This expansion is AMAZING. Deck building options have expanded exponentially now.

Those wondering, yes. Innovation is in this. It is a reprint, however, it has the Assault of Ulthuan expansion symbol instead of the core set symbol.

There are 57 new cards and 1 reprint. Copies are 1x, 2x, 3x, and yes, there are 4 copies of Treasure Vaults.

Based on the single copies, it may prove worthwhile to buy two or three copies of this expansion. However, it is completely unnecessary with the expanding card pool. Competitive decks may not even need 3 copies of the expansion.

Looks like each deck is playable right out of the box! Not optimized decks, but definitely still playable.

What's Missing?

• Multiplayer Rules
• Rulebook of any sort (for new players who only wanted Elf decks)
• No FAQ/errata insert
• No card sized Capital Boards

These are not included...but irregardless, it is still a great expansion. Perhaps FFG will take a hint if we keep pestering them (for card sized capitals and multiplayer variants).

Contents

Assault on Ulthuan Expansion comes with the following:

• 1 Mixed faction High Elf deck
• 1 Mixed faction Dark Elf deck
• 1 package of High Elf and Dark Elf Capital Boards
• 1 Double Sided Card List Insert (One side for Order, one for Destruction)
• 1 Fantasy Flight Games Mini Catalog Insert
• 1 Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning 10 day free trial

Card List

High Elf/Order Deck

• Envoy from Averlorn (x3)
• Shadow Warrior (x3)
• Sword Masters of Hoeth (x3)
• High Elf Spearmen (x3)
• Caradryan (x1)
• Initiate of Saphery (x3)
• Loremaster of Hoeth (x3)
• Illyriel (x1)
• Dragon Prince (x2)
• Wake the Dragons (x1)
• Defend Tor Aendris (x1)
• Dragon Mage Wakening (x2)
• The Glittering Tower (x2)
• Shrine of Asuryan (x1)
• Temple of Vaul (x1)
• Tear of Isha (x2)
• Flames of the Pheonix (x2)
• For Ulthuan! (x1)
• Asuryan's Cleansing (x1)
• Gift of Life (x2)
• High Elf's Disdain (x2)
• Slayers of Karak Kadrin (x2)
• Mountain Barracks (x1)
• Lure Them Out (x2)
• Gold Wizard Acolyte (x2)
• Battle Standard (x1)
• Surrender! (x2)
• Treasure Vaults (x2)
• Ancient Map (x1)
• Innovation (x1)
• Board Attack (x1)

Dark Elf/Destruction Deck

• Dark Initiate (x3)
• Walking Sacrifice (x3)
• Harpies (x3)
• Shades (x3)
• Cold One Knight (x3)
• Mortella (x1)
• Dark Sorceress (x2)
• Corsairs of Ghrond (x3)
• Lokhir Fellheart (x1)
• Night Raids (x1)
• Sack Tor Aendris (x1)
• Mind Killer (x2)
• Word of Pain (x2)
• Har Ganeth (x2)
• Altar of Khaine (x1)
• Lash the Prisoner! (x2)
• Dark Visions (x1)
• Chillwind (x2)
• Bathe in Blood (x1)
• Take Captive! (x1)
• Invoke Khaine's Wrath (x2)
• Wyvern Rider (x2)
• Scrap Heap (x1)
• Foot of Gork (x2)
• Maledictor of Tzeentch (x2)
• Blood Frenzy (x1)
• Tzeentch's Firestorm (x2)
• Treasure Vaults (x2)
• Ancient Map (x1)
• Innovation (x1)
• Boar Attack (x1)

Full Spoiler

Format is listed below.

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Card# Card Name (Card Type) Cost-LoyaltyCost

Power/HP Bold Text

Card Text

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Example: (Dwarf Unit) 2-DD means 2 resource, 2 Dwarf Loyalty. Whereas (Dark Elf Unit) 2-DD means 2 resource, 2 Dark Elf Loyalty.

Support cards with a 0/0 means they provide no power. 2/0 means they provide 2 Power.

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#1 Envoy from Averlorn (High Elf Unit) 1-H

1/1. Messenger.

Quest zone only.

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#2 Shadow Warrior (High Elf Unit) 2-H

1/1. Ranger.

Forced: At the beginning of your turn, each opponent must assign 1 damage to any unit in his battlefield.

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#3 Sword Masters of Hoeth (High Elf Unit) 4-HH

2/3, Warrior. Elite.

Battlefield. Cancel all combat damage assigned to this unit.

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#4 High Elf Spearman (High Elf Unit) 3-H

2/1. Warrior.

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#5 Caradryan (Unique High Elf Unit) 4-HH

2/3. Hero.

Limit 1 Hero per zone.

Quest. Forced: At the beginning of your turn, look at the top 3 cards of any player's deck. You may discard up to 1 of these cards. Return the rest to the top of the deck in any order.

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#6 Initiate of Saphery (High Elf Unit) 3-H

1/3. Initiate. Mage.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, heal 1 damage from each unit you control.

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#7 Loremaster of Hoeth (High Elf Unit) 2-H

1/2. Mage.

Forced: After this unit enters play, each player takes 2 indirect damage. (Players assign their own indirect damage.)

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#8 Illyriel (Unique High Elf Unit) 4-HHH

2/4. Hero. Warrior.

Limit 1 Hero per zone.

Battlefield. Action: At the beginning of your turn, return one target unit to its owner's hand unless its owner pays you two resources.

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#9 Dragon Prince (High Elf Unit) 4-HH

1/4. Warrior.

Forced: After Dragon Prince enters play from your hand, each player chooses up to 2 units in his battlefield. All other units in that zone are sacrificed.

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#10 Wake the Dragons (High Elf Quest) 2-H

Quest. While this card has 3 or more resources on it, you may return a High Elf card with cost 3 or higher from your discard pile to your hand at the beginning of your turn.

Quest. Forced: Place 1 resource token on this card at the beginning of your turn if there is a unit questing here.

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#11 Defend Tor Aendris (High Elf Quest) 2-H

Quest. Any unit questing here may defend any zone.

Quest. You may spend resources on this quest to pay for cards and effects.

Quest. Forced: At the end of any turn in which the questing unit defended, place 2 resource tokens on this card.

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#12 Dragon Mage Awakening (High Elf Support) 0-H

0/0. Attachment.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit gets +3 hit points.

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#13 The Glittering Tower (Unique High Elf Support) 2-H

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: Whenever you heal a unit, deal 1 damage to one target enemy unit or one target section of an opponent's capital.

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#14 Shrine of Asuryan (High Elf Support) 2-H

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, you may restore one target corrupted unit.

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#15 Temple of Vaul (High Elf Support) 3-H

3/0. Building.

Forced: At the beginning of your turn, deal 2 damage to your capital (you choose which section(s)).

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#16 Tear of Isha (High Elf Tactic) 1-H

Spell.

Action: Heal all damage on one target unit.

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#17 Flames of the Pheonix (High Elf Tactic) 4-HHH

Spell.

Play during your turn.

Action: Return all units in play to their owner's hands.

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#18 For Ulthuan! (High Elf Tactic) 1-H

Play at the beginning of your battlefield phase.

Action: Your attacking units may attack two enemy zones this turn. (Declare which units are attacking which zone when you declare attackers.)

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#19 Asuryan's Cleansing (High Elf Tactic) 0-HH

Spell.

Action: Cancel and discard target unit or support card being played unless its controller spends all resources in his pool. (If no resources remain, opponent can spend 0 resources to spend "all.")

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#20 Gift of Life (High Elf Tactic) 1-HH

Spell.

Action: Return target High Elf unit from your discard pile to your hand.

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#21 High Elf's Disdain (High Elf Tactic) 2-HH

Spell.

Action: Cancel a tactic just played.

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#22 Dark Initiate (Dark Elf Unit) 1-D

1/1. Priest.

This unit does not count its power unless you have at least 2 developments in this zone.

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#23 Walking Sacrifice (Dark Elf Unit) 0-D

0/1. Martyr.

Forced: When this unit leaves play, draw a card.

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#24 Harpies (Dark Elf Unit) 2-DD

1/2. Creature.

Quest. Action: When an opponent draws cards for his quest phase, corrupt this unit to discard 1 card at random from that player's hand if he has 7 or more cards in hand.

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#25 Shades (Dark Elf Unit) 2-D

1/1. Warrior.

Scout (discard one card at random from an opponent's hand if this unit survives combat).

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#26 Cold One Knight (Dark Elf Unit) 3-D

1/3. Warrior.

Toughness 1 (Whenever this unit is assigned damage, cancel 1 of that damage).

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#27 Mortella (Unique Dark Elf Unit) 3-DDD

1/3. Hero. Sorcerer.

Limit one Hero per zone.

Quest. Action: Corrupt this unit to play a tactic out of an opponent's discard pile, ignoring loyalty costs, as if it were in your hand. Return that card to the bottom of its owner's deck. (Play restrictions must still be observed.)

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#28 Dark Sorceress (Dark Elf Unit) 4-DD

2/2. Sorcerer.

Reduce the cost to play this unit by 1 for each corrupted unit controlled by your opponents.

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#29 Corsairs of Ghrond (Dark Elf Unit) 3-D

1/3. Warrior.

Battlefield. Forced: When this unit leaves play, one target unit gets -2 hit points until the end of the turn.

