Nethermaze Rivals Review 2: Vainglorious Raiders & Patient Lurkers

Previous Rivals Reviews

In this blog, we give our Rivals review of two Rivals decks released in White Dwarf 478: Vainglorious Raiders and Patient Lurkers. You can review the decks here (jumps to Underworlds DB): Vainglorious RaidersPatient Lurkers.

Podcast: https://podcast.battle-mallet.com/e/episode-40-hex-ed-nethermaze-rivals-review-2-vainglorious-raiders-patient-lurkers/

Nethermaze Rivals Decks

Patient Lurkers

No fighters to review.

Key Cards

  • Objectives:
    • Contest of Equals (Surge: Score this immediately after a failed attack action if the attack roll and defence roll had the same number of successes - This objective is very popular in championship format and is an excellent choice given how interactive the game is right now. It's especially good because you can score it during your opponent's activation, letting you cycle into a new objective for your own activation.)
    • Lead from the Rear (Dual: Score this in an end phase if your leader is the friendly fighter furthest from each enemy fight AND one or more friendly fighters are in enemy territory or in no one’s territory - this deck wants you to wait and this card is easiest to score turn 1)
    • Lost in Shadow (Dual: Score this in an end phase if your warband holds two or more objectives AND one or more enemy fighters are each in a cover hex - it’s relatively easy to get on two objectives and players love cover)
  • Gambits:
    • Dark Epiphany (Draw one power card for each friendly fighter in a cover hex. Then discard that many power cards - gives you a lot more control over your power hand and lets you work best with your chosen warband)
    • Shadow Lure (A push card! - puts your fighters on cover hexes, where they want to be anyway)
    • Suffocating Mists (Choose one enemy fighter that is in a cover hex. Deal 1 damage to the chosen fighter. - plink damage that helps with Chum the Waters)
  • Upgrades:
    • Cursed Cutlass (Range 1, 4 Fury, 2 Damage - This fighter is a brawler. The bounty gained when an enemy fighter is taken out of action by this attack action is spent glory unless this fighter is on a cover hex. This is a very accurate attack action and can really provide some lethality to a fighter that lacks an accurate or 2 damage attack.)
    • Dark Strength (+1 Damage to this fighter's Range 1 attack actions if this fighter is in a cover hex - Everyone knows how much we love +1 Damage cards! And given the prevalence of cover hexes, this can be pretty easy to set up.)
    • Ferocious Bite (+1 Dice to this fighter’s Range 1 Attack actions, +2 Dice to thisfighter’s Range 1 Attack actions instead if this fighter is a beast - Accuracy is always good, additional accuracy on the typically low accuracy beasts is great! We especially like it on those beasts that pack Grievous.)

Boards

Cover Hexes, Profane Larder, oblivions Pillars

Play Style

This deck appears to be designed to counter the "invading aggro" warbands and decks (those decks that are aggressive and want to be on cover/feature hexes in your territory. If we had to guess, we think there are only 3 surges because this deck has some fairly reliable but passive end phase scoring. If the deck included more passive surges (like Sudden Revelation and Ever Downward), it would provide a fairly negative play experience.

Playing Against This?

Try to avoid feature and cover hexes. If you can, you can easily prevent 5 glory including one of their surges!

What Warband Should I Choose?

Any Warband with lots of fighters and good action economy when it comes to mobility (for getting onto feature tokens). Grymwatch, Lady Harrow, Da Kunnin’ Krew, Thorns of the Briar Queen, Thundrick’s Profiteers

New Player Rating

Bronze. Difficult playstyle AND it requires that you own Harrowdeep, Blackpowder’s Buccaneers, the Exiled Dead, Illusory Might, and Nethermaze.

Rivals+ Format Rating

Tough because it only has 3 surges, but Contest of Equals and Unequal Contest are both pretty good surges. Some decent end phase in Lead from the Rear, Lost in Shadow, and Chum the Waters. There are good ploys and the deck gives access to Illusion upgrades without using Illusory might.

Back to top

Vainglorious Raiders

No fighters to review, but we recommend warbands below!

Key Cards

  • Objectives:

    • Sudden Revelation (Surge: Score this immediately after a power step in which your warband flipped two or more feature tokens in that power step - This objective is easy to score, requires no interaction with your opponent and provides easy seed glory.)

    • Contest of Equals (Surge: Score this immediately after a failed attack action if the attack roll and defence roll had the same number of successes - great objective given how interactive the game is right now)

    • Fearless Seekers (Score this in an end phase if two or more friendly fighters are on feature tokens in enemy territory - You can set this up for turn one by putting an objective token and a gloom token right across the line.)

  • Gambits:

    • Dark Inversion (Pick two feature tokens in empty hexes. Place each feature token in the hex the other feature token was in when you picked them. This card lets you really manipulate the board state and set up Extraordinary Revelation.)

    • Reckless Rush (Double the Move characteristic of the first friendly fighter to make a Move action in the next activation step, until that action has been resolved. Deal 1 damage to, and then stagger, that fighter. Allows you to move a fighter a lot farther than normal and helps get onto an objective/feature token that would have otherwise been safe.)

    • Step Between Shadows (Choose one friendly fighter in a cover hex that has no Move or Charge tokens. Place the chosen fighter in a different cover hex and give them one Move token. Excellent for mobility and placement.)

  • Upgrades:

    • Dark Majesty (-1 Damage from Range 1 Attack actions that target this fighter, to a minimum of 1, if this fighter is in a cover hex. Reducing damage is great!)

    • Nether Defence (+1 Defence if this fighter is in a cover hex. This fighter cannot be on Guard. While you aren’t able to be on guard, pushing a fighter to 3 defence dice can be a game changer.)

    • Shadow Spear (Range 2, 3 Smash, 2 Damage w/ Cleave, This fighter cannot make this attack action unless this fighter is in a cover hex. While this attack isn’t always available, there are so many options for getting onto cover hexes and manipulating the board with this deck AND the attack is Range 2.)

Boards

Pick setup and choose aggressive boards with starting hexes on the edge

Play Style

Invading Aggro, hold feature in enemy territory.

Playing Against This?

Keep someone on the edge hex. Try to be cheeky with your feature token placement, try to block easy tokens on your side of the board. They’ll want your leader and they may not care if their leader is dead. Be aware that they can get deep into your territory, but there’s not a lot of damage.

What Warband Should I Choose?

Fast and/or tough warbands. Lady Harrow, Drepur’s Wraithcreepers, Kainan’s Reapers, Skaeth’s Wild Hunt, Godsworn Hunt, The Wurmspat, Magore’s Fiends, Khagra’s Ravagers

New Player Rating

Silver. The deck is straightforward and you have basically all of the tools you need to score your glory, but it is invading aggro, so you could just lose your fighters. Also, it only requires the Harrowdeep and Nethermaze boxes.

Rivals+ Rating

Silver. The objectives are largely better than those in the Essentials pack. There are really good ploys, but it doesn’t have the damage upgrades available from the Essentials pack.

Back to top