Hello! Michael here. First of all, Happy New Year! May our staggers always reroll into crits 🙂
Ok now today I want to talk about a game mechanic that is criminally underrated, underutilized, and understood. Please ignore that criminally understood makes no sense.
Anyways, as we all know Reckless Fury won the World Championships for the second year in a row now, which means that I started looking for ways to counter it. It didn’t help that I lose to it myself. What is the best way to counter a charge deck? Give it move tokens!
LOCKDOWN INITIATED
Right, so the quick version of this article is here:
They make you unable to charge.
That’s the TLDR so feel free to not read anything else. The article is answered. However I do go into much more detail so I would appreciate you carrying on! 🙂
First of all, move tokens do make you unable to charge. Charging does happen to be the most used Core Ability in the game which means that it’s quite powerful to shutdown. Unfortunately, fighters can still attack when they are with a move token, which means that you have to lockdown (I refer to giving an enemy a move token as ‘lockdown’) an enemy while they are far away.
This raises the true strength of move tokens – they make you unable to be charged out. Charging out was a very controversial rule when introduced and I still feel like it’s a little OP, and shutting it down is truly insane. Enemies often automatically assume they will get charged out, so saying ‘no’ to that can really throw a heavy spanner into player’s works!
Next, move tokens can shut down some VERY potent warscroll abilities. Here is a list of every single one I found:
- The Danse Dynamic (Exiled Dead)
- Puppeteer (Exiled Dead)
- Call of Blood (Dromm)
- Skitter (Tunnelpack)
- Slipper Gitz/Scurry (Gitz)
- Hail of Aethershot (Thundrik)
- Instinctual Control (Jaws)
- Anything that needs a charge, such as:
- Speed of Slaanesh (Dread Pageant)
- Riptide Harpoon (Soulraid)
- Bulwark against the Dark (Ironsouls)
That’s a lot of abilities, and some of them are pretty powerful. Imagine getting to shut down the Danse from Deintalos for an entire round! Or making a Soulraid player who has been saving Tammael for an activation three epic Harpoon cry by giving Tammael a move token (don’t do this pls). People complain that Bladecatcher walls certain warbands, but lockdown effects do so as well.
There are some cards that are also unusable with a move token:
- Tunneling Terror (PnP)
- Barge (WnR)
- Angered Focus (RR)
- Intoxicated with Rage (RR)
Not a lot of these are strong but it’s annoying to lose access to these effects, especially with Barge, as it is very telegraphed.
Sure, it’s annoying when you can’t play the game and you have to sit and stare at the table and then “I’ll focus”. But it’s even more annoying when you literally cannot win because of one card.
OBJECTIVELY GOOD
There’s two ways in the game to get glory. Objective cards and killing. I talked already about how charging is op and needs nerfs because it’s very efficient at killing, but did you know move tokens also shut down OBJECTIVE CARDS? Let’s take a look:
- Sally Forth (ES/RF)
- Arena Mortis (RF)
- Best Foot Forward (RF/RS)
- Bloodbathed Rampager (RF)
- Bloody Momentum (RF)
- Frenzied Rush (RF)
- Unrelenting Massacre (RF/RS)
- Tag Team (DS)
- Power in Numbers (EotK)
- Vicious Brawl (RF)
- Living Bludgeon (RF)
What do those cards in common? They become (pretty much) unscorable if a fighter receives a move token! Obviously the pairing that move tokens hurt the most is RF, but it also happens to have the most tools to deal with it. Shame.
However we cannot ignore that some cards become easier with an enemy receiving a move token. These are cards that become easier for your opponent when you give them a move token:
- Go All Out (BA)
- Step by Step (ES)
- Careful Advance (ES/WnR)
- Savage Sprinter (RF)
- Nowhere to Run (CtC)
- Out of the Frying Pan (WnR)
- This is our Turf! (HG)
Much less than cards which become unscorable and they are also worth less glory but still something to keep in mind.
So to summarize, move tokens can shut down:
- Charges and charged out, denying opponents kill glory
- Warscroll abilities, denying opponents stuff to do
- Objective cards, denying opponents glory
This is literally what everyone dreams of! THEN WHY IS NO ONE PLAYING MOVE TOKEN CARDS???
THE REASON NO ONE IS PLAYING MOVE TOKEN CARDS
Over to You – This card requires a fighter to die AND have a move token, which makes it a little questionable to use. On top of that, it also gives your opponent a charge token which re-enables charged out. On top of THAT, if you had Guard tokens which a no-Charge playstyle would, your opponent gets them to. Also this card is in Reckless Fury, so giving a move token is actually a buff in this case. (quick note on Catch Weapon – it doesn’t give move token so we ignore it in this article)
Spiteful Traps – Exposing your leader is a little risky. Also this is located in EotK meaning odds are your leader is VERY fragile if you play this deck.
Lash Out – The chances of rolling this could be higher, it’s not guaranteed to get a move token. Also, since you are dead to use this card, enemies probably already have a charge token.
Hidden Knowledge – Getting close to an enemy is very scary. They can also keep attacking you after you used the card, which is sad.
Wrong-footed Stance – If only someone wrote an article about all the pros and cons… anyways, the condition to trigger the move token is very awkward and it affects you to.
Poor Footing – If an enemy is in your territory, odds are they charged, so they don’t want the move token anymore.
Crippling Blow – Very expensive upgrade + if an enemy is in your territory, odds are they charged, so they don’t care about the move token as much.
So it’s all bad. All the move token cards suck and we shouldn’t ever play them. Right?
WRONG!
Over to You – Ok maybe this card is pretty bad BUT you also can Stagger enemies! Also, it’s untelegraphed, which means that enemies often won’t see it coming making it the ultimate element of surprise!
Spiteful Traps – Literally one of the best lockdown cards, being the hardest to dodge. It also prevents enemies from countercharging your straggling leader, but the best thing about this card is it’s basically ‘drop a move token onto any fighter in the board’ since it’s so unrestrictive about it’s positioning.
Lash Out – This can give move tokens to MANY fighters! Charge headfirst into a battalion of enemies and now you can’t get killed or else you lock them all down! (also rolling a Shield on three dice isn’t that low of a chance – about 74%!)
Hidden Knowledge – A SUPER OP card, first of all we must consider how it can be re-used through Forgotten Fortune, which can get re-used through Reforged Aid, which can then re-use this again, making it a potential THREE lockdowns per game. Next, getting adjacent to an enemy usually isn’t very difficult (or so I’ve heard). There isn’t really anything your opponent can do to prevent it!
Wrong-footed Stance – Once again plugging my article about all the pros and cons. Basically the best part about this is it enables huge board control by making Staggers even worse and it can be re-used for several move tokens a round!
Poor Footing – Very low conditional drop a move token, very punishing if a Ghlugoch or another Range 1 brawler gets trapped in your territory unable to charge! Despite the slightly restrictive effect, it’s not actually that bad if you think about it. I’ve been playing around with it and it’s very strong!
Crippling Blow – My favorite card here, the fact that you don’t need to hit makes this very appealing. Being Range 2 helps a lot! There is a timing issue about when the move token condition gets checked, as in, can I driveback a target into my territory to lockdown them? If so then this card is just insane and if not it’s still super strong! Your territory takes up almost half the board so that’s half the board your opponent just CANNOT visit or they get locked down!
CAPITLIZING ON LOCKDOWN-ED ENEMIES
If we do start handing out move tokens we have to consider how we can play round the fact that the enemy can’t charge.
First of all, we have the slight issue that one of the strongest decks in the game (PnP) doesn’t really care about Charging at all and functions perfectly well when only moving. It’s purely psychological that giving a move token will shut down a PnP player – that is, unless you punish them for being unable to charge.
In the game right now, I would say around 60% to 80% of your glory each game comes from objective cards. This means that you have to make your opponent achieving the remaining 20/40% from kills very unlikely in comparison to you. When they can’t charge, it becomes much easier.
My personal favorite playstyle is pingstorm but I also really love the ‘hit and run’ playstyle which is currently very hard to play due to lack of warbands that support it. Ylthari’s Guardians, however, are pretty good at it due to The Dwindling allowing the to teleport out of reach. A hit and run playstyle is very good at capitalising on lockdown-ed enemies, as the ‘run’ part makes it impossible for them to hit you back. Against a PnP player, this turns the odds in your favor as you gatekeep kill glory from your opponent while still being able to score your own!
(assuming a passive playstyle like ES/PnP), you have to consider your positioning near treasures a lot more. Often times it is a little scary standing near Treasure #4 because a stray enemy will likely charge onto it to kill you. By handing out move tokens, you enable yourself to position pretty aggressively near the treasures as the enemy cannot really punish you as effectively.
Basically, you can round up this section by saying take more risks. You don’t get a brawl advantage against a lockdown-ed enemy but you do get to get out of reach MUCH easier. So try it – Lockdown Phelgmus, and then bravely assert dominance over Treasure Token #2 as he cannot charge you with his 3 Damage!
LOCKDEXAMPLES
Here I want to quickly go over the most effective lockdown-y playstyles.
Starting off with the most anti-RF deck I have ever made, presenting HG/RR:
At first glance this deck seems very troll until you realise that Spiteclaw’s Swarm actually has some godly accuracy (ON THE SCHEMERS) and is very tanky.
The idea behind this deck is you throw away Round 1 in hopes of the enemy RF player coming to you and then bullying them to death when they inevitably get stuck in your territory. HG brings the punishing power for stragglers in your territory, while RR provides some very nice glory points on top of some very good upgrades.
