Welcome back for even more new releases as we attempt to catch up with a brand new core set. You’ll have noticed we have split up the writing duties for this one, so thanks to my co-hosts for helping me out with a whirlwind of a release. For this one, we’re covering the new Hungering Parasite universal Rivals deck and man I am excited. I’m going to steal a quote from Zach’s quick summary in our group chat to describe this deck because it was spot on: “intensely weird nerd [stuff] for people who love to read and think (a.k.a. me).” While I realize some people wanna just sit down, roll some dice, and have a good time, I really appreciate those absolute brain-melters where there’s a lot going on and a lot of reward for putting in the reps. At first glance, I do think that’s what we’ll have in this deck, but maybe that’s just a result of this strange orange parasite that’s been living on my shoulder…
Plot Card and Bane of Heroes
As you might expect, the truly weird decks need a plot card to explain the weirdness that’s going on. In this case, it’s the Bane of Heroes upgrade that, for the first time, comes not as part of your deck, but more as a physical manifestation of the current status of the plot. The parasite latches onto one of your fighters at the beginning of the game (your choice) and that fighter just has the upgrade until it breaks. The upgrade breaks when the equipped fighter dies (or a power card tells it to break), but will reattach itself to another friendly fighter or an enemy fighter adjacent to one or more friendly fighters in an inspire step if it’s in your discard pile. There are a few effects to having the parasite: fighters within 1 hex of the equipped fighter are staggered (this includes the equipped fighter), the fighter becomes uninspired and cannot be inspired, and the player controlling the equipped fighter deals 1 damage at the end of the action phase to a fighter of their choice within 1 hex of the equipped fighter (again, including the equipped fighter). What this basically means, as you might expect, is that having a giant orange parasite draining the life out of you is not a great time. However, good positioning leading into the end of the round could potentially mean free damage on your opponent’s fighter instead of your own, while the permanent stagger can effectively give you re-rolls on attacks made adjacent to enemy fighters, which is particularly great on scything. Furthermore, if you manage to apply the parasite to an enemy fighter, it can be incredibly debilitating for them, especially since the odds they can break it are pretty low unless you are playing a mirror. Speaking of mirrors, if you thought BNS and VCT mirrors were funny, these are going to be hilarious. Cheating ahead, there are a number of symmetrical power card effects here that can allow you to push fighters, break the Bane of Heroes upgrades, or have some other effect which will work regardless of whether it is a friendly or enemy fighter, which will have great implications in both the mirror and the situational nature of which fighter you want to have the parasite at any given time. One final niche thought before we get into the meat of the article is what happens if you have Bane of Heroes and the [
Perfect Blade]? I’d argue you just ignore the fact that you have the parasite, and that should also extend to if the fighter dies with the blade in hand, meaning the upgrade would actually not break and would instead stay with the fighter. Kind of a weird interaction and one that could definitely use clarification, so I figured it’s worth calling out here. Anyway, a lot of flexibility here and definitely something that will melt some brains, but that only means there is potential to be tapped into as well.
