Decent flooding and staying power with it's signature cards which makes sure you get to make use of the Warlord's ability. The general effects are a bit low, but combined together form a dangerous symbiosis. With the potential comboing and flooding, added with staying power and damage mitigation, the Warlord with it's signature cards have good potential and scores a 4/5 for me.

He's a warlord with 3 attack. Thats a really useful thing, even before you build the deck around him.

He's a warlord with 3 attack. Thats a really useful thing, even before you build the deck around him.

Really? "Each other soldier or warrior..."

Yeah, right you are. What a shame!

So he's a 2/6 Warlord, thats less impressive. I guess he'll come into his own when we have the card pool to build an efficient deck of units that all match his trait requirement

Solid Warlord but more because of it's signature cards. I do feel it will thake a while before Straken becomes really good but he can only grow. 3.5/5 now.

I expected a lot more from Straken. His ability is a math-changer for combat, but its arrival is usually predictable.

I like his sig. squad more than him.

4/5

I don't know, I like him. Although its possible that I just like the guard in general and I wasn't a big fan of cortaz. Plus having a interrogator acolyte with the cunning on it is hilarious.

I wonder if just a blanket "All other Soldier & Warrior units you control gain +1 ATK" would have been enough to make Straken competitive.  Currently he's referred to as "Zarathur light", but if you removed the "at this planet" restriction, is that enough of a boost?

He is competitive in my (unpopular) opinion. He is just not played that much (people write him off before testing with him) and people haven't used him that much. Again, you can't compare warlords from different factions, without taking the available card pool into account.

He has one of the best combat tricks in the game, a ton of good fighting units and some good command units. He can't be that bad then... Regarding his low health (which is why alot of people doesn't like him), he has the same stats as Cato but he only has 2 Glorious Interventions to help him (against cato's 3 indomitable). And cato does just fine at surviving.

I think he is underrated, big time. Of course everybody is entitled to their opinion, but group think is maybe the culprit here.

I'm with you both on this. While the faction and warlord balance is such that even the worst warlords can still present decent game and challenge to the best warlords, there's definitely some weaknesses here.

Main one is that for his ability to provide benefit, he needs to hang around while the soldiers around him make attacks, which combined with 6HP is more likely to leave him bloodied than most warlords. Zarathur has the same problem, for sure, but as you say, context is important. Zarathur decks tend to do a lot of the damage as combat actions, so its still possible for a Zarathur player's first combat turn to be to retreat his warlord, with very little loss in combat potential. Straken, meanwhile, is often stuck around for 3 or more combat turns. 

He's definitely not bad in his signature cards though: his 2 cost sig squad is one of the best ones, his event is excellent, his attachment is decent and his support is decent too. 

The Cato comparison is apt, but Space Marine decks tend to stack in a lot of 2-shielders above and beyond Indomitable, whereas Preemptive Barrage is the only obvious 2 shielder pick  for Straken. To Arms is good, but that requires a deck with more supports, so what you gain from extra 2-shielders you lose from less shield cards overall.

I think you're both right: I think Straken is underrated, but I also think kwarrend's suggestion there is what the ability should have been, to make him competitive.

I'm with Cimadon here. When you're facing tons of 1-2 cost units, all (or almost all) with +1 attack, you might not want to swing at Straken, but rather try to thin his forces. Straken is a very strong warlord, and a guy at our gaming club has demonstrated his power more than once.

I also think Straken is very strong warlord. The problem is most people use him badly. Most Straken decks are very similar to Space Marines decks - as universal as possible, try to have cards which will deal with every situation and of course with board control Iron Guard Recruits or Sanctioned Psyker (I don't know why people believe so much in these cards). Reality proves that such decks achieve nothing. In Space Marines such decks are very good (I think FFG wants SM to be universal faction) but certainly not in Astra.

Straken's ability and all astra combat cards indicate that the best way for Straken is to specialize him in sth.

For example throwing away all board control garbage and make him as aggresive as possible with help of some great supports or make him warlord killer. Such decks are not popular.

I believe people should stop complaining about him and start playing him more. He's a decent warlord.

I've been running him since core and his is my favorite warlord. I don't always win but he's a lot of fun to use. I feel he works really well in a mono build with as many soldiers/warriors from A.M.

I've built a "Straken ranged deck" which revolves around Mortar Teams/Markis/Ratling Deadeye/Preemptive Barrage and Noble Deed to really abuse the Ranged Phase.

I do agree that his biggest weakness is his squishiness and that issue is something I am constantly fighting against.

The problem is that you have to build to keep him alive, since he has to be in the heat of battle.

3/5

Which is not a real problem with 'ard Boyz