Shame thats a combat action isn't it? Pretty much all the allies are designed for command presence, not command strength, so its a bit of a late play.

Very narrow effect altough it can still force your opponent to Sacrifice the Pirates, Traders and all other manner of good 1 drops. Which is quite good.

However, I don't feel it currently should hold a place in DE competative decks. As such:

2/5

Meh, if anyone abuses Ally units, it's DE. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Meh, if anyone abuses Ally units, it's DE. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

There is nothing that stops Chaos from using it however . Talk about shooting DE/Eldar in the foot.

I would be much more fond of this card if it either wasn't a combat action or wasn't on a side of the alliance wheel that's broadly reliant on Rogue Trader and Void Pirate for cheap command.

As it stands this is one to maybe consider for the future, but right now it seems quite weak in basically any deck that can run it.

The command guys have won back their cost by the time you use this. So you are spending a card to remove a card, and a cheap one at that.

I don't know.... "Command guys" like the Pirates/Traders are usually deployed to distant planets so as to survive, affect command and win cards/resources for as long as possible. I may have recouped my cost after the first round, but if all anyone ever expected was to recoup with these cards, no one would play them (why spend 1 you already have to maybe or maybe not get just 1?). If you get rid of "command guys" early, the fact that they are not there farming cards or resources for the next 2-3 rounds is actually a big problem for a lot of decks.

Re-rated this one after play. As mentioned the Combat Action makes it much weaker as a result. Still powerfull but no real need for it in most decks.

2/5

I'm going to play around with this card a bit, at first glance it looks better than 2/5.  DE have Razorwings to sacrifice to the effect and most other decks will only have command units to sacrifice to the effect.  This could keep you from having to Warlord snipe command units and give you more freedom to deploy other places.  If it wasn't a combat action I wouldn't hesitate to include it.  As it is, I wan't to try it out a bit.  Initial rating from theorycrafting: 3/5.

IMHO this card is 4/5. I don't know why yet, but I feel that way.

Heh, like it.

Here's a thought: play it to thin out enemy units first, then hit them with a Power From Pain.

Only a shame that there's no Torture trait on this, otherwise that'd definitely be a thing...

3X Despise and 3X Power From Pain could be a pretty nasty combo, that's quite a bit of unit destruction.  I may have to try adding Power From Pain back into the deck.

Ah its too expensive, and the discount that Urien would gain on Power From Pain is countered by the surcharge he pays on Despise. Plus, who can afford six event slots on that play when we've got so many good DE events and locations to include?

Another way to trigger Hypex Injector for 0 cost. 3/5

Sure, if Hypex was worth running.

The problem here is that the only deck thats going to be running 15+ events is Urien, and Urien pays 1R extra for this event.

I haven't tried it but I saw this card and thought it might combo well in a deck with:

• Hypex Injector on a Ranged unit
• Beasthunter Wyches
• Coliseum Fighters

Beasthunter Wyches have a problem, and is that they are not that good by themselve (though they have 2 command icons), and that paying 1 resource to get 1 khymera is... not that good. You don't spent a card, but you still need to have a card in hand, and the khymera will be on your HQ, which means they won't be useful right now...

I haven't tried it yet but how about using a Urien deck that really focuses on discarding unit cards?  I'm talking 3x Despise, 3x Power from Pain, and probably 2x of Soul Grinder.  Despise takes care of the lowly Pirates and Traders, Power from Pain can help mop up after the chaff is gone and Soul Grinder is a beefy body that also contributes to this strategy.

Experimentations can also be used to further thin out unit cards, especially in the beginning when taking command is important.  Urien's support, lets you see when they have a unit card coming, and discard it as well.  Seeing a theme here?

Like another poster said earlier being able to take care of ally units with Despise lets Urien snipe to other planets or help out other battles more easily giving you even more control over the battlefield.  Any thoughts?

Because Despise isn't a torture, its at +1 resource cost. Thats not to say its not doable, but its no more efficient than doing so out of Kith, as far as the two core events go.

Experimentations can't be used to thin out Unit cards in any meaningful way, as if you name Units, the opponent always has the option to take a damage or to throw 1 shield in the form of attachments or events. All you are doing by naming Units is giving the opponent a fourth option. That is to say, if you name "attachment", he has three options: discard attachment, discard event, take a damage. If you name "unit" he has the same three options, plus the option of discarding a unit.

The support makes sense, for sure. You can also use Visions of Agony to selectively snipe Units out of an opponent's hand, and Soul Seizure to gain benefit from Units being in your opponents discard pile.

Question here, of course, is that if we are looking to maximise Power From Pain, is it not more efficient to play maximum card and command choke (i.e. three Palaces, three Promotions, six 2-for-2 cappers, 3 Sslyth Mercenaries, 3 Razorwings) and to rely on that? Despise at best gives you 1R1C to take out a single card that probably costs the same, and does so as a combat action, i.e. after your opponent has already reaped the command benefits of that card.