Q2 Ancients Format Update
Since the release of Campaign Edition and the first rotation of sets, Warlord has always had some sort of non-rotating constructed format for players who want to be able to use their broader card pool and make more powerful or more complex decks. For well over a decade now the most popular of these formats has been Ancients.
Ancients Past
So what is Ancients? Ancients is Warlord’s non-rotating constructed format that uses cards from every set in the game’s history, with a small list of bans and restrictions. The list has long been maintained by a group of players, including Josh and Woodrow before they started Kingswood Games and left to pursue the game’s revival.
So what about the future of Ancients? Now that the game is back, there has been a lot of discussion between Kingswood and the player committee about the future of the format. For long-time and returning fans of the game, a non-rotating format is always desirable so that they can continue to play their favorite cards from throughout the game’s history. It’s also convenient for the people involved with the format to have some knowledge of the upcoming products in order to make informed decisions about changes to the format. What’s more, we have seen player committees for other games be harassed in recent years, bringing up a concern for the safety of those committee members when the ultimate responsibilities of managing a format falls on individuals instead of the company itself.
With all of these things in mind the decision has been made to officially bring Ancients into the Kingswood fold, but with the process for the format remaining similar to what it has been in the past. There will still be a committee of players that work with Kingswood to discuss potential changes to the format, but now these individuals will be able to do so with advanced knowledge of future planned products.
Ancients Future
What it will look like:
-A small committee of players will work with Kingswood to discuss the current trends in the Ancients Format.
-Each quarter, Kingswood will update players on the Ancients format. This will include any changes to the ban list, current discussions, etc. There may not be any changes in a particular quarter, but there will always be an update.
Essentially, what has happened since Ancients’ creation will continue on a quarterly, rather than annual, basis. The added benefit for players will be that the committee can help us assess what cards might be due for a reprint, what cards might be a problem for Ancients prior to their release, and what topics should be addressed in the quarterly format update announcements. This also allows for officially sanctioned Ancients events.
Ancients Format Philosophy
With this change, we also want to take a quick look at the format as a whole. For many years there has been debate about what should and should not be done within the format, and why. As we take a look at the future of the format Kingswood would like to put forth a few things that we will be looking at alongside the committee moving forward in order to determine cards that will be banned or restricted in some way.
Most of the cards throughout the game’s history should be available.
Most turns, particularly the first, should have a relatively similar number of orders taken by each player.
Most games should be battling back and forth with each player participating.
Interactions involving little or no die rolls should be monitored.
The format should be as fun as possible for as many player types as possible.
Let’s break that down a little bit.
Number one is all about card pool. The whole point of a non-rotating format is that players want to know that, in general, all of their cards will be usable. Obviously there will need to be the occasional ban, but the ability to restrict what starts in play or the number of copies you can run is essential to the format as it keeps more cards around as playable in some capacity.
Second, we want to see a reasonable parity in the number of orders each player is taking. No one wants to be overrun and watch their opponent take them out over a couple of orders. That’s why banning or restricting cards like One Last Time is important.
Third, the game should generally be a back and forth. No one wants to sit there and watch their opponent draw their entire deck over the course of ten minutes, or chain cards over and over in an infinite combo. This is why things like Ring of Piercing and Mirror Magic are potentially problematic.
Fourth, interactions involving little or no die rolls should be monitored. Cards like Malrog’s Lair, Apprentice Ramah, Fields of Bone, Gravity Flux, and Tzin’s Secret all allow for game breaking or game winning things to occur without ever rolling a die. This does not mean all interactions that don’t involve a die roll are bad. For instance, healing and wound reduction often happen without a die roll and they are a staple of the game.
Lastly, the format should be fun and playable by as many player types as possible. Do you like combos? You should be able to do that. Are you a control player? That has a place too. Aggro? Midrange? All should be welcome. The other four points on the whole lead us to this last point, but here we also take extra care to point out cards that often shut down the game for other players, like Orm Al’Ghast or Into the Tunnels.
For those of you that have followed Ancients for a while, you’ll notice this excludes two things that have often been floated around for years as a part of the format: bans for alternative win conditions and infinite combos.
In the case of infinite combos, they will often fall into points 2, 3, and 4 above. If they do, like Children of Yscar or Apprentice Ramah, then of course they will end up on the ban list. But sometimes you have an infinite combo like Duanna and Eresh q’Shedim that requires a player to get a level 8 character into play and then draw out their entire deck. If your opponent has drawn their whole deck and has a level 8 monstrosity in play it’s generally reasonable to assume that they are going to win that game anyway, so banning Duanna really goes against the first tenant of the format: having as large a card pool as possible. There have been other infinite combos available for years, they’re just overlooked because the setup for the combo requires too much effort and the win rate just isn’t there. With the card pool now increasing, the likelihood that other similarly complex infinites will crop up is going to go up, and any of those that go against points 2,3,and 4 above would of course be dealt with in some way, but reducing the card pool to stop a combo that is unlikely at best or moot at worst goes against the goals of having as large a card pool as possible and allowing combo players to do their thing.
