Hello! It is time for another Harrowdeep article! This is the third installment of the series and this time I’ll be covering universal cards released in Harrowdeep Core Set.
If you’re keen to see my review of grand alliance cards you can do it here. If you’re interested to see my opinion about new mechanics you can check it in here.
Again - I would like to thank my friends from the Path to Glory podcast for letting me use their card pictures.
While rating the cards I will be following the system as below:
1 - a very powerful card. You should take it in nearly every deck. A staple.
2 - a very strong card that you should consider taking. Might not always make the cut, but should usually contend with other options.
3 - a situational card that might prove to be good in certain situations or with proper card support
4 - a weak card. You might find a use for it, but in general, most often you’ll be better off with other picks.
So… with all the formalities out of the way let us delve into the cards!
Universal Objectives
Competent Conjuror - an anti-Cursebreaker magic-based objective. It’s nice to see that steps are being taken to limit some warband’s ability to warp an entire archetype. Sadly… magic doesn’t have enough support in the game to make this worthwhile. In the case of this card, you’re looking at having to cast at least 2 spells in a single phase. That’s not very likely to happen in the current state of the game. It’s a shame, as I did enjoy magic a lot.
Rating: 4
Contest of Equals - this is an interesting card. It is sort of a backup plan for when your attack has failed. On a tie (including 0 successes on both sides) you get to score this. It might be a very good card for Rippa.
Rating: 2
Fallen Titan - this might be a decent one glory card for aggressive hordes. Sooner or later you’ll score it. For anyone else - not that appealing.
Rating: 3
Fearless Seekers - holding two feature tokens in enemy territory is not easy. The good thing is that it is easier than holding two objectives. It might see some play in warbands that used to like to hold objectives while being aggressive. Thorns or the Grymwatch might benefit from this one. It might be the new way of playing hold. Overall it’s not the easiest objective to score, but it’s not terrible either. Easier than Treasure Hunter. Scores 1 glory less because of that too.
Rating: 3
In Cold Blood - do a one-shot or kill a fighter with your assassin. At the moment second way of scoring this objective is nearly undoable because of the shortage of assassins. One-shotting is a lot more feasible - especially against horde warbands. This card bricks when you’re playing the likes of Krusha. But overall this is a fairly decent option.
Rating: 2
Inseparable - I’m not a fan of this card. It’s difficult to do unless you’re having some ranged fighters. And you’d prefer to keep them safe rather than to charge them in. But I guess it works. Still - not a great option unless specific circumstances take place.
Rating: 3
Lead From the Front - this is pretty much a Mollog card. Outside of him, I’m struggling to find a warband that would like this one.
Rating: 4
Lead From the Rear - this is the twin brother of the Lead From the Front and it is the smarter kid of the pair. Some defensive builds or warbands like Spiteclaws, Grymwatch, or Sepulchral Guard would score this without too much effort. Still, it is not a great card.
Rating: 3
Looming Threat - I like the artwork on this card. Because it is an end-phase objective it is not that good. Surge speed would make it much better. Right now it is too easy to disrupt.
Rating: 3
Lost in Shadow - an interesting card, but very easy to counter. In general, it’s not easy to make sure the enemy fighter is in cover hex at the end of the round. Especially when your opponent knows you’re playing this card.
Rating: 3
Out For the Count - this card is simply too hard to score. Even destruction warband tooled up with their GA cards would probably struggle to satisfy those conditions. As this is a 2 glory card it is not worth the effort.
Rating: 4
Reckless Swing - it is okay I guess… I’m not too thrilled about it. It might be an easy card versus larger warbands, where it is not that hard to make a disadvantaged attack, but overall I’m not a fan of it.
Rating: 3
Risky Strategy - it’s not something you can reliably do unless you’ve managed to abuse a lethal hex. But even then… I’m not 100% sure this is worth the deal unless you’re a ghoul or skaven player. It also goes well in hand with Partial Ressurection. Stupid Death...
Rating: 3
Scion of Shadow - that’s a lot of work for a single point of glory! If you’re desperate to make a wizard-centered deck this might be a card for you though!
