The new season will start on Monday, February 16th.

From the darkness of the night, we sail deep into the Void with this month’s Corsair season. With the start of the Maelstrom event, we’ve got two sets of corsairs on the horizon, but this Season will be primarily focused on the Aeldaru, although that’s not to say we won’t hear from the Red Corsairs at all…

Before we jump into the card changes there’s a general change to Ranked that is rolling out this Season. We’ve heard the feedback that there are too many arenas with modifiers, and that they are too oppressive when combined with Enhancements. 

So, moving forward only the Dark Cells will have a modifier, and it is now set to only a +10% bonus. 

By setting modifiers just to the Dark Cells players should be able to climb to that point without hitting any major walls. But when competing for a leaderboard spot, we have a more competitive space that is noticeably, but not overwhelmingly, more challenging. 

We think this makes the most sense, and in line with what you’ve been asking for, so we’ll be keeping an eye on the effect it has. We’re keen to keep modifiers in place in the Dark Cells, but are not looking to add them back to other arenas any time soon. Where the Dark Cells modifier settles at, and whether there are more interesting things we can do with it going forward we’ll have to see!

And now let’s get into this Season’s Warlord changes:

Warlord Changes:

Position: 73rd | Winrate: 60.7% | Playrate: 0.1%

-5 Cost

Armoured Assault: Friendly Vehicle cards take [75% -> 90%] less damage during your turn.

While the Servants of the Emperor are best placed to put together a full Vehicle deck, the big guns come at a big cost. As such we’re reducing Ackerman’s cost by a decent chunk to allow a bit more flexibility. On top of that the damage reduction is very strong, but potentially circumstantial, so we’re upping the damage reduction to nearly a full 100%. Ackerman is noticeable the lowest this season, and so we’re going on the heavy side for a buff this season.

Position: 72st | Winrate: 71.6% | Playrate: 0.6%

-6 Cost

Lord of the Storm: When one of your friendly cards Readies, a random enemy card loses [-20 -> -30] Wounds.

Imotekh is one of the original Warlords, and while for a long time one of the favourite Necrons, he’s showing his age. While we are not able to give him a full rework, upping the damage to closer to other damage effects Warlords should help make a noticeable difference. On top of that he is very expensive compared to the other Warlords, so a good points decrease should open his deckbuilding much further.

Position: 69th | Winrate: 72.2% | Playrate: 0.3%

Unhinged Vengeance: If a friendly card takes damage from an attack, and survives, it immediately readies at [100% -> 200%] (up to a maximum of 6 times per turn). Additionally the first time this Warlord would be killed it instead heals for 50% of its base Wounds.

Buri has the potential to be overwhelmingly destructive, so we may have over tempered his readying effect. It may be that while on paper (and initial test) the ability to punch out with nearly a full ready bar each turn was possible, in practice, the “if it survives” clause is enough to significantly hold him back. As such we are giving a major buff to the ready, given his low position, and will see how much that can swing the meter.

Position: 1st | Winrate: 86.7% | Playrate: 2.4%

Prophet of Destruction: This Warlord takes [25% -> 15%] less damage for each other friendly card in play. In addition, whenever this Warlord destroys an enemy card, permanently increase the attacks of all friendly cards by 20%.

The Nekrosor has come out swinging, with an impressive play rate and win rate in his debut season. While the quoted winrate above is only for battles in the Dark Cells, he has already broken the top 5 across Terra and above too. His play rate is also very high which is great to see. There is potential justification to do further nerfs, since he will only get more powerful as he is levelled, but given his age we’re changing just one part of his rule, the damage reduction. Given he needs to lead from the front, reducing his survivability should increase the risk factor, as well as by default effect the other part of his rule too. 

Bodyguard Changes:

With the Warlord Changes out the way here are the changes to the bodyguard for the Necrons. We’ve got a good pool of Necron cards getting buffs across the roster, mainly with some notable points decreases to some cards in the 30-40pts range that struggle to find a spot, as well as a buff to several overlords not seeing much play and a minor rework to two of the Destroyers making them much more aggressive.

As well as the regular Aeldari changes for this season, there’s a small correction in place for a card that went out with incorrect stats:

Corrected card:

Finally the following cards have been added to the general pool!

Cards Added to the General Pool: