Hello! Michael here. Today I will be providing you with a Dexample (an example of a deck) for every Nemesis pairing for the new Raging Slayers Rivals deck! All of the decks in this article are already up on our Nemesis Deck Repository, as well as some other Slayers decks, so if this article inspires you do check there! Without further ado, let’s begin!
Blazing Assault – Knives of the Crone
Michael: For the second time in a row, we are starting a Dexamples with Knives of the Crone! This pairing was chosen for them because they can prophesize a lot with the accuracy from both decks.
Obejctives wise, the only two surges that come from Raging Slayers are Best Foot Forward and Coordinated Assault. Best Foot Forward is really easy. Coordinated Assault is more of a late game surge, but at least still doable in R1. Blazing Assault’s surges are the default 4 – maybe Perfect Strike is ambitious, but the alternative is Strong Start. The end phases have a slight issue – only one is worth above 1 glory. That one is Unrelenting Massacre, which is doable with 4 fighters. Into the Fire is fine but it does force you to play passively with your boss till you draw the card. No Contest will be scored if you just go for it, and if you draw it too early, you can always Foretold Wisdom it away. Blazing Assault’s main issue is Go All Out – but the alternatives aren’t much better unfortunately. This pairing struggles in the end phase department.
Ploys wise, we have a lot! Honed Reflexes makes these Knives VERY re-rolly, with their prophecy as well as the domain. Slayer’s Aid is really nice mobility for these guys, allowing suicidal charges to become slightly less suicidal. Venting Strike is fire, allowing for a potential +2 dice (+1 dice, +1 re-roll = +2 dice). What Pain? is always nice but on a four fighter warband has more value than usual due to a higher number of strong fighters to heal. Blazing Assault ploys are pretty good in general, I don’t feel I need to explain them.
Upgrades wise, from Raging Slayers we have Agile and Gifted Vitality making our elves even more tanky. Agile especially is very annoying. Imagine stacking Foretold Protection, Agile, and Honed Reflexes! You won’t be able to use all re-rolls! Vitality is fine, 4 health makes it pretty good. Haymaker is a must have for these guys, allowing every fighter to go to 3-4 damage! Keen Eye is Keen Eye – don’t need to explain it. The Blazing Assault upgrades are seen a lot and this is a Raging Slayers article so I won’t explain them, except from the choice to bring both Deadly Aim and Sharpened Points – this is because these guys have no natural Cleave or Ensnare or any runemarks at all, making it not uncomfortable having both.
Overall, this deck makes these guys hit very accurately and decently hardly. It’s main issue lies in the low glory count from objectives so killing is mandatory. However, the amount of re-rolls you will have in Save rolls is absolutely diabolical!
Strengths:
- Crazy amounts of Save re-rolls.
- Rage tokens make Prophesizing much easier.
- Foretold Wisdom makes the deck 65x more consistent than it should be.
- Provides a lot of much needed Damage buffs.
Weaknesses:
- Very low glory count.
- With a bad draw, your killing power is too low.
- Extra bad negative experience if you miss your attacks could be detrimental to mental in a Bo3.
- Tabling an opponent too quickly loses you the game – you must be very precise in killing your opponent (due to surges all relying on attacks).
Emberstone Sentinels – The Emberwatch
Michael: So… as one might have guessed Emberstone Sentinels is by far the worst pairing for Raging Slayers. But we have to put it in, so here goes…
First of all I chose Emberwatch as they have three times per game a push which means they can maybe sometimes potentially score Supremacy or anything else hold-related. Myari’s work well too, because of Bahanaar’s unpushability.
Objectvies wise, all the surges suck. Sally Forth is unscorable without card support against an opponent who has a positive IQ, and Coordinated Assault messes with your plans a lot but is actually pretty doable. Step By Step is actually really good here but messes with your Rage stuff. Aggressive Defender and Best Foot Forward carry in the surge department, being the only scorable ones that don’t mess with the rest of your gameplan. End phase wise, I chose to play Unrelenting Massacre and Supremacy because I hate myself they are needed to put the glory ceiling up. Supremacy isn’t too bad with Alone I Stand! and Unrelenting Massacre is a little cheeky with a three fighter warband. Iron Grasp is not too bad and the one glory stuff is only worth one point so it’s pitchable.
The ploys are necessary to keep you on tokens as well as get extra accuracy to kill opponents to prevent them from taking advantage of the free push. Funnily enough I skipped Hold the Line here because it’s pointless with the amount of pushes your opponent gets. Settle In is probably better, cause at least you get Save bonus there too. Confusion and Sidestep are mandatory to even get on tokens. There is also a lot of stuff about spending Rage tokens, as only Coordinated Assault needs you to have them. Overall, the plan is to get rid of Rage tokens ASAP whilst also pushing yourself onto tokens.
