Daring Delvers

One of the two new Rivals decks arriving with the Gnarlwood core set. For all the other concurrent releases, see the links below:

First Impressions

[D]AVY & [P]HIL

Rivals Perspective: (D) This and Tooth & Claw feel like the most cohesive Universal Rivals decks that GW has ever released. There’s cards here that won’t make the cut for championship, but are perfectly reasonable in the Nemesis or Rivals format. I’m most curious to see which warbands might try this as a stand-alone deck. We’ll talk more about it with the Plot (!) card included.

D: It’s worth describing Plot cards if you’re not familiar. If your constructed deck includes any cards from a deck that includes a plot card, you may choose one to have in effect for that game. If your faction has a plot card too, they can both be in effect (like Desecration from Khagra and Primacy from MadMob).

P: This feels easier to track than the Savage status (from Tooth & Claw) for some reason. I like that it still encourages you to be in enemy territory but doesn't have to aggro.

D: Man, I thought the opposite- felt easier for me to track or understand Tooth & Claw. I do think that this won't be too confusing if you just want to pick up and play. I guess you need to keep four triggers in mind (3 good, 1 bad). It feels like the warbands that want to do this are the ones that can cover their own feature tokens and fight for ones in enemy/neutral territory. Grymwatch? Thorns? Or maybe even someone aggressive who can stick where they land like Magore’s Fiends.

P: Maybe with some big or evasive leaders but feels risky for only one glory

D: Certainly better than Plant a Standard from Essentials, but too many caveats says I.

I love the enthusiasm, Gurzag. You get out there and hold those tokens!

P: Oh man, hold surge is back! This will be very good given how prevalent cover is these days.

D: Oh man, that’s the closest we’re gonna get to a universal Temporary Victory, I think. Get sweaty hold objective players. Plays beautifully with We Must Go Deeper.

P: Probably pretty simple but not likely happening in round one unless you have explorers. Seems solid but not an auto include

D: This is tough not not totally unreasonable for R1. You have some flexibility for getting there. Could be as easy as one kill with a Plunder reaction (see the new core rules), one feature in neutral/enemy territory held and one power card. Definitely workable in the context of this Rivals deck, and probably a bread and butter for them in R2.

P: Exploration 5 starts to feel tough, though I think this is still playable

D: The held objectives can technically be anywhere, but to get to 5 exploration, they probably need to be in neutral or enemy territory... right? This feels only doable in the context of going hard on the Exploration mechanic.

P: For one glory you want to be doing this from the first condition. If you were to happen to do it from the second condition then fine but I really don't think you plan on it.

D: Pretty solid for this rivals deck. It runs 4 domains, which is a good figure for it. Maybe some champs play with a domain centric build… Dromm?

P: With explorers this seems simple. Without them it seems like a lot for one glory

D: Yeah- doable but only in a deck that leans hard into the Exploration mechanic, which… obviously the Nemesis does. Sometimes this is gonna just score smooth as butter for you. And it’s not out of the question to be scored in R1 which is a pretty important “gate” for a surge to be able to pass.

Kheira actually knows Redkap is there. She just doesn’t care because he doesn’t have the Cursed Boarding Pike. Yet.

P: Weird. Have all enemies within two of one fighter? Probably not very feasible. I'd say pass on this one.

D: One or more, Phil! One or more! Reverse Unafraid! I actually like this a lot, especially with larger or speedier warbands.

P: Don't they all still need to be within two of each of those fighters?

D: Pretty sure as long as no enemy is more than 2 away from any of your fighters, you got it.

P: I like this! Charge into enemy territory on a token and you have a glory. Really nice.

D: Is it hot in here or is it just this fire card? This is going to work well with the new Plunder reaction if you need help getting set up, but you might well not. The Rivals deck itself has help from the placment cards. Gonna see a lot of this. It's reminiscent of some of the Kunnin Krew style cards that score just for having made an attack.

I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but it looks like Dromm is dropping the ping damage to end all ping damage.

P: Wow, two glory for a ping or lethal kill. The lethal would be a bit tough to set up but not the ping. Some warbands will be taking this very often.

D: Whoa! The card that launched a thousand ping deck dreams. Dromm, Farstrider, Thundrik? Shadeborn? There’s further ping damage in this deck too…

P: Pretty simple which is what you need for that single glory. Think I like this bit of passive scoring

D: Simple with the right warband, at least. As opposed to some of the other effects in this deck, smaller elite warbands like this one for a solid/reliable 1 glory EP

Steelheart feeling nostalgic for Shadespire with all these man-eating plants around.

P: I think this is too much to ask for one glory but maybe it ends up being simpler than it seems.

D: Is it too much for a one glory SURGE though?!

P: Oh man, read the card, Phil!

D: Yeah, this has the potential to score smooth as butter in the context of this Rivals, particularly R2 or later once some explorers are out.

Eyes of the Nine, always the best of friends.

P: A three glory surge looks good but I think this is essentially a third round surge at best and that's not what you want in surges.

D: But another 3 glory surge, Phil! A 3 glory surge!

D: But for real, this is actually pretty interesting design. You’ll be really hard pressed to score this before R3, and even then, because of the surge scoring window, you can’t benefit from any foreign territory Explorers or feature tokens you might be on. So it’s a 3 glory surge that has to wait till R3 (pretty much). It acts like a third end phase objective, but takes up a surge slot.

P: If you want to push for exploration this could help but I think I'd rather have pushes or accuracy boosts

D: Yeah. This, I think opens this Rivals deck to the more aggro warbands a bit. Obviously no play outside a heavy lean on this deck in Nemesis (or of course Rivals). This card might get you that last couple you need for Uncovered Secrets or Pathfinders.

