Skabbik’s Plaguepack Review

Intro

Skabbik! Rickitt! Ickitt! Bop-It! Am I dating myself with that one? Pretty pumped today to be reviewing some more Skaven with our first Underworlds foray into Clan Pestilens: Skabbik’s Plaguepack. You guys know me, I’m a sucker for more Skaven, so I’m very excited for this box, not just for its aesthetics but also some interesting gameplay mechanics. While I am a tad worried about the warband’s fragility overall, this looks to me like a case where GW nailed a warband’s “schtick,” so I’m excited to talk about them. On behalf of the PtG team, thanks to them for providing us with a review copy to get this content out for you folks on reveal weekend. Let’s jump in!

Plot Card

As is seemingly tradition with the Wyrdhollow warbands, a plot card is used to augment their design space and provide an inspire condition. While I am still not generally a fan of using plot cards in this fashion (I much prefer fresh and interesting takes on interacting with the already existing rules rather than introducing more keywords), I think this one is done pretty elegantly and in a way that meaningfully fits the theme of the warband trying to spread their plague. It details how to “corrupt” territories of the board, which is important not just for interaction with faction cards, but also for your inspire condition, as the warband will universally inspire upon corrupting two or more territories. A territory becomes corrupted at the end of the action phase if two or more befoulers are in that territory, one or more befoulers is on an objective in that territory, or you play a power card which enables you to corrupt it, and the effect lasts until the end of the next action phase. The token occupation obviously lessens the positional requirement in terms of having multiple fighters in a given location and sets the warband up to target more of a flex playstyle. While there is some concern about the warband’s fragility in attempting to accomplish this, they did pack in a few power cards to the deck to help with corruption, so you’re not totally left in the lurch if you start to run out of fighters.

Fighters

Starting with the leader of the pack, as usual, we have Skabbik Plagueseeker. He sports a 4 Move, 1 Dodge, 4 Wound physical profile, the biggest shock of which will be that this is now our first Skaven warband without universal 5 Move. Like Skritch, starting out at 1 Dodge does leave him pretty vulnerable to getting whacked if your positioning is not great, especially given the prevalence of ping potentially meaning that even a single 2-3 damage attack can leave you in danger of getting taken off the board in the power step.  He does have the now almost standard leader attack of 2R/2H/2D, though he tacks on grievous for some nice spike potential. On top of this, he is a priest (one day you will get universal power card support…) and a befouler, which is a warband-specific keyword. In addition to the interactions with corruption which I discussed in the plot card section, befoulers can stagger each enemy fighter adjacent to them at the beginning of the round to augment the warband’s accuracy (and they are going to need it). While you are fragile enough that you might not want to be leaving too many enemy fighters adjacent to you on purpose, this can, by happenstance, give you a nice little boost even if it’s not something you are necessarily trying for. In another Skaven first, instead of going to 2 Dodge (or 2 Shields if you are Krrk) upon inspiration, you simply flip from 1 Dodge to 1 Shield for a pretty meager defensive improvement. The only other small boost is going from 2H to 3S, which is admittedly nice for grievous crit fishing, especially given the potential for re-rolls the warband has. Nice to have, but, at least for Skabbik, not a whole lot to gain from inspiring. Overall, decent offensive presence but a bit more fragile than you’d typically like your leader to be, and the lack of Move 5 means corruption is not as easy to spread as it otherwise might have been (which I can only assume was a balancing choice).

Next up is big Rabidius Skench, a minion and befouler on 4 Move, 1 Dodge, 3 Wounds. He is the main beater of the warband at 2R/2S/3D or 1R/2S/2D with scything. While this accuracy is obviously pretty suspect, they seem to be factoring in the stagger mechanics of the warband, as well as some of the accuracy tech in their power deck that we will cover later. For this reason, you’ll likely be wanting to save his activation for later in the round once you’ve had a chance to set up some better odds on attacks to capitalize on his high damage output and/or horde control. While his physical stats do not change upon inspiration, he receives significant accuracy buffs on both profiles, going to 2R/2H/3D and 1R/3S/2D, both of which are highly desirable improvements. His fragility will likely be a problem pretty often, but if you can get a meaningful activation or two with him, he does have the potential to provide a lot of value.

Then we have Itchitt, another minion and befouler with the same physical profile as Rabidius. His attack profile is basically useless at 1R/2S/1D, but he’s holding a book so you have to figure that’s not what he’s supposed to be good at anyway! His Book of Woe ability allows him to take an action to roll a magic die for each enemy fighter in the same territory as him, dealing a point of damage to that fighter on a swirly. While this could be a nice way to spread blanket ping in the right matchups, I’ve played enough Reshaping Burst to know you probably are not going to hit the enemy fighters you want to with this. On top of that, this is an action and will likely not have many targets until after the first round, as you cannot use this as part of a charge, for example. If you plan to use this more reliably, you’ll want some serious move and push tech to get him over into enemy territory. When inspired, he becomes a bit more reliable by going up to 2 damage on his attack while jumping from swirlies to lightning on the book. While this is better, your opponent is also likely to have less fighters later in the match once you inspire, and it’s still only a 50/50. Sure, there will be some times where you can drop this on like Sepulchral Guard and ping 3-4 fighters in one activation, but I suspect this will often be a fighter you forgo activating in the first round and largely forgo activating at all in matchups against elite warbands.

Poxlix is our 4^th member of the warband, the first minion to not have the befouler keyword. At 4 Move, 1 Dodge, 2 Wounds, he is pretty easily one-shot by the vast majority of the field, which is a bit concerning given that these rats don’t come back onto the table. Sure, you have 6 fighters and some losses are expected, but you are going to need to be very careful about feeding this guy to your opponents. To make up for his fragility, he actually does have an ok attack profile for his station at 1R/3S/1D with grievous. Inspiration is actually pretty important on this one as well, going from 1 Dodge to 1 Shield and, more importantly, gaining a Wound as well. Going to 4 Dice on the attack profile is a nice cherry on top for more consistent crit fishing. While this would point towards trying to keep him in a safer position during deployment, you have 6 fighters and there’s no way to keep all of them safely tucked away. You kind of need your befoulers to do the corruption thing, so you’re stuck either risking them (and they are also quite fragile) to protect the non-befoulers or vice versa. I suspect this will often result in dangling one or both of these minions, but it may vary depending on the matchup and your opponent’s access to innate 3 Damage.

The other non-befouler minion is Rikkit, who has the same physical profile as Poxlix, but a slightly modified attack profile at 2R/2S/1D with grievous. He inspires to the same physical statline as Poxlix while converting his grievous to just straight 2 Damage on his attack. While there will be plenty of scenarios where the range is nice, I feel like he is probably the more expendable of the two. In either case, weapon upgrades will likely be your friend. Side note, but the flavor text about how he got Rabidius stuck carrying the censer is also hilarious, I love that kind of thing with Skaven.

Finally, we have, in my opinion, the best sculpt in the warband (and possibly the best in the Underworlds) with Skritter. Move aside Duinclaw, this is definitely the new bestest boy. Interestingly, he does have the befouler keyword (in addition to minion and the beast trait) and I think he will actually be a key piece in the warband. He starts at 5 Move, 1 Dodge, 1 Wound with a 1R/2S/1D attack. Obviously these stats are nothing to write home about, but he does have the Worthless ability which means he not only grants no bounty for being killed, but he, like Spinefin, is not considered to have been taken out of action (although he would count as being out of action). While this is a pretty nice disincentive for your opponent, I strongly feel he should’ve been 2 Dodge instead of 1, as there is no way to put him back onto the board once he’s been killed. Again, with the insane amount of ping floating around (even in Nemesis), this often means he will just melt in a power step without getting to do what he is supposed to do. He does inspire to 2 Dodge, but I do think he should’ve had a couple of tweaks if they wanted to go this way with him. Since you cannot return him to the battlefield, I think not only was the 2 Dodge uninspired warranted, but he also should have been immune to gambit damage, if not also lethal hexes and/or non-attack damage. There will simply be too many instances where he just explodes with your opponent barely giving it a second thought, which seems to defeat the purpose of the “distraction” element of his gameplay. Matchups where your opponent can’t act to deal him damage out-of-sequence will maybe feel ok, but I think they didn’t do quite enough to make him into what it seems he was supposed to be, especially considering you only have 4 befoulers and as many as 3 territories you are trying to corrupt in a given round.

In general, the stats on this warband are obviously pretty underwhelming, which I think will definitely cause them problems against certain matchups. Specifically, I think your typical 2H/3D fighter, as well as those with 2D scything will be problematic. Similarly, warbands like Soulraid that pack accurate 2D plus ping can potentially melt guys early. I wouldn’t be too shocked to see games where there are 3 rats left by the end of the 1^st round. To cheat ahead a bit, I do think their faction deck will leave them in a spot to compete despite this, but, at some point, you just really need bodies to stay on the table when you play hordes (especially given how corruption works) and I’m not wholly convinced they will be able to manage this on a consistent basis.

