Hello! Today Ben and I both create some new Dexample for the Realmstone Raiders deck, one deck for each pairings! All of these are up on the Nemesis Deck Repository right now, so be sure to check that out. If you have any decks you want to submit with Realmstone Raiders you can do so on the Staggerers Discord server!
Without further ado, let’s begin!
Blazing Assault: Knives of the Crone (built by Ben)
Ben: I enjoy trying to pair Blazing assault with every deck, and Realmstone is the new candidate. I think Knives of the Crone has good synergy with both of these decks, so they are the clear choice.
This deck pairing relies way more on hitting attacks than Blazing/Cataclysm does. It wants to hit as many attacks as possible, as objectives such as Realmstone Raid and Certain Aggression require multiple raids to score. Compared to Cataclysm the end phases score for more and Hoarder’s Hovel is usually better than the often played Set Explosives. We do, however, lose a lot of consistent scoring in the end phases, which is rough. The surges are consistent and the extra glory is why I think it is a build worth trying.
The power of this deck combination shines out in the ploys. Pairing Blazing Assault, which already has many good aggressive ploys, with defensive powerhouses like Manipulated Fate and consistency in the form of Raider’s Premonition and a second (slightly more limited) sidestep with A Step Ahead makes this deck pairing have very powerful ploys.
The upgrades in this deck combination are a bit lacking. Blazing Assault takes a lot of the weight, but Realmstone doesn’t add a lot. Realmstone adds Great Speed, but Blazing has the rest of the “+1 Quadrinity” (Great Strenght/Fortitude/Keen Eye). The cards that Realmstone does give us are the “failsafe cycle” (Thoughts on both of those names?), which includes Armor Piercer and Brightstone Vigour, in case we do end up missing an attack. But these are very situational, which could be a weakness of the deck.
In conclusion, this deck combination might be worth exploring, especially in Knives of the Crone. The end phases are a bit inconsistent, but the Knives can scry it to the bottom if they don’t like it and the upgrades are a bit lackluster. However, the ploys are really good and the consistent surges and high scoring (for BA) makes this pairing really interesting
Emberstone Sentinels: Khagra’s Ravagers (built by Michael)
Michael: While I do dislike playing Emberstone Sentinels, it never hurts to try something that seems like it can work. Khagra has decent synergy with this deck.
This pairing focuses a little more on objective numbers than the traditional ES/CtC, leading me to pick up Switch Things Up here. I also picked Hold Treasure 1-2 for it’s synergy with Hoarder’s Hovel. Realmstone Raid should be doable if you hit two attacks most of the time. The surges are fine, they depend on your card order but should be mostly consistent and reward attacks. There may be some contradict between your holding and attacking plan because of this.
Ploy-wise, you do less damage than ES/CtC due to only one ping. However, you pick up a second (slightly limited) push AND a (somewhat mediocre) guard ploy! This is absolutely insane for this pairing, making it much harder to deny the holding stuff. Of course, Raider’s Premonition is super nice to have as well if stuff is bricking. And Manipulated Fate WILL swing games for sure! This is arguably a buff over the previous ploys of ES/CtC!
Upgrade wise, Realmstone Raiders is pretty good but so is Sentinels, however the overlap between Great Strength/Fortitude/Speed and Keen Eye between ES and RR is a little annoying, as those cards are kind of pivotal to each deck. However, RR does provide some nice card recycling tech from Call to Power and Forgotten Fortune. Between Call to Power, Forgotten Fortune, and Dark Approval (warscroll), this deck is SUPER consistent.
Overall, this deck combination might be worth exploring. The combination of better surges and absolutely godly ploys as well as super constant card draw is pretty strong. However, the end phases are not the best in the game and kind of contradictory and there are some issues in the upgrade section.
Pillage & Plunder: Sepulchral Guard (built by Ben)
Ben: You may be wondering what Pillage gets from Realmstone that makes it so nice, and the answer is nothing is Roused Violence. The Guard can move a lot, so they seem like a good fit.
The Objectives are very good. Pillage gives a lot of consistent scoring to the deck with the delving objectives. Meanwhile Realmstone gives you something to do other than to move, if you need to. Roused Violence is also kind of another torn landscape (kind of), so it could be good in this pairing. There is an argument to put crumbling mine into the deck, as now there are two cards it interacts with, but the ploys are too important to try it.
The Ploys are really good. They do exactly what the deck wants: pushes, pings, more accuracy and survival. The number of Emberstone cards in this deck is a bit low, but there are not that many objectives that care about Emberstone cards in the deck and the pillage ploys are very powerful.
The upgrades in this deck are also very nice. Having Great Strength, Great Fortitude and Keen Eye in this deck is a major boost to damage and survivability, which is greatly appreciated. There is only 1 Emberstone objective in this list, causing the total Emberstone cards to only be 4 Emberstone cards, but that should hopefully be enough to consistently score the objectives.
Overall, this deck pairing seems to be pretty powerful, as we have a lot of good objectives that don’t require Emberstone cards, which allows us to play all the good Pillage power cards with the couple of powerful upgrades and ploys from Realmstone. The only issue is that the power cards you gain (and the situational card draw I guess) is not even close to starting the game up 5 glory playing CtC.
Reckless Fury: Gorechosen of Dromm (built by Ben)
Ben: Reckless Fury and Realmstone Raiders have some unexpected synergies, as they are both aggro and Reckless enjoys having access to the powerful upgrades in Realmstone. These Khorne warriors are the RF kings while having the most accurate attack in the game, so they are the perfect candidate for this pairing.
On paper the objectives in Realmstone seem inconsistent, as needing to hit specific cards off the top of the deck can’t really be controlled by the player, however this pairing allows for the ability to play many Emberstone ploys and upgrades, as RFs power deck was nerfed so hard that there are about 5 playable cards in the entire deck. This makes cards like Reckless Gambit and Roused Violence way easier to score and worth running. The RF end phases are a bit situational, but a single misplay or good Enrage (warscroll) and Reckless Attitudes (ploy) use can make Unrelenting Massacre very easy.
The ploys are really good, as they make your objectives surprisingly easy. Reckless attitudes for the charge based objectives and emberstone ploys, such as Misstep, for the Realmstone objectives. One very good card in this deck is Raiders Premonition, as it allows for situational objectives, such as unrelenting Massacre to be “Mulliganed” during the game while also being an Emberstone ploy.
The upgrades are actually not that bad. Dromm does so much damage that Armor Piercer and Brightstone Vigour are actually very consistent and the “great” cycle is very powerful. Also, four of these are Emberstone upgrades, causing the deck to have a total of 9 Emberstone power cards.
Overall, I think this might be the best Realmstone pairing that is currently available, as the synergy between the decks, the ability to play many emberstone cards and the existence of powerful warbands that want this pairing, such as Dromm, causes this deck pairing to have legs.
Wrack & Ruin: Cyreni’s Razors (built by Michael)
Michael: Another deck, another excuse to pair Cyreni with Wrack & Ruin.
Realmstone Raiders pairs really well with Cyreni mainly due to their accurate attacks allowing for greater Raid odds than most warbands. Their tankiness helps too.
The objectives here are very easy to deny, specifically the end phases. The surges aren’t too shabby – the Wrack package only brings one bad surge (Unsafe Ground) which Raiders does nothing for and A Sure Bet and Ragerock Strike are both pretty easy for the Razors. In the end phases, you have to leverage your Hammertides as well as Barge/Hidden Knowledge to set up Alone in the Dark, Stay Close, and Certain Aggression. Realmstone Raiders makes Ploymaster absolutely trivial here! Overall, the end phases are super easy to deny but the Razors are good at getting opponents in specific places and Hidden Knowledge/Barge/Damned if you Do help with that too.
The ploys are decent. As you may notice there are some pings, but that’s mainly a me-thing. Cyreni gains some stuff from the Raiders ploys, namely Manipulated Fate allowing for some extra survivability and Raider’s Premonition being hilarious for mind games in this specific deck pairing (as your opponent has no clue which of the three deniable cards you hid). Intoxicated Rage makes Cephanyr a force to be reckoned with as he can still get around with his Ink. Finally, Fortune Faded is a ping so it’s automatically included. The ploys are all decent for the Razors in general!
Upgrade-wise, this deck lacks outside of the Great Strength/Speed/Foritude/Keen Eye combo. Call to Power and Forgotten Fortune are both pretty strong as well! Brightstone Vigour is hard to use here but I couldn’t pick a better card. Still, with Soul Harvest keeping enemies at one Save dice is doable. Other than that, this deck has the generic Wrack package.
Overall the main issue with this deck pairing is the ease of deniability. The power card package kind of helps with setting up the objectives, but it still requires you to engage in combat to clear the board of enemies to make them easier. I still think that Razors are one of the best Raiders warbands out there, but i’m not to sold on the reciprocal (that being Razors with Raiders). If someone makes this work (I certainly will try at some point), do let me know!
And that’s it! We both hope you enjoyed the article. If you have any feedback about any of the decks here, or would just want to talk about Underworlds stuff, you can find us both on the Staggerers Discord Server. As stated already all of these decks are up on the Deck Repository and if you have any more examples with Realmstone Raiders we would love to have them too! With that, we hope to see you again soon!
Staggerers - A Warhammer Underworlds Blog 