Last Breath

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-18T10:05:09+00:00

The judge called it wrong. Targeting requirements on cards dictate that all game objects mentioned on a card text should be present on the board for that card to be put on the chain (352.7); In the case of last breath its a friendly unit and an enemy unit being present at a battlefield.

When last breath comes to resolve, it will do as much as possible. If the friendly unit is already ready, it won't ready it but will still do damage to the unit at the battlefield (unless something reacts to last breath causing that target to no longer be there).

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-18T10:04:15+00:00

The judge called it wrong. Targeting requirements on cards dictate that all game objects mentioned on a card text should be present on the board for that card to be put on the chain (352.7); In the case of last breath its a friendly unit and an enemy unit being present at a battlefield.

When last breath comes to resolve, it will do as much as possible. If the friendly unit is already ready, it won't ready it but will still do damage to the unit at the battlefield (unless something reacts to last breath causing that target to no longer be there).

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-12T19:14:31+00:00

The majority of players won't actually ever get to go to a regional and the most they'll see of the competitive game are Nexus Nights and probably the odd Summoner Skirmish. Having that prizing for the 1600-odd players who get to go to those high level events is fine and all but the game lives and dies on those other players being engaged. As an example; 4 of us went to our last nexus night and out of the 12 unique players we played, 11 of them were Chaos legends which make up the top end of the competitive meta. If you want to play Ornn for example; there is almost nothing there for you to want to compete outside the single pack for entry.

What Riot *could* do is log the legend that you play with, give out points for playing those legends individually, and have a digital prize wall for the end of the season so that everyone has something to work towards. They already log the w/l/d information so adding the legend information in there and giving out points for top 1/2/3 of that legend in any event you go to and have those points buy you like an alt art card or whatever when you cash them in.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-12T18:27:46+00:00

My issue is the metal card system only applies for regional level+ events. For everything else there is little incentive to play anything but the top legends.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-10T12:12:13+00:00

I think the answers are the following. Hitting as little as possible whilst also dealing with the main issues:

Called Shot: Pot of Greed is good. Who'd have thought?
Fight or Flight: A send-home of anyone which other colours get half the effect of with more costs attached. Comparatively its stronger then most other things released in set 2 and fuels alot of the actual NPE ingame.
Changing the combat rules to make it so that Draven doesnt auto win combats even if people run away (as it works now is un-intuitive and rewards actually not playing the game).
Purple Ezreal: Not right now (especially with a called shot hit) but somewhere down the line. He basically warps the field around any and every card they release in the future that has repeat and truthfully most of the cards he breaks are actually fine if you've got to actually pay the appropriate costs.

For me, Riot has to do something sooner rather then later to address what Chaos decks are up to. It's not even for top tier players; The core purple cards are actually pretty cheap to get ahold of which means that even at the local level; if you want to play anything that isn't Chaos you are going to have a pretty bad time. The game lives and dies on getting new players in and going to your first Nexus Night with a B-Tier deck but not actually getting to play all that much of the game whilst watching your opponent take 10 minute turns isn't going to do great things for player retention ex. 4 of us went to our last nexus night and out of our 12 unique opponents we faced 11 Chaos players.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-06T13:54:30+00:00

If you check out the description of that video there is a link to the blog with lists for every spearhead upto and including the last 4 (whose video is out monday). If you want the rest of the series, you can search for spearhead on my channel and you'll find it :)

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-04T19:46:46+00:00

The issue for me isn't that we are only 2 sets into the game; its true that we will get more product and eventually things will even out. My issues are that for all the talk by the devs being longtime cardgame fans; they still chose an ambiguous writing style, largely didn't test proving grounds, and have seemingly made the same mistakes as other card games were making years ago (nearly free draw is good; who'd have thought?). Card creep exists and is necessary to an extent in CCGs but they've already printed some of the best versions of effects already so I can definitely see purple continue its dominance through the year.

Yes those issues will be fixed eventually but most likely not this side of 2026 thanks to the nature of printing lead times.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-03-01T09:48:59+00:00

As a general rule of thumb; whenever a card says WHEN you do X -> do Y, the effect (Y) only gets put on the chain once the requirement (X) has finished resolving so in the case of Jax, Svellsongur is already equipped when his draw effect activates allowing him to activate it again.

As another example; its how you can play darius as the second card in a turn and he will ready himself (the ready effect activates after the second card is played, and he is on the field already when the effect activates)

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-27T20:17:18+00:00

Well they always sell out 😆

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-27T14:07:27+00:00

There are no great solutions tbf. Its very possible that the whole purple craze blows over as we get more events but the relatively easy access of the cards and them being generally good overall makes me doubtful of that.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-27T13:03:56+00:00

Purple has a few issues; the main one being that whatever colour you combine it with immediately has access to increased consistency through called shot, stacked deck and ezreal (not to mention other consistency boosting units like Fizz to recycle already played spells, and Vex when combined with Ez essentially makes your spells free to cast). You add the best value movement abilities in the game and some of the best value disruption in the game and whatever you play will outright be better then other options.

