Hot Takes: Valkyrie and Elendil/ Warriors Three

 

Sorry for the delay on these, I was away for work the last couple of days and at the start of this year the MCP topics seem to just pile up on top of each other. But let's get into the meat of the article: 

We have seen the healthy side for Valkyrie and Elendil at the Ministravaganza already and now got confirmation that they are exactly the same on the back side. I remain quite positive about the duo as they seem very fast with good attacks and superpowers. Defensively they aren't especially stellar with below average defenses and no defensive tech but hopefully Guardian of Valhalla will keep them on their hoofs. 

In terms of Asgard leaderships I think they like Thors to add more healing to their innate and Loki, Prince of Lies (Loki 2) both more than Jane Fosters as the attack in Range 2 is probably the one you want to use the least. A defensive reroll outside of range 2 is a good thing for them though. So in the end all Asgard leaderships have value for Valkyrie and Elendil. 

But I think their favorite spot could be in a Midnight Sons roster led by Blade. Bump in the night is fantastic with a 65mm base and since they also are Asgardian they turn into a safe grab. And Bump can also guarantee the 7 dice on the Gainer. I'll definitely be trying that out. 

Their Spender is pretty Match up dependent but can be great targeting 5 threat and Up characters which makes the Stagger more likely and more valuable at the same time. 

I'm a bit doubtful about their staying power but am happy to be proven wrong about it. 

A-

A+ for theme here. But is it actually worth playing? 4 Power is a lot but a Range 3 place, especially when played by Valkyrie and Elendil on their 65mm base, is really far and a free attack on it (which for the duo can be a 7 dice Gainer as they have been placed before) is a very good pay off. You'll mostly only want to do it if they don't hold an objective token though. But after they've been flipped it can be a good tool to chase. If you're really cheeky you could even use it to drop an extract out side the tech of your opponent as you drop first (the token will be placed in range 2 by your opponent), then place at range 3 and attack. And if they don't drop it in the opposite direction of where you're likely to go you could even place yourself back into range of the token. Especially with the 65mm base and a Range 3 attack it shouldn't be too hard to place yourself in range of the token again if it's been placed towards the enemy character you want to attack. And if not it's at least farther from them than it was before now. 

I don't think it's a worth it for Brunhilde though. She gets way less movement out of it and also her attacks are only Range 2. 

B for Valkyrie and Elendil/ C for Brunhilde 

Another card that's very cool from a theme standpoint. But here I'm afraid the hoops you have to jump through might be too high and too many to make it really worth it... It's good that you can make the power for the card with the Builder but that's mostly going to be their lesser used free attack I think. Getting a "free" movement for a Daze or KO is definitely strong and getting a throw on top of it can be game winning in the right situation. But the right situation isn't as easy to set up. Ideally you want to Daze/ KO a model that isn't holding an extract (as you won't be able to stop and pick it up while resolving of the card) and use the move onto a secure where there is an already activated enemy model you can throw off now. 

How often you can get such ideal circumstances is debatable. 

B-

Both cards here aren't bad but I don't think either is going to be essential to playing Valkyrie and Elendil. 

Beating Iron Monger by about 3 weeks Warriors Three is the actual first 3 threat (permanently) on a 65mm base. Being Asgardian on top of it means they are a very cheap natural safe grab option for Blade led Midnight Sons. And sadly that's about where the good news end. They have good attacks and cool superpowers for a 3 threat but the 3/3/3 5/5 defensive profile has me really worried how long they'll be on the board to use anything on their card at all. It seems especially weird given the health buffs that have started to roll out. 

I'll give them the benefit of a doubt and will put them on the table once I get them and maybe the Grim Resolve Innate superpower is enough of a deterrent to chip damage attacks that they'll end up effective. 

Sadly neither of the available reroll leaderships in Asgard has a way of unlocking Skulls to help them reroll out of their Spender Trigger. But if course Thors leadership can be used to just shake the Stagger so maybe that's their best leadership. 

C+ 

All three are good effects that are definitely worth the two power on the Warriors Three but whether or not that's worth a slot in your 5 is the bigger question. 

Worth a try when you try the trio. 

B- 

This card goes to straight S tier for theme but sadly will probably only see the table in very causal games as every single one of the triggers is incredibly difficult to hit and you need to achieve two of them! And a problem with that is, if you've done that you're probably already winning so are the 2 VPs even that important? 

Probably worth tracking you often you'd have hit each trigger in all your Asgard games from now on to see if the card could've been useful. 

C. 

Overall I'm very excited for the pack even though Warriors Three and the TTCs are a bit of a letdown on first view. The minis are definitely awesome and Valkyrie and Elendil seem like a tonne of fun to play. 

That's it for today. 

Cheers from Germany 🍻