Rating: 4
Unequal Contest - I’ve been playing Steady Aim for a long time. And I’ve learned that it can sit in your hand for the entire game. This card is a worse version of Steady Aim. So… it might very well work out quickly but can brick in your hand for a long time. It might be a very decent option for the Kunnin’ Crew. with their ability to provide supports getting successes in your rolls is fairly easy.
Rating: 3
Sinking Feeling - Dominant Position, but for feature tokens. Pretty neat. I can see builds centered around holding objectives/feature tokens emerge soon enough. Especially because feature token holding is easier than objective holding. And it is resistant to flips.
Rating: 2
Universal Gambits
Audacious Move - +2 move is great, but not when you cannot benefit from it during the charge action. The only warband that could think about this card is Sepulchral Guard, as two of the petitioners could benefit from that card when commanded by Warden.
Rating: 4
Brave Companion - reaction card to push a fighter to support your defending fighter. If it targets the companion it has no range limitation, which is great! It is a decent card.
Rating: 3
Call of Fate - survivability ploy with an anecdotal chance for success. I know a person who would play it and likely have a degree of success while at it, but for the rest of us mortals, it’s just a waste of paper.
Rating: 4
Elite Advance - guard dispensing ploys are okay, but not great. This one is limited by fighters having to be in enemy territory, which is a bit of a bummer. I guess it could have some corner case uses, but overall it’s not that good.
Rating: 3
Illusory Transference - a card used to salvage illusion upgrade if it has been broken by a gambit. While I think this might happen a decent number of times I don’t believe this card is worth the slot. Spending a ploy to save an illusion and transfer it to another fighter is not the most efficient way of spending your gambits.
Rating: 4
Live For The Fight - I like this card. Extra dice are always handy. And this can buff up an entire scything super action if a brawler has been doing it. Dhoraz approves.
Rating: 2
Not Lost - it is a bit weird push card. In theory, it gives you a decent chance to push your fighter onto a feature token that is 3+ hexes away which is great. But its randomness can be painful at times.
Rating: 2
Penumbral Falls - this is a weird one. Mass Encroaching Shadows that persists. If players are careless this card could deal a lot of damage, but in general, it is way too slow to matter.
Rating: 4
Quintok’s Query - an easy to cast gambit spell, but with an effect that is not worth the card. Essentially it is an objective cycling card that is slightly better than a standard action.
Rating: 4
Rising Water - a new version of Illusory Walls. I used to like that card in some control builds. But in the current meta? I’m not 100% sure it will be a big factor. Especially with the speed package objectives gone.
Rating: 3
Shadow Lure - a very cool push card. I’m expecting to see it a lot in the builds that care about cover hexes or feature tokens.
Rating: 2
Sic ‘em - a decent friendly push card for offensive play. Can be used to have a push of 2 hexes if the opposing player has a beast on the table. Not as good as Heeded Instinct, but very solid nonetheless.
Rating: 2
Too Close - still not close enough to be viable. Getting guard token *after* an attack action is a bit silly.
Rating: 4
Unfair Fight - this is very cool. If you have support you can increase your accuracy by a fair margin thanks to Stagger and get a chance for extra damage from Grevious. Nadirite weapons with this card are very scary.
Rating: 2
Whetted Blades - it is a pretty good card for assassins. But it’s not amazing overall. It’s similar to Unfair Fight in a way, but I like the latter more.
Rating: 3
Writhing Shadows - flip tech or a 33% chance to deal 1 damage to fighters in a cover… that’s rather underwhelming.
Rating: 3
Universal Upgrades
Blunt Force Master - if you want to be able to stagger an adjacent enemy fighter with your attacks and get also an effect of knockback packaged into a reaction, then this upgrade is for you. I don’t think it’s worth the card slot.
Rating: 4
Cagey Fighter - this is a bit weird upgrade, but I could see it being used for defensive purposes. If you’ve missed your attack you can react to push yourself away from your target and avoid charge-free retaliation. This has some potential to be used, but I don’t expect to see it too often.
