Edge of the Knife
Welcome to our rundown of Edge of the Knife. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:
Episode 162 - Beastgrabbaz & Edge of the Knife
Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.
Introduction
[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, & [S]KYLER
B: As a Gitz player, this narrative primer has me fired up! I'm unapologetic in my frequent callouts to Gitz/swarm/hoard warbands. Currently the meta leans elite aggro strategies with combat powerhouse decks like Blazing Assault and the recently nerfed Reckless Fury. I'm relieved to see a deck that promises to give focus to the more diminutive warbands out there. I'm excited to see more variations of deck choice and build options as that makes the game more diverse and fascinating to me.
D: So noted. Warbands that start with a lot of tempered fighters jump out to me: Kainan's, Grymwatch, Sepulchral Guard, Thorns... so pretty much Death? Honorable mention for Gitz, Looncourt, and Bucaneers.
B: I'll also try to track how many cards are "Tempered" agnostic to see how usable this could be to all others.
Objectives
D: A stone cold solid take, last seen in Emberstone Sentinels. Even better if you've got range 2 or more.
B: This is just cash money. I was already thinking of combining this deck with Emberstone Sentinels for my Gitz, but this is inherently reducing the options of that combo as you cannot take duplicates.
Fantastic balance consideration. Offers another source for other pairings. Love to see it implemented in this deck.
D: Ooof. This feels tough to engineer. If you have a lot of already tempered fighters, it's a big ask. If you don't, then two damage on the wrong guy will mess it up, and all for just one glory?
B: Yeah this is rough, wish it was at least 2 glory. Maybe Borgits or Gitz are the only viable options for this as they have a lot of push options. That's a lot of activations to shuffle what would likely be a swarm warband across the line. Leaving this one behind a lot.
D: Feels like it slots right into the game plan of many of the aforementioned warbands that want this. Yes please.
B: This can simultaneously score with several Emberstone surges. Only needs to be a feature token, so also great with Pillage and Plunder. Immense pairing synergy.
D: On first glance, this seemed super easy. It feels like some of the Wrack & Ruin positioning scores that may put a lot of extra pressure on the opponent's gameplay. On deeper reading, there's quite a few ways for this to accidentally get scuppered. Especially if a warband is sporting a lot of 2 health fighters who might just die when wounded.
B: This is agnostic of Tempered though, so maybe worth considering for a ranged elite warband? But I agree, it's very counter-able.
D: Good, but balanced. This is the sort of card that has been printed in the past that just wanted you to *make* the attack.
B: Solid aggro bent swarm surge. I find myself having 5 really solid surges for most Take&Hold strategies, so I'm not sure this will make the cut all the time. Still a very solid choice as long as your warband can construct Flanked easily. Gitz love this due to Scurry.
D: I think this is a total staple. It's just asking for a miss, which, despite how things feel *does* indeed happen.
B: This is definitely an auto take for this deck so long as you pair a warband correctly. Countering would be really constraining and niche as a counter warband with heavy 3 damage attacks. Free points in most cases for Thorns, Gitz, Grymwatch. Love it for them. Maybe worth a Restricted label in the future balance if I'm forecasting.
D: Gitz say auto-score with Drizgit and his fellers. I'd expect this to get challenging late game, but the Underdog feels real easy, especially at the start of a round.
B: * Gitz swoon *
Moving on. This will be difficult in a lot of cases, so I don't think I love it. But I love it for Gitz, probably Borgits too. Round 1 or 2 card, otherwise get ready to Focus this out in the latter half of the game or if you draw this mid-round.
D: Pretty darn easy, especially for someone like Spiteclaw or Grymwatch.
B: Darn easy indeed. Totally fair for one glory, but as a swarm warband aficionado I'm looking hard for two glory end phases before I resort to this.
D: Less of a fan. Gitz can engineer this around a fighter who has already charged, but I think too many bad board states exist to make this particularly viable. I'd try it anyhow to see if I'm wrong.
