Legions of Death - The Warlords

As usual I would like to thank like to thank the reviewers that submitted their initial reviews in an extremely timely fashion, the rest of this week is busy so I appreciate the flexibility in getting this out in a timely manner.

Today the former champion of Urien, Whiteblade222, has joined us. New blood is always welcome, if you are interested in submitting a review in the future let me know. Due to the size of the pack we are breaking it up like we did with the 'Nid box. Yesterday saw the neutrals and existing factions, today are the warlords and their signatures, finally we will see all the regular necron cards. Finally as the card images aren't up on the site yet, I can't link to the but will update this as soon as they are. As a group these got much better reviews than the neutrals.

I will also take a minute to get on my soapbox and encourage everyone to report all the games you play at 40kconquest.blogspot.com. The more people we have reporting games, the more accurate it is. You can also go there to see stats on games others have reported to see if anything we say in these reviews turn out to be true or not.

Ratings

The rating scale as follows was offered to reviewers:

1- Very poor - Very bad for the foreseeable future, but may become a usable card one day in the meta.
2- Bad - Not a good card to play generally, but may have its role in some very specific deck builds. Not likely to be seen in a tourney winning deck.
3- Average - Will make some tourney winning decks, but not in every deck it is eligible for. Think hard before including.
4- Strong - Almost certainly a strong include for almost every deck that is eligible to include it.
5- Excellent - A definite auto-include of exceptional strength.

For Warlord cards, we use other Warlords as point of comparison, and account for their signature cards in their strength.

For Signature cards, they are rated in isolation, as if they were a Loyal card you could choose to include or not, but at the fixed number of cards required by the Squad.

Also note, that in terms of multiples included, a card does not have to be a 3x to be a 5/5 auto-include. Some cards are clearly designed to be included fewer times, and cannot be rated less strong because of this.

Synopsis
Staff of Command 4.67
Slumbering Tomb 4.67
Anrakyr the Traveller 4.33
Obedience 4.17
Pyrrhian Warscythe 3.67
Average 3.67
Nahumekh 3.50
Awake the Sleepers 3.33
Hate 3.00
Destroyer Cultist 2.67
Pyrrhian Eternals 2.67

Reviews
Nahumekh
Steinerp – 4/5
Unshieldable damage is huge even if it after the command phase. He is the stronger of the 2 out of the box IMO, although he is also the harder to build and learn by a significant margin than any warlord in the game. So many options that when something does stick it will be really good.

Corvus – 3/5
Instantly killing units is good. If you can consistently keep X at or above 2 for most of the game then Nahumekh could be a beast, but that requires a heavy investment in non-necron units that will tax your enslavement dial. You'll also need to fight to keep them alive, since your opponent can hone in on the weakest link to keep your faction count low. Building a consistent deck around this ability could be very tough.

Kingsley - 4/5
Nahumekh is an unusual but powerful warlord who requires a different approach. At first, his ability seems weak, but once you get multiple enslaved factions out it becomes extremely powerful. The question is whether you can reliably play and defend multiple factions - I'm optimistic, however.

xRAVEx - 3/5
The stats are pretty standard, the ability is nice with the potential to become insane, if you have 3 enslaved factions. It allows him to both command snipe effectively and also participate in main battles. And the latter is actually some kind of drawback, which is typical for warlords like Straken, Zarathur, etc.

NecRus888 - 4/5
Average stats and an awesome ability. Instant kill in most cases, and a huge disadvantage for the opponent in the least cases. But the "obligation" to take several factions makes piloting Nahumekh more complicated. Overall, cool warlord, dedicated to combats, not combos

Whiteblade222: 3/5
Being able to simply “Kill” units is a valuable ability. The fact that he’s limited by the inflexibility of the enslavement dial and him needing to be present for his ability to fire at key battles means he requires a few moving pieces to work.

Destroyer Cultist
Steinerp – 3/5
3 cost for what will probably be a 3/4 isn’t bad but it isn’t mind blowing either.

Corvus – 2/5
Again, these become decent once X is 2, but I suspect their average case will be a little lower. You'd prefer a 3 cost unit that can hold its own on turn 1 or still be good later if your overall troop count is low, so I doubt having 4 of these in a deck is great.
Kingsley - 3/5

Destroyer Cultist is a 3 cost 1/1/4 without any enslaved factions (awful), but scales up quickly. If you can get two enslaved factions out, it's a solid deal, and if you get more than that you start getting lots of value. However, the conditional nature of this card and the fact that it can lose stats during combat makes it only decent IMO.

xRAVEx - 3/5
For 3 resources you want to see either a solid body, that is excellent at combat, or a unit that can win command struggle solo. The latter is not applicable to the Cultists, they have a standard 1 hammer. The battle capabilities are not stand-alone, they depend on the number of factions you enslave. With 0-1 it's a bad unit, 2+ makes him ok. So you'd better see them in the late game.

NecRus888 - 3/5
High cost and delayed boost prevent from playing it in the early game. But by the late game it should be strong. High HP and necron's healing cards allow him to survive long enough

Whiteblade222 2/5
Paying 3 for a 1/4 is bad (best case a 2/4 on turn one). Over the course of the game this should ramp up in strength, but early to mid-game this is going to hurt to play.

Obedience
Steinerp- 5/5
It can either keep your units alive off a snipe or bring them into the fight. What more do you need? I’ve been having fun with this and a venomous fiend to hit 3 units a turn with the fiend. (Not this is probably not an optimal use, but it is a fun one.)

Corvus – 4/5
Help move your non-necrons out of the way if the opponent does try to cull them, and if you're running beefy ones – Snakebite Thugs and Blood Angels Veterans seem like decent choices – also keeps your combat options very flexible as the game goes on.

Kingsley - 4/5
Obedience provides a lot of versatility. The best use is probably rearranging units at the start of the command phase, and that can be quite useful in the right situation. Goes well with non-Necron cappers, including Rogue Trader and Void Pirate.

xRAVEx - 5/5
Very versatile support. You can move your capper to another planet after the opponent promoted his unit or overdeployed units there. You can move your units from HQ, so that they are ready, not exhausted with WL train. Awesome!

NecRus888 - 4/5
Nice support with cool effect for the standard cost. It gives Nahumekh flexibility. Such effects are always interesting. Due to the printed timing it allows to move units from HQ into battle in a ready position.

Whiteblade222 3/5
Allows you to move units around to win command, or move units winning command to key battles. Solid.

Hate
Steinerp – 2/5
Nice effect but useless vs. nids and mono-crons and demands that your dial be set vs. the opponent’s. That is a lot of downside. Also as I learned to my dismay this morning, it is a deploy action so holding on to for that crucial final battle, probably not the best play. This card would fit much better in the Traveler probably becoming a 4.

Corvus – 3/5
Outright killing things is great. This comes at a heavy cost, though. It's completely offline if you're behind and it may require you to take a turn off from deploying out-of-faction units.

Kingsley - 3/5
Hate is a strong control option that is somewhat restricted by unfavorable timing and dial conditions. In the right situation, it will be very solid, but the conditions (and the fact that it's useless against Tyranids, other Necrons, and neutrals) mean that it won't always be easy to use.

xRAVEx - 3/5
I'd love it in Anrakyr, but for Nahumekh I'm more sceptical with it. In my opinion Nahumekh should use enslavement dial only for factions he included in the deck, not for the opponent faction (in case they do not match). So it's such a pain, when you have both hate in your hand and some decent non-necrons units in your hand and your choice of faction to enslave is even greater! Also, this event is very cool versus very effective units like Thug, Destructor, Platoon, but has worse cost-effect ratio for more expensive units.

