Supports:
3x Contested Village
3x Armory
3x Cauldron of Blood
3x Shrine to Nurgle
3x Alliance
3x Sadistic Mutation
3x Horrific Mutation

Tactics:
3x Flames of Tzeentch
3x Nurgle’s Pestilence
3x Blood for the Blood God
3x Seduced by Darkness
3x Troll Vomit
3x Call of the Blood

Units:
3x Poison Wind Globadiers
3x Chosen of Tzeentch
2x Bule, Lord of Puss
2x Malus Darkblade
3x Vile Sorceress
3x Chaos Knights
3x Nurgle Sorcerer
3x Blood Thirster

Total: 60 cards

So the idea for this deck is simply to damage opponents units and damage them some more *sinister grin* This was maken pretty hastily, but I would like to hear what to I should consider to add/remove ? Here's some quick pondering:

- Troll Vomit ? Clears the table empty... hmm sounds very nicey to me, but how often I actually use it ? I pondered could this be used against those nasty weenie decks so that you could take control after that ? The problem is that troll vomit drains all your resources probably

- Nurgle's Pestilence, here the problem is that you take damage too, so is the card worth it ? It might be handy to clear out those nasty gobboes and other little 'fellas and then play your units on the table.

I think you have a lot of cards x3 and I'm not sure that is really necessary. Sure that means you will draw it more regularly, but you give up some flexibility in your deck also, making it harder for you to respond to things outside of your limited control. I'd Troll vomit down to x2 at the most. Because your deck is not dependent on attacking from the Battlefield to do all your damage to units and zones you will be developing up your Quest zone more strongly than your opponent, meaning you will be drawing more cards. I'd stick something like the Bloodthirster in place of that Troll Vomit, big and expensive but it is pure havoc on Dwarf defensive decks which count on canceling damage. A little more variety would be my suggestion.

I think you should consider Bloodsworn and Cloud of Flies. It combos nicely with your Chosen of Tzeentch. Not so sure about Cauldron of Blood. It is a nice ability but it is an expensive card and is just going to encourage your opponent to attack elsewhere. The Troll Vomit would be expensive in this deck.

Its a personal thing, but I am never impressed by a whole deck of 3X. It appears unimaginitive to me, also I agree that you lose flexiblity for realibility, it makes your deck more rock paper scissors as well, but certainly can work.

Not a fan of the cauldren in this deck set up, nore troll vomit. This deck is not cheap enough for troll vomit to help you more then hurt you. Vs an empire player with good support cards, you will never play it and use it as a development unless its late game and you have the cash to build a new horde right away.

Bloodthirster dosn't fit the theme of this deck. Looks like more of a "This card is SOOOO awsome" addition rather then a card that synergies with the deck. Although I guess you need troll vomit for those games where empire force marchs the thrister into your draw zone and starts to deck you. (I won a few games doing that )

I think the idael of a snipping deck is a good one. I think you can make a solid Chaos/Dark elf allaince based on the concept. Keep the orc cards out of it. Perhaps I am too much of a theme player, but three race cards in a deck I don;t buy in theme, and there is certainly an effiency loss.

I beleive its possible in this game to theme a deck in both flavor and play style, and still be an effective deck. I see no theme in this deck, it feels kind of random.

Also too many support and neutral cards.

Hope I am not to hard on you! I just see lots of areas for improvement.

Took a closer look. IMO you are too lite on units. You simply need more boots on the ground so to speak.

I still like your overall concept though. I like the corrupting hero. I think if you really want to run the sniping angle. Try a Dark Elf, Nurgle chaos allaince.

You need some nurgle casters. Sure there power is pricy, but you can make it more effiect with lots of options for corruption. Nurgle shrines and that warpstone chaos support card. And put in dark riders and those DE vile sorces that can kill outright wounded guys. NOW you got some synergy going! The blood for the blood god cards are nice. Oh, they seam good, but the flame spell. You can get that sniping jop done with the combos above. Sure it invloves more units, but thats also its up side. While setting up your snipping combos, you are also adding to your deffence and gathering powers.

Is that whats-her-name the bloody in the deck? throw one of her in the deck. Draws two cards, protects the quest zone and can fling damage arround as well.

Give me a day and I will suggest a 60 card deck based on your concept. Oh the poison wind gobidiers. You have more effient cards with race affailation to get stuff done. Heck I would even consider those 2 power 1 toughness warriors. They theme better and can go to whatever zone you want, draw them early get them harvesting resources, get them late, throw them into battle.

