High Elves

3x Alliance Empire High Elf
3x Alliance Dwarf High Elf
3x Warpstone Excavation
3x Contested Village
3x Treasure Vaults
3x Contested Fortress
3x Keystone Forge
3x City Gates
3x Repeater Bolt Thrower

3x Master rune of Valaya
3x Gifts of Aenarion
3x Asuryan's Cleansing
3x Judgement of Verena
3x Demolition!
3x Innovation
3x Flames of the Phoenix
2x Will of the Electors

First of all I'd like to say congratulations to Ben who came eighth with this deck after being given it on the train to the Regional. He was previously playing a unit-heavy version of the deck and to be able to switch to a build that punishes every mistake you make and do reasonably in such a deformed environment is very impressive.

As soon as I started playing Warhammer: Invasion and saw that units were the core card type of the game I knew that a unitless deck would be amazin if it actually worked as you'd dodge all the anti-unit meta. I don't think that the deck is quite there yet, but it's very close. Against anything but blitz you can usually keep the first zone from burning long enough to win comfortably without even having to rely on saving the second. The deck could do with another fog-like effect (attack denial) or board reset. So far the best we can think of is Radiant Gaze, which is weak and triple loyal. One of the difficulties facing the deck is being able to get enough High Elf symbols out early so that you aren't overpaying for tactics in key turns.

I am sure that I read somewhere that all of the different Alliance cards count as the same card as they all have the same name.

Even if they do I would be tempted to swap some of them out for more buildings to fuel Treasure Vaults. At the moment 9 of your supports are non buildings (Warpstone, 6 Alliances). While the High Elf 2 cost supports are pants they do bring with them a loyalty symbol and they are buildings.

Personally I am not convinced about Judgment. You only have 2 Wills to fuel it and its too easy to avoid once your opponent is aware of the option. You also face real risks of counter Will versus Empire. I have been playing something similar to this but I leaned towards using the Dragonmage and Defend Tor Aedris. Sure you may need to replay him after a Flames but by that point you are probably drawing enough resources to do so easily as he provides you with a multi turn auto defence.

You also are not running Disdain so its difficult to see how you win if your Bolters get Pillaged or Demolished or hit by Caught the Scent. Similarly while City Gates is tempting as you only have 3 cards which can allow you to win you really dont want to see one of them fall as a development.

The Alliance card issue is one that needs to be sorted. I think that by the rulebook the name of the card is High Elf/Dwarf, not Alliance. I shall wait and see however.

The Alliances are in there to fuel loyalty costs. There's nothing cheaper support-wise and whilst there is another one or two High Elf buildings they're effectively blank whereas the Alliance reduces the cost of Judgement by one. We were considering dropping a City Gates however and would add Abandoned Mine if it wasn't so expensive.

Judgement is also set up by Demolitions, so there're five cards to deal with developments. If your opponent wants to play around Judgement then it costs them cards from hand without you having to do anything which is very powerful. Even when they do develop you can usually clear either their Quest or Battlefield. The problem with playing a few units is that not only is Flames more costly but you then get hit by Lobba Crews, Sniktch, Seduced etc. I'd rather completely deny my opponent a portion of their effects and gain that virtual card advantage.

Disdain is good enough to go in the deck, but not so great as to be an auto-include yet. We would put it in if we could something. As of now another fog is more important as is another building (on top of the current supports).

Strategy wise, the problem with "virtual card advantage" in W:I is that no card is truly dead because of developing. So they have built in cards in their deck to fight against your Judgement. Playing a development is also free so while you are spending resources to destroy their free developments so that you can possibly get a Judgement to hurt them more than you, you are giving them more time because you give them that resource advantage.

I think Judgement is more powerful when it forces the opponent to make hard decisions on how to play around it. If they have to put a card down as a development that might save them later on, it costs them. I think playing units is still better. It opens up other card choices (quests) that are really good in a bolt thrower deck. Thinks like Seduced by Darkness don't matter because you weren't going to defend with the unit anyway. Someone using their Lobber Crew isn't real different either. If Lobber Crew is dead against you and they decide to place it as a development and you pay 3 to destroy it, how is that any different than you paying 3 for a unit and they sacrifice Lobber Crew to force you to sacrifice your unit? The cost and card count is the same both ways, but in most cases, your unit really should cost less than 3. Deathmaster is annoying, but he can be played around and he is ultimately kinda slow compared to the rush decks out there. You can also just play out a unit that has a decent HP total so that the skaven player really has to overextend to kill it and thus walk right into your devastating effects. If they a Deathmaster and 4 other skaven to get so close to kill your 4 HP questing unit (just an example), then that Judgement is that much more win.

I also think that Disdain is now required with Orc Rush decks packing Pillage to off your Bolt Thrower. It can also help against dedicated Judgement decks that may be able to manipulate your developments enough to wreck your board.

darkdeal said:

Will Disdain become less useful once people get their grubby paws on Arcane Fire:

SNOTLING SABOTEURS (x3) (Orc Unit)

3OO

P 3HP

Ranger.
Action: Spend 2 resources and
sacrifice this unit to destroy one
target support card or development.

Or is that too pricy and slow in an Orc-rush environment?

Dam said:

While it costs more than Pillage, it is still a unit where Pillage is not so it may or may not be used. Pillage may still be better though because it is cheaper depending on how fast someone needs to kill a support or development. I think Disdain will only go up in value though as more and more tactics are printed.

Aw thanks mate - my performance in any sort of tourney has never been described as impressive before!

I was thinking by the way that the 57-60th cards imo are City Gates. Don't get me wrong, it's obviously good, but it cost me 3 too much of the time and I'd probably take a HE loyalty symbol from an otherwise blank shrine of asuryan that will always cost 2. Of course it's probably a moot point now with the new pack around the corner. I have a feeling in my waters that there will be HE goodness (crosses fingers for a 1 cost bldg )

Ben

I said that you did well considering that you got the deck on the way to the tournament, lets not get too here.

I think that the deck is strong, but missing that one piece to give it consistency against blitz. That might tip it over the edge against slower aggro decks however. City Gates can go for some terribad High Elf Building but I think that an extra fog is also needed. Radiant Gaze isn't amazing, but like the Contrested Fortress it might give you enough time to for the Keystone Forge to kick in. Buying even a single extra turn is massive.

Aw, but I do you!

I agree with what you say, we won't know until the new set tips up. We've seen 1 card which is only good for units, and only units with more than 1 HP so hopefully we'll see something for the unitless build too.