Hello! Michael here. Today I will be returning an old series that has only one entry in it so far: Dexamples.
Basically, I will be providing examples of decks that you can use for certain warbands or rivals decks. Today, I will focus on the new Edge of the Knife deck.
If you have any decks YOU want to show off to everyone, a great place to do so is on the Nemesis Deck Repository! To add a deck there, just join our Discord server and send it in!
With that out of the way, let’s get started!
Blazing Assault – Blackpowders Buccaneers
This deck is unironically very good for Blackpowder, as all fighters will almost always be tempered. Blackpowder does enjoy smashing things, and Blazing Assault lets him do so!
Decklink if you want to follow along.
This deck aims at leveraging Blackpowder’s threat as well finally making use of all the minions being 2 wounds by scoring off of them being Tempered. After you inspire, you minions typically become expendable as the more of them are dead the easier it is for Blackpowder to inspire!
The objectives focus on attacking with a smidge of holding in there with Aggressive Defender and Behind Enemy Lines. The only other positioning in there is for Calm Before the Storm (which isn’t too hard) and Risky Position (trivial). I’d say the biggest flaws in the objectives are Go All Out (as it forces you to leave fighters alive) and Trial of the Tempered (as if the enemy doesn’t attack Blackpowder, you’re never scoring it. Trial of the Tempered is your main goal for this deck, focus on making everyone Tempered for it.
The ploys are generic. There are lots of pushes to help Blackpowder get around, as well as some teleports. Edge of the Knife brings a powerful teleport in Synchronised Effort allowing you to switch up a minion and Blackpowder for a cheeky kill. Overall, the ploys are mainly to increase the amount of times Blackpowder can attack as well as to increase the magnitude of his attacks.
Most of the upgrades are accuracy stuff, to make sure BP’s 3 damage greatsword always hits. There’s a couple of survivability stuff in there as well. The weak point in the upgrades is Pesky Nuisance but I insist on making this card work somewhere and diverting an attack from the Big Guy is a pretty good use case for it!
Strengths:
– Very lethal to play against
– Rare case of minions being useful (cause they are all tempered)
– Lots of accuracy makes your attacks very reliable
Weaknesses:
– Blackpowder never taking damage is a huge downgrade to this whole deck as he can never benefit from being Tempered.
– This is Blackpowder – you have to setup inspiration first to get max mileage out of the warband, which can take a while.
– The glory total in the objectives is pretty low and also not the most reliable package in the game.
Emberstone Sentinels – Thorns of the Briar Queen
Thorns leverage Tempered very well, having 5 fighters who start Tempered (and two who will literally never get Tempered but that’s ok).
Decklink for anyone who wants to follow.
So Emberstone Sentinels may not be the best pairing for Thorns, but I do believe with Edge of the Knife there is maybe something there. Let’s check!
The Objectives are super positioning based and rely heavily on the Soul Warden ability to work well. Sally Forth, Power in Numbers, and Two-Pronged Assault all compete for Soul Warden. The rest of the deck focuses on holding or being in enemy territory. The weak links in the deck are Supremacy (cause you always need to hold 3) and Step by Step (cause it contradicts Sally Forth). Overall though, it should flow pretty well! Just pary for Supremacy to show up early on cause late game it’s super hard.
The ploys are all over the place. There’s pushes, teleports, card draw, pings, accuracy… you name it. Notably this deck has both Power from Death and By the Numbers so your card draw should be super consistent. The rest of the ploys focus on being able to get on tokens and being able to stay on those tokens.
The upgrades help buff your survivability and your lethality. Not much to say there. A glaring issue is you have 3 upgrades that cost 2 glory but only 1 that cost 0. This means that you have to think very carefully about your early glory. Overall though, the upgrades are pretty straightforward.
Strengths:
– Very nice passive glory
– Good aggressive capabilities
– Ironically super tanky due to high Save and warscroll abilites.
– Very consistent card draw.
Weaknesses:
– A lot of the objectives really need Soul Warden to work so you have to use it very carefully.
– Falls apart super fast if your 2 Dodge doesn’t work.
– Lots of surges are focused on holding enemy territory which could force you to making bad plays.
Pillage & Plunder – Kainan’s Reapers
Kainan’s Reapers are all Tempered from the start except from Mir Kainan, who can get and stay Tempered very easily. They can use this deck pretty well!
Decklink for anyone who wants to follow along.
So, this deck focuses on a) delving and b) leveraging your Tempered fighters to activate your ploys for some cheeky positioning or kills.
The objectives are mainly about delving. The only two cards that actually care about being Tempered here are Immovable (which is just luck) and Risky Position (which is really easy… if your 2 move doesn’t let you down). Strip the Realm is your big glory bomb but if you don’t like it the Reapers can actually score Trial of the Tempered semi-reliably as well.
The ploys are mainly mobility buffs. There is also some pings and a bit of Save/Attack buffs. A lot of your ploys require fighters to be Tempered, so make sure to leverage your Morteks well. The ploys also get a LOT better if Kainan takes 2 damage as then he can use the Tempered ploys as well!
The upgrades are all over the place. There’s a bit of everything, from accuracy to movement buffs to defensive buffs. They are mainly there to make your Morteks more annoying or to make Kainan a absolute pain. This deck has a lot of flexibility in the upgrades, depending on if you want to go with the ‘I have 5 fighters and they all pack a punch’ or the ‘I can reliably missile on your guys per round and that’s it pls don’t kill my little guys’ gameplan.
Strengths:
– Super reliable objectives
– Able to force Kainan to be Tempered with Dire Ultimatum.
– Adaptable strategy from game to game.
– Objectives are hard to deny.
Weaknesses:
– 2 Move
– Morteks are farmable for some easy bounty and you don’t want that to happen.
– Being Staggered from delving doesn’t help your survivability.
Wrack & Ruin – Sepulchral Guard
The Guard can leverage Edge of the Knife very well with their 6 raisable Tempered fighters. Their movement economy is also super helpful.
Decklink for anyone who wants to follow along.
Guard is the only warband who I found that can leverage this pairing to some effectiveness. I’d love to be proven wrong though, so if you do find a warband that can do this please do show me your deck! (and submit it onto the Nemesis Deck Repository on our Discord)
Anyways, the objectives are focused on getting wounded and getting into enemy territory. There’s not much holding in there, mainly positioning. The weak link here is either Two-pronged Assault or Spread Out, which are both cuttable, but I feel like Guard need 16 glory total to play well. Overall, most of these can be scored by just spamming your Raise and Double Move to get around the board in weird positions.
The ploys are mainly pings, to help with your kills. Guard aren’t lacking on damage but more is always nice. There’s a couple other cards there too but mainly it’s ploys to help increase your lethality.
I have no clue what happened in the Upgrades section but apparently that’s the best we get. You got several upgrades to get yourself vulnerable or damaged for Living on the Edge, then a couple cards to leverage your high mortality rate among your skeletons. There is also the obligatory cards to extend your Warden’s lifespan (or death-span?).
Strengths:
– Very high kill potential
– Very disruptive against Hold Treasure tokens.
– Most objectives if not denied will be scored ‘passively’.
Weaknesses:
– Objectives are easily deniable
– Your Warden dying (again) early is super detrimental to your win chance.
– This is one of the worst upgrade choice I ever had (however they all have niche cases where they are game-winning.
Reckless Fury – Jaws of Itzl
Ben, the new member of the Staggerers team, will do this section as he has much more experience with Jaws of Itzl than I do (and Jaws are the best for Reckless/Edge pairing in my opinion).
Ben: The Venomites start tempered and the lizards are easily tempered after being hit once. This warband can easily use this deck!
Decklink for anyone who wants to follow.
Jaws are one of the few warbands that can use this pairing, as they are easily tempered, with one fighter starting tempered and the lizards having high wound counts, allowing for them to survive a hit to become tempered. Also they are able to score Unrelenting Massacre once you decide to abuse the power of stagger on your venomites attack your venomites die.
The objectives are scored as long as you charge, sometimes onto treasure tokens, and move the venomites into enemy territory to flank your targets. 7 end phases are here, as I believe that 17 total glory is the sweet spot for aggro warbands, allowing you to outscore a lot of hold matchups with the glory gained from bounty. They can all be scored by charging, so just charge as often as possible. Importantly, 2 of the surges require treasure tokens, so make sure to keep those reachable.
The ploys are nice, giving you pushes, control tools, teleports between fighters damage buffs and card draw. The ploys from Edge of the Knife work well to plug the holes in the Reckless Fury ploy pool.
The upgrades are not great for this deck pairing, as both of these decks are a bit lacking in the upgrade department. A lot of these slots are spent upgrading the venomites. We have two pings that activate when the venomites die, as well as Headcase to give them a charge token if we want to get charged out. Four upgrades help our accuracy when attacking. The rest is control, defence and movement. The issue here is that a lot of these are situational. Once the venomites die three of the upgrades become almost useless and Cleave and Ensnare won’t always be good.
Strengths:
– Objectives are simple to score
– Ploys and Upgrades help hit attacks and deal damage
– Control tools allow for more flexible gameplay
Weaknesses:
– Upgrades are inconsistent
– Objectives can be difficult to score against non-aggro warbands
– Snakes dying too early/late can be a huge detriment to objectives and upgrades
Michael: And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this article, as well as the decks shown here. If you got inspired by any decks here we would love to have them on the Nemesis deck repository. If you have any feedback for me or for Ben, we would love to hear it! You can find us on the Staggerers discord server. With that, I hope to see you again soon!
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