Aman: The Gnarlwood hype train continues and as part of our review bonanza and in this article we’ll be exploring the Tooth & Claw rivals deck. This is a fully functional deck designed from the ground up to pick up and play. It comes with 12 objectives, 10 gambits, and 10 upgrades as well as a plot card (more on that later).
For those of you unfamiliar, Rivals decks are designed to be played in the Rivals and Nemesis (a slightly more advanced) format. Both formats allow new and returning players to get into Warhammer Underworlds as fast as possible while perhaps avoiding some of the challenges of deck building.
Unlike the Rivals Decks of old where some people mentioned a lack of consistent theme, the decks included in this box are more streamlined and thematic. They’ve got a clear game plan to where it is simple for a novice player to learn and play while still offering the depth and decision making opportunities veteran will enjoy.
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If you’d like to check out all the cards in the deck for an unfiltered, initial experience then you view the entire deck here. Once you’re done with your first read through, be sure to join us back here to get some additional insight.
Thank you to Games Workshop for us sending us this free, preview copy.
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Tooth and Claw an aggressive deck that revolves round the savage mechanic. There’s a heavy emphasis on the stagger mechanic as the idea of the deck is to bring the fight to your enemy while succumbing to your fighter’s base natures. It’s a simple deck but quite enjoyable. Charging across the board and trying to take out enemies is always fun!
Plot Card:
Plot cards are a new addition to the game, basically it’s an additional card that you get one of per player, which adds additional elements to the game.
The one for Tooth and Claw introduces the Savage mechanic, which is effectively a trait that you a fighter can gain when they fulfill a certain criteria.
Your deck revolves around the Savage keyword so utilizing the mechanic often is vital to success. A fighter can be Savage when they make a charge action, when they are staggered, and when a fighter has 2 or more wound counters.
There is also an additional rule both you and your opponent can use. At the start of a friendly fighter’s activation, you can stagger your fighter. If you notice above, all the ways you can stagger revolve around being aggressive and dealing/taking damage.
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Note:
If this is your first time, we follow a pretty basic review system.
- A: the card is very powerful and should almost always be included in your deck builds.
- B: means that the card is strong and will usually be included, but not always.
- C: the card can be good in certain situations but will usually require extra support.
- D: means the card is on the weaker side of things. It doesn’t mean that it is inherently bad but perhaps can be considered hard to use or counter intuitive to prevalent strategies.
- S: insane. Clear candidate for the FaR list.
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Objectives:
Embraced Savagery: It’s solid because you have a lot of control over it. It’s better for smaller teams for sure like Rippa’s and Gorechosen. It’s a bit harder when you warband has a 5+ body count.
Rating: B
Ferocious Rampage: It’s a little bit hard in Rivals and Nemesis because ensuring no fighters holding objectives is a tall order. Maybe it’s better when you’re playing with with fast aggro but it’s hard because objectives start face up now.
Rating: C
Focal Point: It’s quite thematic and with factions with leaders who like the be in the thick of things, you’ll get good use out of it. I think you’re going to see this in a lot of decks as your leader is usually your best fighter. Soulraid, Velmorn, Gnarlspirt, etc. will enjoy this card because it’s pretty reliable, especially with pushes.
Rating: A
Fully Committed: I think this card is pretty reliable because savage is very controllable for you. Playing a 3 man warband, this could be risky but early game, it works very well. I think the sweet spot is playing an aggressive 5+ fighter warband but beefy elite warbands, like Krushas can do this often.
Rating: B
Hurricane Force: I think this is a bit too difficult to control. This is effectively Conquest and Denial at the same time. Sure it can be score in any end phase, but it’s twice as hard as any of those cards. If you do score this, it’s probably because you already winning.
Rating: D
Leaderless Pack: For 1 glory, this doesn’t make me go crazy. In Rivals and Nemesis, this is easier but I wouldn’t include this in my Championship deck.
Rating: B in Rivals and Nemesis, C in Championship
Macabre Spectacle: This one is interesting because you can’t stagger right when you activate them. This means that they’ll have to have been wounded or staggered before activating, outside of the the power deck. I think you still play this in Nemesis because you are aggro and this is a kill card. In Championship, I’d look elsewhere.
Rating: B in Rivals and Nemesis, C in Championship.
Mauled: This is pretty good. This pretty much replaces Orchestrated Kill in the Championship scene. There are some warbands that also can support fighters, like Velmorn and Gnarlspirit, without having to be physically adjacent to the enemy. I think this is pretty solid.
Rating: B
Move or Die: I think this is pretty doable with warbands who have multi-move tricks and with smaller warbands. Fairly reliable and controllable. It’s actually harder to score in Rivals because some warbands will just have a hard time doing this. That being said, I think the stock improves when you can pick and choose in Nemesis and Championship.
