I'm Compensating For Something: May Deck Doctor

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As the title suggests, I’m absolutely compensating for something this month. That something is the lack of a Deck Doctor article last month. Sometimes life comes at you fast, and it came at me fast last month, so the tournament came and went without any kind of deck building walkthrough to get ready for what was Battlefields. Even this one is coming in at the buzzer and on the heels of the good news that Warlord is coming back with preview events at GenCon this year! So who else is better to lead the charge this month than the good General Lund?

the original I’m compensating for something Guy from tOL

I’ve always thought General Lund was a cool warlord but I missed his time in the limelight in the Saga block. I was just a wee lad those days trying to figure out why people thought Summoned Skull was better than Blue Eyes White Dragon. I hadn’t picked up my first d20 until Southern Kingdoms and the open format where General Lund lived was daunting to me. An impossible beast to understand and work myself into. Campaign Edition was the safe end of the pool where I could learn to swim. Now it’s time to rectify that by taking a crack at Lund in Ancients. Let’s work through our starters!

he may be a coward, but he can cast flame waves and start in play

I thought a lot about my start for Lund this month, mostly because the deck changes quite a bit depending on who joins the General at the start of the battle. Originally, I was focused on Cal Blackborne. Being in play ready to start slinging 3rd level spells just seems good! Maybe it gets better someday, but I found that Flame Waves was probably my best choice for a 3rd level spell for him to cast, potentially alongside Shadow Bolts and Lund could ready if I drew into extras. There is a deck there, but I don’t think it’s going to hang against starters like Gunda, Danres, Llyr Militia, etc. etc. Unfortunately for Mr. Cal (or fortunately since he is a damn coward) we’re going to have to go with Ol’ Reliable.

I may have copied my homework this month taking a peak at the excellently put together General Lund that Rayne Blythewood has played in the past. That keeps two wizards in our starting formation (this will be important later) with Amoudasi’s Blaze. I think if I’d stuck with Cal, I’d have been looking at starters like Brine Fiend, Regret’s Shadow, and potentially Miserean Trader just to keep some stability in my front rank. With the Blaze and the need to get them up front to swing, Trogid is going to be our top pick so we can dare our opponent to kill one and bring an Inferno out on our next action by swinging away. Also helps to have Trogid in the start since we can’t use 3 copies of Suicidal Charge anymore.

Starting Formation

  • General Lund

  • Amoudasi’s Blaze x2

  • Trogid x3

The Mercenary faction has plenty of bangers in the card pool to choose from. Jackals of Mourn and Toren Yscar are in so many different decks and you can make arguments for plenty of others to be easy includes like Rica O’Shea, Shadowreaver, Cutting North Wind, etc. etc. I wish Ancients was a slower format because the choices for their character pool really harkens back to that old school Warlord feel where you’re trying to get a character from rank four up to rank one to wreck face as soon as possible. Here’s just a quick look at the cards I considered for the deck.

  • Jackals of Mourn: These guys are going to be in the deck. They’re nearly in every deck that I build because they can get to work quickly and create a potential headache for an opponent since they’re planar.

  • Toren Yscar: This guy and Jackals lead the pack in the blurb above for a reason. Drawing cards is good and he’s an auto include at x1.

  • Shadowreaver: 3HP. Planar. Attaches some spells if you want to splash in wizard actions to blitz harder. Auto crit fails. Just an absurd card and it easily made it’s way into my deck.

  • Venomhiss: My original pass at this went heavier on wizard actions. The idea was to start Cal Blackborne to use Flame Waves early on to put pressure on an opponent’s ranks and Venomhiss was a supporting character there being able to rush up to rank 2 and act as another back up caster.

  • Baraz: Every deck has a Toren so, in theory, every Baraz should have a target to shoot at.

  • Rica O’Shea: I love this card. My only gripe with her is that she isn’t level three, but I think she’s a solid choice and can shore up a second rank to keep Lund safe while shooting her shots.

  • Death Fog: Mercenaries are full of monsters for characters. Another use of Jackals, Shadowreaver, etc. after an opponent misses them a few times because of planar and finally get them discarded just for Death Fog to hit and bring them back to my hand is a great feeling. Maybe for just one person at the table though.

  • Amoudasi’s Wrath: I’m a Southern Kingdoms guy. It was the set that taught me how to play. I’ll always think of Wrath as an excellent addition to any deck, especially if we’re splashing some wizard spells.

  • The Cutting North Wind: Another planar monster that hits hard and can move itself or another character at the cost of wounding.

  • Amoudasi’s Inferno: Obviously finding room for this beauty. If we’re running the Blazes in our start, we’d be doing ourselves a disservice to not have Blaze’s big brother in the deck.

  • Blitzer: He lost the Reindeer trait but he’s still the PAINDEER.

those antlers are for a lot more than just attracting mates.

And that leads us to the cut and my picks for my character pool:

Characters: 19

  • Jackals of Mourn x3

  • Death Fog x3

  • Shadowreaver x3

  • Rica O’Shea x3

  • Amoudasi’s Inferno x3

  • The Cutting North Wind x2

  • Blitzer

  • Toren Yscar

Actions

Look, every fighter is doing it.

After a few months of doing these, I think a trend is starting to show itself. I really like cards that just let me hit people. When I started working through this it was much heavier on the wizard spells and characters, but I ultimately figured the strikes were too low to be worth it and I’d be better off having more beatsticks like Shadowreaver or Cutting North Wind. That doesn’t mean I gave up entirely on the wizard actions though as we’ll see when I go through the run down on the actions I considered for this deck.

  • Loyalty’s Reward: Drawing cards is always good. I have extra fighters to use Loyalty’s Reward while Lund does his thing or Lund can do it himself if it’s more beneficial to draw instead of readying two characters.

  • Final Power: A quick +5 strike that ignores planar traits. More importantly, if a wizard like Inferno or Blaze hits my 1st rank I get a shot at that pesky Nothrog / Chosen table that never seems to go out of style.

  • Fiery Bolts: A quick +4 with potential marksmanship to add bonuses to the roll. It’s not like I’ll make the marksmanship check anyway!

  • Rescue: I can lose some skills to protect my planar guys from being ganked by a spell. Or to not get stunned forever by Davaenus.

  • Exhaustion: Meta is meta and Exhaustion is the best meta.

  • Suicidal Charge: A first turn charge with a Blaze to go fetch Inferno is the reason this card got limited in Ancients. It’s still got the potential to decide a game if you pull it off early.

  • Well Laid Trap: He’s not a ranger, sure, but it’s an order Lund can perform. Potentially disruptive to an opponent and give you some movement for your own army.

  • Flame Waves: I think there is some potential here, I’m just afraid to try it. First action from Cal would see a 3/2/1 series of strikes right on the first turn. My fear is that those strikes aren’t strong enough to actually hit when the dice get rolled and I’d be stuck wounding a Gunda and not actually finishing her off.

  • Shadow Bolts: This was the other contender if I started Cal. Some quick +4 strikes ignoring planar might still be good enough to start Cal but probably not good enough to replace the Blazes.

  • Meet at the Inn!: It has it’s places in some decks and drawing cards doesn’t hurt. I just hate giving my opponent a card so it’s probably not finding space in my deck.

Actions: 14

  • Loyalty’s Reward x3

  • Fiery Bolts x3

  • Final Power x3

  • Rescue x2

  • Exhaustion x2

  • Suicidal Charge

Keeping it simple here and not trying to break the mold. I want my actions to give me cards, give me strikes, or protect me and each of these fill that role. If Ancients slows down some day I’d probably work in Well Laid Trap just as extra movement for my Blazes. Let’s head to the armory and see what Lund is equipping for the battles ahead.

Items

Kirby’s standard looks much better in pink.

My army is really determining what ends up going in my item slots in this deck. I’d love to slap a King’s Lady on Lund and start carving armies up, but he’s not that kind of general. He’s just out there to give Captain America style inspirational speeches but he’s not about to start throwing his shield around and actually fight people. Let’s make sure we get this army the kit it needs to be in fighting shape!

  • Figurine of Power: The figurines help us break a deck making rule by giving us 28 characters in a 50 card deck. It’s why they had to be made class specific back when Priam was abusing them towards the end of Campaign Edition. We’ll happily take the extra hit points.

  • Black Moss: This wasn’t in my original write up since I wasn’t starting Trogid. With Trogid in the mix, it doubles as movement for a lot of my army but especially my Blazes.

  • Bodyguard: I hate having Corn Chucked at me. It’s the worst. So those Corn Chucker decks that are cute and lob cobs of corn from rank 5? No thank you. I hired a guy to catch the cob.

  • Kerebrus’ Standard: Let our flags fly and get our guys up to the front and ready for war.

  • Stormwolf: Every good general needs a horse. Ours just happens to be a wolf and is really for everyone else.

