Welcome to the first ever Spent Glory Product Review weekend! Thank you to Games Workshop for providing Spent Glory with an advance copy of this product for review and content creation. I hope to be able to provide something to the community that you all find valuable. Let me know what you think of my reviews and what you’d like to see change in the future!
Click here for a Master List of every Rivals Deck
Lore
The lore card that comes with this deck’s cover is pretty cool thematically. It suggests that Embergard is a hellish place and those who have survived here, especially those who survived against the odds, have become ‘tempered’ by their experiences – hardened like the steel of the chipped knife in the deck icon. You either got by on scrapy resilience, underhanded cunning, or sheer luck, but being down in these mine shafts has changed you. Even for the shining heroes like the Stormcast, you’ll eventually take your lumps and either be hardened by the experience or perish. Life is tough for the warbands of the Underworlds, and for those down on their luck or at a natural disadvantage, this deck aims to draw on the inner strength and lessons learned for our fighters.
It’s fun to have a deck that specifically is for the little guy, at least in terms of the narrative intent. When you have giant dinosaurs, lighting-wreathed demigods, literal daemons, and worse, what’s a little two-wound fighter to do besides soil themselves and wait for the end? Go hard or go home, that’s what. Everybody loves an underdog story. That said, if you’re playing this deck, you might be the underdog most of the time.
Overview
Edge of the Knife is a deck in identity crisis – who is it for? It’s a Flex deck per the labeling, but most of the cards feel like Strike-adjacent and the deck is only moderately positional with effectively no Hold components – yet, as we will see towards the end of the article, this deck seems to work best with multiple warband who are currently designated as Take and Hold.. It’s almost more of a Control deck, which I would call Mastery, but what do I know. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it comes with a Plot card and therefore a twist – many, many of your cards are going to reference the Tempered state – granted to fighters with 2 health at the start of the game or those with 2+ damage on them. If you don’t have enough Tempered fighters, more than half of the cards do nothing. If you have Tempered fighters that aren’t great, you may not be able get use out of the cards anyway.
In advance, I’m going to let you know that 4/6 Surge Objectives and 5/6 End Phase Objectives reference Tempered fighters in their scoring conditions. Additionally, 7/10 power cards require a Tempered fighter to do anything at all, and are literally useless with no Tempered fighters. One of your upgrades does nothing if the fighter isn’t Tempered, and another only does 1/2 of its effect if the fighter is not Tempered.
If you don’t have tempered fighters to start, you’re in for a bad time. You could take 2 damage, sure, but you could also dip into the deck for help. Unfortunately, Only two ploys help you become Tempered – one only lasts for a single action step, and the other requires at least one other Tempered fighter to activate it. But fear not, there’s a whole one upgrade that makes a fighter Tempered, and it does nothing else at all!
I’m going to Cover this deck card by card, but different cards are going to fit better into different flavors of warband composition. In Rivals, you are REALLY going to want to pick the ‘right’ warband for this deck – in my testing I found that it does not work for all comers, even if the warband is designated as a Flex warband. In Nemesis, you’ll have 32 cards to choose from, but you’re going to want a completely different handful depending on what type of warband you’re bringing. In each card, I’ll suggest who does and doesn’t like it from each of these four types, and then summarize at the end:
- Hordes (6-7 fighter warbands who will start with multiple tempered fighters)
- Big Boys (Warbands with one large fighter and several tempered minions)
- Elites (3 fighter warbands with higher wound pools and few/no tempered fighters to start) (click here for an Elite-Specific review for this deck)
- Standard (4-5 fighter warbands who might have 0-1 tempered fighters to start, 2 if you’re lucky)
Plot
The Plot card grants the Keyword ‘Tempered’ to any fighters with a health characteristic of 2 or less and/or 2 or more damage tokens. As alluded to above, this is a major component of the deck and you need fighters who meet this condition to get any use out of it. Notably, if you give a 2-health fighter the Great Fortitude upgrade, they’re no longer Tempered, so Nemesis deckbuilders beware.
