Part of the Clergy

Welcome to part 3 of our 4-part series covering the new Team Apoka Warhammer 40k Conquest deluxe expansion, Defenders of the Faith. In the last few articles we have looked at how faith works and how to use it to powerful effect. Today we take a step back and look at the new traits in this expansion.  The Sisters of Battle could have been its own faction, but because of the creation of Seraphim Superior Allegra from The Great Devourer expansion, FFG established them as part of the Astra Militarum faction. This card also introduced the Ecclesiarchy trait, and this is where our journey begins. 

Let us start by taking a look at how the new expansion uses the Ecclesiarchy trait.

Until Justice is Done a pretty sweet card. It can only be attached to an enemy unit and it increases the damage the unit is dealt by one. We have seen this same ability from Zarathur used to great effect in Chaos decks. The better part of this card is that in the Sisters of Battle deck we get to play it for free after an Ecclesiarchy unit gets dealt damage. This is big. If your opponent knows there is a potential for this card in your deck, you can force inefficient plays in combat to avoid it. If they don’t know it is coming, it will hurt… a lot. Being able to put this card into play means you don’t need to be winning to use it, which always makes me happy. Cards that help you get out of sticky situations are always great. This card is also sticky, meaning it is nearly impossible to remove. The only downside of this card is that it leaves play when the unit dies, but I think our next card can make that an upside.

How you ask? Well Ecclesicarchy isn’t the only trait we will see in this expansion. Until Justice is Done see’s the retund of the Vow trait as well and our next card really cares about that!

So Zealous Cantus is a solid body for her cost. She has the traits we care about in these decks. I can see building a pretty sweet Straken deck with the Sisters, but let’s focus on the other parts of this card, mainly her ability. A significant portion of the non-unit cards in this set have the trait Prayer (a new trait from this expansion) or Vow. In our first article we talked about ways to generate faith and this card is easily one we could have mentioned. I am a huge fan of tribal effects (effects that care about traits being on cards in play). This card is one that you put in to get more out of a theme, and that makes me sing with happiness. Let’s look at how it works with Until Justice is Done. Our opponent attacks Cantus, when damage is assigned you  attach Justice to an enemy army unit. When that unit Justice is attached to ends up dying, we get free faith for fulfilling out Vow! There is a super thematic, very awesome, and very fun tribal build I see emerging here.

Ecclesiarchy, Prayer, and Vow are all things that let you know you are facing some of the most zealous of the Emperor’s champions. These traits define the Sisters of Battle faction.  I look forward to being able to build with these cards at some point and to see if the faction feels as thematic as it looks like it will. That is all I have for today folks. Make sure to tune in next time for our final spoiler article for the Defenders of the Faith deluxe expansions. Living Card Guy, out!

-Kyle