Emberstone Sentinels - Deck Review

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NEW VERSION


The Emberstone Sentinels Rivals deck for Warhammer Underworlds is a deck focused on the Take and Hold playstyle. It rewards positional play, careful movement, and an ability to stick to remain on Treasure tokens. This makes it a slower-paced, but thoughtful deck that rewards players who can outmanoeuvre their opponents and maintain presence on objective hexes. It is not about eliminating your opponent. 

Objectives – Hold Your Ground

The deck contains the usual 12 objectives: 6 surges and 6 end-phase cards, with a total potential of 16 glory. Nine cards score for 1 glory, two score 2 glory and one scores 3 glory. The deck is about building towards consistency rather than big moments.

Stand-out Objectives include:

  • Sally Forth: Score for making a Charge action onto a treasure token. Nice and easy early-game tick.

  • Unassailable: Your opponent is going to try and knock you off Treasure tokens. Nothing is better in Underworlds than when you score glory for an opponent's failed attack.

  • Supremacy: A big payout for holding at least two Treasure tokens, this is easier to achieve earlier in the game.

  • Aggressive Defender: Make an attack from a Treasure token. Another nice and easy early-game score.

  • Iron Grasp: Hold all Treasure tokens in friendly and/or enemy territory, well you were going to do that anyway. Great for an easy 2 glory.

  • Slow Advance: Another hold two treasure token but this one is more aggressive.

All in all, these objectives ask you to hold space and survive. If you can get set up and stay there, you’ll be ticking off cards regularly.


Ploys – Shennanigans and Staying Power

The ploys in Emberstone Sentinels are where the deck really shines. They’re all about positioning, defence, and utility. Most of them are quite subtle in their effects, but taken together they form a reliable toolkit for keeping your fighters where they need to be.

Ploys of note:

  • Settle In: Gives a Guard token to a fighter holding a treasure token. Makes them harder to shift.

  • Sidestep: Still the best push in the game. Nothing flashy, just works.

  • By the Numbers: Draw 1 card for every friendly fighter holding a treasure token (max 3). Excellent in mid-late game, to provide more tricks and tools.

  • Hidden Paths: Teleport a fighter to a starting hex. Brilliant for late-game swings or emergency repositioning.

  • Confusion: Swap two adjacent fighters. Great for disrupting your opponent’s carefully laid plans.

  • Hold the Line: Once you are on Treasure tokens, stay there.

Together, these cards help you control the board and adapt when the state of play changes. This deck rewards planning ahead and reacting smartly.


Upgrades – Sticking Around

The upgrades round out the deck with a focus on making your fighters harder to shift and better at holding positions.

A few highlights:

  • Sharp Reflexes:  Adds +1 Save. Helps fighter to stay on Treasure tokens for longer.

  • Great Fortitude: +1 Wounds, always good. Makes your fighters harder to slay.

  • Brute Momentum: Charge onto a Treasure token and ignore pushes.

  • Duellist: Push after an Attack and follow up onto a Treasure token.

  • Agile: Particularly helpful for your 2 Dodge fighters.

  • Inviolate: More defensive tech when standing on Treasure tokens, making your fighters even harder to dislodge.


It’s worth noting that the upgrades here aren’t focused on doing more damage. This deck doesn’t want to win fights — it wants to win the board.


Weaknesses

Despite its strengths, Emberstone Sentinels does have some drawbacks.

  • Low Glory Output – As with all Rivals decks the glory ceiling is 16, but don't count on gaining too much more from killing enemy fighters.

  • Struggles Against Aggro – If your opponent is running a heavy-hitting warband with good mobility, they might just blow through your line and disrupt everything.

  • No Real Kill Threat – This deck won’t intimidate anyone with offence. If you're behind and need a big swing, it doesn’t offer much help.

  • Highly Predictable – Once your opponent knows what you’re trying to do, they’ll do everything they can to force you off tokens and break your scoring rhythm.


Strategy Tips

To get the most out of Emberstone Sentinels:

  • Establish Control Early – Get onto those treasure tokens as soon as possible and stay there.

  • Prioritise Survivability – Guard tokens, wounds, and defensive upgrades will keep you in place longer.

  • Don’t Overcommit – Sometimes it’s better to hold two tokens securely than scramble for three and lose all of them.

  • Learn the Lines – Positioning is everything. Knowing which hexes you need to control each turn is key.


Nemesis Pairings – Emberstone Sentinels

The Emberstone Sentinels deck is an ideal primary deck in Nemesis format, especially for players who enjoy a more deliberate, positional playstyle. Built around the Take and Hold mechanic and treasure tokens, it offers reliable, repeatable scoring and strong board control.

While it lacks raw aggression, Emberstone pairs extremely well with secondary decks that add complexity in the form of the Mastery playstyle, making the deck less predictable. Here are a few standout combinations:

Ember-Cataclysm – With Countdown to Cataclysm

One of the most natural pairings, Countdown to Cataclysm enhances Emberstone’s control elements while providing a splash of threat and flexibility through the Mastery keyword.

Key Synergies:

  • Shocking Assault - rewards attacking enemies holding treasure tokens — a perfect complement to Emberstone’s objective focus.

  • Set Explosives - creates risk around token positions, punishing enemies who contest your territory.

  • Violent Blast - thoughtful positioning of a Treasure token, makes this potentially another confusion.

This pairing allows you to maintain control of the board while gaining glory away from Treasure tokens, making you game less predictable. 

Watch out: While it’s strong on the board, it’s still not the fastest scorer. You’ll need to keep consistent pressure to avoid being overwhelmed and keep the countdown clock ticking.


Ember-Wrack – With Wrack and Ruin

Pairing Emberstone Sentinels with Wrack and Ruin opens up an intriguing control-meets-pressure build. Like Emberstone, Wrack and Ruin uses the Mastery mechanic but causes your opponents to make bad choices.

Key Tactic:

  • Stay Close - pressures your opponent to either abandon a fighter on an edge hex or challenge for Treasure tokens.This forces awkward positioning decisions, diverting focus away from contesting treasure tokens.

  • Damned if you do - more bad choices for your opponent, take damage or be pushed of a Treasure token.

  • Barge - When you absolutely have to clear an opponent from 'your' Treasure tokens.

This pairing plays well into forcing bad choices and turning positional play into glory generation, even without combat.

Watch out: This combination is very much a long-game strategy. It can struggle against hyper-aggro warbands that are difficult to zone out or that ignore tokens altogether.


    Final Thoughts

    The Emberstone Sentinels Rivals deck is a fantastic choice for players who enjoy tactical control and board presence. It’s not going to appeal to bloodthirsty aggro players or those chasing flashy, high-glory wins — but if you like a more measured, positional game, this deck is incredibly satisfying to play.




    Do you think Take and Hold will be a valid playstyle for Embergard? Will you be using the Emberstone Sentinels?

    Checkout my Warhammer Underworlds for more articles.

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