Bob Dylan, Celestial Omens and an Equine Pun - Saying Goodbye to Season 2

Come gather 'round, fighters

Wherever you roam

And admit that the lethal hexes

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be cut to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin'

And you better start scurrying'

Or you'll be Rocksnake Toxin’d to stone

For the times they are a-changin'

Come bloggers and podcasters

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For Snirk’s still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That he’s splattin'

For the loser in game 1

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'

Welcome all to another update for all things Goblin!

In case you’re unaware, I didn’t just quote Bob Dylan to remind you there is a creature capable of singing worse than a Goblin, we’re coming up to another seismic shift in the landscape of Warhammer Underworlds. And, no I don’t mean the very great likelihood that one of the Hedonites is likely to dethrone Gnarl as Best Butt in WHU. 

I mean that the universal cards from Season Two is leaving us! Because of my Magic: The Gathering background, I’ll be referring to this as a ‘rotation’ from here on, as that’s the lingo that’s used there.

So today I’m going to do what totally no-one else has done, and say a few words about the cards that we’re likely to miss, and some we won’t, with a distinctly goblin-y aftertaste*. 

*Because I love you, dear reader, I tasted a Goblin so you don’t have to. Think a heady cocktail of Pepsi, anchovies, and old socks - there’s a reason the Gitz don’t worry about being bitten by a squig. 

Fired Up / Solid Gains / Opening Gambit 

The stapliest of all possible staples. Depending on whether you used all or only one, they serve much the same purpose- get you a glory for progressing the game the way you wanted to progress it. Michael Carlin (of steelcityunderworlds.com fame) hit the nail on the head recently when he said that the rotation is going to lead to a paucity of single glory end-phase objective cards. While I can get why the devs have toned down production on this type of card (they’re rather unsexy and utilitarian) they still play a major role in the game. 

I suspect at least one will make a return in S4. Hopefully it's Fired Up, because it's an absolute gimme for Gitz, thanks to Snirk and our great inspire condition

Calculated Risk

This one hurts. Calculated Risk was amongst the most action-efficient Objectives ever. To my knowledge, apart from a mistake, I’ve never not included it in a Gitz deck to date. Fortunately, with Show of Force, Hidden Porpoise and Temporary Victory, we’re actually fairly well placed to say goodbye here, and this will free up a restricted slot, which is always useful, but still… I’m not crying, it’s just been raining on my face. 

Tome of Glories

This rain is getting heavier, I tell you. Even after I switched away from a deck built around Katophrane Tomes, Tome of Glories has been the glue that has kept my decks together. Temporary Victory into Tome of Glories was a favourite way of getting 3 glory by Activation 2 for me.  Likewise, I couldn’t count the number of games where two or three glory earned through industrious reading was the difference between victory and defeat.  Cryptic Companion soothes the blow a bit, but Stikkit was making real headway with his phonics, so that’s a bit of a shame to see it go. 

Two Steps Forward

Weirdly, I’m actually seeing an advantage to this going. One of the biggest advantages Gitz have is the ability to move more than one fighter in an activation. By removing Two Steps Forward from the universal pool, we’re actually in rarer company than we were before. That being said, it’s still a bit of a blow, as push cards are the best cards. 

Martyred

I’m going to miss shouting “It’s not a bug it’s a feature!” shortly after Dibbz’ face met Hrothgorn’s Club. 

Actually, I never did that, but now I’m disappointed I’ll lose that opportunity permanently. Martyred is another card that will be missed, although not hugely, as I found that it sometimes led to situations where you either had to choose between making an attack or waiting for a goblin to die first*, which could either lead to Martyred clogging you hand for an entire round. It was also something of a gut-punch when you drew into it halfway through a round. 

*In abstraction, the correct play is to attack, unless you can score a glory another way in that same activation 

Despite this, Martyred’s efficiency was unrivalled. A good surge will cost you an activation or a card, whereas Martyred only cost a fighter**, and counted out the glory swing that would have come from losing that fighter.  Very solid. Unlike the fighter who scored it, it will be missed. I would love to see an endphase objective that rewarded you for losing a fighter. That would be awesome. 

