I'd disagree, though as you say, we'll need to try the cards in context before we can truly judge.

Some reasons though, that I think Aun'shi will be the Warlord of choice here:

1) Armourbane is huge. Even Piranha Hunters become a good card when they can easily gain Armourbane.A Viorla Marksman with an Ion Rifle with armourbane is answerable with Archon's Terror or Indomitable, and thats it . Even the Warlord carries armourbane, making him straight off the best solo combatant there is, with his 2/7 stats. Forced retreat might be problematic, but mostly this weakness is a boon: you don't have to waste your first action fleeing from Ragnar and his Honoured Librarian: you can attack AND flee.

2) The signature squad is a 1 cost superb command capper that can survive a small snipe attack and still retreat after counterattacking. That makes for a nice easy cost curve, straight off.

3) Ethereal Wisdom is a true 0-cost event. A lot of 0 cost events have costs in the text, but not this one. The +1 attack synergises with armourbane, making the deck very hard to answer.

4) Homing Beacon. It barely works at all with Shadowsun decks, but is superb card draw for an Aun'shi deck.

5) Most of the things that make Shadowsun decks great lie outside of the sig squad. We can still use Ion Rifled Marksmen, we can still use Recon Drones, we can still run Trailblazers.

An Aun'shi deck, to me, is likely to be one that uses a lot of cheap Tau units, draws like crazy through non-command effects, still does well in command phase, and is solid and hard to answer in the combat phase. That to me comes together to say tourney-winning warlord.

Offcourse he has it's advantages but the way Iniative works with Warlords on planets I am not a fan at all. In special because I feel Tau are far better equiped for the lategame because of the way the Core Warlord works.

To sum up my reasons I could use the same sum up:

1. Armorbane indeed is great, however being forced to retreat after a single combat round means your not well set up for battles against Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Eldar, basicly any unit that is X/3 becomes a problem if you do not have Ion Rifles. Besides that there is also no "free card advantage" that is generated by this Warlord. I feel Armorbane alone on him would have made him excellent but Armorbane also feels mostly relevant in the lategame where combats consist out of multiple combat rounds where Aun'Shi will not be around. Apart from that the current Tau units also seem to be designed for being equiped with Attachments in order to actually win battles. Again I do not see how Aun'Shi's battles will favour you in winning battles against 3 of the mayor proven fations. I do hope Tau will get more and more "fatties" but currently I cannot see them winning many battles with a multitude of 1/X dudes that also have a Warlord that is forced to retreat.

2. Signature squad that does indeed have a nice single Command Icon but also leave the battlefield early on, leading to battles they will continue to lose. Again, more than the Warlord, I am not a fan of the concept of 1 drops leaving the game early on. This can mean that when they get hunted by an opposing Warlord they will always lose the battle because they leave. Imho they are good but not what this Warlord really needed. Now if they where 3/1's or 2/1's for 1 I could see much more reason and application behind them. It's nice that they stick around but a multitude of 1/X's dude is not what Tau is lacking in it's core set.

3. Ethereal Wisdom is a nice card for sure, it will often mean that Aun'Shi will at least win some battles against Space Marine units or the X/3 units. Ditching a card in order to do that imho is less usefull. Again it's cheap but ideally you want to have a multitude (3) of cheap cards and heavier costed cards to a lesser extent (2).

4. Homing Beacon is a fantastic card for sure, I feel that if the Aun'Shi deck will work this card is a must include however, there are only so many ways to find it and imho without it I feel the Aun'Shi deck is siriously lacking hitting power and stay power.

5. Is the point where I really dissagree with you, imho what makes Shadowsun such a great Warlord has to do with the number of great attachments available (Repulsor Impact Field and Ion Rifle) and the fact that he can also attach his own Stealth Cadre with his ability. Leading to 5 cards from his own 8 being able to trigger on his ability and having 6 others available within his constructed deck able to attach out of hand and discardpile for free. That is slightly more than 1/5th of the deck and with Earth Cast Technician your able to find even more pieces.... All in all I feel the synergy is to great to switch over to an Warlord who "only" grants you Armorbane.

6. Aun'ui Prelate on the other hand imho is a fantastic addition to the Tau army. With 4/3 stats for 4 your willing to retreat after you've dealth your last 4 damage with him, it also helps a whole lot when you want to deal that extra damage in order to make sure your opponent cannot shield his way out of it, which imho is better as Armorbane because Armorbane actually is only relevant if your opponent has enough Shield Cards to work with in the first place.

