Shaitahn by Son of Arathorn
Shaitahn gives a boost to Valkrill's undead faction where they most need it -- board control. He also fits in a different role, the suicidal striker, due to his (her?) ability to come back from the grave.
Balance
Theoryscaping Shaitahn is difficult at best. In terms of raw stats he's pretty solid, though not 120pts worth of solid. He's as strong defensively as Q10, but being a melee figure he is much less likely to control height advantage. A single attack of 3 doesn't seem like much, but Soul Weapon helps that, which in most cases is a little better than a 4th attack dice. He can hold his own in a fight, but not amazingly so, even considering bonding.
Most of Shaitahn's value is in his other two abilities, Rejected By Death and Undead March. Undead March is easier of the two to quantify, being somewhat similar to Sir Gilbert's Jandar's Dispatch. Undead March is better than Jandar's Dispatch in some ways, namely consistency and being able to move more figures with the bonus movement than Death Knights or Thralls can move on their own turns. This movement boost can especially help the Death Knights, who can then take a turn due to bonding, allowing them to move up to six Death Knights in a single order marker or giving a pair of Death Knights 9-space movements plus moving two more four spaces. This gives them a lot more board control than they normally have. The fact that this is done instead of taking a turn with Shaitahn really hurts, though, especially with his suicidal striker uses.
Rejected By Death is somewhat difficult to quantify, as the one example we have, Thanos, is a crazy-strong figure that people build armies around. Shaitahn is a respectable fighter, but he's no Thanos. Not strong enough to build an army around, but the two army builds Shaitahn helps most, Death Knights and Thralls, have multi-turn powers (Unholy Bonding and Mindless Pack) that increases the odds of RBD bringing him back. Very nice natural synergy, and in my testing Shaitahn was almost always able to return to the board if killed early.
Is Shaitahn's cost justified? Hard to put a price on wildly random powers like Rejected By Death, but I'd say the price is at least in the ballpark from a theoryscaping perspective. How well does he play at that cost? See the Playability section.
Theme
An Undead Leader for the Death Knights? Nothing wrong with the theme there. Soul Weapons, Undead March, all good stuff. Rejected By Death is an interesting pull from Marvelscape and has a different thematic feel on an undead hero than it has for Thanos and his comic book history. I rather like the name Shaitahn too, given its
origin.
Creativity
I like the reuse of Rejected By Death. Despite not having the same meaning as it does for Thanos, it fits well for an undead hero. Undead March is an interesting twist on Jandar's Dispatch. The combination of the two on the same hero makes for some tough early-game choices.
Accessibility
The D&D Lords of Madness Skeleton figures are around. Not a lot of them, but it doesn't take much looking to find a few.
Playability
Do the Death Knights of Valkrill need a boost? Many people think so. The C3V thought so when they created the Skull Demon. While two-figure squads tend to have it rough due to a low number of attacks per order marker, the Death Knights' lack of board control is worse. With bonding they move three figures per order marker and rely on their strong 5 defense to hold their ground. Well, as anyone who played with them can tell you, 5 defense does not stand up nearly as long as you would hope. Shaitahn addresses this weakness in multiple ways: with a movement boost, as a front-line assault unit, and the ability to reappear on the front lines.
First, the movement boost. Undead March can be used to move up a whole army of Death Knights; this is great for maps with elevations in the middle of the board. This can also be used to give a threat range of 10 (4 move + 5 move + 1 range) to two DKs. This speed boost can catch an opponent off guard while also managing to move up a couple more for a followup if needed.
Shaitahn's other use, as a suicidal striker, is also useful as a board control mechanism, of a sort. Since it does not particularly matter if Shaitahn dies early, you can rush him headlong directly into the enemy. Your opponent can try to ignore him, but he has just enough punch to make that difficult or at least irritating. Any attacks spent at Shaitahn are attacks not spent on Death Knights, hopefully giving them some time to get where they need to go. After Shaitahn dies, as long as you have another bonding option, you get two Rejected By Death rolls per order marker. When Shaitahn comes back he's almost always right on the front lines, ready to start hacking away.
Interestingly, these two uses directly compete with each other due to the fact that Undead March is used instead of Shaitahn's turn. Each use of Undead March is another turn that Shaitahn is not charging across the battlefield or hacking away at your opponent. Even a turn or two of Marching can really slow down a suicide charge. While I generally do not like designs that seem to contradict themselves, I found the choice of playstyles compelling. More than that -- I found it to be Shaitahn's greatest strength. A clever player will change up their strategy based on the map and the opposing army. Sometimes a suicide attack is the way to go, other times it's better to start off Marching.
Another army that Shaitahn works well in is a Nicholas Esenwein/Thrall army, particularly in heroes-only matches. Shaitahn can be used for an early Undead March, which moves more figures and is more predictable than Mindless Pack, or rush forward and swing away until he dies. Like with the Death Knights, the Thralls usually get multiple turns per order marker, thus giving Shaitahn greatly improved chances of coming back.
Rejected By Death is a swingy power. That's obvious, and nothing new to Heroscape. It's also a power that's better the longer the game goes. In large-point games he will probably come back multiple times. In small-point games he's lucky to come back at all. Most of my testing focused on the commonly-used standard of ~500pt armies. At that point total I feel he works well and is worth his points, boosting the Death Knights to a more competitve level. Top tier? No. Respectable though. I don't recommend using him in 300pt armies or less. I do recommend using him in big games (and using him, and using him, ...).
Summary
Shaitahn gives a solid boost to the Death Knights of Valkrill, whether played for his movement boost or as a suicidal striker. The ability to do either effectively is his best asset, and makes for some interesting early game decisions. Will Shaitahn give Death Knights the boost they need to stomp A-ranked armies? No, but with him they can challenge some solid builds. A boost to the Thralls is nice to see too. Overall I had fun playing him, and would be more inclined to draft Death Knights if Shaitahn was in the drafting pool.
I vote
to induct Shaitahn into the SoV.