Loving the Bloodhand. Your opponent should assume you've got a warpstorm, Nurgling bomb or TF in hand when you deploy this bloodthirsty bad boy.  And you better be carrying one of those to maximize his usefulness.

Making me think Rune-Encrusted Armor might be worth adding to a new Chaos brutal-themed build. This guy is definitely a fun prelude to the new Chaos warlord. Pricey but could be so worth the cost at the right moment.

"Brutal" might just be the new black for Chaos. 4/5

I think he is awesome. But can't figure out if he is 1-of or 2-of in my Ku'gath deck. :/

Is this stackable? And is Brutal applied before or after the doubling?

RRG p6: doubling and halving modifiers:

"Resolve all additive and/or subtractive modifiers
before applying any doubling and/or halving
modifiers."

RRG p6: doubling and halving modifiers:

 

"Resolve all additive and/or subtractive modifiers
before applying any doubling and/or halving

modifiers."

So Brutal happens before Bloodthirst, eh...

So Roghrax with two damage tokens has 8 ATK?      2(2+2) = 8.

Nice.

Khorne are going to be wicked fun in Planetfall!

Only if you can trigger his Bloodthirst. This does present a little timing challenge, so don't expect him to always perform at that level.

For example, if he's alone at a planet, and up against a couple of enemy units, then he might attack and kill one unit. That would then trigger his specialization, but he's now exhausted, so you don't get to use those doubled attack value before the combat round ends.

A different example: he's at a planet with another friendly unit, and a couple of enemy units. Now his buddy attacks and destroys an enemy unit. Hooray! Specialization triggered! But now the opponent refuses to play ball and attacks the other chaos unit instead of Roghrax.

But yes, there are circumstances when he can put out ungodly damage at the right time. For example, you could drop a Warpstorm at a planet where you have Zarathur present, get a couple of damage on Roghrax while simultaneously killing your own void pirate, then attack with Roghrax for 9 damage total (((2+2)x2)+1). Note that Zarathur's boost doesn't get doubled, as Zarathur is adding to damage assigned, not to attack value.

But wait, now we're looking at three cards to get that 9 attack value. At this stage, we're probably asking ourselves "why not just play Possessed?". For 1R more, the big attack value is always on and the Daemon trait can help offset that cost with the relevant discounters.

The answer, of course, is that Roghrax is unique, so he can dodge Archon's Terror. 

However, for me, the opportunity space for Roghrax to be the best choice is limited. If you're looking for a unit that can affordably solo a planet and scare off enemy solo warlord commitments, then the Khorne Berzerker is cheaper and almost as good. If your'e looking for a big threat that deals such damage that it dominates the shape of the battle, Possessed is better. And if we're looking for damage that Archon's Terror can't counter, Gleeful Plaguebeast is better.

So while many have sung the praise of this card I'm not among them: I had him down as a 4/5 at time of warpack review, but I've revised that down to 3/5 since. He's a solid enough unit, and I won't raise too many eyebrows if people put 1x of him in, but ultimately you get exactly what you pay for, no more, no less.

To look at it another way, which would you rather have at a planet? One Roghrax and one Splintered Path Acolyte, or one Zarathur's Flamers and one Berzerker?

The thing is, in most Zarathur decks Warpstorms, Plague Beasts and the like are flying around anyway. Thew odds of him being able to trigger his ability *and* having damage on him are actually pretty high, without having to do anything suboptimal in order to leverage his text. And of course if you create a situation in which he bloodies an enemy warlord then it's worth a bit of effort, furthermore the fact that he*can* bloody an enemy warlord can cause them to make suboptimal commitments.

He's also great against small damage packets, which are all the rage. It's pretty hard to one round him with the majority of standard deck-builds and with judicious shield use he can hold off his attack for a while until he is powered up.

Well aware for some time that I'm against the majority on this, and there's some very fine players saying this is a great card. I still say his 4 cost is exactly right for 0-1 copies in the deck, definitely no more, and my own inclination is towards 0 rather than 1. Anyone here going to say they run 2 or more copies?

As a combat unique he usually does some damage and then gets killed (or the opponent throws everything at him and he just gets killed), both of which allow for a second one to be played. Of course at 4 resources there may be economic reasons why the 2nd one ends up as a hand clog, but it's rarely due to the unique status.

This is a great addition to Chaos' arsenal. There may be no fancy synergy or flashy skill going on here, but sometimes raw potential hitting power is all you really need. I rate him as a 4/5, and expect to see him cropping up in almost every Chaos deck for some time to come.

I'm also planning on running two copies, but mainly to ensure that I actually see him in as many games as possible.

Ok, dammit. A good scientist has to be willing to change his or her mind.

I'm going to run ONE copy in my Zaraswarm deck again, and give the card another chance to impress!

Exactly, atleast play with it, if it doesn't work for you, or fits your playstyle, fine, that's a valid excuse. But don't write cards off based on theory crafting.

Oh, didn't read the "again". You have tried it. My bad.

Question, you have Roghrax, Plague beast and a cultist at a planet.  Combat phase, plague beast goes off, damaging your units and opponents units, you let the cultist die.  You have initiative and now swing with Roghrax, does the cultist death still count for activating bloodthirst?  Just a timing question because plague beast goes off at the start of the phase.

No it doesn't count, for the reasons you say. 

"During a combat round" is the requirement, like it says on the card.

Yes, it does count for Bloodthirst because it happens in the Combat Phase.

Ok, dammit. A good scientist has to be willing to change his or her mind.

 

I'm going to run ONE copy in my Zaraswarm deck again, and give the card another chance to impress!

As we're revisiting that thread, let me revisit that experiment.

Tried him for a long time. He was occasionally very useful, but ultimately he was taking the slot of better cards: either Khorne Berzerker or Plaguebeast, depending on where my deck was at any given time.

While I appreciate that as a Unique unit he puts the scares on Kith, Zaraswarm is one of the few decks that actually sees Kith as a favourable match-up anyway.

I've dropped him down to 0x again, and I maintain this is a 3/5 card.

I use him in my Zarathur deck because I like him.  He may not be the most efficient heavy in the Zarathur deck I admit.

But as soon as Bar'zul is in my hands, i'm dropping Zarathur, and Roghrax will be a star in that deck.

I guess the real question then is when the 'combat "round" begin.  It ends at step 3.2.9.  I assume it begins at 3.2.6?  In which case Asklepios is correct, and the plague beast doesn't make the cut in my Bar'zul deck.

Terminology getting mixed up here.

Gleeful Plaguebeast's Forced Reaction is to the beginning of the Combat Phase. It happens before any battles have occurred. Hell, the only thing that happens before it does is Mobile, or perhaps other Forced Reactions to the same occurrence.

Bloodhand refers to a Combat Round. Each Phase can contain multiple battles. Each battle can contain multiple combat rounds. Its a passive ability that continually checks the game state. As soon as you are within a combat round that meets its criteria, the text is active. As soon as you're not, its not.

Its not a reaction that creates an effect, or anything like that, its a continuous checking effect that turns on and off.

At the time Gleeful Plaguebeast triggers, we're not in a Combat Round as no battles have yet begun. Once we get to a combat round, Bloodhand isn't checking the past or the future, its just examining the current combat round and seeing if its criteria are met. If and while it is, its attack value is doubled. Note that as soon as the combat round ends, it turns off again.

Am I making sense here? Post the question to the rules forum if you want PB or Ktom to explain it better than me.