Playing the Secret Masters theme force is like a breath of fresh air. It’s good to be home with one of my favorite Mk 1 casters, Morvahna 1, and the lore behind the Circle Orboros is some of my favorite that’s ever been written. Druids in the shadowy background manipulating circumstances to achieve their goals, never fighting a head-on fight, always scheming and plotting . . . it’s always been one of my favorite parts of Circle.

This theme force allows for the inclusion of all the Blackclad models while restricting the warlock selection to only Blackclad warlocks. Having access to Druids, Mist Riders, and Celestial Fulcrums really builds the backbone of this theme force and still grants it a large amount of support from models like Stoneshapers or Wayfarers. Bringing in Shifting Stones or Gallows Groves opens up even more support for the list, giving you restricted but versatile army construction options. Oh, and I almost forgot one of the most important parts of this force: you can include a Mercenary or Minion unit and solo in this theme!

But enough about army construction—let’s move on to the benefits! For every 20 points of Blackclad models, you can take a free Circle solo or Blackclad command attachment, allowing you to slip Wayfarers, Una 1, Wilders, or even Druid Overseers or a Stone Keeper into your list with ease. The next benefit is the one that really makes this theme list shine: Blackclad warrior models gain Sacrificial Pawn [Minion warrior model]. This adds a huge amount of resilience not only to your warlock but also to many of the units and solos, making them much harder to single out. This final benefit plays a huge role in one of my favorite lists for this theme force (shown below). And note: you may start the game with all of your upkeeps in play.
So, without further delay, my list:

Morvahna the Autumnblade [+28]
– Woldwarden [16]
– Woldwarden [16]
Blackclad Wayfarer [4]
Blackclad Wayfarer [4]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0]
Druid Mist Riders (5) [20]
Druids of Orboros [12]
– Druid of Orboros Overseer [4]
Druids of Orboros [12]
– Druid of Orboros Overseer [4]
Gatorman Bokor & Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers [11]

I really enjoy playing this theme force with Morvahna 1. Allowing her to start with all of her upkeeps in play lets her get everything out on turn one, which is always nice with her. The list creates a recursion engine where Druids of Orboros dying create Swamp Shamblers that are then revived by Morvahna on a later turn. This almost endless supply of Swamp Shamblers makes the list resilient against ranged attacks, as they will constantly be around for Sacrificial Pawn. A pair of Woldwardens as the battle group gives you some spell threat, and while they are not particularly hard hitting (spoiler alert from Christmas CID!), after the Stoneshapers use Earth’s Power on them, their melee reaches a respectable P+S 18.

Starting with Regrowth on a unit of Druids of Orboros allows you to be aggressive with that unit during early turns, not even having to slow down to cast Vortex while the second unit hangs back and keeps Morvahna safe. If one unit is wiped out, there’s always the second unit to keep your recursion engine going! Normally when the Druids form a cloud wall with Vortex, players can kill one of the druids to open up the cloud wall—but this gets much harder when you combine Sacred Ward with Sacrificial Pawn to a model behind the cloud wall, forcing your opponent to deal with the Druids in melee should they wish to see past them.

Mist Riders with Restoration become a fairly durable Cavalry unit that can utilize Sacrificial Pawn effectively to stay alive in the early game before wreaking havoc on the enemy’s back lines with Chain Lightning later on. With their boosted attack rolls on the charge, they are effective at triggering Morvahna’s feat against key targets while generating additional attacks with their impact attacks. The additional armor provided by Restoration makes the Mist Riders quite hard to shoot down when combined with Vortex, putting them at DEF 16 and ARM 17 with 5 damage boxes.

Geomancy on the Woldwarden has a strong use with Eruption of Life. A solid POW nuke spell with a conditional AOE that also removes models from play is nothing to be ignored. With a Magic Ability of 6 and many available boosts, the Woldwarden becomes a solid ranged choice. On Morvahna’s feat turn, the Woldwarden can remove a few infantry models with its melee attacks, possibly killing additional enemy forces with the explosions, and then Geomancy can let loose even more Eruptions to soften heavies or further disrupt infantry.

All in all, I really like this list. It brings a solid ranged base in the Woldwardens, a strong control element via the Druids of Orboros, and excellent anti-infantry with an abundance of Chain Lightnings from the Mist Riders. Its solid attrition value, coupled with its extreme resilience to assassination, makes it a contender in many situations where other Circle lists may fail.