Card review: Against the wall

 

Card review: Against the wall

Meta timing

Just after the Starblood Stalkers release.

Say what?

‘’And I had you against the wall!’’ Phwoaar! This card should be in everyone’s deck just to enable you to say that to your opponent! … There we go! review done and dusted close the book!

In all seriousness let us delve further here...  It’s a surge for 1 glory and when an enemy fighter is taken out of action on an edge hex.

Most aggro surges require either your fighter’s attack action to take the enemy fighter out of action, or at least your warband (gambits).  This card allows enemy fighters to be taken out of action not only by an attack and a power card ping damage, but also by a lethal hex, anything in fact.

 

Board set up relevance.

You want to set up as many starting hexes on the enemy side on edge hexes in case you have Against the wall (AtW) or draw into it. Next best set ups are starting edges next to an edge, where you could place a lethal behind it. Driving fighters back into that lethal for a kill ‘’against the wall’’. 

Three out of seven of the boards have lethal hexes that can be located on edge hexes.  This along with the latest objective flipping tech (looking at you ‘Living Land’) give more options for AtW. Try to not only put a lethal, but also an objective hex onto an edge hex.   

Playstyles 

Aggro is the pretty obvious playstyle for this card. Specifically, the card works better with range 2 or more attacks where you are trapping your opponent. Remember that insane card ‘’Upper hand’’? Yes, the one that got banned… Getting your opponent trapped makes a drawn attack successful and a lot more likely just as ‘’upper hand’’ did. Watching a big troll swinging at a fighter with their back Against the wall does not seem like fun.  Well, if you are the victim at least.  Yes, I am looking at you Mike Carlin!

 

Warband synergies

Gimme long pointy things or bows! Ping damage also helps as they can be finished off by cards or pushes into a lethal on the edge. 

Wurmspat and Farstriders are two that come to mind that have range attacks on either all or most of their fighters and ones you tend to take pings with. 

If you lose boards AtW adds some insurance by increasing its value as you are more likely to be offset or longboarded by opponents if playing these elite aggro style warbands; thereby increasing the number of edge hexes by 12.5% from 34 on wide set up to 38 on longboards or max offset.

 

Card synergies 

Aggro cards, getting into your opponent’s territory, ping damage and push cards for set up all synergise well with AtW.

Objectives

Unexpected Pitfall synergises with ping damage and pushing into lethals on the edge hexes.  Blaze a trail, you will be heading into enemy territory blazing said trail with range attacks. Bold Deeds is a nice aggro end phase card where you have taken out 2 fighters and you are in enemy territory and Conquest albeit 3^rd end phase synergises well, both for 2 glory.

Gambits

Pings such as collapse or snare if you are a hunter or teching into being one are what you are looking for. Most Wizard factions have pings you can use along with hunting bolt. Farstriders have their faction specific Raptor strike. Enemy pushes like distraction and extra reach cards like spectral wings or Beast trail.

Upgrades

Range 2 or more attack cards such as soul tooth spear or bow, though more and more range on fighter base stat cards.  Gauntlet of Dominance that can manipulate and push fighters to set up AtW.

So, if your deck has these in them already have a good think about running Against the wall.

Best Match ups 

Ideally you want to run into horde warbands which means more fighters likely near an edge hex or at least a warband your opponent might keep a 2-wound fighter in the back near an edge hex.

Current meta influences

Aggro end phase cards have been given a boost and thus make the playstyle have more viability. They haven’t and likely won’t reach the heights of the objective holding warbands like the Grymwatch in their heyday, in terms of their glory ceiling being not as high, plus you rely on dice.  However, there are more cards with accuracy boosts around like ''strength of terror'', ''hunter’s talisman'', ''savage visage'', and ''Eagle-eye'' along with a lot more +1 damage cards. 

Even with this boost to aggro and seeing more of this playstyle, I feel this card is best in a horde dominating meta. It needs the aggro end phase cards to match to your style but works best into objective style warbands that stay back and have some lower wound fighters that are kept at the back near edges.  Also having the range and push tech allows you to knock fighters off objectives. Sounds like something that is slithering and lizardlike out there now…   

Where elite warbands are strong in the meta, there are fewer of them and they are less likely to be on edge hexes and harder to kill. This nullifies the card.

 

Categories in which card is marked.

I will be giving marks from A to E.  A+ being the highest.

Dice dependency (low means higher score): - A- Will tend to need dice and accuracy helps, but fighters being trapped help accuracy. You’re aggro and increasing your accuracy by setting up attacks on a trapped fighter.

Card draw dependency (low means higher score): - B. At the start of the game, as you are probably going to have fighters doing range attacks off the bat, and probably enemies placed near an edge, card draw dependency is not massive.

Synergies with objectives: - A- As well as the objectives mentioned above, there are a few primacy objectives out there too to align with the strategy of killing smaller wound fighters to gain primacy.  At the same time, you can gain from other surges off kills and aggro end phase cards.

Meta dependency (low means higher score): - D+ relatively high. I think this card is meta dependent as it doesn’t need elite fighters dominating.  One would expect and hope the game evolves to take care of this scenario were it to appear. 

Suffer more in Bo3: - B- Yes, your opponent will consider board placement, lethal hexes and going on guard to stop being trapped. But this could play into your hand with mind games fun and could cause sub optimal moves.

Overall Mark: - B

What's next?

My next card I plan to review is … Veteran Survivors.  Watch this space!

I hope you have enjoyed the article and I welcome any feedback and suggestions for improving the next one. 

 

Catch you on the underside! PhWwoaarhammer forever!