Objectives
Bane’s Triumph is our first objective, a 2-glory end phase if your parasitic fighter is the only friendly fighter in enemy territory. For 2-glory, this is pretty solid payoff. If you throw this on a Mollog or such and run them into enemy territory, it’s potentially a really easy score. The downside, of course, is that the fighter needs to remain uninspired and much more exposed for the time they have the upgrade, but a tanky fighter could potentially offset that risk. Alternatively, a speedy fighter could pull this off with a late-round charge. Still, the staggered condition and self-ping potential can make this pretty hazardous, so it may be a bit situational.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Beyond Exhaustion is this deck’s version of [
Unceasing Imperatives]. Given how easy it is to regenerate the parasite even if your equipped fighter dies, it should be pretty free. Note that you can also score this if you had given your upgrade to an enemy fighter with a Move/Charge token. Unless all of your fighters are dead, this one should be pretty free.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
Cursed Tyrant is basically a fighter-restricted [
Loaded with Plunder], requiring you to have a friendly fighter with 4 or more upgrades where at least one of those is Bane of Heroes. We’ve seen cards like this be crazy good when fighter-unlocked, but obviously the fact that your parasitic fighter could die lets this one kind of ebb and flow. If your warband is usually focused on building up two threats (think Reapers, for example), you can at least audible if your primary option dies, then just throw the parasite onto the other in the inspire step. I do think this one will lean mostly towards big boy warbands, since oftentimes you’ll just be giving one fighter all the upgrades there anyway, but having the backup plan is nice. Another good shout out here would be on Gravebreakers due to their ability to rapidly pull upgrades out of their deck. Assuming you get enough seed glory to do so, stacking upgrades onto Ferlain is already along the lines of what you want to do for a Zondara inspiration and Cruel Hope score, so giving him the parasite plus another few upgrades seems both feasible and desirable. The snowball potential on this one is definitely present.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Continuing the trend of basically fighter-restricted old cards, Deadly Influence sure has some shades of [
Calculated Risk]. Take a decently expendable fighter, give them the parasite, then run them through a lethal or snare hex for an easy 1-glory score. Bit of awkward wording here since the parasitic fighter is already staggered by nature, but I do believe this is referring to being given a stagger token. This one is a bit of an interesting inversion to the trend we’ve seen previously, where instead of wanting to do this with a key fighter, you would be more inclined to send out some low-impact model where you don’t care what happens to them afterwards. Like its predecessor, warbands that want those easy early surges for inspiration (Profiteers, Godsworn Hunt, Gravebreakers) ought to be able to take advantage of this pretty well, but most any warband with fighters to burn will love this. One last note is that your opponent’s fighter can also score this if you’ve given the upgrade to them.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 2
Driven by the Curse is another surge, scoring after an activation when the fighter with your upgrade makes a successful attack action. Considering that fighter is effectively getting a re-roll against their target if they’re attacking from adjacent, this should be pretty doable as well. Once again, the big boys who want to take all the activations and/or those with scything should be good candidates to pull this off. If you have a parasite fighter die, no worries, just bump it over to a different one and try again. Obviously, you’ll be relying on uninspired attack profiles here, so there is a risk if your opponent just ignores your parasitic fighter that charges and misses, but we have already seen some scoring in the deck that can go off if they do so.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Speaking of, Far and Wide scores 1 glory in the end phase if your Bane of Heroes upgrade is on a fighter holding an objective, two if that objective is in enemy territory. Yet again, you can score this off an enemy fighter, which could be truly hilarious if you manage to slap the parasite onto a fighter from a more passive HO warband. Since it’s potentially a 2-glory score, this can really put some pressure on your opponent to maybe move that fighter out of scoring position if you get the parasite on them. Conversely, Mollog once again pops to mind here since you’re already trying to do this for Block the Entrance while additionally benefitting from his inability to be driven back. 2-glory payout seems very much on the table for this one, but having the safety net of a passive 1-glory in the back of your own board is nice flexibility.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Powerful Pawn is another 2-glory end phase, this time if the enemy leader has your parasite or your own parasitic leader is in enemy territory. This can synergize really nicely with Bane’s Triumph for those big boy warbands that just take the parasite and jump over the line. I think the first condition will likely be pretty niche, but for 2 glory having the backup plan is just gravy. I view these two end phases as being pretty comparable in terms of fighter and positional restriction, and for the solid payoff I think there’s a decent chance you simply take both. That being said, there will obviously be warbands like Sepulchral Guard who want to keep that leader protected and would prefer the earlier entry.