Best Decks for all Warbands

[prawnking]

Ah apologies!

Ylthari's Guardians

[WiKceD]

@prawnkingThis is amazing!  I have collected most of the warbands to play in our casual group of friends but never had the time to even out everyone's decks. So far these work fantastically well!  I hope you plan on taking on season three when the time is right.  If I can ask in the meantime what method you use for these so we can try to tackle the new warbands on our own?

[prawnking]

I look at quite a few decklists online, and keep my eye out on forums for interesting and popular cards. 

I play with my kids not competitively, but I read a lot of blogs by those who do, and play quite a lot. 

Mostly I do what anyone does when making a standard deck for a warband I imagine; choose cards that feed into what seems to be their playstyle and also try and anticipate their weaknesses. That could be having low movement, squishy fighters, a difficult inspire mechanic etc.  

The main difference in how I approach it compared to someone making a single tournament deck, however, is considering game balance across all warbands.  I find, unsurprisingly, Shadespire warbands often need the most help, so I beef up the likes of Sepulchral Guard, Ironskull's and Chosen Axes and minimise the likes of Cursebreakers. Probably the only warband I really pumped up in Nightvault were Eyes of the Nine, and Godsworn to a lesser extent. 

I certainly intend to do the same with Beastgrave, and will be rotating out cards even though I don't play competitively. I imagine it will be a little like starting from scratch and faction only cards will be a lot more prevalent (and I already use them more than most standard decks do) until the fourth warband are released, I imagine. I'm looking forward to it though! 

[prawnking]

Garrek's Reavers

Steelheart's Champions

Sepulchral Guard

Ironskull's Boyz

The Chosen Axes

Spiteclaw's Swarm

Magore's Fiends

The Farstriders

Stormsire's Cursebreakers

Thorns of the Briar Queen

The Eyes of the Nine

Zarbag's Gitz

Godsworn Hunt

Mollog's Mob

Thundrik's Profiteers

Ylthari's Guardians

Ironsoul's Condemners

Lady Harrow's Mournflight

Grashrak's Despoilers

Skaeth's Wild Hunt

The Grymwatch

Rippa's Snarlfangs

The Wurmspat

Hrothgorn's Mantrappers

 

Updated!

[Kaleun]

I understand the titel of the Threat differently and would like to ask nevertheless.

Which common/general cards are best to have for using them for all Warbands? Especially for competitive play?

The general cards without belonging to a specific Warband.

[G28]

Thank you for the decks!!
One note. I started to build the decks but You used

Amberbone Hammer 2 times: 

• Hrothgorn's Mantrappers
• Thundrik's Profiteers

Survival Instincts 2 times:

• The Wurmspat
• Spiteclaw's Swarm

and Snare 2 times:

• Rippa's Snarlfangs
• Grashrak's Despoilers

[prawnking]

I spotted this yesterday when I was making the decks myself! Lots of cards to keep an eye on, thanks for the spot!

I've amended so Amberbone Hammer stays with  Thundrik and Hrothgorn gets Nullstone Hammer from Grymwatch instead , with Grymwatch getting Nullstone Dagger instead:

Hrothgorn's Mantrappers

The Grymwatch

 

Skaven keep Survival Instincts and Wurmspat get Unstoppable Tread instead:

The Wurmspat

 

As for Snare, there are two copies in the Beastgrave box so that one is fine

 

I also noticed I have one too many Conquests, so from Thorns of the Briar Queen I'm swapping it out for Plant a Standard

Thorns of the Briar Queen

Edited April 20, 2020 by prawnking

[prawnking]

After making the decks up, I've updated five warbands as I noticed I left a few decent cards out:

The Chosen Axes

 

A Claim Retaken (instead of Unstoppable Advance)

Confusion (instead of Ur Gold Boon)

 

Magore's Fiends

 

Solid Gains (instead of Interdiction)

Sidestep (instead of Instinctive Denial)

 

 

Thorns of the Briar Queen

 

Confusion (instead of Misdirection)

 

Ironsoul’s Condemnors

 

Determined Effort (instead of Steadfast)

 

 

Hrothgorn's Mantrappers

 

Misdirection (instead of Gotcha!)

