Malevolent Masks - Deck Review

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The third universal Rivals deck for Deathgorge is Malevolent Masks. The deck is centered around putting masks, a type of upgrade, onto your fighters. The rest of the deck, including gambits and objectives, then interacts with the mask-wearing fighters.

So, my first thought on the deck is that in order to equip a fighter with a mask, you need to have scored some Glory. This immediately makes this core component of the deck difficult to use at the beginning of the game. I want to work through the deck with Objectives first, then the Upgrades, specifically the Masks, and finally the Gambits.

Objectives

When building a deck for Underworlds, I always start by looking at the Surge Objectives. These are the cards that are going to provide me with early Glory that: a) allows me to upgrade my fighters and b) builds up my Glory count allowing me to win!

The first Surge Objectives are also Hybrids: Visions of Success, Audacious Aspect, and Death's Visage. The first requirement for each of these cards is very easily fulfilled if you have friendly fighters equipped with Masks. The first two rely upon holding objectives, the third for taking an enemy fighter out of action. The second requirement for each card is considerably more difficult but does not need fighters to have mask upgrades. The easiest of these three cards to score, without a mask, is Audacious Aspect, which is my favorite Surge card in the deck.

Feast of Violence is a Surge, Dual card. This card requires three range 1 or 2 actions to have been made across three activation steps. Importantly, these attacks do not have to be successful, making this card fairly reliable to score.

The final two Surge Objectives are just Surges. Domino Dominance and Slaughter Satisfied. Domino Dominance is scored for having an inspired fighter equipped with a mask. While this appears easy to score, I think it has the potential to brick your hand. Why? To equip a fighter with a mask, you first need to have a mask card in your hand. Secondly, you need some Glory to equip the fighter. Thirdly, you need to have an inspired fighter, which may or may not be easy to achieve depending upon your warband. For me, this card seems to be a trap. Slaughter Satisfied requires more enemy fighters out of action than are surviving. I am not a fan of this card as it is too reliant on warband and favorable dice.

The first two End Phase objectives are both worth 1 Glory and require fighters to be equipped with a Mask. These are Stoic Appearance and Hooded Stranger. Stoic Appearance is scored when a mask-wearing fighter is holding an objective, a very reliable card. Hooded Stranger is scored if a mask-wearing fighter is in enemy territory. You gain additional Glory if the fighter is not adjacent to other fighters. Again, another fairly reliable card. It is important to remember that to score both these cards, you must have Masks equipped. As such, to reliably score these cards, you must play heavily into including Masks in your upgrades. Equally, to stop these cards from being scored, you can target mask-equipped fighters.

Solid Spread requires you to have one or more fighters in yours, no-ones, and enemy territory. OK if you have a large warband, which is probably playing into objective control but a lot for 1 Glory. Otherwise, I would give this a miss.

The final three objectives appear difficult to score. First, we have Totally Overpowered, for two Glory. This card requires you to hold two objectives and have taken out (or wounded) half the fighters in one or more enemy warbands. As I write this, this could be quite easy to score if you have sufficient ping damage. The second objective is Victorious Veils. This is scored if three or more surviving friendly fighters have Masks. If scored in Round 1 or 2 then gain 1 Glory, if scored in Round 3 gain 3 Glory. This card is hard to score early as you will not have the Masks available. Later in the game you may not have the fighters. I do like how this card feels like an improved Third End phase card with additional versatility. The final card is Completed Pact for three Glory. Have more surviving fighters equipped with Masks than there are surviving enemy fighters. I feel too much has to go well here for you to score this card.

Upgrades

Next, I better look at the Upgrades, specifically the Masks themselves. There are six Masks. First up, Envy's Shroud. This mask breaks all other Upgrades on the fighter and provides +1 wound. For me, this is a weak card. The remaining Masks just break other Masks, so a fighter can only ever have one Mask upgrade. Each of these Masks gives the fighter a new action (Voidcursed is going to ruin this deck if you rely on the Mask actions). This concerns me as they will seriously reduce the action economy of the warband.

Vytrix's Eye gives the fighter a range 3, 2 smash, 1 damage attack with Grievous and Cleave. For me, the most straightforward and easy-to-use mask, although my least favourite mask.

The Howling Hood gives the fighter the ability to push an adjacent fighter 2 hexes and then Stagger the pushed fighter. This seems a bit of a waste of an action, as the fighter has to be adjacent. The second worst mask for me until you start to combine it with certain gambits, which will be discussed later. Then it actually becomes my favourite.