  • Uthanak’s Ring: Turning falling forward into viable movement since 2002. This will pair nicely with our characters like Rica and Shadowreaver that aren’t going to make it the front ready without some extra help.

  • Nodwick: If you’re using figurines, Nodwick can get you more mileage out of them.

Items: 11

  • Black Moss x3

  • Figurine of Power x3

  • Bodyguard x2

  • Kerebrus’ Standard

  • Stormwolf

  • Uthanak’s Ring

The only glaring omission is my Nodwick. I opted to have 3 Figurine of Power instead of 2 and 1 Nodwick just because there isn’t anything else for that lone Nodwick to do. If I were to cut items from here, I’d probably add more actions. 3rd Exhaustion is a pretty easy addition as well as a 3rd Rescue depending on how much I like when I test this during Ancients this month. Let’s take a look at the list all put together that I totally sent to Graham a full day before the deck list was due!

Starting Formation

  • General Lund

  • Amoudasi’s Blaze x2

  • Trogid x3

Characters: 19

  • Jackals of Mourn x3

  • Death Fog x3

  • Shadowreaver x3

  • Rica O’Shea x3

  • Amoudasi’s Inferno x3

  • The Cutting North Wind x2

  • Blitzer

  • Toren Yscar

Actions: 14

  • Loyalty’s Reward x3

  • Fiery Bolts x3

  • Final Power x3

  • Rescue x2

  • Exhaustion x2

  • Suicidal Charge

Items: 11

  • Black Moss x3

  • Figurine of Power x3

  • Bodyguard x2

  • Kerebrus’ Standard

  • Stormwolf

  • Uthanak’s Ring

There you have it. A tournament ready General Lund. I’d be remiss to not mention that Rayne Blythewood has piloted Lund quite a few times with quite a bit of success so definitely poke his brain if you’re looking to put together your own list. I definitely netdecked his start when my idea for Cal wasn’t really panning out.

I also know we have quite a few new players this month joining us for our Ancients tournament so please feel free to use this or any other Deck Doctor deck that is Ancients format legal! We also have a an ongoing Deck Archive that Graham has been maintaining after events that you can find here. If a Warlord has been played in 2023, you’ll be able to find a list for it here that you can play or modify to your own playstyle! That’s it for this month. Next Ancients tournament, I’m going to take a crack at an old Southern Kingdoms favorite

Warlord Deckbuilding: Free Kingdoms Starting Armies

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The Free Kingdoms! The best, or at least the goodest, faction in Warlord—no, I'm serious, of all the factions, they have the fewest evil characters. So of course you want to know how to build a deck with them. Well I'm here to give you the low-down on their options for starters. For almost all of the following, I'm only the messenger, passing on what I've seen and heard over the years in person, on the Temple of Lore, in online play at Untap.in , and discussion on our Discord server. My thanks to all the other great FreeK players who figured out most of this. 

Before we get into the characters, let’s recognize the unavoidable luck factor to Warlord. Besides hand draw and D20, there’s also the matter of matchups versus specific opponents. Some starting armies have undeniable advantage over others: this means that, in a format like Ancients where games are often won by turn 2, starters are critical, and being able to change your starters for game 2 or 3 can make all the difference in winning a game. Because FreeKs have some of most diverse level 1 and 2 characters of any faction, it is almost always worth considering alternate starters when making a FreeK deck. We’ll expound a bit more later. 

Now buckle up and let’s peruse these starters! 

AGGRESSION 

The easiest, most obvious thing for the FreeKs to do is attack--they can start several characters capable of multi-striking. Every opponent groans a little or a lot when they see these bad boys pop out: 

Arguably the best level 1 cleric (heck, he even blesses his enemies if they're in range. Some Ar'tek decks throw him in play stunned!) helping out one of those rare evil characters, because Spencer slices and dices with 2 swings per attack. Spencer also likes gambit-ing like a hero. 

 A more versatile aggressive start is the Triumvirate: Dominy, Jal Forsyth, and Kylia Smythe. Jal triggers Dominy's bonuses, and he gets an additional swing from Kylia. On her go, Kylia gets to do a ranged strike to pull someone forward THEN melee. POW! ZAP! BANG! Kylia is also fun as a starter in a deck when you want to move your warlord forward, as she can target your 3rd rank with her ranged strike, then do her melee strike at an enemy. 

 

DIDN’T NEED HAIR, ANYWAYS

A rarer aggressive start is Xiantha, Centaur Soldier, queen of the bad cropping jobs. 

She's risky, because to optimize her potential you need a cleric warlord (someone who can help keep her alive) along with a bunch of level 4s to guarantee she’s as buff as possible. Alternatively, you could earn bonus style points and theme it up with Xerxes, who despite appearances is level 2, and guarantees you access to the 4th rank on the first action.



 If you want aggression in your second rank, the default is probably Glenn the Blaze and Scarlett. One decree with a guaranteed two, possibly three strikes? Tough to beat. Out of Captain Dukat though, you might want two Glenns. But really, any ranged striker with Scarlett is decent--like Josef Krieg, who people always forget about if he goes to the discard. Josef is also helpful if you’re running a deck with ranged strikers but your Warlord does not have in-built ranged strikes—he guarantees your Farglass won’t be a dead draw.  

Finally, decks that need bonuses to their melee strikes should consider the two cleric ladies who inspire those closest to them: Novice Ruth and Dreiga. Ruth can get insane with a large front rank, and Dreiga guarantees a little attack bonus even if she dies. 

DEFENSE 

"I DON'T LIKE FIGHTING, BUT IF YOU HIT ME I'LL RUN BACK AND TELL DOMINY!"  "AND I'LL TELL SPENCE!" 

On the other hand, if you need to start an army that will slow down your opponent, the FreeKs can do that too, though not as well as the aggro. For level 1s, the popular choice is Llyr Militia.  

It’s a bit different than having a level 1 with 2 HP, but definitely annoying to your opponent.  One fantastic aspect of Militia is the ability to go get answers when he dies. Remember what I said earlier about alternate starters? Well, you have some if you’re starting Llyr Militia, so dig ‘em out and flip the tables on your opponent, going from defense to offense with Brother Dominy and Spencer, for example. On the other hand, if you really wanted to farm dragons out of FreeKs (or drop Xaxxon if you’re nutso), you could use the Militia to fetch Felens Rowan to build your ranks. A fun combo with Militia is Black Moss, so you slap a wound on an opponent and dig out another Level 1 to keep the pressure on or shore up your ranks. (Do be aware, though, Militia’s react cancels his death, so you can’t Hero’s Gambit with him, but you can also use the react to prevent his death and stop your opponent from triggering From Dust to Dust or No Prisoners!)

Before the Militia (or if you don’t wan to run other level 1s), if you wanted to shut down strikes, your best choice was the only "Pacifist" in the game, Kun Davill--MVP of Sir Tython-defeating decks since 2003. 

A sleeper in this category is Leigh. Odds are if she dies, she's spending or stunning an enemy. Or, Sacrifice with her and move your just-played Temple of Lore back one rank. Led by Arden Tide, her magic save can result in wounds if the target rolls low enough. With Warren Brood, she can turn Captain Alera into Ar’tek. Lots of possibilities here! 

For your second rank, I'm in love with Darso the Mad (the best non-illusionist with illusionist mechanics). That DC 14 is tough for most opposing level 1s or 2s to make. If you must have HP in your second rank, you can also choose from Bradley (whom I love because I roll 1s), Jethro, or the always-available Sakarian Bloodknight. 

BALANCE 

What if your deck wants a little of this and a little of that? You don't need to aggro aggro, but you don't want to turtle up. Probably the best option for this in a level 1 is Haden Rhys. The party begins when the opponent starts swinging. 

There are solid options for your second rank. Farrel Wadreth can make your opponent suffer for killing one of your level 1s, and the reacts get super spicy if he's next to Scarlett and a Leigh in front of them gets offed. Or second turn, if he's alive in the front, he can react to you killing a character in the opponent's front rank. 

Rosalie doesn't have to spend to hand out additional melee strikes, so she really loves reflecting things too. 

For causing chaos, it's hard to beat Za'beth Candlebane. As if moving ANY level 1 or 2 in the game wasn't good enough, the FreeKs have many ways to give her additional levels. Mwahahaha... 

SPECIAL CASES 

Of course, depending on the warlord, you might find other starters better than the ones I listed above. Or, you might want to main deck some options for games 2 and 3 if you run into something more difficult to handle. Here are some to consider. 

"AND THAT'S WHEN I KNEW I WAS GONNAHAFTASHUTTERDOWN"

Ryan Mornington: Say goodbye to pesky characters like Gunda,  Danres,  Amatria,  Javvyn,  Genecourt Initiate, opposing Llyr Militias, Trogid—the list goes on. Best part is, he doesn't have to wound, just hit (yes, it pays to pay attention to these things!). 

Bring along Kun Iacob when Stygian Wraiths or Regret's Shadow get too popular.  

Jiyacin Fret needs consideration in every cavalry deck. Some players will start her in a Jaqueline Windson deck with two Brothers so it's difficult for your ranks to break, but if they do, you can move up a big boy and probably ready 'em with Jackie. 

In a Captain Dukat deck, you definitely want some pew pew. Snuff and Percy are your men here.  

If you run Laird Jon Hawthorne, you can upgrade his machine gun by either making his strikes bigger (Tonvan) or making him strike more (Sestian).  

If you're playing the Beastmaster, you need Yscarite Sentry. AC bonuses the first turn if he dies, and after that, everyone in the army gets Eladric's bonuses. 

Obligatory Peasant Queen reference. It's illegal to talk about FreeK level 1s without mentioning Adarymy. 

For your second rank, a lot of people like Aroch Knights in Adarymy. One action, two characters in play, and more bonuses!

“YES I HAVE TWO SWINGS, BUT YOUR GAME PLAN MAY BE IN THE TOILET IF I'M ATTACKING" 

Although the strength of the FreeKs is in the lower levels, some decks (ahem, Robert the Vigilant) like moving big boys up. In that case, Baqbou is option A and Borgen Ferris is option 2. 

Kiras Yscar is useful in a Warlord-centric deck like Uriel, Trevaine Cartwright, Albrecht, Iam, or Eiael. 

Llyr Veterans need to be considered in weenie rush decks like Adarymy or The Lady of Mercy. I probably should have put him in my March 2023 Rabinus the Elder deck to move wounds to, then go dig out Dominy or Xiantha. You'll want to consider I Have Your Back or Rally to the Cause, but those are decent FreeK cards anyway. 

Here's a fun one. Taya Cooper lets you drop your multi-striking level 2s in the front rank ready to swing. Try it with Samuel dishing out mighty bonuses to Tacus, Corbas, and Kato.  Or, run your aggro level 1s then bring in Colter Arden to do a million +0 range strikes (he enters in the second rank because of Taya). 

So, for reference, we have: 

Attack 

1s: 

Brother Dominy/Spencer 

Jal/Dominy/Kylia Smythe 

Xiantha, Centaur Soldier  

2s: 

Glenn and Scarlett 

Josef Krieg and Scarlett 

Dreiga / Novice Ruth 

Defense 

1s: 

Llyr Militia 

Leigh 

Kun Davill 

2s: 

Darso the Mad 

2HP boys like Bradley or Jethro 

Balance 

1s: 

Haden Rhys 

2s: 

Farrel Wadreth 

Rosalie 

Za'beth Candlebane 

 Special cases 

1s: 

Ryan Mornington 

Kun Iacob 

Jiyacin Fret 

Percy/Snuff 

Sestian 

Tonvan 

Yscarite Sentry 

2s: 

Aroch Knights 

Baqbou and Borgen Ferriss 

Kiras Yscar 

Llyr Veterans 

Taya Cooper 

 

Disagree? Did I forget something? Let me know in the comments! 

Warlord Deckbuilding: Thinking About Card Draw

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To Draw or Not to Draw?

When you sit down to play a game of Warlord, the only cards you are certain to have are your warlord and your starting army. Other than that, you’ll be rolling a 20-sided die and seeing five random cards from your 44 card deck every turn. That’s a lot of random chance to deal with.

Warlord is all about minimizing that randomness: high strike rolls minimize your chance of missing, making a ton of strike rolls increases your chance of hitting, and running card draw increases your chances of seeing the cards you want to see. In this article, we’ll discuss the card draw mechanic in detail—when to use it and what may be the best cards to help you use it.

Card draw is one of the most potent tools in a player’s arsenal: the more cards you see on a given turn, the more options you’ll have and the more likely you’ll find the options you need. So why doesn’t everyone cram their decks full of all the Meet at the Inns and Back Alley Taverns they can find? There are two general reasons why too much card draw can be problematic:

1)      Draw takes actions.

2)      Draw can be countered.

Draw takes actions. You need to spend your actions to draw cards. Each action you spend adding cards to your hand is an action your opponent can spend changing the board state in their favor. Giving actions to your opponent is problematic for archetypes like rush decks, where you want to strike as quickly as possible, and the longer you give them to prepare, the harder it will be to cut through their defenses. When rush decks play card draw, it will typically be Draw + Effect cards like Carg’rag or From Dust to Dust. For slower decks, who will have fewer options on turn 1, the action cost of draw is not as big of a deal.

Draw can be countered. Cards like Staff of Secrets, Rr’gent and Twist of Fate can turn cards that draw cards into dead cards. No other type of card can be made so completely irrelevant so simply. Furthermore, the more people playing draw, the more likely other people will play draw hate (cards that prevent or interrupt draw), and then the more draw you’re running, the worse it will be for you.

Card Draw Card Analysis

Assuming you’re not playing a combo deck that runs every piece of card draw it can (hello, Dragon’s Hoard!) in an attempt to find your pieces before your opponent can kill you/access their counter draw, you’re going to want to think carefully about how you’re drawing cards. The rest of this article is analysis of some of the most common ways players draw cards in Warlord.

Meet at the Inn – The classic draw card. You pay a card to get two, your opponent gets one for free. Both players end the action with 6 effective cards for the turn, but you have removed an additional card from your deck. This can also be played by any character, allowing you to dodge counters that punish the character drawing, like Baraz or Exhaustion.

  • When to Run: If the cards in your deck are, on average, better than the cards in your opponent’s deck. You’re giving your opponent something here too, so you must make sure what you’re getting is better. For combo decks, this is generally true: they’re betting their whole game that the opponent’s deck can’t handle a particular set of cards, so the quicker they find them, the better. The same is true for Uber, with the idea that once your Warlord hits a certain power level, your opponent won’t be able to kill them.

  • When not to Play:

  • You can literally always play Meet at the Inn. But when should you? There are two chief drawbacks to a Meet: 1) it gives your opponent something else to do and 2) it sits in your hand, taking the place of other cards. Deciding when to play Meet at the Inn is a matter of weighing these two drawbacks. You don’t want your opponent being able to perfectly plan their turn with the 6th card you’ve given them, so it can be good to delay playing Meet as long as possible. You also need to be able to do what you WANT to do: Meet helps you do that when you play it, and hinders you when it sits in your hand. Always consider if you need those two more cards immediately, and how much that one extra card of your opponents’ might hurt you.

Back Alley Tavern – Draw through counter draw! Back Alley Tavern is either a very expensive cantrip (a card that replaces itself when you play it) or a free card and some deck thinning. In your starting army, only your Warlord will be able to play it (barring Lekar Osud plus Yanthorine!), so be careful of Ill-Gotten Gains or Exhaustion.

  • When to Run: there are two reasons to run Back Alley Tavern. The first is that you’re running combo and want to play every cantrip you can. Back Alley Tavern is a Dragon’s Hoard with upside. The second reason is that you think there’s going to be a lot of draw/retrieval in the meta and you want to take advantage. Elves and Nothrog are always drawing, Xod and Adarymy are always drawing, Necromancers must retrieve to play Wheel of Death. Wizards are always retrieving or drawing with Phantasm and From Dust to Dust. They’re getting paid, why shouldn’t you?

  • When not to Play: if you’re playing against a combo deck and you aren’t running any other draw, playing a Back Alley Tavern may allow them to play their Back Alley Tavern, and their two cards are probably going to be more important than yours. Also, if you can’t trigger the react, it requires spending a high-level character, so be sure you won’t clog up your back ranks.

Loyalty’s Reward – Sir Robert’s favorite action. Two cards for a spent high-level fighter: perfect for fighter Warlords who want to sit in rank 3. It notably also transforms Bokos from a mediocre level 4 into a card draw machine.

  • When to Run: you’ve got a fighter Warlord who doesn’t mind hanging back: Sir Robert, Kothkah, Jorn of the Summit, Sir Aleron d’Ilchant. Or you’ve got a bunch of level 4 fighters who can cover for your non-fighter Warlord. If you don’t have a fighter Warlord, you’ll need either a lot of other card draw or a lot of high-level fighter characters to limit the risk that Loyalty’s Reward turns into a dead card.

  • When not to Play: Loyalty’s Reward can clog up your back ranks like no other. If you’ve got just a Warlord in rank 3 and a level 4 fighter in rank 4, and you use that level 4 fighter to play Loyalty’s Reward, what are you going to do if you draw 2 more level 4 characters? You’ll have to spend your Warlord up to rank 2, severely weakening your defenses. Make sure before you play Loyalty’s Reward you have a plan to play the other cards in your hand.

Extensions – This is Toren Yscar on a stick, with the bonus of letting you send a bad crop of cards to the bottom of the deck. It’s an excellent cantrip card but comes with the high cost of forcing you to spend a level 3 wizard.

  • When to Run: if you can start Cal Blackthorne or are Angu Mournwater, this card is worth a look. Otherwise, you must be happy either spending your Warlord for it, or be running several supporting Wizards. Elves and Deverenians frequently run enough supporting Wizards like Caran Tremayne or Cyrus Netheryn to pull it off. Just like Loyalty’s Reward, running off-your-Warlord’s-class draw can be a big risk.

  • When not to Play: Extensions is strong in its niche, but rarely strong enough to justify a spent Warlord. If you’re playing combo, spending your Warlord for Extensions in a pinch is manageable, since combo’ing off early turn 2 is usually fast enough. But if you see it after turn 1 and don’t have any back up wizards, it will likely be a dead card, or you’ll be too behind on tempo anyways. If you don’t have a character in your starting army who can play it, or a whole bunch of Wizards looking for something to do, look elsewhere for card draw.

Portable Hole – Portable Hole is arguably the best Rogue card ever printed, a non-Steed movement item that turns any item into a cantrip. Rogues like to move, and Rogues like a very particular set of items (Giant Bats, Helms of Fortune, Black Steel Daggers). Portable Hole lets you move and lets you play multiples of your power items so you can cycle the extras. If you’re willing to commit to the draw engine, running Nodwick and Cloak of Many Things and Trade Routes, it can draw you a lot of cards.

  • When to Run: You need a very good reason not to play Portable Hole if you’re a rogue. It’s a free movement cantrip at the very least. If you’re darting into your opponent’s ranks as quickly as possible, it gets you to the front ran for free, and you’ll be playing other characters who can equip it, like Wanderetch, to hold your ranks while you’re in the enemy formation and unable to. Play Portable Hole.

  • When not to Play it: if you’ve got a rogue, play Portable Hole. But if you’re up in the front without another way to get back (like Giant Bat), be careful about discarding it, because that’s free movement for the rest of the game you’re sacrificing.

Forewarning – Clerics are a bit short on the draw compared to other classes, but Forewarning is a solid cantrip with upside if you’re a seer, and almost certainly not worth it if you aren’t. It’s similar to another Spend-Order-except-for-Seers, Wheel of Fate, except that you usually want to play Forewarning as quickly as possible, and Wheel of Fate cantrips every card in your hand, so you want to wait until you’ve played everything you want play from your hand.

  • When to Run: You’re a Seer running a combo deck. You need all the draw you can get, and Forewarning is better than Dragon’s Hoard.

  • When not to Run: If you aren’t a seer, or if you aren’t playing combo. You’re either playing blitz or control. If you’re playing blitz, an action for a cantrip is a waste of an action most of the time and takes up space in your deck for offense. If you’re playing control, Forewarning takes up space for answers like Litany, Reflect and Exhaustion, that you could need immediately. It also takes up space for niche solution cards, like Peace or Figurine of Protection. The same holds for Wheel of Fate, although Wheel’s ability to draw more cards might make it more appealing.

From Dust to Dust – Probably the most powerful level 1 wizard spell in the game. Even without the ability to conjure up a character from nothing, it’s a spell with a high DC that goes THREE ranks. Your 2nd rankers can hit your opponent’s 2nd rankers. That’s amazing. With the character gain? Insanity. Most wizard spells are aiming to kill an opposing character. You’re trading a non-character card for a character card: that’s good. From Dust to Dust let’s you trade a non-character card for a character card AND get another character of your own. That’s an incredibly high value play.

  • When to Run: You’ve got wizards with 3 or more skill, and a level 1 character in your deck you wouldn’t mind fetching. In the ideal world, you’re a Nothrog using Yeg-Igryll’s Altar to grab Carg’rag, or an Elf using Skyyrek to snag Kapix. But any free character while killing an opponent’s character is great. If there’s a level one character your deck is centered around, like Ardanaalis, it’s worth considering level 2 wizards to start just so you can run 3 copies of From Dust to Dust.

  • When not to Play: There are two primary hiccups to pulling off From Dust to Dust. 1) Your opponent has clerics and Reflects you, and now you’re out a key wizard you wanted to protect. 2) Your opponent plays draw hate like Staff of Secrets or Baraz. From Dust to Dust is a draw spell and will be cancelled by Staff and can get its caster sniped by Baraz. If you’re playing vs. a cleric, hold on to that Dust and try to force out a potential Reflect first. If you’re playing vs. a wizard or suspect a Baraz might be coming, play that Dust ASAP. Finally, Dust is the greatest Jackals of Mourn killer in the game. If you suspect a Jackals, consider delaying your Dust.

Drawing with Characters

Drawing cards with characters is almost exclusively better than drawing cards with actions—characters stay on the board and provide additional strikes and additional hit points for your opponent to chew through. In some cases, they’ll also offer repeatable draw. If your opponent is running counter draw, you’ll still have a body out on the field. But the 24 character slots in a typical Warlord deck are hotly contested: it’s characters that equip items and perform actions and it’s characters that win you games: how many of those slots are you willing to give to characters whose main benefit is drawing you more cards? As a thought experiment, I’ve divided the most commonly used card draw characters into 4 tiers, based on how and when you should try to slot them in.

Tier 1: Make Space!
Toren Yscar, Carg’rag, The Lost Bride, Sethusk

These are characters you need a strong reason not include when you’re building a deck. Toren is restricted to 1 copy for a reason. Every deck has cards that are better in certain situations than others. Toren is the easiest way to trade out your cards that aren’t perfect for the situation at hand for your cards that are. Carg’rag and The Lost Bride are our successors to Daedelia—a body for a card. Carg’rag only works on turn 1, but turn 1 is the most important turn in most games, and she’ll also provide a strike. The Lost Bride is similar, but won’t strike for your T1, so could potentially be cut from certain hyper aggressive decks. Sethusk requires an additional action to get that card, but he’s also probably the favorite dish of Nothrog dining tables, so he slots into many of even the most aggressive Throg decks.

Tier 2: Lock Ins for the Right Deck
Llyr Militia, The Devoted, Elemere, Hassimal, Redu Carr, Ramah the Cruel

These guys don’t belong in every deck, but are very strong options when they do. Their draw has a higher cost, but one that’s frequently worth it to pay. Llyr Militia and The Devoted are two of the most stalwart level 1s in the game, providing protection vs multiwounding, level draining, high strikes, and instant-kill effects. Hassimal requires you to spend two characters to draw a card—if you’re trying to draw as much as possible to find your combo, this is amazing! If you aren’t, don’t run him. Elemere, Redu Carr and Ramah the Cruel trade character death for cards—worth it again in combo, and worth it even more if you’re running Necromancers like Feyd Rowan or Azhraan the Foul.

Tier 3: Build Around Them or Ignore
Nelchat the Horror, Revan, Theodore d’Ilchant, Destruction, Flamefang, Knowledge, Limestone Gargoyle, Nepheline Gargoyle, Shame, Vision, Borgen Ferriss, Garth Drac, Harty Tate, Kieran, Alaya, Grihilga, Ivaas (Toren’s less talented little brother), Richard Key, Ga’dok

I won’t break these characters down one-by-one, but there are a couple of reasons a character might be on this list. Maybe they only draw a certain type of card, like Borgen Ferriss or Revan. Cards like this are amazing in decks that want to move their Warlords up as quickly as possible, but useless if you don’t run steed. Others are universally strong, but difficult to get into play, like Nepheline Gargoyle or Garth Drac. You’ll play these cards if your deck allows you to get them out and you want the extra draw, but many decks just won’t have a chance to play them. Finally there are cards whose draw is more costly, or very niche, and requires a huge commitment to draw or a very specific approach to it, like Richard Key or Ga’dok.

Tier 4 Other Reasons: They Draw Too??
Darkness, Eresh q’Shedim, Kel’suk, Rica O’Shea, Shan-Kassyn

If you’re looking for cards with which to draw as much as possible, these typically aren’t the guys you’ll choose (excepting that one infinite Eresh-Duanna deck). These are cards you play to kill your opponent (or help you play other cards that will kill your opponent, for Shan-Kassyn), and they also happen to draw you cards. Don’t play them for the draw—the draw is gravy.

Building Your Deck

Hopefully this article has given you a solid base to think about card draw in Warlord. How badly do you need those extra cards? What are you willing to sacrifice to get them? What tools best suit your deck, and how and when do you want to play them? And if all this talk has just gotten you excited to shut down your opponent’s attempts to draw, keep your eyes peeled for our next article!

March Double Feature: The Deck Doctor

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This month we’re going back to the magic… of the Elves of Epic Edition and looking back fondly at one of the most absurd Warlords to ever get printed and was quickly nerfed into the void before the end of the AEG era. We also have a second Elf deck list that harkens back to the beginning of it all. Before we start building our deck, allow me to introduce to you first the Warlord that became the greatest Dragonlord killer of all time: Serolia Calix.

GenCon 2007 was a tumultuous time for the game. Ginerva was running rampant, we had a “speed singles” tournament, and the speculation had already begun that the game would see its run come to an end that year. The bright spot though was the new set Light & Shadow had been released there and we had new cards to look forward to and play with. Little did we know, this Warlord found her way into the print run without the Once Per Turn clause on her second ability which proved to be incredibly powerful when built with necromancer support to bring Elemere back as much as possible and draw you deck until you could use Evoke Crisis powered up by Ring of Blasting. It’s hard to survive 20 strikes inflicting 3 wounds a piece with huge bonuses. I watched as the entire stock of Kar’rak Urartu was lost in Dragonlord challenges against Serolia as she consistently would blow up everything the DL could play. Also watched the Medusan Lord Sedara Tansiq almost fall to here as well had it not been for an incredibly lucky Fulfill Destiny. Fortunately she was hit with errata to be OPT and Evoke Crisis is up to a character’s level now. And Ring of Blasting can’t start in play in Ancients so she is much more tame, but I think she still has potential.

despite being a druid, elemere is the fuel for the fire in this deck

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not much of an Elf player. I like those scrappy rogues in the Free Kingdoms so I’ve workshopped through a few ideas and bounced them off a few people to make sure something viable actually came together. I’ve discussed 3 different styles for this deck so I’ll be including characters, actions, and items from each. I ultimately settled on spell blitz but you could run an Ardanalis deck or use characters that make use of her Daybreak order on turn one. Let’s take a peak at our characters and see who’s who.

Characters:

Our starting army is pretty straight forward. Obviously, Serolia is at the head of the table. Our level 2s need to support whichever strategy we’re going for. In my case, I start 1 Elemere and 1 Kinnel. An Ardy deck would swap to Skyrekks, though it has hard to not have one Elemere sitting in your second rank to use her draw react in combination with Serolia’s order. My level 1s are Javvyn for the simple reason that I hate the stealth scout (never succeeded with a stealth check in a 5 round tournament) and I think Javvyn disrupts an opponent more than expected. An Ardy deck would make use of Bone Golem to hold the line until you find your Ardanalis. For her Daybreak ability, I do like Naia Calix since she can make use of some second level spells like Fiery Bolts and nab someone’s Yeg’s Altar though Tyrius or Amatria probably work just as well. For my deck, the start is below:

Starting Army:

  • Serolia Calix x1

  • Elemere x1

  • Kinnel x1

  • Javvyn x3

With our starting army set, it’s time to start piecing together the rest of our character list. My deck likes to draw cards so with that in mind lets look at the pool of characters I’m looking at one-by-one:

Daedelia? is that you? you look different now. I like the shield.

  • The Lost Bride: She’s definitely an auto-include x3. She gives me an extra body to throw up to the front, she gives me an extra card, and she can be a good choice for using Serolia’s draw order. There’s a lot of benefits to having her in the deck.

  • Toren Yscar: Toren is good in just about every deck. That trend holds true here where I’m trying to draw into my spells and blow up my opponent’s spot as soon as possible.

  • Ivaas: Ivaas was the poor man’s Toren Yscar during Campaign Edition and I think is overlooked in Ancients. It is tough to clog up your rank 4 to use his spend react, but he is another way for us to draw a card or shuffle our deck up if we don’t like what we see before we pay the cost on Serolia’s order.

  • Fayed Dythanus: Fayed helps me thin the deck quicker, albeit relies on my opponent failing saves generated by From Dust to Dust. Running x3 FDTD gives me a good chance of seeing one in my opening hand since I’ll eat Elemere to draw an extra card and then peep through my top 5 cards to find a spell. Kinnel uses it against a level 2, if it hits I fetch Fayed, play FDTD again when Fayed hits the board, fetch the 2nd Fayed and hold it until I had a nice order spell like Fiery Bolts or Final Power in my discard pile.

  • Vivian / Jackals of Mourn / Dex Glyn: All of these characters are in the same bucket of characters that can get to work the same turn they hit the board. Vivian can shoot, Jackals can move and hunt, Dex can enter play into an illegal rank and fire. We want to keep the blitz going strong in my deck and all of these contribute to that in some way.

  • Archer Tower: I’m shooting and want all my shots to be good. This is another good target for FDTD if I want to get it on the table early to give my shooters more oomph to their hits.

  • Kapix: A well-timed Kapix can end a game. It’s basically an auto-include in any Elf deck.

  • Remorna: Remorna is a glass cannon, but it’s a cannon we shouldn’t mind breaking. With the amount of spells we’ll be running in the deck, she can make sure I get my big ones like Mass Blessing and Incinerate back so they can be utilized again.

  • Tresven: Look, I love Tresven. I’m incredibly thankful he was reprinted in 4E without being changed for the worse. He’s an extra body and fires a shot the moment he hits the board. He might not be a wizard, but he helps us swing tempo in our favor.

  • Myhrena: Myrhena could find a spot in the deck to make sure the strikes that we need to hit have more of a guarantee to do so. I think she’d be a stronger candidate if Serolia had been printed at level 5 and we could use spells like Chain Lightning.

That’s our blitzy character pool, but what if we wanted to go with Ardanalis or try to abuse the Daybreak ability? Let’s take a dive into what that pool of characters might look like real quick.

Kargaz is such a big player in this kind of a deck that I’m not going to resize this. I swear it’s not because I can’t figure out how to do that. Thanks for believing in me.

  • Kargaz Dythanus: Kargaz is an MVP in the Daybreak / Ardaanalis style of this deck. Find your Ardanalis with FDTD, put him into play and swing, eat him with Serolia, play Kargaz to bring him back. Stun him up afterwards and let him use the Daybreak ability to wound someone in the first rank. If you can get Ardy killed again before Kargaz dies, you get another swing in when Kargaz bites it.

  • Ardanaalis: I made it this fair into the article and discovered I’d only spell Ardy’s name with 1 “A” instead of the 2 “A”s here. While I weep and have to go back and correct my spelling, make your opponent weep by recurring Ardy back and forth from the discard pile. Serolia would have loved this card in Epic Edition before she got hit with the nerf. Now, she can at least kill him once a turn and with the right support she can kill him to get that effect more and more. (EDIT: I didn’t change it and I’m not going to. I stand by my mistakes.)

  • Cyrus Netheryn: Another necromancer here to kill Ardy and bring him back. The scribe is nice, but I’m not sure it will see much use since you probably want to play stuff like Wheel of Death / FDTD when you get it.

  • Death Fog: Put Ardy into your hand or a Bone Golem. The Lost Bride is also a very good candidate to bring back so you can draw more cards and as we all know drawing more cards always equals more fun.

  • Amatria Tansiq: He’s going to have a hard time passing the DC20 check to inflict a wound, but it is tempting to use that order and wound an opponent’s character, swing next order, and then punish the character that finally kills Amatria with Amatria’s react.

  • Elemere: We probably always want to start at least one Elemere with Serolia, but we could definitely find room for 2 more in this type of deck. Move her forward to use Serolia’s Daybreak order and tempt your opponent into giving you a card.

  • Skyyrek / Tresven: Level 2s that add stability and tempo to your deck and have the skill to potentially wound someone with that Daybreak ability. Tresven also gets us a quick shot off as soon as he comes into play.

  • Ayaba Waverunner: Another way to bring Ardanaalis into play from the discard pile.

  • Kyra Squib: Kill the Squib, set the die to a 20, bring her back. Swing, order, swing, order. Potential to put 4 wounds out from one character if you’re finding ways to make 20s happen.

  • Rotale Dythanus: A way to kill Ardy, strike at the opposing army, and if you’re lucky get a Daybreak wound out there.

  • Barrow Wight: Gives us another way to strike out at the opposing army. Benefits from Mass Blessing / Wheel of Death since it says that it strikes as if in your front rank.

  • Soulless Scavenger: Another character we can get into play in rank one, get use of Daybreak, and bring back using necromancer support or it’s own ability.

  • Whey: Big +4 skill! That’s great for a level one that’s looking to pass that DC 20 skill check. Milling part of the opponent’s is just gravy on the biscuit if you have a good opportunity to use it.

Time to bring it all together for my deck. I’m going spells and card draw, so my character pool ended up becoming something like this:

Characters: 19

  • Kapix x1

  • Toren Yscar x1

  • Archer Tower x1

  • Fayed Dythanus x2

  • Remorna x2

  • Vivian x3

  • Dex Glyn x3

  • Jackals of Mourn x3

  • The Lost Bride x3

We’ve talked a lot about spells already so I think it’s most appropriate to go through our spells and figure out which ones we want to use in order to bring the heat. Let’s look at what our options are for actions.

that stupid green and purple table isn’t the only character that loves this spell.

