This card have great potential, especially if you have more than one on the board 1-3 aoe dmg in deploy phase.  Chaos can waste time for the right moment with cultists before playing elite units. And it only hit one your own unit (he can take it) so cost is low compare to other chaos cards.
And Doombolt will have some use now - to finish the survivors.
Low cost, no exhaust mechanic and it's not forced reaction so you don't have to use it if you don't want. This is only one dmg at a time so enemy would not be able to prevent all with one card but it also means it won't hit Blood Angels Veterans.

Nice card. Nice effect. But very circumstantial. Yes, Chaos has 6 different elite army units, but how many elite cards does anyone ever keep in their deck especially given that all the elite units all have a 5 cost or higher?

 

10% of my deck is elite units (for a total of 5). I could see adding 1x of Turbulent Rift on the off-chance it might offer a timely damage boost, but would not consider 2x or 3x.

 

I might be persuaded otherwise if I saw an efficient cultist-sacrificing, elite daemon deploying machine deck.

Currently most of my Chaos decks only include 3 Elite units. Making this card very hard to connect at the right time. Much like Fall Back! It can potentially be very good however making it connect is way to hard.

 

2/5

One more step toward a decent casual play Chaos elite deck.

Same as Killax, 3 elite units for me, so not many chances of repeatedly triggering this through a game. If this card cost 0, and didn't have the damage kicker... I still wouldn't use it. That's how weak it is for me.

 

Having said that, I like the idea of the Chaos/Elites game coming back into rotation. Lets see how the meta pans out, and if more weenie-hate enters the game, we'll need to come back to look at this again.

I think this is the first step toward a big-fatties deck. We might see one playable by the end of cycle #2.

I think this is the first step toward a big-fatties deck. We might see one playable by the end of cycle #2.

 

I think that step is currently very far away in terms of a competative setting.

Lets come back to this card.

 

I dismissed it, as being a Zaraswarm player I tend to go with two Gleeful Plaguebeasts and that's it, and there's no way that for that deck this card is a worthwhile use of a slot.

 

In contrast, my main cardgaming buddy is running three in his Kugath deck, running something like seven or eight elites (as far as I am aware).

 

What strikes me here is the similarity between this card and Plague Beast: its an AoE1 that happens well before any combat actions can happen, and is thus very hard to counter. 

 

Also, this card isn't pricey, is non-unique non-limited, and the effect stacks in a very practical way.

 

In last nights Eldorath vs Ku'gath game, he managed to hit four of my Planet 1 units for 2 damage each through two of these and a Gleeful Plaguebeast. Then, as the battle phase started, the Plaguebeast did another, and I was left with a 1HP left Destructor, and a 1HP left Starbane Council, which he promptly killed with a single attack from Ku'gath. My Warlord was present too, but had no ability to win combats without support.

 

There was also potential there for a nice combo with Soul Grinder, as so many command units have low HP.

 

All in all, I was very impressed with this card in play, and it was instrumental to his victory. Once its on the board, its more or less an uncounterable AoE 1 each time you trigger it.

I think it will get better with Zool, simply because his 3 cost sig squad is more conducive to Throne.

Yes, in fact i run x10 elites in my 'turbulent rift' ligatures deck (of which big shoota battle wagon is definitely my favourite). I absolutely love turbulent rift, for all the reasons mentioned above by asklepios, plus two more key reasons: 1) the unexpectedness element as its a rarely-seen card, and 2) the fact it's an optional rather than forced reaction so you don't have to trigger it if not in your favour (although admittedly that somewhat defeats the point). I would add the fact that you don't have to exhaust it to trigger it as a third good reason, except I've never been resource-rich enough to deploy more than one elite unit in the same round! Ok, downsides as I discovered at a mini-tournament yesterday: 1) turbulent rift and x2 plague beasts combo will almost certainly win you that final planet game-deciding battle.... Unless your opponent has x2 inquisitorial fortresses.... I'll be packing my squig bombin' kit next time round! 2) elites are expensive, so you need to be sure you have enough resources to be able to actually deploy one in that all important final battle... With x2 turbulent rifts in play i was one resource short of deploying a big shoota battle wagon yesterday that would have wiped out three honoured librarians and given me the game. 3) a deck built around turbulent rift kinda relies on you actually drawing one during the course of the game. That's not guaranteed when facing a command heavy deck like eldorath, whereby your card draw is rather limited.

I have a Throne of Vainglory deck with Zarathur, and since that deck has so many elite units I'm thinking about finding room to put 1 or 2 in there. Running 3 is a bit of an overkill imo. 

Also notable to me: compared to a Warpstorm, this card does less damage (a lot less out of Zarathur) but its not indiscriminate, sparing your own units save for the 1 damage cost.

 

Sure, its conditions are harder to meet, but its also repeatable, which Warpstorm isn't directly. 

 

This makes it as good a card as Warpstorm for Ku'gath, in my opinion. Throne jank is not needed to make it so.

Or to put it another way:

 

Warpstorm benefits:

Can hit HQ

Carries a shield

More damage

Can hurt the warlord

 

Rift benefits:

Lower cost

Harder to trigger the damage

Uses up a deploy turn

Repeatable

Can hurt units with attachments

 

The two are comparable!

Another advantage of the rift is that it can't be nullified.

 

At the moment I'm loving this card! Get two of them out and deploy a Gleeful Plaguebeast to an important planet with as many enemy units as possible = Awesomeness.

I think this card would see more play if there's an Ambush Elite Unit for Chaos coming...

Can you ever see an ambush unit costing 5 (cultist sacrifices not withstanding)? Rather a telegraphed play if you sit the deploy phase out with 5 resources left because there's a daemon waiting in the wings. But, I guess you never know. Not a bad card though, but to make it worthwhile the deck certainly runs expensive and generating cultists is tricky.

Having a few Cultists or that other one that reduce Daemon costs by 2(forgot name) could make a cost 5 Elite with Ambush work. Sit on 3 Resouces and have one on the board sounds less telegraphy. Furthermore, you can choose not to use him and keep the Cultists generating Command.

I actually think this could work well in a Heavy costed Barzhul deck running more Elites than normal using Throne of Vainglory. Dropping a Gleeful for AOE1 for it to blow up again for AOE 1 is a nasty combo. 

 

Also, Barzhul can work Throne better due to his sig units being 3 cost. Probably not tournament viable but certainly fun.

BuzzsawMF,

as much as I love the Gleeful i don't know if you want him in a Ba'ar deck. Completely anti-synergy with his sig event.

anyone been using this with grotesques in urien deck?