Brewing for Turncoat, Part 2

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Greetings! For those unfamiliar with what the Turncoat alternate Warlord format is you can find the description in Brewing for Turncoat Part 1. Below you will find three different examples of turncoat decks (one for Deverenians, Dwarves, and Nothrogs). These decks are built with the spirit of fun in mind, but still offer some degree of competitiveness. It took some time to build these, test them, and write this review, so I hope you enjoy them and I would love to hear your thoughts on these decks (both good and bad, and what you would do different) in the comments below! Without further ado, I present to you my turncoat decks!

Trevor the Devor

 
Trevor_Magson.png
 

Devs are a lot of things, but something they’re usually not is fast. However, Oubliette Hounds offer Deverenians a very quick starting army, allowing one to get their Warlord to the front in just one action! Once on the front, the blitz can commence! This usually ranges from Jodin pitfighting to Edric trying to No Prisoners an entire starting army. Although these are decent builds, they’re usually not enough to consistently win. But what if the hounds could help another Warlord, maybe one that has turned the coat? Enter, this deck review!

The obvious pick would be Iam Unsullied or maybe even Bhaine of Misearis (brawlers with a lot of swings), but I’m going to go the fun route instead of the obvious one. Thus, I present to you, Trevor the Devor. Why Trevor Magson you ask? Because he can almost reliably get off a kill shot from the front rank every turn (within just a handful of actions). Plus, Trevor offers a built in defense against the hounds most formidable foe, Exhaustion! His kill shot is an order, so unless you spend (which you may want to do for that extra strike bonus), you should be okay against the exhaustion (if they draw two, you’re probably screwed).

The gist of this deck is simple, you run to the front by equipping a steed (with 44 cards in deck and 14 steeds you have an 87% chance of drawing at least one and that statistic increases when you account for Daedelia, Toren, and MATI), Marksmanship your shot to the third, and then do a few wounds with things like Unseen Arrows, Farglass, Crypt Wine, and/or Strain the Shot. You can also save Marksmanship for the wound, if you draw Lucky Shot or even Reconnaissance (yes that card is in there, lol). Along with the simple quick snipe kill, this deck also has some plans for when things do not go your way. What happens if you don’t draw the perfect hand? Don’t worry I added a decent amount of card draw to increase the likelihood of getting it. What if you come forward and miss? That’s why Dorra is there, to help make sure you get as many rolls as it takes to get the one you need! What happens if your kill shot gets healed or reacted to? That’s why the Veiled Passings are there. What happens if you don’t get a steed or card draw? Well then you are probably dead and can blame me for that one… Overall, I like to think of this deck in boxing terms, it has a fighter’s chance to knockout almost every single warlord it faces, but that doesn’t mean it will. 

Oubliette Hound.jpeg

Here’s the deck:

Characters (13):
1 Trevor Magson
2 Acolyte Dorra
3 Oubliette Hound
3 Ghed Nuri
3 Daedelia
1 Toren

The Dwarven Geisha

 
Grantuk_Rageblade.png
 

Ragebalde does not get the respect he deserves. Four hit points, decent swings, a decent subclass (thanks to Hawk Hatchet), and a decent AC. Given his weapon tech oriented order and given that Dwarves pride themselves on being item specialist (with the ready and retrieval tech), I decided to turn one of my favorite decks, into a faction I loath. If Grantuk Rageblade cannot make me love Dwarves, I do not know what can.

Anyways, what does this deck do? It’s simple, you equip a weapon (mostly used level 6 weapons that he can equip in the front), spend it for an extra attack, replace that weapon with another weapon, and rinse and repeat until you’re out of weapons. Then you come forward (with things like Achilleus' Slaughter & Wyvernsteed) attack with a plethora of swings, equip another item, ready with mentor, attack again, then use Amends to attack some more, and then top it all of with Hero’s Gambit.

I tested this deck and got off about 30 strikes (with absurdly high swings bonuses) first turn during a few games. It is such a fun deck, I truly cannot stress that enough. It’s also quite competitive, being able to toss out so many swings first turn is always a win condition. On top of offense, Rageblade’s 4 hit points and 15 AC offer some defense, and that only gets better when a Temple of Lore gets into play. This deck is vulnerable for sure, but the level of swings it can generate would make Winter and Brikta blush with feelings of incompetence. Much like Trevor the Devor, this deck is almost all offense and has a fighters chance against any deck out there. Again, build this deck, test it, and when you love it let me know!

Sword Chucks.jpeg

Thekem the Thrognomancer

 
Thekem_Netheryn.png
 

Nothrog’s have always wanted a necromancer (looking at you Vakeros). With this in mind, I decided to build a necromancer throg turncoat deck, but the only question was, “which necromancer shall I select?” There were some leading candidates, such as Feyd Rowan, The Nemesis, and even Master Isil Loth. However, at the end of the day I went with one of the most fun necromancers the game has to offer, Thekem Netheryn. Considering Thekem’s ability and the draw-blitz synergy of Nothrogs, I built this deck a bit different than your normal Helm of Undying/Death Fog vanilla necromancer archetype. I built this abomination with two win conditions in mind. The first condition is that you out draw your opponent (with Daedelia, Toren, Carg’rag, and MATI) and then blitz them with Wheel of Death + Jackals and FirRal. The second and more nefarious win condition is one of my all time favorites and would look something like this, you ditch Kul of Clan Tergoth to Darast, you Teleport forward, you cast Conjure Storm and kill something in their second rank, you then use Thekem’s react to replace that character with Kul, then you swing on their Warlord with Kul (hopefully you have Temple of Lore in play), and if Kul doesn’t finish them off his normal swings, hopefully Hero’s Gambit will! If you never killed a Warlord this way, please try it, it is quite enjoyable. Although this win condition is fun, it’s usually not enough to consistently win, but when paired with the draw-blitz of FirRal and Jackals, I believe this deck is good enough to both compete and offer its runner an enjoyable time while slaughtering others! It should be mentioned that this deck was very tight when building and if you’re thinking of editing it (I know some of you are screaming internally, “WHERE IS SEVERED OF FLESH?!?!?”), just remember you have to balance card draw, specific long distance spells, movement, and biggies to be pitched to Darast and Thekem’d in. This deck is banking on either drawing or Blood Pricing in Teleport so I can cast a spell from the second or getting a spell that can be cast from the third and sometimes hit their second (Conjure Storm or Chain Lightning) or just spending forward and casting a non-spend order spell. With all this in mind, I could not fit Severed or other fun necromancer cards in. However, I built this deck for fun, so please make any edits you want to, and most importantly, enjoy the shenanigans!

Kul of Clan Tergoth.jpeg

In sum

Well, I hope you enjoyed! I built a few fun turncoats that I hope reflect the enjoyable nature of the format, while simultaneously offering some amount of competitiveness. I’ll admit my personal play style bled through (i.e. draw, Hero’s Gambit, and the best defense is offense mentality), but I still think these decks will offer any runner an enjoyable time! I would love to hear your thoughts and/or edits to these decks in the comments below! And if I see one of these decks in the event, hopefully i don’t have to play them.

- Westley Youngren