[Scytale]

Shadow Wraith and Shadow Stalker by @Sir Heroscape

Xundar's pulling out a couple of new tricks in the form of new Shadows. While the ones that came before focused on offense and positioning, these are defensively-minded.

Balance

The best comparision points for the new Shadows are the old Shadows, as Shadows tend to be only useful in Xundar builds. They are both on the lower end of Shadow costs, with the Wraith tied with the Binder for the cheapest. Neither is very strong on offense, though, so a combat-focused Xundar build will probably still want more Hounds and Wraiths. Azazel builds are concerning, though. These new two are both not only cheaper than other Shadows, but built for defense, which is what Azazel wants.

Regardless, it's difficult to get much of a feel balance with these with just Theoryscaping.

Theme

I've always liked the theme of the faction, and these continue it well. The miniature of the Wraith doesn't scream "defense boost" to me, but it doesn't suggest anything else in particular either, so it works. There was some controversy at submission time about using a miniature for the Stalker that looks like a displacer beast, but that is a point in its favor, in my opinion. Xundar comes from a D&D world, so it's natural that he would base his shadows off of creatures from that world. The mix of Grapple and Shifting Shadow nail the theme of a displacer beast-like shadow well.

Creativity

These designs do a good job of finding a new niche in a Shadow army, which is covering an otherwise painful weakness of Shadow armies: their weak defense. The Wraith is a complete, solid-feeling design where Shadow Phase clearly helps the use of the Wraith's primary function, which is to get next to other Shadows to provide the Deepened Shadows boost. The Stalker is likewise a solid design when seen in the context of a Shadow army, providing a tank of sorts that can (hopefully) dodge attacks and control front line positioning.

Playability

The existing Shadow army can do well when they control the battlefield and keep up the pressure, but defensively can fall apart quickly. That's not because their Defense values are bad, but because the figures have sizable individual costs. Some defensive help is welcome.

First let's look at the Wraith. In theory, these are easy to use to provide helpful defensive boosts to the rest of your Shadows. In practice, it's not nearly that simple or helpful. When taking a Xundar turn, every Shadow turn needs to maximize its potential benefits for the army to maintain advantage. Taking a turn simply to give some +1 Defenses is almost never as valuable as getting in some Hound or Fiend attacks or breaking opponent's formations with a Binder. To use Wraiths you really want to get in an attack with them as well as set up Deepened Shadows, especially with their decent 3 Attack. This, however, tends to backfire, as the Wraiths themselves are especially weak defensively--even if backed up by other Wraiths--and putting them out in front to get that attack means they will be the first to fall in the counterattack. And the opponent won't even need to overextend to do so. In essense, these Wraith turns end up being overall suboptimal Shadow turns.

But being difficult to use well isn't the same as unusable. They work well in early positioning before battle lines are drawn to set up defensive waypoints and (hopefully) to solidify high ground on the front. And even as suboptimal attacks and defenders, the mobility that Shadow Phase gives can allow for attacks and positioning that would be difficult or impossible with other Shadows. I found them to be a decent addition in a Shadow army in small numbers with careful usage.

Next is the Stalker. Instead of providing a boost to other Shadows, the Stalker serves as a tank, despite its weak Defense 2, thanks to the helpful Shifting Shadow, especially when bunched with other Shadows. Don't get me wrong, Stalkers usually don't live very long. Despite looking like Vanish, Shifting Shadow is much weaker because the Stalker does not get to run away and avoid follow-up attacks, which is fatal for an unreliable d20-based defense. Still, the auto-defend is nice to have, especially against heavy hitters, and Stalkers aren't as important to keep alive as Hounds and Fiends. They don't have the offense to serve as the core of a Shadow army, but they slide in well as a way to keep attackers from your more valuable Shadows, especially if they have a Wraith behind them.

Grapple helps with that too in theory, but in actuallity it does very little against most armies. Squad figures don't disengage much anyway because of the 50% chance of dying. Grapple is annoying to small/medium heroes that are willing to disengage to go after juicier targets that don't have a chance of auto-dodging them, and of course it's helpful against Disengagers. For the most part, though, it doesn't often have an effect on the battle, except for...

Unfortunately for the Shadows, Azazel the Kyrie Warrior exists. Building an army of cheap Shadows just to get lots of turns to repeatedly resurrect the cursed Kyrie is a degenerate strategy, though one that has precedent with Kurrok. The danger is making the degenerate, rather unfun strategy better than an actual Xundar army. It's already comparable, and adding defensive Shadows can easily tip that in Azazel's favor.

In my experience, Wraiths do not make Azazel builds particularly better. It sure seems like they would; a wall of, say, Binders backed by a bunch of Wraiths seems pretty efficient. The thing is, Wraiths actually have crappy defense themselves. Cracking the initial wall may be more difficult, but then Wraiths fall easy. It ends up kind of a wash. And they are even worse off if the Shadow army is built to fight back instead of just stand there, since Shadows need mobility to function well, and trying to keep your Wraiths up with the other Shadows just gets them killed.

I wish I could say the same thing about Stalkers, but I really can't. In fact, when using an Azazel strategy the Stalkers seem almost fine-turned to work with it. Shifting Shadows is super annoying for forces that overextended to get to Xundar, as the shadow cats benefit the most from staying in position (even better with Wraiths mixed in and/or Raelin nearby). In this setting Grapple also really shines, as good positioning makes it difficult or even impossible for opponents to hunt down Xundar. In my experience, spamming Stalkers is the way to go if you want to bring Azazel back repeatedly.

Summary

I like what both the Shadow Wraith and the Shadow Stalker bring to a Shadow army. While difficult to use well, Wraiths can be helpful if used sparingly and precisely. Stalkers provide a much-desired tank to the mix, even if that tank isn't all that reliable. However, just being a tank is the Stalker's downfall, as it makes the degenerate Azazel build significantly better and even more degenerate. So while I'm willing to put my stamp of approval on the Wraith, I'm afraid I can't do the same for the Stalker.

I vote Yay to induct the Shadow Wraith into the SoV.
I vote Nay to induct the Shadow Stalker into the SoV.