Rivals of the Mirrored City – Mollog’s Mob

Intro

For a bit different of a slant on this release cycle, I’ve copy-pasted my “love letter” to GW for these 4 articles, as I don’t want it to be missed if you end up only reading the ones on warbands that interest you.

Holy new releases, Batman! A very pleasant surprise in the pre-release WarCom cycle was the announcement that not one, not two, but four old warbands would be getting facelifts to modernize their fighter and faction cards, as well as grant them full 32-card Rivals decks for viable play in that format. Of course, this also comes with an opportunity for (primarily) improved performance for the deckbuilding formats, as you now have some additional cards to pull from in addition to the modifications to existing ones. I can’t express how glad I am that they’ve done this. There was some worry that eventually we’d hit warband rotation, or even soft warband rotation via power creep (see Stormcoven and Pandaemonium vs. Cursebreakers and Eyes). However, the recent redesigns of these older warbands I think looks like pretty strong confirmation that they don’t want to leave any warbands behind. Yes, it comes at additional cost for players that already have the models (it is GW after all), but I’m personally happy to pay it if it means my old favorites are relevant again. I was thrilled by the updates made to Sepulchral Guard (and even Farstriders), so I’m glad to see them continuing to work through the backlog of old warbands, as long as they are mostly retaining the identity we’ve all come to know and love. These changes, even the minor ones, feel like they breathe some fresh gameplay into these warbands that are really struggling (particularly in Nemesis), but that are also some of my personal favorites. Perhaps even more importantly, new players will have access to these teams that otherwise fetch outrageous prices on the secondary market due to being OOP. Tenured players don’t have to worry about stomping new players with OOP warbands, new players get to experience the glory of our old favorites for themselves without having to break the bank, and GW gets to make more money off warbands they’ve already released. Everybody wins. I’m honestly not sure there has been a WHU release I’ve been more excited about. Would I love to be able to buy the cards on their own? Of course I would, but honestly the ~$15 markup from a Rivals deck to a warband these days is trivial enough to me that I personally don’t mind it. I recognize that is a privilege for myself to be able to say this, and I can totally appreciate if you don’t want to pay this much to just get new cards and/or you’re not interested in all of the warbands. However, I would point out that, if you are willing to split the box with a friend and/or sell off models you already have (which you can likely accomplish on the secondary market), you can help assuage some of these concerns.

With that out of the way, let’s get into this article’s focus, which is Mollog’s Mob! Well, you have to give them some credit regardless of what you think the outcome is, because bringing the troggoth into the modern era is bold. We’ve seen him jump in and out of not only meta relevance, but meta dominance in the past when the card pool supports him well enough. This has occurred in spite of the fact that his original faction deck was quite possibly the worst (or one of the worst) in the game. All of this to say that the designers need to—and it appears they have done so—take a very conservative approach in modernizing him and his deck, of which I think they’ve done a great job overall. He strikes me as kind of an inverse Hrothgorn now, aiming to bump fighters towards his minions rather than them bumping fighters towards him. The changes are significant and will likely be a bit of a hot topic initially, but I think once he settles in, we’ll see this warband be a lot more consistent and, hopefully, less swingy going forward, particularly in Nemesis, where I would argue he was borderline unplayable before. In short, I think it’s time to fear the bonk again. Let’s jump in to the cards!

Fighters

As you might have expected, the thing that tends to break the balance on this warband is Mollog himself, and so he has a considerable redesign. His attack profiles are actually unchanged, so he is still very much capable of BONK. His scything attack has, of course, been updated to the modern templating and will continue to be a key tool against horde. On his physical profile, the only thing he lost is 1 Wound, which you could argue is a pretty big deal, as even 7 has, at times, felt like it’s not enough, particularly in Championship. To help mitigate the 1-shot potential, they have used some newly free space on the card to add his Mighty rule, which prevents an attack from dealing more than 3 damage to him. While this may not come up in every matchup, the fact that you won’t have to clench every time your opponent drops the [Cursed Boarding Pike], [Dark Parasites], etc. onto their little torpedo fighter is some nice piece of mind and should smooth out his power curve a bit. Additionally, they made it so he just flat out cannot be driven back via his Steadfast ability (shout out to Shatterpoint), which is nice thematically given his size. Functionally, as we have seen in his Voidcursed Thralls pairing, this is a big deal for making sure that anyone who wants to step up and hit him is getting thumped in return (bar Range 3+ attackers, of course), as well as can help protect you from hazard hexes and set up positional scoring. Losing the Wound stinks, but I think gaining these two abilities can offset it. The bigger loss comes in that he can no longer move, then Charge, nor activate with a charge token on him (except via the current version of the charge out rule). We’ll see some attempts to compensate for this in the power deck, but certainly that’s a significant change. While the VCT builds can work around this via free move actions, this does mean that other builds may struggle to position him effectively for doing his thing unless you can force your opponent to step up and fight you. The sum of these changes I think still makes for a nerf to the fighter himself, but I think they’ve done a serviceable job in keeping him in the game via his two new rules additions, and we’ll see in a few moments some ways to compensate for his reduced efficiency. I think this version of him just makes a lot more sense from a design perspective, lowering his ceiling so that he doesn’t just suddenly appear on the scene from time to time while also smoothing out his floor.

