FiF Preview: Blood Demon

[Lord0fWinter]

The Blood Demon has been revealed! The article is HERE, written by Richard Daly.



This is another great card. Fantastic for Blood Reaper, and very good even without it. Mid level with flying and vampiric = awesome.

Not to mention the artwork is top-notch, as always!

On a side note, this was Richard's last preview article for this set. Thank you so much for your hard work! I really enjoyed your articles and I'm sure everybody else did too!

[svvcDark]

Blood Reaper, Blood Reaper, BLOOD REAPER!

Out goes the Vampiress, here come the demons. Good lord Adramelech, I am chomping at the bit for this expansion.

[MrSaucy]

Nice. Middle-range cost. Isn't limited to Dark Mage only. Counts as a Demon so you can use Bloodreaper. Two nice traits and some awesome art. I am liking all of these spoilers and previews so far! It looks like this next expansion will be the best one yet!

[sdougla2]

Finally, another good option for Blood Reaper. This is going into my Arraxian Crown Warlock book as soon as I get my hands on FiF.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Oh he's awesome. Everything I'd hope for. Yeah obviously he'll make a fine Blood Demon. A flock of these guys would be horrifying.

[ringkichard]

On a side note, this was Richard's last preview article for this set. Thank you so much for your hard work! I really enjoyed your articles and I'm sure everybody else did too!

Aw shucks, flattery will get you everywhere.

[gw]

Nice artwork.

[Aylin]

I like the thought of the Blood Demon as a Blood Reaper.  I think the Dark Pact Slayer will no longer be the go-to Reaper, since this is much cheaper for only a minor loss in damage and covers the main weakness of the Reaper (no survivability boost).

I'm not sure how much the new Warlock will like this demon though. Seems she wants her minions to deal Fire damage, so she might want to bring Flaming Hellions instead.

[reddawn]

I like the thought of the Blood Demon as a Blood Reaper.  I think the Dark Pact Slayer will no longer be the go-to Reaper, since this is much cheaper for only a minor loss in damage and covers the main weakness of the Reaper (no survivability boost).

I'm not sure how much the new Warlock will like this demon though. Seems she wants her minions to deal Fire damage, so she might want to bring Flaming Hellions instead.

Really? Blood Demon is only 1 less mana; I wouldn't really call that "much cheaper."  And while it has Vampiric, it doesn't have any piercing, so I dont think it's going to be healing more than a couple points per round, at most.  It's abilities are also heavily reliant on the enemy creature being Living, whereas the Slayer just has more flat health, armor, and dice (which also scale better with the piercing +2).

BD seems pretty ideal for picking off small living creatures though, which it could easily destroy with just one attack, rather than being the frontline tank Slayers are. 

So, I really like this demon because it opens up new options for Warlocks, as well as growing the rather small Flying creature pool for every mage, but it's more niche and easier to counter than Slayers so I doubt it will replace them. 

[Zuberi]

I think this guy and the Dark Pact Slayer are pretty equivalent. The Slayer obviously has the better attack and will deal more damage with it's Piercing +2 trait. However, the Blood Demon's Flying more than makes up for the difference in Armor and Life in my opinion. Then Vampiric just adds to it's survival. The fact that Vampiric (and Bloodthirsty) does not work against Non-Living is not a big concern because your opponent will always have at least one Living Creature that can be targeted. His Mage. Thus, it really boils down to if you'd rather have your Reaper deal more damage or survive longer. Both are viable options.

[Aylin]

I like the thought of the Blood Demon as a Blood Reaper.  I think the Dark Pact Slayer will no longer be the go-to Reaper, since this is much cheaper for only a minor loss in damage and covers the main weakness of the Reaper (no survivability boost).

I'm not sure how much the new Warlock will like this demon though. Seems she wants her minions to deal Fire damage, so she might want to bring Flaming Hellions instead.

Really? Blood Demon is only 1 less mana; I wouldn't really call that "much cheaper."  And while it has Vampiric, it doesn't have any piercing, so I dont think it's going to be healing more than a couple points per round, at most.  It's abilities are also heavily reliant on the enemy creature being Living, whereas the Slayer just has more flat health, armor, and dice (which also scale better with the piercing +2).

BD seems pretty ideal for picking off small living creatures though, which it could easily destroy with just one attack, rather than being the frontline tank Slayers are. 

So, I really like this demon because it opens up new options for Warlocks, as well as growing the rather small Flying creature pool for every mage, but it's more niche and easier to counter than Slayers so I doubt it will replace them.

All mages are living, so Bloodthirsty works on them. Piercing is kinda nice, but with so many ways of removing armour on mages it isn't a big deal (Rust, Acid Ball, Dissolve, Explode, etc). Plus Lion Savagery is going to be in this set.

A Reapered Blood Demon will take more resources from your opponent to destroy than a Slayer would as well. While it isn't as Tough, conveniently Main Wings is in-school for Warlocks...

Which I suppose brings me to my final point; I never said Blood Demon would replace Dark Pact Slayer in general, just that I thought Blood Demon would be a more popular choice for Blood Reaper.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Yeah it's pretty much gonna be a matter of pure personal preference in terms of who you want as your Blood Reaper. I'll probably still go for the Dark Pact Slayer most times but I'm certainly willing to try the Blood Demon out. I might even try the Scourger.

[reddawn]

I think Scourger is actually going to be more of the fotm BR when FiF hits.  It fills the level 2, 9 or less mana demon slot that Warlocks have been sorely needing since the base game, and has all-around good stats and abilities, though its health is a little on the low side for its cost (not by much though).

And yes while there are thankfully more options for countering armor since the base set, Slayers don't require much support to work outside of making sure they get attacks on relevant targets.  You need to invest more actions and mana into supporting BD to make sure its attack stays relevant.

BDs will probably be good reapers, but Slayers still seem like a significantly safer play to me.

[Zuberi]

I think the Scourger will also make a great Reaper. It's Counterstrike ability is amazing for the job, since it'll gain the Bloodthirsty bonus on that as well as it's own attack. Keeping it alive though could be a chore.

I'm not certain what you mean about investing to keep the Blood Demon's attack relevant. Without any support at all, the Blood Demon will be rolling 6 Attack Dice against the enemy mage. Regardless of how much armor the mage has, on average you can expect a crit somewhere among that many dice. This ensures that you will be gaining the Reaper benefit and healing each round from it's attack. I'm assuming that's what you meant by relevant. There's no argument that it won't be as powerful as the Dark Pact Slayer's, but as mentioned, that's not why you would choose the Blood Demon in the first place. You'd choose it because you favor it's extra survivability over the Slayer's.

[Aylin]

There's no argument that it won't be as powerful as the Dark Pact Slayer's, but as mentioned, that's not why you would choose the Blood Demon in the first place. You'd choose it because you favor it's extra survivability over the Slayer's.

This, exactly.

Instead of investing resources keeping the Slayer alive, you can just focus on making the Blood Demon's attack stronger.