Rating: C in Rivals, B in Nemesis and Championship
Paragon of Ferocity: This is pretty good, more so for the primary option. Being in enemy territory is heavily encouraged by this deck. If you happen to take down the imposing leader while this is in your hand, that’s a nice occurrence. 2 glory for being aggressive and following your game plan is pretty good.
Rating: A in Rivals and Nemesis, B in Championship
Supreme Savagery: That’s really good. Dicey, but totally worth it in warbands with leaders who tend to have a high action economy. If you include the bounty from the eliminations, this is a 4 glory surge. It gets even better when your leader has a scything attack. There’s no range limit on this as well. Mollog is going to love this and that makes me cry.
Rating: A
Toyed With: I don’t think this is too bad. I don’t rate the vulnerable mechanic very highly but for warbands with a low damage output, this can help you get glory by leaving an enemy on 1. It’s better in limited formats, for sure. I wouldn’t play it in Championship. This also increases in value when you have ping damage packed in because then you’ll secure the kill right after.
Rating: B in Rivals, C in Nemesis and Championship
Gambits:
Binding Helix: This is interesting because, how beast works now, you can turn an enemy fighter into a beast and they’ll have to break their attack action upgrades. They also can’t hold objectives. That could be valuable. You can play this on a fighter with no upgrades, but they have to be savage. With upgrades, it’s risky because the opponent can just luck into denying this effect.
Rating: C
Call to Heel: This is a very powerful card. Amazing with any warband that has beasts innately, like the Exiled Dead and Gnarlspirit Pack. Even within the deck, savage fighters will be everywhere. So worst case scenario, it is a limited distraction. Best case scenario, you get a 4 hex push. Nutty.
Rating: A
Dark Command: Again warbands with a lot of beasts, even like Soulraid or Hexbane’s, will benefit from this. Great ping that can also follow an attack action finish off a fighter. Within the deck, again you’ll see Savage all around so it’s pretty flexible.
Rating: A
Determined Brutality: Want to be Slythael for a turn, but are range 1? Now you can! I wouldn’t use this on a 2 dice attack, but as soon as you get 3+ dice, the efficacy of this card bumps up quite a bit because you rely that you’ll be able to roll hits more often.
Rating: B
Goreswamp: Glad we have more domains. I like that this deck knows this want’s to be aggressive and I like how it benefits Khorne fighters who will mostly like gravitate to this deck in limited formats. It’s also a control card as well if you opponent was not planning on charging. Fiends and Gorechosen especially will enjoy this one.
Rating: B
Internal Surrender: This card is insane. +1 dice forever, but it’s not an upgrade. Put this on a fighter with 1 defense, like Magore or Elathain, and watch them hit everything. Interestingly, this might entice players to take stuff that removes persisting effects. Also this allows your to circumvent the conditions required to be Savage which is great withing the deck itself.
Rating: S
Lurking Gnarloaks: From a functional perspective, I think this card will struggle because we won’t see cover often anymore. Now all the boards to have cover hexes so you can try to turn your opponents perceived advantage into a disadvantage. But that gets weaker in a best of 3.
Rating: C
Predatory Fog: This also promoted aggression which isn’t a bad thing when facing against a warband that might not want to be aggressive. I still think a passive warband would take the stagger but there might cases in which they would just try to hit. Interestingly, you want to be savage with this deck so maybe you want to be staggered. I like how it doesn’t mention range 3 attacks because of the fog. Very thematic. From a disruption perspective, I think this could be powerful, maybe.
Rating: C
Reckless Haste: I think +2 move is awesome, and sometimes it might be worth the stagger. Get the charge, run away, etc. Offensively, if you can get the take down, you won’t care if you’re staggered anyways. You can also use this pseudo-aggressively to force a stagger on your opponent. While I don’t think you’ll use that line of play often, it could happen. Good synergy with the deck, too to make you savage.
Rating: B
Savage Season: Heal (1) isn’t very compelling but in limited format it can be a huge when damage is hard to come by. Staggering your fighters in this deck is a good thing so I don’t see a downside in Rivals and Nemesis.
Rating: C in Rivals and Nemesis, D in Championship
Upgrades:
Beast Claws: Pretty decent attack action if only because 2 fury, with any number of re-rolls is pretty solid. Once you give your fighter +1 dice, it can get pretty accurate. In Nemesis, it’s obviously more interesting if only because the selection is limited. In Championship, there are just some solid weapons out that are heads and shoulders better.
Rating: B in Rivals and Nemesis, C in Championship.
