Hello again, and welcome back to my Wyrmhollow core box review! Sorry for taking so long on these articles, I have been busy lately, but I will try to finish these last ones quickly! In case you missed the intro to this series, check out my Domitan’s Stormcoven review, and Part 2 is my Ephilim’s Pandaemonium review.
A quick word on this article: since it is about a universal rivals deck, I would rate each card based on how viable it is at its average strength, for example, the first card would be GREAT for Poison-heavy decks, but other than that it is pretty bad, meaning it will get a C. On the other hand, the second card would be much higher because it’s usable by most warbands.
OBJECTIVES
Capable Poisoners – You score this for having made a successful attack in the previous phase and having 2 friendly fighters who each have a Poison upgrade. For context, 9/10 upgrades in this deck are Poison, and almost all require running Poison gambits to be effective (big surprise). For some warbands like Elathain’s Soulraid and Hexbane’s Hunters, who have fighters who can keep moving around pretty much anywhere and can lean into the Poison gambits, this might be worth running. Otherwise, since the upgrades have synergy with the gambits, which not much people would run, I would pass.
Grade: C
Carve a Path – A really good objective that doesn’t require you leaning into Poison! You need to have your leader make 2 attacks, but you gain one extra glory if one of those attacks was successful and made in enemy territory. Even without the extra glory, if your leader is not one-shotable by the average fighter (ahem Hexbane) and has some sort of decent attack I would recommend this! The biggest issue is you have to get your leader into the frontlines since most of the time, leaders have a Range 2 attack and rarely get 3 (and then Ephilim has 4).
Grade: B+
Deluge of Toxins – Once again, this requires leaning into Poison gambits. It gives you one glory for having either 2 persisting Poison gambits or 3 persisting gambits. There are some good Poison ploys gambits here that might actually make this card worth running, however, if you are running only 0-2 Poisons (which most people will), then I would pass on this. I recommend this for 4+ Poison decks (once again, Elathain’s Soulraid!).
Grade: C+
Dual Contamination – An end phase that requires you to have 2 or more persisting Poison gambits or 2 fighters with a Poison upgrade. Once again, this requires heavy leaning into Poisons. However, even Elathain might not run this because it is only 1 glory for a modest amount of work.
Grade: D
Expunged – You score this after a Poison gambit that was affecting an enemy was discarded, if you have 3 or more Poison gambits in your discard pile. This is pretty difficult since you would need to run at least 4 Poisons to score this consistently, which most warbands are not willing to do, as you need to have already drawn and used/discarded 2 Poisons and then get a third, and then have THAT one get discarded. Too much work, especially for 1 glory.
Grade: D-
Lone Claim – A very weird twist on Uncontested from Beastgrave; this needs you to hold an objective in your’s or no-ones territory and have no enemies hold an objective. This can potentially be useful, but there are so much better Hold Objective cards right now so this is kind of overshadowed, especially since it is one glory only (even though it does not need leaning into Poison gambits).
Grade: C
Lurk In Wait – Requires you to have a fighter with no move or charge tokens in enemy territory. If you can get a fighter into enemy territory without giving them a move or charge token consistently, go for it since it is easy glory. The 2 warbands I can think of are Spiteclaw’s Swarm and Grymwatch (with the revive) and Hexbane’s Hunters (with Price of Victory), but all of them need a fighter to die to do this, so I don’t think it’s worth it (unless you manage to get a fighter into enemy land and then they forget about them for a round so they just sit still).
Grade: D+
Mass Poisoning – Have a friendly fighter with a Poison upgrade make their second or subsequent successful attack in the same phase for 2 glory. I don’t see many cases where this is consistent cause unless you have a fighter with a scything attack, you can only make 4 attacks per round. Out of them, half need to be successful, and then you need to have a Poison upgrade. Maybe some warband with an accurate, multiple-range attack can score this, but other than that, there isn’t much hope for this. It just seems too luck-dependent.
Grade: D-
Superiority Confirmed – Over about 90% of the objectives in this deck! First of all, this card doesn’t require Poison gambits or upgrades. Second, it is pretty easy to score for 2 glory. You need to have enemies with a combined wounds of 4 or more out of action, and have your leader in enemy territory. Considering the unholy amount of damage upgrades in this game right now, coupled with a bit of pings, the killing part becomes pretty easy. The hard part is having your leader survive in enemy territory till the end phase, but that is easily work-around-able by just getting them there in the last activation. Overall, a really good card for aggro warbands, especially leader-reliant ones.
Grade: B
Taking Advantage – A surge, scoring when there is an equal or greater amount of Friendly fighters in enemy territory as enemy fighters. Is this scorable with 0 fighters? Anyways, I think many aggro warbands won’t have trouble scoring this. The obvious example is Exiled Dead, but warbands like Hedkrakka’s Madmob can score this by simply killing everyone. Obviously, control and hold objective playstyles will have issues with this. I also like how it can be scored for 2 glory in Round 1, that makes it stronger and more tempting but also keeps it from being broken for just 2 glory!
