I am interested in starting a torture deck with the new Dark Eldar Warlord. Basically saving resources on the low cost events, using recurrsion and duplication effects to sack my opponents hand and stealing planets by small forces based on an opponents lack of cards in hand to commit to battle. However, this is a rough draft, and I'm not 100% sure it has enough units in it, despite the theme and cost. I'd like some feedback. I'd like to make this as a solo faction deck, but would be interested in suggestion for ally cards. Also, at the moment I am building from only 2 core sets, I don't know how crucial a third is for this build right now.

Warlord: Urien Rakarth

Includes his warlord pack

suffering x2

sybarite marksman x2

murder of razorwings x2

crucible of malediction x3

kabalite helborn x3

twisted laboratory

kabalite strikeforce x2

Power from pain x3

Incubus warrior x2

Coliseum fighters x3

Baleful Mandrake x2

searing brand x2

Syren Zythlek x2

Visioins of Agony x3

Haemonculous tormentor x2

Soul Siezure x2

Uber grotesque x3

Fall Back x3

Void Pirate x3 (or Rogue Trader, not sure if I should include both or not).

I'm aware I am currently at about a 26 out of 45 non warlord cards that are attack units, so I'm hoping to increase that number slightly. Also, question on some cards I've cut but would still like to include if I can get some attack options:

Bladed Lotus Rifle?

A second twisted laboratory?

A third Soul Siezure and searing Brand?

Looking forward to hearing what anyone thinks so far.

The strategy you're describing works better with Kith, I think Urien works better as a warlord killer.

For allies I would tend towards Eldar allies, probably put in Warlord Destructor and Wild Rider Squadron.

If you're playing competitively the third core set is a must.

From what I can see, you will have a lot of trouble on command struggles since you only have 14 units with command icons and most of these are high costed. Both Void Pirate and Rogue Trader are a must.

Bladed Lotus Rifle is not worth it in my opinion.

The main use I normally give Twisted Laboratory is protecting my khimeras with kith, that being said on Urien I would either just keep one or cut it altogether.

I would definitely put the third Searing Brand in the deck seeing as you only have four 2 shield cards, maybe add Shadowfield too.

I would cut from the deck the Uber Grotesques, Fall Back and most of the commandless units except for the razorwings, maybe cut the Soul Seizure and the tormentors too if the costs are still too high. Put in more command units of cost 2 or less, Archon's Palace, Klaivex Warleader and Promotion.

Even though it costs 3 for Urien I think Archon's Terror is still worth it.

These are just my opinions, hope it helps, I'm not much of Urien expert but I normally play Kith.

EDIT: Also on cardgamedb there's a discussion thread around Urien, you should find more varied opinions there: http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19388-urien-rakarth-discussion-deck-thread/

Urien's tough as his deck build is somewhat...naturally lacking in command. Some of his good abilities synergixe with milling/discarding/etc but when the other guy is winning command this gets negated. I've tried a few builds and here's the best of what I've come up with. It's by no means great, just the best I've found so far.

Recursion is great, but The Colliseum fighters...ugh, just another 3 units with no command.

The lines start to blur when deckbuilding because the instinct is to start building a Kith-like choke deck. But you can't do that with Urien.

Also, sadly he pretty much is the stinkiest of the warlords right now. Over at cargamedb user Stienerp has made a database that hundreds of Conquest players have submitted their match results to. Thousands of games played in that bad boy. Urien's win % is by far the worst. 30 something %. Sure he's new and people have to figure him out but the first few weeks after release has actually skewed higher for other new warlords. That and Baharroth didn't suffer this same fate. I think Baharroth can be tricky to pilot but froma deck-building standpoint Urien could be the toughest. There's more than a few DE cards that make you think "oooh! This would go great with Urien" but in reality they may not so much...

Total Cards: (50)

Warlord:
1x Urien Rakarth (Descendants of Isha)

Army Unit: (27)
2x Twisted Wracks (Descendants of Isha)
3x Altansar Rangers (Core Set)
3x Baleful Mandrake (Core Set)
2x Bloodied Reavers (Zogwort's Curse)
3x Incubus Warrior (Core Set)
3x Klaivex Warleader (The Scourge)
3x Murder of Razorwings (Core Set)
2x Rogue Trader (Core Set)
3x Syren Zythlex (Core Set)
3x Void Pirate (Core Set)

Attachment: (7)
1x Ichor Gauntlet (Descendants of Isha)
3x Hypex Injector (Core Set)
3x Promotion (Core Set)

Event: (13)
4x Rakarth’s Experimentations (Descendants of Isha)
3x Power from Pain (Core Set)
3x Searing Brand (Zogwort's Curse)
3x Visions of Agony (The Howl of Blackmane)

Support: (3)
1x Urien’s Oubliette (Descendants of Isha)
2x Archon’s Palace (The Howl of Blackmane)

That warlord database is a great site that I discovered recently, so I've definitely been checking it out. I do think Urien's difficulty to build has probably led to some of his lower win percentages. Partly due to limited play and the other part probably based on trial and error approach. There are some great possibilities in terms of outside combat interaction or manipulation with the deck, but like you said, if your opponent is winning command struggles that can really take away some of the effectiveness of that. I'm going to keep working on him, but I think he may not get a decent push until Great Devourer (provided there are DE support cards that will increase him in the box).