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Seek the Cure is our next surge, scoring after an activation if your upgrade is on a fighter who has two or more Move tokens and is holding an objective. HO surges that don’t need to wait until your opponent’s activation are pretty sweet these days, but this one can certainly be awkward if you don’t have access to movement shenanigans. As the art suggests, Gitz would be the prime candidate for this one, with DKK and Sepulchral Guard very much in the discussion as well. I think the warbands that take this one will be somewhat limited, but it’s undoubtedly very strong on the ones that can. Note, again, you could score this off an opponent’s fighter, but that will likely be pretty tricky unless you are facing off against VCT or one of these warbands I have already mentioned.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 1
Back-to-back surges here with Temporary Reprieve, which scores after an activation step in which your Bane of Heroes upgrade was broken. More often than not, this would basically read as a fighter-restricted [
Martyred], but once more you could pull this off by killing an enemy fighter you bounced the upgrade to. Still, we’ve seen how much horde warbands can enjoy surges that say “you killed me, I score,” so there’s a lot to leverage here. The mix of scoring for the equipped fighter being alive but also scoring for bad things happening to them is going to make it hard to know exactly which line to take as an opponent, but I am becoming more and more of the opinion that you just stay the heck away from little guys that are given the parasite while trying to kill big guys that take it on voluntarily. One last note on this card, but it does need to be broken during the activation step, so power step kills/upgrade breaking will not count.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Make that back-to-back-to-back on surges with The Clutches of Evil. After having seen VCT, you probably figured a card like this was coming where you want your opponent to have your upgrade, so this has major[
Surrendered Will] vibes. A notable distinction here, however, is that giving the parasite to your opponent requires you to have a fighter adjacent to one theirs, which means they can immediately turn the “positive” effects of it onto you. I think that will be an important distinction since the deck has a lot of effects you’d like to unlock for yourself. I think you might actually pass on this one in a lot of cases despite it being relatively achievable.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Their Problem Now is a 2-glory dual scoring in the end phase if you have more surviving friendly fighters than there are surviving enemy fighters and your parasite is on an enemy fighter. We’ve seen cards like this before, but they often take the form of something like [
A Challenge Unanswered], where you are looking at total number out of action rather than on the table. What this means is that horde warbands with resurrection mechanics ought to be able to game the first condition pretty easily, especially into an elite-leaning meta. That being said, I think there is a lot to leverage for having the parasite yourself. Giving it to your opponent will more often be the kind of thing you do to uninspire an opponent’s fighter to make them easier to kill/less threatening, but that will be a lot more situational than planning to have it and use it yourself. Once again, I think you plan to keep the parasite in many scenarios, so I am probably looking elsewhere, but it’s certainly an attractive prospect for things like Sepulchral Guard, Exiled Dead, and Grymwatch.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 1
Our final objective is Thwarted Destiny, which is strictly better than Temporary Reprieve, which was already a pretty decent card. It has all the upside of my opponent killing my parasitic fighter (in either the activation or power step) with the higher floor of controllability if I have taken gambits which allow me to break my upgrade and swap it over to an inspired fighter. Even in Championship, I think the odds are pretty good that you don’t have 6 better surges available to you. Funny tidbit which also applies to our earlier entries, but you now have 3 available surges you could score by simply throwing the parasite onto Skritter and running him into a lethal (not that Plaguepack usually needs help in that area).
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
Our Favorites
- Mark: Deadly Influence
- Aman: Cursed Tyrant
- Zach: Deadly Influence
- George: Seek the Cure
Gambits
Starting right off with breaking the upgrade, our first gambit is A Curse Divided, which allows you to break any Bane of Heroes upgrade(s) on a fighter that is adjacent to another fighter. While this can be really funny in the mirror, the more dependable use of this will be when you’re just trying to pass your upgrade to a different fighter. Given the potential for the adjacency condition to be with an enemy fighter, the obvious threat is that you’re planning to give the upgrade to that enemy fighter in the ensuing inspire step. Even if that is not your intention, the implication is that you are preparing to latch it onto that opponent’s fighter, which could, for all they know, mean that fighter will be stuck with it until they are dead. This could potentially force them into burning some push/move tech earlier than they might want to while you can just audible and give it to a different friendly fighter instead. Alternatively, you could of course just hand your opponent that upgrade to keep one of their key fighters exposed for an easy kill. Clawpack, for example, can drop this on the enemy leader to activate an extra adjacent re-roll and just generally keep that leader easier to murder later. A nice and controllable way to shift the upgrade around, when needed.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
