Again, not knowing which of these you might read first (or at all), I feel compelled to write a thank you to my co-hosts, who really came through and wrote up several of the review articles for what was a pretty frantic release schedule. For me, Rimewyrm’s Bite is my second and final responsibility for this new core set and boy does this one have me nervous. There’s a part of me that looks at this deck and goes “whoa this is really cool, they made a field hazards deck!” while the other part of me just looks at all the ping and is very, very concerned. While there has clearly been some intentional design consideration to make the ping less overtly powerful than some of the earlier Rivals decks, we’ve seen how little of a nudge it can take to get very out of control. For Championship, this deck notably does not have a plot card, which I’m sure will end up meaning that some of these cards will see a ton of use. As is perhaps fitting, let’s begin our walkthrough of the deck on that rather uneasy footing.
Objectives
Right off the bat, they let you know what this deck is about with Blood-soaked Ice, a 2-glory end phase for each enemy fighter being out of action and/or having one or more wound counters. As primarily a horde player myself, I do like that this punishes elites more heavily, as spreading damage to 3 or so fighters is inherently going to be a speedier process than pinging 5 or more, especially for warbands that have access to healing and/or resurrection. However, it is for that reason that I’m a little unsure on this one. 2-glory payout is quite strong, but there is a significant matchup-dependency to this card that may lead me to looking for other options, especially since you’ll need a significant ping engine to get this rolling.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Corralled Like Sheep is the part of [
Proof of Guilt] that can sometimes feel really trivial if your opponent is not prepared to deny it and/or has a very specific gameplan to either fully invade or fully turtle. Without the backup of “I am almost definitely going to score this eventually,” however, I do think it loses some floor, so I will ding it for that. I don’t ordinarily go for cards that rely on my opponent doing something, but this does act as some nice natural counterplay to [
Hurricane Force] and [
Fastest Around] while also punishing your opponent if they don’t step up to engage with you. Cheating ahead a bit, but we will also see some power cards which might influence your opponent’s positioning that can stack with any innate faction push tech you might have available.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Deadly to All is more ping support as a surge that scores after an activation or power step in which two or more fighters were dealt damage. A sort of brute force way of doing this would be to charge through a lethal and then whack your opponent’s fighter (note that it does not specify whose fighters were dealt damage), but more often I could see this being a case of “I played a bunch of ping cards, so I get to score this.” As I’ve explained previously, I don’t love that play line, I think ping is strong enough on its own that it should not also merit you scoring cards, but from an objective standpoint, this is obviously quite strong on warbands that have good in-faction ping support, while scything attacks can also help with that. Just note that you may end up a bit subject to dice and/or draw sequencing in some cases, as you would definitely prefer this early to make sure there are more bodies available for you to ping.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Get Moving is a surge for each friendly fighter having one or more Move tokens or having one or more Charge tokens. Unlike previous iterations of this type of wording that specify “Move and/or Charge,” this one actually does require them each to have the same kind of token. I think that does actually limit the card quite a bit in terms of who can leverage it. While warbands like Reapers and DKK can often spread tokens to all of their fighters, they often have a mix of some charged fighters and some that just moved. While you could still participate in scoring the card even if you have one of each, this does lead me more toward elite warbands who can easily access the charged out rule already. Due to their combination of range and (at times) speed, Stormcoven and Discord very much fit the bill here for me, as it is generally pretty easy to get all three fighters charged out, which is what you want to be doing anyway. One last thing to note is that this card does get easier as the game wears on, assuming you have at least 1 surviving friendly fighter, so it might be worth looking for other surges in your opening hand if you have some that can give more immediate payout.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 1
Hey guys, look, [
Lengthening Shadows] is back! It’s not been too long since Harrowdeep rotated, but it’s nice to see the reprint here in Get Out of the Way. This always had a nice vibe to me as something that required interaction and had some components of matchup dependency, but ultimately offered a reasonable payout for something that was already part of the gameplan. Invading aggro like Soulraid already loves this as a means to just run in and score for being in enemy territory (particularly against opposing aggro), but hordes can potentially counterplay them by parking in their own territory. I do like the contest here with Corralled Like Sheep as well, where your opponent may hunker down in their territory to try to deny Get Out of the Way only to yield that score instead.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Back to rewarding ping damage, Gone Without a Trace is an attempt at spitting out a more tame version of [