P: Bad. Too many restrictions for too little impact

D: Uhhhh, my stats aren't super great, but I'm pretty sure with a friendly wizard this is about a 65% chance to go off. Does that get you into the realm of useful? Maybe if you're going ping build?

Harvester pulling you down to the land of no-pants.

P: Mass pings can be quite good though this feels a little easy to play around. Is the hex with the feature tokens considered adjacent for this? If not it's much worse

D: A hex or fighter is not adjacent to itself. That’s still an awful lot of the board. Dromm can get that 3 glory Grim Satisfaction off of this. Hitting friendlies is a little scary.

P: This feels rude and could almost certainly mess peoples plans up. Another ping will see plenty of use

D: Yeah, this goes in any ping build deck, right? I like that it happens after the activation, so you can't just kill a vulnerable charger before they swing.

P: New charge rules make this have more windows as well. Nice.

D: Oh! And this is one of those valuable defender reactions in the “after activation” window, so can block a lot of offensive reactions.

D: No it ain’t. We missed the rule on first go-round that reactions don’t block anymore.

P: Placing an extra hex feels like it should be pretty impactful. The exploration count could matter to exploration decks as well. I think this will have it's decks that really like it but it will largely be niche.

D: So placing a feature token increases your exploration count on its own, which means the second caveat exists for when there's none available, or when there's no spot in which to place one. This could be good for someone going for that exploration build, since you could place, then later occupy.

If you have fighters with R2+ you can also set up Stealthy Advance with this.

This is either some impressive perspective or Ironhail has upgraded with some Gloryseeker/Fighter’s Ferocity shenanigans.

P: I guess you play this in the final power step to get exploration points? Not sure how good it is but I'm sure certain decks will want it. I suppose it helps some hold bands too

D: Limited duration, but not as limited as it at first appears. You can play it in the second to last power step to prevent pushes, since it lasts all the way through the end of the *next* power step.

Hakka got **GOT**. Or… wait… is Hakka finally achieving his ambitions from beyond the grave?

P: Not very likely to actually do anything. I'd say pass

D: I guess it can trigger multiple times in a round. But it works against friendly and enemy. Seems pretty niche.

P: Hmmm anti charge tech could certainly mess up some bands. I just can't think of too many that wouldn't want to be charging themselves. Maybe ExD like this?

D: Thundrik’s or other ranged warbands are often happy to just lay attacks into chargers. Wraithcreepers too?

D: It has a weird effect of preventing chargers from following up with a delve? I think this techs well if you can develop a turtle build?

P: More of the same. Place tokens or raise counts. Both helpful for exploration and probably pretty much a no factor otherwise

D: The former is particularly good if you're trying to boost that exploration count. Can also make Fearless Seekers or Horrors in the Dark pretty trivial?

D: I think “Available Tokens” run out pretty fast, but I could see Shadeborn enjoying placing a cover under themselves.

P: Interesting! That could be a very big defensive boost but being for all fighters makes it potentially risky. I think I like the design though

D: Whoa! Ghosts like this one, right? Like… you can put your objective holders on guard and protect anyone who hasn’t left the starting blocks yet.

P: The first way we see to become an explorer. The bonus move is nice but probably not why you take this.

D: I mean, if you’re leaning that heavily into Exploration, you’re probably already in the Nemesis or Rivals format? Could be handy for pulling a backline fighter up into a valuable spot for fighting/Exploration.

P: Another explorer with a minor addition effect, unless fighting Glisette. Then this is hugely rude.

D: I don't mind being rude to Glisette. Guard felt like it was every where in certain parts of Direchasm. Less so now.

P: Oh well now, this is pretty interesting. Make a whole warband faster, potentially by a lot. Another card that seems poised to really be good with ExD.

D: Gross. Also, they don’t need it as mad, but put this on Sarrakkar in Beast Mode and everyone is Move 7. I think this one is just pretty good m’kay?

P: I don't really like scatter pushes but maybe it helps every so often? Otherwise you know when you want to be an explorer

D: This says push this fighter up to 2 hexes along the chain, so... you could just do one if you want? I think you probably can't do zero, because then it's not a push? It’s like a janky Soundless Step.

You know who’s least likely to need this bow? Kyrae, who already has a range 4 bow…

P: Range four two smash grievous? Yeah okay. The limitation doesn't even feel like a problem at this range

D: Yowza. Feels great for elite holds. Dromm's bowmen? I’m realizing I’m suggesting Dromm for everything here. I might have a problem.

P: Interesting control card. Not sure how often it will come up but when it does it will probably feel so sweet.

D: Oh, I think Bat Squig might end up having the Final Say about a lot of things. I’m interested to see how many “choose” enemy cards end up in decks.

P: Some boards can make this good but on the whole this is another pretty lackluster upgrade to be an explorer

D: Unless you care about being an Explorer this is a pass.

P: As ping gets more available this seems better and better. Otherwise, again, you know when you want to be an explorer

D: A 50/50 to ignore pings doesn't seem *quite* good enough.

P: Oh dang, draw two off of kills is pretty nice. Exploration boosting from kills is pretty interesting too. I bet this card over performs.

D: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Voltron builds can get some great card draw here.

D: Nice to have it locked behind an attack action kill to avoid Silent Ring style issues.

P: Seems fine. Does a couple things you want but nothing amazing

D: Good for this Rivals deck, hard to see anything that really leverages this without getting real janky. In the context of this deck, it’s another way to get feature tokens down without needing kills. But some of the problem may be removing them in the first place.

Summary

D: I’m interested to see how many warbands can leverage this deck. Any that try need to be prepared to get in enemy territory and fight over or manipulate the feature tokens. It’s an exciting new world for Rivals and Nemesis.

DavyOctober 22, 2022Comment