The Frostbitten Veil and the Eternal Smile give actions that will buff the fighters' attacks for the remainder of the round. Frostbite Veil provides a re-roll for each dice with no restriction on range (pretty nice for Hrothgorn or Blackpowder), and Eternal Smile gives +1 damage to range 1 and 2 attacks. Both are nice buffs but are they worth wasting an activation to get these benefits?

Finally, the Echoguise provides an action that allows this fighter to swap a feature token they are standing on with another. This could be really disruptive to an enemy control warband, taking them off an objective and placing them on a cover hex! In addition, the fighter also gains double supports as success for defense rolls for the remainder of the round. This is probably my favorite mask.

I think the mask work well with both three fighter and big guy warbands, which do not mind using it activation for an action. Overall, I am not that impressed with the Masks, but they do, however, interact with a number of gambits, which makes them considerably more interesting. Now, the rest of the upgrades.

Menacing Posture provides a reaction that allows this fighter to make a 1 hex push after this fighter's action pushes another fighter. A great combination card with the Howling Hood.

Displacing Figurine gives the fighter a one-off action that allows them to move onto an empty objective hex and then gain a Charge Token. Great for objective play.

Dark Humor provides the fighter with a re-roll in defense, which is great. In addition, if the fighter has a mask, on a defensive roll of a Crit, push this fighter 1 hex. My favorite upgrade in this deck.

Finally, we have Unassailable Stance, which results in -1 defense to a minimum of 1, but both Block and Dodge count as successes. Only really useful for a fighter with 1 defense dice.

Gambits

Next, we are onto the Gambits.

Possessive Crouch simply puts a fighter on Guard. I am always a fan of a Guard card.

Shuddering Violence gives the fighter +1 dice on their range 1 or 2 attack action, but will Stagger the fighter after the attack, not that bad late in the round. In addition, if the fighter has a mask, you can also re-roll one dice. Overall, a reasonable card.

Hooded Rush can be used to push a friendly fighter with an upgrade 1 hex. If the fighter has a mask, push them two hexes. While I like push tech, this card has an extra requirement, which makes it useless early in the game.

Funneled Soulstuff heals 1 to all friendly fighters with a mask, deal 1 damage to all other friendly fighters. I can see this card doing far more harm than good. This is definitely not being used. Having stated this, I could see some use for this card with Ylthari's Guardians or maybe the Dread Pageant to help inspire.

Another gambit I do not like is Unexpected Arrival. This card allows you to swap the positions of two friendly fighters, who each have Masks. Firstly, two fighters with Masks are going to be difficult to achieve to even use the card. Secondly, does this card give much tactical value? Overall, a poor card.

Unveiled Ambition appears to be an extremely useful card. Search your power deck for a Mask card and place it in your hand. I think this is a must-take to help this deck tick over.

Revealed Aspect allows you to draw a power card, nothing special. However, the card allows you to swap an upgrade from your hand with an upgrade on a fighter, even one that is out of action. This will allow you to return a mask to your hand from a dead fighter. Again, a must-include to keep scoring the deck's objectives.

Taking Over allows a fighter with a mask to make the Mask's action. A nice card to help solve the action economy problem of the Masks. I think this is a useful card, especially with the Howling Hood and the Echoguise.

Maskborn is a very interesting card. This card allows you to place a Mask-equipped friendly fighter who is out of action back on a starting hex in your territory. They can then make an action. The fighter is then removed in the next Surge step for no Bounty. The action this fighter makes could be an attack or one of the mask abilities. For me, this card works well with the Howling Hood, setting up a nice attack or move onto an objective in the next activation.

The final card in the deck is Scrabbling in the Dirt. This gambit allows you to swap a power card in your hand with a Malevolent Mask gambit from the discard pile. A nice card to keep recycling Taking Over and Maskborn.

Final Thoughts

Initially, I was a little disappointed with this deck. I would not want to use it as a pure Rivals deck as it lacks the raw power of others, notably Tooth and Claw or Force of Frost. However, I think there are a few nice cards in here for a Control warband, I am thinking particularly of the Sepurchral Guard here with its raise mechanic. Equally, I can see this deck working well with other 'Raise' mechanic warbands such as Headsman's Curse, Grymwatch and the Exiled Dead. The free upgrade ability of Hexbane's Hunters may also help to the get the mask out quickly. I might have to take a few of the Masks out for a spin with some of my favourite warbands.

What are your thoughts on this deck? Which warbands do you think will work with this deck? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. Bye for now.