Our Favorites

• Mark: Skritter
• Aman Rabidius Skench
• Zach: Skritter
• George: Rabidius Skench

Objectives

Our first objective in the set is A Leader’s Privilege, a 1-glory end phase for having two or more friendly minions within 2 hexes of your leader and in no one’s or enemy territory. Since you have 5 minions, this is actually fairly doable on a more aggressive build, but that’s a lot of positional requirements for just 1 glory. This is especially true given the overall fragility of the warband, leader included, so I’m not really jumping out of my seat for this one.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Befouled is our increasingly more common “such-and-such kills an enemy fighter,” in this case being a befouler. Interestingly, the language is such that it does not have to be from an attack action, presumably to incorporate the damage from Book of Woe. Given that you’ve got 4 such fighters, this is pretty much the kind of kill surge you want to be taking, if you’re taking any. Given potential Rivals deck pairings here, this could also make inclusion of doable out-of-sequence attacks like Voidcursed Assault or [Opportunistic Reprisal] provide even more value than they otherwise would. I know I’m normally pretty down on kill surges but this one seems solid to me.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Blessed By Corruption is our first of several objective cards that points towards a more flex/invading aggro style, scoring 1 glory after your opponent’s activation if you have a friendly minion on an objective in enemy territory. Since you are largely going to be aiming for this anyway (at least with Rabidius, Itchitt, or Skritter) to spread corruption, this seems pretty solid. I’ve already mentioned these guys might pair nicely with Voidcursed Thralls, so dropping one of the 3 Wounders onto a token might make them tough enough to displace that you take your glory before your opponent is able to knock you off. The Refashioned Reactions and Refashioned Priorities upgrades can also help you set it up during your opponent’s activation, making it potentially pretty tough to deny. Very solid objective, but I think telegraphed enough and requiring enough interaction that it is fairly balanced.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

As is recent tradition, every warband needs their characteristic 3-glory bomb and this one’s is Bringers of Ruination, which is a score in any end phase for having corrupted all 3 territories. Unlike most of these big score cards, this one actually becomes increasingly more difficult the later in the game it gets. It’s very conceivable in the first round that you can run out and grab an objective in each territory with a befouler or supplement with a power card or two to corrupt everything. However, I’ve already mentioned the warband is pretty fragile, so I would not anticipate having many fighters surviving in the late game to score this if you don’t happen to draw it early. In either case, you need to pack most, if not all, of the warband’s corruption tech to make it more reliable, as it will otherwise likely be a much harder version of [Supremacy]. For 3 glory and more reliable inspiration, maybe that is worth the power card investment.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1

Corrupting the Land is our next end phase and trades off the big glory output of our previous entry for significantly more reliability, scoring 1 glory for having corrupted either enemy or no one’s territory. Since you are going to need to corrupt at least one of those to inspire, I’d say this is pretty good. At worst, this is “have a befouler on an objective token in enemy or no one’s territory,” but some of your power cards can just proc the corruption with no ability for your opponent to undo it. Unless you really need maximum glory ceiling, I think this one is pretty well worth it.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3

Infected Corpse Pile is a third consecutive corruption-based end phase card, gotta spread that plague! This one scores for 2 glory if you’ve corrupted two or more territories and have taken out 2 or more enemy fighters. While there is some matchup dependence here, we’ve already talked about the desire to play something of an invading aggro style with these guys in order to inspire, and they do have enough punch to make a couple of kills. Should be pretty doable in the late game, even against elites, so really the draw sequencing will be the main thing to watch out for. To cheat ahead a bit, they do have 1 card that can help with that, so I like this well enough that I’ll likely have it in my first couple decks with them.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2

Rabid Harbingers is our next card, a 1-glory surge for holding two or more objectives and having one or more befoulers on an objective token in your territory. This again needs to be after an opponent’s activation step, but we’ve seen cards like [We Stand Together] and Land of the Dead provide plenty of value in spite of the less forgiving scoring windows. While this requires slightly more from you, it’s great passive glory and should be pretty difficult for your opponent to stop as long as you are packing sufficient mobility tech, which this warband does have access to innately. Just be aware of the fact that while Skritter can obviously fulfill the second condition, he can’t hold an objective for you.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

This warband loves their dual objectives, this next one being Reckless Fanatics. Score 2 glory in the end phase for having two or more friendly fighters adjacent to the same enemy fighter and one or more of them being a befouler. We’ve seen a lot of these types of adjacency requirements in the past and they often get left at home not because they are prohibitively difficult, but because they encourage suboptimal play. Generally, you will be better off killing fighters and/or driving them back (if you are able to do so) rather than leaving them alive and/or in the same position they currently are. If your opponent has positioned them somewhere on the board, odds are they want them in that spot for a reason, so there will be plenty of cases where pushing them away or killing them will deny them more glory than you would score for this card. Additionally, in meeting the adjacency condition, you are giving up support on your opponent’s subsequent attacks. Surge versions of these are fine (think [Impending Doom]) since you only need to meet the condition temporarily, but I don’t like having to lock it in for an end phase score.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

In rare form, this warband actually gets two 3-glory bombs, the second of which is Ruinous Supremacy. This scores in the end phase (for 3 glory) if your warband holds more objectives than there are surviving enemy fighters. If you had to describe the flex playstyle in a nutshell, it would basically be this objective. “Hold tokens while killing fighters.” I struggle with rating this card because it is potentially a very good meta call card if you expect to see a lot of 3- and 4-fighter warbands, but those games where you run into Sepulchral Guard or Exiled Dead will have you tearing your hair out. It’s also another card that you probably do not want to have in your opening hand, and, even with some hand control in this warband, you’re only going to pack so many of those cards you only want to see in Rounds 2 and 3.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1

The next surge is Scuttling Horde, rewarding 1 glory for making your 3^rd or subsequent move action in the phase. Wow this card is good. You’ve got 6 fighters, so doing this naturally should be easy enough in the first place, but once you start to factor in power cards (especially, again, on a Voidcursed Thralls pairing), you might be scoring this in the first power step. Not really sure how your opponent stops this one, especially with the new move rule allowing you to move even if you have been given a token by some control card like [Vicious Struggle]. Basically your only hope is for them to draw it late and be nearly or fully tabled, which I suppose is possible given the fragility of the warband, but the more likely scenario is that this is just 1 glory for playing the game.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Spreading Filth is yet another baller surge objective, scoring 1 glory for having one or more friendly fighters in two or more territories and having one or more enemy fighters out of action. Sure, in round 1 this will require you to pick up one kill, but if you’re not killing at least a fighter per round, you’re probably not keeping up anyway. In the late game, the second condition becomes trivial and the first already was, so this card is likely going to cycle in and out of your hand pretty quickly. Not much else to say, really good card.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Quite fittingly, we round out the objectives with yet another good surge in Useful Distraction. Either have a friendly minion support a fighter (offensively or defensively) or have a minion survive an attack. Having both conditions relatively independent of whether or not the attack succeeds is fantastic and should make for an easy score, although I think the first condition is likely to be the more reliably of the two. Cards like [Countercharge] and [Brave Companion] are easy ways to set this up, but even if your opponent tries to scythe or score [Reckless Swing], they might do it for you. Again, there is a wealth of out-of-sequence/push tech you could use here, it seems hard to imagine a scenario where this is all that difficult to score.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Our Favorites

• Mark: Scuttling Horde
• Aman: Rabid Harbingers
• Zach: Useful Distraction
• George: Infected Corpse Pile

Gambits

Kicking off our gambits with a rare type of effect, we have Expeditious Assistance, which grants innate single support to the first attack or defence roll made by a friendly fighter in the next activation. I like the fungibility of being able to use this in both situations and there is definitely some obvious synergy with some of the BBA cards. While it is easy to look at this and say it’s more for accuracy than anything else, I think there is some interesting play on the defensive side. You generally roll very few defence dice with this warband, so the ability to “force” a free defensive success when you have your “refashioned” upgrades online or cards like [Countercharge] can often be the difference between one of your very fragile fighters exploding or not. Since those cards will support scores on cards like Useful Distraction or [Loyal Allies] anyway, I think this is pretty solid. However, it is still likely to be difficult to fit into your 10 when there are so many good pushes, accuracy cards, ping, etc. available in the universal pool.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Our first push in the deck is Festering Sneak, which allows you to push any of your minions up to 2 hexes, provided they end the push adjacent to either your leader or an enemy fighter. This is a pretty solid push card, but it is simply outclassed by [Well-trained], which you definitely have access to in Championship and, with the other types of gambits I am expecting you to take, it feels like you may be hard pressed to fit this one. In Nemesis, I could definitely see slotting it in, although, depending on your Rivals deck, you may still end up with some better options for mobility, considering you need to save space for things like accuracy and bulk as well. Not a bad card, just one that I suspect will often fall just outside of your top 10 gambits.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Feverish Flailing grants you a re-roll on the first attack of your next activation. Accuracy is definitely important for this warband, but you will likely be opting for +Dice or stagger effects instead, especially given those are better for crit-fishing or long-term accuracy. The options for additional dice are, of course, fewer in Nemesis, where this will provide more value, but there are quite a few very solid accuracy options elsewhere in Championship.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3