Surge Objectives
Aggressive Defender
One we have seen in other decks – make an attack on a treasure token (not the cover side!). Better for warbands with ranged attacks or fast fighters, but definitely a strong choice, and you don’t even have to hit.
Who Likes This? Everybody
Behind Enemy Lines
Hold a token with a Tempered fighter in enemy territory is an ask, for sure. It’s an even bigger ask that this happens after an enemy action step, so they’ll have a power step and an activation to push/slay your Tempered fighter who presumably is in a dangerous position. All right if you were already going for this, or have ways to get guard/can’t be driven back/multiple fighters onto tokens at once.
Who Likes This? Hordes, Big Boys, maybe Elites
Double Team
A friendly fighter needs to successfully attack AND they need to have done so with a flanking fighter. That means Hidden Aid won’t help you here. It also means you want to be making attacks and need ways to manufacture flanking, but at least it doesn’t require anybody to be Tempered.
Who Likes This? Big Boys, Hordes, maybe Standard and Elites.
Immovable
A Tempered fighter was attacked and not slain. Despite mentioning Tempered, this is the kind of thing I think everybody can get behind. At some point in the game you’ll have a tougher fighter with 2 damage or more who tanks an attack, or a lil’ guy who gets lucky. Unless your opponent isn’t attacking Tempered fighters (in which case, what are they doing?), you should eventually score this.
Who Likes This? Everybody, but especially Hordes and Big Boys.
Power in Numbers
Tempered fighters with no Move tokens are adjacent after an action step; 3 of them, or 2 if you’re the underdog. Fortunately, Charge tokens don’t block this, so you could charge a ranged fighter in between two others and get it done, but you’ll really want to see this early when you have more fighters and it really only works for warbands with many Tempered fighters to choose from and/or those with push mechanics (not moves, sorry Sep G). Bonus points if you’re the underdog with two adjacent starting hexes in the early game. Chalk one up for Hordes.
Who Likes This? Hordes, maybe Big Boys
Sneak Into Position
After your opponent’s action step, you have two Tempered fighters adjacent to the same enemy, so they have to survive and/or the enemy can’t run away. This one is tough unless you have some way to manufacture flanked/surrounded with warscroll abilities and have decent defense like Thorns.
Also, I want to make a quick comment about the card’s image. I’ve been relatively neutral on card photos up to this point, and while I preferred the artwork I understand the change. That said, this photo is so incredibly similar at first glance to Sally Forth from Emberstone Sentinels that it’s going to cause problems, especially in Nemesis when you might have both Objectives in the deck. This might be the card that gets me to join the ‘photos bad’ crowd. I really hope GW does more to differentiate cards images in the future.
Who Likes This? Honestly probably Nobody, but maybe Hordes or Big Boys
End Phase Objectives
All In
No Tempered friendly fighters in your territory, and any (at least 1) in neutral or enemy territory. This is a tough one for Hordes and Big Boys to accomplish, and might be the first thing we have seen that actually tips towards Elites/Standard who start with 0-1 Tempered fighters. That is, if they want to advance forward, which not all of them do.
Who Likes This? Elites and maybe Standard
Calm Before the Storm
There must be damaged fighters, and those fighters must not be adjacent. The later in the game (and the fewer fighters around) the more trivial this becomes, and for 2 glory it’s worth trying for. The type of positional card I love for Flex, I think this is worth trying for anybody – even Hordes, as those fighters are likely to just die rather than become damaged.
Who Likes This? Everybody, but especially Elites and Standard
Risky Position
A Tempered friendly fighter is in enemy territory in an end phase. Reasonable for everybody to achieve, but easiest if you have tons of Tempered fighters. You only need one!
Who Likes This? Hordes and Big Boys, Maybe Elites and Standard
Trial of the Tempered
Every fighter on the board is Tempered in an end phase. Yikes, my guy. That said, it’s worth 3 Glory. If you take one of the warbands that’s almost entirely Tempered, you just have to make sure to spread the hurt to your opponent and pray you don’t draw this in round 1. Super easy, right?
