Best Decks for all Warbands

[Mortarch_of_Night]

Hi,

I have all 8 warbands and play Shadespire with my three boys. Each of us have two warbands each, and up to now regarding decks, we have used 12 objective cards (9 warband specific and 3 randomly drawn universals) and 30 power cards (20 warband specific and 10 randomly drawn universals).

This adds a fun element of chance to your deck, but we want to fully utilise  the huge amount of cards we have, and omit some of the less interesting/useful warband specific cards in favour of some of the universals that best suit each band. The idea is to have pre-made decks of 12 objective cards and 24 power cards, but I must admit, it's pretty overwhelming to do, even with looking through the Let's Chat posts and the Deck Building advice on the Warhammer site. Especially as some of the older warband decks don't include the newer cards.

Essentially, for each warband I would like a fairly balanced, logical and fair deck that uses the 'best' of the warbands own cards with some of the universals that suit them the best. I have all the cards available, and would like to spread the 'auto-include' cards among all the warbands.

Advice on each warband would be appreciated greatly! I realise this is all subjective but I'd love to see suggestions and it would help us immensely!

[Velvetelvis]

There a fella on here who did 9th place at adepticon with a very nicely balanced sepulchral guard deck. I'm not certain where to look it up but I think its posted around here somewhere.

I'm super new and the rest I can't help with.

[PlayerJ]

Say my name and i appear! https://www.underworldsdb.com/shared.php?deck=0,59,263,264,265,266,267,292,257,284,253,254,83,376,73,425,426,409,348,374,310,368,87,332,85,336,77,71,80,69,391,321,272

[Mortarch_of_Night]

Thanks for the link!

I don't think I explained myself brilliantly; what I want to do is split the best 288 of the cards (each warband having a settled deck of 12 objecive and 24 power cards) among the 8 warbands, but do it so that each warband has a fair amount of cards that suit/enhance their optimal playstyle (like I said, I know this is quite subjective), and also  fixes some of their inherent weaknesses...so Fyreslayers get Earthquake rather than another warband, Reavers get Inspiration Strikes etc...

So if there's a great card but only one warband can have it...where should it go? And who gets the Sprint and Healing Potions (a I have multiple of them)? And which of each warbands unique cards are must-keep?

 

[Killax]

Well I dont think a best deck actually excist for the game. There are multiple paths to go and because so many cards are around I really feel that every Warband can be played in different modes. But for all intends and purposes the Let's Chat's have been made to discuss each Warband and create decks that fit them. You are able to look into that.

[Kaptain Murder]

I'll second what Killax is saying. The Lets chats are great resources for what you are looking for.

 

If you are doing something like you describe, I suggest a "draft" format. You each take in turns selecting an Universal card until everyone has a deck that's ready to go. You can try that for a round robin (or longer) type of "season" then redraft again. Repeat as needed. That actually sounds like a pretty exciting and constantly shifting environment to play with. If you do it, let us know how it turns out!

[Blayme]

I’m trying to do something similar. I mostly play this with my wife & we don’t want to have to build a deck every time we play. Part of the  beauty of this game is how quick it is. 

So we have been working on building premade decks for each warband.  We are sticking to the recommended deck size of 20/12. Our idea is to have each warband have a unique play style  while doing our best to keep them balanced. For the most part this is working with most games being pretty close. Except for the Guard, we really had to work to get them into a place where they didn’t lose every time. We did this by putting cards that could be considered “auto includes” into them, like earthquake. 

For example:

chosen axes focus of buffing grimnir making him an unstoppable force. 

Spuchral Guard is 100% all about objectives

the core warband decks are mostly untouched. Swapped in a few cards from later sets. 

Orruks don’t care at all about objectives & just wanna do what orruks do best, killin. 

Fiends go for objectives while the dog does the killin

farstriders push into the enemy territory & try to cut them off from entering your territory

& rats mostly go for objectives but seem to be a bit of jacks of all trades.

 

as for building the decks, we started with decklists from the official shadesspire website & made adjustments from there due to the deckbuilds having many overlapping cards. 

[Zimagic]

Blayme, so you used some of the same cards in different decks?

What I'd like to do is build 8 decks out of the cards that are provided with the game, so doubles only where they where they are provided when you buy the product.  I don't play outside of my group so I'm up for interesting & thematic games rather than something that could win a Clash.

Has anyone tried this?

[Blayme]

No no. Only if duplicates were provided in the base game. 

What im saying is there are some cards that could be considered good enough to belong in any deck. So we put those cards in the weakest decks with the intention to make that deck stronger so it can compete with the rest. 

[Zimagic]

25 minutes ago, Blayme said:

No no. Only if duplicates were provided in the base game. 

What im saying is there are some cards that could be considered good enough to belong in any deck. So we put those cards in the weakest decks with the intention to make that deck stronger so it can compete with the rest. 

