With Deathgorge arriving sometime this month, Championship rotation does to. So today’s article is to commemorate some of the best, most used, recognizable cards in Harrowdeep, as well as provides some usable alternatives you can use!
Harrowdeep
Contest of Equals was a card that dominated in every deck. It’s still powerful, but due to restrictions and other surges (Devoted Offerings…) it became slightly less used. It’s still a powerful card and will by missed by decks with a shortage of surges. There really isn’t a modern-day alternative to it present yet.
Cryptic Clues was any elite control/Hold Objective player’s signature card. With 3 or 4 fighters, getting all of them to stand in a hex with a feature token (or cover or lethal hex) wasn’t too difficult, especially with Harrowdeep board Profane Larder. While it will still exist in the shape of Places of Power, the epic Places of Power/Cryptic Clues 4 glory end phase combo will not be seen again (outside of relic).
Lengthening Shadows was a aggro swarm’s best card. A signature card for Invasion Aggro, warbands like Exiled Dead enjoyed this card a lot. A modern-day alternative can be Hurricane Force for Tooth and Claw users or Taking Advantage, so don’t expect Invasion Aggro to disappear completely just cause of this card being gone!
Reckless Swing was an extremely easy surge for Range 1 warbands. I remember slotting it into any deck with a Range 1 attacker when Harrowdeep came out. While it has fallen in relevance to due a lot of new warbands lacking Range 1, or relying on support tech for accuracy, it’s still pretty good. Modern day alternatives include Courageous Conjurer for wizards, but not much for non-wizards.
Trace the Leylines was a really nice card for swarm warbands, being auto score in most cases for warbands with 6+ fighters and not really requiring any special positioning. While upon launch, it was kind of bad to numbers not being face up, in Gnarlwood when objective numbers returned this card quickly grew relevant. Modern day alternatives don’t really exist, but if you liked objective numbers you might want to invest in Paths of Prophecy.
Unfair Fight was and still is an insane card for warbands with support tech. Giving you both extra accuracy and damage while already having a higher chance to hit (due to supports) is absolutely insane, making this card an auto-include in most of my support-tech decks (like the Kunnin’ Krew and Hexbane). There really isn’t a modern day alternative to this one, unless you count pings as one.
Plunder the Graves was a death-only card, allowing you to grab a grab a card you already played and use it again. In Round 1, where you still haven’t played much cards, this one could have some devastating potential. Some of my best moments with this was recycling Death’s Soldiers to use twice in the same round, or a double Lethal Ward eliminating an enemy on a feature token. Once again, there is no modern day alternative to it.
Cover of Darkness was a fantastic card early in Harrowdeep, when all feature tokens were cover hexes. While it is still played today, it isn’t really as popular. It is mostly used in Shadeborn decks or Cryptic Clues/Places of Power decks. With this card, a modern day alternative exists in the shape of Slinking in There, allowing you o push yourself 2 hexes onto an objective. While Cover of Darkness was definitely more efficient in Harrowdeep due to there being more Cover Hexes (printed on boards and feature tokens), Slinking in There is still a fantastic alternative.
Agonising Bolt was one of the only pings in Harrowdeep, and by far the best one. It was still used even in Wyrdhollow especially by a certain blue agent of change. While restricted to only Chaos warbands, it was still pretty popular in the ones that did have wizards (even though not much of them did at the time). It definitely grew in popularity the older it got. Modern day alternatives include about 70% of all spells in the game spells like Stir the Nest. While they are restricted, it’s still a great way to damage an enemy outside of an activation.
Vaults Mysterium was completely ignored at launch. Wizards were not too good, so this card was left in the dust. However, at the start of Wyrdhollow, this card became extremely powerful as it more or less shutdown the strongest warbands in the game: Ephilim and Domitan’s Stormcoven. The new Forces of Frost deck also has a lot of extremely good spells, meaning more than ever would I like that card in my decks. Shame it is rotating the moment it is needed, as there is no better card to counter wizards in the game right now.
Darkening Stone was a must-have in today’s Cryptic Clues/Places of Power decks. It is a great defense buff, causing you to count double-supports as successes in defense rolls. For 2 dodge warbands, you can run this even without Cryptic Clues/Places of Power. A very versatile card, an similar card to it today is Walking Wall, turning you into a feature token while you have it. However, it is plot-locked to Fearsome Fortress.
Shadow Mover was a very nice card for slow warbands. While today there is no shortage of +1 move cards, this one was definitely one of the best ones if you needed speed. Luckily, as previously stated, there is a lot of really good movement cards today so there shouldn’t be a trouble finding an alternative.
Troggoth’s Blood was an insane heal card. The amount of times I faced a Rippa who randomly fully healed in a power step was too much. Unfortunately (luckily?), there is no alternative to it save for Energy Converter in the Voidcurse expansion and even that is pretty bad compared to this.
Unfazed – This card was one of the only ways to get extra Defense in these seasons. Unsurprisingly, Brawlers liked it a lot. My personal favorite moment with it was when I managed to get Gorl from the Gnarlspirit Pack to 4 Shields and 2 rerolls with this card as well as Weighty Blessing, Champion’s Fortitude, and Preternatural Senses. Luckily, Hold Objective warbands have a similar card to this today in Protected by the Unseen as well as Weighty Blessing for Chaos!
Finally, Ephemeral Fortitude was a sidegrade to Great Fortitude. The main fighter I saw benefiting from this one was Skritter from the Plaguepack but he doesn’t get to use it anymore. Still, any warband with a lot of 2 wound fighters brought this card along in some cases were wounds were imortant. 4 wounds on the Exiled Dead zombies or Briar Queen’s Chainrasps was fun. Sadly, other than Great Fortitude, there isn’t a way to get a large boost to wounds for 2-wound fighters anymore.
And that’s it! Writing this article actually made me realize that not a lot of great cards went missing as I thought, so this was a fun experience for me. I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you have any feedback for me please leave me a message on Discord (VintroV2) or on Twitter , and I’ll see you again soon!
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