Manifestation of a Great Plague is the first power card to support your corruption gameplan. It is restricted to priests (so Skabbik, with one niche exception) and will corrupt the territory the priest is occupying on a roll of a lightning or crit on the magic die. 66% chance to work is not bad averaged over a best of 3 set, but it’s also not something you can bank on when you need it. Is the effect enough to warrant the risk and the gambit slot? Hard to say. On one hand, the normal corruption cycle does not allow you to accomplish it mid-round (which is important for inspiration and unlocking the effects of one or two cards), so you can definitely see the angle. However, the issue is that good positioning is also plenty capable of achieving your corruptions and you could instead take a push or movement gambit to help with that but also flex into other applications, as well as take the increased reliability of something that you know will work. I think the peaks are not quite high enough for me to want to take this, but it may end up build-dependent.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Move-Move! does what it says, allowing you to make a move action in the power step with one of your minions, as long as you have a surviving leader. Having played a lot of Voidcursed Thralls, I have come to prefer these over pushes. Full movement is basically a 4 or 5-hex push for this warband and, if you’re activating other effects with those moves, even better. Good pairing with Scuttling Horde too, have to figure it goes into most decks.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3

Thank goodness there’s the “one or more successes” clause on Overpowering Odours, we don’t need more cards that make you have to ask your opponent to “please roll your defence dice.” Looking at the actual effect, the potential to break a tie is actually really nice, especially for a warband that doesn’t roll very accurate dice in the first place. However, if you start actually looking at the math, I think that additional dice are generally going to be the better accuracy option, especially considering the requirement to intersect the events of actually achieving a draw while also having the card in your hand. A very cool concept for a card though, the flavor is great, and it’s not like it’s that much worse than an extra attack die, just be aware the use cases will be more limited.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Pestilent Blessing is another gambit that may only be played if you have a surviving priest, allowing you to give one of your minion’s the gift of grievous on their Range 1 and 2 attacks until the end of the round or until the fighter is out of action. While you do have some Range 2 in the warband, odds are still good that you are only activating the grievous 1 time in the round (if at all), even if you manage to make multiple attacks with the chosen fighter. I think you’re actually taking this more for the second aspect of the card, which is to make that minion a befouler, allowing you to surprise your opponent and allow Poxlix or Rikkit to corrupt a territory they thought was safe. Still, if I want damage I am probably taking a ping card instead, and if I want corruption, I’ll likely just give my existing befoulers more survivability/mobility tech. Again, not a useless card, I just think you’ll struggle to find it worth a slot, even in Nemesis.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Rancid Vomit is nice and gross and thematic. You throw up on an enemy fighter and deal them two damage…but only if you roll a swirly. Deliciously chaotic, as Skaven should be, but I’ll take a guaranteed 1 damage over a 33% chance on 2 damage any day. Even [Daylight Robbery] is a 50/50 and the ceiling on that card is significantly higher than this one.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

Unctuous Citations is this Skaven warband’s double [Sidestep]. While not quite on the level of [Closing for the Kill], the ability to push multiple fighters in directions of your choosing is always a good effect. Another card you’re not likely to leave home without.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3

Does anybody remember [Your Blade is Broken]? Apparently, the developers do and thought it made sense to try it again, but also to make it worse than it was before. Potentially a nice way for Skritter to surprise your opponent and punish them for taking him off the board, but with all the universal access to +Damage and ping damage cards to offset the downside, hard to see why you’d want to take this.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Our Favorites

• Mark: Move-Move!
• Aman: Unctuous Citation
• Zach: Move-Move!
• George: Unctuous Citation