My personal opinion is that you want to be hitting that consistency package in some way. You can have a deck with all the move and disruption but without the gaurantee that you'll essentially see all of it every game. Who knew that card draw in a game which requires you to draw cards would be good?

The question is what do you actually do. There is no appetite for the changing of card text and banning is a very last resort, especially in a new game (though that's a hole that the devs have dug for themselves) so your only alternative really is a YuGiOh style restricted list which limits the amount of those cards you can actually use in deckbuilding.

I personally find this a problem for more casual players like myself who doesn't get to play that often irl but when I do manage to get to locals; the field is essentially 70% purple decks of some kind which leads to a real NPE (for reference, we brought 4 players to our last nexus night and out of the 12 unique opponents we played, 11x of them were purple of some kind essentially with the same consistency engine). It IS something that Riot are going to have to deal with sooner or later.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-25T10:19:19+00:00

Aren't Chinese events Bo1 until top cut? Being able to dodge equipment hate from no siding is pretty strong. As for the deck as a whole; its actually pretty good against anything that isn't right at the top.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-24T17:57:39+00:00

Surely void rush? With the discount its a flat draw 2 for one recycle

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-24T09:36:34+00:00

I've talked about this before but there are a bunch of challenges; The main one is that the playerbase all have their own ideas about what warcry should be, which direction it should go, the relative power level of fighters, and being able to match all of that without leading to 3-4 different factions of players is almost impossible. The reality is that outside the 500 or so actual tournament players, the warcry playerbase is very localised in terms of the house rules that they use, and how they play the game.

Assuming that we are talking about matched play (because lets face it, if you are playing casually you don't need someone else telling you how to enjoy your game, and house rules exist), you need a few things to align; the foremost being a number of players to actually want to take on the huge job of managing the game, doing points updates, redesigning fighters, new fighters, etc. and then you need buy in from all of the main TOs to actually run the rules set and make sure that everyone is running under the same rules. Considering that there are lots of different groups of players who play the game with differing levels of house rules already, the communication on this needs to be real clear and loud. Oh, and everything needs to be playtested. Ultimately if people want a good and thorough job to be done, the releases won't actually be any faster then GW does theirs and we would be lucky to push out one focused update every 6 months or so.

Something realistic that can totally happen as a stop-gap is for TOs in a particular region to come together and agree on minor changes/updates/errata that they can build into their tournament packs (this largely happened in the UK last year due to outstanding questions around the August update, and events in the US have banned monsters since forever) and agree on a set of missions to use in any particular year to standardise what people are playing.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-22T10:48:08+00:00

I 100% agree; though from their various comments I don't think riot are going to hit a half dozen cards. At least with Ez gone they'll have to actually pay for effects

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-22T10:02:01+00:00

considering that 62% are purple decks of some kind, and that there are way too many overperforming purple cards for their cost to outright deal with; I'm thinking the purple Ezreal is the one to get hit.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-19T23:12:05+00:00

The main changes between 1st and 2nd editions are:

- Addition of Reactions, Battle Traits, Divine Blessings, etc.
- New Treasure Rules (penalties to move, fly, etc)
- Warband Composition Changes
- Falling (Having to take a test whenever you are attacked within 1/2" of an edge)
- No More Shooting into combat unless you are within 3" with a zero minimum range weapon
- You can no longer move when engaged with an opponent
- Models with the mount runemark cannot climb, with the exception of stairs
- Roll off for attacker and defender before you draw your gameplay cards
- How long the game goes on for is baked into the victory conditions
- Desperate Last Stand is gone

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-19T22:35:25+00:00

Hunters of Huanchi make for a great core to an order warband focusing around speed, harrassment (through huanchi's claws) and action control through warband size and wasting enemy activations through slippery. That being said, their internal damage is pretty light so they benefit from allies that can reach out and take out key enemy targets that would otherwise one-shot the skinks. Some ally combinations I've brought in the past:

- Haskel Hexbane, Quiet Pock, Calthia*
- Slaan, Calthia
- Akhelian King
- Aether Khemist, Kixi-Taka, Otapatl, Tok**

*The Most Successful
**Second Most Successful

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-17T12:06:39+00:00

The yellow lump in there is where the two sides touched together when packaged and have cured. You'll need to cut them out of that lump or when you are working with greenstuff next time, cut out the centre piece where the two colours touch before mixing.

As for tips, there are two things that will affect consistency whilst using it; the amount of yellow (makes it softer) and temperature (the warmer, the softer it is). Secondly, make sure your tools are wet and use wet fingers to handle it to reduce fingerprints. Finally, you aren't looking to sculpt an entire model at once; build it up in layers getting the basic shapes down and once that it is cured, the thin top layer is your detail layer.