With another upgrade breaker, we have Lure of Power, which lets you break the upgrade on a fighter holding an objective. In addition to potentially being a very rude way to deny Far and Wide for your opponent, it’s yet another pretty controllable way of breaking the parasite on demand. I think I prefer our previous entry a little more since it has a baked-in mind game (although you could certainly be on an objective and adjacent to an enemy fighter), but I think it’s very possible you take both if you don’t have a strong faction gambit deck.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Malefic Siphon is like a fighter-specific [
Shared Agony] you can execute from 3 hexes away. Given that the parasite may very well be dealing you this damage to heal and an objective card or two encourage you to take damage on your parasitic fighter, it should be pretty easy and even within your gameplan to set this up. As we’ve mentioned a few times, note that it just has to be your upgrade, not your fighter, meaning you could potentially shift some damage around to more ideal targets, if needed. Plenty of bulkier fighters will appreciate the healing anyway, especially if you can bring in damage reduction.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Opportunistic Leech allows you to break your warband’s Bane of Heroes upgrade after any fighter ends a move action adjacent to the equipped fighter. This is the last of the three breaking gambits, and I think it’s my least preferred. While some warbands can chain move reactions to pull this off more easily, you have a lot more control using the parasite fighter as a “delivery system” instead. It’s fine, but ultimately I think much more easily cuttable.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Pulse of Hunger either damages (on a crit) or staggers each fighter within 1 hex of the fighter equipped with your parasite. Pretty low chance of damage, so really the idea here seems geared toward spreading stagger. In that respect, it’s a pretty decent, pseudo-AoE [
Spitting Cobra Technique]. You need to get up in there, or give it to an enemy fighter in the midst of multiple enemies to get the most mileage, but warbands that rely on the stagger synergy like Clawpack or Razors could certainly make use of this. Bit situational though, and the risk of damaging your own fighter may not be tolerable on a lot of warbands.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 1
Sudden Swap allows you to switch the positions of two friendly fighters, one of which has your warband’s Bane of Heroes upgrade. Having no range limitation and not giving the fighters any tokens is a pretty sweet deal on this one. This is a great way to help you make X number of attacks in a round if someone is out range, or dump a threatening fighter into bonk range of multiple enemies for making a series of attacks. Alternatively, you can use this to leash your parasite fighter from a deep charge or reposition the end of round ping as a surprise. This is the kind of thing you want to see from your fighter swap cards, I think its flexibility means it slots into a good number of decks.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Tempting Lure pushes a friendly fighter 1 hex as a reaction to any fighter’s move action. You get 3 hexes instead if the fighter that moved has your warband’s upgrade. While the ability to generate support or set up positional scoring is plenty worthwhile on its own, there are actually also niche situations where this push can leverage a blocked hex to outmaneuver a charge (mostly from Range 3 to Range 2). Worst case, this can be a pseudo-[
Countercharge], but there’s overall just plenty of flexibility and even surprise value here. Very solid card.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
The Curse Demands is the [
Involuntary Advance] of the deck, providing value as both a fighter-restricted [
Sidestep] or [
Distraction]. Not much to say about either of those effects, you should get plenty of value out of this one too.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
The Curse Empowers grants you grievous on the first Range 1 and 2 in the next activation or just a Range-agnostic +1 Damage if the fighter making the attack has a Bane of Heroes upgrade. Rangeless [
Ferocious Blow] is a pretty great effect for all those damage-hungry warbands, but the grievous gives this a little bit of floor, which is nice. While I wouldn’t typically take a gambit just for grievous, you’ve probably got some kind of plan to use the parasitic fighter anyway. Note, also, that Clawpack, in particular, are often looking for sources of grievous to feed [
Killer Supreme], so this could certainly have some value there even if you don’t intend to juice up the parasitic fighter’s attacks. I could see this one ending up as an 11th gambit at times, but high-accuracy, lower damage warbands ought to be enticed by this, while even a big boy might like a potential early game bump to 4 Damage to smush an elite fighter.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
