The new season will start on Monday, April 13th.

From the dazzling firepower brought by T’au technology we descend to the grim trenches of the Iron Warriors. Both bring impressive firepower to the field, but the Iron Warriors do so by slowly and inevitably grinding their opponents into the dirt.

Along with the usual changes we have our second installment of the community vote, and while last Season brought a nerf, this season brings an on theme buff!

This time we’re looking at a buff for Huron Blackheart earning 18.5% of the total votes (377 votes), and letting Magnus escape a second Prospero by the slimmest of margins at 18.0% (367 votes). This time round was much closer and with more votes than last time, so good to see some strong engagement, and opinions, being expressed!

As well as the community vote with the rollout of Enhancements to all bodyguards, traits are also being carefully monitored, particularly the damage traits and the three fixed value traits. So watch this space!

With that covered lets get stuck into the changes this Season!

Warlord Changes:

[Community Pick]

Cost Change: -4 Cost (40 -> 36)
Stat Change: +5 Ranged, +5 Psychic, +5 Melee

Spoils of War: When a friendly card destroys an enemy card, it gains [40% -> 50%] of that card’s attack stats, even if the friendly card did not have those attack types previously.

Good to see Huron getting a buff, and one rightfully called for by the community with this month’s vote. Huron has always had the potential to be great, and on paper has a terrifying ability. However, it relies on having big cards to get lots of kills, and importantly, stay alive, as well as being able to bring enough support cards to make that work.

As such we’re bringing Huron’s cost down by a good chunk, that should allow one more small support card, or an upgrade to a headliner, as well as increasing his own survivability by taking him out of BGH range. On top of that Huron gets a decent all round buff to his attack stats, since he’s much less likely to be wracking up as many kills to make the most of his own rule.

Also upped is the rule bonus, meaning that even if your key cards don’t last the full battle, the damage increases carry a bit more punch, and getting those stats to screenshot worthy levels is a bit easier! Also worth taking into consideration is that now with the full rollout of enhancements there are a lot more juicer stats around, so Huron’s stealing effect should be the strongest its ever been!

Position: 74th | Winrate: 70.3% | Playrate: 0.3% (68th)

Master of Kauyon: At the end of your turn, friendly cards gain a permanent [+15% -> +25%] to their base Ranged attack if they did not change lane in either player’s turn. Additionally, friendly cards attack for [25% -> 40%] of their current Ranged attack whenever an enemy card is deployed opposite them.

Also on the community list, but not making the vote, was Supreme Commander Shadowsun. She’s dipped even further in the last season so we’ve made the decision to go ahead and make the buff ourselves here.

With increases to both abilities, and by a decent amount, this should have a real and meaningful impact. For a Supreme Commander she really shouldn’t be at the bottom of the faction pile for T’au Warlords, and while there was initial concern about her potential ceiling it’s clear we need to take the restraints off on her. Much like with Huron, she’ll also be a Warlord that benefits from the bigger stats that Enhancements bring, so it will be interesting to see how she does now with those added to her increased rules.

Position: 71st | Winrate: 75.4% | Playrate: 0.7% (45th)

Trait Change: Inspiring Presence -> Furious Charge
Ready Change: Melee Debuff -> Melee Buff

The Masque has been one that has always been floating around the bottom end of the pile while never being outright bad. We’ve increased the rules plenty of times, so we’re looking more explicitly at what they bring themselves as a card package. 

While the Inspiring Presence has its place, the Masque needs a more actively aggressive strategy, and ultimately doesn’t stick around long enough to close out games with other cards when on the field. So moving to Furious Charge suits her much better and means they potentially get a double attack before first taking damage, which just goes to show the best defence is truly often a good offence.

Added to that we’re also changing their ready type from a debuff to a buff. It’s something that obviously benefits the aggressive playstyle and means in a tight spot they are more likely to have a good ready to help swing in to close that final turn. More widely we are looking at ready types for all Warlords, and would appreciate any feedback on whether you feel that ready debuffs provide any bonus to Warlords in general or whether it’s worth a more general change we should look to make in future.

Position: 68th | Winrate: 77.5% | Playrate: 0.6% (48th)

Trait Change: Inspiring Presence -> Psionic Blast

Finally another more nuanced buff for a Warlord. Eldrad is also in that spot of ok, but not great, but with a strong rule that’s hard to increase further. So we’ve made the move to a trait change that should make an immediate impact.

There are some good options for Inspiring Presence psykers already, so Eldrad doesn’t need to fill that gap as urgently, but there are very few Psionic Blasters for a strong psychic faction. Add to that his impressive psychic output, his Psi Blast should be terrifying. Add to that the bonus of immediately triggering his own rule each turn, means all his bodyguards will always be attacking at a boosted rate. It seems like the obvious choice.

Now with the Warlords covered let’s move onto this Season’s Chaos bodyguard changes!

Bodyguard Changes:

Last but not least, the following cards are being added to the general pool!

Cards Added to the General Pool: