The new season begins on Monday, the 19th of February.

Greetings, citizens,

From the closely guarded secrets of the Votann, we move to the masters of secrecy, the Dark Angels. With the return of the Lion to the setting as a whole and to Combat Cards, it’s no surprise to see his sons appear in full force this Season.

So, without further delay, let’s dive into the changes:

Balance Changes

Space Marines

This season the focus falls on the 1st Legion, the Dark Angels. While the Dark Angels have been a presence in the game since the start, that status of ‘first’ means that a number of their cards has lagged behind while the game has moved forward, and so we’re making a general improvement to most of the older Dark Angels cards. It seems only fitting that the older Dark Angels get a bit of polish now that they will be fighting alongside their recovered Primarch!

Each time you select an attack type that is different from the one you selected in the previous turn, your deployed cards receive a 25% boost to their attack stats. [+5% Attack Boost ]

Although one of the newer Warlords, Azrael, has been in the game long enough to have started to get a bit of momentum. Despite this, he is tracking as the least played (excluding Supreme Commanders), and least successful Warlord. Given that he’s also a Space Marine Warlord, the most played faction, he could definitely do with a tune-up, and this Season is a perfect excuse. A buff to his special rule means he will need to rotate fewer attacks to build up those massive attack stats. Given the number of high mono attack decks out there, giving less need to charge headlong into disadvantageous attacks should help push up his results.

One of the first cards in the game, ‘Broken Knife’ feels his age, and the venerable Terminator doesn’t pack quite the punch he used to. A significant increase to his melee should get him slicing and dicing again.

While Brother Baran is a mainstay in many decks, he only holds this honour by being the cheapest of the available Taunt options for Space Marines. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s got the best stats for his cost, however, a small bump in Wounds (always the most important stat for Taunt cards) brings him in line with other Taunt cards of a similar cost.

Once a mainstay of Captain Tolmeron’s decks, the Hellblaster, and other Space Marine ranged infantry have fallen out of favour, partly due to the lower stats. A respectable bump in range should make a noticeable difference and make his precision shot more impactful as well.

Zakariah stands out as one of the few ‘perfectly balanced’ cards when it comes to attack stats. And while this works for some cards, when your only trait is Furious Charge, you would rather prefer a higher Melee. So that’s what we’ve done here, but also kept that overall balanced attack line to keep him primed for versatile decks and Warlords like Azrael.

There was historically a back and forth between the Space Marine Aggressor as to who was the best, and while Remial current has the most Range, Fenrik (the Space Wolves Aggressor) has significantly more Wounds and Melee, so to final separate them from literally being side by side, Remial is going down by 1 Cost, hopefully putting aside their rivalry for now.

Master Lazarus was, for a time, a very common sight in decks, but he has now somewhat faded into obscurity. As the first named primaris character for the Dark Angels, he deserves more than that. So a general boost to both Wounds and Melee should see him get the best out of both traits, Furious Charge and Regeneration.

The Darkshourd has always been one of those cards that Space Marine players want to include in high-power ranged decks, but has never quite felt like it delivered value. A bulky, high mono attack, Inspiring Presence card seems like a must-have but alway felt awkward when building a deck. So, we’ve cut the cost by a decent amount, making it less of a pick that compromises other choices, and giving it a small but meaningful amount of additional bulk and attack so that, hopefully, it can fit into that desired role.

Astorath is not a Dark Angel, but he makes the list as one of the first cards in a while to receive a nerf. We’ve got a few others here throughout the balance change, and we’ll talk about that a bit more at the end. But needless to say, a strong mono attacker, with a deployment attack, supported by a strong secondary trait, is going to be a serious threat. While we don’t like nerfing cards, Astorath is a card that has made it into almost every melee-orientated Space Marine deck, and, more concerningly, started to stray into non-melee decks too, which is the warning sign we need to pull the trigger. That said, the nerf is not intended to make him significantly less powerful, just take the edge off that giant axe, and give other cards a bit more of a look-in. He should still be swinging for incredible damage, and be hard to take down.

