Mollog's Mob
Welcome to our rundown of the new Mollog’s Mob! We’ll be celebrating this giant release of new Underworlds content with a whole week of content! That’s right, you’ll be getting a podcast episode every day for six days until we’ve covered it all! And to kick it all off, below are links to each of our card-by-card rundowns for your perusing pleasure.
Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.
Introduction
[B]RIAN & [S]KYLER
S: A warband that feels as if its fighters came straight from the mind of Jim Henson.
B: Alright, this will be a true test of design iteration. Mollog since his introduction until around Harrowdeep was a menace, an aggro-based gatekeeper. Every deck needed to have an answer for him, and sometimes that answer would still not be enough against good dice. The Underworlds shudder as we glimpse the king's new look...
S: Hear, hear!
B: As you venture into this breakdown, I refer to several objective cards as "bear traps" for fun. What I mean is their counterplay is a trap for the opponent. To deny Mollog some easy glory, your opponent is incentivized to stand in harms way... or in a bear trap. So Mollog has some innate protections to score against a passive/denial/control warband. Very nice.
Historical Intrigue
If you’d like to reference their previous cards, here’s an Underworlds DB link pre-loaded with all their cards. Click the [Fighter cards] button above the deck list to gain quick access to those as well.
Uninspired
B: 6 wounds. (Down from his pinnacle of 7.) Jaw already on the floor. Mollog is just another big boy, no longer the biggest stat-wise. Both attack profiles remain their infamous selves. He lost his most feared and reviled ability of making attacks after charges (which he pioneered and is now baked into the core rules for every warband once they are “charged out”). Steadfast is supremely important for him. Never being driven back helps him stay in bonk range with his club. Mighty gives him some resiliency back from his lost wound stat. Headmen's Curse weep as they cannot one-shot this beast.
S: Sharpener is somewhere suddenly feeling inadequate and wondering why.
S: I too was shocked to see Mollog lose his 7 Wound status symbol, but man that Mighty ability is a sweet, sweet trade off. If Mollog is able to heal for even just 1 wound after taking that capped 3 damage once, then suddenly it takes three attacks to fell this mighty beast (without card damage sources of course).
Inspired
B: His inspired side stat-line remains the same as his previous iteration. An additional dice on his scything attack increasing accuracy. His single target attack is 4 damage as fearsome as ever and with Knockback 2 to boot.
S: Stay away from the business end of that club folks… which immediately makes me think Mollog should mask up and use Unexpected Arrival to make WAVES (and by “make waves” I mean introduce bodies to the floor harder than Drowning Pool).
Uninspired
B: Jaz's favorite fighter, the Bat Squig. The whole warband's inspire mechanic remains the same as before. Batsy gained an offensive accuracy dice, nice. More importantly fighters adjacent to Batsy cannot be on Guard. A great utility piece to help with Mollog's accuracy. "Constantly Flapping" is hilarious.
S: He’s doing his best Brian, okay!
Inspired
B: Inspired side is a combination of the past iteration and new, no downside changes. Inspired Bat will be an unexpected menace.
S: Riiiight. Forgot Batsy goes up to 3 dodge. Gross. (Great for them, but gross.)
B: Also each of the squigs now have the Minion keyword, so potential for Beastbound Assault pairing here.
S: That Minion keyword is folded in from the errata. In excitement for their refresh, Jaz has been making waves (remember my meaning) with a Beastbound Assault pairing. Turns out, quite rude. The pairing. Jaz is a gem.
Uninspired
B: Choking cloud got the Scything keyword to tidy up wording and be consistent, makes perfect sense. Same fighter stats as before. Beast icon achieves the same effect as his previous card text. His reaction was a ping Area Of Effect(AOE) on death. Now he's just a constant ping AOE anytime an enemy enters an adjacent hex. That's nasty. But it has to be the enemy fighter entering adjacency, not the Shroom moving and making them adjacent. That's fair.
S: Spite Defusal Guide: Approach the "do not hug me" shroom during the Power Step.
Inspired
B: And his stats remain the same as the previous iteration. No change to the reaction upon inspire. No downsides here.
S: Favorite number? 2. And man does that 1 in his Range stat make him cranky! Spiteful even.
Uninspired
B: And the dopey lovable pet rock...IS ALWAYS ON GUARD!?! Glissete is outraged, how dare! What a brick.
B: No attack action on his card, wow. Some action options lost there I guess.
S: Get this rock Vitrix's Eye!
B: He causes all hexes around him to be snare hexes...hmm. Thats good accuracy utility to Mollog, but the enemy fighter has to enter or be placed into the hex to get staggered. They wont get staggered if he deploys adjacent to them. Speaking of deployment, he is now placed during deployment, but not in a enemy starting hex, or on an objective. I'd park him next to an objective you're enemy will want, or in a bottleneck where fighting will happen and Mollog will dance in.
