After being introduced to the game a few weeks ago I bought the releases so far and started tinkering with an Empire combo deck. in order to test it I built a version of a friend's Orc deck but with a total focus on blitz (becasue if my combo deck can cope with being attacked early it should be good to go). Needless to say the Orc deck rolled my Empire time and again (ah, well, back to the drawing board). As I might be able to make it to a tournament at the weekend I wondered what I could do to improve the Orc deck (as it seems much easier to play).

Units
3x Spider Riders
3x Crooked Teef Goblins
3x Ironclaw's Horde
3x Lobber Crew
3x Squig Herders
3x Followers of Mork
3x Big 'Uns
3x Veteran Sellswords
3x Boar Boyz

Support
3x Grimgor's Camp
3x Warpstone Excavation
3x Contested Village
3x Choppa
2x Rock Lobba

Tactics
3x We'z Bigga!
3x WAAAGH!
3x Seduced by Darkness

The only thing that I'm really not thrilled about are the Big 'Uns as they cost three, but the possibility of some defense against sniping has given them a slot so far. The deck is fairly self-evident, allowing you to attack (and possibly burn a zone) on your first turn or build for a turn before burning a zone on turn two/three and one on turn three/four. Free stuff makes blitz so much easier to build.

I can't decide whether or not I like Rip Dere 'Eads Off! or not. I can see the combo with big units, but part of the deck's power seems to come from playing out your hand and having the units as a threat turn after turn.

I woudl replace Rock Lobber by Rip Dere Heads Off. Rock Lobber is quite expensive in a blitz deck.

I'm gonna disagree about dumping Rock Lobber. Unless you're killing on turn three every single game, your opponent my be able to stall long enough to make you pay. With Rock Lobber you still have a chance for the kill even if your opponent has some defense out. I personally like Rip, and might take out some combination of Big Uns, Ironclaw's Horde, or Boar Boyz to get in Rip/Bloodthirster. This does look like a really solid list though.

I am more interested in what your lossing empire list looked like.

yeah it looks liek a good deck, but orc blitz deck builds are all the rage and they are everywhere. IF that is the rule at the event you are going too, I would keep working on an anti blitz and try to run with that. I understand the problem, the orc decks that are tuned and humming are good with just about any starting draw, but the counter decks need a little bit of starting luck.

Keep working on the empire, everyone and there dog is running that deck if they are going to an event.

stevetrpi said:

The problem is that the Bloodthirster is a dead card unless you see Rip, which makes it a bit combo-riffic. What about dropping a Big Unz and a Waaagh! for two Rip just to add speed?

I'll dig out my Empire deck and hopefully post it soon. It's working a little better now (thanks to the crazy bolt thrower).

crowdedmind said:

That's probably not bad if you're nervous about Bloodthirster - perfectly understandable. What I like about him is he makes your opponent worry whenever you put down a dev, and if you're playing against Order, you'll want at least one dev in battlefield anyway to protect against Judgement, so even as a dev he provides some defense. He is mostly a dead draw against Destruction though.

I played WFB too long, I just can't bring myself to put a BT in an orc deck! I do feel with this game one can have effective compeditive decks and still have them themed. I dosn;t bother me when others have non-themed decks either.

Perhaps in my group players have just not "figured out" how to play orc blitz to its fullest, it seams to be "the deck to beat" in the online community, yet we find it wins no more games then the others. If empire gets a good start and has some synergy early, they have little trouble holding off the orc mobs, and chaos snipping decks are pretty good against them too.

You show 3x Sellsword Mercenaries in your deck build. Do you mean 3x Veteran Sellswords?

You should have at least 1 zone burning before the opponent can build a bit defense. Get one Waagh/Totem and smash the other zone, even if your creatures are dead after it, you won.
WIth Rock Lobber you will need to pay 4 resources and destroy one of your units to only to 2 damage.

jogo said:

Rock Lobber is great for letting you hit a second zone in the same turn as an attack. If you've been attacking the battlefield but not desytroyed it and your opponent play a lot fo units there you can then attack and burn the quest zone whilst using the Rock Lobber to poach the battlefield. You certainly don't need three in a deck, but having one available near the end can be a game-ender.

TubBelly: Oops. I'll correct the list.