Actions:

My only real beef with Serolia’s actions is that she isn’t level 5. I guess somehow someone during Epic Edition realized how insane she would have been if she had access to stuff like Cheat Death. They just had to draw the line somewhere! That being said, she doesn’t have to do a whole lot of lifting in this deck if you don’t need her to. Let’s look at what our spell options are for this deck so we can begin making some selections:

  • From Dust to Dust: I think I’ve already tipped my hand and said FDTD is a lock. Killing an enemy character and fetching a card off of it from one card is too good to ignore, plus Fayed let’s us do it again. Its just fantastic as long as your opponent rolls poorly (they will, it’s Untap, trust the process.)

  • Fiery Bolts / Final Power / Evoke Crisis: Here is where a lot of our offense comes from. Kinnel is going to make use of Bolts / Power on turn 1 to make wounds stick. Evoke Crisis was the classic win condition for Serolia and while I won’t be doing 20 strikes anymore, it can still build up if I’m drawing cards as I intend to be.

  • Mass Blessing: The essential cleric spell staple card. I like giving my planar start some extra AC to make them more annoying to hit. Gives Javvyn a chance to put some wounds on as well. Just an all-around great card.

  • Incinerate: Elves are squishy and I can’t imagine Serolia is going to always get to sit in rank 3. Packing Incinerate gives her something to do if she has to fall forward or potentially lets her spend to punch harder. Probably our best option for a spend order for her to make use of.

  • Severed of Flesh: She’s no necromancer, sure, but Serolia can use this to kill an Elemere again if she wants to do so. You’d have to wait a turn now, but that’s still another extra card next turn if Elemere doesn’t die before then which still gets you the card you want.

  • Meet at the Inn! - I am a Meet at the Inn hater. I always think giving my opponent even one card is not worth giving myself 2 cards. I don't think that has to be the case with Serolia. If I hit hard early enough, I can play Meet late in the turn when that card should be a dead card if I’m controlling the board.

  • Lightning Bolt: Probably doesn’t make the cut, but it is a big strike for 2 wounds and gives Serolia more to spend for an get in on the action. Could potentially be a kill shot if we’re using items like Red Wyrm’s Egg and/or Ring of Blasting.

  • Phantasm: Gives us another card out of the deck and options to help us capitalize if FDTD fails. Can Phantasm Fayed and do try FDTD again or pick up The Lost Bride and fetch another card.

  • Extensions: More draw for Serolia to use and find the stuff we need when we need it.

  • Exhaustion: Duh. Exhaustion is always considered for any deck being built in Ancients. At least as x2 include. It’s too strong to not have it in your deck building tool kit.

  • Premonition: Seers are all the rage right now but the Deverenians aren’t the only ones that have quality Warlord seers. With Winter Warfare still out there in the environment this is our best protection against it other than blitzing harder.

Now we move on to my beef with deckbuilding in this game. There are too many good cards and not enough deck space to include them all. Getting this together made me wish the deck minimum was 60 cards so I could include more stuff from the other style deck list that would use Ardanaalis or make the best use of the Daybreak ability. Let’s look at some of those now.

be blessed my friends and gain new sweet skills to use

  • Wheel of Fate: Serolia doesn’t need to spend for this and it helps us thin the deck and get stuff like Ardy or Soulless Scavenger into the discard pile quicker so we can make better use of it.

  • Forewarning: No need to spend for this one either. A free card and a chance to take a peak at what your opponent is up to so you can use your cards to respond as best as you can to their strategy.

  • Lift Up Your Voices: You’re correct seeing this and thinking “She’s not a cantor?” But if we’re trying to use the Daybreak order with low level characters, we still get AC and Skill out of LUYV. It’s as good as boosting your attack in this case, but we need to see it on the first turn in order for it to be useful.

  • Wheel of Death: We play a lot of things that are useful in the discard pile so Wheel of Death is strong here to give us more ATK / AC to keep our front rank bolstered and get our discard pile pals in position to do their thing.

  • Clerical Blessing: What is this card? This is a huge skill buff that pairs well with Elemere moving forward to boost up the skill of everyone in rank one. That DC20 now becomes DC12 and is much more manageable for all of our low-level characters to hit.

  • Elemental Barrage: If we’re discarding cards quickly with Wheel of Fate / Wheel of Death, Elemental Barrage can hold off a potential threat our opponent has for a bit and net us an extra card. Would be great if it didn’t say “opposing” on it!

Now let’s bring it all home for this spell slinging version I’m working on and get our spells in order:

Actions: 21

  • Evoke Crisis x3

  • Final Power x3

  • Fiery Bolts x3

  • From Dust to Dust x3

  • Meet at the Inn x3

  • Incinerate x3

  • Mass Blessing x3

I don’t think there are any real surprises in here as I’ve typed my hand that I want to fire off as many strikes as possible as quickly as possible. If I had to make any more adjustments, I think I’d find room for Severed of Flesh and Exhaustion. I hate not having Exhaustion x2 at a minimum and that Severed would give us more use out of Elemere past the first turn. Premonition could definitely still find a home in my list as well to give Serolia more to spend for and provide some insurance, but the list is pretty tight to find room for stuff. We’re already limited to 4 items total. Speaking of…

Items

I want to draw more cards. is that greed? or is it having fun?

I don’t think it is much of a secret that wizard items are kind of poop in Ancients. There are a just a handful that can find their way into most decks like Wand of Negation does. Unless you’re a necromancer, you don’t get a whole lot of mileage out of equipping stuff to your wizards. Here’s the card pool of potential choices for these last 4 slots.

  • Ring of Vorn: The classic wizard moves someone wizard item. Could help position Vivian into rank 1 for shooting deeper into the opponents army as well as getting some action out of Lost Bride if we would prefer to keep her around as an extra body instead of eating her to draw a spell.

  • Ring of Blasting: The ring is an option for dealing additional wounds with our spells. Powering up our order spells is a plus, but our army probably doesn’t want Jackals of Mourn to lose 3ATK when we send them out for the hunt. I think the upside is huge though if you get an early Evoke Crisis off that can be boosted.

  • Red Wyrm’s Egg: Another option for getting more wounds on a target when we need to. Pairs well if you want to use Lightning Bolt over Incinerate for Serolia’s spend order. Can we get her reprinted in the 30th anniversary but as level 5 so she can use Chain Lightning?

  • Living History: One of the weaknesses of the Elves in this game is that they are squishy and their ranks are going to break at some point in a match. Living History gives us an extra body to use to keep our ranks stable while we blast the opponent’s army.

  • Wand of Negation: One of the few wizard staple items in the game. Wand of Negation has been seeing play due to big guy’s like Xod coming down off their throne after they’re well equipped for battle. Also helps against some of the cleric control decks out there using Peace.

  • Shadow of Greed: This is worth a look because it lets us draw cards and it might be able to see some real use in matches with cleric control and other spell blitz decks.

  • Glyph of Fate: This is for the Ardy / Daybreak style decks that want to be able to generate a 20 for cards like Kyra Squib. Can recycle it with Nodwick if we want to keep the fun going.

  • Ring of the Savant: Serolia needs to chill out in rank 3 to get it equipped, but if we’re looking to shore up our cleric actions in the Daybreak / Ardy version we’ve laid out as we go, this lets us do stuff like Wheel of Fate and Mass Blessing again which is usually always good.

And my picks for items are as follows:

Items: 4

  • Ring of Blasting x1

  • Ring of Vorn x1

  • Shadow of Greed x1

  • Wand of Negation x1

I think that gives us a deck now. Let’s have a look at the final product as it all came together!

Serolia the Spell-Slinging Seer:

Starting Army:

  • Serolia Calix

  • Elemere

  • Kinnel

  • Javvyn x3

Characters: 19

  • Kapix

  • Toren Yscar

  • Archer Tower

  • Fayed Dythanus x2

  • Remorna x2

  • The Lost Bride x3

  • Vivian x3

  • Dex Glyn x3

  • Jackals of Mourn x3

Actions: 21

  • Evoke Crisis x3

  • Final Power x3

  • Fiery Bolts x3

  • From Dust to Dust x3

  • Meet at the Inn x3

  • Incinerate x3

  • Mass Blessing x3

Items: 4

  • Ring of Blasting x1

  • Ring of Vorn x1

  • Shadow of Greed x1

  • Wand of Negation x1

This decks biggest enemy truly is the 50-card minimum. I don’t want to really go over that in 99% of my decks even if I can make the math work in my favor. I’m finishing this write up the Friday morning before the tournament starts and I may yet take another pass at this to include Severed of Flesh in order to get more mileage out of Elemere. It also feels horrible to not have at least 2 Exhaustion in my deck. There are really 3 different decks that we’ve laid cards out for so if you’re feeling something else with Serolia, you definitely have options to make something that will fit your playstyle. But if you don’t like Serolia, I do have something a little more old-school to spotlight in this month’s Double Feature.