Who Likes This? Nobody really, but maybe Hordes and Big Boys.
Two Pronged Assault
Two or more Tempered friendly fighters in enemy territory in an end phase is an interesting one. Harder than All In because you need two, but easier because you can also have some in your own territory. This one is effectively reserved for warbands with several Tempered fighters who can flood the board and make target priority difficult.
Who Likes This? Hordes and Big Boys
Usurper
This one is a real stinker. The enemy leader needs to have been slain this round, and it needs to have been done by a Tempered fighter. What if the leader died in an earlier round? What if they died to a non-Tempered fighter, or you got them with a ping? What if their leader is still alive, hiding in the back with +defense, rerolls, and Great Fortitude? What if your Tempered fighters are all throwing two swords for 1 damage? Entirely unreliable, but at least it’s worth 2 glory – good luck scoring it consistently.
Who Likes This? Nobody at all, except maybe your opponent. Khagra is the Usurper and I bet she could kill a leader with 2 damage tokens, but still. Skip this card in Nemesis.
Ploys
Death Throes
You choose a Tempered fighter, and then in the next action step any attacks that target them get -2 dice (to a minimum of 1). Fantastic for keeping that crucial Tempered fighter alive for another round, and probably even convincing your opponent to not even risk it. This slows down Strike opponents, helps you score loads of cards, and is a great control piece. The hard part is the fighter has to be Tempered, and it only affects the one you choose, but it feels like a pretty great card regardless.
Who Likes This? Big Boys, Elites, maybe Hordes and Standard
Fake Out!
Every Rivals deck these days seems to come with a ping card, and this one is ours. You have to choose an enemy with a health characteristic of 3 or more, and they have to be adjacent to a Tempered friendly fighter. You then have a 50% chance (66% if the underdog) of dealing that damage. It’s situational to be sure, but it can slay a fighter and it’s in there with the David and Goliath approach the deck wants us to take.
Who Likes This? Hordes, Big Boys
Final Stand
Tempered friendly fighters can’t be pushed in the next action step. If you’re playing positional Flex or a Take and Hold approach, this is a nice card, assuming you have plenty of Tempered fighters (or one important one) for it to apply to. There’s also the fact that Tempered fighters tend to die rather than get pushed, so it’s not like this is a home run for anybody.
Who Likes This? Nobody for sure, but maybe Big Boys, Hordes, and Elites
Opportunity Strikes
Tempered fighters get +1 dice on a single attack. Always welcome, and Gristlewel on the card is a great big hint on who this fits best with – that one high-damage attack you just NEED to go through.
Who Likes This? Hordes, Big Boys, maybe Elites and Standard
Power From Death
A Tempered fighter is slain? You can draw 3 cards. Sick. They need to be worth 1 bounty or more, so less good for Raise warbands or worthless fighters like Tik Tik. That said, draw 3 is solid and this is going to happen in nearly every game with nearly every warband eventually.
Who Likes This? Hordes, Big Boys, Standard (with caveats), and maybe Elites
Running Riot
After a Tempered friendly fighter’s successful attack, pick another friendly fighter and they’re now Tempered for the rest of the game. It requires you to have one already, and that fighter has to be somewhat accurate, and you have to feel the need to spread Tempered to another fighter, so it’s not for everybody. For those who do like it, it’s borderline necessary in this deck.
Who Likes This? Standard, Elites
Sidestep
Some cards require no deliberation.
Who Likes This? Everybody
Spiteful Traps
An enemy fighter with a health characteristic of 3+ gets a move token if they’re within 2 of your leader. This is actually a cool control piece for the right warbands – if your leader is willing to get into the mix early, you can take away the ability for that key enemy fighter to charge. Careful that your key enemy doesn’t have a range 2 attack that’s too strong though, because I’ll tell you where it’s going next…
Who Likes This? Elites, Big Boys, maybe Standard
Synchronized Effort
Take two Tempered friendly fighters within 4 hexes and switch their position? Good lord, what a high-utility ploy! Charge, swap, and charge deeper. Take your leader and get them out of danger after they take 2+ damage. Your opponent thought your elites were out of position to charge out? Think again! It of course requires multiple Tempered fighters in range of each other, so it’s not perfect for Elites and Standard warbands, but when this card hits it hits big. This one will win you games. Or be a dead card. Play with it and find out!
Who Likes This? Hordes, Big Boys, maybe Elites and Standard
The Uprising!
For the next action step, all friendly fighters are Tempered. Theoretically this helps you score some cards, but only the surges. It also locks you out of some ploys since they won’t be Tempered in the power step. I understand what they’re trying to do here but it could have been much more generously worded and last longer, and in its current state I think this card is just too weak for inclusion in most decks.
Who Likes This? Maybe Elites and Standard
Upgrades
Dark Horse
“This fighter is Tempered” for one glory can unlock tons of the power in the deck for that specific fighter, and if you’re short on Tempered fighters it’s a welcome upgrade though it otherwise does nothing. Nice for letting your leader/big boy/ any standard/elite get into the mix.
Who Likes This? Standard, Elites, maybe Big Boys and Hordes
Deadly Aim
Ensnare on weapons is a somewhat underpowered upgrade for a glory. Depending on your meta it’s not even useful, but it could be helpful.
Who Likes This? Maybe Everybody (but really Nobody)
Fuelled by Pain
This one is super weird. First off, Fueled is only spelled with one L where I come from. Second, it gets better the more damage your fighter has taken, so it does effectively nothing for smaller fighters. Bigger fighters often have a better attack than this anyway until you get up to the higher damage stats, and it will be hard to rely on this. Not sure anybody really likes it, except Blackpowder on 7 damage.
Who Likes This? Maybe Big Boys, Elites
Great Fortitude
This is good for everybody, every time, and is consistently taken in the top tournament decks when available. Definitely worth 2 glory in the right situation. HOWEVER be aware that this will push a 2 health fighter out of Tempered status, so only use it on bigger fighters/leaders if you’re playing Hordes.
Who Likes This? Everybody
Impervious
Can’t be cleaved or ensnared while Tempered. It depends on whether your opponent even is using these abilities, and then better for putting on a high-value fighter, presuming they’re Tempered. Somewhat situational.
Who Likes This? Maybe Everybody
Lash Out
When this fighter is slain you have a chance to dish out some move tokens to people near them. Potentially a cool control piece to preventing an enemy charging out that gets better as the game goes along, it can also act as a deterrent to even trying to slay that fighter in the first place. The nice part is you don’t roll dice for each fighter, you roll and then get to pick which fighter, so you can place the move token on exactly who you want (assuming you get one). A potential game winner, but will be a dead card a lot of the time.
Who Likes This? Nobody, but maybe Everybody
Mobbed!
Oh baby, this one is the business. You get flanked and surrounded benefits on every attack from this fighter if their target is within 3 hexes of any other friendlies. Huge accuracy boost especially on swords/higher dice values, assuming you have the bodies to mob with. But 3 hexes is a big bubble, and who doesn’t want to basically guarantee that 3 damage hit? Totally worth 2 glory, especially if you expect to get multiple attacks out of the fighter.
Who Likes This? Everybody, but especially Big Boys
Parting Shot
As you’re slain, you can dish a stagger token out to somebody within 2 hexes, and deal a ping damage too if you were Tempered before you went down. Not bad, and a potential deterrent to attacking that fighter especially on tempered fighters. Not marvelous either though, and you’ll want Tempered soft targets to actually see use out of it.
Who Likes This? Hordes, maybe Big Boys
Pesky Nuisance
Enemy fighters adjacent to this fighter must target them instead of other enemies with their attacks. This is like a diet Fury of Aqshy, but much more fair and I think will see good play in the right players’ hands. If you dump it on a worthless chump and run them up to a charged out fighter, they can’t swing at your important piece. Good chance the fighter wearing this dies, but that saved an attack on your leader and should still be worth it. Even Standard warbands can make use of it as you force them to attack a high health fighter instead of finishing somebody off, or waste an activation taking a move to get away from the nuisance.