Caltrops (instead of Desperate Parry)

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by prawnking

[Sardo Numspa]

Can't thank you enough for the time/effort for these lists.  My boys will be so excited to play with something more interesting than "Dad's Pile of Cards"

[Sardo Numspa]

I'm trying to understand more about deck strategy so I'm building every one of your lists (thank you) but I have a question?

You only used 1 of the faction's Objectives, an only 2 of the faction's Gambits in the list.  I'm really confused as to why that decision?  There seems to be many solid in-faction cards?  I'd be very interested in knowing more about why you built it this way?

[Sardo Numspa]

Correction:  1 Gambit, 2 Upgrades

[Sardo Numspa]

15 hours ago, Sardo Numspa said:

I'm trying to understand more about deck strategy so I'm building every one of your lists (thank you) but I have a question?

You only used 1 of the faction's Objectives, an only 2 of the faction's Gambits in the list.  I'm really confused as to why that decision?  There seems to be many solid in-faction cards?  I'd be very interested in knowing more about why you built it this way?

Additional correction:  I'm referencing the Godsworn Hunt decklist.

[prawnking]

So my strategy is not watertight but personally I have a few criteria for spreading universal cards out and also the weighting of faction/universal cards in each warband. I try and even out the strength of the warbands as much as possible, while also trying to keep the flavour of each warband and their individual styles and mechanics (as well as how they inspire)

A lot of the Shadespire warbands (especially Ironskull's/Chosen Axes/Sepulchral), Godsworn Hunt, Eyes of the Nine and The Wurmspat seem to need more help than most. These were given the lion's share of the more powerful universal cards, rather than some of their weaker faction cards. I also tried to compensate (especially with Shadespire bands) for any inherent fight card weaknesses, whether that was because the warband was slow, or had no ranged weapons etc.  I found with most of the Beastgrave warbands that they had much stronger faction cards than previous seasons (especially Objectives) so didn't need so many of the better universals.

I also tried to give Farstriders and Godsworn Hunt access to the Hunter mechanic (as even though this isn't hugely efficient, it seemed narratively appropriate). I made Magore have a slight anti-magic flavour, but toned this down to just one card and a Nullstone weapon so as not to weaken them too much when facing zero magic warbands. I made Steelheart a tome deck (they probably need a Last Chance / On Your Feet style card as soon as one is available), Sepulchral stonger with objective play (Beastgrave cards help tremendously with this), Spiteclaw strong on combo attacks, Chosen Axes a Key deck, Stormsire magic orientated but not necessarily with the best cards, Thorns a swarm deck,  Despoilers an Ur-Grub deck, and tried to keep Grymwatch power level down a bit. It's not an exact science, and I'm sure others would have done it differently/better!

With Godsworn Hunt specifically, I found them a bit of a challenge to play, and a bit jack-of-all-trades. I gave them some Hunter cards for flavour, and in terms of their faction cards, I found them a little lacking personally. Objectives were OK, so i put 5 in the deck, and enjoyed using most of the Oaths. Out of their 7 gambits I only really thought Dark Destiny was an auto-include. The others (Oathsworn aside, which is a Determined Effort copy and perfectly fine, but Sphere of Hysh does the same job and figures into some Objective scoring with Magical Apotheosis) were below-average and I preferred universals in their place. I put Forward Planning in there as an auto-inspire. I wanted some magic (but not too much ) for Theddra, as I was making her potentially a Level 3 wizard but didn't feel any faction magic was that great (Enfeeble is decent and you could swap that out for another if you prefer). In terms of upgrades, I feel Path to Glory is the best by far, and after that it's a question of deck suitability. I included four Hunter cards, Jared's Spirited Sphere for a ranged magic option for Theddra, a couple of extra Theddra cards and Gloryseeker as a damage boost with the added flexibility of working at range too.

If you wanted to change out any of the universals in the deck for factions I'd say go ahead if you prefer that flavour, but always check how it affects and feeds into your objective deck.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by prawnking

[Sardo Numspa]

That.  Was.  Awesome.   Thank you so much for a great summary of the 'why'.  Very helpful.

[Bjecki]

Just wanted to say a huge thank you prawnking!

I recently got into the game and went on a massive buying rampage to get everything from all seasons.
I have no desire to play competitive and will be mainly playing with friends and my son once he is a bit older.
These deck lists were exactly what I was looking for especially since I'm still a noob and all the options are overwhelming.
I have saved the page for any future updates.

