The Biting Ancients Update

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Welcome to our end of the year Ancients update! We’ve crowned new Champions (Congratulations to Alex and Graham on winning Gencon and Online worlds, respectively!) and we’ve been able to watch over the last year, year and a half as the Ancients meta has evolved to account for the new rules of the Kingswood era. Of course, that means that it is time to change the meta by making changes to the reserved/restricted/banned lists that we’ve all grown accustomed to. Sit back, enjoy a cold beverage, and walk this path with me as we take a look at these fresh updates.

THE DOG POUND (woof, woof, woof)

The Biting West Wind has been put on the Reserved list and is back to being more bark than ferocious bite. These dogs were doubly brutal: early on the first turn, double react-speed +6 ranged strikes for doing something most decks want to do could easily lead to three or more consecutive strikes, placing an ungodly amount of early pressure on opponents. Then, if their enemy managed to stabilize, the skeletal hounds could saunter on up to the front rank with little bone daggers clutched in their paws and repeatedly Stab any meat wall unfortunate enough to find itself in their way.

By Reserving the dogs, we aim to make it more difficult for them to apply this double pressure, particularly on the first turn (where it was most egregious). The Biting West Wind is a still strong in-deck option for many Warlords and should continue to be playable. The Wind/Stab combo will still exist but will be much more difficult to pull off turn 1, and much riskier and less profitable to run without a front-line Rogue Warlord.

RESCUE SERVICE BUDGET CUTS LEAD TO REDUCTION IN COLD-WEATHER COMBAT

Rescue and Winter Warfare have both been added to the Restricted list. With the Kingswood rules revamp of July ‘23, targeting took on a whole new importance. While this has been good for a number of cards still on our watch list (Potion of Blurring, Fight Across the Rooftops), it helped no card like it did Rescue, a level 3 classless action, which could now cancel essentially anything your opponent tried to do to you that wasn’t a melee strike for the low cost of -5 skill. While there are cards that punish this skill loss, Rescue is actually pretty good against most of those as well. Over the year and a half these rules have been in place, we’ve seen Rescue go from an occasional include to a near obligatory 3-of in any deck that doesn’t rely on its Warlord’s skill. And so, like Toren Yscar of old, Rescue is getting limited to 1 per deck.

Back in June of ‘23, before the rules changes were announced, the Guardians were considering an emergency ban pre-Worlds: Winter Warfare. Premonition and Ancient Feuds just weren’t good enough answers to a card that would hold any Warlord’s arms behind their back while hordes of Spencer Lathams supported by Brother Dominy, Novice Ruth and Adarymy worked the body. Without Rescue, Seers still have Premonition, Rogues now have Prey on the Hunter and Wizards now have Blink, but many Warlords, especially Fighters, are out of luck. Rather than kick our last-place (Xod excepted) class while it’s down, we’re restricting Winter Warfare as well.

JOB 1:21

For the years we’ve been part of curating Ancients, it seems like we’ve always looked for things to take away from people. Incentives? Restrict it. Daedelia? Slapped in the face with the banhammer. We were the fun police, and we never tried to give back to our wonderful community. There is always the nagging fear in the back of our mind that wonders “What if these cards really aren’t that that bad?” Well, as the Guardians taketh, so too shall the Guardians giveth out.

Jautya Syne is Unbanned. Jautya is the only Warlord that has ever been banned in Ancients and now he is free. No longer bound to the beloved Oops All Jautya! format, the shapeshifting Mercenary is ready to make a statement in Ancients. There had been concerns voiced over a “Jautya tool-box” deck, that started Fylgia against ranged strikers, Rr’gent against people trying to draw etc., etc. Well let’s see it! If you can build a deck that beats someone other than Rreg’jen while starting Rr’gent as your Warlord, maybe you deserve the win. And if 5E sees the release of Peyton Latham on steroids, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then, everyone’s favorite Alien/Predator lovechild from the Plane of Secrets is fair game.

REVIEW OF CHANGES

UNBANNED: Jautya Syne
RESTRICTED: Winter Warfare, Rescue
RESERVED: The Biting West Wind

For a complete rundown of the current Ancients format, see click here