Upgrades wise, Emberwatch love Haymaker as they can Raptor Strike combo it to do one shot a 5 Health fighter. United in Anger is super funny with Alone I Stand, and allows you to potentially get on TWO tokens in one power step with only one upgrade! Stubborn to the Bone allows the deck to work by preventing pushes and it’s your favorite card in the entire game, twice. The rest of the Emberstone stuff is just the default upgrade package you want to see. Once again, I didn’t take Brute Momentum, cause the card condition specifies you will be enraged (most likely) so it’s very counterintuitive.
Overall, this deck pairing sucks and you probably will never take it to a competitive event without some build in pushes or anti-pushes, as it’s very hard to hold anything whilst your opponent gets guaranteed unblockable drivebacks. It requires clever push usage in order to do remotely well.
Strengths:
- High accuracy
- Decent damage output
- Strong power cards
Weaknesses:
- Objectives are VERY easy to deny
- Literally doesn’t function if your opponent denies Alone I Stand
- Super dependent on spending Rage Tokens
- Struggles to score glory due to hard objective
- Gigantic mental strain probably
Pillage and Plunder – The Grymwatch
Michael: We are back with some more Grymwatch gaming! Grymwatch are pretty good at Pillaging and Plundering apparently, and Gristlewel loves the re-roll bonus from Slayers, so he convinced the Duke to give this pairing a try. Let’s see where it gets us!
Objectives wise, you may notice the lack of Raging Slayers cards. This is because they are very bad and I don’t like them. Best Foot Forward isn’t too hard luckily, so it can be done pretty easily. Grymwatch also love Hostile Takeover as I learned but that’s probably the switch card if you want to take more Slayers surges. In the end phase department, we took EVERY SINGLE Pillage end phases (though I have no clue why I put in Lost in the Depths, it’s probably the first to cut) and only No Contest (enemy leader is dead) from the Slayers stuff. This is because, as stated before, the objectives in Slayers are very very bad. No Contest is there as a glory ceiling buff, and allows us to in some world compete with PnP/CtC (maybe not with this warband though).
Ploys wise, this deck is very fun and turns Gristlwel into a murder MACHINE with the accuracy buffs. The Pillage stuff is the default Pillage ploy package and Grymwatch love Explosive Charges and it’s even better in this pairing. Honed Reflexes allows us to have not one but TWO rounds where we get re-rolls on our Saves, making these guys a nightmare to kill. Knife to the Heart is a ping and therefore mandatory, but also removes the Rage token allowing us to stay on the tokens. Murderlust will probably happen especially in R1, due to the ghouls tendency to roll two swords. This makes it SUPER strong then, and still pretty decent in the other rounds. Obviously Venting Strike is balanced (it’s not). The weak links are What Pain? and Wrong-footed Stance. What Pain will rarely be playable due to most ghouls being one shot, but it does help win the Swarm matchup. Wrong-footed Stance is an experiment and is switchable, but on paper it’s really nice to deny early charges onto the Duke with some setup. Call me delusional, but it can work!
Now for upgrades – once again the PnP choices are standard, and this article focuses on Raging Slayers so… Agile is really good on the Duke, and if you manage to save Defenders of the Realm for a round where the Duke has 2 Dodges it’s really fun. Angered Swing was chosen over the one that gives you Grievous but forces to charge, because it’s basically the same thing for GWatch but doesn’t force any action AND is more accurate. Haymaker is really good, but for maximum benefit I recommend throwing it on the Butcher or even the Duke! Just not Gristlwel. Finally, Keen Eye is Keen Eye. United in Anger (the push) is skipped here for consistencies sake. Gifted Vitality may seem a weird skip, but the Duke is either dead or alive – there isn’t much in between usually, so often times the heal won’t help that much. Finally, I would LOVE to have gotten Aggressive Ambusher in because the Raise lets you get so much Flanks but unfortunately there was no space.
Overall, this deck pairing is really fun and nice for a flex Grymwatch. It gives them a lot of threat across the board with several damage upgrades and obviously the accuracy is cracked.
Strengths:
- Much more threatening than other pairings
- Not much value lost from fighters dying with upgrades, the main strength is in the plot.
- HUGE accuracy buffs
- Can get several 3 DMG attacks with decent accuracy off in R1!
Weaknesses:
- Much less passive glory than the traditional CtC or Edge pairing.
- Two ‘dead’ objectives – Lost in the Depths and No Contest.
- No kill pings.
- No ‘guaranteed’ damage reduction (like +Health or heals or minus damage).
Reckless Fury – Gorechosen of Dromm
Michael: As much as a I loathe Dromm, their Enrage ability REALLY makes RF/RS trivial to score and hard to deny.
Objectives wise, our surges suck. Blinded By Rage isn’t ideal but the other two Slayers surges are pretty good for Dromm. Frenzied Rush is free, Vicious Brawl is pretty easy to score with the Underdog mechanic, and Sally Forth is annoying but will be scored when denying Strip the Realm. The end phases are actually really good, with most of the credit being given to the fact that they didn’t come from Slayers! The RF package is the default one, but from Slayers I picked No Contest over Into the Fire because I don’t like making Dromm a big target (I actually do but not when I am playing them). Unrelenting Massacre is easier than other warbands.
Ploys are really good here, credit due to them NOT being from RF. The RF package is default. From Slayers, Honed Reflexes is super good. Knife to the Heart is fine because only one objective requires you to be enraged, and because it generates blood tithe. Murderlust is also good as it makes your next attack both accurate and damaging! Senseless Haste is good on a warband with only 3 move, as is Slayer’s Aid. Venting Strike is SUPER good – imagine getting hit by a 4 Hammers 3 Damage attack turn one! What Pain? is self explanatory and once again no enrage objectives make it easier.
Upgrades wise, we can actually play Bladecatcher again! Worlds 2024 PTSD alert. Blades of Wrath is pretty weak but so are the upgrades in general. Agile is fine on one dice, and always nice to have. Gifted Vitality is cracked on a warband with high wound count. Haymaker is mainly in here because the Gorehulk has an attack that hits on 5 Hammers and now does 3 damage. Keen Eye… is Keen Eye. Stubborn to the Bone is used to punish players who don’t read your upgrades before charging you, and since you don’t really stagger yourself much it shouldn’t be too detrimental. Worst case, discard it. United in Anger is on paper funny with Call of Blood – someone let me know how it goes!
Overall, this deck is cracked for Dromm. It makes them super accurate. They still have their main problem of being glass cannons due to their low defense but you won’t be able to rely on them missing as much anymore unfortunately. The objectives are pretty good too.
Strengths:
- Enrage makes a lot of the RF objectives forceable.
- Accuracy provided by Slayers makes a high damage warband like Dromm VERY good.
- Ploys give a decent bit of free mobility.
- Your opponent must literally not charge like 2 or 3 fighters to deny your stuff.
Weaknesses:
- Still sucks into anything with 6+ fighters that wants to stand on tokens.
- Upgrades are very situational to the point that most are bad.
- Very few support to their survivability.
- Several objectives hard brick if 2 fighters die.
Wrack and Ruin – The Farstriders
Michael: The reason I picked Farstriders for this pairing is because a) an elite warband is probably best suited to run this specific pairing and b) Farstriders have their funny Vanguard ability as well as get pretty good mobility on their warscroll, mitigating the forced driveback.
First of all, the objectives. From Wrack, I took both Alone in the Dark and Stay Close which means this matchups realllly suffers against hordes and does very fine into elites. Into the Fire is fine but may be counterintuitive with Alone in the Dark, but such is life – both the decks have bad end phases. No Contest is pretty good and reliable if you play for it. Finally, Unrelenting Massacre is fine with three fighters and forces your opponents into pretty bad plays especially if they are elites. Once again, it’s bad into hordes. Surge Wise, I only took Best Foot Forward (obviously) and Coordinated Assault (pretty good for 3 fighters) from Slayers and the rest are Wrack (and not too strong). Strong Start should be easier with your accuracy buffs, though.
Contrary to objectives, the ploys are actually VERY good. Starting with the Slayers cards, Honed Reflexes is just busted. Knife to the Heart is nice for the ping as well as Rage removal. Murderlust may not go off as much as with other warbands but it does give accuracy for a large strike from Eagle-Eye for example. Slayers Aid is really nice for three fighter warbands but you must be mindful of Alone in the Dark when using it. Finally, Venting Strike is basically +2 dice but is very nice on Eagle-Eye for an early 4 Hammers attack. The Wrack ploys are of similar flavor, giving accuracy, pings, and most importantly survivability. Flee! is also very nice with the Farstriders, doubling their move.
Upgrades wise, Slayers is pretty good for Farstriders. Agile is not perfect on one dice but still nice to have. Gifted Vitality is a gift from the lords to these guys, but you must mindul of using Vanguard’s heal in conjuction with it. Think of Vitality as a free Vanguard. Keen Eye is Keen Eye. Finally, United in Anger in addition to the warscroll push can lead to some funny shenanigans. An upgrade I want to highlight from Wrack is Unstoppable, as it allows you for potentially 1 or 2 more Vanguards per round, which is really nice.
Overall, this deck could do pretty well into some other elites. It looks quite fun to play, with each of you fighters being a ‘hero’. I wouldn’t recommend it into swarms, which do plague the meta right now, but if your local area has lots of 3-4 fighter warband enjoyers, this deck could be fun to take to a game night or two!
Strengths:
- The deck mostly scores itself, you don’t have to do much special stuff.
- Enemy elites will have to dedicate mental energy to denying your stuff.
- Really good kill capability in power cards.
- Really good mobility in the warscroll compensates for lack of movement cards.
Weaknesses:
- Alone in the Dark and Stay Close must be thought of extra carefully with the forced driveback of Rage tokens.
- You lose 7 glory points by just getting paired against a warband with 6+ models.
- Canny opponents can deny the Alone/Stay Close/Massacre combo by just sitting still.
- Easily deniable.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed the article! All of these decks are of course up on our Nemesis Deck Repository. If you would like to chat with me about some of the decks here, or provide some of your own Slayers decks to our repository, feel free to reach out on the Staggerers Discord Server, And as always, I hope to see you again soon!
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