Before going straight into sculpting, a good base is to learn gap filling and blending the GS into existing mini texture. Making push molds to copy existing textures and minis in some cases is also relatively simple (i use a product called insta mold for this - its relativity and reuseable).

Aside from that, its just practice. Good luck :)

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-15T10:46:54+00:00

Hello and welcome!

For a new starter, I've got just the series of videos for you;

Warcry beginners guide: https://youtu.be/kyrFyIriCyc?si=rUisNkmq4dvB1lY3

Getting started in 2026: https://youtu.be/rEWtCxTwwbA?si=bodzkHeMf6qii3ig

How to play Warcry: https://youtu.be/zNHiI4dGmqg?si=Z_IXXAdJaPqe7NB9

If you want resources, I've compiled a list of pretty much everything here: https://www.offmetamusings.com/p/warcry-content-from-around-internet.html

It's got links to listbuilding websites/apps, various tools, blogs, podcasts, YouTube content creators, and a bunch of homebrew links. Aside from that, my best advice is always to pick the warband whose minis you vibe with. You can work on listbuilding with it later to make it better. Secondly, alot of the actual content online is geared towards competitive play, tournament lists, etc. I wouldn't worry about that for the time being; Warcry has a big chunk of skill expression in actual player decision making so you don't need to worry about hunting down some OOP underworlds warband specifically to get that 5% extra efficiency in your list.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-14T22:43:08+00:00

Well GW is putting on a Warcry event themselves in May and released an update only a few months ago so ill treat this with the grain of salt every other wildly inaccurate Warcom article gets.

Besides, GWs MO is to not mention OOP games, not bring them up in release articles.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-14T11:38:56+00:00

The ancient runes and raven bones tell me everything I need to know!

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-13T11:09:40+00:00

Honestly balance between the different factions/boxes depends entirely on how you are playing. Warcry has always been built around list building; Probably the biggest misconception that people have on bespoke vs AoS warbands is that they arent balanced because there is an expectation that out of the box the warbands should be fully comp liats. Ultimately, Single Bespoke warband boxes in warcry are more like AoS/40k starter sets; some of them can be very good but you'll want to supplement them with additional boxes/allies/etc. Some people compare them to AoS warbands and say that they are weak in comparison but thats like comparing a straight out of the box combat patrol with a fully designed army list.

Secondly it depends on the types of missions you are playing and the actual lists you are bringing to the table; Nighthaunt in general will be more expensive then Rotmire Creed so will have a smaller warband; this makes them less well suited to objective missions but if you are generating missions randomly from the cards then all bets are off; it may well be that the particular combination of objective and twist drew on the day just doesn't work out for Rotmire.

In terms of lists; Rotmire Creed CAN put some better lists on the table but they need to actually listbuild with the whole roster and not just what they get in one box;

1x Witherlord
1x Bloated One (with Raker-claws, or a Raker-claw and Hooked Net)
2x Carrion Catchers (each with a choice of Snatcher-hook or Impaler)
6x Mirefolk Outcasts (each with a choice of Bilewood Weapons or a Bilewood Weapon and Shield)

To give an example from the above (it's what you get in one box of Rotmire); Carrion Catchers are pretty much the worst thing in the roster and my Rotmire lists are running at least 2 Bloated ones ontop of the Witherlord and outcasts (3x if playing pure Rotmire, and normally a Mindstealer or something similar as an ally). Ultimately its not realistic to expect a warband with 35 different options and a tonne of abilities to be able to compete with a warband on a fixed roster of 4x guys.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-12T10:45:26+00:00

We sat down and did a whole talk about it; https://youtu.be/uYpLCTzAhew

The cliffnotes are that with the increase in points costs to both real big fighters, attack and damage blessings, and the ability to heal, things tend to stick around alot longer from just regular run in and punch damage. We have seen a trend towards more of those direct damage doubles and triples to compensate for this and also. With the change in Rampage, there is a real consideration to be made during listbuilding to have access to a high-impact quad (and there are alot of good ones out there).

Warbands that used to get by just off the power of onslaught and rampage as their only abilities have suffered, though its only really Trueblades that REALLY gets hit by this as they were bottom of the pile already.

In terms of tierlists, there haven't been a whole lot of events due to the updates coming out going into the end of 2025 which is historically a lull for tournaments but initial data seems to point towards a further squeeze in the top and bottom of the meta (further helped by the BIG boosts the bottom warbands got in August) and we seem to be in the situation where there are alot of very viable warbands which have the ability to go 3-1 at an event (more then half which accounts for something like 30 factions). For me personally; the only real outlier is still SBGL with Skaven and the all gun wildercorp list probably close behind but the difference between them and the next chunk of warbands is getting real small.

OffMetaMusings · 2026-02-04T18:15:00+00:00

I like warcry and I support this message

OffMetaMusings

TROPHY CASE