I was one of the few people that attended the regional at Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie, MD and I figured that I would post my deck for critique. It may not mean much since we only had a 6 person turnout, but maybe some people will find the deck interesting.
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[Cards]
Units
- Countess Iseara x2
- Grimgor Ironhide x3
- Bloodthirster x3
- Lobber Crew x3
- Followers of Mork x3
- Squig Herders x3
- Stunty Smasha x3
Support Cards
- One Orc's Scrap... x3
- Contested Village x3
- Orc Dark Elf Alliance x3
- Grimgor's Camp x3
Tactics
- Easy Pickin's x3
- Innovation x3
- Troll Vomit x3
- Rip Dere 'Eads Off! x3
- Raise Dead x3
- Pillage x3
Total Card Count 50
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The deck at its heart is a control deck. It uses Lobber Crew, Easy Pickin's, and Pillages for early destruction of the opponents resources, then follows up with either a Grimgor or a Troll Vomit to clear major resources. Grimgor can sometimes be played normally, but almost always he is played by Raise Dead.
The three big units (Grimgor, Bloodthirster, and the Countess) are virtually always played via Raise dead, or brought into play for a turn via Rip Dere 'Eads Off. Bloodthirster is in the deck simply because it has a massive number of hammers, and a turn two rip of a Bloodthirster in the quest zone can give a much needed boost of cards. An idea opening would be One Orc's scrap in the kingdom, develop Grimgor or the Bloodthirster in the Quest, and leave one resource to rip during phase 0 of the next turn.
If the opponents develops a large number of support cards in the kingdom or quest, a turn two or three raise dead of Grimgor can really swing the tide. You can get him into the discard pile by either using One Orc's scrap, the Stunty Smasha, or you can Rip the turn prior to the Raise dead being used.
The Countess's main use is in giving necromancy to the Lobber Crew. If you have resources available during phase 0, you can use Rip to turn her face up, use the rest of the resources to give Lobber Crew copies in the discard pile Necromancy, and play them during the Capitol phase. If you have here in play normally in the Kingdom, the 6 base resources from just her there allows you to recycle a dead Lobber Crew twice per turn.
Followers of Mork and the Squid Herders were put into the deck because they played well together, and because they can add some much needed hammers where you need them. The deck overall runs on limited resources, so the they almost always go into either the quest zone or to the battlefield.
Once you have the game in your favor, then it is time to start playing units into the battlefield, ripping Bloodthirsters into the battlefield, or raising them from the dead.
The deck plays out fairly well, but from testing me and my roommate (who took first place by a hair margin) found that the deck is slightly unstable. The deck really needs the combo to show up for it to stabilize. If you do not get any copies of Raise Dead, Rip Dere 'Eads Off, Stunty Smasha, or One Orc's Scrap, then the deck can fall apart under its own weight. In a counter-control race, it is a step or two behind decks such as the Judgment or Empire control decks, but it can make work of other decks that are unable to prevent it from getting its combo off.
Long Winter is a bane of this deck, since two of the main ways to get cards into the discard pile (Stunty Smasha and Rip Dere Eads Off) do not actually put them into the discard pile until the action stack resolves, unlike One Orc's Scrap which puts it into the pile as a cost. While playtesting, it was found that one or two Long Winters played at these times basically shuts the deck down. If the opponent is skilled and can figure out what is coming, the Judgment decks ended up being more effective by using them to stop these effect than clearing out developments to use Judgment. Since all you need is one resource to play raise dead, if they do not pay attention and judge you at the wrong time, you can just innovate and raise Grimgor to even the table. If they hold back and just stall you out with Long Winters, then it is almost game over.
Overall for a deck with a few glaring problems, it is a fun deck to play. I am thinking that the resurrection tech might work well as a core of a different deck rather than focus on completely controlling the table, so that might be a project for the future. Until then, discuss and critique to your heart's content.