Don’t Lose Your Head
“Haw haw haw…”
Is it a Soldier? Is it a summoner? Is it a Reanimator? No! It's a donkey. Well actually, it's all of those things, but maybe, technically, not the fourth.
Greymair breaks the mould for what Reanimators have done in Moonstone for a while: being a character focused solely on reanimating, with only a few utility abilities, whilst they wait around. Greymair, by comparison, has a heap of utility he can get to using whilst he waits for his friends to perish. Though in some cases, he doesn't even need to wait.
Drain Life
“Kill meeeee"!”
Since the Shades have been out for a while and Reanimators are now a much more common sight on the table, players have certainly wised up to how to play against them. Namely: avoid killing characters and leave them at 1 wound remaining so they don't generate much energy and hence can't do much. With the Shades’ lack of healing, if done right, it can be devastating, as in most cases, you'd prefer your models dead rather than stuck on 1 wound. This is where Greymair comes in, who now punishes your opponent for doing this.
'Drain Life' has the normally quite detrimental cost of slaying one of your characters. However, if it was on 1 wound and useless, it's not really that big a loss! Now, what does this sacrifice get you? Well, it gets you a really good 'Reanimate', at +2 Arcane Stat and costing (0) energy, leaving Greymair with 1 energy remaining.
Melee
“Hit better.”
This 1 energy is incredibly useful. He is a Soldier after all, and Soldiers generally love making melee attacks. He's not a melee superstar of course, but unlike most other reanimators, he has a decent melee of 3, a useful signature, and most importantly, a 2" melee zone. This means he can occasionally put out a little damage in melee against 1" melee models, using his decent reach to stay out of harm.
Alongside Negroli he can even get a little melee bonus, meaning he draws 6 cards on the attack which is very good for the occasional crit. Although this is an option to keep in mind, he is often near the back, and there is another use for that (1) energy.
Necrotic Salve
“Of course, anything to help me masters.”
'Necrotic Salve' is a (1) energy active ability which restores 1 wound. On the face of it, it’s not great: it's a reliable heal as it doesn't need to draw any Arcane cards, but it also only restores 1 wound. Ordinarily, the use of this is limited to the end of the turn, healing 1 wound on specific targets to potentially heal a blue health pip and allowing them to replenish more energy next turn.
If a friendly character has been slain this round however, such as from 'Drain Life', it now grants bonus energy to Risen and Nobles. Because of this, a 7 or 8 Wd Risen could be slain with 'Drain Life', then targeted with 'Necrotic Salve' after reanimating to bring them back at 5 wounds remaining and 1 energy, ready to immediately attack! This can be further improved with the addition of Viktor, who'll restore additional wounds to reanimated characters and even let them choose where they get reanimated.
Pomp Summoning
Surely this is enough for this 1 donkey army of utility abilities now? No, he's a summoner too, of course! Aside from the advantages of summoning any model, such as having additional characters to distract and cause issues for your opponents, Greymair has a great choice for summons with even more support for his allies.
“Flash! Flash flash flash.”
As of writing, the two Psychopomps Greymair can summon are Flay and Lampy, both of which are a great aid for your troupe’s arcane abilities. Lampy's job is simple: find someone you want to shoot and stand near them. With good positioning, Greymair can use his little Psychopomp buddy to really improve your ranged damage by letting your troupe draw additional cards against the now higher evade enemies. Flay instead sticks close to Greymair as opposed to enemies, helping your troupe by granting +1 Arcane stat for the summoner or anyone else for (2) energy. This +1 Arcane is exceedingly useful for Greymair’s reanimate, as it makes him incredibly reliable, having a base 3 energy and 4 arcane with Flay’s help.
With 3 base energy and 4 Arcane, Greymair becomes one of the very few characters in the game who can reliably reanimate at the start of the turn, without needing to wait around for anyone else!
