Hello! Most of the Underworlds community right now is aware of the new edition of Underworlds being released soon, namely Embergard. Today, I want to quickly go over all the cards revealed during GW’s First Gameplay stream! I’ll try to keep negativity to a minimum and speak mostly from a gameplay perspective.
A friendly reminder that Staggerers now has a Discord server, which you can join by clicking here. You can chat with fellow Underworlds players about both old and new editions!
Now, let’s get into the cards. Big thank you to Moongob for managing to take a screenshot of all of them!
BLAZING ASSAULT
So, Blazing Assault was played by the Stormcasts in the stream. It seems to be more of an aggro focused deck.
Get Stuck In: A very difficult surge (yes I will keep referring to ‘score immediately’ as surges). All you have to do is attack an enemy in enemy territory, not necessarily successfully. Seems like the aggro meta of Deathgorge and Wintermaw never left… I’d say the biggest issue with it is the fact that it’s almost impossible to deny. This is also a great strength of the card!
Annihilation: It has a very high glory reward which is unlikely to be ever collected. Especially since the 2 warbands revealed so far give 7 glory each for being tabled, this card seems a little pointless. It does make up for about a third of the total glory count of the deck though. If one thing stays constant in the new edition, it’s that Annihilation still won’t be run. Blazing Assault will lack in a Rivals-type format with this card – so hopefully actual deck building will be present.
Branching Fate: A surge from the past – this card got better in the new edition. Rolling 3 dice and having them all be different was not too hard already, but rolling 2 dice should be trivial! Once again, the issue arises with a non-deniable luck based surge.
Critical Effort: This card is absolutely bonkers. While in theory it is quite easy for a player to understand, which was the aim of the new edition, it’s a 100% undeniable, uncontrollable surge. You can’t control when you roll a crit! This makes it either very trivial or very difficult for most warbands. The attack doesn’t even have to hit!
Denial: Sidegraded from the old edition, Denial now scores for 1 glory but is scorable in any end phase. For an aggro deck, this might actually be a fine card as you will probably invade into your opponent before they can invade you. However, it is quite easy to deny in a Bo3, which makes it a little iffy. At least there is counterplay here!
Fields of Blood: This is honestly one of my favorite objectives from this deck, It’s pretty simple and the condition will pretty much always be met. You can score it by damaging your own fighters (assuming lethal hexes still exist) or by damaging enemy fighters. It’s also 1 glory, like the rest of the deck.
Strong Start: We’ve seen this card before and it’s pretty big gamble to take it. However, it should be doable if you have the proper warband and damage/wounds characteristics. Overall a middle of the line surge, it’s deniable but it can also be pretty rewarding for some warbands.
Go All Out: This card is kind of weird. You need 5 fighters to have moved/charged in the action phase. This is weird in a aggro deck as you need at least 1 enemy alive to score this card (or have an alternate way to distribute move/charge tokens) and aggro typically wants to kill things… like this card is in the same deck as Annihilation. In Round 1 this is a very good end phase, but later onwards it gets very difficult.
Perfect Strike: More surges for rolling dice. The attack doesn’t have to connect as well. I’d say this is the hardest of the ones we’ve seen yet, but is still a decent surge for warband with lots of low dice count attacks.
Strike the Head: Super interesting – a kill surge for killing a leader or someone with a wounds count greater than yours. It actually does force you to think about the order you kill your targets in, but compared to the other surges in this deck it’s pretty underwhelming as it actually requires tactical thinking.
Keep Choppin: An end phase that rewards you for doing what you want. A pretty nice card, hard to deny as well. In the old edition you had to make the attacks in separate activations unlike here, so it’s also a slight upgrade.
On the Edge: Toyed With as an end phase. The biggest issue with this is that it forces you to leave enemies alive, which is probably something you don’t want to do, as killing enemies can now potentially yield more than 1 glory per kill.
My overall thoughts on the objective deck are mixed. The surges are really good and extremely difficult to deny, but a little boring. Most of them are just ‘roll dice and pray’. The end phases are more interesting. As I said, Fields of Blood I thought was really cool but most of them are similarly interesting. They reward you for doing aggro things, which is pretty much what a ‘starters’ rivals deck should do. The big issue with this deck is Annihilation accounting for a third of the glory total… but that should be circumvented with a little deck building.
Healing Potion: It’s back and using a new mechanic: Underdog. It has a chance to be more effective if you have less glory than an opponent. Overall pretty nice, a little weaker than the old Healing Potion but still playable especially in an aggro deck.
Brawler: So from what I understood, this is a 1-glory upgrade that prevents attacks against you from having supports? If so, this is kind of niche but can be useful. I don’t know how often I died because of my opponent having support rolls count as successes, but I don’t think it was high enough to warrant an upgrade to counter it. Still, for an aggro deck that wants to charge in, it could be fine.
Commanding Stride: A 3 hex push for your leader. Pretty good overall, it’s sad that it STILL isn’t salvageable but at least it can be Focus-ed away if your leader is dead.
Determined Effort: It’s back and with a buff! Now, if you are Underdog, you get 2 dice instead of 1! Overall, a pretty big buff. +2 Dice is huge! This card will definitely see play.
Duellist: This is literally Duelist’s Speed but we’ll ignore that for now. Anyways, this is a pretty good upgrade. It can get you into good positions and out of bad ones. It does let you mitigate the risk of charging forward and also lets you cause more havoc when charged out.
Great Fortitude: It now costs 2 glory but is still very good considering glory now comes back when upgraded fighters die. If you don’t give away more bounty for having more wounds, this card would have even gotten better since last season. Overall, a good upgrade to have.
Tough: So based on the fighter cards we have seen so far, not many people can do more than 3 damage a hit. Therefore this card seems a little lackluster to me, especially since it costs 2 glory. Maybe when more 4+ damage fighters start appearing it will get good.
Illusory Fighter: A get-out-of-jail-free card. Overall it is very versatile, you can do lots of crazy shenanigans with this card! It’s definitely annoying to play against.
Lure of Battle: A downgraded Centre of Attention. Still, it could be worth running, as it is usable on both friendlies and enemies. Overall, a solid push.
Sharpened Points: Considering that the entire Stormcast warband as well as the Doomwheel defend on Shields, this card is really good. Cleave has historically been powerful but especially now.
Shields Up!: While the name can be misleading this card is still pretty good. Several new fighters have 2 defense and it is especially powerful on them. Overall, a pretty powerful defensive buff.
Sidestep: Hopefully no new Sidestep clone gets released within the next couple months and Sidestep can actually see some play, cause that wasn’t the case in Wintermaw. Pushes have historically been very good and Sidestep is arguably one of the more better ones!
Wings of War: A pretty interesting card. It gives you a surprise +2 for an activation, which limits the counterplay your opponent can do. For an aggro deck especially, this is really good!
Twist the Knife: It’s back and luckily it’s worse than before. Assuming Grievous still works the way it did, this card is fine. An unfortunate thing is that this card can only be used during Range 1 attacks but that shouldn’t be too bad. A little unreliable as it needs a crit, but still a decent card.
The cards we know from the power deck are pretty interesting. A lot of reprints from the old edition, and the new cards are pretty cool as well. Nothing too bad to say about it! The cards are simple to understand for newer players, they have pretty good effects, and are usable by most warbands. The one piece of criticism I can see coming here is that they don’t help define a warband’s flavor as most warbands will run the same exact ones, but gameplay-wise this is a good power deck. Hopefully the cards we haven’t seen yet follow the same pattern – though I personally prefer when cards are a little more interesting.
EMBERSTONE SENTINELS (I THINK)
So I fully forgot the name of the Hold Objective deck but I remember there were Sentinels and Embers involved. So hopefully this is correct! This deck was played by Zikkqit’s Tunnelpack (the skaven, yes-yes) in the stream.
Sally Forth: Our first surge is… make a charge action. All you need to do is hold an objective with a charge token in enemy territory. There is counterplay though, as it is scored after an opponent’s activation. This does make this card quite a bit harder but for balance it’s probably healthier this way. Still, it wouldn’t be too bad if scored after any activation.
Aggressive Defender: Attack while on an objective token. You don’t need to hit either. It’s actually better than the aggro ones in my opinion, as it is guaranteed to happen and doesn’t need dice. Some players might also enjoy the positional element involved. Overall, a really good surge.
Careful Advance: This is a weird card… it seems quite difficult, as it forces you to move and not charge. Yes, this is a ‘hold’ deck but you have to be in enemy territory as well… Zikkit’s Tunnelpack can score it in one turn with their abilities but I think this card typically won’t see much play if we get deckbuilding.
Hold Treasure Token 3 or 4: Ok so it’s a little known fact but holding objective 3 or 4 is objectively easier than Holding 1 or 2. So this is a much better card than the other Hold Treasure Token card. Overall, a fine card that can go into some deck.
Hold Treasure Token 1 or 2: So as previously stated this is more difficult than the other card. Other than that, same as above.
Iron Grasp: I was not expecting this card but it seems Hold Objective players do like it! This is pretty good, as it allows you to play either aggro or defensive. It also gives 2 glory!
Supremacy: It’s back but not similar to the other one. It still gives 3 glory, and is the highest glory-giving objective (Annihilation doesn’t count) that we have seen so far. It’s scored if you have 2 or more fighters hold objectives, and those fighter’s Bounty adds up to at least 3. This is a very well designed card. It’s easier for some warbands than others for sure.
Unassailable: Get attacked while on an objective token for one glory. Very difficult. You don’t need to survive the attack, and you don’t need to remain on the objective token. This is a very big deterrent to getting attacked if you are on a *treasure token, and is definitely a very powerful card.
Step by Step: You have to hold an objective in enemy territory with a move token (or a charge token if you are Underdog) after an opponent’s activation. A decent objective, but I don’t know if it’s going to be played a lot as it’s easy to push you off once you are in position. Still, it’s a fine option if you want to invade enemy territory.
Unlike the other objective deck, this deck we only see 9 cards. This is a little annoying, but the cards revealed so far seem interesting. These cards for sure require more positioning than the aggro deck but are pretty rewarding as well. The surges are a little iffy with some of them requiring you to invade which the end phases don’t want you to do… but this shouldn’t be too problematic. Overall, a fine objective deck!
Great Speed: Choosing to reprint Great Speed is an interesting choice but at least it’s free now, so it might be played in warbands with high move characteristics already.
Agile: So I’m assuming it works like Champion’s Fortitude or Dark Humor from the old edition – but it now costs 2 glory. It’s probably still going to be played but having it 2 glory hurts for sure.
By the Numbers: An absolutely amazing card, it lets you draw cards equal to the amount of objectives held. It rewards doing what you want to do anyway and it rewards you very well. Definitely a good card. If deckbuilding is a thing, I can see this being in every deck, as being able to draw even 1 card is good.
Duellist: Same as the aggro deck. Here, it could be even better than in an aggro deck, as it allows you to use Overrun without needing to crit. This makes it easier to take objectives.
The Extra Mile: An interesting push… I’d say it’s biggest issue is it has to be played after a move action… in which case you might as well just end on the feature token already. Yes, sometimes you need precisely that one extra move to reach the feature token but I don’t think that happens too often.
Great Fortitude: Once again, same as the aggro deck. Here it might once again be more useful as HO warbands tend to hate dying a little more than aggro warbands.
Switch Things Up: This makes Hold Treasure Token X or Y extremely easy. Other than that, not too powerful.
Healing Potion: Same as aggro deck. I’d say both decks enjoy this card to a similar extent.
Hold the Line!: This trivializes the objectives that can only be scored after an opponent’s activation. A very good card for Hold Objective decks such as this one.
Inviolate: Once again, this card is niche because ignoring supports isn’t something you need often. However, it might come up more often when you hold an objective, as typically you don’t want to abandon the objective for a safer position.
Settle In: This card is very good if guard makes you unable to be driven back. I’d say the most annoying part is the aggro deck (which probably needs this less) has a better version of this card.
Shoulder Throw: This card is quite funny but I don’t think it will be too useful. It’s just a better drive back. It might not always be better even, just kind of funny and more displacing.
Sidestep: Well pushes are typically better for HO than aggro… so Sidestep is definitely better in this deck than the other deck. Once again, an amazing card!
My thoughts on the power deck are a little worse than the aggro deck. One of the biggest issue with this power deck is that the cards in Blazing Assault are objectively better than these ones… such as go on Guard anywhere vs. go on Guard on a feature token. Sure, you can run both… but still. Other than that, these cards are definitely pretty good for HO warbands. While I did say I dislike this deck more than the aggro one power-card wise, that doesn’t mean I don’t like it! It’s definitely a great deck!
And that’s it! Once more info comes out about Embergard, I will try to get more articles out about it. If you have any feedback, you can can provide it on the Staggerers Discord server here, and I hope to see you again soon! 🙂
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