The Zerkalo Bloc continues to pour into Earth from their hundreds of mirror worlds; however, they may have finally met their match as the chaos of the Monsterpocalypse continues to unfold. Despite the resistance they have encountered, the arrival of Zavod 075 and their Vorota Walkers signals that the Zerkalo Bloc is here to stay.
Far from the Zerkalo forces stands a recently arrived Bastion Lander. Within, the ancient and powerful magic of the Draken Armada are being worked. As the Draken Mystics chant, a strange shadow can be seen forming above. The shadow curls, bends, and slowly begins to warp. Gausumal appears from within the swirling vortex of magical darkness as she releases her spell. Her serpentine body coils protectively around the Bastion Lander while runes appear on her scales, sparking with tremendous power.
Today, I’m here to talk about the third set of releases for the Draken Armada and for the Zerkalo Bloc. Both sets of releases act as capstones for their respective Factions.
The Vorota Walkers and Zavod 075 bind the playstyle of Zerkalo Bloc together, offering the most powerful forms of spawning support in the game to date. Spawning from the ambulatory portals are the SPARs, quite literally a giant missile on legs.
Gausumal and her Mystics offer magical aid and bring much-needed air support in the form of the Stalkers. And Stalkers are extremely good at their job: picking off models holding objective spaces and buildings.
So, without further ado, let’s get right into the cards!
Zavod doubles down on the unit game like never before! Between Manufacture and Summon, Zavod can singlehandedly change the tide of battle. In one playtest game, while Voyaka had its hands full with an upcoming Savage Swarm monster, my Zavod was happily smashing their backline, creating Propo and Vorota Walkers all over the place. In one turn, Zavod contested three buildings and put a Vorota Walker on a Power Zone.
Zavod continues this support roll in hyper, switching some of its unit production for even more power die creation. It also gets a strange new ability: Suplex. At first glance, this might not seem all that powerful, but being able to step before you place a monster with a body slam can open up some crazy power attack angles we’ve never seen before.
SPARs are a rather odd new concept for Monsterpocalypse. They are all one-shot units, meaning that after they deal a couple of damage to a monster, the monster won’t be able to collect a bunch of Power Dice from wrecking the SPARs. They can also be a good counter to a brawl-heavy unit lists. Thanks to Blast Radius, you can space out your SPARs so any brawl attack that destroys them will result in the demise of the attacking unit. Finally, Artillery Barrage effectively make them a little bit cheaper—in a way, they are the first unit that costs less than 1 Action Die.
Vorota Walkers and Zavod go together like bread and butter. Beachhead is a new ability that helps tie the relatively slow Faction together by essentially turning every objective space into a spawn point. And remember that spawn points are objective spaces, so for one time a turn, there is no need to pay for the push spawn. Originally, these little buggers had Action: Summon, but having Vorota Walkers pop out of other Vorota Walkers proved to be just a little too efficient. So, Action: Reinforce ended up becoming a solid compromise.
One final note about the Zerkalo Bloc before moving on to the Drakens: the blister that contains SPARs and Vorota Walkers has 3 SPARs and 2 Vorota Walkers in it, so if you are pre-ordering, be sure to keep that in mind. I definitely suggest two blister packs—I often play with 4–5 SPARs and 4 Vorota Walkers, especially with Zavod.
Gausamal is a pretty unique monster. In alpha, she is all about using her various magic for support and protection. Between Unwieldy and Cloak, she can be hard to pin down. Unlike her fellow Draken, her blast attack isn’t so much a breath weapon; instead, it opens a portal into the void, sucking an entire dang building right on in.
In hyper, Gausamal focuses her potent magic on offense. She is the first Protector monster with Annihilate, so that is a thing. Her range attack becomes even more powerful, sucking not just the building into the void but all of the nearby units as well. Finally, Constrictor is a new ability that limits your opponent’s options and saps much-needed Action Dice from their pool when they need them the most.
Stalkers bring welcome flying units to the Draken forces. They fly around the battlefield, hampering your opponent’s powerbase. With their Outrider ability, they gain an extra boost while fighting units on objective spaces and adjacent to buildings. Combining these with Rastaban to give them Power Gorge can become a pretty mean swing of Power Dice from your opponent to you.
The serpentine Mystics of the Draken Armada utilize their magic to Intensify the powers of their forces. Unlike Robo Brontoxs, Mystics can join in more effectively on combined attacks. With Action: Empower, if your opponent leaves one of your grunt Stalkers in the middle of the board, it can quickly become a serious threat with a quick upgrade to an elite. This also means you won’t usually need to spawn elites until you really need them.
So, that wraps up the third wave of both the Draken Armada and the Zerkalo Bloc. But don’t worry—I have a holiday surprise just around the corner! Look forward to next month when you will be getting a first look at the mysterious Masters of the 8th Dimension and the stalwart Legion of Mutates. For now I have to go—the shapes are getting really angry, so I should find an acute little hiding spot!
