I'm a bit surprised no one is talking about this guy yet. There are plenty of times I was going to re-infest a planet and having a use for that infestation would be huge. Especially in decks where infestation is key and at times over-abundant like Ω. Predation often gets a bad rap, but the truth is it's a necessary card in a lot of cases, running this Synapse would justify a 3x Predation and also smooth out any lapses in infestation you may have when it's needed.

I think what Tyrnaids lacking is command... So I think Stalking Lictor is a much better choice for Omega. 

This card is not very good on turn 1, unless you already infested a planet on turn 1 and want to un-infest it right away. 

In a later game, yes, un-infest and re-infest would be good. But when you only draw very few card to infest planet, you are probably not going to use its ability. 

I think one of the great things about this guy in Omega is that you can ambush in your genestealer(s), and then un-infest the planet.  You don't really care that much about infestation at that point.  And if you have Nesting Chamber out, you can use the genestealer(s) you just got into play to enable it.  It's just a shame that this guy isn't a 'stealer himself.

It's like Tense Negotiations, only better and anywhere you want it to be.

I'm not so keen.

There's already a strong incentive for opposing warlords to head to infested planets to clean them up: the Synapse being likely to turn up too just gives them even more reason to do so.

If an enemy warlord does decide to do that, this Synapse's command is wasted.

At least with SWP, its less telegraphed where he's going to turn up, and he can kill a capper as well.

I think one of the great things about this guy in Omega is that you can ambush in your genestealer(s), and then un-infest the planet.  You don't really care that much about infestation at that point.  And if you have Nesting Chamber out, you can use the genestealer(s) you just got into play to enable it.  It's just a shame that this guy isn't a 'stealer himself.

That means your world lord would be committed to the same planet with this unit... 

That means your world lord would be committed to the same planet with this unit... 

How so?

There's already a strong incentive for opposing warlords to head to infested planets to clean them up: the Synapse being likely to turn up too just gives them even more reason to do so.

I disagree with that statement, but if there's something I can do to convince my opponent to send their warlord to its doom at an infested planet, then sign me up.

How so?

I misread Omega's ability, it can ambush any planet that is infested. 

I guess one benefit of this Synapse Unit is that in a Mirror match, while both players are playing Synapse Unit. You could potentially un-infest a planet to prevent your opponent from getting the benefit from the infested planet.  

I disagree with that statement, but if there's something I can do to convince my opponent to send their warlord to its doom at an infested planet, then sign me up.

Yea that's been my feedback on infested planets. Go nuts, go there, exhaust yourself attacking my command-unit. I will eat you and your little kids and then my next generation of genestealers will be little nightmare creatures but they will have your eyes and your cheekbones...

Okay sorry that got a little dark.

Even though the pack has 3 of this guy in it, we can still only take a single synapse card in our Tyranid decks right?

Correct. The number of copies in a pack has nothing to do with deck building rules.

Thanks, that's what I figured, and they just gave 3 of because it was easier than only including one with the way they print/cut the cards.

Oh man, how sweet would 3 synapse units be?  

I do kind of wish that they'd either put in 3 different synapse units or else just made it a 61 card pack with 3x something else added.  2 extra copies isn't even enough to make shadowboxes out of, which is what I've started planning for extra copies of core set signature units.

My thoughts:

- Fantastic in mirror matches (particularly devastating for a Tyranid deck that doesn't use infest vs. Omega)

- High health means it's a decent target for OOE's Ferocious Strength; I feel like his OOE synergy might actually be higher than Omega synergy, since OOE has uselessly infested planets more often

- Some potentially bonkers plays ("Oh, hey, I'm not going to deploy this turn, but I'll trigger Tarrus twice. LOLZ!"), but at the expense of pretty sub-par command and a dead ability if you don't have anything infested

I doubt he'll see much play, but if I were in a meta with a lot of Tyranid players, then I'd take him in a heartbeat.

Yeah I don't know about this guy. As it stands, I don't like it. But maybe the cycle will have even more infestation.

His ability in existing decks(moot point, as I assume he is meant to stimulate brand new ideas) might be blank for the first 1-2 rounds, making him worse than every other synapse. Of course, he appears to be a mid or late game stud, and that appears to be his purpose(see 5 health) to be in the thick of it when it matters. He kinda morphs Predation into Tense negotiations.

Fine line going overboard on infestation versus having a bad deck. He needs some playtesting...

Agreed that he doesn't really slot into most current decks all that well. I think he was probably designed to serve a couple purposes:

- The devs clearly want people to run elite decks, and Digestion Pool requires infestation. However, running heavy infestation just for a reducer often fills your deck up with crap you don't need because not a lot of things trigger off ongoing infestation that are worth it (outside of Omega's ability). Pretty much just Genestealer Harvesters and Shrieking Harpy, really. Everything else is mild benefit (Dark Cunning resource rebate, Spore Burst for something other than shields, etc.). Maleceptor allows you to trigger your Saecellum Infestors, Digestion Pool discount, Spore Burst, or whatever and then reap additional benefits by clearing an infestation that you really don't need going forward.

- Tyranids don't have any way to clear infestation, so if Omega starts reigning ascendent OOE and Swarmlord are pretty screwed in mirror matches. This Synapse opens the possibility of running a deck with light infestation requirements (like current OOE+Harpy builds), but being able to strategically clear it if you happen up against a deck with heavy infestation requirements (or just don't draw/need your Harpy). I could slot him into the deck I took to the Tacoma regionals (replacing SWP) pretty easily, for instance; infestation in that deck was often worthless until and unless I landed a Harpy, and Maleceptor would perform a similar function (triggering battle abilities) but also be able to do light command contesting. (To be clear, I don't think he'd perform as well as SWP because SWP is way better at surgically triggering battle abilities; but it's a possibility.)

The main downside I see with this guy is that like every non-Lictor Synapse he's going to require a very specific playstyle and a lot of learning to get a feel for how to pilot him effectively in different scenarios. Plus likely a somewhat quirky deckshape. Ah, well. Guess that's why he's in a pack rather than the deluxe.

Honestly, I'm just really stoked to see that they're releasing new Synapses (even if I probably won't use this one much). I was worried they might be as unchanging as planets.

Hardly comparable, planets and synapses, as everyone have to play with planets, but only someone that uses a nid deck needs to use synapses.

Seriously, the planet issue is easly explainable: you cannot add planets without making tournaments necessarily awkward to run.

It seems solid to me. My opponent ran it against me to great effect. Getting some of those planet abilities to fire off as a bonus can be quite painful.  - from the perspective of a hopeless noob like myself.

While at first glance it seems like finally we are getting rid of Liktor after you play this Synapse you realize that infesting consistently and abusing planet triggers doesn't compare to Liktor giving you commands from first deploy. Anyhow the only deck this Synapse could work is Omega and there is no way with the current card pool that Liktor will be replaced. Maybe when we have better command units and better infestation mechanics(prolly never) 

I have been using him in a OOE Elite Infest Deck.  This guy has been a champ.

Just to throw in my two cents, I feel that this card sums up my main Tyranid problem as it stands - Infest still seems too hard to do consistently to be worth it for this card. Even in my Omega deck, which has about as much Infest mechanic as is available, I still can't get it online as often as I'd like.

Maybe I'm over/under-rating how hard Infest should be vs the effects you get, i.e. if they made it easier to pull off it would then make 'Nids overpowered. You obviously can't have a situation where the 'Nid player can just easily Infest three or four planets, but it feels like they just need one more variant on the basic, no-penalty 'Infest target planet' card' in the card pool.