Beastbound Assault Card Review

Hello! Today I will be reviewing the Beastbound Assault Rivals deck cards and their viability in the championship format!

First of all, this deck has NO PLOT CARD which is fantastic news.

The review will work like this: first, I will review the objective cards and give them a rating between A+ and F, symbolizing their viability. Next, I will do the same with power cards. Finally, I will give a general overview of this deck.

One more thing: some cards will mention being a beast/minion/companion/having one or more Denizen upgrades. Instead of typing that entire thing up, I will just put BCMD. Trust me, it will make the review a lot shorter than it would have been.

Enough intro, I’ll begin!

OBJECTIVES

Dogged Determination – This is a Surge/Hybird card, which is the best type of objective, in my opinion. It rewards you for playing risky: either being vulnerable on an objective in enemy or no-ones territory (not holding it) or for having 2 fighters on objective tokens not in your territory AND having an enemy out of action. I think this card won’t see too much play unless you are going for a Fearless Seekers/Exploration counter build, as it requires a more flex playstyle, mixing aggro and hold objective. It is not a bad card, though, and will see some play for sure.
Grade: B

Effortless Teamwork – Contrary to popular belief, not ‘effortless’ to score. You will need to have more enemies out of action than friendly fighters out of action, and then all be BCMD. It’s going to be easy for some warbands (hello again, Gnarlspirit Pack) and hard for others. It will be much better in the early game than the late game as well since you will have fewer fighters dead early on. However, the first condition is very hard to achieve for most warbands.
Grade: C+

Gifted Pathfinder – You will have to be on an objective not in your territory and be within 2 hexes of a BCMD. Think Focal Point, but hold objective. It isn’t very rewarding for one glory, but a lot of warbands will have no trouble scoring this at all. An alternative is Bold Venturer since it is slightly easier to score, but you need to be running Daring Delvers for that one. Not a bad card, but there are better ones.
Grade: B-

Inseparable Friends – The first condition of this hybrid objective is being a beast/companion/minion AND having a Denizen upgrade. An obvious candidate is the GSP! The second condition might be better or worse, depending on the warband you play. You just need to have 2 fighters with Denizen upgrades. If you are running a lot of Beastbound Assault cards, this card is great since you will have a steady supply of Denizens. If not, it doesn’t seem to be that good for 1 glory.
Grade: B-

Keen Collector – You need your leader to become the mega-fighter they always dreamed of. Once again, if you are running lots of Denizen upgrades, this is going to be worth it for 2 glory. Otherwise, not really. You will also need to keep your leader safe and sound and not die before you draw this card leading it to be a control-style card, especially since not all Denizen upgrades provide good bonuses for aggro.
Grade: C

Loyal Allies – A very good card for a lot of warbands. You need to roll a support or double support and have it count as a success. I am willing to bet real cash that the moment you draw this card, all your supports plaguing your rolls will just go away. This is a pretty reliable card, especially if you are rolling 3 dice or more and are a swarm warband.
Grade: A-

Packmasters – Fully Committed but for BCMDs. Fully Committed seems better as Savage is easier to achieve than being a BCMD, but if you are using warbands like the Exiled Dead, who are already all beasts, this card is going to be good. Keep in mind ALL fighters in enemy territory have to be BCMD, not just three of them.
Grade: B-

Tireless Explorer – Visit all 3 territories with one fighter in one round for one glory. The condition is too difficult for one glory, as you have to activate the same fighter twice and have them move, and then use a push or another move to get them to visit the last territory you need. The redeeming quality is that it is a surge. Other reviews I read said this is similar to Sudden Revelation, but that could be achieved in 2-1 activations while this needs 2-3.
Grade: C+

Train Them Up – Have a BCMD take a move, attack, and one other action in a single round. An easy way to score this is to have a BCMD go on Guard and then charge (providing the Move and Attack actions). Then just stay alive for the rest of the round till you score this! This seems very easy to score, but it is one glory. For BCMD-full warbands, this is worth it, for non-BCMD warbands, this can be a choice, but there are better cards out there.
Grade: B+

Unbeatable Team – This is a 2 glory surge, which is always good. It seems pretty easy: just kill an opponent, and then get on an objective. Most warbands will like this one for sure, but it gets harder in the late game since there are much more of your fighters dead than yours.
Grade: B

