Would this bonuses be collected in the command phase or at the end??

The bonus is collected if the owner wins the command struggle at the planet where this unit is present.

This gives Eldar a marked advantage in the card draw and resource available category. Now, it is a bit of a pain that you do have to win the command struggle in order to get anything out of this guy (zero attack is bad) BUT you could just send him off to a planet all by his lonesome during the deploy phase and have the bonus sewn up, I believe.

Remember, combat doesn't happen just because there are enemy units. It has to be either the first planet or have the warlord present. So they need to be willing to commit a warlord if they want to shut this down on a 4th or 5th planet. That could mean robbing their main attacking force of advantages the warlord provides. 

So...Eldar seem pretty good out of the core box. 

The whole "uncommonly low attack value" thing kinda puts some balance in there. 

Remember, combat doesn't happen just because there are enemy units. It has to be either the first planet or have the warlord present. So they need to be willing to commit a warlord if they want to shut this down on a 4th or 5th planet. That could mean robbing their main attacking force of advantages the warlord provides.

You know, I actually did misinterpret you on this one. That is a good point. A tau player could do it with a recon drone, which costs nothing. Still, it's a cheap way to make a planet more lucrative. 

I thought this card was amazing, till I played it, now I realise its just a good card but not an OP one.

You drop him out on his own, and your opponent can answer with a warlord snipe or a more economical command icon or two. The main strength comes from the fact that your opponent pretty much has to give one of those answers, which makes him a good lure as noted, but 2 resources is a lot to drop on a lure.

I think, personally, that its a mistake to see him as someone you drop out on their own (as you might with Alatoic Ranger). He's too easy to answer.

He does come into his own when following the warlord train about though, as in battle your opponent can't have him as a high priority target and you can snipe in Eldorath, win the command struggle wherever you go, and get a bonus out of it. By one struggle's time you're down 1 resource and even on cards. By two you're even on resources and up by 1 card.

As mentioned, my initial reaction was that this card was bonkers. It isn't. However it still is quite good but sort of spoils where your Warlord will be. 3/5.

Actually playing in 3x in place of traders and pirates in Ta/E and E/Ta builds. It proven quite effective but tends to lure Warlords. Mobility fixed.

I find it unsuitable for DE/E due its cost 2.

3/5

Do Eldar players still play with this unit? I wanted to replace my Traders x3 for Survivalists, but it seems like it's been absent from many recent Eldar decks that I saw. Obviously, it is a little bit more expensive than either the Pirate or the Trader, but it can "survive" better than these two, plus it can help you draw and get resource at the same time. It seems to be better in a meta where Zarathur decks are popular in your local area. 

It combines well with Superiority, but this highlights its greatest weakness: an opposing 2-for-2 unit of the same cost can defeat it in command. Without this edge, it doesn't tend to see so much play, so unless you run 3 Superiority and 3 Promotion I wouldn't use it.

The main problem is the cost:

in a scenario where you are having an even match against your opponent there are high chances that you won't have enough money during deploy (because you would like to play events of course). So, if you have only 4 resources you most likely want to play a unit that costs 3 (council, wraithguard, whatever) and another unit that costs only 1 (trader, pirate, biel-tan).

They pay themselves but they hard to play sometimes and people switch to something more cheap to achieve a more balanced cost curve because Eldar have A LOT of great unit that cost 3 or more.

To kind of add on to the "2-for-1 command is tough in this era of 2-for-2 command" argument above, the bonuses on the Survivalist lets your opponent know that winning command at that planet is particularly attractive to you, so they know you have an incentive to send your warlord to that planet - making your warlord commitment that much more predictable to an astute opponent.

Agree with all those comments. Its not that they're weak, its more that they're competing against other solid choices for the same card slots, and are often the first ones to be cut.

I had an interesting situation today where my mate was one card away of being milled (drawing the last card in your deck loses you the game). Actually, he would have been milled, but since it was the final battle on the final planet, we said he could choose whether his survivalist would draw the bonus card (he won the command phase).

Our question is, what do the official rules say? If you win the command and you have the Eldar survivalist / space pirate / something similar, are you allowed to not draw the additional card?

Command rewards are always optional, but its all or nothing for each planet. You can't take the 1C1R from the planet and leave off the 1C1R from the survivalist.

If you want to get really technical, the card and resource bonuses on things like the Survivalist are NOT optional. If the card is there at the planet, they modify the resource/card numbers on the planet card whether you want them to or not. (RRG. p. 12). 

HOWEVER, taking the card or resource bonus from the planet when you win the Command Struggle is completely optional. The winner of Command at that planet may take (all) the resources, (all) the cards, both, or neither. Their choice. (RRG. p. 24).

So your opponent was wrong when he said he could choose whether or not his Survivalist would add to the card count of the planet, but the end result was effectively the same because he could choose not to draw any cards when winning the Command Struggle.

Which, or course, is exactly what Asklepois said in fewer words and without references to the RRG....

Does his ability trigger if he's engaged? If you win the struggle.

If you mean exhausted (rather than engaged) then his bonuses will still count if you win the command struggle at the planet he's on if you have other readied units (with command icons) present.

He didn't invite me to his bachelor party. What a ****.

If you mean exhausted (rather than engaged) then his bonuses will still count if you win the command struggle at the planet he's on if you have other readied units (with command icons) present.