The new season will start on Monday, July 6th.

From the red of Mars we turn to the red of Baal! On wings of vengeance the angelic host descends with Dante at their lead. And not a moment too soon as the Blood Angels are a pivotal force in the unfolding battle for Armageddon. 

With the arrival of the Chapter Master and Regent of Imperium Nihilus the Blood Angels are getting themselves into battle readiness with a large chunk of the balance changes to Bodyguards focusing on them.

That said there are the usual Warlord changes as well that have no particular focus on faction, and we’ve got a wide range of old and new this time round.

Warlord Changes:

Host of Plagues: At the end of your turn, each enemy card loses 20 -> 30 Wounds. This is increased to 40 -> 70 Wounds when Mortarion is on the field. Additionally if an enemy card is destroyed by this effect, all friendly cards heal for 20 -> 21% of the destroyed card’s base Wounds.

Of the daemon primarchs we are aware that Mortarion hasn’t been as exciting or menacing as many would have wanted. While we’re not in a position to do a full rework, or change from flat values to percentages, we can certainly change the values, and Nurgle as always is generous with his gifts. Nurgle’s sacred numbers are 3 and 7, so the answer has been staring us in the face, the passive damage is now up to 30 and 70, and (while not a meaningful boost) taking the heal amount from 20 -> 21 means we’ve represented all of Nurgles numbers.

While the damage is now substantially higher, with the ceiling being 70 x 3 or 210 (more Nurgle numbers!) it is still limited by being only on Mortarion’s turn, not both. There is a cycle to Nurgle after all. With the upped damage amounts the healing should trigger much more often as well.

Obviously the change needs to be monitored given the big jump in value, but the thematics alone means it’s worth doing and should increase the fun and immersion whichever way it turns out.

Swooping Assault: At the end of each players’ turn, one random enemy card loses 25 -> 40 Wounds.

With Mortarion having a fixed end of turn damage effect and getting a substantial buff it makes sense to look at the Hive Tyrant too who is also lurking at the lower edges of the rankings. While not a Supreme commander and not expected to have as much power in the rule, going up to 40 and triggering on both players turns puts them close, even when only targeting one enemy card, especially given you’re not encouraged to bring the Flyrant out early. Hopefully his shadow passing overhead causes a little more fear than it does currently.

Trait Change: [Secondary Trait] Outflank -> Shield
Stat Change: -60 Wounds

Guilliman has always been a safe if not particularly dominating option, and one that really benefits from high levels, as all Warlords do of such a high cost. While we aren’t able to capture the power of the iconic Armour of Fate that keeps him alive by giving him Endless, we have up until this point opted for a very large Wounds total. In reality it still needs levels to grow, and can still be targeted down by big enough fire. By reducing his wounds but now giving him shields he should be much harder to remove for the field early, and be playable much earlier on in a players collection. As a result his Wounds have to come down, but it should make a significant increase in his field presence overall.

With that lets now have a look at this Season’s Bodyguard changes for the Space Marines. A small note as with some of the changes to Servants last Season, we’re looking to change the secondary trait of Inspiring presence on any Epic cards. Have a Level 2 IP doesn’t do a lot, and that trait slot could be used for something more interesting, it’s not like either faction are lacking for Inspiring options:

Bodyguard Changes:

Finally due to Community request a small change to the Shadowseer ready type, since its only effect is to make it more meaningful in a Prince Yriel deck, which makes sense to do:

And last but not least with the start of this Season the following cards are being added to the general pool:

Cards Added to the General Pool: