enemy territory meet the criteria when this is in hand.

P: This is an odd card. We haven't seen too many positions matter objectives besides being in enemy territory lately. However, requiring multiple move action and being in each territory in the same phase makes this feel like a lot of work for not a lot of pay off.

B: Easy mode for 🧟. Otherwise it will likely force odd movement/positioning that could be better spent. Would hate to have to run some one back to home territory.

S: Soulraid has a Surge that scores off of two moves (Surging Tide) but they can Charge after their first move to help score it. Spending two non-charge actions and meeting the positional requirements is a big ask for most warbands. Those with access to free moves will likely find good use with this though. (DKK, Hexbane, ExD)

P: I like this one. At worst you have to do something like guard and then charge. At best, the charge action counts as the third action type and this is an extremely trivial surge. Not a surge, but still good.

S: I think it would be silly if a Charge checked all three of those action boxes. Hopefully we see an FAQ clear that up. Regardless, I like it. First off there's an ethereal freaking bear on it. Secondly, just look at that bear!

P: Doable but potentially tricky depending on the matchup. I think for 2 glory this is worth that extra effort. Warbands that can revive fighters will, again, have an advantage on this card.

S: Two-glory surge attention alert!

S: I love the timing on this card. It grants room for counterplay. Even with that though, this seems like an easy pickup for Exiled Dead between their ability to spread onto multiple tokens in one action and to raise fighters with that same action.

Lupan was one Spirit token shy of meeting this beast on equal footing!

P: There are a number of warbands that this is a very simple kill surge. So, solid for warbands that have beasts/companions/minions but probably not useable by others.

S: Agreed. Without that you need to fuel a Denizen upgrade into place just for a chance at it.

P: Hold 2 surges are historically good, but this will be much more restrictive again because of the beast/companion/minion clause.

S: That "after an opponent's power step" clause might push this one just out of reach for most warbands. To be successful, you'll likely want both the necessary keywords and some movement tricks all built into your warband. 👀🧟‍♂️

P: I don't see the point of this. A free upgrade at the cost of a ploy feels rough. Then, you lose that fighter for the round? I think I'd rather have something that helps me work towards my objectives so I can just play my upgrades normally.

S: Inseparable Friends? If you think about Blossoming Friendship being here to help ensure that scores R1, then you've got a wonderful story arc in two cards.

Four heads pictured but the flavor text only references three. RIP Hedkrakka.

P: Being able to hand out multiple guard tokens can be pretty handy if you are trying to hold some objectives or keep your position. I think this is useful but moreso for some bands than others

S: Nice assistance for the "hold" two surge and "hold" more end phase in this deck. Nice to have in the toolkit for those sort of builds both here and in champs.

P: Pretty decent group heal. I can imagine many scenarios where this is handy but given most companions and minions have 2 wounds it seems best for beasts, especially GSP.

S: Healing can be a pretty cheeky way to stifle the effectiveness of pings and there are enough pings in the game right now where this is worth considering. To Phil's point though, that's generally a category of fighters prone to dying before an opportunity to heal (excluding Denizen recipients).

P: A nice ping with a potential stagger. While breaking an upgrade is a steep cost, this could end up being good enough to warrant paying that cost.

S: Speaking of ping. Solid range. Fair price. Stagger utility to boot. Quality card.

P: Wow. Draw two for having one of your fighters get hit? That is pretty strong and I'm sure will be an auto include in decks using BBA.

S: Doesn't even care if your fighter dies! That's wild.

J: I love this card very much and I definitely wrote this post.

P: This feels very punishing. -1 dice for a whole round will make a fighter pretty useless if they were planning to make attacks. This seems especially hard for elite warbands because it messes with their action economy really hard.

S: "...or until after the chosen fighter's next Attack action."

S: Unsure why it wasn't written "-1 Dice from the next Attack action made by the chosen fighter." Maybe in initial testing the card persisted until a successful attack action and that was deemed too punishing.

P: I should clarify, my point was to the effect lasting beyond the next activation so you can't just wait the card out. The fighter will be taking an attack with -1 dice or not attacking for the round because they don't feel the attack is worth taking.

S: I do like that bit. Especially effective against an aggro game plan. Other game plans will likely be able to roll with it and maneuver around the impact.

P: A slight accuracy boost that persists until an attack succeeds feels pretty solid. If you have any other ways to benefit from having support (looking at you exiled dead) this becomes even better.

S: Big fan of the persist here. Historically these cards often get overlooked because they usually only affect the next activation and the risk of the card doing nothing outweighs the slight benefit a supporting fighter could bring.

P: I'm curious how good this is since it is applying to all fighters. Ideally your whole warband gets grievous and your opponent gets nothing. At worst everyone has grievous and the round becomes very bloody...

S: Indeed. I'll add that I appreciate the limitations included here to help temper it.

P: Push two that isn't directionally restricted is so good. Again, there is a small subset of bands that can use this deck effectively but those bands get A LOT.

S: Excellent card. An instant staple for warbands featuring multiple beasts/companions/minions. "Hop to it."

P: Another domain that could really backfire. I feel like maybe you can get a lot of mileage out of this but it might just do more for your opponents.

S: I like it. Might need to save it for an activation when your opponent cannot take advantage of it. Might be able to rock it all round.

P: I like this design space, I'm just not sure the pay off is good enough. I suppose this is a reaction to draw an upgrade, which could move you through your deck pretty quickly, but how many denizen upgrades do you need to make this do good work.

S: I think I'm a fan. I'd want to try this one out a bit. A Charge token is a high price, but Charge tokens have been more interesting since Gnarlwood hit. With this card you could keep a fighter positioned safely away from the brawl and still contribute to charging your warband out.

P: This feels like a bit of a do nothing upgrade. While there are plenty of reasons to want denizen upgrades I feel like I'd rather get some other benefit in my upgrade slot.

S: I love this one! Akin to Walking Wall in Fearsome Fortress. Helps satisfy objective conditions and fuel power cards. I hope we keep seeing cards in this design space in future deck releases.

P: I think for this to be useful you need at least one other denizen upgrade and at that point are you needing to invest too much?

S: If you go all in on Denizen, this has the potential to be a lot of fun. The "cannot be modified" clause should keep it from ever feeling abusive.

P: A nice accuracy boost with a decent limitation to keep it in check. I like it. Also, I think there is something to be said for accuracy boosts that don't increase your chances of rolling a crit.

S: I dig it.

P: Ooof. I don't like start of phase triggers. There are only two windows for this to be used so if you don't draw it in round 1 or 2 it is completely dead. The benefit also doesn't seem that good to me. I suppose this is a banked upgrade for something more useful down the line and gets you another card, but I think it is too slow.

S: Yeah, I don't like this one at all.

P: Mmm the heal part is probably not super useful but an extra push at the end of a round can be quite good if you are trying to hold objectives. I think this is solid but not a guaranteed include which is a nice design I think.

S: It's a twist on Quickening Greaves that I'm here for. That Heal 1 at the end of an activation has never been good on its own before but paired here is great.

P: See last start of action phase caveat. That being said, how much is an extra card in a phase worth? I think you could use this but my gut reaction is it is not good enough to outweigh the risk of it doing nothing.

S: Drawing this in R3 would feel sooo bad. R2 gets you one card or R1 gets you two, but neither help you in the current round. Hard sell.

P: More support tech is solid. An accuracy boost in a bubble feels like a balanced but good option to make multiple beasts/minions/companions do more work.

S: Some really great accuracy options in this deck.

P: Interesting. This can be back breaking in some matchups but will be dead into others. I don't love having specific counter tech but if the games keeps moving more towards flex builds this could do very good work.

S: Discourages taking an objective from this fighter if you're only pushing them one away to access it. I think this will be rarely taken, but will also be responsible for some memorably hard decisions.

P: Interesting that this was designed as a reaction rather than a constant effect. But, this is essentially a -1 dice aura which is certainly a strong effect.

S: Dice reduction. Repeatable reaction for cards looking to score off such. Denizen upgrade. This nope-rope is sure to be a take-snake for some Denizen-minded decks.

Summary

D: Well, there’s a couple warbands that are really excited about this deck, and if the deluge of zombie emojis didn’t get the idea across, we’re talking about Exiled Dead. But not being “plot-locked” really gives a chance for other warbands to peruse at their leisure.