As for Bat Squig, his biggest change is adding a die to his attack, making for 1R/3S/1D uninspired, then going to 2 Damage on his inspired side still. This is, of course, a wonderful accuracy buff to make him a bit more attractive to actually use. Of course, making flying into a trait freed up space on the card here, which GW has kindly filled with what is essentially [Claim Jumper] in his Constantly Flapping ability. While this won’t always come into play, this could mean a huge accuracy boon (and allow driveback) for himself, or enable Mollog to break through something like a front-line guarded Changer. Note, however, that this also affects friendly fighters. Relatively minor changes here, but buffs are buffs and these are solid.

The buff to Spiteshroom comes not in the form of stats, but in his ability. Previously, he could only react to damage adjacent fighters when he died, but now he can do it after any activation in which enemy fighters were pushed into or moved into a hex adjacent to him. I don’t know why they listed drive back separately here, since it is a subset of push, but this is a pretty significant buff, in my opinion. While this is not quite equivalent to having lethal hexes around him due to it only being a post-activation reaction and not punishing fighters who are placed there, I think this is most definitely better than it was previously. The only downside is that you obviously can’t use the reaction if you are dead, so there is that chance somebody just charges in and murders you from adjacent without you getting to use the reaction. That said, being anywhere near him is now a much greater risk than previously, as charging into him and missing means you’re eating a damage, plus you’re likely going to eat another damage in the next activation if you get driven back. I love the idea of Mollog bonking vulnerable enemy fighters into Spiteshroom just to succumb to the spores. Note that this can also hit multiple fighters if you use a scything attack to push multiple fighters adjacent to him or your opponent uses mid-activation reactions to surround him while failing to kill.

While he can no longer unleash his might 1R/1H/1D attack when uninspired, Stalagsquig has also added some tech value with his Menace ability, which forces enemy fighters to treat hexes adjacent to him as snare hexes. This is great for adding some additional accuracy to the rest of your warband if your opponent decides to come after the rock, but the funniest niche here is that this means you can stagger your opponents fighters as they deploy next to him. Yes, the warband now deploys as 4 fighters instead of 3, which stinks for the roll-off, but if you have a good sense of how your opponent plans to deploy and/or they have a big enough warband that they don’t have much choice, you can potentially add as many as 2-3 stagger tokens before anybody has even taken an activation. I will note that not being able to deploy him onto objective tokens anymore is a considerable hit to cards like [We Stand Together], as well as his glory denial potential in matchups where you know your opponent will need to hold particular objectives. His It’s Just a Rock ability has also gotten a slight defensive buff in that he is considered to be on guard. When inspired, he now only does 1 Damage instead of 2, but has added cleave. This is technically a nerf, but how often were you really attacking with him? I do think the snare hex addition and always on guard at least mostly offset the tools that were taken away from him, but I am going to miss the ability to slow down my opponent’s HO scoring.

