You Can Be A Big Pig Too!

 Introduction

Ulix's golden piglet has been a crowd favorite ever since it was introduced back in 2nd edition. Almost every Ulix player I've met has a piglet painted gold. Now we have Ulix Porkbelly Protector and the Golden Piglet has its time to shine. So what's new for Ulix and how has it changed the herds of pigs in the Bayou? Let's delve in

Bigger Better Bacon

Ulix's model is huge now, he's a whopping size 4 on a 50mm base. He's also got the Pig keyword which means he is effected by all the pig related bonuses, specifically the +1 melee range from the Whisperer and most important, the Go Hog Wild aura on Old Major. Ulix melee hits like a War Pig with 3/4/6 that you can pull burning from an enemy to give a positive to the attack flip, (and a pos from Go Hog Wild on damage) and Shove Aside and Tear Off a Bite Triggers to keep him alive. 

He's also got an amazing bow that ignores friendly fire (Ulix players have been wanting this forever) and does 2/4/5 with triggers to pulse burning, and your opponent has to discard or get Adversary (beast). Which ties in with his front of card ability for any pig damages a model with adversary beast. Also enemy pigs that end in base contact with or moved through an enemy model give the enemy burning 1. 

If that wasn't enough, Ulix's bonus action can push a pig its mv +2 (that's gonna almost always be 7-8 inches) ignoring models and dealing 2 (plus a burning) to any models it moves through. The crow trigger lets you grow that pig depending on how many burning models you moved through. It takes some set up but that's the easiest way to turn a piglet to a warpig there ever was. While I've been down on the Sow since the GG2 changes with Ulix 1, I'm loving her with Ulix2. 

Breakfast Bacon Spread

Ok so lets put it all together, what does this Ulix do that the original one doesn't? He hits harder and is less card dependent. A bad hand doesn't necessarily hurt because he has access to tons of positive flips. He can only grow 1 pig a turn so there's no wild turn of 2 war pigs popping up out of nowhere and his healing capacity isn't nearly as strong. Chances are his Law of Meat won't be used unless necessary. He also doesn't have as much ability to push out of activation attacks as the old Ulix does. 

This Ulix will 100% delete models off the table though. In some respects he's the Bayou's version of Nekima. Moving in, crushing models and dominating through activation removal. His crew is still relatively fragile, even with shielded but there's a good balance of healing where how you activate your models and which targets you go for will make the difference. 

This Ulix doesn't keep models alive, so detonate charges isn't what he wants to do. He can handle turf war and Symbols pretty easily and Leylines should be a breeze. I hate to be a downer, but I think for most people this Ulix will replace the old version until the original is given a bit of a boost to help with how tremendously bad his hand pressure is. 

Tips and Tricks

We got another new Pig! Its the Eryma...Errorma...its a Fae Pig and though its Neverborn and undead we love it just the same. The Fae Pig makes it so your models like Ulix2 ignore severe, which will be crucial on some boards. He can also create underbrush that your models that are close can remove to prevent some damage. This of course is much more powerful in Titania crews where Underbrush can be everywhere but Penelope giving a quick Herd 'em to the Fae Pig can provide some cover. His ability to vanish into severe and teleport 6 inches a way makes him one of the fastest models in a crew full of very fast models. 

Bo Peep is also a serious consideration into the crew. Her aura allows stampeding big base models to heal up when they charge in and a 3 inch push to all models within 3 of her helps you unpack. She's also a move 7 reckless with stampede and trample and a 2" melee so she can reach models your opponent thinks are safely hidden . 

Its tempting to bring a Whisperer to increase melee range, but I think this is a trap. you want to end in base contact for burning and stampede. You want to damage multiple models to heal up multiple times with bo peeps aura and potentially get more shielded. Whisperer also just gets left behind in a crew that is blisteringly fast. Instead a slop hauler is your golden boy. He can hitch a ride on a pig, heals and hands out adversary for more shielded. 

I mentioned before, the Sow is a lot better with new Ulix. She can grow piglets that Ulix can yeet into Warpigs the turn the are born and then on turn 4 you can just grow her into a Warpig if needed to cause havok where ever she's needed. 

Old Major is absolutely necessary. Ulix having positive damage flips to his Bow means he's hitting like a truck almost every time and its probably worth it to spend the stone to pulse burning out as much as possible. 

Swine Cursed still continue to not be Pigs and so just don't benefit from most of the crew's abilities which I feel is a huge missed opportunity. I can see some plays that sound fun with them on paper but other hires always feel better to me. \

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a trick that Togepi (apologies that I don't have your IRL name) on the Wyrd discord pointed out. Emblazoned doesn't say enemy models. You can bring Merris, have her toss a flaming bottle and let your pigs fail the Shockwave duel,  then emblazon a piglet through them to grow a warpig on turn 1 as well if you'd like. Merris, herself is a top notch bayou pick so I don't hate her inclusion in any list and handing out more burning to your opponents will help later on in the game. It does leave a few of your piggies burning so they'll need extra healing support but its definitely a cute pick to turn 3 ss worth of piglet into 9 at the touch of a button. 

Conclusion

That's my take on Ulix Porkbelly Protector. He is going to be one of our top break outs in the title wars that are coming, unfortunately leaving Ulix1 on the shelves for a while. I'd love to see the original get some help as I love the concept of keyword in general. As always, let me know if you have any ideas on what I should do next for the blog.