Oh nurgles pestilance is AWSOME if you theme and tinker this deck a little. Let me have a go.....

Thanks for the answers and no offense taken for constructive comments ^^ all feedback is welcome as long the opinion is explained.

I'll probably make major improves after I get the cards and get a good look upon 'em (I'll gaze upon them with the fury of Gork'n'Mork !!!). Oh and theme isn't issue here, it's all about making powerful deck (if you mean by theme mono orcs, chaos etc. etc.) with a good synergy and flow (maybe I should've used the word ''fluff'' instead of theme). I'm also old mtg-player so I wonder why people are so negative against maxed-out cards ? I prefer control over luck, that's why the maximised cars, only ones that shouldn't be maxed are heroes, but they can also be played as developments (judgement of verena...).

I'm also trying to build a Chaos deck, based on corrpution through a sniping / Shrine ot Nurgle combo. It didn't do well so far (too pricey to be competitive). Here are the points I need to fix in my deck (and yours has the same issues) :

• "mana curve" : as an old MTG player this should sound familiar to your ear. You have too few low cost cards. Your deck includes no unit that can be brought into play for fewer than 3 (beside Vile Sorceress, but it has 2 DE loyalty symbols). Find out some cheap units to build your power (Nurglings are great for this task). Warpstone Excavation may also help gather the resources you need.
• Too many support and too few units : as said above. Moreover, you have many support cards that need to be attached to a unit (in Battlefield zone), and without such a unit, those supports are dead cards.

To me, Blood for the Blood god isn't as great as it seems to be : you have no control on the damage done (and many units have more hit points than power), and it can only target units in the battlefield.

I, too, don't pay attention to theme. If a card fits my strategy I won't set it apart just because it is out-of-faction, but I'll put it apart if it's cost (including loyalty) is too high for its effect.

SUPPORT:

2X armoury

3X contested village

3X warstone excavation (You will build a deck that works with this corruption, also can speed up you start.

X2 Cauldren of blood (Changed my mind on this one, but like others said, it may just make that kingdom an unpopular attack spot unless it can get overwhelmed in one big attack) I really am 50/50 about this card in the deck

2X sadistic mutation

3X warpstone Meteor

2X shrine to nurgle

2X cload of flies

2X Dark elf/chaos allaince

Tactics

2X slannesh domination (This is just to help keep an eye on oppents hand and watch for mid game surprizes, can also be a development if you feel comfortable)

3x Nurgle pestilence (big part of this deck)

3X Call of the blood (You see where this is going right )

3X suddeced by darkness

2X blood for the blood god. (A cheaper option then the flames of tzeech as you have lots of combos for finishing off tough units.

UNITS

2 Valkia the bloody

2 Bule lord of Pus

2 nurgle sorcs

1 Melekh the changer (with the amount of corruption you are flinging, there will be times he will be a monster, and for only 3 points! Not a guy to load up on though)

3 nurglings- when you need to corrupe something you got it, other then that a cheap unit that can go in any zone

2 Disciples of Khaine (a little more snipping action)

2 Vile sorcs (soften up stuff to make it cheaper to play the damage cards.

3 Dark Riders (Because there WILL be corruption, these guys are a good buy under those conditions)

3 Blood sworn (You will be killing units, so these guys can take damage form your effects or combat and get it healed all the time.

3 Savage marauders (Cheap for there power, good for gathering early, good for attacking late game, more boots on the ground)

2 chaos knights (Just some extra finishing power)

QUESTS

2 X wolves of the north (You get whatever combat unit you need to for draw on this card, and they can get you cards, and then sucide at the end of the quest phase and either deal some damage or damage units. Good way to controll your draw phase as well. You will need to play some developments at some point at least to protect from the empire auto kill card, so may was well be the extra quests you draw.

67 card deck- A good number.

Throw in a couple of Darkblades to bring it up to 69, besides you do need a DE hero....

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS DECK

PLAY BALANCE-

This is not like the ultimate deck or anything, but I think it would be fun to play with, it fits your theme of snipping better then your deck, while doing it well. Also with the lack of any of the supper power "broken cards" some players complain about, you get true bragging rights when you win. Not too dependent on support cards or units for cash, has a good power mix in both.

