Call It Shadespire!

Decision: Should you play Miraculous Escape? TL;DR: Champions, Farstriders, and Cursebreakers should definitely consider Miraculous Escape for an easy score-immediately objective.  Gitz and Nighthaunts also have solid enough defenses to consider it.  Finally, Skaven, Reavers, Eyes, and Guard can mitigate the consequences of failure, and may wish to consider adding Escape into their decks - particularly if they are already playing ploys that support it.  The rest of the warbands should probably stay away. Factor:Utility The first question we have to ask about Miraculous Escape is whether or not it is worth playing at all .  We only get 12 objective slots, and we need to be careful what we put in those slots.  Fortunately, the release of the Banned and Restricted List has freed up some space in many objective decks thanks to the restriction of several "auto-include" objectives that were making their way into almost every deck.  In particular, the B&R list hit on s

Decision: Should you play Light Armour? TL;DR:  Skaven and Sepulchral Guard probably should play Light Armour unless they are going 100% into hold-objective style defensiveness.  Players who are already playing Haymaker and/or Aggressive Defense might also consider it.  Everyone else should probably pass. Factor: Loss of Defense Upgrades that impose a penalty on the upgraded model are rare in Shadespire.  All upgrades have a glory cost, of course, and all upgrades represent an opportunity cost in terms of the "slots" they occupy in the power deck - but only rarely do upgrades like Light Armour impose additional costs on the player.  In order for us to consider an upgrade like that to be playable, it must provide a higher than average bonus to counteract its additional costs.  Does Light Armour fit the bill?  Let's find out. The first thing we should examine is just how much does losing critical symbols as a success on defense hurt?  At it's simplest level,

Decision: Should you play Masterstroke? TL; DR:  For Magore's Fiends: Yes! For Everyone Else: If you have decided to spend most of your restricted slots on ploys (particularly My Turn, Ready for Action, Trap, and/or Pit Trap), you should consider Masterstroke as a solid replacement for one of the restricted score-immediately objectives.  If you have decided to continue to play the restricted objectives, it's probably not worth adding in Masterstroke. Prelude: The Banned and Restricted List One very positive effect of the release of the banned and restricted list on deckbuilding is the widening of what we call the "maybe-space".  This is the list of cards that aren't necessarily auto-includes, but also aren't trash.  The more cards that are allowed to exist in the maybe-space, the more variety players will see in deckbuilding at competitive events.  We here at Call it Shadespire recently retooled all our decks to accommodate the banned and restri

Decision: What should you replace Great Concussion with? TL: DR For Aggro - Earthquake/Centre of Attention For Hold Objective - Earthquake/Irresistible Prize For Defensive - Mirror Move/Baffling Illusion For Hybrid - Any of the above, depending on playstyle Factor: Aggressive Decks There was probably a point at which Aggro decks didn't play Great Concussion; after all, it doesn't do damage or improve your attacks.  However, with the rise of defensive decks that could score nearly all of their objectives without interacting with the opponent at all, most Aggro decks began to include a few easy to score passive objectives - most notably the powerhouse Alone in the Darkness.  Concussion allowed Aggro decks to come out of the gate with extreme aggression, then strategically back off any models that missed their attacks in order to score Alone.  Add on to that it's potential to disrupt the opponent's plan in a critical manner, and Concussion became as much

Decision: When should you play Aggressive Defence? TL;DR: Aggressive Defence provides great benefit to warbands that have high wound counts, low defense stats, and aggressive attacks *cough* MagoresOrksAndMaybeDwarves *cough.*  If you're playing My Turn, consider playing Aggressive Defence too.  If you do include it, try to play it when it alters the potential outcomes of the incoming attack the least, when it protects you from being driven back, and/or when it is likely to result in a devastating counterattack from your fighter. Prelude: Question Format Gambit slots in Shadespire are at a premium.  There are so many excellent universal ploys, it's hard to find cards that fit into the magical "maybe" space that we have addressed in previous articles - cards that aren't auto-include but also aren't trash.  Therefore, we've altered the primary question slightly to address Aggressive Defense.  We will be considering whether or not to include it in d

Decision: Should you play Abasoth's Withering? TL;DR: If you're playing Cursebreakers, you should probably be playing this card.  Other spellcasting warbands can benefit from its inclusion, but the decision isn't as clear cut.  "Hold objective" type decks from other warbands should probably leave this one in the box. Factor: Warband Let's begin with the obvious: if your warband isn't from Nightvault, you shouldn't play this card.  While this may seem like something that should go without saying, a player who picked up the game in NV and then grabbed a Shadespire army may not notice that they don't have wizards.  So we're saying it. Of the four currently available Nightvault warbands, there are also considerations to be made.  Each of the four has a single level 2 wizard, but only Cursebreakers has any backup wizards if your leader dies.  Unlike many of the gambit spells available, Abasoth's Withering is reasonably reliabl