An Aun'shi deck to be is one who is likely to use cheap Tau units and draw like crazy from non-command effects. However due to the way the deck works in combat will not do incredible well in the command phase and is easy to awnser in the combat phase unless the Tau player finds a Honor Blade, who completly boosts the way the deck needs to be boosted, however due to the way it can draw like crazy is able to find the Honor Blade hopefully fast enough in order to win combats afterwards. In my eyes that's a high risk high reward deck some really like to play but lacks the consistancy for Tournament play.

Good rebuttal, though a lot of this comes down to how we subjectively value the different strengths and weaknesses of course. You're right that forced fleeing creates problems: it does mean that if you command snipe and then whack their Eldar survivalist, you don't get to hang around for the victorious battle action and it technically becomes a draw. However, at least you don't have to face the annoyance of a shield saving the survivalist from being removed.

As another element to support Aun'shi, have you seen the Adeptus Podcastus preview of Kau'yon Strike?

1 cost 2 shield Tau loyal event, with Combat Action: Move 1 or more Ethereal Units you control to Target Planet.

Not only is it a great shielder, its also a superb means to generate an additional battle with full knowledge of unit and warlord deployment. Strike with Aun'shi and he bounces to HQ, then spring him back to a planet downstream for an extra battle. Thats Kau'yon!

I think the consistency will be there, because Armourbane is an effect that creates consistent results, and thats a big enough advantage that the weakness of the forced reaction is less significant. I think that the consistent card draw of Homing Beacon will help offset the ever growing power of DE choke. Being hard to choke out is really important, as one of the worst match ups for Tau is Dark Eldar.

As a meta-observation, I think we'll be seeing more shielding as the cycle progresses, as pretty much every faction is gaining new 2-shield cards. Whereas before we had to say that "1 shield should be assumed, 2 will happen occasionally" we're rapidly moving to a meta where 2 shield must be assumed.

And unlike a mad ork or chaos deck that only aggros, no Tau deck is going to be command deficient.

And with an Aun'shi vs Shadowsun matchup, the "free card advantage" dissipates, based as it is on shielding then recursing.

i definitely agree though that a better alternative to Armourbane is often to deal more damage that can be dealt with: when I make a critical kill, I always try to do 3 over in damage (or 2 over if their 3-shielder is already accounted for). Not many units can attain this reliably, of course: the Chaos Possessed and the Heldrake are just about the only unmodified units that insta-threaten a Warlord with more damage than can be shielded, though Ion Rifle can turn a lot of units into this sort of threat. 4 damage is far from unshieldable, given how many tough units there are in the game, and how often we need to drive off Warlords to win a battle. There's a reason why Iyanden Wraithguard is a 3x autoinclude for Eldar, and that reason is Armourbane!

We'll see what happens, but I think I really like the way this is unfolding, and think by the time we see Aun'shi released there'll already be enough cards to make this really click. In fact, I think there already are.

I do like Shadowsun, for sure, especially the high surprise value when run by a skilled deck pilot, but I think the sheer direct force of all the time Armourbane (and the negation of all the shields in an opponents deck) will be enough to make Aun'shi stronger.

---

Oh, on a small but unrelated fluff note, Shadowsun is a she .

As another element to support Aun'shi, have you seen the Adeptus Podcastus preview of Kau'yon Strike?

1 cost 2 shield Tau loyal event, with Combat Action: Move 1 or more Ethereal Units you control to Target Planet.

Not only is it a great shielder, its also a superb means to generate an additional battle with full knowledge of unit and warlord deployment. Strike with Aun'shi and he bounces to HQ, then spring him back to a planet downstream for an extra battle. Thats Kau'yon!

I think the consistency will be there, because Armourbane is an effect that creates consistent results, and thats a big enough advantage that the weakness of the forced reaction is less significant. I think that the consistent card draw of Homing Beacon will help offset the ever growing power of DE choke. Being hard to choke out is really important, as one of the worst match ups for Tau is Dark Eldar.

As a meta-observation, I think we'll be seeing more shielding as the cycle progresses, as pretty much every faction is gaining new 2-shield cards. Whereas before we had to say that "1 shield should be assumed, 2 will happen occasionally" we're rapidly moving to a meta where 2 shield must be assumed.

And unlike a mad ork or chaos deck that only aggros, no Tau deck is going to be command deficient.

And with an Aun'shi vs Shadowsun matchup, the "free card advantage" dissipates, based as it is on shielding then recursing.

i definitely agree though that a better alternative to Armourbane is often to deal more damage that can be dealt with: when I make a critical kill, I always try to do 3 over in damage (or 2 over if their 3-shielder is already accounted for). Not many units can attain this reliably, of course: the Chaos Possessed and the Heldrake are just about the only unmodified units that insta-threaten a Warlord with more damage than can be shielded, though Ion Rifle can turn a lot of units into this sort of threat. 4 damage is far from unshieldable, given how many tough units there are in the game, and how often we need to drive off Warlords to win a battle. There's a reason why Iyanden Wraithguard is a 3x autoinclude for Eldar, and that reason is Armourbane!

We'll see what happens, but I think I really like the way this is unfolding, and think by the time we see Aun'shi released there'll already be enough cards to make this really click. In fact, I think there already are.

I do like Shadowsun, for sure, especially the high surprise value when run by a skilled deck pilot, but I think the sheer direct force of all the time Armourbane (and the negation of all the shields in an opponents deck) will be enough to make Aun'shi stronger.

First of all I really agree, have to say that regardless of my ideas I do see that Aun'Shi is a very powerfull card when it gets enough attention to make use of his abilities (something so far has not been that much represented in the Core Tau set).

However, just after I posted the above I have seen Bor'ka's Recruits and Kau'yon strike. Cards like these I didn't directly expect for Tau but do make Aun'Shi more and more viable. In special the Recruits who will be hitting for 4 in his presence make sure even most 3 to 5 drops will not stand up after a hit... Quite dangerous indeed when we will be able to move Aun'Shi from planet to planet with Kau'yon Strike. Nontheless I still think that it will be harder to win battles with him as compared to Shadowsun.

As for your expectation on the consistancy, I also fully agree now. Again I didn't expect it directly but seeing the way Tau gets their support this "out of the box" Aun'Shi will be viable for sure. Imho not because of himself but much more because of the drops that will be available for the Tau deck that work incredibly well with him. As soon as we see more 2 drops striking for 3 or 4 damage I can really see Aun'Shi winning battles fast because the key damage number still seems to be 3, or at least this is true against Eldar, SM and CSM.

We will see what happen for sure, so far it seems Tau is getting the sweetest piece of the pie however and I hope FFG will also give Space Marines, AM and CSM the much needed support. Cards like Death Guard Infantry or the Heretek Inventor don't make me all to happy for example...

Space Marines look pretty healthy to me, probably the strongest faction at present, though Dark Eldar are arguably equally good, and Eldar are close, though held back a little in tourney play by the longer nature of their games and the modified win rules. Space Marines have the best surprise combat tricks, some of the best units in the game, and two of the best Warlords, as well as ally-based access to strong command presence. They're very solid already.

And I think previewed cards have certainly indicated that AM will very shortly be competitive. If nothing else, we've got the Tallarn Raiders, who cost 1 and have a command icon. We know nothing else about them, but as long as they have no drawback they'll be playable. Interrogator Acolyte is already here, and an excellent card well worth running three of. Mystic Warden I am not certain of: a 1 turn 2/2 0-cost drop could help a rush game, or provide a cheap army to play for a lynchpin battle (which in turn synergises with the nature of Coteaz decks). I'll likely experiment with three but treat it "as an event" in the same way we currently regard the Elysians or the Eager Recruit.

Chaos, I can't argue, is in serious need of some love. What we need is more access to more Cultists, to support the alternate economy. In contrast to you, I am highly impressed by the Heretek inventor, and am running 3x of them in Chaos now. 1R for 1/3/3 is efficient no matter what planet he ends up at. But Chaos still isn't looking great, and while the Nurgle Warlord looks fun, I remain unconvinced about his competitiveness. The Warlord himself looks fine: his ability is nice in that he's effectively a 2 attack who can split his damage, and it answers stuff like Honoured Librarian. Its his sig squad which looks weak to me: while you can time the nested reactions carefully in order to maximise benefit and minimise pain, its still a unit that will be messing up your warlord train when part of it, and which is just too easy to play around for the opponent. The other cards are nice, but not nice enough to make me think this is a strong signature pack, and certainly not as good as Zarathurs.