Our Favorites

• Mark: Spiteshroom
• Aman: Bat Squig
• Zach: Stalagsquig
• George: Bat Squig

Rivals Deck

Objectives

Only one surge in and I’d argue Block the Entrance is already been than any surge the warband had previously, scoring after an opponent’s activation if Mollog holds an objective in enemy territory and has no enemy fighters adjacent to him. This is the perfect kind of “come fight me” card that the warband needed. If your opponent values their fighters, they generally won’t engage with you until they absolutely have to, and this can give them some pause as to whether or not they need to speed up their time table. If you move up in your first activation and park on an objective, do they just let you have this one, or do they try to contest it and get bonked? Being that you can no longer drive him back, the only way to dislodge the troggoth from the token is via a push card, and it’s certainly possible you might be able to just move or push him back on. Sure, the card stinks if he is out of action, but your warband has always stunk if this is the case. Love this card.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2

[Demolished] has gotten a facelift in the form of the aptly-named Bonk! Note that the wording of this is such that it’s just your warband who has to deal the precise damage, so, in addition to attack actions, you can also use gambits or Nasty Spores to score it. Just note that lethal hexes do not count as your warband dealing the damage. While I’d say this is probably still better than any of his prior surges, it’s just a middling kill surge. Plenty doable, but I’d like to sub in other cards if I can.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Get Got just requires a successful minion attack action. However, given that only two of them are able to attack and one of them is on 2 swords, I do think I’m still leaving it at home. It seems too dependent on Bat Squig and I think you still want to follow the old play lines of positioning and bonking with your leader as often as possible. Still Bat Squig does have decent threat range and accuracy, especially if you pull of a stagger with the rock, so it could potentially be trivial early.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

Ignore at Your Peril is a 1-glory end phase for having a surviving friendly minion that is not adjacent to an enemy fighter. Given that none of them are particularly desirable to be adjacent to, I like this quite a bit. It should be practically automatic in Round 1 if you just hide one of them in your back line, but, if your positioning is good, killing all of them should often mean that your opponent had to endure the threat of Mollog to do so. Another great “come get me or I score glory” card, and even one that should be pretty manageable when they do come to get you as long as you are able to keep at least one of them alive.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Just Too Easy may be the first example in the game of a card that scores “after a turn,” which of course includes both the activation and power step. The most straightforward way of pulling this off is via scything, but you also have Nasty Spores and power card support to help you out here. Even in the case where a single ability or scything attack is unable to score this on its own, just an attack + ping gambit can achieve the same end. While I do think this is the kind of thing that can potentially get stuck in hand if you have cold dice or poor draw sequencing, most universal decks have at least one way to deal a damage out of sequence, on top of the innate tech already present in this warband. To me, the main downside is that I might not always want to land an attack on one guy, then ping another, I may want to follow up onto the same target. Similarly, this does require your opponent to still have at least 2 fighters on the field, which may not be the case if you pull this later in the game.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Looming Menace is more “come fight me” tech, scoring for 1 glory if there are no enemy fighters within 2 hexes of Mollog, tacking on an additional point if he made one or more successful attacks at Range 1 or 2 that round. Odds are, if you’re scoring this for 1, you’re probably scoring it for 2 unless the game is not going super well for you. The fact this lacks a territorial requirement means you could also just hide from your opponent for the score, which is particularly strong in the VCT build due to the ability to leverage free moves to smack something, run away, then safely take your 2 glory. You don’t even need to run away until the end of the round either, holding cards like [Forced Movements] or [Commanding Stride] just to satisfy the condition without needing to leave a relatively threatening position. Note that your opponent cannot deny at least the 1 glory score if they are tabled. While it does negate some potential for you to set up for your next round of bonks, at minimum, the card forcing interaction with your leader is a good thing.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

[Earn Your Keep] has gotten a buff in the form of Natural Hazards, scoring from taking an enemy fighter out of action by any damage not dealt by Mollog. Interestingly, unlike its earlier counterpart in Bonk!, this one does not require your warband to deal the damage, so opponent’s self-ping gambits and lethal hexes do count for this one. This means Mollog can sort of do it for you by driving someone into a lethal or, of course, next to Spiteshroom. Hilariously enough, he also wouldn’t count as the source of the damage as a caddy for a ping card like [Unbearable Energies] or [Dark Command]. Still, no being able to directly do the deed with him is a drawback on this one, I think it falls in a very similar basket in terms of being a fine, yet not auto-take kill surge.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

The buffs keep coming with [Protect the Lair] becoming Stay Away, scoring 1 glory in the first end phase if there are no enemy fighters in your territory, or bumping up to 2 glory in the second or third. While I do love having yet another card that forces your opponent to come and fight, this is a bit too matchup-dependent for me. Aggro is still prevalent enough that getting into your territory will often be a core tenet of your opponent’s gameplan, and warbands like Soulraid, Grymwatch, and Spiteclaw’s Swarm can make this miserably difficult by creating cases where they are both in your territory and not under threat of the troggoth. I do really like the modality they’ve added here, it’s just easier for your opponent to stop than some of the other cards we’ve discussed on top of having a higher dependence on matchup.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

I’m noticing a theme of buffing pretty much every one of his bad original objectives. Troggoth Triumphant is an improved version of [Rampage], now scoring for taking out 3 fighters in the same phase instead of 4 while also adding a hybrid condition of Mollog being the only fighter in enemy territory. The first condition is still extremely matchup- and, frankly, dice luck-dependent. I think the more attractive condition is the latter in this case, which can be a neat meta call into the BNS [Fastest Around] type of strategy. If you invert the boards on modern aggro (specifically TNC and BNS aggro), they will often be forced to come back and get you to deny your scoring, which should counteract their own. Of course, this is also another card that you can score if your opponent is tabled. That being said, both conditions are still pretty high brick potential, so it certainly will need some additional testing. I suspect that this will be a pretty inconsistent, but potentially game-winning “gotcha” card.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 1

Uh-Oh sort of gives me vibes of [Untouchable Fury] and [Spirited Attempt], but a lot harder. To cheat ahead a bit, there are exactly two ways to resurrect minions in this deck. While I do think you will likely be taking both, at least in Nemesis, needing to have all 3 minions on the board at the same time Mollog is inspired seems like a tough ask. Yes, it does discourage your opponent from just going straight for the big lad, but I think you kind of want them to? This warband has mostly struggled in the past when people go around farming minions and leaving the troggoth alone. While a number of the cards in the deck can now punish that style of counterplay, this one seems to be leaning in the opposite direction. Just weirdly a bit of anti-synergy there.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

In another old card buff, Utter Carnage now only requires 3 enemy fighters to be out of action (they don’t have to all die in the same phase now) while adding a more elite-centric hybrid condition of there being one or fewer surviving enemy fighters. I like that they have started hybridizing these cards to offset the matchup dependency. If you are struggling for a 6^th end phase card, I think this is serviceable, it’s just going to be the hardest into 4X4 style of matchups, which unfortunately has a fairly big meta share right now. I could see this rising in value if non-resurrecting hordes besides Hexbane start to pop up again though.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

In our final old card buff, You Sure It’s Asleep…? now only cares if Mollog made a superaction rather than any action, with the added requirement that he does need to be in enemy territory. Given that he lost his special charge rule, using movement and pushes to reposition rather than charges is likely to be more common anyway. That being said, if I have an opportunity for a solid scything attack or a key charge, I’m not going to be happy giving it up just for this card. I think you still pass on this one.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1

Our Favorites

• Mark: Looming Menace
• Aman: Block the Entrance
• Zach: Block the Entrance
• George: Block the Entrance

Gambits

Starting off, we have a significant improvement on [There the Whole Time] in Always About. The guaranteed resurrection and being able to use it on any minion easily makes up for the “downside” of having to give the fighter a Charge token. I put that in quotes because giving the token to Stalagsquig is one of the only ways you can access the charge out rule while he’s on the field. This can also practically guarantee Ignore at Your Peril, if that’s all you need it for. Probably not something you’re digging for in your opening hand, but fantastic in Round 2 and Round 3.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Angry Bellow allows you to stagger an enemy fighter within two hexes of Mollog. While the re-roll here could potentially span multiple activations, the card art tells you that it comes at the cost of [Brutal Savagery], which I think was the higher value card. I suppose the niche is in being able to break guard tokens, but I don’t know if that’s worth the positional requirement. You do need to pack in accuracy, but there are a lot of better options these days, especially since [King of the Deeps] and [Corrupted Companion] haven’t quite rotated yet. Even Nemesis will usually have some better options to take first. At least you can salvage it?

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Insatiable Appetite grants a minion +1 Dice and, if two or more enemy fighters are OOA, grievous. You might take this to support Get Got and/or Natural Hazards, but pretty much everything I just said about there being better accuracy gambits still applies, perhaps doubly so given that Mollog can’t leverage this.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

It’s Not Just a Rock! is a massive improvement on [Hobble]. Not only do you no longer have to worry about it failing, but the number of threatened hexes can be wild on this one, especially since this warband enjoys longboarding. While Move tokens aren’t as debilitating as they used to be, denying a charge from a key fighter and potentially locking your opponent out of accessing the charge out rule can be huge, just look at how well [Iara’s Frozen Bonds] has performed. This has great synergy with the decks that are capable of dropping extra blocked tokens as well via cards like [Flash Flood] or such. It’s not always going to hit that ceiling, but you have a surprising amount of control here. As more of an oddity than anything, the wording does allow you to get a Move token onto friendly fighters as well, if for some reason you feel that would be useful.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2

[Flit] is now Slippery as a Squig, losing one hex from the push and ability to go through occupied hexes for the upside of now also being able to push Spiteshroom instead. While I’d still prefer taking pushes you can actually use on your leader, the positioning of each of these two fighters has certainly become more important with the revamp. That being said, [Well-trained] is strictly better since you could use it on Mollog with a denizen upgrade. There are better pushes in Championship, but maybe this slots into a Nemesis build, it is still a 2-hex push after all.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Tee up the Target allows you to re-roll a double support symbol in the first Range 1 or 2 attack by your leader in the next activation. I mentioned you needed accuracy, but this is decidedly not it. On two dice, this only has a 31% chance of doing anything, with only a 42% chance even on three dice. Even then, there might be cases where you can manage those symbols being hits if you can manufacture support. Every now and then, you just get an absolute headscratcher like this. Would a single re-roll of any die at telegraphed gambit speed really have been too much for this one?

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1

Terrifying Silhouette is also Mollog-restricted, preventing your opponent from having support in the next activation. While support is a fairly common mechanic these days, I don’t love the board state and matchup dependence on this one. There are some cute interactions like denying DKK their inspiration, or Sons of Velmorn their whole schtick, but the only real worthwhile use of this is leading into a scything activation. Even with the extreme case where you are rolling 3 dice on the scything into a double-supported 2-Dodge fighter, you have just a 10% accuracy bump, which you could be offered by a card like [Reckless Charge] instead. You could also just use a +Dice card like [King of the Deeps] or [Corrupted Companion] to “fix” the first attack in the scything, killing or driving a fighter back so that they don’t have the same level of support on your second hit.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

Tracking Intruders allows you to make a move action with a friendly fighter at the cost of not being able to make attack actions with them for the rest of the round. This card is a perfect example of why we need to wait until we see the whole warband and Rivals deck before sounding off with our hot takes (and even then, we still miss plenty frequently). In a vacuum, this card doesn’t help Mollog do the bonk business he is known for, but maybe you don’t even need to move your leader to facilitate the bonk. Perhaps there is an annoying on-guard fighter within range of Bat Squig support for you to set up a kill. Maybe Spiteshroom just isn’t in quite the right spot for you to bash somebody into his spores. Maybe you just need an extra move to trigger a “refashioned” upgrade from VCT that will put Mollog into attack range. That being said, when you do want to move your leader, sure you won’t use this on him early in the round, but it does allow you to reposition for scoring. Maybe you determined it was worth charging with him, but want to get back onto a token for Block the Entrance. Maybe it’s the end of the round and you need to get away from fighters to score Looming Menace. It might be a surprise that stops your opponent from scoring [Fastest Around] (and I guess maybe even trick them into giving up Troggoth Triumphant. What makes Underworlds so great is that cards can be bad for one thing but great at others. Free move actions are powerful effects, so being able to see the whole picture helps a lot when determining if a downside like this is worth it. I’m not saying all my takes are going to be spot on, far from it. However, it killed me to see how much this card was being maligned during its initial reveal when I could see (but not yet say) all the potential ways in which it might be useful.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 3

Unnatural Hazard is our next gambit, reacting to deal damage to an enemy fighter pushed adjacent to one of your minions. I think it is worth noting that the post-drive back and post-activation windows are different, so you could theoretically react with both this and Nasty Spores for a sneaky extra 2 damage. Alternatively, sometimes your opponent might just push themselves into this if they are trying to set up supported attacks on your minions and/or get away from the troggoth. You could even set this up with a push card like [No Safe Ground] (especially cool since the snare hexes next to Stalagsquig are hazard hexes) or [Centre of Attention]. I don’t know if this makes every deck, but I like this as a ping option and it can help you out with Just Too Easy, if needed.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Our final gambit is Unsurprising Fear, one of the few card nerfs we see in the Rivals deck (RIP [Predatory Growls]). This is basically just [Hypnotic Buzz] but with a directional component. Despite the range limitation, which we have seen on a ton of new and redone [Distraction] effects, enemy pushes almost always add value, whether it’s to deny positional scoring, set up your own, give you support, etc. While you may not always want to push them away, being able to control which of your own fighters sets the direction is a nice feature, so I think you’ll still take and get plenty of use out of this one even though it’s not what it once was.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 2

Our Favorites

• Mark: Tracking Intruders
• Aman: Angry Bellow
• Zach: It’s Not Just a Rock!
• George: It’s Not Just a Rock!

