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

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.

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)

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

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!

Some of them should be given the Hunter keyword! Losing Spoils of Battle was not ideal either, although Forward Planning is a decent new card for them

I think there are also some cards that give you an advantage while also making you a Quarry as a payoff (Survival Instincts / Cloaked in Shadow)

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!

Ah apologies! Ylthari's Guardians

Updated with Power Unbound: Garrek's Reavers Steelheart's Champions Ironskull's Boyz Sepulchral Guard Spiteclaw's Swarm The Chosen Axes The Farstriders Magore's Fiends 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 As usual, any feedback welcome!

Yes I noticed this last week when I physically made all the decks! This stuff can be hard to track haha Personally I swapped it out Frugal and Supremacy for Sound Finances and Hold Objective 1 in the Profiteers deck, depends on what you feel is the most balanced approach. I felt the Kharadrons were strong enough without Supremacy and could live without it in a way the others couldn't (Search The City is a decent alternative, if for one less glory)

New decks for all Season 1 and 2 Underworlds warbands. At this stage you can't really just do the newest warbands, with new cards you have to go back and tweak them all. I've boosted a lot of the early Shadespire warbands and the weaker/less forgiving Nightvault ones (Eyes of The Nine/Godsworn Hunt). Hope you enjoy! As usual, any feedback greatly received, especially if I can improve thematics or am missing obvious cards/combos/synergies Steelheart's Champions Garrek's Reavers Ironskull's Boyz Sepulchral Guard Spiteclaw's Swarm The Chosen Axes The Farstriders Magore's Fiends 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

Sorry, Magore's Fiends link above was wrong.. Magore's Fiends

I'd already done this and literally finished this weekend! All old warbands tweaked with new cards too. Bear in mind that these aren't tournament-winning, optimised decks; they're just to give each warband a fair chance of doing well and boosting some of the weaker ones with the most powerful cards. I wanted to give each warband a distinct personality too. I also experimented his with a Cursebreaker's Katophrane deck as those cards were just wasting away doing nothing in my collection haha Comments, suggestions and omissions gladly accepted! Steelheart's Champions Garrek's Reavers Ironskull's Boyz Sepulchral Guard Spiteclaw's Swarm The Chosen Axes The Farstriders Magore's Fiends Stormsire's Cursebreakers Thorns of the Briar Queen The Eyes of the Nine Zarbag's Gitz Godsworn Hunt Mollog's Mob

Sorry, linked an old Spiteclaw's swarm...correct one below Spiteclaw's Swarm