Upgrades

Bursting Sores is our first upgrade, allowing you to ping one enemy fighter within 2 hexes after an activation step in which the equipped fighter was dealt damage. Reminds me of Shadeborn’s [Dusklure Bracers], especially in the sense that I feel it’s not very worthwhile in an upgrade slot. Since the reaction is after an activation, the fighter has to survive whatever damage they sustain in order to ping back, which is likely a problem for a lot of this warband. If you wanted this to have more of a role, I think it would be better off with the reaction window after the deal damage step or changing it so that it is any time that fighter suffers damage, which would potentially allow you to “mirror ping” enemy power cards. As written, just too situational for not enough benefit and there are better “don’t attack this fighter” cards, even within the warband’s Rivals deck.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1

Disgusting Appearance is a flat +1 Defence. That’s pretty good! This is especially important since your innate defensive characteristics are absolutely horrendous, so if you have particular fighter you’d like to keep alive (probably Rabidius or Skabbik), you can actually give them some legitimate survivability. Pair this with [Weighty Blessing] and it’s pretty likely that your opponent won’t want to pursue that fighter over others in your warband. The presence of ping in the game does hurt its value a little, but this is a great effect, hard to imagine not putting it in your deck.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3

Glorious Sacrifice is pretty much the epitome of the “don’t kill this fighter” card. We’ve seen things like this with [Omega’s Offering] in the past or, for a more extreme case, [Expendable]. In this case, I think they got it pretty much right on. Either gaining a glory or corrupting a territory is a big deal for this warband and your opponent likely won’t want to give you either. Given that they didn’t do quite as much as I would’ve liked with Skritter, it’s a huge bummer that it seems this does nothing if you throw it on him, as he is not considered to be taken out of action. Still, it’s a nice way to direct (to some extent) which fighters your opponent should kill first in order to get some more mileage out of your key pieces. The glory disincentive is particularly nice for such a fragile warband as well, offsetting your bleed. Another one I feel like you’ve got to take.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Noxious Vapors is restricted to befoulers and provides you with some telegraphed ping. With sufficient mobility support, I could see this providing some value, especially when you start thinking about the pairing with damage from Book of Woe. There’s definitely a world where you can dump this on Skritter to start putting some real pressure on your opponents with potential damage and stagger, or on a Glorious Sacrifice-eligible befouler to offset the kill incentive. You also don’t have to telegraph it, although your opponent will likely be suspicious if they see you move into a big clump of fighters toward the end of the round. I’m not sure it’s quite good enough to make your 10, but with sufficient mobility tech I could see it returning some value, especially against hordes and/or fighters with high defensive characteristics. Another niche application is on a friendly voidcursed fighter, since they can’t be driven back.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Next up is a very intriguing space in deck control with Pox-Ridden Lucidity. After the equipped fighter’s first successful Range 1 or 2 attack action of the round, you get to react to either draw a power card or draw an objective, then put one objective from your hand down to the bottom of your deck. Draw is great, but the objective manipulation here is very intriguing. I hinted at earlier that you had some potential control over getting late-game objectives cycled out of your hand, so this opens up potential to take cards such as [Pure Carnage] without having to worry quite as much about sequencing. However, this does come with some potential pitfalls, as you need to both be mindful of the fighters that can actually take this card and make sure you’re not giving to somebody who has already made a successful attack in the round you want to use it. I think you were probably taking one or two weapon upgrades anyway, but certainly things like [Cursed Boarding Pike] will be very helpful to make this more consistently proc the effect. At least it still provides some draw via salvage if you happen not to have it until all of the restricted fighters are dead, but you’d much rather actually get to use the effect. Since it’s a once per round effect, there will be some draw sequencing luck here, but making either deck more consistent overall is never a bad thing.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2

