Pillage and Plunder
Welcome to our rundown of Pillage and Plunder. Make sure to catch our podcast coverage of the release too. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:
Release Rundowns
Podcast
Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.
Introduction
[D]AVY, [P]HIL, [B]RIAN, & [S]KYLER
S: Pillage and Plunder, two names for the same reaction we're still wondering if Davy will remember to take. Oh wait! First edition Plunder is gone! (Sorry Davy.) So with that, let's delve into this deck and discover an insatiable desire to delve every treasure we can get our hands on.
D: Sometimes, your words? They hurt.
S: Speaking of Delving through the pain, first Ed-icionados should take note that fighters can do just that now! Delving is not restricted by the presence of a Stagger token anymore.
Objectives
S: Starting off with a smooth 2-Glory ask here. Get on 3 different treasure tokens over the course of a round and delve them to cover. There is little your opponent can do to stop you here given you don't need to hold these tokens any longer than the turn you spend getting to each and you can delve in that same Power Step. The flexibility to instead focus on a single treasure token if your opponent started on one is also great, especially with the introduction of Overrun. (Hit that fighter with all the dice you can muster.)
P: I think the only thing tricky about this objective is needing enough fighters to get around to three treasure tokens, but many warbands shouldn't have any trouble. Solid two glory end phase.
S: And even then, you might be able to make the rounds to three of them with a single fighter alive across multiple moves.
S: This is extreme reliability in a 1-Glory End Phase card. Exactly what you want to see. With three odds on the map, odds are you'll have no trouble scoring this every game.
P: Yeah, this one is maybe even too easy. But for one glory it probably works out without being to strong.
S: Have someone alive not hugging their teammate. Save the affection for the victory celebration!
P: Weird wording, but I think a decent one glory score. Wonder if our friend got lost on a quest here!
S: You want to achieve this through delving away feature tokens and blocking your opponent from getting to them. If you only deploy one treasure token to your territory at the beginning, then you're making the rest of the objectives harder at the cost of a single glory. Still another seemingly dependable 1-Glory option.
P: Could be dependable, might be tricky if your opponent is playing a hold strategy though. Will be interesting to see if this one ends up making the cut for decks.
S: This card is a big ask and your opponent will surely have something to say about it. But it's a payout worth the consideration, and a guard token can turn a fighter into an immovable squatter.
P: Oh boy, what a big ask. But, with one treasure token being forced into neutral territory does give you better odds of having three treasure tokens you can control.
S: When you score this, it will be because of the latter condition 90% of the time. At 3-Glory this will always be a factor your opponent needs to consider and that's probably the best part about this card. Regardless of whether you include it, its existence puts pressure on your opponent in the form of the question "what if?"...
P: Definitely one of those cards that has to warp your opponents game plan until they know you don't have it. This one could put a lot of pressure on aggro matchups. Interested to see how this works out against hold warbands too. Might be bricked in those cases, but I think it's worth chasing the big score until proven that it's not worth it.
S: A surge that pushes at your opponent's comfort levels and is another heady inclusion. "If I sit in No One's Territory, then I'm a target." "If I sit on a treasure token, I'm a target." "If I delve into cover, I give myself a Stagger token and throw a wrench in some of their End Phases while advancing others." Choices.
P: A weird surge where it will be dead simple in some matchups and infuriating in others where your opponent just won't get in the position you need. It does probably make your opponent think and I love those kind of head games in underworlds.
S: Wow. This card is nigh unstoppable. It doesn't even care what state the feature token was in at the start of the Delve.
P: Auto include, truly ridiculous card. The fact this has the underdog clause just doesn't seem necessary, but I'll take it!
D: The cost of staggering your fighter is definitely worth the surge objective.
S: This one's even easier than the last! You can delve once per Power Step, and you can do so even while staggered, so you can get this with a single fighter in a feature token in the back of your territory over two of your power steps and one of your opponents.
P: Yeah, these two surges feel like they could be your primer when building with this deck. Get one or both to set things in motion and then go full speed ahead with a couple upgrades to start working towards your haymakers.