NecRus888 - 3/5
Amazing event! You simply exchange resources for the kill. Similar to Tzeentch Firestorm, but without shielding possibility on your opponent's side. Enslaved faction restriction prevents it from using often. Deducted 1 point for uselessness versus necrons and tyranids

Whiteblade222 4/5
Use it to kill key combat units or snipe command. Solid way to take advantage of a resource lead.

The Staff of Command
Steinerp – 4/5
As a one of you can’t really build around it and to get best use you need to have reliable diversity in your hand. Doesn’t help you in combat except with drudgery. But anytime you can get ahead of a curve, it is a good thing.

Corvus – 4/5
This is a great utility card that solves a lot of Nahumekh's problems. The only issue is that there's only one in the deck. If you correctly build your deck with the expectation of only having one command dial setting per round, the benefits the Staff could provide are reduced.

Kingsley - 5/5

This attachment plays right into Nahumekh's game plan. While it doesn't offer stat boosts like other strong signature attachments, this ability powers up your overall strategy - and even when it doesn't, you can use it in deploy to stall for a turn. Great card, you'd have to be quite desperate (or winning by a big margin) to use it for shields.

xRAVEx - 5/5
It doesn't boost your warlord's stats, but it's really what he needs and what makes his ability shine. And it's free!

NecRus888 - 5/5
Perfect attachment. It doesn't provide any bonus HP/ATK, but it boosts Nahumekh's ability. And it's free, which is always good

Whiteblade222 5/5
This is the only way to get around the once per turn restriction on the enslavement dial. Combine this with it being a deploy stall, 0 cost and helps ramp up his signature unit and ability, it becomes his best card.

Anrakyr the Traveler
Steinerp – 4/5
Good stats and card advantage and doesn’t NEED the enslavement dial allowing for cards like Mindshackle scarabs. He will be the go-to warlord for Necron based decks and do a good job with that theme. Stealing opponent’s dead units is great but I would prefer to have my own that I can plan around. Also due to some unfortunate timing I him linked with this.

Corvus – 4/5
His ability is a great source of card advantage provided your curve is cheap enough to avoid being resource-bottlenecked, and doubly so if your enslavement dial can often be set to the opponent's faction. A solid default warlord for Necron players who want to focus on the Necron cards, especially their discard pile theme.

Kingsley - 5/5
Anrakyr's warlord ability is extremely strong, perhaps among the strongest in the game - and his stats are great too. I predict he will be in the top tier almost for certain - the constant card advantage provided by this ability is powerful indeed.

xRAVEx - 4/5
The stats are OK, and the ability is very cool. It gives you card advantage and with eternity gate gives you such a perfect choice! I hope that Anrakyr is strong enough to be tier 1-2, but it's fun to play him for sure!

NecRus888 - 4/5
Amazing ability! Now you can't blame top deck, as you have the access to discard piles of both players. Though it's restricted to enslavement, but it's fair. Solid stats. Anrakyr is a power combo engine! It can be very strong. In my opinion he's the most distinct warlord currently, but it requires tough deck tuning and high skill. Also, for Anrakyr the minimum deck size is not as relevant, as for the rest WLs

Whiteblade222 4/5
A solid ability that will trigger each turn. While not only allowing you to cherry pick key enemy units it has lots of in faction synergy with the self-mill mechanics.

Phyrrian Eternals
Steinerp – 2/5
Sure there are fine of them and they may be a 3/3 for 2 with no drawback but they will also be a 1/1 with no upside much of the time.

Corvus – 3/5
There are enough good self-mill and discard cards that pumping these guys up can be done efficiently, but it may still take quite a few turns. When you're playing cheap 3/3 and 4/4 combat units they'll seem amazing, but they're also the kind of card that you're annoyed to see in your opening hand which knocks them down a peg.

Kingsley - 4/5
With 0 Eternals in your discard, this card is awful; with 1, it's only OK. But as soon as you get 2 or more, you're getting tons of value - and since you can discard them mid-battle with various effects, this will sometimes grow unexpectedly! Overall a very solid and interesting card.

xRAVEx - 3/5
Just like with Destroyer cultists, you don't want to play this unit in the early game. Though it's always good target for discarding. And you need a lot of discarding effects to make it work.

