Hello,

I'm running a Dark Elf/Undead HP control deck at the moment. (Offering to Hekarti, Malekith's Rage etc etc)

I've had the opportunity to playtest it in a competitive environment, and I'm more-or-less happy with its performance. I'm making a couple of minor tweaks to it at the moment, BUT...

One of the bigger shortfalls is that it's not performing well in the late game, i.e. it lacks some brute force once I'm developed enough. I've currently got Toxic Hydra as the main effort.

Going through the higher cost DElf cards, I'm struggling for inspiration (and I've also noticed that there's not much bang for the buck in the DElf High cost units, compared to say... the Empire)

Any suggestions on a good late-game unit are gratefully received. (I've got enough tweakage put in 2x3 card suggestions)

I played Swarm of Bats as my main finisher. They have great synergy with Slave Pens and can burn a zone in two attacks a lot of the time.

To my mind, it is close between Clan Moulder's Elite and Swarm of Bats. Sometimes every card in your DE control deck counts. Then it is a pity if you have to discard them by the Swarm of Bats' effect.

Vitamin T said:

Yesterday I played Swarm of Bats for the first time in my deck. I attacked 3 or 4 times with it always using the draw cards action and lost in the end, cause my deck was empty. I was in advantage at that time and I would have defeated my opponent in the next 1 or 2 turns.

What am I doing wrong? And BTW how much power should one play in the quest zone to draw cards. Is it too much to draw 5 or 6 cards per round?

When you have Swarm of Bats you have to be careful about card draw. If you have them early you should not built up your questzone that much. To be effective the minimum number of units in deck with Swarm should be 24 or better 27. But personally I don't like the discard effect not so much when playing DE. Often I really depend on every card I would draw and discarding Black Horror, Sacrifice to Khaine or Seasoned Corsairs can be a major drawback when you need them. So for my personal playing style I switched back to Clan Moulders Elite. My main attacking units when playing DE are Shades, Beastlord, Blood Dragon Knight/Wight Lord, Clan Moulders Elite or cheap units fueled up with Warpstone Experiments.

I frequently do not trigger the bats ability. They are useful just to power up slave pens. Normally you should only need to trigger them 2 or 3 times during a match, but you do need to be careful, you can easily deck yourself with them!

The best use for swarm of bats in my games has been in Orc rush using 'armed to da teef'. Between 3x choppas, 3x tribal tattoos, 3x assasin's blade, etc..if they are discarded by SoB's ability, it gives 'Armed to da Teef' something to pull and place on spider riders.

Yeah Bats + armed is pretty wicked. Almost worth playing warp lightning cannon with it.

grille said:

This only matter if you lose because you have no more cards in you deck. Until that point "seeing your discarded" card is a good information about what you can draw on your next card. Whereas most players believe that its' something "bad". It's wrong only if you have some strong tutor card in a game.

@Takith

Before playing bats in my EN deck as finisher I was playing Naggaroth Spearmen, a lot. They can strike harder but they are more fragile.

Vitamin T said:

I'm quite new to the game, so excuse my question: How do you mean to power up the slave pens? Do you use the bats as defender and sacrifice them during an attack?

More generaly, any units with necromancy is usefull to power up slave pens.

Because you are still able to play those units from your discard pile. Swarm of bat is an "immortal" and low cost unit that can strike hard if needed and because it is a low cost unit it does not matter if you sacrifice theim so as to power up your slave pen.

They are actually the cheapest unit with Necromancy, and they also have a pretty good ability.

So you can sacrifice them to power up the slave pens +1 and then ressurect them and sacrifice them again to get +1 for your slave pens an keep doing that? I never thought of that, cause I always had in my mind, that they go back under my deck after one round od ressurection. But if I sacrifice them before the end of turn I can use them endlessly to power up my slave pens. Thanks!

Yeah...it's a nasty little cycle. That's why most players will save their support destruction for Slave Pens when playing against Dark Elf.

Just be aware that you can only sacrifice a unit to slave pens once per turn.

Doc9 said:

more like top deck it right, with all the scouts in a DE deck : (

Monster of the Deep is my favorite!

I've had no experience with Vampire Bats, because although in Portugal we have up to The Eclipse of Hope, Legends didn't get here for some reason.

Anyway, as a finisher I normally use Naggaroth Spearmen with unit destruction to clear a path for them.

Alluring Chosen works well in a mill deck, I've pumped it to insane amounts of power.

Black Dragon Rider and Malus Darkblade are also great finishers and they work well with each other.

Vitamin T said:

Finally got the Legends pack, tried out the bats and I'll have to agree with Vitamin T, you have to be careful when you use them, but they are an awesome finisher.