Upgrades

Chuck ‘Em In is a truly hilarious upgrade for Mollog that either gives you a one-time free stagger of an enemy within 5 hexes and/or a reusable reaction to chuck one of your minions from within 2 hexes to a spot that’s within 4 hexes. The stagger is whatever to me, this reusable one is the big deal. Notably, since this is not a push or move, you can actually reposition Stalagsquig. Dump him onto a token for [We Stand Together] or to slow down your opponent from being able to hold it, get a minion out of harms way to make sure you score Ignore at Your Peril, or just generally do some funny positional shenanigans. I’m glad it can at least do something if all your minions are dead too.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

[Horrific Stench] has gotten a glow-up in the form of Ferocious Odour, now preventing enemy fighters adjacent to Mollog from being on guard. While this is better than its predecessor, it’s just too situational to be worth an upgrade slot. This is especially true considering that, if there is a problematic on guard fighter, you’ve still got Bat Squig to help with them.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 1

Fresh Menaces is this warband’s [Petitioner’s Oath], instantly bringing back the equipped minion, then breaking the card. Notably, you can put them in any empty hex in your territory, which again means you can plop them directly onto an objective/feature token, if needed. Unlike a lot of versions of this effect, this one has no restrictions as to how the fighter is taken out of action, so, assuming the fighter dies, there is no brick potential there. Additionally, a number of the in-faction objectives, as well as likely some of the ones that you will take from the universal decks, require you to have some minions on the field. I think you make room for this one, the bodies are too valuable now that they have some added utility and given that Mollog himself is not as prominent.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 2

Getting Hungry is an immediate inspiration for one of your minions. That being said, this is basically a Bat Squig card, as the other two don’t gain that much from inspiring by comparison. In general though, there’s not really a point in speeding up the inspiration for me, just wait for it to happen naturally.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Grump shows they’ve at least not completely abandoned the classic activation efficiency of Mollog. If you are successfully smushing fighters into jelly, this upgrade rewards you with more opportunities to do so by allowing you to remove a Move or Charge token, breaking if you use it to take off a Charge. This definitely has some [Vision of Glory] vibes, I think this card is a must take. Yes, it’s gated behind a kill, but the upside is massive, especially on VCT builds. If you just keep moving him around, bonking, and restoring your threat to charge, it’s going to feel more like the olden days. When the time comes, let that important charge rip and finally allow the upgrade to run its course. If he’s not killing stuff, you’re honestly toast anyway.

Power Ceiling: 3, Consistency: 3

Malicious Minion is another minion-only upgrade, this one counting them as double support instead of just single. If the warband had more push/move economy, I’d be a bit more excited about this, but I think we’re back to the world of just taking upgrades that can go on Mollog, unless you have an obviously powerful effect elsewhere. Even on VCT, you want both move upgrades on him, so you aren’t even really leveraging this card there. Definitely passing on this one.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

In yet another minion-restricted reaction, we have So Annoying, which gives the equipped minion a 50-50 to drop a Move token on an enemy fighter they are adjacent to. You also have the option to give that minion a Charge token to try and help with the charge out rule. We already talked about how Move tokens have lost a lot of value, but they can still make an impact on the game, preventing those key charges and denying your opponent the use of the charge out rule. The issues here are twofold. The first is that it requires you to activate this minion without even a guarantee of applying the token. The second, and possibly more concerning, problem is that you need to be adjacent. While this could force your opponent into taking a lower odds or lower value attack against a squig, the fact that you have to give them a target to just potentially deny them from going after your leader is a no-go for me.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

Spark of Sentience is unchanged and it’s fine. Drawing a card is obviously very powerful, but it’s not like back when you would slap the [Silent Ring] on Deintalos and draw like half your deck over the course of the game. If you are digging for cards anyway, you’re looking for something your leader can use, so you once again might as well just take an upgrade for him instead of this.