B: I'll agree, and agree that I'm not giving up on it either. Must test. I wouldn't approach if you don't have an abundance of push tech across your pairing.
D: Oooo. That's friendly *and* enemy fighters. Big ask in some matchups for sure. I don't know that I care for this in an all-comers list. There's ways to make your friendlies tempered, but you'll have to damage the enemy to get them there.
B: Straight up, no thanks. I'm really torn because I want a 3 glory card to be viable. Healing Potion is too prevalent across deck choices to just torpedo all your hard work prior to an end phase scoring this. And then there is the Gardeners who just force you to Focus this.
D: Some warbands will still be finding this a gimme, but one glory isn't a huge payoff for this. If I'm struggling to round out the end phases, this will get a second look.
B: So.. Risky Position x2+. Don't take this unless you're also taking Risky Position. Not awesome.
D: I want to include this just because Ghoul quotes are always great. But there's some timing issues with this one. Brick it by killing the enemy leader if you don't have this or at least surge into it. Two glory end phases almost always warrant consideration, but this is only going if the pickings are particularly slim.
B: Yeah this is a big "not great" from me dog.
So I'll add here that there's only 3 Objective cards in this deck that are "Tempered" agnostic.
Aggressive Defender(S)
Double Team(S)
and
Calm Before the Storm(EP).
It seems don't approach Edge of the Knife as an Elite warband unless you're only here for Power cards.
Ploys
D: That's a big hit to accuracy. You love to see a card like this when you've got a fighter that *must* live through the last action step to score your Supremacy or Iron Grip. Having to pick a fighter leaves it open to your choice just being bypassed, but this feels like a staple for this deck.
B: Agreed. I'd only use this one on a fighter who will score an objective for you, causing your opponent to potentially risk a big swing play and try it anyway and waste an activation in an attempt to thwart it. Note this could reduce to 0, but no stat is dropped to 0 without stating specifically. So at best effect this makes it a 1 dice attack.
D: So that's a 50/50 (or a 2/3 if underdog) to damage and stagger. Can even be used on a target that's vulnerable. Pretty decent!
B: Solid ping card. Possibly leans more towards a Wrack&Ruin pairing. Not my thing, but great to see more options.
D: Solid. Good pickup for warbands that are going the treasure route.
B: Niche version of Hold the Line in other words. Would be a bit hilarious to use both back to back prior to opponent activations.
D: Gristlewel gets another one! As accuracy boosts go, this is pretty low down in the pecking order, but the pictured fighter is a great case study in the kind of fighter that wouldn't mind a little help with a big swing.
B: I think this is a great include for this deck, considering Overrun chances. I'm a fan.
D: Another very lovely add for the death warbands! It has a (very wise) caveat that prevents this triggering off the death of a fighter that's already been raised.
B: Wonderful. A great counter balance for the inherent cost of being easy to kill swarm fighters. An autotake in this deck in any pairing as far as I'm concerned.
B: Solid way to include Duke Crackmarrow in the Tempered party. Great tech card for this deck. How long does it last? That's the FaQ question I'm sure.
D: Any deck that includes this gets the proud dad nod from me.
B: *Proud Gitz nod.*
Dad Voice: "You'd better have a dang good reason why you didn't include Sidestep. "
D: Oh snap! I'm not sure how this fits in thematically with the rest of the deck, but that's a nifty control tool.
B: Nifty and agnostic. I think this is great for a highly mobile leader like Borgit, or also take Commanding Stride for a fun surprise combo!
D: There's quite a few tricks that can be pulled with this sort of teleport shenanigan. Extend charges, retreat important fighters. This can set up Power in Numbers pretty nicely too.
B: I like the utility here, but with incredible effect packed decks like Emberstone Sentinels I'm not convinced this is an autotake. Could be fun to manipulate Snirk if you get him Tempered by other means.