I do not like too many heros as the limitation of one per zone can bog you down. I think you have a nice mix here.

COST-

You can build this deck with just the core set and 2 of the Path of zeolot boosters. Not having to buy too much was a consideration of mine in this deck.

THEME- Its a true and pure snipping deck with lots of synergy. Dark Elf and chaos are a ready and common allaince in the warhammer world, and this deck is pure in theme as well as play style. Poison wind globadiers WOULD work good with this deck, but theme wise I do not like there presence.

GAME PLAY

A little slow out the gate, but with pretty decent powered units that go down by turn three, you should have the draw and resoarce power you need to the power the admitatly pricey special powers.Not many cheap units either, so watch out for scrifice powers. (BTW that was the other problem with bloodthristers in your deck, too much pricy units and heros to afford to start feeding them to fluffy )

MATCH UPS

-ORCS Can be problem- come out faster and could put you on the deffence early. let them burn the quest zone if they want, you will have strong stuff in the battle zone soon enough, and you need cash bad, so you will have strong stuff here soon enough. save up your corruption cards to stime string units and use your awsome snipping to keep down there numbers. Orcs having trouble building up the horde will troll vomit you and set the reset button. Try to lean on support cards more then units for your cash production. Consider warpstone meteors in battle zone if you do not need the cash too bad. With waagh spells, even a single corrupted 1 power unit can save you.

- Empire - I think you can tool on most empire builds. Soft units that need each other. The snipping really comes to its own vs empire that need that key deffence component. Empire will set up faster then you in most decks. But if you keep your cool and do not start reacting too quick to there goading you in zones, you will get the set up you need to take out there key units. Watch out for high elf allainces that will try to protect strong key stone units like great swords and counter strike units. Empire will beat you if they can goad you into exchanging units on the quest and kingdom fronts, it will but them the time to build up deffence in depth with interconncecting units. Especialy do not get temped by those talaihein detachments or whatever. Pick off pistolers and other zone hopping units ASAP

- Dwaves- I think with dwarves you got to watch being decked. They will develope about the same pace as you, but it will be pricy to get rid of units with toughness trait. Try to save call the blood cards and corruption cards to clear up zones for massive assults. Counter productive to launch raids on dwarves, they can come up ahead on those. Just wait will the right time and place and try to bash zones in big attacks.

Other chaos- Choas can be built in so many ways, you will not know what you need to do till you face them.

IF I WAS TO BUILD TO BEAT THIS DECK

A speed orc deck can certainly do it, but thats so yeah whatever. I would build a empire/Dwarf deck with a healthy mix of toughness units and empire cheap goodness. I would certainly take a few kill everthing cards, and those move devoplment cards to make it happen. I would throw in a mix of high elf heal cards and no currope cards, theme be damned for the "gotcha" deck. AND I would have lots of units with the scout trait. You can;t afford too many discards unless you get your draw high, fast, so I can goad you into those early deffences you do not want to make. I would clone that counterstrike zone flying hero and try to protect him. Sigmar gates, dwarf forges and churchs of sigmar would be my main support as well as a few shrines to Taal. A city gate and shrine of taal in my kingdom alone with a few deffenders could make that zone unassaible and allow me to concentrate on the other zones for deffence. Most of my units would be cheaper 3 hit units, the ones that are not dwarves that is.

-

I have no problem with power cards, if the fit the deck. Although I do lean towards a theme of some kind, even if its in my own head, I will make compromise. I do not think the bloodthirsts do enough for you, and combined with the pricy heros, are much too vunerable with out "boots on the ground" to back them up.

I guess when I was making the lack of power cards a "good" point of my deck was trying to metagame game enviroment. I think you can do well without the powercards, and have a more fun tactical game, without giving up effectiveness.

Dywnarc... i see 61cards in that deck... not 67....

ok my miscount. Cool. Throw in that quest that puts cards back in your deck, to protect from decking, and what the heck, in those wind globidiers, they do ensure the dark riders stay strong.