Sudden Demise]. You get the single glory if a fighter is taken out of action by your own power card, but gain an additional spent glory if you killed an enemy fighter with a domain card in this way. Definitely a lot more balanced than its predecessor, but that feelsbad of “I killed your fighter by playing a bunch of cards and also get to score this card because of it” is still present. Note also that this damage doesn’t have to be dealt by a gambit, just a power card, meaning that upgrades count for scoring as well, including something like [
Final Frenzy], which could be funny.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Never Punished is another 2-glory ping-based end phase for fewer friendly fighters having one or more wound counters than enemy fighters. Kind of weird that they’d print Cold Front but then turn around and print a version that is actually easier. If you’ve got access to the right combination of heal and ping tech, you can probably pull this off, but that actually limits you to only a few elite warbands. Several that have the ping (like Discord) lack the heal, or some that have the heal (like Dread Pageant) lack sufficient ping. Maybe Gorechosen could pull this off if they hit a big [
Wound the Realm]? It’s doable, but eventually you have to start killing fighters, not just pinging them. It’s not bad, you’re just going to struggle in certain matchups and potentially give up on kills to score it.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Nowhere to Run is another 2-glory end phase, this time for two or more enemy fighters being within 1 hex of a snare or lethal hex. There are a few cards in the deck that can help you out with this, but otherwise your best bet is to drop a board that has several of them. This could also be some great incentive to actually remember to plunder once in a while! Overall, I think people will be trying to take “clean” boards against this matchup, so you’ll have to do most of the legwork here, but it is at least intriguing at the payout. Do note, however, that at least 2 enemy fighters do need to be surviving to even score this.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Ruinous Aftermath scores immediately after discarding one of your own domain cards by another being played. Since this one kind of requires it, I’ve cheated ahead and determined that there are 5 domain gambits in this deck, but only 4 are actually persisting domains. This probably means that you want to have some additional domain support in your deck from something like Gorechosen if you want to score this reliably. That being said, I’m not sure canceling your own domains is typically what you want to be doing. Replacing your own domains is perfectly feasible if you have several of them in your deck, it is just a bit rare that you want to be switching out the ongoing effect mid-round, in my experience. Therefore, you might more often be expecting your opponent to score this for you by playing their own domain in response to whatever you are trying to do. Cards like [
Zone of Control], [
Grasping Rootgrave], or [
Zealot Imperative] are decently popular and often a good way to negate an opponent’s domain. At least if they foil your plan, you can get a glory out of it. You do have some control here and this could be a fairly easy passive score, I’m just not sure how often you’re going to be thrilled to execute on this yourself.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
In another example of toning down some prior cards, Spread Out is a much more tame version of [
Cold of the Void], rewarding only 1 glory if no fighters are adjacent to each other and bumping it up to 2 glory only when all of your friendly fighters are in enemy territory. 3-fighter warbands still ought to look at this one, particularly if they have access to good enemy push tech, as a relatively passive score as well. The potential concern here is that horde warbands are starting to get a bit more support, so those matchups where this becomes a bit difficult may get more popular. Like its predecessors, your opponent also gets a lot of say in whether or not it scores, assuming they know to look for it. Gorechosen again come to mind due to having access to [
Call of Blood], while several of the temptations in the Discord also can help support a score. Definitely a solid card, I’m just not sure how often you’ll be snagging the 2 glory on it, although I do like they added an element of interactivity to it.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Subterranean Threat is our next surge, scoring for taking an enemy fighter out of action that had no Move or Charge tokens during an activation. With how little downside there is to committing to moves/charges these days, I just don’t like this. VCT is spitting out moves left and right while Gitz, Hexbane’s Hunters, Sepulchral Guard, Reapers, and Thorns all have plenty of capability to give tokens to multiple fighters in a single activation. This reads as more of an alpha strike objective at the beginning of a round, so maybe some fast, elite aggro can make use of it, but there are far better surges available these days.
Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Our final objective is Threatening Rumbles, a surge scored for dealing damage to any fighter on an objective token in enemy territory via your power card. If Gone Without a Trace was [Sudden Demise]-lite, this is the zero-calorie version. At least you don’t have to secure a kill with this one. Yes, you could theoretically run a friendly fighter into enemy territory onto an objective, ping yourself, then score this, but odds are you’re trying to score this for killing enemy fighters instead. If your opponent is aggro and wants to be in your zone or just plain does not care about standing on tokens, you are very possibly out of luck. Ping damage warbands might have to take this just to fill out their surges, but you’re betting more on hitting those HO matchups than anything else.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Get Out of the Way
- Aman: Gone Without a Trace
- Zach: Deadly to All
- George: Corralled Like Sheep
Gambits
It seems they’ve learned a bit since [
Easily Distracted] with our first gambit in Brief Emergence. You get to pick somebody to push and stagger while your opponent gets to chose someone to push and damage. However, you are the one who gets to resolve the second push this time, not your opponent. Even if that second fighter is one of yours (which it likely will be, short of some tech upgrades), getting a combo [
No Safe Ground] (without the positional requirement) and a [
Sidestep] could very well be worth eating a damage. Additionally, if you are a warband that packs a lot of heal tech anyway, you may be able to neglect the downside more readily. If you are tabled and/or only have fighters left that cannot be pushed or dealt damage by gambits, this can be extremely disruptive to your opponent’s end phase scoring as well. This reads as more of a Dread Pageant or Gravebreakers card, since they have relatively immediate ways to account for the damage, but I think just about any warband can find some use for this.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Deadly Wards is our first domain, making all starting hexes and objective tokens into lethal hexes as well, with the usual end conditions for a gambit or until a lethal hex deals damage. While the ghostly warbands can potentially work around this, others will likely be stuck trying to play through it instead and just eat the damage. Of course, you likely will not want to be trying to hold when you play this, but there is some upside here as a bit of a control card. Interestingly, this both does and does not synergize with Threatening Rumbles, as the damage could score this for you but also simultaneously discourages your opponent from moving onto the objective. Alternatively, you could save this until the very end of a round as a means to support Nowhere to Run. It also generally opens up cards that reference being in or within certain distances of a hazard hex. A bit more situational than our first card, but there’s definitely some play here.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Engulfing Swallow is next, allowing you to Scatter 2 from any empty hex, then roll a magic die for each fighter adjacent to the hex at the end of the chain, dealing them one damage on a swirly or staggering them otherwise. I normally am not a fan of these random chance cards, but at least this one has an effect either way (assuming the scatter ended in or near the hex you wanted). While scatter is notoriously unreliable, the fact that you don’t have to chain it through your target fighters or land in their hex precisely actually gives you a pretty decent margin for error. While it’s unfortunate that you can’t control which effect happens, the independence of range or LoS can make this very potent, especially against hordes. The ceiling, of course, is wiggling your way into a bunch of fighters of a horde warband and pinging them all, but that’s going to require some crazy luck. I think you pack it into your deck assuming it’s a stagger card, but you’ll probably not turn your nose up if it happens to ping instead.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Heaving Ground is our next domain card, essentially as a persisting [
Pit Trap] for staggered fighters, dealing them 1 point of damage each time they are driven back. As with most stagger synergies, Clawpack and Razors come to mind most immediately, but there is other stagger support in the deck here, and it could also be a decent way to punish Hungering Parasite players, since they will always start the game with somebody staggered. I’m not blown away by it, I could definitely see it not making the cut, but there’s some use here. Just be careful, because it can also ping your own fighters.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Here It Comes! is another domain, forcing a roll-off at the end of the next round to see who gets to pick which territory the ceiling gets dropped in. Certainly, it’s no [
Abasoth’s Avalanche] (thank goodness), but it can be. You probably would want to be more of an elite warband to play this card since you’ll have fewer fighters to ping and an easier time spreading out. Still, there are just too many variables here. It’s a dead draw in Round 3 and can never go off at the end of Round 1. On top of that, it’s a 50-50 of if you even are the one who gets to pick which territory gets hit. The absolute Round 2 popoff case is possible, but it’s just too risky for me. One final note is mechanical, but since the card says each, the territory chosen must have at least one fighter who can be pinged, if possible.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Just Pure Luck is a hybridized reaction gambit, either allowing you to manipulate a scatter result to a hammer or prevent a friendly fighter from suffering exactly 1 Damage unless that damage would kill them. The first option is cute or whatever, but the second is obviously the primary attraction of the card. I’m glad they added the “unless you would die” clause though, because it would be super rude if somebody tried to use an activation to finish you off with a 1-Damage attack and you just got to say “nope.” That being said, I would like this to be able to prevent ping gambits from killing you, so I would personally rather the wording just be the same as [