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#30 Lokhir Fellheart (Unique Dark Elf Unit) 5-DDDDD

3/4. Hero. Warrior.

Limit one Hero per zone.

Battlefield. Action: At the beginning of your turn, one target unit in any battlefield gets -1 hit points until the end of turn for each development in this zone.

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#31 Night Raids (Dark Elf Quest) 2-DD

Quest. While this quest has 3 or more resources tokens on it, each of your units gains one power.

Quest. Forced: Place 1 resource token on this card at the beginning of your turn if there is a unit questing here.

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#32 Sack Tor Aendris (Dark Elf Quest) 2-D

Quest. Any unit questing here may attack as though it were in your battlefield.

Quest. You may spend resources on this quest to pay for cards and effects.

Quest. Forced: At the end of any turn in which the questing unit participated in an attack, place a resource token on this card.

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#33 Mind Killer (Dark Elf Support) 0-DD

Attachment. Hex.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit loses one power.

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#34 Word of Pain (Dark Elf Support) 2-D

Attachment. Hex.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit cannot attack.

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#35 Har Ganeth (Unique Dark Elf Support) 2-D

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, return one target unit with less than 2 hit points to its owner's hand.

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#36 Altar of Khaine (Dark Elf Support) 4-DD

2/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: If one of your units would be destroyed, you may pay 1 resource to instead return it to your hand.

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#37 Lash the Prisoner! (Dark Elf Tactic) 0-DDD

Action: Sacrifice a unit. If you do, gain 2 resources.

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#38 Dark Visions (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-DD

Spell.

Play during your turn.

Action: Search the top 5 cards of your deck for a card and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

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#39 Chillwind (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-D

Spell.

Action: Corrupt one target unit. Then, you may restore one corrupted unit.

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#40 Bathe in Blood (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-D

Action: Choose one target Dark Elf unit. Double that unit's power until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, sacrifice it.

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#41 Take Captive! (Dark Elf Tactic) 3-DDD

Action: Take control of target attacking unit until the end of the turn. Move it to the attacked zone, declared as a defender.

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#42 Invoke Khaine's Wrath (Dark Elf Tactic) 3-DD

Spell.

Play at the end of any battlefield phase.

Action: Destroy all units that participated in combat this phase.

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#43 Slayers of Karak Kadrin (Dwarf Unit) 2-DD

1/2. Warrior.

Battlefield. Action: Sacrifice this unit to destroy one target attacking unit.

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#44 Mountain Barracks (Dwarf Support) 2-D

1/0. Building.

Your Dwarf units in this zone gain Toughness 1 (whenever this unit is assigned damage, cancel 1 of that damage.)

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#45 Lure Them Out (Dwarf Tactic) 1-DD

Action: Choose two target units, each in a different battlefield. Each target uni counts its power and deals that amount of damage to the other.

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#46 Gold Wizard Acolyte (Empire Unit) 2-EE

1/2. Mage.

Battlefield. Action: When you declare this unit as an attacker, one target unit cannot defend against this attack.

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#47 Battle Standard (Empire Support) 0-E

Attachment.

Attach to a unit you control.

Action: At the beginning of your battlefield phase, you may move this unit to a different zone.

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#48 Surrender! (Empire Tactic) 1-EE

Action: Return target defending unit to its owner's hand.

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#49 Wyvern Rider (Orc Unit) 3-O

1/3. Calvary.

Battlefield. This unit gains one power if you have no developments in this zone.

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#50 Scrap Heap (Orc Support) 1-OO

0/0. Siege.

Orc units in this zone get +1 hit points.

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#51 Foot of Gork (Orc Tactic) 2-OOO

Play during your turn.

Action: Destroy one target unit with printed cost 2 or lower.

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#52 Maledictor of Tzeentch (Chaos Unit) 4-CC

2/3. Mage.

Forced: At the beginning of your turn, this unit and one other target unit each take 1 damage.

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#53 Blood Frenzy (Chaos Support) 1-CCC

Attachment.

Attach to a target unit in your battlefield.

Attached unit gains one power for each resource token on this card.

Forced: Each time an opponent's unit enters a discard pile from play, put a resource token on this attachment.

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#54 Tzeentch's Firestorm (Chaos Tactic) 4-CC

Spell.

Action: Deal 2 damage to 2 different target units.

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#55 Treasure Vaults (Neutral Support) 3

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. While you have 3 or more developments in this zone, each Building support card in this zone gains a power.

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#56 Ancient Map (Neutral Tactic) 1

Action: Search your deck for a quest card, reveal it to each player, and add it to your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

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#57 Innovation (Neutral Tactic) 0

Action: Gain 1 resource for each development in your kingdom.