Unexpected End – A BCMD that isn’t a leader kills someone. This is medium. If you are playing something like Exiled Dead, where BCMDs do ALL the killing, then you are good to go with this one. Otherwise, you probably shouldn’t run this (I personally have once killed someone with Hexbane’s dogs, but that is unlikely to happen again).
Grade: B-

We Stand Together – Hidden Purpose, but for BCMDs. Exiled Dead is the obvious beneficiary, but Sepulchral Guard can use this as well (since Petitioners are BCMDs). As is the case with most objectives in this deck, if you have BCMDs, take this, otherwise, leave it alone.
Grade: B-

POWER CARDS

Blossoming Friendship – Give a friendly fighter a Denizen upgrade, a Charge, and a Stagger token. Unless you are trying to score something which NEEDS a fighter to be a BCMD, then there is no purpose to running this. There are no really good Denizen upgrades right now (ignoring this deck since the cards haven’t been tested yet) other than Shadow Keeper. But… it’s an Illusion. Which kind of defeats the purpose of this card. Overall, not a big bonus with a big downside. It can be used in emergency situations to get a BCMD for objectives that need BCMDs but those are rare.
Grade: D+

Defensive Formation – Give 2 BCMDs in your territory a Guard token. REALLY good in Spiteclaw’s Swarm and… good in other BCMD warbands. It’s a good card; however, it is pretty limiting to play since you have to be a BCMD in your territory. It also doesn’t benefit fighters with one defense as much as two defense. It’s still a good card!
Grade: B

Friendly Swarm – Heal 1 all friendly BCMDs. I was going to say ‘YLTHARI’S GUARDIANS’ but none of them are BCMD, so it kind of defeats the purpose. Another downside is that about 90% of all fighters who are BCMD by default have 2 wounds, so the benefit this card will bring to heal ALL of them by 1 WOUND is going to be disappointing since they can get one shotted by almost anything anyway. Too situational.
Grade: C

Launch an Attack – Choose a friendly fighter, break one of their upgrades, deal one damage to someone and then stagger them if the upgrade was a Denizen. This can be used in emergency situations to kill someone you just unsuccessfully charged, but that is literally all the use. That, or use it as a ‘one-glory ping.’ Give someone an upgrade and instantly break it. Situational but is decent in some situations.
Grade: B

Overly-Protective – Overly-POWERED for some warbands (guess which). Literally any warband with a BCMD will want this card. It’s like a Duel of Wits clone! If an opponent hits one of your BCMDs (even if they die), you draw TWO power cards. Most BCMDs aren’t that useful anyway, so you can charge them into enemies to get ‘free’ two cards! The one downside is not everyone has a BCMD to benefit from this.
Grade: A

Savage Their Eyes! – Subtract one dice from a certain enemy fighter who is within 2 hexes of a BCMD for an entire round. It’s decent, but a lot of fighters already roll 3+ dice consistently, so the effect won’t be that impressive. It is annoying on fighters with only two dice, though.
Grade: B-

Unexpected Ally – Choose a friendly fighter to gain additional support until they make their next successful attack. This is pretty good, considering how much support people roll when they don’t have any. It’s also nice that it persists until they make a successful attack, not till the end of the round or activation. Keep in mind the support is only for attack rolls, not for defense! I think the way to choose whether or not to take it is swarm warbands will generally prefer +1 Dice cards like King of the Deeps, while elite warbands and warbands with 3+ dice will prefer this.
Grade: A-

Vicous Critters – Gives all BCMDs Grievous 1. It can be very annoying, however, in a lot of cases, it might not help you. This is because you will need your BCMDs to be able to roll crits consistently, which requires eighteen three dice usually. Not all BCMDs have 3 dice when uninspired, but if you do, you can run this card. Pretty situational.
Grade: B-

Well-Trained – First of all GW missed an opportunity to create synergy within this rivals deck. It could have been ‘push a BCMD 2 hexes, or 3 hexes if you scored ‘Train Them Up’ in this game.’ Imagine objectives buffing different cards! Anyway, it is a mega-Sidestep but only for BCMDs. I would run it in place of Sidestep or other push cards for warbands with BCMDs, but otherwise, it’s a pass.
Grade: B

