Warhammer Underworlds - Playing upgrades to score glory.
As I finished this article, the new Underworlds information was released.... still, please take a read.
Rimelocked Relics
Recently, at my local gaming club and in the few tournaments I have attended, I have seen a lot of Rimelocked Relics. Equally, I have tried the deck myself (paired with Magore's Fiends - Nemesis Deck Library) and have found that it pairs well with aggressive warbands. Why do I state this? A number of the Objective cards,within the deck, require your fighters to be holding Objective tokens in enemy territory and/or to have enemy fighters out of action. In addition, some Objectives require fighters to have Rimelocked upgrades in play. When using Rimelocked Relics, I found the majority of Objective cards to very playable (the exception being Straming Corpses, which is rubbish), to the point where I was taking 10 of them in my Magore's Fiends deck.
So, as stated, I have tried the deck with a few warbands and have found it to suit the more aggressive factions. Firstly, being aggressive, my fighters don't mind being in enemy territory. Secondly, they can gain the Seed Glory necessary to play Rimelocked upgrades from early kills. Thirdly, these early kills result in enemy fighters being out of action. I have also found that my aggressive warbands with Rimelock Relics are automatically playing Counterplay against Hold, and to some extent Flex, warbands. As my fighters are moving forward to both eliminate enemy fighters and to move onto Objective tokens, they are stopping Hold warbands from scoring their objectives.
Following on from the core thought of this article, many of the Objectives in this deck require fighters to be equipped with these Rimelocked upgrades The Rimelock upgrades take time to 'Thaw' before they can be used but once activated many are very powerful. Leyfrost Conduit and Gelid Cyclone standout as being particularly useful upgrades. To ensure that the there are enough upgrades to keep the Objective card being scored, I have found that half need to have the Rimelocked keyword. This can mean that I have to include less useful Rimelocked cards at the expense of more useful in-faction upgrades.
The gambits from Rimelocked Relics tend to be less important for scoring Objective than in other decks. As a result, this gives the player greater freedom to include in-faction gambits. One notable gambit is Frozen Solid, that only works 50% of the time, allow you to Rimelock any upgrade. Now most of the time this is not that game changing, but if you Rimelock the Bane of Heroes, then you can potentially destroy a Hungering Parasites players whole game.
Overall, this is clearly a powerful deck, that is seeing a lot of play. I have found it works well with aggressive decks and due to the quality of the Objective cards, I think it pairs well with many of the oldest warbands.
Malevolent Masks
I have been a fan of the Malevolent Masks since their release. The lore behind the deck is one of the most flavoursome of all the Rivals decks. The idea of a bunch of Demonic Masks that take control of my fighters as they struggle with the enemy is an interesting dark fate in the Underworlds. Having used the deck with a number of warbands both aggressive (Headsmans Curse) and more defensive Flex warbands (Dread Pageant and Lady Harrow's Mournflight) I have found the Masks to suit a less aggressive playstyle. The Objectives in the Masks deck are more focused on position rather than straight-forward aggression, although there are a couple of objectives for that as well (Feast of Violence). It is, however, the Mask upgrades themselves that make me feel this deck is more defensive.
In my experience, I have rarely used the actions, and therefore, abilities granted by the Masks. Instead, the Masks are used to score my objectives. I maybe playing the deck incorrectly, but I rarely want to waste an activation on the Mask action. As a result, my deck lacks upgrades that improve my fighters, hence I try not to be overly aggressive, as I lack the buffs of other upgraded fighters. By the way, this tends to be less of an issue with Lady Harrow's Mournflight as they already gain significant benefits from upgrading, hence the pairing with Masks is so effective. I have found that a four fighter warband needs to include five Mask upgrades in the Power Deck to be reliable. I personally remove Vitrix's Eye (you cannot Charge and use this attack, as the Mask is not a weapon upgrade).
The gambit cards for the Masks also suggest a more defensive playstyle, as a few cards solely exist to cycle through the deck, and sometimes the discard pile, for the titular Mask upgrades. Again, these cards do really serve to give you fighters a power boost but instead optimise the scoring of Objectives. Revealed Aspect is one such card, which has a very valuable Counterplay against the Bane of Heroes upgrade, but equally has utility in all games. The deck focuses on a positioning playstyle, which goes for opportunistic kills, whilst requiring a sufficiently high speed to position fighters to meet the criteria of Objectives.
Overall, I think Malevolent Masks is just as powerful as Rimelocked Relics but that it works better with warbands with a Flex playstyle, rather than Aggro. Its major drawback is without Seed Glory the deck will brick. The deck benefits from warbands, with access to in-faction Surges to provide the necessary Seed Glory to play the Mask and get the glory train rolling.
Toxic Terrors
Toxic Terrors is a deck I have only just begun to play with. I feel it has a higher skill entry level than the previous two decks. The deck feels less aggressive than Rimelocked Relics but more aggressive than Malevolent Mask. The deck allows you to weaken enemy fighters and reduce their overall effectiveness. Some of the Objectives from Toxic Terrors are scored by fighters, when a Poison gambit is in play, other when fighters have Poison upgrades. The Objectives deck comprises cards that are scored for having Poison upgrades, cards for Poison gambits in play, for leader positioning and attacks, and finally for holding objectives in enemy territory. I have found that I primarily use the Objectives that require Poison upgrades and these need to be backed up with a strong set of faction Objectives. Equally, I have also found some use in the Leader Objectives with warbands with Strong Leaders such as Rippa from the Snarlfangs.
As with all three of these decks, there is a requirement for Seed Glory to play the upgrades, which needs to be provided by early kills or in-faction Surges. Once in play the Poison upgrades are of greater use than the Masks but require greater synergy with the rest of the Power Deck than the Rimelocked Relics. What do I mean by this? For the Poison upgrade to ability to work, most require an interaction with an in-play Poison gambit. However, once this interaction occurs the combination of gambit and upgrade is very effective. One example in attack, +1 damage (Callous) against a fighter with 1 Dodge defence (Spit Venom), which could easily result in a fighter being taken out of action. A second example in defence, -1 damage (Blighted Aura) and Cleave, Ensnare, Knockback and Stagger have no effect (Blighted Touch) combined with any persisting Poison gambit, which can significantly improve the survivability of one of my fighters. In addition, keeping my fighters alive also helps to Counterplay many opponents who need to score objectives by eliminating my warriors.
To get the most out of Toxic Terrors you need to keep applying persisting gambits. Firstly, to disrupt enemy fighters and then to synergies with your upgrades and objectives. To keep accessing the Poison gambits, upgrades such as Vemonbite Weapons and Poisonmaster are invaluable to keep drawing and even returning cards from the discard pile. As with the Masks, I have found that the Power Deck needs to be weighted with Poison upgrades and gambits. So, when playing with Toxic Terrors, I find I tend to rely on in faction Objectives but Toxic Terror Power cards. Any faction, which has access to Poison gambits, I am looking at Elathain's Soulraid here, has an added advantage of making this deck work.
Summary
All three decks function, to a greater or lesser extent, through their interaction of early upgrades and scoring objectives. To get the most out of these decks Seed Glory needs to be generated. Each deck, however, suits a different playstyle with Rimelocked Relic being a more Aggro/Flex, Toxic Terrors being Control/Flex and Malevolent Mask leaning more towards Hold/Flex. All of them are playable with Lady Harrow's and a great many other warbands as well.
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