Who Likes This? Everybody
Obligatory Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Sharpened Points
Cleave, like ensnare, is situational. This one is better than Deadly Aim in most builds and against most opponents though.
Who Likes This? Everybody
Flavor Count
- Hordes: 5 Surges (1 maybe), 3 End Phase (1 maybe), 5 Ploys (2 maybes), 5 Upgrades (4 maybes)
- Between 18-26 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Big Boys: 4 Surges (2 maybes), 3 End Phase (1 maybe), 7 Ploys (1 maybe), 4 Upgrades (6 maybes)
- Between 18-28 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Elites: 2 Surges (2 maybes), 2 End Phase (1 maybe), 4 Ploys (5 maybes), 5 Upgrades (4 maybes)
- Between 13-25 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Standard: 2 Surges, 1 End Phase (2 maybes), 3 Ploys (5 maybes), 5 Upgrades (3 maybes)
- Between 11-21 of the 32 cards are good for them
In Practice
My limited testing showed that the Grymwatch actually enjoyed this relatively well, even in Rivals. A Horde with 6 Tempered fighters at the start, they have the capacity to bring back fighters anywhere they please and so can score the positional Tempered cards somewhat easily, and have the capacity for those tempered fighters to make attacks and do some damage. I expect that it would work reasonably well with other hordes that have movement economy and some incentive to combat like Thorns of the Briar Queen or Sepulchral Guard as well, and Zarbag’s Gitz have caught my eye as a potential top enjoyer of this deck in Nemesis, possibly with Blazing Assault as a companion.
I tried the deck once with Morgok’s Krushas to test out Elites, and found it was lacking in Rivals format, as I had to work to get Tempered and a lot of the power and scoring was locked behind that condition. Once Tempered though, things flowed smoothly enough – but a canny opponent will not allow you to have multiple Tempered fighters at a time so easily. In Nemesis I expect you could do all right with this deck and a strike-oriented elite, as you’ll be able to score other cards and then use that glory to get the Tempered ball rolling, and if you make your fighters scary enough with upgrades and ploys from other decks they’ll have more incentive to attack you back and grant you Tempered. Self pings in Wrack and Ruin could also get you part of the way there. Click here for an Elites-Specific review for this deck
I also tried the deck once for a Standard warband with Myari’s Purifiers in Rivals, and YEESH that was a bad time. I never had more than one Tempered fighter at a time, and that only right before they died. In Nemesis you could presumably take far less Tempered tech, but then you have to ask yourself why you’re taking this deck instead of another one. And this even with a ‘Flex and Flex’ pairing in Rivals, which is a bummer for the new players out there who are just smashing the symbols together like they’ve been told to do. While it doesn’t pair well with Borgit in my estimation, at least that warband goes gangbusters (and has two Tempered fighters) so those new players have a shot anyway.
I actually don’t own any Big Boys warbands besides Hrothgorn, and since he’s not in the competitive rotation I didn’t give it a spin. It just historically hasn’t been my style. If I were to try the Big Boy approach with this deck, Kainan’s Reapers look like an obvious first choice. You have plenty of Tempered fighters at roll-off and have the ability to almost ‘force’ tempered onto Kainan with Dire Ultimatum. Also, imagine ‘Mobbed!’ on a tooled up leader – he’s doubled his chance to hit that 3 damage swing, and you can trigger Ranks Unbroken By Dissent to get free Grievous with it too, so expect to see some Boney Boy Tax Collectors on a board near you. Now will this deck be the thing that saves Blackpowder? Probably not, but at least he has a use case in the meta.
Wrap
If you remember First Edition Nemesis format, this deck feels a little bit like Beastbound Assault to me, though easier to gain the special keyword in some respects. That said, it’s effectively a keyword-associated deck, and if you don’t have Tempered fighters at the start, or your Tempered fighters are no good, you’ll struggle to make the best use of this deck. It doesn’t fit with every warband out there, and certainly isn’t a plug-and-play with any Flex team like the recent marketing has come to suggest.