The Curse Hungers rounds out our gambits, giving you the classic “try again” reaction on a failed attack. Note that this follows the same wording as the recently revamped Endless Malice in that the attack sequence ends after the defence roll, thereby negating certain defensive retaliatory or critical abilities, which is pretty cool. The caveat here is a pretty big one, however, as you can only use this for a parasitic fighter and the fighter cannot be large. While this is nice support for Driven by the Curse, I’m not sure I love how restrictive this is. The parasite already helps your accuracy while adjacent, so you could very well just land your attack and then be stuck with this reaction clogging up your hand. Yes, the upgrade might bounce around to your other fighters and grant you more opportunities for use, but there is definitely a risk here. In a similar vein, we’ve already discussed how some big boys might be your ideal upgrade user, so not getting the benefit on them will likely mean those builds forgo this card anyway. Getting to try again off a whiff is definitely enticing, but I think this may be a version of that effect I’m ok to cut due to the fighter-specificity.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Sudden Swap
- Aman: Malefic Siphon
- Zach: Opportunistic Leech
- George: Tempting Lure
Upgrades
Our first upgrade (if you ignore the parasite) is Careful Aim, which grants you a re-roll on attack actions targeting fighters that already have two or more wound counters. However, if the target has a Bane of Heroes upgrade, you get a flat +1 Dice instead. There’s a couple things to unpack here, so let’s start with the re-roll effect. Note that this card specifies “attack dice,” which, based on historical precedent, actually means that the re-roll would not work on spell attacks. I also like that the re-roll generally won’t help you squash the chaff on horde warbands, nor will it help you one-shot stuff in general, but it will help against elite fighters. That is a neat little bit of baked-in balancing. The flat +1 Dice effect actually would work on spell attacks since it does not specify attack dice (this game is funny sometimes), but still this clocks in as a very solid bump in usability and effect if you are actively throwing the parasite at enemy fighters. The lack of a Range restriction on either effect certainly makes it appealing to something like Profiteers, but generally I think this is just one of the most balanced accuracy effects you could have. Either you get a situational, lesser accuracy benefit, or you do a little bit of setup to access a more potent, yet still targeted effect. The flavor text puts it very well, great design.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Despairing Strength is effectively the upgrade version of The Curse Empowers, with the notable restriction to only Range 1 attacks. Still, the commentary from that entry mostly applies to this one as well. Clawpack appreciates a potential extra source of grievous, but there are plenty of other Range 1-focused warbands like Fiends, Chosen Axes, SoV, Headsmen, etc., as well as Damage-hungry warbands like Spiteclaw’s Swarm or Soulraid that could benefit from this effect. For your parasite fighter, the access to essentially a Range 1 [
Great Strength] is great, particularly since they are already throwing in a re-roll from their stagger aura. Really nice if you have scything attacks too, I think this one will pop up in most decks with this pairing.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Divine Fortitude prevents the equipped fighter from being dealt damage by a Bane of Heroes upgrade while also giving you a one-time reaction to break that upgrade upon equipping this one. Doing so also inspires the equipped fighter. On its own, the immunity to damage from the upgrade is a nice, but not necessarily “slot-worthy” effect. However, the ability to inspire somebody on-demand is very appealing. It opens up an alternative line for this deck where maybe you do want to inspire a particular fighter quickly and this can help you achieve it. This feels a bit along the lines of The Arctyc Crown in that some warbands don’t have the level of trouble inspiring that would make this worth it, where others might be very intrigued by accessing those inspired stats sooner. A good example of this would be Kainan, who is really the primary fighter you’d want to get inspired on Reapers. Popping him up to his wild inspired stats as soon as you have a seed glory is a very intriguing prospect. That being said, there will obviously be a sequencing component to this. If it comes out in the late game, it only really offers an “audible” option where you can finally inspire your parasitic fighter, but the early game affords that inspiration acceleration you’d most want from this upgrade. Ignoring the damage may still be sufficient value for something like a big boy warband where they just plan to have the parasite the whole game, but I think the inspiration definitely has the potential to be the higher value target. This might be the kind of card you hard mulligan for if that is your strategy.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Frenetic Efforts is maybe some actual incentive to barge, allowing you to push the equipped fighter 1 hex after making a stun action. If you have a Bane of Heroes upgrade, you actually also get to make a Range 1 attack action after that push. Since your opponent will already be staggered if they’re within Range 1, the idea of barging might be a bit awkward here, but, if you have the parasite, what it can do for you is let you effectively charge without having to eat a charge token and without the added downside of a barge since you would already be staggered just from having the parasite. It can also potentially give you that one extra hex of movement you really needed on that charge. Furthermore, you can barge to stun one fighter, then push to attack a different one. While the best use cases are certainly going to be actually having the parasite, even just the ability to barge and then not yield support in return (if you react to push away) is an attractive prospect for warbands like Clawpack or Razors that will appreciate having the extra Stagger token down.