I attended the the Lexington Regional on Saturday and thought I'd post my winning deck along with a few notes about it and the tournament for those interested. The event was a pleasure in all respects. Like a lot of us, I've played many card games over the years, but in the last few years I've focused solely on A Game of Thrones, a game that I've found stacks up to the best of them in terms of depth and complexity in strategy and tactics. One thing I've consistently found in all my travels to play Thrones is the overwhelming good nature of its players and community, something that the Lexington meta for WH and its other attendees had in spades. I'd like to thank all those involved, especially Chris Hurt for directing the tournament for us. It was a really fun day of cards.

The Deck (52 cards)

• Walking Sacrifice x3
• Vile Sorceress x3
• Shades x3
• Clan Moulder Elite x3
• Lobber Crew x3
• Corsairs of Ghrond x3
• Poison Wind Globadiers x2
• Mortella x2
• Cold One Riders x2

• Warpstone Excavation x3
• Contested Village x3
• Har Ganeth x3
• Alliance: Chaos/Orc x3

• Cloud of Flies x3

• Innovation x2
• Hate x2
• We Need Your Blood x3
• Call the Blood x3
• Brutal Offering x3

We play Thrones more often than not in Tennessee, but we have enjoyed WH since its release at Gencon last year. So when we found out about the Lexington regional we knew it would make an enjoyable day trip for a few of us. The last couple of weeks we tested quite a bit, and in getting together last Sunday night we taught one of our Thrones players, Nate, the game (who went with us and had a really fun time, even winning a game in the process, though not the match. This traveling to tournaments may be in his blood now. I think he did very well for only having learned the game 6 days previously!)

We found what most people discover under any sort of rigorous testing - that the rush builds dominate the current environment, with a few exceptions of decks built to handle them which could also struggle against other decks. But with the report from Minnesota about the saturation of Orc and Skaven builds, we tended to focus exclusively on testing against them. After all, if a deck had very little chance against such a deck, it probably wasn't worth taking to a tournament, right?

I tested a DE/Skaven quite a bit, but I just wasn't impressed with how it played. It was powerful, but I didn't like that it was often a coin flip vs. other Skaven rush or Orc blitz decks. And it played way too much like a rush deck for me, even with the addition of more and more "burn" (for lack of a better word - a term used in Thrones, if you'll forgive me, for taking away a character's/unit's hit points, usually in a Targaryen deck). I've never been fond of playing rush decks, honestly. I had even tried using a little more control in an effort to make it more like a Targ deck, but the negative hit points, while very good at times, fell short in others. Notably, Clan Moulder's Elite+Choppa+Choppa slapped me sideways, with no real answer for it. I had tried Seduced by Darkness/Chillwind, but that only delayed the inevitable. It was just too difficult to put enough reducers out there at a time to bring down a fatty like that. I put a lot of thought into that conundrum on Thursday, and came up with several changes.

First off, in Chaos, we found that Brutal Offering was particularly efficient against the ubiquitous rush decks. It didn't answer every problem, but the card advantage was significant. So I took out the corruption effects and replaced them with damage effects, including 3 Brutal Offerings and 3 Call for Bloods. With this as a starting point, I began to look at ways to synergize around this new direction.

My units changed drastically at this point, as I practically started from scratch as I looked for ones which would work well with damage effects. Corsairs of Ghrond seemed like a particularly natural sacrifice for Brutal Offering. I was already using Lobber Crews, and Alliances as support locations in anticipation of resets, so Cloud of Flies was a good fit that added to the theme. With one Alliance, I could take care of all of my non-DE loyalty costs, and in a pinch, I could just pay the 1 extra each time for the relatively low-costed Chaos and Orc cards. Poison Wind Globadiers was another damage effect, and the idea of Cloud of Flies on Clan Moulder's Elite or Corsairs made me smile. I needed a bit more power, as most of my guys were very small, but not a lot of cheap power is available to the Dark Elves. I included a couple of Cold One Riders as they were another potential target of Cloud of Flies in a pinch, had a decent two hammers for attacking, and Counterstrike if I were desparate for a defender in a vulnerable zone.

In testing this deck 6 games (not a lot, I realize) on Friday, it beat Clamatius's Orc/Skaven build 4 out of 6 times. It is of course possible that I may not have been playing optimally, but it wasn't just the numbers that gave me hope. It was the way it had an answer for just about everything the rush deck threw at it. Sure it got rolled really badly in one game, but it also shut out the other deck in one game. The other games were all much closer, but it was able to stabilize in most of them and shut the door on the game. The only real danger was the Orc deck overwhelmed it with card draw when it drew badly in one game when the Orc deck drew 5/6 Warpstone Excavations/Contested Villages. But as this only happened in one game, I felt fairly sure that I could keep pace and keep that from happening normally, especially with a timely Shades here or there. Mortella also proved useful in turning Pillages back on the Orcs.

So I at least felt confident that I could hold my own against the all-out rush decks. Alas, I never got the chance to test it.

ROUND 1: First round I was in a mirror match with a DE much different than mine, but when I saw Infiltrate I surmised it was a stall deck trying to mill. Unfortunately for my oppoenent, all my direct damage sniped every unit he placed on the quest immediately. Contested Fortresses(?) cancelled a lot of damage, but I just threw all my units into the battlefield and overwhelmed him in each game. I hadn't tested this matchup, but I couldn't help but think that my damage and kill effects were much more efficient than his kneeling ones, making me glad to have brought this deck.

ROUND 2: The one sour note of the day, I got paired here against my friend Chris. We always seem to meet in every Regionals, no matter what the game - but it's much more preferable to make our first meeting in the final game, as we have several times in the past. He was playing his Chaos deck, a slower control that dropped big fatties after building up a ton of resources while holding off the opponent with direct damage. It proved to be fairly effective against rush with the right mix. I had no idea how our game would play out, but Call the Blood/Lobber Crew, my two answers for cards like Great Unclean One and Chaos Knights were huge here. It is so effective to "burn" the little guys and mop up with CTB/LC. After a first game in which Lobber Crew did massive damage, he almost got me in the second. With one zone burning, my Battlefield was very open, with no damage on it, but he could only do 7 to it. On my turn, I used Brutal Offering and two Call the Bloods to wipe his BZ, but he came over the top with his own Brutal Offering wiping mine as well. It took a few more turns to build back up and deal the requisite damage.

ROUND 3: Tulsy's Chaos/Skaven deck came out like a house on fire the first game, and I didn't draw a much needed We Need Your Blood or Vile Sorceress/Cloud of Flies/Poison Wind Globadiers to answer his early Greyseer/Wolves of the North. After pumping him with Clanrats, he did 5 damage to one zone, burning it, and attacked for 7 on another, dooming me for the next turn, which I think was the third. I was understandably a bit nervous after this game, but somehow I got just as good a draw (well, relatively speaking) as his first game, in large part thanks to bunches of Clan Moulder's Elites who finished him off very quickly. It now came down to a third game, one which almost defined the day and how my deck was set up to play. He burned a zone fairly early while I set up my infrastructure, which is very common with my deck. By that time I had two Vile Sorceresses on the board and a Corsairs in the Battlefield. He had fielded a Rat Ogres to Wolves of the North, and a Rat Ogres to the Battlefield, along with 4 1 hit point units (I believe two Savage Gors, the 1/1 Battlefield only guy, and a Savage Marauders). He was sure to burn a second zone the next turn, even if I got rid of a couple of the 1-HP guys with the Sorceresses or WNYB. But I had a Brutal Offering in hand, a card that I hadn't shown yet in the first two games. The Sorceresses gave each Rat Ogre -1 for the turn, and after attacking, I sacked the Corsairs with Brutal Offering, making the Rat Ogre on the quest -2 on the way out, and a WNYB finished the other after each unit took a damage in the Battlefield. I'm sure it was my most satisfying play of the day. Tulsy had a very good deck, though, and I was pretty sure I'd see it again.

SEMI-FINALS: Here I got a chance to play a Dwarf Aggro deck that had taken down 2 Orcs on the way to top 4 (losing only to another Dwarf Aggro piloted by another TN player who came with us and finished 1-0-1, narrowly missing the cut himself after almost winning his last match). I thought it was fantastic he'd performed so well, and was quite gratified to see an Order deck represented. And represent it well, he did. The deck was very scary, making me have to think very carefully about each play. As usual, he burned a zone early while I sat up in the first game, but I eventually stabilized and used Lobber Crew to hold him off while my little guys picked at him, building until I could get substantial damage through his 3 Keystone Forges. The second game utiized a surprising revelation, one that revealed I have a lot yet to learn about this game. In between rounds I had heard a story of someone using 3 Hates first turn on their opponent, which hadn't ever occurred to me. I had been using them (and quite happy with them as such) in disrupting the opponent's calculations of resources mid-Capitol phase. But I drew both Hates first turn that game, and after confirming the move was legal, used them before he got a chance to play anything, leaving him with a solitary play of a Contested Village. (A third Hate just went into my deck. ) This, combined with a Scout or two, meant I got off to a much faster start that I was able to turn into the win.

FINALS: The rematch against Tulsy was a good one, with the first game being very close, back and forth the whole way. I squeaked that one out with one zone burning and the other two in serious jeapordy of collapsing under the weight of the damage tokens. I believe a timely Brutal Offering cleared the way for a win in that one? The second game I used a Hate to choke him first turn, and he had a hard time getting card draw going. If I recall correctly, my one Shades was extremely punishing in this game, forcing him to develop his final card in hand a couple of times rather than have it discarded. My control showed up in a timely manner in this one, for which I was very grateful. I believe most of his cards were low hit point units as well, which made it easier to keep him from building his resources or draw as I sniped them off one by one, so a bad draw for him lent a hand in my victory.

Obviously I was very pleased with my deck, going 10-1 in five matches. I'm not sure I would change much about the deck other than maybe taking out one Mortella for a third Hate. The worst matchup for this deck is likely a unitless bolt thrower deck, which made me nervous, but no one was playing it. Mob Up! would be an easy addition but one that would be a dead card too much of the time at present. If the meta (eventually?) goes a little more in favor of HE/Dwarf or Bolt Thrower decks, I could see putting it in the deck and being fine against them by throwing every unit into the battlefield.

I would love to have played some of the solid Orc decks which just missed the cut, but it was not to be. But I don't have any complaints about the mettle or the character of my opponents or hosts in Lexington. Thanks again to everyone who had a hand in making it a very fun day of cards. (And thanks to my buddies Nathan and Wade who couldn't make it but along with the rest of our playgroup generously donated cards, advice, and playtesting time to help me get ready for this event.)

P.S. For anyone in Lexington or Ohio reading this and interested in delving a little deeper into A Game of Thrones as we discussed Saturday, East Tennessee is not a long drive - we'd love to see you at our Regionals on June 26th!

Good stuff. Thanks. Looks like you made some good choices.

Congratulations on winning the tournament!

Did you really never realizaed that you could play Hate in the very first Reign phase of your opponent before the tournament? I'm constantly playing Hate + Chittering Horde on that first Reign phase with my DE/Skaven deck, and it always cause my opponents to go OMFG!

Greetings and thanks a lot for the report!!!

NOTE: I'd really like to see the dwarf lists, cause it's one of the projects I'm workin' on...So...If one of the dwarf player's around...

EchPiEl said:

What the heck is a Reign phase? I'm pretty sure that's not a term I'm familiar with in Warhammer: Invasion's lexicon.

Great battle report and a fun deck it sounds like. What's impressive is how sleek yet functional it seems to be. I know many of us have worked on damage/sniping decks but getting it to work smoothly against some tough opponents means you know your "stuff!" Well done, sir!

One quick comment/question - my understanding is that Hate isn't terribly useful against someone because they can just spend the Resources to play their cards in response to it. What am I missing here about how you utilized it?

Wytefang said:

Hate : Beginning of KINGDOM phase (sorry about the missed word above), your opponent takes his resources, and right after that there's a "both players may take actions" subphase. If you use your Hates in that subphase, it's true that your opponent can respond to them with his own Tactics, but not Units or Supports, because he's not on his Capital phase, so essentialy you are forcing your opponent to play mostly unwanted tactics instead of the Units or Supports that would improve his game, or give you resources to use. And if this is his very first Kingdom phase, I assure you that almost any tactic he plays in response to your Hates is a complete wasted card, and you've achieved what you desired, he can't play all the units or supports that he wanted.

Ah! That's right. Thanks for the reminder...I had read that original post in the Rules section about Hate but forgotten what the final conclusions were. Cool card...I'd love to see more cards like that one.

First I just want to say, congrats to longclaw. I can see this is a deck that is adjusted to your playing style (running all 3 destruction factions in one deck is something I just never considered due to loyalty costs).

I do have a question: Can you play units and supports on an action que in your capital phase? For example, can I play Lobber Crew, my opponent plays a tactic (like Innovation), then I play Contested Village all on the same LIFO que. So when it resolves, the order played is Contested Village, Innovation, and finally Lobber Crew. Is this right?

Toberk said:

You can respond to actions like "Units", "Supports" or "Quests", but you CAN't respond WITH them to other action.

You cannot play "permanents" in response.

So, you can play a Tactic in response to a Unit, but not the opposite.

That's how I have always played it.

However, I'm looking over the rulebook right now and I don't see any mention of permanents being played in this manner. The only thing the rulebook says about this phase is that "...only the active player may play units, supports, or quests...". Is this just a way we have been playing because so many other card games are like that?

Toberk said:

It's not in the rules, but it is in the FAQ under "Actions."

Playing a unit, support, development, or
quest card from hand are actions with
restrictions built into them. The restrictions
are:

They cannot be played in response to
anything

...

KK, thanks cyberfunk.

Doesnt that mean that you can play Hate in response to a permanent, stealing one of your opponents leftover resources, and he cant respond by paying for another permanent ?

eg. My opponent has 3 resources. He plays a Spider Rider (pays 1) I play Hate in response and unless he chooses to play a Tactic he loses that 1 and i gain it. My opponent cannot now play the Clan Moulders Elite he would have done normally as he now only has one resource.

Correct, and it's a solid play since playing Spider Riders first tends to indicate that they will probably play something that costs 2, especially on the play. I also like to play Hate in response to my opponent's 1st turn Innovation, which effectively counters it.

Thought so, thats the way we have been playing it anyway.

Have to say, if anyone hasnt tried this deck they really should. Its very very good.

Ive made a couple of adjustments for consistancy and its gotten me a 17 out of 20 win ratio against Orc/Skaven Rush. And whats better its not a rush deck at all. Its a control deck really that uses a lot of board wipes to stifle its opponents ability to do anything of any consequence against you. You dont just keep the battlefield units at bay, but units in other zones as well.

I took the Mortella's out and replaced them with the extra Hate and Innovation and then reduced the number of Har Ganeth's and Banners to 2 each and replaced them with Invoke Khaines Wraith. That gave me an extra battlefield wipe to use against my opponent which i found turned quite a few games my way. I thought i might suffer as a result of losing those cards, but i didnt. The Har Ganeths were usually just putting my own Walking Sacrifice's back to my hand anyway and the gain from the Battlefield wipe more than offset this, and the loss of the banner really didnt cause any issues with loyalty costs as i found i had the resouces from the extra Hate and Innovations in the deck.

All in all a superb deck, quite possibly the standard for which all decks are going to have to live upto in this game at the moment.

MartinSmudge said:

Even against non-rush decks? I'd like to try it, but i'm always playing against suicidal dwarves.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. Since I hate playing rush decks (myself, that is, not against them), I was happy to find a solid control build that I enjoyed playing. I'm glad others are reaffirming what I had found regarding the matchup with Orc/Skaven. The talk about rush dominating worried me, but hopefully it was/is just a product of rush being so easy to build right now. They are very efficient, no doubt. However, with a constantly changing card pool like an LCG, things will have the potential to ebb and flow quite rapidly. I think control decks are likely harder to optimize and this may have accounted for some of the rush dominance as well?

Good changes, Martin. A third Hate and third Innovation are really good. Mortella is fun, but I agree she is the least essential to the synergy of the deck. I prefer Take Captive (which almost made the deck) to Invoke Khaine's Wrath, but both are very nice.

The scenario about disrupting an opponent's capital phase was the one in which I normally used my Hates, and it seemed pretty effective. But the first turn disruption seemed even better. I think I missed that because I was thinking of it in Game of Thrones terms where the Kingdom phase and Capital phase are one phase and playing a permanent is an action the active player gets to perform first before the opponent can play an action. In the back of my mind I knew there was a difference, but I think the wires got crossed up there somehow.

The matchups with non-rush decks worried me since I tested exclusively against rush decks, but honestly, Call the Blood/Lobber Crew dominate when you snipe all the little guys out of the way. A Brutal Offering of a two hammer unit + some sniping is pretty efficient too. And since I technically played no true rush decks and my game record was 10-1, I'd say it did okay.

The reason i went with the Invoke as opposed to the Take Captive was it has one less loyalty icon and is thus playable earlier. Again something i felt helped the consistancy of the deck.

MartinSmudge said:

I don't want to offend Ironclaw, who seems like an incredibly awesome guy all-around but I'm not sure this deck (or any deck yet) for that matter, is the "standard" to live up to right now. It's a strong deck but I feel like it's still a bit too early to say this is the killer deck of the game so far.

One follow-up remark - it was incredibly cool and generous to the community for you to even post your excellent deck here, so further props to you, Ironclaw. (Figured I should mention that in case no one else thanked you.)

Hope Ironclaw wont mind but ive directed people from the Squared Circle Board over here in the UK, to take a look at the deck to discuss it in preperation for the regionals that take place this weekend.

Wytefang said:

Agreed.

Okay, spent some serious time playing with and sort of testing this deck. I'd recently tweaked the B+ level deck I brought to the FFG Regionals, based on what I'd learned from the experience (it's an Orc/Skaven Rush deck). The Orc/Skaven deck smoked this deck consistently...and I even set things up against the Orc/Skaven by giving them 2nd turn every time AND by having a very noobish player using the Orc/Scaven while I used this cool deck.

So I'm left wondering if either Ironclaw is just insanely talented with card-wizardry (very possible by the sounds of things! LOL) OR if this deck maybe had a great run to the finals playing decks that really matched up well with it (for Ironclaw's sake) and isn't quite as strong as I'd hoped it was??

And this isn't a rip on this deck - I love it, actually. It's a fresh cool idea.

I did test out an interesting Destruction-based Reaper Bolt Thrower deck (with nearly no Units in it) and it also won 2 straight against this deck. So Ironclaw was right about it having trouble against unit-less stuff.

Anyway, hope this extra info helps those who still have Regionals to play out there. Take it all in and have some great games - good luck building your decks fellas!!