Once we see a Chaos Warlord who can generate Cultists, or we see more Chaos cards that create Cultists, chaos will be competitive. Throne of Vainglory is a nice addition, but not enough, not yet.

Good to read, Im also really suprised by the happy sounds for Heretek Inventor as I dismissed him initially because I feel he is to random to actually play any mayor part for my Chaos deck. Mainly because I feel he's good at the 1st and 2nd turn but afterwards only becomes interesting if the board really forces a long game by the line of planets that appear. Nontheless a 3/3 body is great, it's just that it's Forced Interrupt means you'll have nothing of use from that body because in the midgame to lategame it's the most relevant.

Good to read, Im also really suprised by the happy sounds for Heretek Inventor as I dismissed him initially because I feel he is to random to actually play any mayor part for my Chaos deck. Mainly because I feel he's good at the 1st and 2nd turn but afterwards only becomes interesting if the board really forces a long game by the line of planets that appear. Nontheless a 3/3 body is great, it's just that it's Forced Interrupt means you'll have nothing of use from that body because in the midgame to lategame it's the most relevant.

It can be a problem in a five turn game, if on turns 3+ he gets dropped to planets 6 or 7. In any game that is longer, he comes back into play, and anywhere before turn 3 he'll get dropped to a relevant planet. Its true, of course, that 3-4 turn games exist, though they're not normally ones that Chaos loses!

All in all, its quite a narrow window for him to be a dead card, and if the board situation looks like that, then sure, he becomes a weaker play. Even then, he's a 1 cost 1-command that is hard to snipe, and thats never a bad play. Many cards have their optimum time, and no card is good at every stage of the game. Even the mighty Catachan Outpost can be a bad play if its late game and you're resource-shy. The window for Heretek Inventor to be a bad card is sufficiently thin that its not greatly problematic, but in the window where he is a strong card he is a very strong card.

Context is important here too: Chaos is in desperate need of more 1-2 cost drops for avoiding over-early passing in the Deploy phase.

I agree with you that for Chaos in general the card is better as this card would have been for Tau for example. My only real problem with it (and again I have to admit I am a Chaos fanboy) is that it has no real synergy within the faction.

So far, we can say that anything that is also a Cultist also holds value for our Daemons (Flesh Hounds) which unfortunatly isn't the case for the Heretek Inventor.

My best guess is that I should give him and Chaos more tries. The problem I currently have with the deck is that it is very chaotic. For sure it's often able to win the initial battles, but the initial battles are often not half as important as winning the initial command struggels.

Luckily I see more and more Ragnar and I do feel that Chaos is well equiped for his favourite game, which in turn make Chaos a bit better in the current meta. Versus Cato on the other hand even the Big Ones are not truly save because of Fury and the Chosen being really able to mess up ideal set up battle plans for the planets you are trying to conquer.

I am looking very forward to seeing Chaos deck do well with the Heretek Inventor, for sure the low drops are what we are in need of, I just really like to be able to put that card where I want to and not at a planet where I will lose the command struggle or only gain 1 resource or 1 card out of it while losing all other Command struggles...

You guys completely went off-topic,lol. So,as the OP asked,my god card is probably Warpstorm. God I love that card so much...

For me it's Pre-emptive Barrage. Saved my bacon countless times with a timely appearance - really helps clear the field.

Plus Fenrisian Wolf now is just absolutely hilarious - love using it. Had it paired with an Assault Valkyrie the other night. The best I could come up with was:

"The Valkyrie is carrying the wolf in a net and then it drops it on the enemy"

Put the Dozer Blade on the Valkyrie!

No for me it remains the Bloodletters , lost to them yesterday again in the hands of a friend of mine. The card lacks Command Icons but that's truly the only thing it "lacks". AoE 3 remains something most lategames can't handle.

What area effect 3? Are they crazy!? Oh wait, chaos has it. Thats good, I like it now!

Once we see a Chaos Warlord who can generate Cultists, or we see more Chaos cards that create Cultists, chaos will be competitive. Throne of Vainglory is a nice addition, but not enough, not yet.

There is something nagging at me and I would like to air it out.

Do certain decks have to have access to generating Cultists/minion cards (sorry, I honestly cant remember what the smaller, Army cards are called right now) in order to have an advantage/edge in this game?