As far as alternate win conditions go, the game only has a few that outright allow you to win, and it’s generally after you have completed some herculean task. You could look at a card like Athanaes Falls in a similar way. It’s difficult to pull off, and it’s highly likely you will win if you do.
Obviously Malrog’s Lair is somewhat easy to pull off because of the ability to search out dungeons and cards like Transference allowing you to remove most or all of the charges. But cards like A Prophecy Fulfilled and Negotiated Surrender require a very complex set of circumstances. Themselves they aren’t really breaking any of the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th tenets, but to ban them would again reduce the card pool and take away a couple of decks that some combo player might want to try out.
Miscellaneous Items
The last few things to address with the format are erratas, MRPs, general rules questions, proxies, and a small update to the naming convention for the levels of restriction.
Ancients will not have format specific errata, nor does Kingswood have a desire to use errata as a tool in general. It has been tried in the past, but it’s unnecessarily awkward to add format-specific errata, with one of the major complaints players often have being that their cards don’t do what they say they do.
Ancients will not, itself, have a separate structure for rules questions, or use separate MRPs from other formats. The currently accepted wording, and any applicable rulings, for all cards will be what is shown on theaccordlands.com. Any rules questions related to the Ancients format, or cards being used in the Ancients format, can be asked via the link at warlordsots.com/rules.
Proxies have also been a frequent mainstay of in-person Ancients events for many years. After discussing with a number of store owners, event runners, and players the decision has been made to not allow proxies for Kingswood sanctioned events going forward, regardless of the format. The last exception to this rule will be Gen Con 2025, where full-size full-color proxies will be allowed. (And confirmed. If your proxies do not meet those guidelines your deck will be considered not legal.) That being said, there are no plans to remove the ability to print proxies from theaccordlands.com. We believe the ability for people to play the game the way they want to play it with friends in a non-competitive arena is vitally important to the fan base and will do nothing but strengthen the game.
Lastly, we will be making one slight change to the naming convention on the Ancients list. What was previously called “Restricted” will now be called “Epic”. This is essentially to make the list easier to understand for new players. When working on Keywords for Warlord we made a similar choice, but in reverse, choosing to use “Reserved” for cards that can not start in play. With this change “Banned” will be its own term, but both “Reserved” and “Epic” will mean the same things for format restriction and for Keyword, and thus players have to learn fewer terms. Cards that are on the Reserved or Epic lists for Ancients will not gain those respective Keywords, just the terminology remains the same for the similar effects.
Banned, Epic, and Restricted Announcement
To wrap things up here we’re announcing five small changes to the Ancients list from where it’s at today: 4 cards will be unbanned, 1 card will be banned, and the “format specific errata” section affecting Halo of Secrets will be removed.
Announcement Date: June 24, 2025
Ancients:
A Prophecy Fulfilled is unbanned.
Duanna is unbanned.
Negotiated Surrender is unbanned.
Wyvern’s Flames is unbanned.
Tzin’s Secret is banned.
Effective Date: June 24, 2025
A Prophecy Fulfilled, Duanna, Negotiated Surrender, and the removal of the format specific errata to Halo of Secrets one would likely guess from the article above. Wyvern’s Flames was previously added to the list due to how dying worked and the finite loop Wyvern’s Flames created with cards like Gush and Brakil, but with recent updates to the rules this no longer works and Wyvern’s Flames is free to be used once more.
Similarly, recent changes to the Stealth rules have made using Tzin’s Secret with Profit much easier, especially out of King Xod who is able to guarantee he has the Tzin’s Secret while starting with Profit in play. As this can easily take out a large percentage of an opponent's starting army without evening having to roll a die, catching the eye of tenant number four, the Kingswood and the player committee have decided it is unfortunately time for Tzin’s Secret to go, and it will be banned going forward.
We believe these six changes to be negligible to the current state of the format, though they do show the nature of the format going forward. Of course there are always other changes to discuss with the format, and Kingswood and the Ancients Panel (who we will introduce very soon) will be discussing many things as it relates to the format, but during this transition we want to make sure that the only changes are low impact to the format as a whole.
You can now find the Banned, Epic, Reserved List here, and as always if you have any rules questions or concerns please reach out using the form linked on warlordsots.com/rules. If you have any general questions or concerns feel free to reach out to the team by emailing support@kingswood.gg.