Here's the V.2 of the deck:

Tactics: ( 18)
3x Call the Blood
3x We need your Blood
3x Blood for the Blood God
3x Flames of Tzeentch
3x Nurgle's Pestilence
3x Seduced By Darkness

Support: (16)
3x Alliance Chaos - Dark Elf
3x Shrine to Nurgle
2x Warpstone Meteor
2x Horrific Mutation
3x Contested Village
3x Warpstone Excavation

Units: (19)
3x Vile Sorceress
3x Poison Wind Globadiers
3x Chosen of Tzeentch
3x Festering Nurglings
2x Bule, Lord of Pus
2x Malus Darkblade
3x Chaos Knights

= 53 cards

I haven't been able to play test thing yet as my another two core sets haven't come yet... Only thing I'm worrying can I stay in the race with da ork blitz deck (waagh), Nurgle's Pestilence can nicely almost clear the table from those nasty spider riders and goblins, but what if it doesn't end up in your hand ? I hope the other damage spells will be able to slow the enemy down (hopefully I'll have some spare resources by turn two). I'm still pondering about Bloodthirster simply for his power/hit points, as I feel that dwarven development deck could outlast this deck easily.

lord nekrah said:

If you really want to accentuate your sniping theme then I think you need to find room for Nurgle's Scorceror and Sadistic Mutation in the deck. If you combo these two cards together while you have Nurgle's Shrine in play, for 3 resources you can inflict damage on two separate units, as a result corrupting both.

I am assuming that Malus is in the deck to work with horrific mutation? Not sure that the combo will be as effective as you desire.

RexGator said:

This combo raises another wording issue. Shrine of Nurgle is "during combat", but Sadistic Mutation is "deals damage in combat". Does SM's wording mean it can only be used when the unit is actually taking part in combat, either as attacker or defender? Or are Shrine and SM the same, just with differing wording?

Just spent the game gaming all day invasion, and all ay I played a sniping deck with fair success. Only one deck seamed to sytyme me, it was dwarf decks with lots of toughness, and capital healing.

After my early post which was a little bit of experienced mixed with "theory hammer" (A term used in warhmmer fantasy battle when players speak about how they feel and think things work without actully trying... the value of theory hammer depends much on the experience of the player. Anyways this is no longer theory hammer, I have tons of experience with the "sniper" deck. Here goes.

Regarding the bloodthirster- I threw one in the deck for the same reason you are feeling like it, hard to resist the raw power of the thing. I got him out only in one game, and it was a desperation deffence move, needed to soak up the hits, and lost that game anyways. Every other game I either dumped him as a development or he was of no consquence one way of another. My theory about him his this.

a) If you get your combos set up well and going, you do not need him at all anyways. SO he is just a pricey redundecy.

b) Even with a high income, the turn you get him out, you are unlikey to have the cash to use many of the usefull special powers that make this deck work so well.

c) You will often be in situations where you realize that the forced scrafic hurts you more then the oppenent as you have less expendable units too oftern, I found myself in this situation a few times.

d) This deck requires a high hand draw in order to play well anyways, cause its units interconnecting are like a pricer, but stronger, version of empires, SOOO if you have a high card darw anyways, you will likey have the unit count and combo cards in your hand anyways that combined are as effecive as a bloodthrister. EXAMPLE: you can play a thrister for 8 points, but with a high draw, you could just as likey have a corruption card like nurglings or seduction, and play chaos knights and another unit, hitting just as hard, but with more options.

My conclusion is that as cool and fear inspiring as the thirster is, if you are playing this deck right and are experienced, you will be more dangerous with the mutli-threat versitie combos without it.

All that being said, it will not kill you to throw him in, but I am telling you, I used him as development bait in 80% of my games. (Although I will admit I had a suduction card, just hoping for a lucky play on rip there heads out.....

1) Not enough units, really, simply not enough units. Your support/tactic ratio vs units is too high. Thats also why you are feeling the lack of a thrister, you are likely seeing the lack of raw hitting power in the deck for actully finishing.

2) Do throw in a couple of wolves of the north. Here is why. Your deck has a lot of versile combos, but it is a little combo dependent, so you need those cards to have options, SOOO you will want to have a high card draw. You throw a chaos knight or a Val the bloody on that quest, you can plick away at zones while they collect cards for you. Also if you are in danger of being decked, you could attack a zone that the oppenent really wants to stop, and kill it off draopping your draw down. I kid you not, I won a game because I was able to avoid being decked because my oppent HAD to stop an attack, and so killed my unit, giving me the in cards I needed. Its harder to prove, but I also beleive I won other games because the effiecy of drawing cards AND getting in a few licks, was the difference maker. This game is often won and lost by a hit point or two, when a card drawing unit can attack......

3) Another reason for getting more units in the deck- Units are just as good as gathering/card drawings as support units, and can deffend as well, in case I did not make my point strong enough in one... you need more units.

4) DO not be affraid of a bigger deck with this build, yeah you lose a little dependablity, BUT you will find this build dependent on options with your cards, so you WILL want to draw big, BUT you do not want to get decked, especialy vs this decks ban which is dwarves and empire supported dwarves.

5) IME you actully can hold out very well vs the orc swarm decks, better then I even thought at first, they in fact can really struggle against you unless they get ungodly starts, which is very possible, but even so, I did not lose to orcs yet with this build, but then again, I didn;t get to play vs them as much as I would have liked, AND I have a higher unit count then you and a little bit more toughness. (Hit points)

I want to be carefull and give you advice to help YOUR deck, not turn it into mine...... SO I will try to give advice keeping that in mind. SO without converting your deck into mine, this is what I would do.

Didn't finish..... here goes.

I will comment again about your need for so many sets of three. It dosn't both me so as leave me thinking that in some cases they are hurting you hand ratios with too many cards that you will find to be situational.

QUEST CARDS-

Throw in 2 wolves of the north, you will thank me, really. In some games you will not feel the need for them, but they do not hurt and can always be develpoment bait.

TACTIC CARDS

For example, to pick on a card you do not need, flames of Tzeech. You have so many ways of snipping units, that this card may or may not be usefull every draw. I could see you in situations where you need units badley, but you got too many need blood and flame cards in your hand. I also think blood for the blood god is not very good in this deck. I had them in my deck, and they were USELESS vs the dwarf toughness deck I could not beat. Nugles pestilance was especialy bad, almost alwasy being a worse card for me then the dwarves

Maybe I should say it this way, IME, your worst enemys are a dwarves or heavy dwarf supported decks, and IMO you have an awfull lot of tatic cards that are either almost useless against them, or too costly against them, or too situational. YET I can;t tell you to them, cause they ARE usefull cards, and again I am not trying ot make you play my deck.

SO consider this. Drop one of each of your tactic cards, except the corruption one. This makes room for 5 more desperatley needed units, yet still IMO gives you some tactial flex. Personaly I would the blood God card and flamer cards completley, but if you want to keep them fine, but getting the unit ratio up is the most importent thing you can do right now, and if you do not want the deck TOO big, this helps. Hmmm wait, keep the third call the blood, they are too usefull..... Lose something else then, I woudl really like to see these down to 12-14 cards. For the record, I used less.

SUPPORT

Again too many slots that could be usefull. My experince with support cards is that there effiency in getting into play is important early, plus you do not want to be too dependent on units cause you want to survive an early troll vomit, BUT as the game goes on, you will find the support cards to be less desirable then units, and often just used as development bait. Keep in mind the snipping deck is rarely a fast deck, its kind of mid speed, and as the game progresses deffence of your zones will become important, and support cards do not help much with that.

Shrine to nugle dosn;t stack any, its just a straight up effect, and the allaince card helps a lot early, but is pretty useless draw by late game. Just run with 2 of each. I like the rest of the supports though, although contested village is another iffy one for me. great for the first 2 or three hands, after that just delepment bait. I ran with a couple of contested strongholds cause I felt with high card draw I could afford to throw down develpments and boost them, however a few games I got dependent on them for income and was in trouble when they got destroyed. Your income is more spread out in your support and this will serve you well. So I would cut a few cards out of this to free up more room for units, but I mostly like your set up here.

Horriific mutation is nice, but cloud of flies fits your deck better and is cheaper, I woudl swap these out for cload of flies.

UNITS

Ok so if you take my advice on the other zones, I have freed up 6-7 card for units, also I think you want a bigger deck then you have here, So I would feel free to throw in another 6-7 and bring you into the mid to high 60's for card count, I ran a 68 card deck, and was very close to being decked a few times, and was actully decked once, I almost alwasy seemed to have the cards I need though, so I would have been comfortable with a slightl bigger deck. But keeping the deck in the mid 60's still allows us 12-14 odd units.

Ok I like th eunit set up you have here now a lot, its different from mine, but I think better. I didn;t have any Tzeech sorcs,I thought they were too situational, having to do damage first, but they make snipping more effient. NOTE: You have more snipping options then I did, and I felt I had plenty, so this even more leads me to think you do not need as many snipping cards in your tactics.

The only downside I see in your units is a lack of hit points. You will not find this to be a very fast deck out the gate, and you do not want to be blocking with too many if your combo component units, or you will lose effectiveness fast. Sure you can use snipping a lot to help in deffence, but still....

Dark riders.... With the posion wind globiers corrupting themselves, and the warpstone pits making you have corruped units come into play, they will almost always have the extra power. The big thing though is the 4 hit points. Adds some serious deffence to anyzone, while being of great help in boosting. You can't scoff at 2 hammers, plus at 4 hit points, these are a expendable blocker that allows you to keep your combo units allive.

Savage maruaders- 2 power is great for three points. I also like them in this deck cause they are good from early game through to late game, they just go in different zones depending on when you draw them. If they are drawn in the oppening hand or first turn or two, the are a quick kingdom booster, if you pick them in the 3-6 round they do well helping your card draw, if you darw them latter then that they go in the kingdom zone and support an attack. OR if you want an oppenent to react early, a couple of these guys early in the battle zone can dish out enough damage to force a player to deffend a zone he may not want to. These guys down side is with only one hit point they are vunerable to some of your own effects, but this can be a good thing too. I like these guys on wolves of the north quest, a the can give you two cards, they get themselves killed off or get a couple digs in.

I would also consider a few blood sworn. They shrug off nurgles spell easy and so keep themselves in play and healthy, and are good targets for cloud of flies, which I think you should have. I do feel Val the bloody works nice in this deck as well. She is kind of pricy for what she does, and situational, but damage flinging is what you are all about, and she does deffend well, so does well in the quest zone.

Even if you follow all my changes your deck is still a lot different from mine, but if you choose to ignore most of my comments, I will simplfy them to what I think is most critical.

1) More units, your unit count was simply too low for compeditive deck building play.

2) The units I added where both tough, and dealt out decent damage. You deck is not fast, empire and especial orcs are much faster, you are not the only one onto contested villages and warp pits, empire is cheaper and its units quickley work together well, and golbins are just much faster no matter how you cut it. You need good hit piont units that can deffend your zones and dish it out to attackers. The chaos knights are great, but you do not want to be forced to throw them into kingdom or quest to save a burn, also you needed a bit more raw hitting power to have the strengh to finish a zone.

PLAY ADVICE-

Vs Empire

THEM

A well built empire deck will set up a little faster then you,will try to quickey get the unit synergy up, and wait for taals temples and greatswords to set up powerfull attacks. They will run forced marches, redirect attack cards and they seem to love the development moving/verna's judgement combo. If they loaded up too much on trying to get there tactic combos though, they may lack the unit count to deffend well against you, in which case a fast attack will serve you better. Trick empires will have lots of scouts, a rash of early discards can make players feel they can;t afford to cards as developments, and this sets them up to be hosed by judgement.

YOU

Do not sweat the early pings, heck even lose a zone early. As long as you keep a eye out for greatswords and taals, they rarely have the power to give a knock out blow to a well defended zone. The more dangerous well oiled decks will be putting out a swarm of cross-supporting guys, if you face this type of deck, put heavy hitting units into your zones to diswad the cheap little attacks, those types of decks get nervous if they start to lose synergy options early, so will likey stop attacking so hard and go deffensive. IF the empire unit is slow to slam out units, this is a good thing for you, BUT it does mean he likey has a higher level of tactic card count, so make sure you start dropping develpoments right away. Also play fast vs this type or deck. Throw down in the battle zone and put him on the deffenive, keep him dropping units in zones and do not let him feel comfortable enough to use his monney on none unit plays. It goes with out saying to snip away at the more important synergy units. Greatwords, Johann, pislolers and counter attack knights are your primary snipping targets. vs decks with dwarf forges, and lots of gates and /or fortresses, it may not pay to plink away with raids. If he quickley gets to the 4-5 healing/preventing points a turn range, it may pay to go on the deffence. Make sure you have lots of developements in your zones, and keep a good cash reserve and save yoru tatics and cash to snip off critcal parts of offences. I figure a deffence heavy deck with HE bolt thowers could eb an ugle deck for you if its played right.