B: Pretty sure this is a in-hand combo requiring card as there is no inherent benefit to being Tempered, and it doesn't affect the Power step of an activation. Gives more opportunity for Edge of the Knife Surges, but limited use cases. Great for Rivals format, not sure it'll make the cut in Nemesis.
Upgrades
B: Speaking of "other means". A perfectly fine tech piece. Take this to fill gaps and score those objectives. Fun thought to run Thricefold Discord with this and force this upgrade onto your opponent's fighter, to achieve Trial of the Tempered. But that's a lot of work.
D: As ensnare upgrades go, this is about as good as they come. Still pretty low on the priority list... unless... this deck itself raises the stonks on low health, dodge based warbands...
B: Agreed. Cleave would've made sense to help the likely swarm warband crack the more elite Warbands. I still think Cleave AND Ensnare are underrated accuracy boosts in 2nd Edition.
D: So, I think most of the fighters big enough to rack up enough damage tokens to make this interesting already probably have an attack action that is as good as this...
B: Uh yeah, kinda don't see the point here. I mean it's another option, which is inherently not bad to have options. At least gives a ranged fighter a melee attack for some interactions and scoring.
D: Uglug, holding down a rock solid staple. I think this ties with Sidestep for most printed card in 2e? Weird anti-synergy where you may un-tempered a small guy. Works better if you're trying to salt this in for the other Tempered condition.
B: Yeah, this is more for the elite Warbands that are here for.. self-tempering.
D: Don't hate that for one glory! Nice call back quote to the same deck (Power in Numbers).
B: Pillage and Plunder's Tough Enough, but with the Tempered condition. Interesting to see variations like this. Gotta be careful with that in design. A Tempered Great Strength would make sense in this swarm favored deck, but doubling that upgrade would be slippery.
D: Huh. I'd play with that some for sure. Potentially locking out charges? And you'll get this glory refunded too.
B: Not a fan because it's telegraphed. ...Maybe fun as a denial piece. Charge a sacrificial fighter onto a treasure token in enemy territory, near to several enemies, then add this on.. alright. I'm interested. Lol
D: Whoa! That's some accuracy! That's a pretty big bubble of effect! Still a bargain at 2 glory, I think.
B: Snirk will be locked and loaded!
D: Love it. Absolutely works in this archetype.
B: Fungal Blessing has returned in spirit for the Gitz lol. Again, great deterrent tech.
D: Especially gross if you can get someone with a beefy statline up beside the enemy. I'll need a little testing to see if that's worth the 2 glory. Trying to think of how often you could engineer a situation for this to work well.
B: Give this to a 2 defense on Guard fighter ideally. Great deterrent tech against elite Warbands. Buy yourself a turn and get this guy positioned near to the friendly you need alive as a meat shield. Quite hilarious in theory. OMG lol put this on a Risen fighter!
D: That poor snotling. Solid take, and good even beyond melee!
B: Fantastic help taking down the likely more elite opponents.
Summary
B: So how well does this deck execute on the swarm/hoard warband assistance, and how viable is it to everyone else?
As far as "Tempered" keyworded cards vs agnostic cards in the deck, the spread is as follows.
Surges:
2 Agnostic
4 Tempered
End Phases:
1 Agnostic
5 Tempered
Ploys:
3 Agnostic
7 Tempered
Upgrades:
7 Agnostic
3 Tempered
Personally I think this strikes a good balance. Swarm/Hoard warbands will naturally find this deck easier due to the Objective deck being so heavily Tempered, though I believe it will be the secondary deck in a nemesis pairing for all but those swarm warbands that also have push/movement tech in their warscrolls. There's still a few agnostic gems in here that an elite warband would love to have, if their primary deck does a lot of heavy lifting and Edge of the Knife just helps the last 10-30% of the deck combination.
Ultimately I think this deck will be enjoyable. Not a meta defining powerhouse like Reckless Fury, but not a niche dud like some decks of the past like (IMO) Beastbound Assault. Currently I don't believe we've seen a contemporary dud deck yet.