Wrack and Ruin

Welcome to our rundown of Wrack and Ruin. Make sure you catch our podcast coverage of the release. For everything out with this release window, follow these links:

Thanks go to GW for providing a review copy to make this content possible.

Introduction

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

P: Our second attempt at mastery, and this time without a plot card! Mastery is the hardest to pin down of all the deck types, though it will likely end up somewhere in the middle of the spectrum of strike and take and hold. Let's see how Wrack and Ruin can compare to Countdown to Cataclysm.

Perhaps it is better to abandon all hope and instead focus on what can be achieved: pinging both warbands to death.

Objectives

P: A good reprint, even if not always reliable. The kind of pressure this card puts on your opponent is great. If they have seen it once they now know they have to play around it for the rest of the match. Hopefully, them playing around it is something you can then punish.

D: Huge fan. Gets easier as the game goes on, but really rewards awareness on positioning both for scoring and for counter-play.

P: Not usually a fan of spreading damage around, however the fact this will trigger even if there are damaged friendly fighters as part of the three makes it a pretty appealing card if you have ranged attacks or pings.

D: With the health pools being what they are, I think this is generally pretty scoreable. And your warband just has to damage the enemy in *some* way, so gambits (as Phil noted) can do the trick.

*Aemos might have some regrets about following Haskell into this situation...*

P: Specifically needing move tokens makes this a bit awkward. If you have an ability to move out of sequence this becomes a bit easier though.

D: The timing is pretty wide open, too. As an example, the Skitter ability on the Tunnelpack can trigger this in a way that surge objectives that core after an action step won't.

P: Oh boy... Even just having a vulnerable friendly fighter survive the round might be tricky but needing to do so in enemy territory is quite the ask. There might be some mad strategies to set this up but I have a hard time imagining it being reliable.

D: There's an upgrade that helps with this quite a bit, but this is risky, no doubt. I've been hard enough up for scoring ceiling that I might hunt for a warband that can really leverage this...

P: Specifically scoring on a power card discard is weird. Late in the game I suppose this is probably automatic but I think it's going to slow you down in the interim.

D: Make sure you know that a power card is discarded after it is played. So basically this scores on the fifth ploy that you play, presuming you haven't discarded any with a Focus action or end of round action. Deck builds or warbands with extra card draw have a fast track to this, but it'll be tough to score in round 1 regardless.

P: I guess if your opponent likes spreading damage around this can become easier but having 3 fighters damaged will normally be a big ask.

D: Ew, agree, Phil, not a huge fan. You need three fighters alive *and* damaged *and* with move/charge *and* in enemy territory. Too much to ask in my opinion.

P: Cards like this can be tricky since it basically relies on having enough ploys in hand when you have the objective and then have 3 you want to play together in one round.

D: Similar to Low on Options, warbands and builds with extra card draw are going to have a better shot. You're slightly above 50/50 to have three Ploys in a round (with the extra being thanks to the card draw for losing a roll-off). In the right builds, it's just complimentary, but I agree that it's a little unreliable if you're not pre-built towards it.

P: A bit to line up, but with a handful of cards that can deal damage this is certainly possible. I think I'd want to see how reliable the deck played before judging more on this one.

D: A quick count shows 5 ploys and one upgrade that can trigger this, though two of those ploys will be your opponent's choice. I've found this a little too tough- hard to get the card and enemy position to line up. Especially when some of your cards need a dice roll to trigger too.

P: I personally don't love cards like this, though it is relatively straightforward. Needing 3 fighters minimum and needing to not get pushed out of no ones territory feels like just a touch too much work for a single glory.

D: I'm with you on that. As casualties mount, the positioning gets more and more demanding (or even impossible). Potentially demanding the use of a warscroll or power card move or push, which might not be worth it for a one glory end phase. Maybe Sepulchral Guard with their move tech can find this scoreable without losing too much efficiency.

P: Similar to Alone in the Dark, this kind of card puts pressure on your opponents positioning to try and deny you. Given the nature of the game seeming to want everybody to meet in the middle I'd be surprised if this isn't quite good.

D: This feels oh-so-slightly harder, mostly because it's often tough to find a way to use drive-back to dig a fighter out of an edge hex without getting your attacker into the edge hex as well. But I'm interested!

P: Shared with other decks we have seen, this surge has some limitations that hold it back, but it isn't horrible for a strike band if you are feeling lucky.

D: This is that Sixth Surge (TM). I'm probably not picking it up until I'm really running out of options that I like.

P: Kind of a nice counter to Stay Close. This is yet another positional pressure card that your opponent really needs to think about if they want to deny your score.

D: Worth noting, the underdog area of the map feels dramatically larger than the non-underdog area.

Gambits

P: Classic positional card. Often quite useful. Having to stare at that nurgle belly would make me want to use another version of this though!

D: I like that Confusion has a photo-art schtick of blurry/trippy visuals.

P: Dang, an unlimited range ping or distraction? That is a pretty potent card. The not vulnerable part I suppose helps your opponent have a choice that isn't awful but I think this will feel rough on your opponent whenever it is played.

D: A little extra power for the W&R player is that even though the opponent picks, you don't have to pick a target until they make their choice. So you apply the damage or push where you want it most.

P: Huh, neat. I'm not sure how much this one moves your gameplan forward but having a consolation prize for when your opponent blocks your attack is decent. This feels especially good for ranged attacks that were only dealing 1 damage anyway.

D: I'm glad this card can't hit vulnerable fighters because it'd feel a little too much otherwise.

P: Very similar to puncturing ice shards from first edition. This one is at least held back by the fact that your choice can only be undamaged. If you need to spread around damage, or just need to be able to soften targets up early before charging in this isn't a bad option for it but there might be more useful ploys.

D: You can only pick an undamaged fighter, but your opponent can pick *anyone* (including their own fighter if that for some reason appeals). That includes vulnerable fighters. Buyer beware!

P: Oh I love these kinds of cards. Using this after someone has laid down a couple ploys to juice up their next attack is one of my favorite feelings in the game. However, if you are even just using this to dissuade a big attack you have gotten value by hurting your opponents efficiency.

D: Yep. Love that Fjul gets to be pictured since he was one of the first to have this card in first edition (but not *the* first- shout out Reavers!)

P: I kinda like the idea, but the implementation doesn't make sense to me. Give a fighter that is already in your territory a bunch of extra speed to move out? I'd think you'd want to flee out of enemy territory. This feels more like a way to make a super long bomb charge, which is cool but certainly not fleeing!

D: 100% agree. I was expecting some caveat that it couldn't be part of a charge, or couldn't end adjacent to an enemy. Good card, strong cognitive dissonance.

P: Again with the choice cards! I think it will almost always be smarter to stagger fighters than take damage, but I suppose if you are staring down a big 3 or 4 damage attack you are less worried about the 1 point of health. Either way, the effects are good and the mental pressure on your opponent feels like it should be impactful.

D: I think you're right- so far I've only seen my opponent take the stagger.

P: I love a good push, and a push for 2 is really nice, but I think being able to find a landing spot for this one will make it very niche. Need to see this in action before I judge further.

D: This one sings a little louder in horde warbands that are more likely to sustain the numbers to keep this going.

P: Simple but effective. Extra dice are very useful in this edition and if it is an early attack you probably are getting that big boost of 2 attack dice.

D: Basically a variation on Determined Effort that cares about undamaged vs Underdog. Solid, not flashy.

P: Another symmetrical ping but this time it can hit anyone. The random element makes it a bit iffy unless you are picking a big fighter where you get to throw 3 dice. This one is probably a meta call. A 1/3 chance to deal a damage and receive a damage is not good. But, if we think elites are going to be prevalent the value goes up.

D: Huh. This one can hit someone vulnerable, which improves the benefit. I'm curious if Gardeners really like this sort of card for playing mind games with their cycle.

Upgrades

P: Upgrade to have a super barge from first edition. The stagger is fine, but I'm really looking at this for that push! if you know you have a good chance of facing take&hold then the value here is good because they will likely be trying to camp treasure tokens with guard tech to prevent drive back.

D: Great point on guard, Phil. FWW, my instinct was to assume that this push needed to be "away" ala driveback, but that's not the case. Priced at a premium, but if you're leaning on the positioning scores, then... tasty.

P: Essentially another version of Great Fortitude with a small caveat that if your opponent wants to hit you with a 1 damage attack they can break this without it gaining you anything. However, I think that is still opportunity cost so the upgrade wasn't a waste. Glad this is also 2 glory to apply.

D: I think a huge benefit that we're not used to thinking about is that you're going to get "refunded" the glory when this upgrade discards itself. So it's like Great Fortitude that refunds once used (though it won't be there for later heals).

P: High risk, potentially higher reward. Being able to deny a push when you need to could be extremely important. I think plenty of warbands will strongly consider this.

D: And I think Gardeners or Dromm even moreso. The mind games that come in when you can advance the cycle or move towards inspire gets pretty tasty.

P: We've seen this reprinted a couple times now. Still solid here. 0 glory for +1 move is huge for slower warbands.

D: I've said it before, but the zero cost makes this priced to sell!

P: So this is a bit weird. You can guarantee a success assuming you have flanking or surrounded. I think this is kind of a build around upgrade. If you think you will have flanking or surrounded a lot this has tons of value and then you can make sure not to include as many reroll options.

D: Some warbands are set up to really enjoy this more than others (hi Kainan). Bumping one more attack than you already rolled seems like a great way to really push attacks through. Add to Hidden Aid for shenanigans.

P: Okay, so if you need to have a way to inflict damage on your own fighters this will do it. This is wild. I don't really know what I would want to do with this but feels like one of those cards that can enable some odd combos that otherwise would be unreliable. Still probably a cut most of the time.

D: Dromm and Gardeners can think of reasons to use this, but it's niche, for sure. Funny to use as a gift from Thricefold Discord as well.

P: An end of battle round ping but can't get kills with it. Probably a solid option but you have to know you will be able to get adjacent and stay there for this to be worth it.

D: Should be able to control this pretty well for at least one proc if you're giving it to your fighter in the poewr step right before your last action. The timing *does* make it tough to immediately profit with a follow-up attack.

P: Cleave stocks are up. Probably worth it more often than not.

D: Melee only, unfortunately, but if I'm hurting for accuracy in my pairing, yeah, stocks definitely go up.

P: Wow, make your vulnerable fighter have to take a bigger hit to be brought down. Weirdly, if you have other damage reducers to bring damage down to 1 this will still stop the last point. This could be annoying!

D: A great one to have in this deck, in particular. I think if so many damage ploys weren't limited to non-vulnerable fighters, this would be even more attractive.

P: Oh the things you can do with an end of battle round push! The caveat of having to not end adjacent is probably fine because you would rather use this for positional scoring whenever possible.

D: I'm pretty happy to include this one. Real handy for Take & Hold archetypes. Great for fighters with good range 2+ attacks that want to improve board state. Helps score Alone in the Dark.

Summary

P: Quite different from what Countdown wanted to do! While the other mastery deck wants to deny treasure holds and build up Cataclysm counts, this deck takes a decidedly more aggro tone. With a focus that is split between damaging enemy fighters with a pings subtheme and controlling positioning you have a deck that is very reminiscent of Rimewyrms Bite from Wintermaw. I think this deck feels a bit more tuned than that deck did though and I look forward to seeing this one on the battlefield as it should reward some canny denial and mental games with your opponent.

The Mortal RealmsNovember 23, 2024Comment