D: Are we back in Nethermaze?
S: The ease of these Surge objectives! This is Hidden Purpose for those that remember it, but more flexible because it doesn't care about token facing. If you've already got a fighter on a Feature token, then your Action Step is only asking you to Move onto another one. You could even set that up with a Sidestep into your first feature token in the Power Step preceding your turn.
P: Yeesh, another one. Multi-move warbands can do this so fast too assuming we get something like Sepulchral Guard again.
S: Standing shots make this a great option for any range focused warbands. (Cough cough... Emberwatch)
P: Even warbands with range two fighter can probably set this up. When you know you can score it I think this one becomes and auto include.
S: This one takes some setup but still benefits from being scoreable following your own Action step. And if you can move multiple models at once, then this is a shoe in.
P: Not usually the kind of surge I like but if you have the bodies this one feels pretty reasonable.
Gambits
S: A welcome classic, dare I say an Essential. You'll notice the presence of a few cards sharing names across these decks, which is interesting from a deckbuilding lens as it means you'll only be able to take one copy with you in a Nemesis pairing - limiting the overall options between pairings that share such cards.
P: More push will always be welcome in the What the Hex household!
S: Being in risky territory has some benefits!
P: Healing is good, but I'm not sure I'd always want this card. I think certain aggressive bands will definitely always want to play this card.
S: Big, dramatic entrances. This card can slingshot you back to safety from a risky charge or change up your positioning in a big way. You may want to play a little cagier with your leader until you see this card though or risk it arriving bricked.
P: Yup, big rewards with some very low floors when there isn't an available play.
S: Global coverage, and here to assist you with Torn Landscape and Strip the Realm.
P: If nothing else, it can also be a speed bump for hold warbands.
S: Quite the handy Domain here. With it specifying friendly fighters and with this effect being owned by you, there's no benefit for your opponent. Gives you the opportunity to cancel a Domain negatively affecting you or advantaging your opponent, and leaves you with the only ongoing benefit from there.
P: To the actual effect, one extra move can definitely be a difference maker especially when it applies for a whole round.
S: A great tool in this deck for locking down a position - like a cover token you don't want flipped back up to treasure. Enemy fighters cannot shift a fighter with a Guard token (outside of slaying them of course), so your opponent has to rely on potential card effects or warscroll abilities to do the job.
S: Additionally, putting a 2-Dodge fighter on guard is a delightful, defensive power trip.
P: I love that this has the caveat of needing a charge token so the defensive boost is only available after putting your fighter out there.
S: Soooo I'm not used to seeing re-rolls swinging in after the attack roll has been thrown, but it certainly is an attention getter to see here. A great accuracy piece before even factoring in the underdog element, which is extremely generous.
P: A reroll is definitely solid, but the fact it only triggers in enemy territory can make for some awkward situations.
S: Ongoing re-rolls against a target for the remainder of the round can certainly be effective, but handing out Stagger tokens is something I'd rather do from a weapon ability to keep that card slot open for a more potent effect or one that more directly benefits my objective gamelan.
P: Agree. Without stagger limiting delve anymore this is a slightly hard to set up reroll. Not bad but maybe not making the cut.
S: Re-positioning and a way to suddenly become Charged out unexpectedly? Straight into my deck with you.
P: Of note, there are two stagger hexes on each board so you get a landing zone in each players territory. I think this card will be tricky to play against since it is so flexible.
S: Ping damage! Wait, don't hide behind that couch. Come back. This card can only chew on your healthy fighters and is also based on your positioning. A sigh of relief for us both.
P: Adding an undamaged caveat is such a great design choice for a ping. You can set up a kill but can't finish someone off which I think is always the most feel bad with pings.
Upgrades
S: A cost of zero makes this mighty tempting. It can be quite surprising closing a gap you couldn't moments ago and that's often most true in Round 1 where you may be slim on Glory.
P: Not flashy, but most of the time it's going to be useful.
