Swarmlord v3

Do you often face the opponents with more than 1 support? 

I mean, do you really need 3 CWC? I'd switch 1-2 of them with 2-shielders.

Swap CWC for Heavy Venom Cannon, which I wouldn't be able to use at all in this deck?

The point isn't to encounter three supports, its to have a high chance of drawing the card when the opponent has a support out that needs blowing up. Worst case scenario its a single shield. 

And yes, there's plenty of warlords who use more than one support.

At the lowest end, for sure, Eldorath only uses 1 support, and SM/Tau decks tend to stick to 1 support as well.

Going up from there most Kith players run 3 copies of Archon's Palace plus Khymera Den. Coteaz tends to run 3 Catachan Outposts, at least 1 Staging Ground plus the signature support. SM/AM decks run 3 Catachan Outposts. Aun'shi decks use three cities. Nazdreg decks use 2 Tellyporta, 2 KFG.

Now clearly, clogged with corpses isn't as broadly applicable as, say, Nullify. However its a cheap and easy card to play, and tyranids aren't exactly swimming in quality non-unit cards. I'd accept an argument of -1 Clogged With Corpses and +1 Spawn Termagants or +1 Predation, but there's not much else I'd trade it with. It'd be reasonable to replace a copy or two with 1-cost untis too, but there aren't any left to pick!

Heavy Venom Cannon is, I know, 2 shields, but this deck isn't so struggling for options that its going to run a card it has no chance of playing, just for the sake of 1 extra shield.

I was wondering how long it would take before someone noticed how much more affordable the Trygon is than people initially thought.   I suspect the Trygon will gain more respect once people start dropping them on the table for 3 or 4 resources each (or less).   A "full on token" deck gets them out very cheap, and its one of the upsides to running the Tervigon who combos very well with this card.  Trygon's are not unique and they give you a reason to run x3 HVC which ups your shield count.  They're not over the top by any means, but they are certainly not the trash people think.

I saw it often enough during testing, yeah.  Not as hard as it sounds with the Tervigon in play.  May not happen every game, but getting 5+ tokens on a single planet happens more than you'd think if you're actually trying to do it

Yeah, its not as straightforward as it sounds, and worth noting Spawn 'Gants REALLY doesn't really help, while Terma-Horde really does. However, it can be set up, normally by sending a warlord train of gants to Planet 2, and then next turn dropping it down onto the now planet 1.

Its definitely a play that takes a little finesse, but is easier to pull off than expected. I'm not convinced Tervigon makes it much easier, which is counter-intuitive I know, but the loss of command power from going Lictor -> Tervigon usually means that much fewer cards and resources that the termagant per turn of Tervigon doesn't compensate. A Lictor that wins you 1R gets you as far towards the Trygon as a Tervigon that drops a gant, and the former also denies your enemy those resources.

As I've said elsewhere, I think Tervigon is a hard synapse to play, but probably best out of Old One Eye with heavy infestation.

Hmm, well I've seen good success with the Swarmlord/Tervigon combo backed by Trygons.  I hear what you're saying, but another way to look at it is that the Tervigon will often win you a command struggle just like the Lictor, but will also drop a token.  The Lictor is great, no doubt, but one thing to pay attention to in your games is how often the second hammer makes the difference.  Every turn that you win a command struggle with the Lictor at a planet where one hammer would have been just as good as two, the Lictor essentially does nothing for you, while the Tervigon or Blazer would have in addition to winning the command. 

You also bring up one of the easy ways to stack your tokens, and that's by them riding the Warlord train.  Very easy to get a pile together that way. 

And yes, I dislike Spawn Termagants because it spreads the tokens out too much and doesn't help that deck build.  It's not bad in other builds though.  What I like in the "full on token" build are the Termagant Hordes (which you mention) and Parasitic Infection.  The Infection is good because it can spawn tokens even when battles don't occur at that planet.

And lastly, people need to remember that when you play a Trygon, you don't have to drop him at the same planet as your pile of tokens, he can go to any planet and still get the discount. I'm sure everyone realizes that, but just pointing it out for those who may have missed it. 

For sure, there's almost always a command struggle you can win with 1 extra icon rather than 2, but what I find is usually the case is that you are looking at a pre-commit situation of 3:2 to the opponent, with 1 or 2 of 3 command struggles fixable with one extra icon and normally all three fixable with two extra icons. This makes the Tervigon considerably easier to predict and intercept.

Re: Parasitic infection, I admit I've tried them in exactly one game and was unimpressed, as it was so expensive for what it achieved. I'll have to try it again some time.

And very good point regarding the Trygon. Had occurred to me as well, but I admit I hadn't mentally flagged it as non-obvious. Thinking on it, it does seem worth pointing out to detractors.

just curious if you have made any changes to this deck since last update.

Honestly, its only had one test since. Jeer's Coteaz deck is taking up a lot of my plays, as is my current Baharroth build, with the remaining third of my time practicing my longstanding primary Zarathur deck. Swarmlord hasn't had much of a look in.

