Brewing for Turncoat, Part 1
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Aloha, everyone! Welcome to the first of two Ancients Turncoat brew sessions/deck dumps/whatever you want to call it. I’m taking the first stab at it as I shake the rust off the keyboard today to discuss deckbuilding for an event that seems to have the deckbuilding wheels turning among those planning to participate next month. Interested in joining? Click the banner above or find the event info here.
A quick recap on what Turncoat is:
Step 1. Replace all instances of your Warlord’s faction trait with a new faction trait. This includes the trait the Warlord itself has as well as any additional instances down in the rules text. In other words, change your Warlord’s faction.
ie. Kerebrus pictured below has his faction trait changed from Mercenary to Nothrog.
Step 2. Replace all instances of your faction’s ‘subrace’ trait with the new faction’s ‘subrace’ trait. I put subrace in quotes because, well, it’s not technically a rules term. Anyway, in the same way that you shift your Warlord over to a different faction, also shift any instances of a subrace in your Warlord’s textbox to the new faction’s subrace.
The subraces for the purpose of this format are:
Gargoyle (Dwarf)
Lycanthrope (Free Kingdoms)
Monster (Mercenary)
Siege (NoThRoG)
Stormwraith (Deverenian)
Undead (Elf)
Thrall & Daemon (The Chosen)
ie. Nin-Gula pictured below has the instances of his faction’s subraces Thrall and Daemon changed to Undead when he becomes an Elf.
So whether you want to see the lore on fire, take a powerhouse Warlord to an underserved faction, or uncover some dream combination of subrace synergies Ancients Turncoat has you covered! And now that we have the rules down, let’s head to each faction’s encampment, briefly discuss what’s out there, and come up with a unique strategy enabled by the Turncoat format rules. Today we’ll cover the Mercenaries, Elves, and Free Kingdoms.
Pokémon Trainer Nassiral
Compared to some of the other subraces in the game, Monster gets a bit of love in the action, item, and dungeon departments (contrasted by Siege who get a lot of hate). Mercenaries on the whole, however, are a bit of a melting pot faction reflecting how they’re meant to be marketable to each of the other factions. To compensate for the medium character base, the Warlords themselves have usually been a little pushed which doesn’t help us today because we have to reverse-recruit a Warlord from another faction to join the sell sword ranks.
When I first thought to jot down a few decklists and present them I only ever entertained one choice for a Mercenary swap: High Priest Nassiral. Actually all the way back when we were developing the 20th Anniversary set I expanded my Nassiral search to include other factions with Turncoat in mind. There was a broken combination or two that came up, but also some really fun choices as well. And sitting atop that fun list was an unassuming lizard from the 4th Edition arc of the game that played around with 4E’s Fire trait - essentially Warlord’s version of Charmeleon (we’ll leave the title of Charizard for Ashreign). I’m talking about Burning Basilisk of course! But can we build a deck capable of winning games in Ancients centered on this seemingly ‘for fun’ option?
Here’s the deck:
Characters (25):
1 High Priest Nassiral
1 Bosun Blacknose / 1 Burning Basilisk
1 Brine Fiend / 1 Brine Fiend / 1 Brine Fiend
3 Amoudasi’s Wrath
3 Jackals of Mourn
3 Rica O’Shea
3 Wanderetch
2 Halo of Fire
2 R’Veeka
1 Archer Tower
1 Toren Yscar
1 Blitzer
Actions (22):
3 Cauterize
3 Fire and Steel
3 Flame Blade
3 Incentives
3 Incinerate
3 Mass Blessing
3 Meteor Swarm
1 Minor Miracle
Items (3):
1 Messenger’s Head
1 Kerebrus’ Standard
1 Stormwolf
The first thing I noticed about Burning Basilisk’s stat block is that its skill is exceptionally high. In fact it’s the highest skill for a single-class level 3 fighter in the entire game! And so while I knew we’d be deep down the Fire rabbit hole I didn’t know that we would have a Meteor Swarm + Fire and Steel opener hanging out in our deck. The crux of this deck is that you can play an absurd amount of powerful spend order action cards by using Burning Basilisk as a back-up caster. And while I really like the Wizard actions we have access to, the Cleric ones are just as good. Cauterize is better than Seize Life in some games (it pairs especially well with Jackals of Mourn) and Incentives is one of the up-and-coming tempo plays and planar killers of the Ancients format. What’s great about the Cleric actions is that Nassiral and R’Veeka and even Wanderetch can also shoulder the weight of casting them. So while we do technically have 12 Spend Order action cards, we aren’t short on characters to play them. The rest of the deck is generic Mercenary ‘good stuff’ and some positioning tools for Nassiral to get his Medicine pointed at the enemy and position your Rica’s. I won’t say it’s fancy, but it does look solid and fun.
Spymaster Kestrel
I have a sneaking suspicion that Elves will be a popular pick next month. They can draw cards… and draw cards… and draw cards… and Undead… cool story. But in all seriousness, Elves are just a faction that greases your wheels if you’re in the market for that. That’s before you mention their potential for ranged strikes and their unique skill-lowering options. Oh and their ability to recast the same spell over and over. And their ability to replay the same character over and over. When you really review what all Elves are capable of, you find that they are a nice fit for a number of Warlords like Captain Dookie, Arden Tide, Caitlyn the Free, Kevrosh Dathar... The list goes on.
I wanted to take a slightly different angle today though. As I was mulling over some odd Warlord options I ran face first into the true Tiger King, Kestrel the Deceiver. I couldn’t ignore the bizarreness and hipster factor of this Warlord and it didn’t take long before a deck idea clicked. You see, Elves have another thing they’re surprisingly good at: im in ur base killin ur doodz. They’re the faction with the most characters that just hop into the opposing ranks. No rolls, no fuss, free entry. And, once inside, Kestrel can wreak havoc and deception on the opposing army all from safety atop a pyramid of Elves.
Here’s the deck:
Characters (25):
1 Kestrel the Deceiver
1 Eirlas / 1 Eirlas
1 Amatria Tansiq / 1 Amatria Tansiq / 1 Amatria Tansiq
3 Tybast
3 Bescez
3 Daedelia
3 Nildrach
3 The Lost Bride
2 Severed of Bone
1 Kapix
1 Tyyphera
Actions (19):
3 Exhaustion
3 Hand of the Queen
3 Stolen Destiny
3 Killing Strike
3 Pull the Strings
3 Lordly Might
1 Paradigm Shift
Items (6):
3 Black Moss
3 Tzin’s Secret
Once again skill comes into play here a bit as Kestrel makes the short list among just five other Warlords that have a +12 or greater skill which is exactly what you want to couple with a Lordly Might that can be cast from the middle of an opposing formation. Sprinkle in some Tybast sacrificed to Severed of Bone, Stolen Destiny, or Black Moss and the DC’s just get harder over time. Our deck is pretty simple. You put Bescez and Nildrach into the opposing army, turn them into Kestrel’s personal spell messengers, and try to get the opposing Warlord stunned with Hand of the Queen or Lordly Might then kill them with Killing Strike. If that fails, you wreak havoc on their army by making their characters offers they can’t refuse or toppling their formation with Tzin’s Secret. Bescez and Killing Strike is nothing new, nor is Thekem Netheryn delivering Elves right to the opposing Warlord’s doorstep. Heck, even Kevrosh Dathar would be good at this strategy out of Elves with Damothien’s Dungeon and Turn Undead. But this is a fun twist on the idea enabled by Turncoat for a Warlord I don’t think I’ve actually seen anyone play online yet. Maybe ever.
Sigridas Valoras Maximus
The Free Kingdoms, like Elves, are a great home for a large number of Warlords. Where Elves give you draw and ranged strikes, Free Kingdoms bring the numbers. The faction with the most commonly miscounted ATK and AC values, they really test your ability to do quick head math with all their small bonuses. And that’s great news for frontline fighters, low level strategies, and support clerics who can capitalize on the stat bumps with a steady stream of melee strikes. Otherwise FreeKs have some other small themes like their pushback mechanic seen on many Druids, potential for an explosive starting army, and a character that could even make Mak and Makob look good.
While it was a bit hard to focus for the FreeKs (too many good options) and the demon on my shoulder was shouting Etra Bloodvine, I think I found a winner. Back in April two Discord users scapeG and Flonzy made a deep run in our 4E event using a Bhaine of Misearis deck centered around Thessyrian War Chariot. The chariot is a card that’s been on my radar since its printing as I’m a huge Sigrida Valora fan. Sigrida is just too cool and it feels like the chariot was custom made for her. Starting with it in hand, the wizard readying. But the more I looked into the Free Kingdoms, the more I realized that they might just be best home for that deck though the Deverenians could make a strong case as well. Remember that FreeKs are particularly supportive of Fighters and a steady stream of melee strikes? Check and check!
Here’s the deck:
Characters (22):
1 Sigrida Valora
1 Borgen Ferris / 1 Borgen Ferris
1 Llyr Milita / 1 Llyr Militia / 1 Llyr Militia
3 Brother Dominy
3 Spencer Latham
3 Stanley
3 Novice Ruth
3 Squire Orban
1 Aida
Actions (9):
3 Goodwife’s Parry
3 Flame Blade
3 Obliterate
Items (19):
2 Gilded Chariot
2 Kringle’s Sleigh
2 Lance
2 Tranquility
1 Commanding Presence
1 Noble Steed
1 Bruntor’s Helm
1 Griffon of Misear
1 The Dark Horse
1 Camel
1 Chariot
1 Ring of Piercing
1 War Spikes
1 Heavy Charger
1 Thessyrian War Chariot
I’d just like to point out that you can have Thessyrian War Chariot, Chariot, Gilded Chariot, and Kringle’s Sleigh all equipped at the same time with this deck. I’m not sure logistically like.. how that works exactly.. but it’s a fantasy card game so we’ll roll with it. The gameplan is extremely simple here. Equip Thessyrian War Chariot (starts in hand). Activate both Borgen Ferris getting two of your thirteen Steeds. Move forward twice. Hit them a bunch. Should I repeat that or did we get it on the first go? The kicker here is that the Free Kingdoms characters can hop in alongside Sigrida and become a high tempo threat themselves. Flame Blade, Lance, Brother Dominy, Novice Ruth all power the ATK of your horse strikes and if your opponent doesn’t whittle your army down the threat of a late turn Ring of Piercing is ever looming. You even get to the front ready every game to open with Obliterate. This deck is the poster child for consistency on a level hitherto belonging solely to Ar’tek. I think this deck has legs. Lots of legs. With hooves.
What’s Your Idea?
Turncoat really is full of wild possibilities, powerful interactions, and lore forsaken monstrosities. I had to cut myself short today or it would be easy to get to 5,000 if not 10,000 words just going over all the interesting options in this format. But while I did practice restraint, keep an eye out for when Westley covers a few of his ideas centered on Deverenians, Dwarves, and NoThRoG!
I’d also love to hear your thoughts too! Have a crazy cool idea that you can’t wait to share? Like any of the decks? Let us hear about it in the comments!
Special thanks to Discord user J0my for editing the images used in this article.