Shadow Wraith by
Sir Heroscape
Creativity
The Wraith is unsurprisingly intended to shore up a weakness of the faction, namely, that the shadows fall quite quickly. Her power set isn’t breaking any new ground mechanically, but it doesn't have to. Giving her a power set that relies on positioning and adjacency bonuses in a faction that relies on positioning and adjacency makes her feel right at home in the dark with the other Shadows.
Theme
I think the Shadow Wraith was designed in a different way than the rest of the faction. The Hound, Fiend, and Binder very obviously use their respective miniatures to inform the powers. The powers were then crafted together to give the faction mechanical cohesion. They all want to be next to other Shadows but each in a way that references the miniature. The Fiend feels very impish, taking cheap shots from the air while his foe is distracted by other Shadows on the ground. The Hound’s powers very much evoke hunting in a pack, given how they get faster and hit harder when another Shadow is in the mix.
The Wraith feels a bit different to me. Her powers feel less informed by the miniature and more by the existing faction’s mechanics and needs. The miniature is just the one available. Nothing about a spectral and possibly tattered-looking humanoid reads as if she would give a defense boost. It is, I think, only because of the context of the rest of the faction that this design works. If this were a stand-alone design, I don’t think it works. But because the rest of the Shadows exist and because I can instantly recognize the translucent purple figures as those belonging to the Shadow faction, I can get behind this.
All that verbiage when I could have just said what Bigga said in his review:
“The mini is a purple ghosty thing. The card is a shadow (because purple) ghosty thing. And it makes shadows stronger for its shadow allies. Not much more to say, but it definitely works, and simple is never a bad thing.”
That just about sums it all up.
Balance
The other judges have compared The Wraith to the other Shadows, to Raelin, and to Kyntela Gwyn. Of these, the Shadows don’t overlap in role, and Raelin is in a league of her own. So of those, Kyntella seems to be the best comparison to the Wraith. I’d also posit that the Swog Rider might actually be a better comparison.
A Wraith and a Swog have identical Life, Range, Attack, and Points. They both rarely take turns on their own order markers. Their movement is comparable. 8 move is probably going to be even with Shadow Phase most of the time. There are situations where one would be preferable to the other, definitely. But I’m going to call their movement even, too. That leaves Orc Archer Enhancement vs Deepened Shadows and the Swog’s 1 additional defense die.
The Swog comes out ahead. The defense boost stacks, he also boosts attack, and he has the extra defense die. With this 1-to-1 comparison in a vacuum , I’d say that the Wraith could easily drop to 20 (where the Swog Rider is in delta) or even 15. Yikes...
But then this isn’t actually in a vacuum. And outside the vacuum we have “Azazel, Bane of Shadows” to consider. And I have to say 15-point Wraiths with Azazel look pretty frightening. I think in a perfect world *cough, delta, cough* the Wraiths can exist at 15 no problem, but the way the game is now, 25 is definitely the safe and probably correct choice and I applaud the restraint of the designer for making that difficult choice.
Playability
I really don’t want to talk too much about Azazel anymore, he made me sad in the last section. I think the whole faction could be discounted more if Azzy didn’t exist. Suffice it to say that I don’t think a Wraith-inclusive Azazel army is any more or less degenerate than a Shadow army without Wraiths. Much for the same reasons as the other judges.
Anyone who can competently play Raelin (I’m only sometimes in this category) knows that you position her early before the fighting starts. Often on your first order marker. And then you have to be VERY deliberate on when and if she ever gets a second OM. I’ve found the Wraith to be the same. You position your Wraiths early, within the first few order markers, as a sort of a staging ground for the rest of your Shadows. Allowing you to set up a defensive pod from which you can send the rest of your shadows out to attack. Rae and a few Wraiths have similar OM
costs for positioning (Raelin: 1-2 OMs over the course of the game. Wraiths: 1-2 OMs total by adding up multiple 1/3 OM over the course of the game.), but whereas a second Raelin OM is regularly purely defensive, additional Wraith activations can be used offensively too. This feels like somewhat of a contradiction. Do you want to be using your defensive pieces offensively? No, not really. But the Wraith often must in order to keep up the pressure.
Anyone who can competently play against Raelin (once again, I’m only sometimes in this category) knows that you either kill her as fast as possible or you fight through everything with boosted defense. Here the Wraiths don’t feel quite as similar. In many of my testing games, all the Wraiths were dead before I had lost more than one or two other Shadows. Their low defense and cheerleader abilities make them a really appealing target. And unlike Rae, the Wraiths don’t have the staying power to survive more than a few attacks. Opponents don’t have to pick against Shadows, they can just take the most opportune attacks knowing they will get value from any attack going through. A wounded Raelin is still outputting a full defensive aura. A wounded Wraith is a dead Wraith, and a dead Wraith isn’t useful to you anymore. This target on their head(s) really makes the Shadow player want to use them conservatively.
So now we have a defensive unit that often needs to be used offensively but also wants to be used conservatively. That's a recipe for a unit that's quite difficult to use effectively.
Until you realize that she never has to do all of that at the same time. You get to choose which of all the tools she gives a Shadow army are most useful to you at any given time. Early game she sets up defensive checkpoints, mid game she can phase into an ideal position to give other Shadows a defense and D20 buff. Then once she’s in an annoying position your opponent wants to attack her rather than a more valuable Fiend or Hound. You have to be very careful and precise with her, and it doesn’t always work out in your favor, but I’ve found that she can be really useful to the core Shadow Army.
Summary
So here I am, once again in the position to make the deciding vote. Not a position I’d envy if I were you. She’s good in terms of Creativity and Theme, in a really weird place Balance-wise and she’s really difficult to play.
Xundar’s Shadows are an army that's all about the little optimizations. One space here or there can make a huge difference. The Shadow Wraith is another tool in the toolbox. A way to get some more of those small optimizations. She won’t be built around, but she’ll be included as a 1 or 2 of in some armies. I don’t know if even one of her is in the “best” Shadow army. But I think that's part of the fun with her. The Shadows army isn’t solved in the way that some other armies are. (Like Nilf + Greenscales + Rae.) I like what she brings to the army. She’s versatile, tactical, and really damn difficult to use.
I vote
YES to induct the
Shadow Wraith into the SoV, congratulations Sir Heroscape!