This is the top secret super spicy tech that Wes himself is bringing to the tournament this month. In keeping with the theme of the spell blitz renaissance, he’s shared his own spell blitzing deck list featuring the (yas) High Queen Tepheroth.

Slay queen.

Starting Army:

  • Amatria Tansiq x3

  • Eirlas x2

  • Tepheroth

Characters: 19

  • Jackals of Mourn x3

  • Tresven x3

  • The Lost Bride x3

  • Vivian x3

  • Dex Glyn x3

  • Kapix

  • Toren Yscar

  • Fayed Dythanus x2

Actions: 23

  • Tzin’s Attention x3

  • Meet at the Inn! x3

  • Medusan Lord’s Gambit x3

  • Severed of Flesh x3

  • Wheel of Death x3

  • From Dust to Dust x3

  • Evoke Crisis x3

  • Exhaustion x2

Items: 2

  • Helm of Undying

  • Ring of Blasting

Wes’ deck takes advantage of all of Tephy’s Elves being able to cast 1st level spells so you can frustrate any opponent using Tzin’s Attention to see if they can be lucky on 5 rolls at the start of a turn. She is a Necromancer so she gets to use the the good stuff like Wheel of Death / Helm of Undying / Severed of Flesh and get the full benefits for each of those cards. MLG / Ring of Blasting can help finish a game out or instead you can blow up an army using Evoke Crisis. Is it spicy? Yes. Is it also old? Yes. This deck is hereby referred to as Old Spice.

And that’ll do it for this month’s Deck Doctor Double Feature. By chance I got an Elf deck list from Westley so this month was all about our favorite evil Elves and their necromantic ways. Be sure to check back next month as we start deck building for Battlefields and spotlight some community deck lists again for this very different kind of format.

Warlord Deckbuilding: Getting Started

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How do you build a competitive Warlord deck? There are probably many many different ways to answer this question. In this article I will provide insights into one deck building method I believe to be quite helpful. Hope you enjoy!

Step 1: Decide on a Warlord

There are any number of ways to make this decision: if you have a particular faction, class and/or subclass you want to play, that will narrow the field quickly. Maybe you like a particular Warlord’s ability, or art, or flavor. If there’s a particular combo you want to use pick a Warlord who will help you set up that combination as quickly as possible, like King Xod or Kaimi Fateseeker for items, Allisara for characters, or Caitlyn the Free for actions.

Step 2: Decide what do you want your Warlord to do

Each faction and class has a number of different ways to play out the game.  Ideally, you want all of the cards in your deck working synergistically towards that one goal. Some Warlords will buff their armies (particularly Clerics, Necromancers, Summoners, Bards and certain Fighters, like Sir Robert the Vigilant). Some Warlords will try to get in their opponents’ faces as quickly as possible (Rogue Assassins and Scouts, Front-line Fighters, and Spell Blitz Wizards). Some Warlords will build up to an unstoppable combo or power level (Combo Wizards or Rogues, Uber Fighters or Rogues). Other Warlords will try to choke their opponents out of the game (Seers, Druids, and Illusionists). Any Warlord can play any of these styles, but each Warlord has their own strengths and weaknesses, which leads into…

Step 2b: Capitalize on what makes your Warlord unique

Every faction has at least 2 Warlords per class, which means if you’ve got a certain deck archetype in mind, you’re always going to have at least 2 choices of who to lead your army. For a simple example, let’s consider two Nothrog Warlords, Ar’tek and Uthanak. Both are 5th level fighters with powerful melee strikes—where they differ are their abilities. Uthanak can move any of your characters forward or backward one rank once per turn, whereas Ar’tek can move himself forward any number of times per turn. This means Ar’tek can always reach the front rank on turn 1, making him a much better front rank blitzer than Uthanak. On the other hand, Uthanak can guarantee front-line access for power cards like Braalig, or repeatable 3rd rank Warlord shots for The Conflagration, making him a much better army commander than Ar’tek. When designing your deck, you want to play around your Warlord’s individual strengths, not just the strengths of your Warlord’s class and faction.

Step 3: Think about how you’re going to win the game

The question of how you’re going to win is closely entwined with another question: when are you going to win the game? In general, the earlier you want to win the game, the more strikes you need, and the quality of those strikes is less relevant. The later you plan on winning the game, the higher quality of attacks you need. For example, Iam Unsullied swinging four times at +4 on turn 1 is terrifying: Lord Winter swinging four times at +4 on turn 4 is not. To this end, your deck needs to contain the cards that will allow you to meet your win condition. If your Warlord needs to be in the front rank causing damage turn 1, you need enough movement to get them there reliably. This is easy to test: after you’ve built your deck draw practice hands, and if your Warlord can’t get to the front in just about all of them, add more movement. If your Warlord is going to hulk out on turn 4, make sure you have not only the cards that will allow them to do that, but the cards that will keep them alive until then. If your deck revolves around one perfect kill shot, make sure you can find the pieces you need as quickly as possible, with draw and search.

Step 4: Build your starting army

The 6 characters who make up your starting army are arguably the most important 6 cards in your deck, because they are the only 6 cards in your deck you are guaranteed to see every game. Warlord is all about managing randomness in die rolls and in card draw, and your starting army is the easiest way to do that. Your starting army are the cards that will allow you to kill your opponent as quickly as possible in a rush deck or to stall for as long as possible in a combo or uber deck. But in all things, balance is key. It’s hard to have a higher starting attack than Ac’vuk, but even your opponent’s d’Ilchant Keepers will stand a good chance of shutting him down before he gets to swing. Defiance may look rock solid, but if you can’t swing back with him, you may find your opponent’s front rank grows too quickly to keep up with. Perhaps most crucially, your starting army will determine what low-level actions you are able to run. Some of the most powerful actions in the game are level 1 or 2, like Reflect, From Dust to Dust, Veiled Passing and Hero’s Gambit. Your Warlord may not always be in position or able to spend to use them. Having guaranteed characters who can use these abilities lets you run 2 or 3 copies of these power cards in your deck without worry of a dead draw.

Step 5: Choose your characters

Your deck can be at most 50% one card type; since you typically want to keep your deck to the minimum of 50 cards, this means you’re looking at a maximum of 25 of any particular type. You need a very good reason to not run 25 characters: actions are one and done and items are contingent upon characters. Characters add strikes, protect your warlord, and supplement your pool of available actions until they are killed. But what should you look for when choosing your characters? Consider three things:

1) How does the character help your win condition?

2) Will I be able to play this character?

3) How long will it take for this character to help me?

How does the character help your win condition? A character should help you win the game. If I am trying to kill my opponent with a Medusan Lord’s Gambit from Adonis the Cozener, the ability to move my Deverenians from rank to rank without spending does not directly contribute to this—therefore I should avoid cards like Cardinal Scelus or Xaros the Mist. On the other hand, a character like Grigori the Spineless can spend to cast spells you might otherwise have to spend Adonis for, and can also protect your ranks from collapsing via his ability.

Will I be able to play this character? It’s always good to have a Blackwind in play, but it’s never good to have a Blackwind you can’t play taking up space in your hand. At the start of the game, you can always play level 1-4 characters. If you have characters higher level than that, you’ll need a reliable plan to make sure you can get them into play. As the game goes on, you may lose access to rank 4, or your ranks might narrow and restrict your ability to play level 2 or level 3 characters. Crucially, you’ll always be able to play a level 1.

How long does it take for this character to help me? Donovan Che’har is better than Durga in almost every way—more attacks, higher AC, more hit points. But Donovan is level 4, and Durga is level 1. That means Durga can theoretically make 2 strikes the turn she is played, whereas unless you have a lot of support, Donovan will only be able to make his strikes two turns later. If you’re playing a fast deck, you can’t afford to wait that long. A combo or uber deck can drop a Strength and he’ll stun up and sit there soaking wounds, and he’ll be doing everything you could ever want him to do, but if you play Jackals of Mourn, you run the risk of instantly losing a level 4 character to a Fiery Bolts. Having characters that won’t help you the turn they come into play is a risk not all decks can afford to take.