Snotling Attack and Promise of Glory currently are the only non-Warlord cards that generate tokens. Altough this will change with Zogwort.

As for the Throne, I still deem it to costly for its effect. If it would generate always or a 3 cost heavy deck is possible it would change the opinion. Much like I like it, Chaos currently does not have synergy for it (Gift of Isha for Chaos or backwards Virtulent Plague Squad would treally help out).

As mentioned, token genetators help a lot, but cost 0,1 or 2 would still be more present for a good game/deck.

Guard's token generation comes through Stracken's Command Squad, or Omega Zero Command. It's annoying that that's a signature card and there's only one of them. You get it out early you can have a really good game, but you can just as easily never see it in a draw.

Usually you just get a token to replace the Command Squad when it leaves play, so you'll typically see 2-3 Guard tokens in a game, which is a shame.

New Guard Warlord will be the same though - a single signature support card that generates tokens, and there's only going to be one of it (I think?). And no Stracken CS-equivalent ability so your token generation will plummet. I've retired my Enginseer Auger from my AM deck buy I may have to re-activate him at this rate...

Very good point DigitalE! I was totally forgetting about Straken and his units, for indeed they allow you to "create" Tokens, but in a more restricting way.

As for Coteaz, I do think they did make him like that in order not to create a massive ammount of bodies available to him. I still dont know if the Augur will be in his deck, altough with the comming of Inquisitorial Fortress there are absolutely more reasons to include him (altough the lack of Command Icons remains painfull).

Coteaz has a totally different set up as Straken (I feel) however, which is awesome.

+++ Altough this is going off-topic again +++

As for other God-cards, I do think some Warlords to have some true 'God-cards' ammong their signature cards. Often these are their Support or Attachment card.

In special Ku'gath with an easy Plaguefathers' Banner seems to be unbeatable.

(profiding the Ku'gath player is not running behind heavily on cards, units and resources).

Off Topic Party! Yay!

I've played against the Nurgle Warlord a couple times. He really is tricksy... it got to a point where I had the "Remove all Damage" Battle Trigger, couldn't do it on myself, so I decided to heal Ku'gath instead!

Basically, if you can't one-shot, or at least focus fire before he runs/attacks you back, there's no point attacking Ku'Gath, so you just have to suffer his one damage and move on.

I can't wait to take Coteaz out for a spin though - His ability reaches Obelisk the Tormentor levels of interesting.

you also have Kith's khymeramasters ! (what a name!)

Nobody remembers the khymeramasters!

But like Stracken he is a signature card- so linked to a warlord.

Off Topic Party! Yay!

I've played against the Nurgle Warlord a couple times. He really is tricksy... it got to a point where I had the "Remove all Damage" Battle Trigger, couldn't do it on myself, so I decided to heal Ku'gath instead!

Basically, if you can't one-shot, or at least focus fire before he runs/attacks you back, there's no point attacking Ku'Gath, so you just have to suffer his one damage and move on.

I can't wait to take Coteaz out for a spin though - His ability reaches Obelisk the Tormentor levels of interesting.

Healing Ku'gath always is an option . Altough I can hardly say it will always pan out to your favour. Nontheless, the idea is good if you know your opponent is sitting on Fetid Haze and otherwise could have win the following battle without even bothering to trye (Darn you Fetid Haze!).

Coteaz is indeed something else, altough currently I still look at the AM pool and think, **** it isn't all that good at all. Altough there are at least awesome options to Ranged stuff to death without the use of the Preemptive Barrage. I can only hope for more who are willing to be sacrifical targets. It's a shame Tau can't ally with AM (it would have been totally awesome with the Kroot).

I dunno - the Tau and AM have very focused synergies - buffing up Infantry Conscripts/Fire Warrior Elite (or whatever it is) to redoink power levels for one shots. Back up for AM is to pre-empt barrage for a timely field wipe, while the Tau has great crowd control through Gun-drones and can cock-block abilities. I like them, I think they work, but they just lack the more generalised theme/synergy of other decks, so I feel AM can get misunderstood at times.

My Tau/Eldar combo just wasn't working, so I've had to go back to Tau/Marines and add a splash of Ork to my AM deck. Now I feel dirty, but I tell myself it's for the Greater Good.

Tau/ Eldar seems all very cool, but in the end we all go back to lots of Area Effect damage.