Rotted Flesh gives your warband some much-needed survivability in the form of -1 Damage while the equipped fighter is in a territory corrupted by your warband. Fantastic too given that there is no Range limitation, which is important given how much Range 3+ is prevalent right now. Not giving it to a large fighter isn’t a huge deal, as you don’t want to be increasing your bounty anyway, but keep in mind that Scapegoat from the Headsmen’s Curse could screw you over here. A funny angle you can take is to pair this with Unnatural Resilience from Voidcursed Thralls to make a single rat nearly unkillable. However, it is important to remember that ping can absolutely dismantle this effect, so you may want some healing potential mixed in as well.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Screaming Lunatic is your in-faction [Great Strength], although it only works if you have a charge token and/or one or more wound counters. I’d say these are both relatively easy conditions to activate when you compare to other faction +Damage such as [Merciless] or [Hunter of Souls]. Most of your attacks are likely to be charge actions anyway, despite the warband’s Range 2 access, but even then, it is rare these days to have many fully healthy fighters towards the late game. You can also proc the benefit multiple times in a round by charging and then using out-of-sequence attacks such as Voidcursed Assault or [Opportunistic Reprisal]. Not quite [Trophy of Strength] levels of faction goodness, but very consistent for a warband that needs the extra damage output.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Following this, we have Unbelievable Stench, which prevents enemy fighters from being on guard when they are in the same territory as the equipped fighter and also essentially gives you Snyp’s post-activation reaction to stagger adjacent enemy fighters. Having played plenty of Clawpack, I can tell you that the reaction is a nice-to-have but nothing crazy, especially since you still often prefer to drive back rather than remain adjacent. The no guard is a nice touch though, as it means you can run up to a guarded fighter and just ignore their defensive buff, perhaps even more importantly enabling driveback to push them off tokens. The range of just being in the same territory is also a significant upgrade on a card like [Claim Jumper], it will be a huge nuisance to fighters who rely on that guard tech such as Purifiers or Glisette. I don’t know if it manages to take a spot in your list with all the good upgrades out there (even in-faction), but it can be a solid meta call if you expect to see a lot of guard+HO type of play, with the parachute of being able to spread some staggers even in matchups where the anti-guard is not relevant.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Vile Fanaticism grants you +1 Dice on all Range 1 and 2 attacks, bar scything. Stinks you cant up the consistency of Rabidius’ horde control with this, but +Dice is +Dice and extending to Range 2 is rare these days. Fantastic card that goes in every Plaguepack deck.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Our final upgrade is Voice of the Great Corruptor, which allows you to generate a “backup” leader in Itchitt if Skabbik is out of action. This kind of thing can be neat for improving the consistency of your leader-restricted cards, but I think the action is probably the more interesting aspect of the card, allowing you to just straight up corrupt a territory. Sure, it takes an activation, but there is no way your opponent can undo it. I feel like I’d generally rather be doing this than Book of Woe, especially in Round 1. If you can pull 1 easy surge glory into a Move-Move! with this in hand, suddenly you can pretty much guarantee a Round 1 inspiration unless your opponent somehow manages to stop you corrupting your own territory. Again, it’s one that gameplay-wise is a bit suspect because it doesn’t give you pushes, accuracy, damage, etc. (and I do think those things, if played properly, can provide similar corruption value while also being flexible enough to serve other functions), but I actually think this card might be a bit of a sleeper. The obvious downside is that the one fighter who can use it might just get absolutely blown up in the early game, but at least salvage can protect you a bit there as well. Side note, but it is also hilarious that if Itchitt has this card, he can be both a leader and a minion, which doesn’t do so much gameplay-wise as a keyword pairing but is just whack conceptually.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

Our Favorites

• Mark: Glorious Sacrifice
• Aman: Pox-Ridden Lucidity
• Zach: Glorious Sacrifice
• George: Pox-Ridden Lucidity

Conclusion

In case you couldn’t tell, I am pretty excited for this warband. If I’m going to be critical of GW when I feel it’s due, it’s only fair for me to praise them when they release a warband like this. I think they’re really well-designed and they’ll be competitive, but not overpowered, which is exactly what you want. While their fragility is definitely a big and warranted concern (especially with all the ping), their surge objectives are quite possibly the best in the game (maybe just behind Pandaemonium), so you will often be able to get upgrades down earlier than your opponents to augment their otherwise subpar stats. Beyond the surges, they still have pretty much everything you want when building a deck: a couple good end phase cards, solid gambits, and a few very good upgrades. The fact that they synergize so well with Beastbound Assault means that, while they’ll do well in Nemesis with a number of deck pairings, they can still juice up in Championship by just picking out the good stuff from BBA and taking a valuable plot deck such as Voidcursed Thralls. While I’ve so far skipped the Gnarlwood and Wyrdhollow warband expansions, I will certainly be picking this one up on release and I’m excited to start playing them!

In other news, our review copy of of the Paths of Prophecy Rivals deck was a bit late, so I will do my best to get that one up as soon as possible, but it will not be ready today.

Until next time, thanks for reading and best of luck on YOUR Path to (Pestilent) Glory!