Call It Shadespire!

Decision: Should you play Seize the Initiative?   Author's Note : Bottomdecking is a new series of short articles where we examine bad choices that are made by reasonable people - please note that this is not meant as an indictment of any person, it's the cards that are bad, not the people.  Mostly, Bottomdecking articles are a fun way for me to cut my workload while I'm busy with real life stuff (Getting ready for LVO, in this case), and hopefully cause a couple of people to chuckle along the way. TL; DR:  No; unless you play a 3-model warband, in which case: still no . Factor: Probability At base, you've got about a 1.6% chance of rolling 3 crits on any given rolloff for the first activation.  If you happen to place all your models first at the game's beginning, you've got a 13.2% chance of pulling three crits there - still not great.  However, we should also keep in mind that during that first activation rolloff, you've got the lowes

Decision: Should you play Seized Trophy? TL; DR: Yeah, probably.  It's no showstopper, but it's likely worth an upgrade slot to be able to inspire your fighter for free (at some point, you probably played Inspiration Strikes, right?). Prelude: Disclaimer This card isn't released yet; you probably shouldn't play it until it is.   Additionally, we have very little information about the other cards in this set, therefore this analysis will be necessarily incomplete.  Things may change drastically as we learn about new cards.  This is a preliminary look only. Factor: Fuzzy Math Seized Trophy is one of those cards that you wouldn't even consider in any warband other than Godsworn (even if it was a universal), so it's important that we view it specifically through the lens of that warband.  When a Godsworn fighter gets an upgrade, they inspire.  So in this article, we'll be looking at Seized Trophy as a method to upgrade your fighters.  How then do

Decision: Should you play Unfocused Blast? Hat Tip to Katophrane Relic for the image! TL;DR: If you are playing a deck (probably Cursebreakers or Eyes of the Nine) that focuses strongly on dealing damage in ways that don't allow for enemy defense rolls, Unfocused Blast provides an additional method bringing down enemy models and is probably worth considering.  If you're looking to splash a spell or two into an otherwise non-magical deck, this probably isn't the one for you. Prelude: Disclaimer This card isn't released yet.  You probably shouldn't play it until it is.   Additionally, none of the other cards from this expansion are released, nor are the fighters.  The release of new cards and fighters may alter the usefulness of this card significantly.  This is simply a first look at the card on its own. Factor: Spellcasting Obviously, you need a Wizard to use Spells.  At the time of this article, three of the four Nightvault warbands have o

Decision: Should You Play Distraction?   TL;DR: Almost Certainly. Factor: Opening and Closing Distance Perhaps the most obvious use of Distraction is to open or close distance between models.  Simply put, Distraction effectively increases the range of one of your attacks by 1, or decreases the range of your opponents' attack by one.  As we will find in many cases throughout this article, this effectiveness of Distraction here correlates directly with the skill of the player playing it; this effective change to range can be utilized either as a 1-time effect to set up a single attack or as a multiple use effect.  For example, if you use Distraction to push a model into charge range, you get to make one attack against that model that you wouldn't have been able to make normally.  However, if you use Distraction to push a model adjacent to one of yours, you may get to make several attacks that you normally would not have been able to make.  If we compare Distractio