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Speaking of barge, next up we have Fury-Bound Leaps, which can not only grant your parasitic fighter flying, but also allow them to react after their barge to remove a Move token. My best read here does say you would have to choose between using this reaction and using the one on the previous card, but it does open up a line to sort of play like old fashioned Mollog, assuming a valid barge target is in range. You can barge up, remove your move token, then charge the next turn (or just swing or whatever you plan to do). While our previous entry likely had a bit more general utility, this one is clearly geared around activating a single fighter multiple times. Yes, you’ll be eating a Stagger token for your efforts (which is net zero if you already have the parasite anyway), but the extra strike distance you can get out of this is pretty nice, especially on an elite warband that doesn’t mind reactivating the fighter anyway. Encouraging yourself to barge can also be nice if you have one of those “make different types of actions” objectives. While I think there is still pretty high spike potential on this one, I do think it will hit a bit less than Frenetic Efforts since you are losing the potential to make an attack during the activation step in which you barge.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Instinctive Reprisal is a fun little deterrent card to ping an adjacent attacker if they make a successful attack against the equipped fighter, with a 33% chance to spike to 2 damage if the equipped fighter also has the parasite. I’m glad they put this reaction step into the attack sequence so that you can still use it even if the fighter dies from the attack. That’s an angle that has been missed on previous iterations of this such as [
Bursting Sores] or [
Reflecting Mask]. Still, the adjacency can be a bit matchup-dependent at times, particularly in this meta. That being said, the reusability of the reaction means that a tanky fighter can spit out multiple chip damage per game, and the potential threat of 2 damage (with the parasite) in return may be enough to dissuade charges. Gravebreakers, for example, might appreciate a deterrent like this to keep their opponents away from the two lovers, especially because there is a ton of heal tech baked into the warband that can help you land multiple instances of this. Even resurrecting hordes may appreciate this card.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Stolen Vigour is an interesting [
Potion of Grace] and [
Vision of Glory] hybrid. If you don’t have the parasite, you can clear all Move tokens, whereas the parasitic fighter can pull off one Charge token instead for the cost of breaking the upgrade. However, this is gated behind that fighter’s second activation in the phase. This means that you are looking at this nearly exclusively for fighters like Mollog or Hrothgorn, who would be happy to take four activations in a round, if they can. Still, that effect can be insane. Swing on someone with Mollog, then charge and remove the token to refresh your threat range/presence. A more niche situation might be pairing this with Sepulchral Guard and [
The Warden’s Command], allowing you to catch up on resurrections without locking yourself out of the rest of the round. Ultimately, I do think the card is a bit niche, but it can be crazy strong under the right circumstances.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 1
Similar to Divine Fortitude, Tenacious Resilience gives you another option to instantly break your parasite, if desired. The more “general” function of the card however is to heal the equipped fighter when the parasite latches onto them before breaking itself. This reminds me a bit of [
Dark Fortitude], which I think was actually a very underrated card. Yes, the downside would be that you still have the parasite afterwards, but that should already be mostly baked into your gameplan anyway. If you are taking a lot of the upgrade-breaking cards in here, I could definitely see taking this for some relatively on-demand healing. Warbands that have natural damage reduction effects and 4 or less wounds definitely have a good angle here. Wurmspat and Crimson Court come to mind, although you do need to consider the loss of inspiration in those cases. Healing a big boy for just 1 might be fine as well, but I could see it being more of an 11th upgrade in those cases.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Weakened Soul requires some setup, but can be an interesting debuff option if you give the parasite to an enemy fighter. I can’t really think of many cases where you’d want to give this to yourself unless you really needed to not be large or something, so you are looking at it more as combo card for that impact to an enemy fighter. For example, Clawpack might run up to an enemy leader, break their parasite, give it to that leader and follow up with this card for free to make them uninspired, staggered, and have 1 less wound. Those 2S YOLO charges with Krowch’t could be really funny with that combo in-hand, but ultimately you still are relying on combo effects a bit too much for me here. Yes, it can also proc simply off your equipped fighter dying as well, so it’s not fully dependent on the combo, but I do think this will ultimately be a bit clunky.