Power Ceiling: 1, Consistency: 2

The Mighty and the Meek prevents adjacent fighters from re-rolling their attack and defence dice. Given that defensive re-rolls are generally more rare, the best use case appears to be having this as a defensive buff for your leader. Stagger is common enough, especially if you happen to be playing BNS, that you might consider this card, but the adjacency requirement is a bit problematic in a world where Pandaemonium, Hexbane’s Hunters, and Stormcoven are some of the best warbands in the game. VCT can once again help on the adjacency front, but it’s not like this is an [Aura of Shyish] type of effect. Sure, you might hit that niche scenario where this card happens to line up just right, and Clawpack players will scream in anguish if you happen to play this down, but I think those moments will be pretty sparse and you’ll be wishing you’d taken a different upgrade instead.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

[Foul Temper] has eaten a pretty sizable nerf in the form of Wound Up, only providing you with a re-roll if you are whiffing on the big bonk. While it might be hard to swallow given that this was previously one of the 3-4 actually usable faction cards in the deck, I think the downgrade is ok within the context of the rest of the deck getting significantly better. That being said, I do think they missed the mark with this one. While I like the idea of only rewarding him with accuracy as a consolation prize for failing to smash people, I don’t think this would’ve been all that big of a deal if he could just take a counter after any of his failed attacks. If you wanted to limit it a bit more than that, maybe have the reaction window be “after an activation step in which this fighter made one or more failed attack actions” or “after an activation in which this fighter made one or more attack actions and made no successful attack actions.”  I assume they didn’t want you to access the re-roll too easily simply by whiffing on a 2S scything into support, but honestly, whiffing is whiffing. Regardless of the scenario, using an activation and not hitting is a big deal with this guy, so the fact that you could potentially full whiff a scything and then have to look back at the same odds the next go around does not inspire confidence. A re-roll is still a powerful effect for a fighter like this, it just needed to be a little more accessible, especially in an upgrade set that is otherwise lacking meaningful accuracy.

Power Ceiling: 2, Consistency: 1

Our Favorites

• Mark: Fresh Menaces
• Aman: Grump
• Zach: Grump
• George: Chuck ‘Em In

Conclusion

Like we saw with Sepulchral Guard, it would be easy to fixate on the cases where this warband has been handed nerfs and miss the buffs. Mollog lost a Wound, [Foul Temper] is a shadow of what it once was, and [Predatory Growls] is nerfed. However, prior to the revamp, the warband had arguably the worst faction deck in the game, including a functionally useless objective set. Almost every other redone card in this set ranges from slightly better to significantly better, especially in those objective cards. There’s a lot here to force your opponent to fight you, which means the inability to be driven back will help you stand your ground and smash your opponents into jelly rather than necessarily having to Move>Charge around and chase down those enemy fighters. As I hinted at a few times, Voidcursed Thralls is still looking to be one of the best pairings due to all the free move actions you can make. While you no longer need the ability to deny driveback, that extra mobility is going to be critical now that you don’t have the same action economy. Alternatively, I do like the look of Toxic Terrors given some of the powerful leader-centric synergies there. Let’s see what the others think about the return of the troggoth:

Zach: I admit to never having been a big fan of Mollog. I don’t particularly like playing “big guy” warbands, and I always dreaded seeing him in the hands of a competent opponent. But like all older teams, I disliked seeing the Mob languishing in low tiers of Nemesis due to a mediocre Faction deck. Now though, I think the Troll will be a big part of the meta once again, for better or worse.

Aman: Having played against Mollog many a times at top tables, I must admit I have no love for the troggoth. I understand why they updated Mollog; he’s been a sore spot in design for quite some time and this was the perfect opportunity to address the numerous concerns the community has had about him – both at the height of his power and at his worst. That being said, I think they’ve traded one ugly stepchild for another. When paired with VCT, and in the hands a strong player, Mollog is going to both bring his wrath, and perhaps the dreaded NPE that comes along with it, against players across multiple skill levels. I’m afraid the meta will warp around him, and he’ll gatekeep a specific set of warbands, particularly in the nemesis format. 

George: The troggoth’s back and he’s better than ever, for bonking this year, Mollog is here! The “man”, the myth, the legend himself has returned and I have to say I think he is at least as scary as he was previously. While there’s lots of room to debate the adjustment his stats and abilities received, from a Nemesis perspective the presence of the original biggest bad boy of Underworlds is sure to shake things up.

Thanks for reading and we wish you the best of luck on YOUR Path to (Bonkin’) Glory!