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#58 Boar Attack (Neutral Tactic) 3

Action: Choose an opponent. That opponent must either deal 3 damage to an undeveloped section of his capital, or sacrifice a unit or support card in any developed zone.

High Elf might just be the counter to Orc Rush... (obligatory post to edit first post)

Thanks for your work. I'm simultaneously translating it into spanish at the Edge forums.

All done! Phew I'm tired. I will comment about this expansion when more people get a chance to look at it.

Good luck Tobogan with the translation! Just transcribing it was alot of work! I can't imagine translating to be any more fun.

Great Work. I actually stayed up the last few minutes hitting refresh just to see the new shiny. Have to say that a quick glance I feel:

1. High Elf is going to be strong.

2. Dark Elf, not quite as strong as I assumed.

3. Dwarf and Empire got some good cards.

4. orc rush just got that much sillier.

5. Chaos still seems to lack focus. At least Hellfire cannon has some value now.

FiendishDevil said:

Not fun at all, but at least i hope lots of praise as reward xD.

THANKS FiendishDevil!

Gracias por traducir Tobogan

RexGator said:

I second that, but I'll add that Chaos & Dark Elf are starting to feel like like they're from the same race, not two separate ones to me. But Very excited about what i see on both Elf sides...aaaalright i guess ill buy 2 of these too...

Great thx. So i didnt have to translate my german one ;D

Yeah i feel like highelves will be much fun to play!

Theres this tears of isha card for 1c which does exactly the same as greater healing for 3c. Strange.

The greatest thing is, you can finally play the highcost cards from the bb now. Gifts of aenarion and bolt thrower should work nice in lategame. Same for all these healing cards, combined with the tower, silverhelm brigade and the self dmg dealing hoeth guy.

Anyone can explane swordmasters to me? Seems you cant kill them in normal combat!?

Kako K. said:

Tears heals one Unit, Greater Healing all your Units (IIRC).

Kako K. said:

Yep, barring BT out there.

Great work really excited about this!!!!

The high elfs shoild crush the rush decks if played well.

Thanks!!!

While lurkin' around on a site, a friend of mine noticed that a reviewer wrote "no sized capital board cards"...I hope it's an error...If FFG forgot to put them in I can catch a plane, go there and shoot'em all.

No, he said no card sized. The card board large size boards for elf capitals are there still. At least from what I read.

FiendishDevil said:

I am now playing High Elves O_o And there's plenty of stuff in this set to make Rush cry Can't wait to get a hold of my boxes >D

Ah, ok, sorry.

thanks to the dark elves i now get a way t use snicks ability more than once a turn! I have to say tho i love the high elf stuff alot of nice play in there, i think the dark elves have come along nicely there, alot of stuff that combos up nicely...

To clarify, the normal oversized cardboard elf boards are included in the set, but the fan suggestion to include playing card sized capital boards was not included.

Artemus Maximus said:

Actually I had the same thought. Chaos and Dark Elves seem to be a little too similar. I suspect that may be the reason that we are seeing the swing towards Chaos direct damage.

Review Part 1: High Elves

The first thing that struck me about this set was that it is impossible to analyse the cards without reference and knowledge of the High Elf cards already in print. Singularly the cards can be analysed, but they need to be examined as a subset or extension of the themes already in the cardpool.

Theres only 15 cards in print before this set for High Elves, but they're useful to consider before examining the new set, and I'll probably be referencing a number of them in this review.

http://deckbox.org/games/whi/cards?f=333

On with the meat of the posting.

#1 Envoy from Averlorn (High Elf Unit) 1-H

1/1. Messenger.

Quest zone only.

Basic Quest Zone Unit, a nice early onto the quest zone. Given the importance of quests in the next set, and the strength of card #11 Defend Tor Aendris this card is probably undervalued on first glance. A first turn of Defend Tor Aendris, Envoy from Averlorn and having something like card #12 Dragon Mage Awakening in your hands can make for a very effective early blocker. A 1/4 any-zone blocker from 3 resources in your opening hand is pretty good.

#2 Shadow Warrior (High Elf Unit) 2-H

1/1. Ranger.

Forced: At the beginning of your turn, each opponent must assign 1 damage to any unit in his battlefield.

Rather less powerful than the card translated by our fellow German players (No criticsim, translation is a hard business ), but still a useful early card who's damage will eventually start to tell. This is a grind card. A first it might just annoy the opponent, but later on the opponent will find high hard as nails units near death. Toughness kills this, which is unfortunate as Big Un's will be three in a an Orc deck though I think this will be very effective against Empire, Chaos and Dark Elf decks.

#3 Sword Masters of Hoeth (High Elf Unit) 4-HH

2/3, Warrior. Elite.

Battlefield. Cancel all combat damage assigned to this unit.

The perfect defense. Annoyed by Corruption, but an amazing Battlefield blocker who actually has some decent power on him for attack too. Dragonmage is superior as it can be played into any zone (and importantly onto the quest Defend Tor Aendris) but this, for it's cost, is amazing value.

#4 High Elf Spearman (High Elf Unit) 3-H

2/1. Warrior.

The basic High Elf Warrior, Decent cost, good power, low survivability. Given Silver Helm Brigade and Silver Helm Detachment both have the same costs, actual abilities, and better survivability I struggle to see why you'd play these as the seem to fail the comparison test.

#5 Caradryan (Unique High Elf Unit) 4-HH

2/3. Hero.

Limit 1 Hero per zone.

Quest. Forced: At the beginning of your turn, look at the top 3 cards of any player's deck. You may discard up to 1 of these cards. Return the rest to the top of the deck in any order.

A quest zone only, but a very good card all round which can help filter your opponents choices. Might go well with a mill strategy once more mill cards enter the card pool.

#6 Initiate of Saphery (High Elf Unit) 3-H

1/3. Initiate. Mage.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, heal 1 damage from each unit you control.

Weird, the Initiate makes the Archmage of Saphery look a little weak? do they have like some reverse blackbelt system or something whereby only where you start at Archmage and only when you've reached Initiate status do you know how much you don't know.. Yoda Stylee? Oh well. A solid and useful counter to a number of Chaos cards who do mass damage it's also a decent cost/value into the kingdom. 3 resources for 1 power + an ability ain't bad.

#7 Loremaster of Hoeth (High Elf Unit) 2-H

1/2. Mage.

Forced: After this unit enters play, each player takes 2 indirect damage. (Players assign their own indirect damage.)

Synergizes well with card #2 Shadow Warrior and cards like the #6 Initiate of Saphery to build a decent grind on the opponents units. With this, Shadow Warrior and then eventually Repeater Bolt Thrower, there is a indirect damage theme which runs through the cardpool which should provide an interesting counter to low value, low health rush decks. Toughness is the huge anti to indirect damage though.

#8 Illyriel (Unique High Elf Unit) 4-HHH

2/4. Hero. Warrior.

Limit 1 Hero per zone.

Battlefield. Action: At the beginning of your turn, return one target unit to its owner's hand unless its owner pays you two resources.

Odd wording... "pays you" rather than just Pays. Will have to see final card for wording to confirm, but potentially very strong indeed if the wording is as is. It has two effects. If is basically -2 resources to your opponent as he must now finish his turn with 2 resources to pay for this hero. It also stomps on opponents who don't realise this, or don't read the card carefully. Against careful players its a slight annoyance and resource drain. Against reckless or poor players this is a game winner. Rank it's usefulness according to the IQ of your local playgroup...

#9 Dragon Prince (High Elf Unit) 4-HH

1/4. Warrior.

Forced: After Dragon Prince enters play from your hand, each player chooses up to 2 units in his battlefield. All other units in that zone are sacrificed.

Mass Rush Killer! Combined with the indirect damage theme high elves have this is a very strong card. For Magic players this is Balance, abet, balance limited to a zone and units only. It'll almost certainly count itself in the Forced, but theres nothing to stop you dropping this into the Kingdom or Quest zone. A good strong counter to Waaagh decks (along with High Elves counterspell cards)

#10 Wake the Dragons (High Elf Quest) 2-H

Quest. While this card has 3 or more resources on it, you may return a High Elf card with cost 3 or higher from your discard pile to your hand at the beginning of your turn.

Quest. Forced: Place 1 resource token on this card at the beginning of your turn if there is a unit questing here.

Just like buses. No sooner have I ranted on the UK SQC boards about how bad quests are, then two decent ones come along at once. This card is amazing once it gets going, and given the defensive/wall counterspell theme of this set I can most definately see quests making a big comeback. Once this is going it makes High Elves in the Raw Deal terms, Dude Love. For all other CCG players, it's just an amazing tactic recursion card. Gifts of Aenarion EVERY SINGLE TURN is what this card should say on it. ANY high elf card with a cost of 3 or more... that'll be me destroying your ability to do damage then would it? The synergy with Gifts of Aenarion is just too strong to ignore. From turn 3-4 onwards your opponent basically has to start doing uncancellable damage or he will lose. This certainly makes cards such as Mob Up! 3 x in every deck...... if it wasn't already.. (Counterspell!)

#11 Defend Tor Aendris (High Elf Quest) 2-H

Quest. Any unit questing here may defend any zone.

Quest. You may spend resources on this quest to pay for cards and effects.

Quest. Forced: At the end of any turn in which the questing unit defended, place 2 resource tokens on this card.

And now, ladies & gentleman, the quest that makes you wonder... why don't I play quests... EVERY order deck should play this quest. There is NO reason not to. It is an amazingly strong card, which combined with the new card #56 Ancient Map takes quests from the background to the foreground of this game. The card is so obvoiusly strong that I won't list why it is, but certainly for Empire/Counterstriking decks and Dwarf high toughness decks who excel at blocking this is an amazing card. For high elves Dragonmage is the ultimate on here. Hello quests, you no longer suck!

#12 Dragon Mage Awakening (High Elf Support) 0-H

0/0. Attachment.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit gets +3 hit points.

A good strong buff to your weaker units. Actually goes well in a number of order decks due to it's very low cost. On an early high elve blocker this card turns them into a wall.

#13 The Glittering Tower (Unique High Elf Support) 2-H

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: Whenever you heal a unit, deal 1 damage to one target enemy unit or one target section of an opponent's capital.

Hmm, I love synergy, and this card has it in bucketloads. Card #6 Initiate of Saphery means you'll always be healing a unit if possible, and this means you'll always get a damage off it. It's unique, so you won't do a lot of damage, and it's more of a theme than a game winner, but it's low cost for the power ratio and high elves abundance of healing means it's almost a definate in a High Elf deck.

#14 Shrine of Asuryan (High Elf Support) 2-H

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, you may restore one target corrupted unit.

For those people who use sideboards, you just got your 3 X anti Chaos and Dark Elf sideboard card for your decks. Makes mass corruption decks slightly annoyed. Though personally I'll be packing the Blessing of Isha card to make sure my Dragonmage doesn't get corrupted in the first place!

#15 Temple of Vaul (High Elf Support) 3-H

3/0. Building.

Forced: At the beginning of your turn, deal 2 damage to your capital (you choose which section(s)).

An oddity until you consider the #10 Wake the Dragons and Gifts of Aenarion combination. Once you have the infinate Wake the Dragons and Gifts of Aenarion cycle going this card effectively gives you another 2 resources a turn. Making it a 3 cost 5 hammer card. Other than that combo, I can't see a reason to play it though.

#16 Tear of Isha (High Elf Tactic) 1-H

Spell.

Action: Heal all damage on one target unit.

A low cost inefficient spot heal.

#17 Flames of the Pheonix (High Elf Tactic) 4-HHH

Spell.

Play during your turn.

Action: Return all units in play to their owner's hands.

OK. Meta defining card time. Troll Vomit and Judgement of Varera are meta defining cards. Card #17 Flames of the Pheonix is a meta defining card. Its a full board boomerang. It doesn't synergize well with a building strategy but as an emergency reset it's very useful.

#18 For Ulthuan! (High Elf Tactic) 1-H

Play at the beginning of your battlefield phase.

Action: Your attacking units may attack two enemy zones this turn. (Declare which units are attacking which zone when you declare attackers.)

Useful in a number of Order decks due to it's low cost, 2 attacks in a turn is a strong card for any aggressive Order deck.

#19 Asuryan's Cleansing (High Elf Tactic) 0-HH

Spell.

Action: Cancel and discard target unit or support card being played unless its controller spends all resources in his pool. (If no resources remain, opponent can spend 0 resources to spend "all.")

Magic Players will recognise this instantly as a bastardized Power Sink, and like Power Sink, it's..... OK.Unlike power sink it doesn't prevent the card still hitting the table.... It looks amazing, but no. Card #21 High Elf's Disdain is amazing. This card is simply a slower-downer. It prevents you opponent from early mass drops and later game it can be a slight annoyance.

#20 Gift of Life (High Elf Tactic) 1-HH

Spell.

Action: Return target High Elf unit from your discard pile to your hand.

Very useful to cycle key High Elf cards that get hit to your hand. It's limitation on only high elf cards makes it of limited usefulness to other order decks.

#21 High Elf's Disdain (High Elf Tactic) 2-HH

Spell.

Action: Cancel a tactic just played.

Meta- Defining- Card. All competitive Order decks will play 3 of these as soon as their owners can get there hands on their boxes. The card the game has been missing, and the card which will see much, much play. Destruction players will grow to hate this card. The Dark Elf card #27 Mortella gives Destruction players a chance to join in the fun. But no, realistically, Order just got Counterspell. Sorry Destruction players. We're going to Disdain you into the ground.

Review Part 2: Dark Elves

And now onto the Dark Elf cards. Again, a review of the cards already released is useful before examining what these cards do.

http://deckbox.org/games/whi/cards?f=336

#22 Dark Initiate (Dark Elf Unit) 1-D

1/1. Priest.

This unit does not count its power unless you have at least 2 developments in this zone.

A development subtheme into the Dark Elf decks, an excellent early if you're dropping developments every turn (certainly something I think DE players will be doing)

#23 Walking Sacrifice (Dark Elf Unit) 0-D

0/1. Martyr.

Forced: When this unit leaves play, draw a card.

Given the amount of "sacrifice a unit" cards Dark Elves have a useful free card to lay down to get a draw. Speeds up the deck a little .

#24 Harpies (Dark Elf Unit) 2-DD

1/2. Creature.

Quest. Action: When an opponent draws cards for his quest phase, corrupt this unit to discard 1 card at random from that player's hand if he has 7 or more cards in hand.

Continuing the discard subtheme of Caught the Scent this card may be a useful addition to Chaos decks as well.

#25 Shades (Dark Elf Unit) 2-D

1/1. Warrior.

Scout (discard one card at random from an opponent's hand if this unit survives combat).

Scouts for discard, a good value early drop, if somewhat waek on survivability.

#26 Cold One Knight (Dark Elf Unit) 3-D

1/3. Warrior.

Toughness 1 (Whenever this unit is assigned damage, cancel 1 of that damage).

A decent mid-range for the Dark Elves. Toughness I see as a strong ability next set with High Elves indirect damage smorgasboard of cards, so this is probably better than it looks at first glance.

#27 Mortella (Unique Dark Elf Unit) 3-DDD

1/3. Hero. Sorcerer.

Limit one Hero per zone.

Quest. Action: Corrupt this unit to play a tactic out of an opponent's discard pile, ignoring loyalty costs, as if it were in your hand. Return that card to the bottom of its owner's deck. (Play restrictions must still be observed.)

Gives you the ability to use your opponents High Elf's Disdain at the cost of giving it back to him. Could be Destructions only chance at getting a counterspell. Strong when you consider Judgement etc as well. Has playablity in a number or Destruction decks, even Orc. Play into quest zone as development, rip there heads off, use ability, play tactic. etc.

#28 Dark Sorceress (Dark Elf Unit) 4-DD

2/2. Sorcerer.

Reduce the cost to play this unit by 1 for each corrupted unit controlled by your opponents.

Chaos/Dark Elve corruption decks get a low cost 2 power unit..... or not. Actually the card seems over costly anyway for what you get, I'd rather just stick a lower cost unit in anyway. Disappointing waste of cardboard unless the Sorcerer keyword gets some kind of boost in future sets..

#29 Corsairs of Ghrond (Dark Elf Unit) 3-D

1/3. Warrior.

Battlefield. Forced: When this unit leaves play, one target unit gets -2 hit points until the end of the turn.

A good blocker + weenie killer. Solid for the cost/value ratio

#30 Lokhir Fellheart (Unique Dark Elf Unit) 5-DDDDD

3/4. Hero. Warrior.

Limit one Hero per zone.

Battlefield. Action: At the beginning of your turn, one target unit in any battlefield gets -1 hit points until the end of turn for each development in this zone.

And now, the Development subtheme kicks in, but not hugely. Cold One Chariot, Dark Initiate, just two other cards which really have this theme. If it worth dropping that amount of developments for an uber Lokhir Fellheart to can -health an opponents units into the ground? Yes! Lokhir Fellheart is a game winner if you can get him to hit the table. It doesn't matter how much damage cancellation High Elves have, if there units have no health, they die. This is the kind of card you build a deck around as a kill/win mechanism. Strong alone, deadly when you build the deck with intent.

#31 Night Raids (Dark Elf Quest) 2-DD

Quest. While this quest has 3 or more resources tokens on it, each of your units gains one power.

Quest. Forced: Place 1 resource token on this card at the beginning of your turn if there is a unit questing here.

Umm... It's OK... when you consider the infinate recursion cycle of Gifts that Wake the Dragons gives, a bit disappointing!

#32 Sack Tor Aendris (Dark Elf Quest) 2-D

Quest. Any unit questing here may attack as though it were in your battlefield.

Quest. You may spend resources on this quest to pay for cards and effects.

Quest. Forced: At the end of any turn in which the questing unit participated in an attack, place a resource token on this card.

That Tor Aendris huh? pretty interesting place to live! Wolves of the North for Dark Elves with a bonus. Strong and will see play.

#33 Mind Killer (Dark Elf Support) 0-DD

Attachment. Hex.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit loses one power.

The hex keyword! Yes, thats my only comment, it's a coaster otherwise.

#34 Word of Pain (Dark Elf Support) 2-D

Attachment. Hex.

Attach to a target unit.

Attached unit cannot attack.

Ha.... hahahahhahah. Now THIS is a control card. I see this making it's way into many destruction decks. a very powerful card to lay on the opponents "big hitter". Will people start playing anti-Attachment cards like Vaul's Unmaking as a response? depends on how much it's used I suppose. An amazing card for all Destruction decks though.

#35 Har Ganeth (Unique Dark Elf Support) 2-D

1/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: At the beginning of your turn, return one target unit with less than 2 hit points to its owner's hand.

Early game this is a weenie deck killer. If you lay this down as your first drop, it'll anny the hell out of anyone playing lots of 1 health units. Dark Elves strong against Orcs? Yep.

#36 Altar of Khaine (Dark Elf Support) 4-DD

2/0. Building.

Kingdom. Action: If one of your units would be destroyed, you may pay 1 resource to instead return it to your hand.

I kill you, I kill you... nope... Opps, I don't. Strong.

#37 Lash the Prisoner! (Dark Elf Tactic) 0-DDD

Action: Sacrifice a unit. If you do, gain 2 resources.

If only you had a Willing Sacrifice huh?

#38 Dark Visions (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-DD

Spell.

Play during your turn.

Action: Search the top 5 cards of your deck for a card and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your deck.

Ok. So Dark Elf decks will be Development heavy. Dark Elve decks with have corruption and discard themes.... Dark Elf decks will be UBER fast Search decks. Splash in a scount camp (or two) and this is potentially a very very strong engine.

#39 Chillwind (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-D

Spell.

Action: Corrupt one target unit. Then, you may restore one corrupted unit.

More fodder for chaos control.

#40 Bathe in Blood (Dark Elf Tactic) 1-D

Action: Choose one target Dark Elf unit. Double that unit's power until the end of the turn. At the end of the turn, sacrifice it.

-

Meh.

#41 Take Captive! (Dark Elf Tactic) 3-DDD

Action: Take control of target attacking unit until the end of the turn. Move it to the attacked zone, declared as a defender.

Potentially funny in a number of situations, but thats just it, it's hugely situational.

#42 Invoke Khaine's Wrath (Dark Elf Tactic) 3-DD

Spell.

Play at the end of any battlefield phase.

Action: Destroy all units that participated in combat this phase.

And, here we have it, another meta-defining-card. Destruction can deal with weenie rush.. woot! I should probably go on more about this card, about it's synergy with card #36 Altar of Khaine etc. But no. Its strong.

In all, it seems that the High Elves got the much better cards. Certainly I can see my building a High Elf deck when I get my cards, but not a dark elf one. I agree with the prevoius poster that Dark Elves as just too... unfocused. Bitty. Oh well, hopefully future sets will define them more.

I'm still having trouble seeing the HElfs deal out damage to burn zones. Their Power to HP ratio seem heavily toward HPs (Dragon Prince at 1/4) and their Attachment in this set gives them even more (+3 HP), but +Power stuff. Empire has its Greatswords and Shrine to Taal to boost even the intially weak Units, but where will the HElfs dig up their heavy hitters? All out defense is nice, but unless you're planning on turtling until your opponent decks out, hitters are needed.

As usual, not reading the Spoiler until I get the cards myself.

You lucked out this time, Fiendish!! I'm getting these this afternoon (1pm or so)...and would've had the spoiler up by 2:30pm. If FFG and the local FLGS could've got their act together, I would have had this sooner, like last week. Kind of annoying, actually, the amount of time it takes FFG to get these games on the shelves from the time that they acknowledge receiving them in their warehouse. Grrrr...

Good job dude.

Question about your description of "for ulthuan":

As I understand it, you can only attack once, but you can chose, which units attack this way and which that. I would love to see my units attack first one zone and another afterwards. But i just dont get it out of the card text.

Another thing is:

Do i understand you right, that glittering tower creates one dmg for every healed hp or only one per turn max? Otherwise there would be a nice combo with Loremaster dmg yourself and healing afterwards. Most of the time units are killed completly. Not lots of situations, where units return from battle with less hp. So I´m still looking for a way to dmg your own units. Silverhelm brigade as a nice unit for that combo.

****...in german "gift of life" says: return highelf-character, not unit. Thought it could only be used for heroes !?!?!? Not only me having problems translating i guess ;D

Bountyhunter said:

Bountyhunter said:

i would have switched the 2 comments at first glance.

i can see how Mind Killer could contribute to a DE strategy while i don't see Word of Pain contributing that much to anything, for the moment. (this is just an example with 2 cards, and i find this situation really interesting, meaning we will see many different decks in this game)

Mister Mask said:

If you'll re-read my comment you'll find that I didn't say that Word of Pain contributed to a DE strategy, I said it's a control card which will be in control destruction decks. Word of Pain by itself, without any other control cards in the deck, wouldn't be that effective for a pure Dark Elf deck. For a Chaos Control deck though this card is an awesome addition to the arsenal.

I think you're spot on though. I think this expansion is going to really shake up the game and make many decks and strategies much more viable. We'll be seeing in the next few weeks and months decks which are very different than the ones dominating now.