Let’s recap the Flavor Count:
- Hordes: 5 Surges (1 maybe), 3 End Phase (1 maybe), 5 Ploys (2 maybes), 5 Upgrades (4 maybes)
- Between 18-26 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Big Boys: 4 Surges (2 maybes), 3 End Phase (1 maybe), 7 Ploys (1 maybe), 4 Upgrades (6 maybes)
- Between 18-28 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Elites: 2 Surges (2 maybes), 2 End Phase (1 maybe), 4 Ploys (5 maybes), 5 Upgrades (4 maybes)
- Between 13-25 of the 32 cards are good for them
- Click here for an Elites-Specific review for this deck
- Standard: 2 Surges, 1 End Phase (2 maybes), 3 Ploys (5 maybes), 5 Upgrades (3 maybes)
- Between 11-21 of the 32 cards are good for them
So who is this deck for, actually? In Rivals you’re limited to Hordes and Big Boys (except Mollog, who somehow has no Tempered fighters and would count as a Standard warband in this framework), since they can enjoy more than half the cards in the deck reliably. In Nemesis you can reasonably build something for Elites too, but you’ll need a plan to get Tempered, and fast, so pack in plenty of ‘Make this fighter Tempered’ and/or self-damage if your opponent won’t do you the favor. Click here for an Elites-Specific review for this deck
You’ll almost certainly want to avoid Standard warbands unless you have a real plan to become Tempered (and hopefully also start with 1-2 Tempered fighters), say through self-pings in Wrack and Ruin. Regrettably you cannot combine it with Countdown to Cataclysm as they both have Plot Cards (of which a Nemesis deck can only have 1), and therefore one of the better Rivals decks with a strong self-ping capacity is not available for you.
In my estimation you can’t do anything reasonable in this deck without at least 2 Tempered fighters, and ideally more like 4-6 because you will lose some if your opponent is competent. Here’s a list of how many Tempered fighters exist in each warband with a minimum of 2 (as of February 2025):
6 – The Grymwatch, The Sepulchral Guard, Zarbag’s Gitz
5 – Kainan’s Reapers, Thorns of the Briar Queen
4 – Grinkrak’s Looncourt, Hexbane’s Hunters, Blackpowder’s Buccaneers
3 – Zondara’s Gravebreakers
2 – Da Kunnin’ Krew, Brethren of the Bolt, Borgit’s Beastgrabbaz
If the warband you like isn’t on that list (as of February 2025), I heavily recommend you skip this deck, at least in Rivals and probably in Nemesis too. The lower it is on the list, the more you should probably look elsewhere. Resurrection abilities also increase this deck’s stock, since those 3-6 fighters are more likely to be on the board and useful if you can give them Raise tokens (making Zondara’s Gravebreakers a possibility despite only 3 Tempered fighters). As a result, the standouts to me look like Grymwatch, Zarbag, and Sepulchral Guard with a nod towards Kainan’s and Thorns of the Briar Queen as reasonable choices to start with.
For my psychopaths out there, you have an edge case for Grandfather’s Gardeners (starting with 1 Tempered fighter) because your 3 wounders will become 4 wounders once they get Tempered and can’t be one-shot. Zikkit’s Tunnelpack also starts with 1 Tempered fighter and has a single-use Warscroll ability to deal 2 damage on a 1/3 chance after Warp-Charged, which you can’t rely on but is there for any mad scientists looking to brew something rodentious. I guess you could also choose to throw out the Ploys for Warscroll benefits if you’re playing Daggok’s Stab-Ladz, but man, just play them with Emberstone Sentinels.
If you’d like to see the other product reviews produced by Spent Glory, click here
With all that said, thanks for reading Spent Glory’s first Deck Preview, and thanks to Games Workshop for providing me with an advance copy to talk about. What do you think of the deck, and who do you plan to test it with first? What other Rivals Decks might you try it with in Nemesis? Let me know by commenting wherever you found this or by emailing SpentGlory@gmail.com – and don’t forget to Spend your Glory!
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