Beastcaller: Pretty cool card because supporting savage fighters, on offense and defense, at all times is pretty rad. Your game plan in Rivals and Nemesis is going to revolve around being savage anyways so it’s pretty good. The reaction is interesting, from a positional standpoint, I do like the flexibility it can offer. I
Rating: A in Rivals and Nemesis, B in Championship
Brutal Transformation: Beast and +2 damage to range 1 attack actions is really good. No superactions isn’t however. Well, unless you’re playing Exiled Dead.Then you’re straight chilling. It’s an A card for them. Outside of that warband, this card is going to be hard to use unless you’ve got some crazy push tech. I do see an environment in which you can just dump this on a fighter in hopes of getting that kill you need to win the game.
Rating: C
Feral Altercation: Keep in mind, you can’t give this to a fighter with 4 wounds because they will then become large and this upgrade breaks. This is great for 3 wound fighters, and below, because it’s effectively a Great Fortitude and Great Speed which is nice. Knockback is also cool but doesn’t change my opinion one way or the other. Just remember, beasts can’t hold objectives so give it your aggressive fighters.
Rating: B
Feral Instincts: For heavy aggro strategies, you don’t mind the penalty because often times you’ll always be charging/attacking. That’s the point anyways when you equip +1 damage. If you want your fighter to be able to do other things, then maybe shy away from this. That being said, I still think it’s good if you want to pack as much damage as you can so that when you did hit, you eliminate. In limited formats, I think this becomes better because damage is scare.
Rating: B in Rivals and Nemesis, C in Championship
Gifted Ferocity: We all know +1 dice cards are nutty in the universal pool. You can potentially get this one for free, but it doesn’t matter if you do. It’s just so good either way as time and experience have proven.
Rating: S
Gifted Vitality: When given to 4 wound, or less, fighters, the heals don’t matter when they’re just 1. I appreciate the healing in limited formats because damage is rarer but the average attack deals 2 in this game. As such, it’s still not going to pull it’s weight outside of Rivals perhaps.
Rating: C in Rivals, D in Nemesis and Championship
Mark of the Stampede: Movement is good, but at this point there is a lot of it out there. Within the deck, I can appreciate it even though it limits one of the ways you can be savage. But it helps you make that charge so maybe there is a tradeoff. An interesting thing to note, if you have a fighter with 2 wound counters with this, you can avoid the delve stagger tax. I don’t think you’ll ever take it for that but it’s an interesting side effect.
Rating: C
Natural Hunter: You’ll see the ensnare pop up more in limited formats. Outside of that, I can’t see this being played in Championship. It does work on all ranges though.
Rating: C in Rivals and Nemesis, D in Championship
Stubborn to the Bone: Glad we get to end the review on a solid card. Being immune to pushes is pretty powerful in the current meta. If you’re an aggressive warband, the re-roll helps your fighters stick around longer while they’re camping enemy feature tokens. I dig it.
Rating: B
Overall:
I think the deck overall is a fairly straightforward one. Like Daring Delvers, this deck encourages you to enter enemy territory but where it differs is that it wants you to hit the enemy as hard as possible. The idea is to just make everyone savage and the fastest way to do that is to deal damage, charge, or receive the stagger condition.While you’ll probably avoid the stagger condition, you can tap into periodically to make some smart and powerful plays which is pretty cool.
The cards are a mixed bag, certainly there are some variances in power level. However when they’re good, they’re really good. The more important thing to consider is that they all promote the savage game plan so even the weaker cards have a role. Experienced players will take advantage of this. While this deck does promote aggression, knowing when to attack, and when to trigger savage, will be the difference often between victory or defeat.
The deck does support many warbands in Nemesis as well. I think Gnarlspirit Pack are the most obvious candidate for synergy, especially because the beast keyword pops up quite a bit. Aside from that, I think anyone who loves being aggressive early, or scoring by being in enemy territory, will like this. I think the best part about it is that the strategy supports elite and horde warbands. I can see Magore’s Fiends enjoy as much success here as Kainan’s Reapers, or even the Grymwatch.
There is a part of me that wishes the deck was a tad bit more nuanced, but at the same time I do think it’ll help teach players core principals when it comes to aggro. And honestly, some of my favorite games of Underworlds have been where I just charge as many times as I can so there is that.
I’ll be curious to see how well the savage mechanic performs in Championship. Again, I think there is obvious synergy there since most people prefer aggro. Overall, I think some of the cards here will be a staple and Tooth and Claw will be popular in all three formats. Exciting times!
Check out our Gnarlwood main article to check out our other reviews.
Best of luck on your [
Path to Glory]!
Aman
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If you think this warband would make an excellent addition to your collection, be sure to head on down to your local Warhammer Store or FLGS to order yourself a copy of the Gnarlwood box set. If you prefer to shop online, check them out here this Saturday (later today at time of posting).
Thank you again to Games Workshop for this free, preview copy.