Grade: B
Toxic Demise – Kill someone who is affected by a Poison gambit. This is really good, assuming you are running a lot of Poisons. However, since this is Championship and you are legally required to run Duel of Wits and some other key cards and don’t want you to clog your deck, this becomes really hard to score. If you are investing in Poisons, use this, otherwise, I would pass.
Grade: C
Venom-Gorged – Hold an objective in enemy territory with a fighter with a Poison upgrade. Not bad if you are running Poison upgrades. Which, as previously stated, you probably won’t be. However, if you are, I will recommend this card because it gives 2 glory for doing 1 (albeit hard) thing, holding an objective in enemy territory!
Grade: C+
POWER CARDS
Bleeding Out – This first Poison lets you choose an enemy fighter who is wounded, and then reduce their Move and Defense by 1, to a minimum of one, persisting till the end of the round or till they die. Not bad, however, it is pretty situational. You will first need to wound someone. Then, to optimize this card, they will need to have 2 defense (you can technically take it for -1 Move only since that can be fatal for some slower warbands). Overall, it can be devastating, but it rarely is and is usually just a minor inconvenience. It does help with scoring Poison gambit objectives, though.
Grade: C+
Choking Venom – A Poison that affects your fighters. What do you do, drink the venom from the bottle in place of water? Anyways, this lets you choose a friendly fighter and give their Range 1-2 attacks Grievous until their next successful attack or till the end of the round. This can be pretty good on some warbands (Skittershank’s Clawpack?) but is not as good as a normal +1 Damage. This is because it gives you Grievous but only persists till the next successful attack, which doesn’t necessarily mean that Grievous would proc. If you have a lot of dice+need some damage (like Skittershank), go for it. Otherwise, I would pass, since it is pretty unreliable.
Grade: B-
Freezing Venom – This is a poison I see getting used a lot! It lets you choose an enemy fighter, then that fighter cannot make superactions and attacks that target them have Ensnare. This persists till they take damage, make an action, or till the end of the round. The obvious benefit here is stopping someone from a crucial charge (or Barge, now that that is a thing), since to remove it, you need to make an action, which will often result in a Move or Guard, which will burn an opponent’s activation. It can also be used as an accuracy buff. There are many things this card can do, the trouble is knowing when exactly to play it, since it can deny so much!
Grade: A-
Hidden Lair – Make an objective token unholdable until it flips or the end of the round. Also, it is the first non-Poison gambit so far! This can be used to deny some crucial objective, like Stockpile or the new Claim the Prize, but if you aren’t playing against a Hold Objective warband, this card becomes invalid. Against Hold Objective, who are gaining popularity due to Fearsome Fortress and the new Seismic Shock, this is fatal. Otherwise, it’s dead weight.
Grade: B
Ill-Prepared – Give an enemy fighter on a starting hex a Move token, and then make them unable to attack while on a starting hex (till the end of the round). This is really situational after Round 1, but in Round 1, this is VERY disruptive, since not being able to charge or attack is really annoying!
Grade: B
Insect Swarm – A Poison-based ping, which lets you do a certain amount of damage to someone within one hex of a feature token or hazard hex based on how many hammers you roll on X dice, where X is the number of Poisons in your discard pile. This is extremely situational and is highly unlikely to go off. If you like pings, I recommend Flame Wisps or Launch an Attack, or Quickroots and Dark Command if you are willing to take a restricted slot. This is just too situational and requires a lot of Poison investment to be worth running.
Grade: D
Keep The Forest At Bay – A double Sidestep with a twist, you must push the fighters closer to an enemy in enemy territory. This is a decent card, first of all, because it’s a double push, which is always great, and second is because the fact that you have to push toward someone isn’t really that bad. Sure, there are times when there are no enemies left in enemy territory, but that doesn’t really happen often. Additionally, the fact that you can choose an enemy fighter to push closer to is much better than just push toward the closest enemy fighter. If you like accurate pushes, go for Sidestep. If you like quantity pushes, go for this!
Grade: B+
No Safe Ground – A nice combination of Distraction (Shadespire/Beastgrave) and Sidestep. This allows you to choose a fighter within one hex of a feature token/hazard hex, Stagger them, and then push them one hex (unless they hold an objective). Not being within one hex of a feature or hazard hex is really rare, especially since the new boards have a lot of those hazard hexes, so you will pretty much always meet that condition. After that, it’s basically a Stagger (nice accuracy buff) and in a lot of cases a free push an enemy closer to you or a Sidestep!
Grade: A-
Spit Venom – A really good defensive debuff for your opponent, turning them into just one Dodge (till the end of the round)! The downside (which is MAJOR) is that you have to be adjacent to them to apply this. This makes it really hard to use early-game since you have to charge (or Barge) an enemy once, to get adjacent to someone to play this, and then charge them again, this time while they are Poisoned. This means that it takes 2 activations in most cases to make this a worthwhile investment. Overall, REALLY good in cases where you can pull it off. However, pulling it off is hard.