S: Huuuge fan. Love being able to reposition after a Charge. Opens up a bunch of plays for you, like (as a few examples) moving onto an objective if overrun didn't trigger, moving away if you failed an attack and want to force your opponent to have to charge you to counterattack, or just need to use a Charge to boost you to that hex that you were 1 move speed shy from otherwise.
P: Definitely like the pushes, knowing that we have duelist in other decks makes this slightly less attractive for nemesis building.
S: Solid weapon all around. Gets you to 2 damage on Range 2, and grants you an extra dice at a reasonable ask - especially since you can Charge through a Stagger hex on your way to the attack.
P: Range two makes this so much more worthwhile. Great for trying to castle up on feature tokens.
S: This type of coverage feels great when you need it and like a wasted card slot when you don't, so your mileage may vary with this one.
P: Yup, need to feel out how often cleave and ensnare will be throwing around. The changes to attack math make me think both abilities will be used quite a bit more though.
S: Hello best card in the deck. Wow, wow, wow! Costing nothing is quite a shock here. With the card breaking and refunding any glory it would have required up front, I'd have been fine with a high gate cost here of even 3 or 4 glory for such an effect.
P: This kind makes any ploy in your hand teleport in addition to its other effects. So strong.
S: I dig the balance here. +1 Save can be extremely impactful, so limiting it to impacting a single attack feels appropriately nuanced. I like that it doesn't break if the attack still slipped through, and I like that it refunds you the glory upon break as well.
P: Perfect design in my opinion. Keeps a strong effect available without becoming broken in a new world of less impactful crits.
S: This effect doesn't go far enough for me to make it into a deck build. However, it is interesting that Brutal can help you cut through targets hanging out on cover.
P: There are probably some scenarios where this great, but probably more often a big ol' brick.
S: I'd choose this over Sudden Blast as my Stagger delivery system every time. Mainly because having a Range 3 attack available to you in a deck that wants you to land on feature tokens is already a fantastic thing to have. Stagger is just a great bonus from there.
P: Exactly. This is a solid weapon choice even if you don't get the stagger. Love having a reasonable ranged weapon option.
S: Great card for evening the playing field. The new handling of Grievous is still super fascinating to me in a pretty cool way!
P: Love that this was adjusted to only melee attacks as well!
S: Oh interesting, this is a better Tough Enough at an extra glory cost. But where Tough Enough wasn't quite winning me over, this card does with its added caveats.
P: The big thing here, I think, is preventing getting stagger tokens to make it easier to run the delve game plan.
S: Record scratch. Realization sinking in. Phil, it's a trap!
S: If you cannot be staggered, then you cannot Delve. Hmmm... so it's good I suppose that the effect is limited to treasure tokens in enemy territory so it doesn't stop this fighter from assisting with delving altogether
P: Oh geez, I had missed that rule made the edition jump... Le sigh
Summary
S: With buttery smooth objectives and ample repositioning tricks, I think this is going to be a common pairing companion for all sorts of decks out there. I’m glad to see 3 of its glory budget in Strip the Realm. If you’re up against this deck, you have two main counterplay routes -
You want control as many feature tokens as you can to keep them your opponent from delving 3 different treasure tokens for Broken Prospects while also being sure to maintain at least three face up treasure tokens to keep Torn Landscape and Strip the Realm out of reach. Remember that a face down treasure token is not a treasure token and therefore does not count as a “treasure token being delved” towards objectives looking for that condition.
Take & Hold more naturally has this route available to them.
Take advantage of the Stagger tokens the Pillage and Plunder player is being asked to take on to fulfill their scoring conditions, and aggro them off the board. If you can take them out before they can score enough of their deck, then the 7 bounty from doing so plus whatever you can fulfill in your objective deck from there should help carry you to victory.
Strike more naturally has this route available to them, and with an aim to table them, Blazing Assault in particular probably has pretty good footing against it in Rivals with Annhilation paying out 5 glory for doing just that.
This flex deck gets even fiercer when paired with range, so definitely try it out with The Emberwatch and let us know how your games go!
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