Swap CWC for Heavy Venom Cannon, which I wouldn't be able to use at all in this deck?

 

The point isn't to encounter three supports, its to have a high chance of drawing the card when the opponent has a support out that needs blowing up. Worst case scenario its a single shield. 

 

And yes, there's plenty of warlords who use more than one support.

 

At the lowest end, for sure, Eldorath only uses 1 support, and SM/Tau decks tend to stick to 1 support as well.

Going up from there most Kith players run 3 copies of Archon's Palace plus Khymera Den. Coteaz tends to run 3 Catachan Outposts, at least 1 Staging Ground plus the signature support. SM/AM decks run 3 Catachan Outposts. Aun'shi decks use three cities. Nazdreg decks use 2 Tellyporta, 2 KFG.

 

Now clearly, clogged with corpses isn't as broadly applicable as, say, Nullify. However its a cheap and easy card to play, and tyranids aren't exactly swimming in quality non-unit cards. I'd accept an argument of -1 Clogged With Corpses and +1 Spawn Termagants or +1 Predation, but there's not much else I'd trade it with. It'd be reasonable to replace a copy or two with 1-cost untis too, but there aren't any left to pick!

 

Heavy Venom Cannon is, I know, 2 shields, but this deck isn't so struggling for options that its going to run a card it has no chance of playing, just for the sake of 1 extra shield.

Heavy Venom Cannon can go on your elite, right?

Heavy Venom Cannon can go on your elite, right?

The chances of actually making that play occur are pretty slim.

Extremely slim! There's only 1 Elite on the whole deck, and there's barely any point. Being 9/7 rather than 7/7 is academic in most circumstances, and Armourbane doesn't give much marginal benefit with an attack value that high. Sure, there might be occasions when I want to bloody an undamaged Coteaz with one hit, or when I really need AoE enough that its worth giving up 9 attack for, but this is a combo that would have a low chance of colliding, a low chance of having the resources to be playable when it does collide, and a low chance of changing the board state in a useful and meaningful way.

Worth noting here that I'm considering swapping Trygon for Ymgarl Genestealer, despite all I've said about that card. The latter is generally easier to play, and in a key battle where I commit both Synapse and Warlord to the key planet, its properly powerful.

Have you considered Savage Warrior Prime instead of the lictor? I think it's much easier to gain ressources and cards with him in command phase. You win at least one struggle and you're able to hunt pirates and traders.

I went from the Tervigon to Lictor and then tried SWP and it worked much better for me.

Have you considered Savage Warrior Prime instead of the lictor? I think it's much easier to gain ressources and cards with him in command phase. You win at least one struggle and you're able to hunt pirates and traders.

I went from the Tervigon to Lictor and then tried SWP and it worked much better for me.

Ummm... wha?

You know Savage Warrior Prime has no command icon, right?

I read the card again... Now standing ashamed somewhere very lonely... You're right!

I like the deck a ton.  Have you felt over all the Hive mind characters are just overcosted and not strong enough?  I thought the +2 HP might be worth it but haven't noticed it in a lot of lists lately.  

Yes, I've definitely revised my assessments.

Biovore Spore Launcher I never rated, to be honest. However, the ability is pretty potent, and would probably be worth it in a Tervigon build, where if you can have at least a few Termagants ready at the start of a key battle it could be decisive. That one I've gone from dismissing to considering.

Brood Warriors is really good, but a forced choice, of course.

Strangler Brood is superb, especially in multiples.

Swarm Guard I loved when I saw it, but have cooled on massively. As you say, it doesn't seem worth the cost in play, not when compared to other 3-costers we have the option of running.

Termagant Spikers looked amazing, but in practice I'm finding that no command is a problem, as is levering much benefit out of the mass of piddly ranged attacks. Sure, we could start saying "what about spikers WITH biovore, or spikers WITH strangler brood" but then we start approaching the range where its multiple cards in combination that can be answered by single cards. 

So the last two Hive Mind units I rated as pretty decent have turned out not to be (in my experience), while Strangler Brood remains as good as expected, Brood Warriors is better than expected, and I think I may be doing the Biovore a disservice by rejecting it.

Re: Trygon, I've swapped it back to Ymgarl Genestealer, which seems to work just as well as a decisive play, usually costs about the same in the end, but with more flexibility in being playable during the midgame.

That seems fair.  I thought the swarm guard would be better as well though the version I have been running of Swarmlord has the Harpy in it since it just wins games on its own.  I'm still on the fence with swarmlord.  At times I feel like he is awesome beyond measure and others all the Gaunts in the world aren't enough.  I've felt that 3x Clog is to many and settled on 2 as I never really wanted to see more than that.  Often times 1 was enough though the extra shield is never bad.  I also am saddened that that actual Termagants don't benefit from hivemind.  It makes the Sentry not as good and I wonder if he is worth it at all.  I like having a the bigger body on the end of the game with the Trygon personally but I can see the benefit of the Genestealer.  

Fair enough