Aeldari:

Kyarna was another old staple for Aeldari decks that have fallen out of play, and also one that had one of the ‘older’ styles of upgrades where its secondary attack type got upgrades, even when it realistically was an attack that never made much of an impact to the card. We want every upgrade to feel like a meaningful improvement, and so both of its Melee upgrades are being changed to Wounds or Range respectively, the two things you bring Kyarna for. As such, Melee gets a base bump to take it close to where it was, and a bonus range bump to give it a bit more punch.

Another older classic that has fallen out of favour, Ceghallan is getting a minor rework and a significant boost. We’re changing the War Walker to a mono attack card, removing its base melee and melee upgrade (I’ve always thought if it tried to kick, it would probably fall over!), and therefore putting the emphasis on all-out range. On top of that, a cost reduction and an increase to Range and Wounds should see this become a real contender again for Aeldari ranged decks.

Poor Yvraine has always felt a bit underwhelming for the significant character she is supposed to be. She also fills an important role as the only Psychic Inspiring Presence card, which should make her an autopick in psychic decks, but until now, her stats have let her down. A small increase in wounds helps maximise her trait, and a massive increase in psychic should see her much more comfortably fit where she needs to be and deliver good results.

The next of the cards to receive a nerf, Surefire, should be no surprise. It also fits into the same category of strong mono-attack cards with an attack on deploy and a strong secondary trait (when paired with the Aeldari playstyle). As such, the range attack is coming down a bit to remove an element of that alpha strike threat, but again not to the point of making it obsolete, just to take the edge off that devastating first turn.

Necrons:

Another older card that has been gathering dust in the crypt vault. A buff to its only attack stat should help it out and give it a reason to be reanimated.

The most recent addition to the Destroyers, but its stats at release were a bit underwhelming, so a good bump to its stats should help it keep up with the more established Destroyer cards already out there.

With Navgran the Eternal seeing a big surge in use with his drop in points, it seems only fair to do the same for the other Medicae card in the same ballpark. There was easy room to drop the points of the Spyder here, so made sense to do it.

T’au:

With 2pts being the new lowest cost with the introduction of the Neuroloid, it made sense that the T’au, with their large amount of cheap support cards, should get one too, and this drone is the first to receive that honour!

Turns out that having your unique selling point as the battlesuit with the highest melee is not that appealing in a faction that focuses primarily on range. As such Jesol can keep that honour, but gets an increase to range to align him better with the rest of the T’au cards at this price point.

It’s always felt a bit strange to have a flyer at the low price point of 21, particularly compared to the other flyers that T’au have to choose from. Given his low playrate, it seems that players were having the same feeling. So with a bit of rework, the Razorshark goes up to a cost of 30, still the cheapest of the flyers, but gets a good chunk of additional wounds and a serious increase in range attack to make up for it.

It’s no surprise that when nerfs are being handed out to big mono attack cards that Longstrike gets in the sights. That said, Longstrike has not been touched since he received the secondary trait of Inspiring Presence. While looking at these few top offenders, it’s no surprise that his already massive attack stat, boosted by his Inspiring Presence, makes him incredibly devastating and also in that same category of making it into every deck. As such, taking his range stat down a peg should help here, although again, by no means blunt his massive damage output. -15 is less than 8% of his total ranged attack!

Servants of the Emperor:

Remidia has always struggled to compete with Sanistasia Minst for that cheap medicae slot, and at exactly double the cost, it is obvious why. Taking her point down to 6 makes it a much more compelling choice, and with a buff to melee now a very valid choice for Cannoness decks, since a free attack from Minst always felt like a waste. It’s also a good thematic choice too!

The little twins have always found it hard to get a place in decks other than for the novelty factor. A big bump in range gives them real threat potential for their cost and now is much more at home in builds like ranged Yarrick.

The flying Custodes landed recently in Combat Cards, although admittedly landed flat and without much grace. Certainly not one suitable for a guardian of the Golden Throne. So he gets a meaningful all round buff to make him feel more like the ultimate fighting force of the Custodes.