Vs Dwaves

A tooled dwarf deck will a lot of the meh units and be mostly toughness stuff for units. Every dwarf deck ever will be maxed in forges, so expect to see one out in the first few turns for sure. Your snipping is ofen very pricy vs these dwarf decks and a lot of cards situational. Focus more on attack early and try to get an early burn IN BATTLEFIELD. Why battlefield? A dwarf player can happily let either kingdom or quest burn, and focus on deffending the other two, he wants units in the battlefield anyways in order to have some attacks on you, and always has a mess of strong deffenders for the other. You burn the battlefield and it puts pressure on the dwarf to keep the other zones strong. Units in the quest and kingdom can;t hurt you, much. Also the small horde that burnt his battlefield is sitting there, threatening, keeping him putting unit in the infracture zones. These zones will likey become very imposing in there deffence very quickley, appering almost inassable. At this point you slow down a bit, build up your resorce pool and use your snipping to keep him not feeling safe. Use units as opposed to cards for snipping as much a possible, because you want to save your tatics being part of a massive assault, when you do go back on the attack, yo got to go big or go home. Forges combines with dwarf miners. (Good dwarf player will save miners, till they matter, not throw them out to heal early attacks.) Not impossible for a dwarf to throw away 5-9 damage on a turn. You can also expect the remaining zones to be heavily developed. Your Chaos has few means of killing support cards, so quest is a better zone then Kingdom for having impact if you are trying to gaod out deffenders. Sadley a well developed dwarf deffecne can live with out hand draw for a bit if its set up well.

Vs Orcs

For all the trouble people are having with orc swarm deck, you can actually deal with them not bad. Cause of your slow start you can be in trouble if they come out too fast and kill a zone early. Yo can play deffence for a bit vs empire or dwarves, but are in trouble if you you find yourself on the deffence from orcs. Nice thing is, if you get out a few hard hitters, it is worth trying to goad orcs into deffending from the quest or kingdom zones. Lower either card draw or resorces early can give you the time they need. The fastest of orc decks and starts will let your attacks through and just pound away. A race you can lose, but can also win..... nether the less, fighting orcs is pretty staright forward, and you might lose the odd game to the fast rush, that being said, I have not yet.

Vs chaos

Chaos decks can be the most versitle with the current hand mix, they can truely be a mix of any allance and can be sooo different from each other. Really you just got to watch and role with the punches. A kid or inexperienced player may have a deck of heavy hitters and try to jus slam you, those decks will always fail vs you as you cheaply pick off the pricey units, they are no threat. Facing another snipping deck would be a very intesting game, very tactical in play and a lot of fun. FTR, my snip deck would tool yours in its current configeration, but with my suggested changes could go either way. The card you really really have to watch for, is that one that can play the tatics in your hand, that can be deadly of you have a stack of handy tactic cards. No good way to deffend from that aside from not making your deffence TOO dependent on a combo of tactic cards.

My reading suggests that there is something called "Combat Damage" which is the damage inflicted by attackers and defenders at the 4th and 5th steps of the 5 step combat process. There is also damage that is inflicted by various other sources that can happen during the 5 step combat process. See the discussions of Shrine of Nurgle and Nurgle's Pestilence. I read Sadistic Mutation as triggering anytime you deal any damage during the 5 step combat process.

RexGator said:

I know about the Shrine ruling, just the different wording that made me go "hmm". "During combat" covers all the 5 steps of combat. "In combat" I could see being either like you say or that the Unit itself has to be involved in combat, so either as attacker or defender.

During combat can be any source of damage during the 5 steps of combat, deals damage in combat means that specific unit must be dealing damage during combat in the most generous interpretation. A more strict interpretation could be that unit must be in combat itself, IOW a participating unit, and even more strict interpretation could be that unit must deal combat damage in order for SM to kick in. I sent this off to Nate, but I suggest sending him a separate inquiry.

I just sent it off to Nate as well. I used the specific example of SM attached to a Nurgle Sorcerer using it's action to inflict 1 damage on an opponent unit after attacked zone was announced but before attackers declared. If this is allowed, then SM/Nurgle Sorcerer is going to be big in my corruption deck.

RexGator said:

Thanks. I, too, will be very interested in the reply. Hope this will definately clear out the differences between "damaged during combat", "damage in combat", and "combat damage" wording.

Well we already know what two of those, damage during combat and combat damage are. The only one we don't know is damage in combat. We've had clarifications for the other two (though more than 90% of the posters were completely right word for word with Nate's explanations). The "in combat" is the one which is genuinely vague.