S: I like that both squigs have an AOE debuff. Helps keep those effects front of mind.
Inspired
B: Huh, so now inspired he gets his attack profile. Previously it was Range 1, 2 smash, 2 damage. Now it's more accurate with cleave but only 1 damage. He is still on guard and still a Menace. Overall I like him better now. Player skill will be really rewarding for deploying him well.
S: Am I wrong to be disappointed that he cannot be deployed onto an objective? Probably for the best, haha.
Objectives
S: Now that he can't be driven back, this feels pretty good! To counter this one, it forces a position that few fighters will want to risk.
B: Love the bear trap counter play this card offers.
S: Fantastic name and imagery. This is a strong kill surge. You've got a good variety of attack profiles to make this happen, it can be built up to from different damage sources, and the final hit could even be from a ping source.
B: Remember for precise damage kill surges, Grievous is optional.
S: Great callout.
S: Terrifying frame there. A successful attack is a fair ask for a one glory surge. The trick is ensuring you don't lose your minions too early.
B: Relying hard on Bat Squig for this one. Shroom has very limited range, even more so with Stalagsquig who only has an attack when inspired. This might not make the cut in every deck but I still like it, just keep batsquig safe. Ideally this card comes when batsquig is inspired too.
S: Oh wow, this is going to be a fairly reliable score.
B: Yeah again, love the bear trap idea here. If you want to play a denial game against Mollog, you're putting yourself in danger to deny his reliable scoring.
S: At first glance this feels like something you'd need to Scythe to achieve. But on second look, you have the span of the whole turn to make this happen - which includes Activation, Power, & Minor Steps - and there's no limitations on the damage sources. In the space of those two looks, this card went from "pass" to "take" for me.
B: Turn dependent, ideal in round 2 I think. Also opponent dependent, great into hordes, hard to time against elite Warbands.
S: Hmmm... no enemies within his standing threat range. Unsure on this one. Sometimes your opponent's gameplan is to throw everything at the looming menace to take him down. Rinse and repeat until successful. Other times the gameplan is to stay as far away from him as possible. Either case can present challenges for scoring this, but for the potential of 2 glory I'm at least test driving this card.
B: Bear trap for control/denial opponents, great design. It's existence will make your opponent consider moving into Mollog range to deny scoring. But if he's in the thick of it, you gotta move him out of range to score, meaning you’ll likely need to charge back in next round. Good trade offs here. Agreed. Needs testing to see how reliable it is.
S: No source limitations once again (outside of Mollog of course). Ping-based deaths are going to be extra hazardous against this warband.
B: Nasty tech with pings. Gah how nasty could Daring Delvers pairing be and score this plus Sudden Demise for 4 glory ping kill. Oof.
S: Knowing this card doesn't score extra until R2 or R3 is such a relief facing this matchup. I'm alright with you grabbing this for one, but if you don't then I need to stop this card in subsequent rounds - and generally that's a less daunting ask at that point. (So if I were piloting Mollog, I'd leave this one at home. Personal preference. I'm just not a fan of "keep out" objectives.)
B: Stretch goal glory + bear trap fun. Its existence will cause your opponent to question their choices, until they know it's not in your deck.
S: Thematic, but tough. If you're scoring this, then you're likely sitting pretty and this is a "win more" card.
B: Probably a win more card ...but if you charge into their territory, while they ignore the troll and target your squigs in your home territory, this will offset the squig bounty.
S: Haha, apt.
B: Ideal round one, which is where you want surges to be most score-able. But later round this is hard to guarantee no dead squigs. Love the theme, but probably my first drop from this deck.
S: Oof. True to its name, but that's a tall order. Kill 2 fighters in a 3-fighter warband or 3 fighters in all other cases. (Better than its previous iteration though.)
B: I like it. Hard round one, but 2 and 3 is likely I think. Like the options they give accounting for difficult elite stat-block Warbands.
S: That's a lot of limitations for one glory. I do appreciate seeing the callback to Is It Asleep, but I wish it would have remained unchanged. The theme of the card here feels shoehorned and less of a fit than previously.
B: I disagree with you here, I think this is vastly improved.
Gambits
S: Oh wow! A resurrection card right out the rip! Take this card.
B: Solid, I don't see why not. The charge token is not a downside here as Mollog wants the squigs charged out, but can't normally if Stalagsquig is alive chillin.
S: Good accuracy option. Your opponent will want to shake that Stagger token if they can, lest you benefit from it all round.
B: If batsquig is adjacent then they can't shake it by going on guard. Fun tech combo.
S: Additional dice are generally worthwhile. From the lens of your opponent, that bonus is both a blessing and a cruelty. Blessing in that you don't have to worry about it pumping early attacks. Cruelty in that it's extra damage when you're already hurting.