Also here are a couple of photos of the end result!

Now to get to painting the minis and get some games in.

[prawnking]

Thanks for the kind comments, me and my boys love playing with these decks too, they're not perfect but they're fun and I try hard to balance them as much as possible. 

We have a fantastic Underworlds community and I keep a close eye on it so I can try and keep up with trends and general feelings about each warband and how they relate to each other. 

With the latest FAR list just coming out, none of the decks exceed the amount of restricted cards, but we have a banned card in the Farstriders deck now (Hunter's Reflexes). I'll probably wait until the final two warbands are out to address this, as it ideally needs replacing with another 'This fighter is a Hunter' card to better synergise with their Objective deck

Edited June 30, 2020 by prawnking

[WathLab]

EDIT SEPTEMBER 2020 (Post Arena Mortis release)

Hi! I really like your approach and the huge work you've made since Shadespire! I'm sure that it's been very useful to many of us.

One remark concerning Chosen Axes : I fully agree when you say that they need more help than most of the other warbands, but imho, here, in that regard, I'm not sure that their deck is as strong as it could (or should) be. Right now, it's mainly built around holding objectives, which is the best way to lose games with them sadly... in particular for casual players. Also, when you only have 4 slow (& fragile when they're uninspired) fighters... and lack good ways of scoring glory early game,  using keys can be really tricky!

Imho (again), Chosen Axes requiere a more flexible approach.

 

When the last 2 Beastgrave warbands will be released, I think that it could interesting to improve this deck in priority. If you compare it with Skellies's or Godsworn's decks for instance... the difference in power is quite big.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I have the impression that the following Objectives don't appear in any of your decks (sorry if it's the case !) :

• Frantic Exchange
• Tempting Target

So maybe adding them to the deck could be a first step.

Also, when it comes to CA faction Objectives :

• Hoarders is a really bad card (impossible to score early game, and very hard to score late game, unless you play a pure aggro match-up...)
• Unstoppable is very good,
• A Grim Promise is decent, and much more valuable than many hold-objective cards...

 

In any case, if possible, I think that it could be interesting to consider removing :

• Finders of the Way (bearly scorable early & late game),
• Burst of Speed (the deck only has 1 way (an upgrade on top of that) to score this one - more a nail on the CA's coffin than a real help...),
• Tactical Genius 1-3 (this one is really, really bad for such a slow warband with few bodies...),
• Peerless Fighters (which is a rather bad card, even if it seems cool, see here for a good demonstration : http://www.callitshadespire.com/2019/03/decision-should-you-play-peerless.html)

And when it comes to Power cards, maybe it could be interesting to consider the following modifications :

• replacing Keen Avarice (too situational) with Undomitable (a really strong card)
• removing all the Keys
• adding Grimnir's Speed (really strong too)
• and maybe Grimnir's Fortitude (I'm not a big fan of this one, but it's much better than Keys)

 

From all this reasoning (sorry for the wall of text!), one would end with a better basis.

And with a few more good Universals from the 2 last Beastgrave warbands, the deck would bring much more power on the table and would be much more in line with the others!

See here :

https://www.underworldsdb.com/shared.php?deck=0,117,118,119,124,125,292,n378,b263,b280,b282,b317,g7,127,129,132,133,n401,n420,n445,b324,b329,g17,136,142,143,n515,n528,p49,p57,b392,b428,b429

Edited September 25, 2020 by WathLab
Updating content!

[Sardo Numspa]

Just got Morgwaeth and Morgok in the mail today and I can hardly wait to see what @prawnking does with these two new warbands and his decklists.  We've played more Underworlds in the last 6 months since I found these lists than any other game.   Can't wait for the updates.

[bojondr]

i'm thinking of doing something similar for the 1 and 2 season as a board game and then a separate game for season 3 and 4 is this project dead or is somebody thinking in the same lines as i?

[blargly]

I'm still thinking of doing this, but I need to start building decks and then playing them against each other. There's a lot of combos to try out and each warband pairing needs to be tried out repeatedly!

I want to just use the entire card pool for all of the seasons (1-4) though, as it makes it easier to build more powerful combos for the weaker warbands. I also don't plan on paying any attention to restricted/banned rules for this. Some warbands might just benefit from having a higher proportion of those.