Light of the Stars]. Still, beggars can’t be choosers and the ability to negate damage is extremely valuable (especially within the context of some of the cards releasing in this deck). This strikes me as an auto-include in Nemesis, but will likely even make its way into Championship decks as a way to counteract what I expect to be a resurgence of the ping meta. I am definitely going to cry a bit though whenever one of my Grave Guard lands their pillow-fisted little 1-Damage attacks and it immediately gets erased.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Puncturing Ice Shards follows a bit of the design of Brief Emergence with the exception that it does count as a domain card as well. This is the one that does not persist, but instead gives another “one for you, one for me” effect. You get to deal 1 damage to a fighter within 1 hex of a hazard hex, while your opponent gets to deal 1 to a fighter that is within 1 hex of a hazard hex and/or feature token. One minor note is that it is still your card dealing the damage for the purposes of objective scoring and such. While your opponent does have a bit more flexibility in their choice, guess what happens if only one fighter is eligible for both conditions? Knowing this is coming means you can position accordingly and potentially do 2 damage to a single enemy fighter or ping two separate enemy fighters (with no range limitations). This card is pretty disgusting, I am very surprised it got printed without some kind of time component for your opponent to respond with their positioning. It kind of seems like there should have been one anyway since this is a domain card. As-is, the only saving grace is that you can potentially discourage your opponent from playing this by not taking a board with hazard hexes on it. I would be remiss not to point out the silly combo with the new version of Stalagsquig though.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
If you are done throwing up from reading our last entry, get ready for Re-Emergence, which lets you pick up one of your Rimewyrm’s Bite domains from your power discard or from persistence. The only thing worse than executing Puncturing Ice Shards onto only your opponent’s fighters will be executing it twice in a row. Sure, it’s a two-card combo, but what the actual heck. The other domains we’ve covered here are perfectly decent as well, so it’s not like that’s the only synergy you’re looking for, but hitting that is going to feel extremely bad. The more interesting, but niche use of this card will be to plop down one of the persisting domains, let it work its magic, then pick it back up when you want to bypass its effect. I like this mind game aspect of it a lot actually, I just fear that will not be its primary use.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
The pings just keep on coming with The Right Bait. This one took a couple of readings before I realized it was pretty much just a stupid good card. It’s basically [
Dark Command]’s primary usage. Charge up, hit, ping for the finisher. Yes, it doesn’t have the advantage of also leveraging enemy adjacency, but dang is that good. There is the upside of stagger as well, if you happen to pull that off, but that’s more gravy than anything. Since you know you’re about to play the card, it should be pretty darn easy to avoid getting staggered yourself. The only silver lining compared to some of these other cards is that it requires some interaction, but sheesh enough already!
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
Our final gambit card is also a domain in Unstable Footing, automatically staggering any fighter that makes a superaction, dealing them 1 damage instead if they happen to already be staggered. Once again, the stagger offenders come to mind here, as they can drop the stagger early then punish with damage afterwards. For Razors in particular, slamming down this card when you’ve also been Hammertide spamming is just rude. The stagger alone is a pretty solid accuracy bump and/or scoring synergy, the damage is just extra ping that it’s not like this deck really needed.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Just Pure Luck
- Aman: Puncturing Ice Shards
- Zach: Brief Emergence
- George: Just Pure Luck
Upgrades
Advancing Juggernaut both prevents the equipped fighter from being staggered and provides the Move+Guard effect that’s only been theorized in the past. Yes, you can only take the guard as not part of a superaction, but the effect is incredible for invading hold. Move a 2-Dodge fighter in, take a Guard token, and profit from the fact that you can’t be staggered either. While charging is still generally the highest value activation for a lot of warbands, those that don’t really care to make attacks will love this one. Note also that the move does not have to be made as part of an activation, which is particularly neat synergy for warbands with access to out-of-sequence move actions, but you’ll still want to be on 2-Dodge or better in most instances for this to provide good value. Just a base effect of not being staggered is decent though considering the rest of the deck and the fact that it would protect you from things like [No Safe Ground] or Hammertide.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3, Universality: 2
Speaking of long-awaited effects, we finally got Boots of Warding, which protects the wearer from ping damage via power cards or lethal hexes. We have needed this card so badly since Gnarlwood, I’m thrilled that it’s finally here and it’s actually going to be massive in Championship. This is the second anti-ping card we’ve seen in this deck, which is great because there is an absurd amount of ping in here already, but also not great from a Nemesis perspective because you’ve put the counters to this deck…into this deck. It makes for a bit of a “play this deck or lose to it” kind of vibe that I don’t love, but that doesn’t change the fact this is an A+ perfect card and something we’ve sorely lacked.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 3
Earth-Shattering Tread reminds me of [
White-hot Anger], but with some upsides and downsides. The upsides are that it is not fighter-restricted and you don’t have to consume your post-activation reaction window, but the downside is that you have to watch out for this yourself. It can be a nice deterrent card, but I think you probably want a lot of baked-in flying/ping immunity if you are going to take it. Probably needed as support for Nowhere to Run though, if you want to take that.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Inured to Hardship allows you to heal upon upgrading and at the start of each round. If the fighter is large, however, it’s just a one-time guard token. Well, that pretty much settles that you will never take this for your large fighters, but the effect is pretty solid otherwise. I’ve already had the pleasure of playing Undying Love with Gravebreakers and I’m really enjoying the ability to use health as a resource. Wurmspat, in particular, are going to love this card since their baked-in damage reduction should mean you get a lot of value out of the heal. On average, you should get about 2 chances per game to heal which is not bad at all but it is worth keeping in mind that drawing this in your opening hand is much higher value than Round 3. One other thing worth noting is that, like Undying Love, you cannot give this to a non-large fighter if they are not wounded (nor could you give it to a large fighter who cannot be on guard).