Then I think that's what I'm looking for.
Have you listed everything? *hopes* ?

[Karol]

Which of the two basic starter deck is better without any expansions, the reavers or the stormcasts?

[themiro]

4 hours ago, Karol said:

Which of the two basic starter deck is better without any expansions, the reavers or the stormcasts?

Stormcast no doubt. Better rounded overall.

[Karol]

Ok thanks.  Actually a good thing, because I kind of already cut up the reavers.

[bluekitsune13]

I like this idea.  I just splurged on all the Shadespire stuff, but I have nobody to play with.  It would be nice to put together decks I could use as a go-to for getting new players into the game.   I'll see what I can come up with.

[n9d]

So I'm in a similar boat to ya'll, and I had an idea: which of the decks posted on the warhammerunderworlds.com page have the least amount of overlap?

Some quick exploration yielded these results:

	matchup	deck_pair	overlapping_cards
0	(Chosen, Farstriders)	(ImmortalLodges, Blitz)	2
1	(Chosen, Guard)	(ImmortalLodges, UndeadSwarm)	0
2	(Chosen, Magore)	(ImmortalLodges, Rage)	5
3	(Chosen, Orks)	(ImmortalLodges, GurzagUnleashed)	1
4	(Chosen, Reavers)	(ImmortalLodges, Starter_Reavers)	1
5	(Chosen, Skaven)	(FyreAndStone, FleeFlee)	1
6	(Chosen, Steelheart)	(ImmortalLodges, Waaaghpaca)	2
7	(Farstriders, Guard)	(Blitz, UndeadSwarm)	2
8	(Farstriders, Magore)	(Blitz, Rage)	8
9	(Farstriders, Orks)	(Blitz, BrutalKunnin)	1
10	(Farstriders, Reavers)	(Blitz, SftST)	0
11	(Farstriders, Skaven)	(Blitz, FleeFlee)	0
12	(Farstriders, Steelheart)	(Blitz, Starter)	1
13	(Guard, Magore)	(UndeadSwarm, Rage)	2
14	(Guard, Orks)	(UndeadSwarm, WHWGC_Orruk)	3
15	(Guard, Reavers)	(WHWGC_Guard, WHWGC_Reavers)	1
16	(Guard, Skaven)	(UndeadSwarm, LGT2018_Skaven)	1
17	(Guard, Steelheart)	(UndeadSwarm, Relics)	0
18	(Magore, Orks)	(Rage, BrutalKunnin)	0
19	(Magore, Reavers)	(Rage, SftST)	0
20	(Magore, Skaven)	(Rage, FleeFlee)	1
21	(Magore, Steelheart)	(Rage, WHWGC)	2
22	(Orks, Reavers)	(WHWGC_Orruk, Core_Reavers)	2
23	(Orks, Skaven)	(GurzagUnleashed, FleeFlee)	2
24	(Orks, Steelheart)	(GurzagUnleashed, Relics)	1
25	(Reavers, Skaven)	(BftBG, FleeFlee)	1
26	(Reavers, Steelheart)	(Starter_Reavers, Relics)	1
27	(Skaven, Steelheart)	(WHWGC_Skaven, Relics)	2

 

Since Relics have been nerfed and are kind of boring, here are the results without Relics in the mix:

Note: I should probably remove starter decks from consideration too (starter reavers and starter steelheart)?

 

	matchup	deck_pair	overlapping_cards
0	(Chosen, Farstriders)	(ImmortalLodges, Blitz)	2
1	(Chosen, Guard)	(ImmortalLodges, UndeadSwarm)	0
2	(Chosen, Magore)	(ImmortalLodges, Rage)	5
3	(Chosen, Orks)	(ImmortalLodges, GurzagUnleashed)	1
4	(Chosen, Reavers)	(ImmortalLodges, Starter_Reavers)	1
5	(Chosen, Skaven)	(FyreAndStone, FleeFlee)	1
6	(Chosen, Steelheart)	(ImmortalLodges, Waaaghpaca_Steelheart)	2
7	(Farstriders, Guard)	(Blitz, UndeadSwarm)	2
8	(Farstriders, Magore)	(Blitz, Rage)	8
9	(Farstriders, Orks)	(Blitz, BrutalKunnin)	1
10	(Farstriders, Reavers)	(Blitz, SftST)	0
11	(Farstriders, Skaven)	(Blitz, FleeFlee)	0
12	(Farstriders, Steelheart)	(Blitz, Starter_Steelheart)	1
13	(Guard, Magore)	(UndeadSwarm, Rage)	2
14	(Guard, Orks)	(UndeadSwarm, WHWGC_Orruk)	3
15	(Guard, Reavers)	(WHWGC_Guard, WHWGC_Reavers)	1
16	(Guard, Skaven)	(UndeadSwarm, LGT2018_Skaven)	1
17	(Guard, Steelheart)	(WHWGC_Guard, UnleashTheStorm)	2
18	(Magore, Orks)	(Rage, BrutalKunnin)	0
19	(Magore, Reavers)	(Rage, SftST)	0
20	(Magore, Skaven)	(Rage, FleeFlee)	1
21	(Magore, Steelheart)	(Rage, WHWGC_Steelheart)	2
22	(Orks, Reavers)	(WHWGC_Orruk, Core_Reavers)	2
23	(Orks, Skaven)	(GurzagUnleashed, FleeFlee)	2
24	(Orks, Steelheart)	(Adepticon2018, Balanced_Steelheart)	3
25	(Reavers, Skaven)	(BftBG, FleeFlee)	1
26	(Reavers, Steelheart)	(Core_Reavers, Waaaghpaca_Steelheart)	1
27	(Skaven, Steelheart)	(FleeFlee, Waaaghpaca_Steelheart)	2

