The 5th War Pack in the Deathworld cycle, Against The Enemy, should be hitting store shelves pretty soon. As the final pack in the cycle will contain the Chaos warlord Vha’shaelhur, Against The Enemy will be the last pack in the cycle with non-signature cards from the Chaos faction. Fantasy Flight Games was kind enough to give us an early preview of the three Chaos cards in the pack and they offer a little something for ever flavor of Chaos!
The first card is the Purveyor of Hubris, a 4 cost army unit.
The four cost army unit slot is in an interesting place right now when the game’s focus is on elite units. This cycle has seen a huge shift towards cards that empower Elite units, making them easier to get into play, protect them while in play and punish non-elite units. A four cost army unit must have some pretty good stats and abilities to be played instead of an elite unit. Maybe it’s just his sweet whispers but, I think the Purveyor of Hubris stats and abilities are good enough to warrant a place in a deck. The 2 command, 3 ATK and 4 HP are on par for a four cost unit and the ability, even though it can’t lock down a planet single-handedly, the purveyor can definitely help keep some support units away from the battle. Also if it happens to be at a non first planet, it is very unlikely to have your opponent try and take command away from it due to the cost penalty. Definitely might see some play depending on the meta and how prominent the elite decks are. One interesting trait about Purveyor of Hubris is that like Slaanesh’s Temptation we’ve seen at least two Slaanesh cards now which are designed to tax an opponent’s unit deployment. While Slaanesh might be the prince of desire, he’s all about denial: because we all know that we want what we can’t have. In this case it’s little units, those sexy little things…
The second unit from the pack is the Sickening Hellbrute, an Elite Nurgle unit with a beefy health stat and a novel ability that really amps up the pain and suffering.
Although Sickening Hellbrute has a pretty low ATK stat, the fact it has Brutal will mean it can definitely dish out what it can take. The interesting part of this unit is its ability, which affects both players and is a forced reaction. Having every unit take an extra damage when it’s attacked at a battle is definitely going to benefit players who are ready to do the math, with both players subject to the Hellbrute’s ability when their unit is declared as a defender. One consideration would be playing it with Zarathur, High Sorcerer who would deal 2 damage when a unit is declared as a defender. This would also mean Zarathur taking an extra damage when he is attacked making it easier to assassinate that tricky wizard, something which is already a problem for Zarathur players. This unit might also be decent in a Necron deck as Necrons have the cards to mitigate some of the extra damage, plus they are able to take the Techmarine Aspirant can allow the unit to take advantage of the Brutal trait much faster. Some synergies for this card include the new Disciple of Excess to keep him put, and because the Sickening Hellbrute has the Nurgle trait his planet can be a target of Fetid Haze which can makes him even more fearsome against fewer, or already damaged units.
The final card, Cloud of Flies is an attachment with a pretty simple damage dealing ability that can only be granted to army units with the Nurgle trait.
Similar to the Hellbrute, this card ability affects both players forcing them to assign 2 indirect damage among their units; similar to Fetid Haze, the cloud can only target non-nurgle units, so this ability generally favors Chaos players. Cloud of Flies seems like an especially terrifying ability if more than one copy enters play at a single planet, since it triggers every round. Two of these on a planet can easily lead to eight or six indirect damage over two turns if their #blessed units remain in play.
However, this card might have some drawbacks: even if you play mostly Nurgle units or run big health units that can easily brush off the damage, so this card may not offer a lot of value. Like a lot of Nurgle cards this is going to reward players who are doing the math, or you play all Nurgle units and you come out two damage ahead. In both cases I think there are too many things to take into consideration to make this worth the costs when there are so many other better chaos attachments to play.
The Tactical Squad would like thank FFG for allowing us to share these early spoilers with the community. Feel free to comment and let us know what you think of these cards and whether they will find their way into your decks.