B: Nice card, but don't think you want to invest too much card-wise into the minions. I'll be on the lookout for any defense or accuracy tech for Mollog. Ideal of it can apply to minions as a back-up, but far less interested in minion locked cards.
S: Woah. Move tokens can be so punishing and that's a fair range of influence. Plundering into blocked hexes adds to your options.
B: Love it. Take it.
S: Excellent push tech. Love it.
B: K, this I will invest in. Supports and Batsquig's "Constantly Flapping" can also be accuracy tech for Mollog. But positioning is so strong on its own. Take it.
S: Eh, it's fine. The type of card that I think is fun to see in Rivals but won't make it much further than that.
B: Nah, too niche. Strong chance this won't have any effect.
S: Now this is terrifying. This cranks Scything to to 11.
B: Yuuuup. Your opponent should always be conscious not to give Mollog good scything opportunities, but Mollog is happy to take even two swings. Might be an eleventh card since we're kinda in a elite meta. Fearsome nonetheless.
S: Being able to Move in the Power Step is always strong. Interesting cost for that here balanced against being able to choose any friendly fighter regardless of keyword or token-based limitations. Can get you the support, scoring position, or next round setup you need. This would still be a deck include in my book.
B: Love it. Likely on a Squig mid-round, but likely used on Mollog in the last power step to secure end phase scoring positions.
S: Well now. Who doesn't love some creative knockback shenanigans.
B: Daring Delvers ping combo nastiness ideas forming. The art shows the way. Oof.
S: Hehe, a tempered Distraction effect. These are always wonderfully viscous. Semi-related: I also just love how mind gamey Stalagsquid can be.
B: Stalagsquig is such a trolling s#!t talker LoL. Lots of ways this can be used. Love it.
Upgrades
S: Phenomenal. The second effect especially. What a way to reposition your fighters. You can even hurl best rock!
B: HILARIOUS. So fun. Love it so much.
S: That flava text, haha. This offers some decent utility when the use case emerges, but on the flip side may also see no impact or opportunity for impact across whole games.
S: In other words, sometimes this card will stink and sometimes it will really stink!
B: Yeah, probably a pass for me. Guard isn't as common as most fighters would rather kite Mollog.
S: Rad. I'm looking forward to having to kill Batsquig 3 times a game.
B: Another resurrect card!? Wild. Batsquig could really be a back-up plan. Jaz will love this.
S: By the Dark Gods is right!
S: I'm not sure how good this is, because it likely only helps early game and/or if your opponent is trying to avoid getting damage down on Mollog before first killing the minions, but in that case... there is a giant troll with a club ready to take issue with being ignored.
B: Agreed, limited gains here. Minion locked makes me lean pass 70% or more of the time.
S: Ohhhh, this essentially moves his old, built-in capabilities into a restricted upgrade. With the Charged out rule in place, this move seems perfectly sensible. Cool to see it not gone altogether, and boy what cheeky art to attach it to.
B: Fantastic reallocation and adjustment of the ability. Requiring a kill to carry on feels right. Taking this.
S: Continuing the theme of cranking up minion terror levels. Solid accuracy piece.
B: Yup, boy I'm inclined to take this. Some dreadful moments for your opponent when this card gets placed amongst their ranks.
S: Interesting. This has some push and pull to it. Adjacency means the target will be able to retaliate, but in trade you may have just ruined your opponent's plans to reactivate Charged fighters. Dice means this may just miss, but odds are at 50/50. Optionally gaining a Charge token opens this up to standing attacks, guard, or even a barge! (yeah, no on that last one)
B: IDK, barge may be really considerable for these minions to tee up a target for Mollog.
S: Yes please.
B: *Rolls over*. Minion build sounds good too I guess lol!
S: Stand adjacently and be astonished by my Stagger resistant attitude.
B: Huh, love that this is not restricted. Feels good but niche.
S: Yes, let the anger flow through you! Use it! Absolute banger of a card to round out the refresh.
B: Hilarious accuracy modifier. Kinda wish it could stack, but shouldn't risk much accuracy on Mollog. Lovely deck update, feels well balanced.
Summary
B: Ultimately I think we’ve seen a reversal in design for this deck. Previously what strengths the deck did have were in the power deck giving Mollog more accuracy or efficiency, while his objective deck was quite awful. Where now this new deck has strong objective cards that play well with the big troll's nature and incentives, and the power deck has steered away from strong, consistent buffs for the big guy - rightfully so as he’ll have universals to draw from and we don't need to double up with his own. So instead his in-house cards are mostly niche or simply focus on the minions. The minions are his accuracy pieces utilizing new age design and core rules, making them meaningful and not to be ignored. Time will tell if Mollog and his mob are going to be the meta menace once again.
Week of Warhammer Underworlds
Mollog’s Mob will return to your ears… Thursday, March 21st… with a special guest.