Winds of Wrath – The last ploy of the deck, this card lets your warband gain +1 dice for an entire round if a friendly BCMD is dead. It affects your opponent as well, but only if they have a BCMD dead. This card is GREAT on warbands with any sort of BCMD. Since BCMDs are usually outclassed by other fighters from your warband, you might consider sacrificing one to get this bonus. For example, in Skittershank’s Clawpack, you can charge a minion into enemy territory and then get this dice buff for the rest of your warband! Once again, remember it affects your opponent as well! This card is good if you have any BCMDs; I would almost always run it, otherwise, it’s a pass.
Grade: B+

Amberbone Flute – THE AMBERBONE RETURNS. After this fighter’s activation, you can draw cards from your power deck (revealing them) until you get a Denizen upgrade. If you do, get it into your hand. Then the fighter with the upgrade gets a charge token. It seems very situational, and Bag of Tricks outclasses this in a lot of ways, such as being able to choose what card you get. If you need Denizen upgrades for your deck, take this, but I don’t imagine it would be useful anytime else.
Grade: C

Countless Familiars – I really cannot see the point of this card outside of this rivals deck. It’s literally only usable for turning some fighters into BCMDs, and even then, it costs one glory, and you have to be very specifically positioned to maximize the benefit. Too situational and has too few uses to be good.
Grade: D

Deadly Swarm – I am willing to bet someone will make a deck involving this attack action hitting 10 damage. A downside is that it is relatively inaccurate, but if you actually do have a lot of Denizen upgrades, you will have a lot of support from cards, so this can be negated. It doesn’t seem too good unless you have a lot of Denizen cards.
Grade: C+

Ever-Hungry Fiend – A free support when attacking someone adjacent? Well, this is pretty good. It can’t be given to someone in your territory, but that’s a small downside since it doesn’t break upon re-entry. I really cannot see more downsides to this. A more balanced, universal version of Brigade Strength.
Grade: A

Helpful Little Finder – This card isn’t that bad, actually. If you apply this in an end phase and then immediately use its effect, you will still have 5 power cards in your hand and another upgrade. Unfortunately there are already a lot of good upgrades out there, so the chances that someone removes a card from their deck for this one are pretty low.
Grade: C+

Inspiring Mascot – Regenerative Charm and Quickening Greaves in one, but it has some restrictions on who it can be given to. I don’t think this is that good however, if you are playing Hold Objective it can be really nice and I would take this over Quickening Greaves.
Grade: B

Kindred Affinity – This is kind of like Helpful Little Finder, but it doesn’t break. A downside is you can’t play a free upgrade from your hand but if you get a Denizen upgrade when drawing you can play that for free. I think it’s similar, or even slightly better, than Helpful Little Finder since it does not break.
Grade: B-

Stalking Terror – Support all BCMDs within 2 hexes. This isn’t bad especially for a certain warband already mentioned multiple times, the Exiled Dead. The downside is that BCMDs don’t usually have much power in damage or dice, so this card won’t help that much. There are still warbands with good BCMDs who can benefit from it, though.
Grade: B-

Unsettling Follower – I don’t see a purpose of this unless someone who you constantly play against is a Hold Objective fan. I wouldn’t run this in almost any case, unless you need more Denizen upgrades or Hold Objective gets too powerful.
Grade: D-

Vicious Familiar – A worse version of Silent Helm. This card can actually be pretty good if your opponent rolls only 2 dice. I would run this on warbands who NEED a certain fighter alive (e.g., Exiled Dead need Deintalos, Sepulchral Guard need the Warden, and Spiteclaw’s Swarm need Skritch). This card is basically useless if your opponent rolls three or more dice since they probably won’t remove a success from their roll (since they choose what dice to remove), and on 3 dice, it’s pretty easy to roll a fail.
Grade: B-

OVERVIEW

This deck is interesting. It focuses a lot on making one fighter the master of all BCMDs and then invading enemy territory. In Championship, the biggest beneficiaries of this deck will be:
– Exiled Dead
– Spiteclaw’s Swarm
– Gnarlspirit Pack
– Blackpowder’s Buccaneers

More warbands will like some cards from the deck, but these 4 listed are most likely to enjoy these cards the most.

This deck will DEFINITELY impact the Championship meta. The main reason is the fact that it has NO PLOT CARD, and this is the first deck this season that doesn’t have one. Championship will gain a larger card pool, and even if it isn’t some good cards, a larger pool would definitely impact the meta in some form or another.

And that’s it! Thank you for reading! If you have any feedback (or built a funny Deadly Swarm deck), you can find me on Discord (VintroV2#0001) or Twitter. I hope you enjoyed this article, and hope to see you again soon!