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Like an Avalanche is [
Vision of Glory] that only works after a domain is discarded, but cannot be given to a large fighter. The interesting part here though is that it is reusable, meaning you can reap significant benefit if your deck is packed with domains. Thankfully, Gorechosen can’t make a ton of use of this particular card, since they are the preeminent “domain” warband, but they could certainly still use it to keep Herax running around. I like that they’ve tied the effect to a significant power card investment, making you commit in order to access a still very powerful effect. The fact that most domains tend to just discard at the end of the round and the loosening of the restrictions to having Move/Charge tokens do mean it’s not hitting peak value very often, but there will definitely be cases where all you need is to proc the effect once for it to earn its keep.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Master of Disaster is another reaction upgrade competing in the same slot, allowing you to either push 1 hex or stagger an enemy fighter upon discard. While I think this has a lesser peak than our previous entry, it is far more generally applicable. If you figure you often only discard your domains at the end of a round anyway, a push ought to have way more value than removing a Move/Charge token at that point. Note that most domains break at the end of a round, not the end of the action phase, so it cannot set up your end phase scoring unless you discard a domain while the action phase is ongoing. While this is certainly possible within the context of this deck, you would probably more often be looking at this like a start-of-round [
Quickening Greaves] push rather than anything. The stagger is a cute extra option that can add some mid-round value, but the push is often going to be the most desirable option. I like it, I think this is one of the better-designed effects in the deck and I’m particularly happy it only has tangential connection to the ping shenanigans in the deck.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2, Universality: 3
Sprinting Fiend is another cool effect I’ve seen discussed before that allows you to take two move actions as a superaction, although it comes with the cost of not only a Charge token, but also a Stagger. The fact that this can open up multiple post-move reactions is pretty cool, and it does give you the ability to get most anywhere you would need to on the board. However, the drawback is fairly steep considering you’re not actually attacking anyone here. I think this falls more in the pile of really cool and will sometimes be helpful if all you need to do is reach an objective token that is far away, but generally only something you end up using once per game at most. Probably not making the cut once you start trimming your power deck.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
Thunderstomp gives the equipped fighter an action to Scatter X from their hex up to their Wounds characteristic, deal 1 damage to each fighter in that chain, then break the card. This one is also not allowed for large fighters, meaning you’re maxing out at 4 hexes. Unless you are an absolute dice wizard and your opponent is really bunched up, you’re probably only hitting one or two fighters with this in most cases. Assuming those are enemy fighters, that’s pretty decent payout for your activation considering there are no defence rolls. This is especially true given the ungodly amount of ping they’ve packed in here. However, I do still think the more generally useful thing would be to deal 2 Damage to a single target (via an attack action, for example) than spread it out like this. It could maybe be interesting as a way to set up Dread Pageant or Shadeborn inspirations, but it feels very situational to me. I’m also not quite sure why it breaks, I’m kind of ok if my opponent wants to try to spam this, personally.
Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1, Universality: 2
For more ping “immunity,” we have Tough Enough, which is [
Thick Hide] except that it cannot negate damage that would take you out of action. Additionally, this is another one that you cannot put onto large fighters. Even with those couple of caveats, the immunity to 1 damage is still a super useful effect. As long as it wouldn’t be fatal, you get to deny most ping gambits, lethal hex damage, and 1-Damage attack actions, including that pesky [
Retractable Pistol]. Note that you can sequence your own abilities here too, so you could apply something like Wurmspat’s damage first reduction to drop a 2- or even 3-Damage attack to 1, then use this effect to negate the 1. This is great both universally and within the context of several cards released alongside it here, I like it a lot.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3, Universality: 2
Last, but certainly not least, Up for a Fight is flat +1 Dice while a domain is persisting. Once again, Gorechosen come to mind as an ideal pairing for this one, but a number of warbands could be talked into including several domain gambits in their deck if it means accessing effects such as this one. The lack of a Range limitation as well means you would be hard-pressed not to include this one in Nemesis for all but the most passive warbands. While I do think there will be room for a “domain build” in Championship as well, it’s likely you’d see this a bit less frequently there. It’s a bit sequencing-dependent, but +Dice is such a good effect that it’s worth building into the synergy.
Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2, Universality: 2
Our Favorites
- Mark: Boots of Warding
- Aman: Tough Enough
- Zach: Boots of Warding
- George: Tough Enough
Conclusion
As you can probably tell from my tone throughout this article, I am not pleased that this deck exists. I know we always preach positivity here at PTG, and by no means should you take this article to mean I am going to talk down on the game or the designers, but I do have, I think, an obligation to give you guys my honest critiques whenever new content is released. I have always loved the idea of a field hazards deck, but making most of the hazard effects do damage is not only potentially meta-warping, but also just boring. There are plenty of levers to pull on this design space, and they did use stagger a bit, but handing out Move/Charge tokens, push effects, reduced Move Characteristics, moving feature tokens, etc. are all perfectly on-theme impacts of field hazards that were either not explored here or were underexplored in favor of an absolute flood of ping cards. The ping problem only just came under control in Championship and I could see this throwing it right back into full swing, especially since this is not plot-locked (though it would probably still be crazy good even with one). In Nemesis, I think the problem may even be worse with this one. While I love that we’ve finally gotten some counter-ping tech cards in this deck, this is the only deck that really offers it in any significant amount. It creates a sort of “run this deck to counter this deck” feeling that I am not a fan of, more so than any other Rivals deck we’ve seen to date. In addition to resurfacing issues we saw where hordes really suffered upon release of Force of Frost, it has the potential to make for a very stale meta if it’s not curbed quickly. I so hope to be wrong about that, but I think just about every 3-fighter warband ought to have an eye on this deck as a potential partner. Since this is a competitive advice blog more than anything, I suppose I should recommend some Nemesis pairings here. I mentioned elites love this one, but Gorechosen, Wurmspat, and Discord all should really love it due to either their internal ping synergy or just due to putting down only 3 bodies for purposes of skirting the downsides to a lot of these cards. Razors also seem to have a pretty nice option with this deck, although the jury is still out for me as to whether it would be better than their other pairings outside of the inherent protection against opposing ping damage. Here’s some thoughts from the rest of the gang:
Aman: Depending on how closely you follow our content, and the order in which you are reading these articles, you’ll know that I have really enjoyed how the design team is pushing the boundaries of what is possible in our beloved game. You’ll also know that while I applaud the theoretical, I’m a bit dubious on how things end up in the practical. For Rimewyrm specifically, I’m disappointed to see the quantity of ping damage. I suppose Force of Frost isn’t the de-facto rivals deck anymore, it’s now a choice between this deck and that one. Nonetheless, I’ve been wanting to play a Chaos warband for some time and I think this deck gives me the perfect tools to make both the Thricefold Discord and Wurmspat not only functional, but pretty darn good.
Zach: I was a bit worried about another Aggro deck being in the metagame, but overall I’m very intrigued by Rimewyrm’s Bite. Unlike Tooth and Claw or Breakneck Slaughter, this deck is aggro that doesn’t focus on making your fighters simply run across the table and roll dice in charges. There’s a lot of positioning, threat emergence, and setup shenanigans that will make this deck play a lot deeper than most aggro, and while I think the power level on it is quite high (as I assume many of my contemporaries do), I think the playstyle of the deck is one that will require a more tactical, methodical approach to the Aggro playstyle. I’m sure it will get annoying if it starts making the metagame more and more of a ping nightmare, but until I grow tired of it, I think I’ll be running it pretty regularly.
George: While I enjoy the themes of this deck and I’m over the moon to finally see substantial tech cards for anti-ping, I have grave concerns about the amount and potency of ping in this deck. Just when I thought I saw a glimmer of a hold objective/horde meta on the horizon, the Rimewyrm came to dash my hopes. I’m excited about some of the cards in this deck on their own but I see many, many abuse cases here.
Thank you very much for reading, and we wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path to…AAARGH!!
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Written by: Mark Breault
Edited by: Aman Khusro