Rating: 3
Dark Insight - another card that improves native objective mill action. It’s okay, but I’m not that excited about this kind of card.
Rating: 4
Heroic End - a lot of value on this card. It is a bit disappointing that it prevents its bearer from being healed. I think I would like to play with this card a bit, but I don’t like upgrades that target vulnerable fighters. It’s just too far outside of my span of control - I like to be able to apply an upgrade when I feel it’s the right moment, rather than having to wait for a status that might never occur.
Rating: 3
Master of Shadows - a nice way to grant a hunter keyword to a fighter. It’s also pretty neat to provide rerolls for ranged fighters (including spellcasters).
Rating: 2
Mazzig’s Magefish - I don’t hate that card. I think it is pretty good for casters - especially those with a decent spell attack action and multiple defense dices. Guarding or healing yourself after a successful spell attack or spell cast is a nice bonus. The card is not super strong, but I do like it.
Rating: 3
Penumbral Dirk - it’s okay. A new equipment theme is revealed - they gain extra effects versus upgraded fighters. Overall a nice attack profile.
Rating: 3
Phantom Fathomer - another decent weapon upgrade. This has the potential to be very accurate versus some of the stacked fighters. More stacked fighters can expect grievous kicking in for a 3 damage attack. I think I like this weapon more than the Dirk. It has the potential to be very good if voltroning will continue. With Punching up this can get quickly out of hand.
Rating: 2
Pilfered Prize - this card is hilarious, but I don’t think it is very playable. I love the theme of this card (including the artwork).
Rating: 3- (should probably be 4 tbh)
Searing Ink - an odd ping damage card packaged into an upgrade. It’s not really good.
Rating: 4
Shademark - a worse version of Champion’s Fortitude. Between the two I don’t really see the reason to go for Shademark unless you want to run both of those.
Rating: 3
Shadow Seeker - this is a pretty good accuracy card for ranged fighters. I wish they did count as having support, but even without it, that is still a solid card.
Rating: 2
Terrifying Shadow - while I don’t really like illusion cards this one is fairly strong. You can tank up one of your covered fighters - especially if they happen to be a minion. Luckily this effect is temporary, which also does decrease the overall power of this card.
Rating: 3
Unfazed - I don’t think you would ever take this for a non-brawler warband. Brawlers though might enjoy this card quite a bit.
Rating: 2 (for brawlers), 4 for anyone else
Waterlogged Map - this could’ve been a very strong card 2 seasons ago. Currently? I don’t think it’s that good - especially with the requirement to be in enemy territory.
Rating: 3
Withering Blade - an assassin upgrade with a decent attack profile as a bonus. I’m not sure it is worth the card though - at least not at this point.
Rating: 3
General thoughts
We’ve got almost 50 cards in here and I don’t see any obvious auto-includes in here. There are some cards that I’m definitely going to experiment with and there are some strong options to consider for certain builds. But in general, this batch of cards feels… I don’t know how to say it… uneventful? It is a fairly balanced set of cards offering decent tools for various playstyles, but there’s nothing that would stand out and help build a deck around it. I wish there were fewer cards from the 3-4 rating category in favor of a few more 2’s.
Overall - if we look at universals and Grand Alliance cards this is a fairly low-powered batch. Well unless you’re playing hordes or death. Then things get a bit spicier.
I’m not convinced by the illusion upgrades. They did sound like a great option to help aggro get going, but we’re getting a lot of defensive options instead, which is a bit puzzling. I’m also not convinced by the upgrades applicable only for vulnerable fighters. Those are the fighters I would rather not invest upgrades into - not unless I can heal them somehow. So those vulnerable-only cards are a bit confusing. Some of them offer a compelling risk vs reward scenario to consider, but in general, I think I will steer away from those cards.
I like how the hold objective has been adjusted - it is now “hold feature token” and it might be good. I’m just hoping it won’t be too reliable. That wouldn’t be too healthy for the game.
As usual - I would love to get your opinions on the cards. How do you enjoy this set? Do you like what we’ve got in the core box? Let me know in the comments!
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