WHYP: Feel the Fangs of the Wolf

Continuing in the Single Universe format, I stubbornly try (almost) every universe other than Marvel (no jourdo I will NOT do TMNT). This week it’s Warhammer’s turn. With all of the neat tools in this set, I knew where I wanted to lean. So it’s time for my opponents to…

Feel the Fangs of the Wolf

The Team:  I had 40k reasons to try out this universe.

A reminder of our event rules:

• Every card (including BACs) had to come from the same universe (Marvel, DC, WWE, etc.)
• Every card had to be legal in Global Escalation (we rely on the official list found here – we also banned Jimmy Lawler so we wouldn’t have everyone running double-Overcrush Becky Lynch)

So first things first, with this being a Warhammer team, I had to build around the best card in that entire universe, Venerable Dreadnaught. My plan was simple: do massive removal, get to 20 damage, and win. But how do I increase my damage? I wanted to go wide, so I put in Primaris Aggressor for his global. Using Primaris Aggressor that way was painful because Warhammer has very little ramp in-set, and another version of that card gives me ramp when KO’ing characters with Range. But I wanted that global.

I also put in Lord of Contagion. That one is a bit tricky because I need my opponents to have sidekicks active. Enter Instant War. Pretty self-explanatory – force sidekicks on the board, KO them with Range, Lord of Contagion makes everyone on my side bigger. In that same vein of using KO’s to add damage, I also put in the good old trusty Ork Nob. That Nob has the advantage of not caring what is KO’d – if it dies, he gets bigger.

Now, as previously stated, there is little set in Warhammer, and with Primaris Aggressor unavailable, I went with Poxwalker for the Swarm. His self-buff when more dice are active also made him a no-brainer, plus he can give me fists for Primaris Aggressor’s global. But with Swarm, I might get turns where I have a lot of energy and little to do with it. So I put in Logan Grimnar to act as a heavy beatstick. With my team’s limited ramp I don’t expect to buy him much though (oh how wrong I was).

The rest of the team is utility. First up, Seething Corruption is a great way to get bigger threats KO’d with Range damage. Then, Wolf Guard Terminator is a great character to have defensively, as he’s really hard to KO. Plus, if I want to trigger Range without losing board presence, his Infiltrate is perfect. And last but not least, I put in Roboute for his global because too many of my fielding costs really hurt.

And with all of that said, on to the games!

Game 1:

So first up, against the Teamwatch Avengers team, using R Ultimate Spider-Man. I was a bit nervous about the Tsarina onslaught here, but it turned out to my advantage. Not only did my opponent bring me Counterstrike for a bit of ramp, but he also brought MSW Falcon’s global, allowing me to force him to field sidekicks. It wasn’t fast, but I did get multiple Poxwalkers, Dreadnaught, and eventually Lord of Contagion active, all the while holding strong against charging Tsarina dice, KO’ing his characters with Range to tie up his energy in re-fielding them. I needed a big swing to win and I focused on building my board presence while diminishing his. It worked like a charm, and on the final turn, I used Falcon’s global before attacking, plus Primaris Aggressor’s, then charged in with Range, KO’ing the sidekick (and the rest of his characters), buffing my characters with Lord of Contagion for the win.

1-0

Game 2:

Next up, time to face off against Patch + Avengers ID Card + Dark Phoenix. Having Dark Phoenix + Counterstrike’s globals on top of Superhero Registration Act was actually the most ramp I had all night, and I darn well made use of it. Logan Grimnar was a high-priority purchase here. My opponent was going for bigger but slower purchases, so going for quick Overcrush damage was the plan. Using Dreadnaught to thin out my opponent’s defenses, there was simply little she could do to stop him, especially since her ramp, to put it simply, did not roll (she had two Superhero Registration Act dice – only once did she trigger the action all game…). She did purchase Dark Phoenix, but because I was putting heavy pressure on quickly, the Phoenix didn’t have time to hit the field until I had more than enough to simply charge in for the win.

2-0

Game 3:

This one…was interesting. My opponent ran an Obscure D&D team with C Yuan-ti, Drow Mercenary, and the UC Potion from FUS to make those Obscure characters hit hard. He brought no ramp at all. Needless to say, our bags were an absolute mess. And that messiness actually turned out to my advantage – I just needed to draw and field characters, he needed to also draw and roll actions. Plus, since Dreadnaught was one of my first purchases, I could ping out his Obscure characters reliably. The bad news is that he didn’t need many attacks to win – two or three Potion rolls and he could get to 20 damage real quick (plus he could use Beholder’s global to set his Potion dice aside if he didn’t have the characters). I realized how tough his team was when I took 9 damage from one Yuan-ti fairly early on. Since he also had the Red Dragon global to hurt me when purchasing actions, the clock was ticking and I had to be aggressive. I had a bit of damage dealt, but not nearly as much as him, and I had a hard time purchasing my bigger characters other than Dreadnaught. The good news is his field was very lean, and I could take advantage of that. On the last turn, with my opponent at 13 life,  I had 11A on the board, rolled one sidekick, and a bolt plus another energy. I fielded the sidekick, used the bolt for Red Dragon’s global and bought an action to deal 1 damage, then I charged in with Range to deal just enough damage to win, and in the nick of time. On the next turn he was almost guaranteed to win. 

3-0

Game 4: 

For my last game of the evening, I went up against Spider-Friends. I did my best to get some Swarm going early since that and Pact were the only sources of ramp I had. But I knew it was only a matter of time until Gwen and others pinged off my Poxwalkers, so I bought Logan Grimnar pretty quick as well as Dreadnaught to empty his field and force him to re-field it. I also got the Wolf Guard active to trigger Range (this was a slow game, I had the time) and then Infiltrate him back on slower turns. Wolf Guard also has the advantage that he can’t be pinged out by Spider-Gwen or similar removal (unless you use 2 to 3 dice specifically targeting him). Since my opponent had the same R Ultimate Spider-man as the first match, I figured I needed to win in one big swing here too. And eventually, I did. He couldn’t keep up his board presence and after a big Range-fueled attack buffed by Primaris Aggressor (but to be fair I could’ve won without him), I won.

4-0

Post-Mortem:

-So this isn’t the biggest news flash obviously, but between the two main buffs I had available, Primaris Aggressor simply worked better for me than the Lord of Contagion. Some of that came down to not rolling the right type of energy to buy the latter, but it was hard to get him available in a timely fashion WITH Instant War to force my opponent to have sidekicks active. In a less limited format, having Lord of Contagion alongside other, more reliable tools could be viable even if complex. But strictly in-set, it’s a bit much to put together.

-Not having the ramp from Primaris Aggressor (the one that Preps dice when I KO dice with Range) hurt me a lot, especially in game 3. But I needed that global, so no regrets.

-I didn’t expect I’d say this, but I didn’t use Ork Nob all evening. I simply managed to get to 20 damage without him. Funnily enough, Poxwalker contributed to my damage enough to compensate.

-I initially just put Logan Grimnar as an energy sink for lousy turns, but darn, that giant Overcrushing beatstick came in handy, especially with Range weakening my opponent’s characters enough to make the Overcrush worthwhile. Definitely my surprise star of the night.

So there you have it. Warhammer shone through. But next, I’ve got to figure out Yu-gi-oh. I know that one’s going to be rough. What would you all try?

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