Grade: C+
Venomous Blood – A reaction that Staggers the attacker after your fighters get dealt damage, and then deals one damage to them if you had a Poison upgrade. This can be useful but requires investing into Poison upgrades to make it work fully. Otherwise, it can be used as a ‘ha-ha, you got Staggered so now it’s easier for me to hit you’ card. If you are running Poison upgrades and want Stagger/pings, run this, otherwise run other Stagger or pings.
Grade: C
Blighted Aura – The first upgrade, which makes it so that while your attacker is affected by a Poison gambit, you take -1 damage from attacks! This is a really nice upgrade but requires investment into Poisons. If you are investing in Poisons with 3-4 of them, and require any defensive bonus you can get your hands on (for important fighters like Deintalos or Skritch), then I would recommend this. Otherwise, I would pass since it requires serious Poison investment. Note – don’t accidentally make your fighters Large while you have this!
Grade: B-
Blighted Touch – Basically, the same as the last one, but worse. It makes it so that you aren’t affected by Cleave/Ensnare/Stagger/Knockback while your attacker is Poisoned. Blighted Aura is better in almost all cases, except if your fighter is already large. Plus, not many fighters have scary Cleave/Ensnare attacks (and there isn’t a lot of Stagger tech right now to worry about this).
Grade: C
Callous – Basically Great Strength, but you only get the effects while your target is affected by a Poison gambit or you have 2 or more Poison upgrades. This is good if you are voltroning a fighter, though there are some better +1 damage cards. Great Strength, Gloryseeker, Fighter’s Ferocity, and Dark Parasites can fill the role of this card just as well but work all the time (except Fighter’s Ferocity, which needs a crit). If you REALLY want +1 damage, run this along with another Poison upgrade to have consistent damage bonuses; otherwise, run one of the cards stated above.
Grade: B
Grim Trophies – One of the most situational cards in Championship, right there with Phantom Theft. After you kill someone who was affected by one or more Poisons, you can give a friendly fighter within 2 hexes a Poison upgrade. How often, in the current Championship meta, will you get this scenario AND have this upgrade equipped? Very little. I don’t think it’s even worth running if you are investing heavily into Poisons, it just seems that unlikely to be useful.
Grade: F
Poisonmaster – Slightly less situational and has a better bonus. After you kill someone who is Poisoned, you can draw 2 power cards. A key thing is that it cannot be given to a large fighter. If you are running Poisons this might be worth looking into, for the draw tech, but if you are using Daring Delvers, Plundered Knowledge is a much better alternative.
Grade: C-
Poisonwarp Metalith – It does exactly what its name suggests, pulls Poison toward it. It gives the fighter with the upgrade an action: pull everyone (not just enemies) affected by a Poison gambit one hex closer. However, it cannot be given to large fighters. This is not really going to be used often, but it can be really clutch in some really niche situations, like when a Poisoned fighter is standing on an objective. I don’t like how it needs an activation to work, but I don’t see any other way to incorporate it. However, this fact makes it much less appealing to play.
Grade: D
Sneaky Weasel – The ONLY non Poison upgrade in the deck. This lets you choose an enemy fighter with either a wound counter or who has the lowest wound characteristic of all surviving enemies, and push the fighter with the upgrade one hex closer to them. This happens after an activation in which this fighter took actions. This can be really useful in endgames where there are like 3 fighters left on the board and you have the fighter with this upgrade pushing himself across the board to kill everyone. It can also be used as a kind-of Duelist’s Speed. Overall, this card has potential to be either really strong or just a fluke.
Grade: B
Venombite Shank – A REALLY accurate knife (which is, for some reason, a Poison?) that deals one damage and hits on 4 Hammers with cleave. If you really REALLY want to hit someone badly then run this, because 4 hammers is crazy accurate and then you throw cleave into the mix. A downside of this attack is that it’s only 1 range and 1 damage, so you need to get close to stab someone and you need to get +1 damage cards (Dark Parasites?) to really have some impact. Overall, this has some great synergies with other cards but by itself, is accurate and weak.
Grade: B-
Venombite Weapons – This card can only be played if you have a Poison gambit in your discard pile. When you give this to someone, you can pick one of those gambits and put it under Venombite Weapons. Then, once you make a successful attack, you can take that gambit into your hand and put a new one under the card. This can be used to re-use some key Poisons like Freezing Venom, but I don’t see a lot of Poisons being useful enough to run this just to keep re-using them. Plus, if you are playing against a beginner, explaining this card to them will take up around 30% of your game time.
Grade: D+
Wicked Hunter – Stagger tech! After you play a Poison gambit, you can push the fighter with this upgrade one hex and then Stagger everyone around you. This requires a lot of Poison investment to use a lot of times, and a lot of Poisons already Stagger, meaning this card is usually not going to be worth taking, even for the large-scale accuracy buff. If you like Staggering people, I recommend playing Skittershank’s Clawpack and using Padpaw a lot.
Grade: C+
And that’s it! Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this! If you have any feedback, please contact me on Twitter or Discord (VintroV2#0001)! Be on the lookout for the last articles in this series, the Seismic Shock rivals deck (my goal is to have it out by Friday!), and I hope to see you again soon!
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