The final of our targeted nerfs, Celestine, can be a nightmare to remove. With an impressive amount of health and Endless and the general utility of an offensive Inspiring Presence card that sticks around, Celestine was having the same issue as the other targets of nerfs where she had begun to creep into every deck. Again this nerf is not going to stop her from appearing regularly, it should make her a noticeable amount easier to deal with. Endless has been an iconic trait choice for her, so we absolutely want to keep it in place.

Chaos:

Following on from the previous balance change, T’chaz’nar is another easily forgettable part of the Chaos psychic roster, who had been left in a mediocre position for a long time due to the old dominance of Chaos psychic. It seems fair to bump him up like the others in the same category last season, to keep him relevant and comparable to cards in other factions.

Vulgar has always been in an odd spot and definitely felt out of place at his current price point, nestled in between a number of prominent named characters. Cutting his points down, and his wounds with it makes sense and means he is still a large bulky card but doesn’t have to compete with some of the more powerful, and iconic, fan favourites. In addition, Deathblow didn’t do much for him, so switching that to Fear should give him a more tailored role of a versatile lane blocker, and fits better with the overall Nurgle theme.

The Defiler is rarely seen in any deck currently, and with the release of larger and more threatening cards in the Chaos roster it is hard to justify taking him over other cards in the price bracket above. A decent chunk being taken from its cost should help lessen this problem.

Orks:

Similar to the issue with Space Marine ranged infantry, the cheaper ranged infantry for Orks struggles to get a look in. Not helped by the fact that Gutzbag has underwhelming stats. A decent boost to Dakka, and a handful more wounds, should make him a more tempting pick.

Another one of the original cards, and one recently changed to Anti Infantry from Shields. Perhaps unfairly, his stats weren’t given an adjustment given his change in role from a defensive card to a damaging one, so he’s got some help to both attack stats, and a bit more bulk to compensate for losing those shields.

Point for point, Odlog was a bit underwhelming in stats and was realistically being picked due to his position as the only ranged-focused Target Acquired card for Orks. Giving him a significant boost to attacks should make picking him feel like less of a tax to get access to a desirable trait.

Tyranids:

If there’s one trait that Tyranids have access to a lot of, it is Endless, and if there’s one they don’t, it’s Medicae. So this solution speaks for itself. It also has the benefit of allowing Tyranid pursuits to bring a Medicae to a Hive Fleet list without support from the Cults. As to why the Rippers, the cheaper the Medicae card, the more valuable, and from a lore perspective, it’s the Rippers’ job to break down biomass to generate more fuel to churn out more Tyranids. Also supported by the Assimilation Swarm in the tabletop, which hands out a form of regeneration to units, with Rippers being a key part of that. What not to love? Good reasons based on lore, tabletop and in-game demand!

An old stable of Ghosar decks is now somewhat left behind and underwhelming. If there’s one thing you can always do with more of its melee, particularly with the Scout trait to maximise that impactful first turn charge.

Another new card that came out somewhat underwhelming. While it’s great to release some more expensive cards to help with the issue that it’s very hard to make a full Cults deck without having many points to spare, these cards need to be worth taking. So a big all-round buff should give this card more reason to be taken other than it fills a need gap for a more expensive Cults card.

And that’s it for this month’s Balance Change!

As promised, a quick general point about the cards being nerfed. The key issue with most of these cards is the high mono attack cards with an offensive trait, dealing massive damage, either eliminating other big hitters on their first turn or achieving a near-total board wipe when faced with smaller cards. It cuts down the level of strategy and response for other players. That said, the nerfs are minimal compared to their overall stats, but reining them in a bit is not a bad thing. Additionally, when these cards appear in every deck, sometimes even breaking synergy with the rest of the deck, it’s when action needs to be taken. We’ll be monitoring them, of course, and if anything turns out to be too much, we can turn the dial back easily.

Other than that, we’re still aiming for impactful changes to a number of cards this season, and looking more towards reworks, such as upgrades or trait adjustments to shape cards a bit more meaningfully than just a few numbers here and there.

Happy hunting for the next season!