Regionals is coming up. I know there's plenty of excitement, especially with the new expansion release. Has the game environment changed? What are the most effective deck builds for competitive play?

This discussion isn't about critiquing deck builds and deck list specifics, but rather, I thought that we could instead discuss deck themes, strengths, and weaknesses.

I will edit this first post frequently with information and insights from discussion.

Here's my preliminary THREAT LIST. These are the decks themes that are circulating in the current card pool and are in my personal opinion, the strongest competition.

• Orc Rush
• Orc Slow Aggro
• High Elf Invulnerability/Healing
• Skaven-Corruption
• Skaven-Snipe
• Skaven-Destruction Rush
• Empire Counterstrike/Jumping Jacks/Verena
• Dark Elf-Chaos Snipe
• Dark Elf-Chaos Corruption
• Order Indirect Damage
• Order Mill
• Destruction Mill
• Dwarven Development

A bit tired (so I'll finish it later), but I'll eventually write up something akin to the below. Help me out and post your ideas.

Orc Rush

Clearly the fastest, most destructive deck. They rely on card draw and a great opening hand. They need to play quickly or else they will need to reset the board.

Possible Counters : Counterstrike, Unit Bouncing, Snipe, Indirect Damage

High Elf Invulnerability/Healing

A new deck build possible thanks to the recent expansion, once this deck gets its invulnerable combos out, it's an attrition battle of frustration.

Possible Counters : Unit Bouncing, Unit Removal (Sacrifice/Destroy), Damage Uncancel

I think Skaven (any version, really) and Orc/Chaos control (Removal / Seduced / Rip / efficient dudes) were the dominant decks pre-Ulthuan. I was still holding out hope for a decent Dwarf deck, but I never got a chance to test them sufficiently post-DD. There are a couple of BIG cards in Ulthuan that really throw a wrench into the meta, though.

Skaven does get a good card in Chillwind a free Deathmaster/Globadiers activation tacked on to Seduced is well worth the one barrel. And every corruption effect you add makes the other corruption effects that much better. Otherwise, everything is slowing the game down. Skaven can get some utility out of some other DE cards, too. I'll have to try some Skaven lists to see what I like.

Har Ganeth A huge card for tempo control. This really puts the brakes on weenie rush decks. Especially nasty when you go first.

Take Captive! This card is nutsy. Grasping Darkness was already pretty good in this role, but this can swipe anybody. It's right there with Rip and Sigmar's Intervention in terms of combat tricks, but even easier to pull off (a bit more expensive, but not as situational). You just have to wait for them to swing with more than one guy and then you kill two or three of them while stopping all or most of the damage. Hate, Lash the Prisoner, and Innovation can make opponents think about it even when you don't have three barrels. Definitely hurts rush decks more than most others, but it's good in almost every matchup.

Tzeentch's Firestorm "Destroy target Deathmaster and Greyseer" for four sounds like a winner to me.

Walking Sacrifice Not an amazing card, but even better than the Chaos Spawns for shutting down Lobber Crews. And they can make sure Har Ganeth doesn't backfire. I think it's possible that these guys (and other free guys) will become popular enough that Lobber Crews might occasionally sit the bench for Destruction.

Order gets some good cards in Ulthuan, but I think they benefit from the general slow-down in the meta as much as anything. I think Dwarves are perhaps in the best position to capitalize on the slight shift towards slower games with Master Rune of Valaya, Master Rune of Dismay, Glorious Death, etc. all reaching peak effectiveness on turns 4-6. Empire is certainly happy with the slightly slower tempo against rush decks, but the ever-increasing removal/bounce options are bad news for the Shrine, so Empire might have to go back to the drawing board. High Elves pretty much want to shoot for the lockdown as early as possible and then figure out how to win (probably the Repeater or milling, but maybe not). The most straightforward lockdown seems to be parking a Dragonmage on Defend Tor Aendris. I don't know if I like Dwarf or Empire splash better, but I think you have to go with at least one.

cyberfunk said:

haha i like that...also, honestly, i think that whether you splash HE with dwarfs or empire, they're about equally as potent. i'd think that the empire route provides more offense than the dwarf one, but dwarf does have its benefits and synergies with HE.

I haven't forgotten this thread and my promise to keep it updated. I've been feeling under the weather lately and have caught a minor cold. I will most likely be updating this within the next week or so and again when the new battlepack is released.

I've been looking at the card pool. Here's some food for thought. Dwarves have a lot of unit removal. Why haven't we seen a Order snipe/unit removal deck?

FiendishDevil said:

Don't most of them require you to sac one of your own Units though (Grudge Thrower, Slayers of Karak Kadrin, etc.) or that your Unit leaves play (D. Ranger, Zhufbar Engineers)? From that POV, I could see Dwarf-sniping not being as effective as their Destruction counterparts, since it costs you a Unit as well, while Chaos or Skaven Sniping nets you a kill without tossing your own Unit(s).

Just a thought.

I have to agree with Dam, Dwarf removal just doesn't seem to be as god as it's desruction counterpart (If someone comes up with a genius deckbuild to prove me wrong, I'll be glad to have been mistaken ;o) )

Personally I think you will see many Orc Rush/ any type of Skaven decks in your regionals.

Haven't played many (or any) WH:I tournaments here in Germany till now, but at the Friday Night Meetings in our local game club, I have rarely seen some competitive order decks (Haven't played with them since AoU came out, so that might change with the new cards, but I think many people will stick to their successfull decks)

Here is my latest Dwarf build, which is removal-based:

Guys: 23
3 Dwarven Cannon Crew (2-DD)
3 Slayers of Karak Kadrin (2-DD)
3 Zealot Hunter (3)
3 Zhufbar Engineers (3-D)
3 Troll Slayers (3-D)
3 Dwarf Ranger (3-DD)
1 Durgnar the Bold (3-DDD)
3 Mountain Brigade (4-DD)
1 King Kazador (6-DDDDD)

Supports: 13
3 Contested Village (1)
3 Keystone Forge (2-D)
3 Mountain Barracks (2-D)
1 Treasure Vaults (3)
3 Abandoned Mine (4)

Tactics: 14
3 Innovation (0)
3 Ancient Map (1)
3 Stand Your Ground (1-DD)
2 Blessing of Valaya (2-D)
3 Master Rune of Valaya (2-D)

Quests: 4
1 Prepare for War! (0)
1 A Glorious Death (0-DD)
1 Reclaim the Hold (0-DD)
1 Infiltrate! (2)

Total = 54

The basic idea is to recylce Zhufbar Engineers, Slayers of Karak, and Zealot Hunters with Stand Your Ground and Reclaim the Hold/Abandoned Mine. Slayers and Valaya are great anti-rush since they work on attacks to any zone and don't fold to corruption. You want to get Reclaim the Hold running ASAP in most games (you might get a weird draw where you don't). Then you want to figure out what kind of game you're in. Sometimes you can win with pure battlefield attrition, since you never run out of guys. Other times you need to try to pressure their Quest by looping Engineers on Prepare for War. Troll Slayers are enough offense to keep the pressure up (and you can make sure they don't die). Zealot Hunter may seem dicey, but you absolutely have to have him in the Skaven matchup, and you're developing most turns anyway. You can always Mine him back up if you encounter a random splashed dork.

Speaking of splash, you could probably get some High Elves into the mix in this deck if you wanted. You've already got Cannon Crews to find Alliance banners (lose Vaults/Barracks). Dragon Prince has some obvious combo potential, and the new heroes aren't a bad fit. And Defend Tor Aendris is pretty good with the King or Mountain Brigade.