**I’m picturing a Cursebreakers player mulling over that sentence like it was written in Ancient Greek. 

Shortcut

A staple of mine, which like Martyred, pushed the boundaries of efficiency when the stars aligned*, but like Martyred, Shortcut was not without its frustrations. For objectives that interact with other cards (whether power or objective) I always recommend taking three cards**; and ideally they would be ones that are good enough to take on their own (or close enough). So, Shortcut did put some sizeable constraints on deck construction. Fortunately there were just enough which satisfied those conditions (Shifting Reflection, Shadowed Step, Confusion) to make Shortcut playable for me, and play it I did. 

*A saying I find particularly annoying, stars don’t move in a measurable sense. PLANETS on the other hand do. Speaking of, I’d encourage you to take a look at the night sky on Dec 21, as Jupiter and Saturn will form a Grand Conjunction (be really close together), this only happens once every 20 years or so (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_conjunction for more details). Weirdly that’s also the Summer/Winter Solstice. The odds of those two things occurring together are…. Astronomical 

**Unless you can get the same effect from a fighter card (eg, what the Ravagers can do with The Sneak’s ability, or the Mournflight can do with Widow Caitha)

Shifting Reflection

Speaking of Shifting Reflection, we’ll lose it too, and this is a big loss in my opinion. Of the trio of cards that work with Shortcut, this was undoubtedly the best one, though perhaps not having the occasional tactical excellence of Confusion. SR enabled Swift Capture to be scored with ridiculous ease and could set up some nasty kill scenarios too. 

Centre of Attention / Irresistible Prize

Two very fine push cards which occasionally would be as disruptive as pushing over the entire table. Centre of Attention in particular became a favourite of mine in the latter days of Season 3. As a means to protect fighters; move fighters on or off objectives; set up a good Snirking; or even to score Scrum its flexibility was almost unrivalled. By contrast Prize and I never really gelled, but I can see it having a very similar role. 

Horses for courses, but now, unfortunately both are being put out to pasture at the same time.

Is that my idea of a good time? Nay.

Faneway Crystal

 

Remember when this was released and it was the absolute bee’s knees? The old Crystal did see a bit of a fall in popularity, but my love for it remained true throughout. I loved being able to score Temporary Victory and/or Supremacy by sending a goblin on a cheeky jaunt through the webway portal, mycelial network, Crystal Dimension (?). Likewise, its interactivity with Scurry could lead to some truly awesome moves.

Unlike some of the others I’ve mentioned, I think its likelihood of reprint is quite low. Thanks for the memories, FC. 

Acolyte of the Katophranes

This one has been something of a slow goodbye. Its restriction, as well as the restriction of Tome of Vitality meant that you really had to lean into this as a deck archetype; and that became harder and harder to do as good utility cards were added to the Restricted list. I fondly remember its heyday. I won two glass, and two runner-ups based on that interaction, so I will definitely raise a (Shade) glass to Acolyte.  If GW do update the gift pack, I can easily see the Tomes being featured, hopefully AoTK would be printed too, as I feel the archetype adds something to the metagame just by existing. 

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

And now onto some cards that I *won’t* be sad to see go. I’ll whip through these pretty quickly as a) this post is starting to get a bit long-winded, and b) I don’t want to gloat.

 

Bon Voyage to:

·         Tome of Offerings -  Shipping two glory per Goblin is not fun. I don’t need that negativity in my life

·         Sphere of Aqshy – Broken by Harness the Storm, and still unpalatable without, this was basically impossible to play around, and not much fun. For transparency I have no beef with more situational ping damage like Encroaching Shadow/Lethal Ward/ Sphere of Azyr  

·         Pit Trap -  Mostly for the reaction timing stuff, I’ll not be too disappointed about it being gone

·         Crown of Avarice – Similar with the above, I’m pretty lazy when it comes to reading FAQs and I was never certain about where I stood with this card.

·         Unchecked Energy – Yes, this situational ping, but its upside is HORRIFIC for Goblins, especially for jammy sods who never miss with this… you know who you are…

·         Potion of Rage -  Attacks are generally going to be more incoming than outgoing, and an universal access to a great accuracy buff is something that’ll be a negative to us on balance, so happy that’s going to the bottom of the boardgames cupboard to. 

Well, that will about do, I think for today’s content.

It’s been ages since I last posted, I know, but as I’ve said before, there’s something about 2020 that has sapped my creativity, and the disrupted release schedule hasn’t helped either.

I’ll try to get at least one more article in before the new year, but if I don’t manage that, please stay safe (especially my friends in the UK and USA, and anywhere else where COVID has ravaged) and enjoy a happy and together (if possible) festive season. 

Rowan