NecRus888 - 3/5
Difficult to evaluate this card. If you have several of them in your discard pile, even one Eternal on the board is a threat. Otherwise it's junk. It's nice, that you can boost them in a non-telegraphed way by discarding cards right in the combat to spoil your opponent's maths

Whiteblade222 1/5
Paying two for a 1/1 is horrid, and the inconsistency of getting these into the discard pile does not make for a good signature unit.

Slumbering Tomb
Steinerp – 5/5
Fills your discard and improves your hand, Sign me up! A couple of warlords might not trade there signature support for this but everyone would consider it even without the Necron discard pile tricks. As a neutral it would be in every deck.

Corvus – 5/5
This provides amazing synergy with all the things Necrons, and Anrakyr especially, can do with their discard pile. On top of that it provides an effect any other warlord would want, helping you dig for specific cards quickly and turning unused cards in your hand into fresh draws.

Kingsley - 5/5
This support grants even more card advantage (and deploy stalls!), synergizing both with Anrakyr's ability and all the discard pile shenanigans the Necrons already have on offer. While it won't win battles like Khymera Den or Forward Barracks, this is probably the best economic support in the game.

xRAVEx - 5/5
Every deck would love to have such a card.

NecRus888 - 5/5
A very-very useful support! It's a pity it has Location trait, so vulnerable to SM and their allied factions

Whiteblade222 3/5
Being able to filter your hand is nice, and it also serves as a deploy stall.

Awake the Sleepers
Steinerp – 3/5
And even that might be generous. It may save you sometime from decking yourself, especially in a mirror match. It is a necessary insurance policy to keep the deck ticking but not one you want to be using.

Corvus – 3/5
Tough to evaluate, since this is mostly insurance against depleting your deck and I don't yet know how often that happens. If that is a common scenario, then only having one copy and risking losing it to mill is a nusiance – although there is an elite which can let you replay it even then.

Kingsley - 3/5
Like Summary Execution, this is a safety net for the downside of your strategy; like Summary Execution, it's not really a card you're excited about normally. The effect is solid when you need it, but this card probably won't see that much play otherwise.

xRAVEx - 4/5
It's cheap, it gives you a 2nd chance of getting the cards you discarded and it can save you from milling your own deck

NecRus888 - 4/5
It's a must for Anrakyr in order not to deplete the deck. If it appears in your discard, you'll still be able to play it, if you have a Harbinger of Eternity.

Whiteblade222 3/5
You probably won’t see this card every game, but being able to shuffle in shields or allied units again is strong.

Phyrrian Warscythe
Steinerp - 4/5
+1 attack and discard filling are both excellent. Not a game changing and will be used as a shield often but fits the theme nicely and early on gets the deck ramped up faster which is great. I wouldn’t argue with a 3 for this card either.

Corvus – 3/5
+1 ATK is the bare minimum for warlord attachments and the self-mill is a fairly minor added bonus, so this looks likely to often just be a shield.

Kingsley - 4/5
An attachment for a warlord that was just 1 for +1 ATK would be quite solid, and this one is +1 ATK and a good ability on top. The ability isn't quite as crazy as what you see with the "top tier" signature attachments like Talassarian Tempest Blade or Plaguefather's Banner, but this is still something that you'll want to play a majority of the time.

xRAVEx - 3/5
+1 ATK is nice, but nothing spectacular. Discarding is controversial. It can be either good or bad, but still it's Anrakyr's style, so let it be

NecRus888 - 5/5
It both boosts Anrakyr's ATK and broadens discarding capabilities and combos. Like this attach!

Whiteblade222 3/5
+1 attack on a 2/7 body is good. The major upside of this card is that the reaction isn’t forced, when you need more cards in the discard, or you want to leave one on top, you can choose when to throw two away.