Step 6: Choose your items and actions

Just as with your characters, items and actions need to contribute to your win condition: generating strikes for rush decks, enabling your Warlord in Uber, one-shotting the enemy in Combo. When selecting items and actions, you need to balance between the amount they contribute to your win condition vs. your ability to play those cards reliably. One of the surest way to lose a game of Warlord is to have cards in your opening hand that you cannot play. Black Steel Dagger is an incredible Rogue weapon, but what happens when you see two in your opening hand? Is it worth playing with a four card hand to have a Black Steel Dagger? It might be, but it very much might not. Similarly with actions: Obliterate is a stupendously powerful Fighter card. But it is difficult to use two in one turn, especially if you don’t have a level 5 fighter in rank 1. There are ways you can play around these risks: by playing characters like Wanderetch that can also equip a Black Steel Dagger in a pinch, or starting Baqbou Umbala and Borgen Ferriss to make sure your Serif al-Havoc will be able to Obliterate turn 1. Having characters that can discard cards from your hand for an effect can also mitigate the dangers of dead draw.

Step 7: Test your deck turn 1

The first turn frequently the most important turn of the game: rush decks will try to put themselves far enough ahead on turn 1 to guarantee their opponent cannot come back. Slower decks will need to set themselves up to fulfill their win conditions as quickly as possible. Thus you need to make sure that your deck is going to do what it needs to do on turn 1. Set out your starting army and draw test hands. Make note of which cards you’re glad to see and which ones aren’t that useful. How often does each appear? Consider taking out a copy or two of cards that are clogging up our hand. How often are you able to get to the front rank, or put out a dragon? What cards can you add to make that more consistent? Which cards can you remove that aren’t helping you accomplish that goal?


Now you’re ready to play! But the deck-building process is never over: every game you play is step 7 all over again, but more thorough, more detailed. Going back through your deck and making changes after a game can be every bit as satisfying as playing. This article focused primarily on process—if you’re interested in learning more about which specific cards are frequently put in decks, see Chris Vac’s excellent breakdown of the Ancients format. Skip around to your favorite faction or watch the whole thing, then get deck-building. Good luck and make war!

Keepin it Classy: February Deck Doctor

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class is in session and you’ve got about 2 and a 2/3s chance of winning this event

It’s time once again for an alternate format tournament month and this February we’ll be keepin’ it real classy. With Classy. We’ll be rolling our dice with our pinkies out, wearing our finest attire as we explore the possibilities and absurdities within the Classy format. What is the Classy format you ask? In short, you take a Warlord and change its class and one subclass. Talin Tzin becomes a wizard. Adonis the Cozener becomes a cleric cantor. For the full details and ins-and-outs of the format, be sure to read up on the rules as outlined here in the event info since some cards are banned for this event. Sorry Tavis the Wizard Necromancer, you stay far away from all of us.

This month we’re trying something a little different. I won’t be working through the deck building process in a blog, but instead sharing a few decklists submitted to me by members of the community over Discord. These decks are meant to serve as examples of what you can do in the format and are available for anyone unsure of how to proceed to play in February’s event! I want to thank Josh King, Bobby Zebrowski, Chase Causey, and the mathematician himself Robert Steiner (the 3rd Steiner Brother that doesn’t get any TV time.)

Graccus says the numbers don’t lie and his formula has helped Azhraan “see” the truth. Because he’s a seer now. Surprisingly coming in at a trim 50 cards instead of 100, Azhraan keeps the pressure on by stopping you from doing things and bringing his own characters back that continue to stop you from doing things. The Deverenian Control renaissance is here to stay, even in formats such as Classy.

This guy, but like, holier? sure!

Starting Army

  • 3 Genecourt Initiate (tc)

  • 2 Justinian (db)

  • 1 Azhraan the Foul (cta) (Cleric Seer)

Characters:19

  • 1 Mother Deiane (cc)

  • 3 Temur (cc)

  • 1 Halo of Secrets (sk)

  • 3 Corinne Drac (cog)

  • 3 Taltos Rellion (sd)

  • 2 Ramah the Cruel (betra)

  • 1 Toren Yscar (bk)

  • 1 Ghed Morak (eots)

  • 1 Davaenus (cta)

  • 1 Prioress Sophique (las)

  • 2 Lord Joxanus (ce)

Items: 9

  • 1 Nodwick (promo)

  • 3 Figurine of Protection (promo)

  • 2 Litany of the Dead (ee)

  • 2 Staff of Kizazi (tol)

  • 1 Peace (tol)

Actions: 16

  • 3 Mass Blessing (bk)

  • 3 Return to Us (soo)

  • 3 Exhaustion (ce)

  • 3 Forewarning (ee)

  • 1 Ishara's Tidal Mace (sd)

  • 3 Premonition (ce)

Josh’s deck is a lot like the Lord of the Rings movies. Elves (mostly just Khilkhameth) singing songs as the trees all get Stealth bonuses instead of walking. Actually, I guess it’s nothing really like the Lord of the Rings, but it is funny to draw cards, discard characters that come back or inflict penalties on your opponent and build up sneaky forests.

even the stupid trees have stealth in this movie.

Starting Army:

  • 1 Khilkhameth (Rogue Bard)

  • 2 Eirlas

  • 3 Amatria Tansiq

Characters: 18

  • 1 Tyyphera

  • 2 Naines

  • 3 Tybast

  • 3 Treyik

  • 3 The Lost Bride

  • 3 Hassimal

  • 3 Forest of Bone

Items: 11

  • 3 Portable Hole

  • 1 Nodwick

  • 3 Logan's Ring

  • 2 Cloak of Many Things

  • 2 Cear's Stone

Actions: 15

  • 1 Trade Routes

  • 3 Stolen Destiny

  • 2 Song of Strength

  • 3 Meet at the Inn

  • 3 Bardic Knowledge

  • 3 Back Alley Tavern

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You’re facing a dwarf with just their warlord and 2 or 3 other characters left in their army. You’re still terrified of losing because the warlord is tricked out with Martyr’s Hide and enough items that the brown border had just became grey and they have ascended to Itemhood. This is Kaimi Fateseeker 101 and Bobby made sure Sigrida went to class that day. Instead of drawing her armor though, she’ll just add it to her hand and get started by turn 1.

martyr’s don’t hide and neither will i. also, i’ll punch you in the face now. you’re dead. thank you.

Starting Army:

  • 1 Sigrida Valora (ee) (Rogue)

  • 3 Danres (las)

  • 1 Martyr's Hide (ca) (Starting Level 8 armor in hand)

  • 2 Preen (pos)

Characters:

  • 3 Militia (pos)

  • 1 Nepheline Gargoyle (al)

  • 1 Justice (pos)

  • 1 Toren Yscar (bk)

  • 3 Red Prisken (tol)

  • 3 Strength (cta)

  • 1 Supply (db) 3

  • Stockpile (las)

  • 3 Craft (ee)

Items:

  • 1 Perpetual Pouch (al)

  • 3 Portable Hole (bk)

  • 2 Cloak of Many Things (ce)

  • 1 Nodwick (promo)

  • 3 Bag of Holding (bk)

  • 1 Fortune's Helm (ee)

  • 1 Gloves of Grasping (betra)

  • 1 Trade Routes (cta)

  • 1 Tome of Shadows (as)

  • 1 Jelial's Bracers (ca)

  • 1 Blackwaters Steed (sk)

  • 1 Yedraw's Tooth (ce)

  • 1 Nightmist Cloak (ce)

Actions:

  • 3 Back Alley Tavern (siege)

  • 3 Meet at the Inn (tc)

The best dragons are weredragon druid dudes.

Our last deck to spotlight comes to us from Chase. A devoted Free Kingdoms loyalist, he’s been tinkering with Jin Valford into Cyldragen for years and has a pretty fun deck that only gets better if Jin is a cleric. Which he is for this classy affair! Become the biggest coolest dragon of your dreams and don’t fret about all that nice cleric support not getting used since Jin can just use it now right out of the gate!

Starting Army:

  • 3 Haden Rhys

  • 2 Eleora

  • 1 Jin Valford (Cleric Druid)

Characters: 19

  • 3 Cyldragen

  • 3 Ararn

  • 3 Kieran yscar

  • 3 Patroness kerro

  • 3 Kerro

  • 1 Antaelus

  • 1 Temple of lore

  • 1 Toren yscar

  • 1 Sister amanda

Actions: 22

  • 3 Meet at the Inn

  • 3 Back Alley Tavern

  • 3 Mass Blessing

  • 3 Embolden

  • 3 Treewalk

  • 2 Courage From Faith

  • 2 Acts of Faith

  • 2 Draw the Essence

  • 1 Piffanys First Kiss

Items: 3

  • 1 Isharas Tidal Mace

  • 1 Bascarons Blessing

  • 1 Orb of Dragonkind

And that concludes this month’s Deck Doctor guest deck spotlight. If you’re worried about testing something out for the upcoming event, remember these lists are to use during the tournament. Each one is a fun kind of different that really showcases the goofiness that is possible in these alternate format events but can still bring home some wins for you.