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Our final upgrade is Wicked Aim, which grants +1 Range to the equipped fighter’s non-scything attacks or +2 instead if the fighter has the Bane of Heroes. Thank goodness you cannot give this to large fighters because Range 3 or 4 Mollog sounds extremely obnoxious. I also like that they added the upgrade breaking after you attack at Range 4+ so you can’t just sit back and turret for a whole round at what might actually be fully out of charge range for a slow warband. While a one-time Range 5 snipe to make Dead-Eye Lund live up to his name would be hilarious, I do think the sweet spot on this card will be for fighters that have base Range 1 or 2 attacks. Chosen Axes or SoV, for instance, often suffer from being slow Range 1 fighters that also want to be holding objectives, which can make it difficult to both attack and move onto that token you want. Adding one or even two additional hexes can make a world of difference on your threat range for either being able to attack without having to move off of a token or being able to charge onto that token you want to be holding anyway. Throwing the parasite onto Fjul and then dropping a bunch of Range 3 attacks sounds pretty terrifying. Just be aware of potential Range 1 or 2-restricted effects that you may be locking yourself out of.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Wicked Aim
- Aman: Stolen Vigour
- Zach: Wicked Aim
- George: Bane of Heroes
Conclusion
Even before we saw the deck, I had already seen people expecting Hungering Parasite to be the new Voidcursed Thralls. As a self-proclaimed “expert” on the joy that is VCT, I would say it definitely strikes a familiar chord and may even fulfill a similar niche once VCT rotates. The greatest similarity I would say is that it feels like a very high skill ceiling deck. If you have a good understanding of what the deck is capable of and the reps to understand the impact of passing or not passing the parasite around, you’ll get a lot of mileage both playing with and playing against it. That being said, I think the design team did a good job making it a distinct entity. It retains a lot of the “control” aspects that voidcursed demonstrated, but notably lacks the movement shenanigans we have all come to know and love. In return, I think it’s been handed some really interesting tools, particularly in the objective deck, which is an area I often find VCT to be a bit lacking. As for warband pairings in Nemesis, I have hinted a few times that this is maybe the Clawpack deck we’ve been looking for. They have solid gambits already, but the upgrades and objectives, particularly surges, in this deck are a good fit. Mollog’s Mob sticks out as the prime big boy fit here, as he probably cares the least about inspiring of the set and can somewhat approximate his old self with a couple of these upgrades. For a final suggestion, I think Gravebreakers might be intriguing here. Ferlain isn’t too torn up about not inspiring and you are essentially granting him a re-roll on his Range 1, which is critical because the warband lacks accuracy. Furthermore, the Bane of Heroes upgrade actually accelerates your progress to Cruel Hope and inspiring your leader. Overall, I think there will come a time where you’re going to be seeing this deck pretty close to as often as you see VCT. It might not happen immediately since there will be a bit of a testing period, but this is one you’re going to want to be prepared for so that you don’t get surprised at a tournament. It’s going to be a pain to deal with, so the best way to get out in front of it is to play it a few times yourself to get a sense of its play lines. Let’s get some thoughts from the rest of the group!
Aman: This is perhaps the most interesting and exciting rivals deck we have ever come across, and I’m here for it. This is by no means going to be an easy deck to pilot. In fact, this might be a nightmare to play in long events; there are a ton of decisions to make and it’s not always apparent which ones are the optimal ones. Like VCT, this deck will be extremely rewarding for those who put the reps in. The ceiling is incredibly high. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this is deck is absolutely disgusting with Mollog. Bringing him back was a mistake, and this deck is only going to drive that home. Even so, this deck is awesome and I’m looking forward to surrendering to the parasite. May it grant me the power I need to slay my foes.
Zach: I was really interested the first time they described this deck in the preview. My initial read was that it was going to be Voidcursed Thralls 2.0, and… I feel half correct. There’s a lot of similarities here – special infection effects, spreading to enemies, trying to balance the positives and negatives of the infliction. However, it’s a completely different deck and I love that! While VCT has an air of trying to infect many people and slowly march forward, this more feels like a game of Hot Potato – you’re trying to hold onto it for as long as you can before tagging someone with either the upgrade or just an end-round ping. I feel like there’s a number of ways to play this deck, and I’m already brewing some ideas. I look forward to what this brings to the metagame!
George: The possibilities this deck offers have infected my mind. While I have concerns about certain synergies that may be excessively strong, ultimately I’m very pleased to see more design in the same style as Voidcursed Thralls, where the mirror match may be extremely interaction-intensive and there are a number of different paths along which to align your synergies with the deck. I’m a huge fan of both the Alien film franchise and John Carpenter’s The Thing, so I couldn’t be happier with the decks theme. Mechanically, the deck offers so many options and directions to build along I’ll be happily brewing for months to come, I’m sure.
Thanks so much for reading and we wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path to (Parasitic) Glory!
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Written by: Mark Breault
Edited by: Aman Khusro