Edited May 24, 2018 by n9d

[Karol]

Too stupid what the graph actually says. Those the 2 mean that with 2 extra boxs you can make the deck, or does it mean it has 2 overlapings, and you need more expansion sets for more cards for the deck type?

[n9d]

It means they share 2 cards I'll have a more thorough breakdown posted when I have some time (maybe during the weekend), been too busy. Just need to change a few lines in the code so it prints the overlapping cards instead of how many.

[Mortarch_of_Night]

Finally completed all 8 decks out of the entire pool of cards. We scoured through the Let's Chat threads (some great advice) and looked at other decks and these seem fairly balanced, which was the main objective. The true test comes after a few games!

Feedback would be great, whether you still think some warbands are over or under-powered, or that some cards belong better with a different band...or even that we left some great cards in the reject pile:

 Steelheart's Champions

Garrek's Reavers

Ironskull's Boyz

Sepulchral Guard

Spiteclaw's Swarm

The Chosen Axes

The Farstriders

Magore's Fiends

[DarkWingDuck]

Since I mostly play with my son (and I'm not buying 2 packs just to do that), this is awesome!

[Mr. White]

On 5/25/2018 at 12:56 PM, Mortarch_of_Night said:

Finally completed all 8 decks out of the entire pool of cards. We scoured through the Let's Chat threads (some great advice) and looked at other decks and these seem fairly balanced, which was the main objective. The true test comes after a few games!

Feedback would be great, whether you still think some warbands are over or under-powered, or that some cards belong better with a different band...or even that we left some great cards in the reject pile:

 Steelheart's Champions

Garrek's Reavers

Ironskull's Boyz

Sepulchral Guard

Spiteclaw's Swarm

The Chosen Axes

The Farstriders

Magore's Fiends

So, there's no overlap with these decks?

I'm also wanting to build some casual decks to introduce the game with. Heck, I might just keep the game at 'casual play' level.

[Mr. White]

Giving this an initial pass...do the fiends look stronger? I mean, i understand they're a solid warband, but on top of that their deck generates a wooping 24 glory whereas some of the others as low as 15.

[mystycalchemy]

These decks look good! Though you do have Misdirection in both the Chosen Axes and Spiteclaw's Swarm.

How would you add the Leaders expansion cards and keep them balanced? Some of the Leaders cards seem really good... (Like the upgrade for Magore that reduces all damage by 1 to a min of 1)

[Kaptain Murder]

For really fun, casual decks - Consider using just the "faction only" cards out of each expansion and maybe adding a couple here or there. They are definitely not the best decks out there, but will give you a great casual/almost-mid-range game that plays into their spirit. I especially like doing this with my Ironjawz, Slayers and Farstriders. It also really makes you strategize your play more than just drawing teh cards you need, which will help you immensely in the long run. Good luck!

[Mr. White]

6 hours ago, Kaptain Murder said:

For really fun, casual decks - Consider using just the "faction only" cards out of each expansion and maybe adding a couple here or there. They are definitely not the best decks out there, but will give you a great casual/almost-mid-range game that plays into their spirit. I especially like doing this with my Ironjawz, Slayers and Farstriders. It also really makes you strategize your play more than just drawing teh cards you need, which will help you immensely in the long run. Good luck!

I've had recent success, and fun, introducing new players to the game using the decks posted by @Mortarch_of_Night.  However, i do like the idea of running more faction unique and specific decks. I posted some ideas here:

@Kaptain Murder  Do you have a formula or procedure you follow in adding a few neutrals about?

Edited August 20, 2018 by Mr. White

[Kaptain Murder]

hi mr white.

 

Nope! i dont. i just go straight through. That usually means having a 21 power deck and 10 card obj deck (faction specific in the expansion and the 2 leader cards).