The lockdown in this deck comes from three cards comboing VERY well with others:
- Hidden Knowledge, being paired with Reforged Aid and Forgotten Fortune allowing a potential 3 Lockdowns from one card.
- Poor Footing, pairing well with feature tokens.
- Crippling Blow pairing VERY well with Audacious Denial – very funny combo, trust me 🙂
RR is also not too bad as enemies are often reckless and charge headfirst meaning you get more Raids then usual.
As an anti-RF deck, this works pretty well! The main idea is to keep either Skritch or Krrk alive for raiding and have the minions distract/go adjacent to enemies for Hidden Knowledge.
Sidenote – one of my test games with this deck was against an ES/PnP Thundrick who lockdown should not work against but by some slight strings of luck (namely Profiteers rolling a grand total of 1 shield) we still managed to pull the win off, proving the pairing works even against non-RF stuff despite specifically countering it. (sorry Jon…)
Now, if we want a more aggro deck so we can do a bit of our own gameplay, I present EotK and RR:
This deck is a lot more aggressive and to be frank also a lot more consistent. It does have the slight issue where lockdowns aren’t as effective because you have so much fighters meaning odds are an enemy will be able to strike you even when locked down. Late game, however, that’s another story – where your last ghosts are practically immortal cause they can’t be chased. Also it makes running away harder.
The idea here is you get to basically just play a normal game of Underworlds. Send your fighters forward, hit attacks, score stuff. We throw in a spot of lockdown tech in order to mess with enemies. It’s a lot more effective against ES/PnP or other passive stuff compared to the Spiteclaw deck but it’s also strong against RF and elites, due to Trial of the Tempered becoming fairly free against them. It suffers a little into swarms due to less raids and a single Great Fortitude messing up Trial but overall it’s pretty strong.
For the lockdown stuff, it’s a lot less combo based than Spiteclaw:
- We have the same Hidden Knowledge/Forgotten Fortune/Reforged Aid combo.
- Spiteful Traps combos with Trial of the Tempered, as most opponents will not attack the Queen at risk of giving you Trial for free.
- Lash Out doesn’t have much combo potential, but you can put it and Parting Shot onto the same guy to make them pretty unattackable.
Now that we have two decks, one is clearly more consistent than the other. The Thorns Deck relies on hitting attacks mainly while Spiteclaw needs a lot more to go right (namely an opponent visits your territory). Still, what is the most consistent deck we can make for Lockdown?
I genuinely think RR/EotK is the best deck pairing for dedicated lockdown playstyles. Splashing your already built decks with lockdown cards is obviously very good (PNP/HG TRUST).
The issue is with Thorns and RR/EotK is we provide the enemy a lot of options to do after locking them down, which defeats the purpose of lockdown. On the other hand, by picking EotK we are basically required to play a warband that starts with Tempered Fighters. This has already been proven wrong by Dan Knight but for his strategy to work you need BA for Scream of Anger.
Except, we forget – Edge of the Knife isn’t the only deck with strong objectives in the pairing.
This abomination of a deck is in my opinion somehow more consistent than the other two decks. And it’s got LOTS of lockdown stuff, with actual tangible benefits from it.
With Furiann being unjustifiably nerfed we actually have to use our brains to play Soulraid now.
First of all, this deck cares very little about positioning. The only card here that does is All In and Risky Position. This allows us some very nice flexibility – if we play vs. aggro, we just wait a bit and then lockdown anyone who charges into us. If we play against passive, we go all in! Then we can lockdown people who try to hurt us, making counterpunching very difficult.
The lockdown cards are as follows:
- We have the same Hidden Knowledge/Forgotten Fortune/Reforged Aid combo.
- Spiteful Traps which is actually playable in a warband with a decent leader.
- Lash Out+ Parting Shot onto the same guy makes them pretty unattackable. Or put them onto two different people, either works.
This deck despite looking very funny and unplayable might actually be very good! It’s pretty flexible and the objectives are actually pretty easy to pull off, just hit attacks (which with Soulraid is kind of a given). Additionally, countering this deck is diabolically difficult because you have so much lockdown tech on top of not really having much deniable objectives. Lockdown here even means something cause usually you are only brawling with three fighters, which means that your opponent has a lot less targets to choose from. Also super notable is the amount of card draw in this deck. We have Power From Death as well as Call to Power for 4 cards drawn each game, meaning we don’t suffer as much for having only 3 lockdown cards.
CONCLUSION
So… hopefully I swayed your opinion on playing lockdown decks. They are very counter-meta at the moment – I suggest you give them a try! You can do lots of cool stuff with deck pairings as you have seen. If you don’t want to go all in, at the very least make sure to put Crippling Blow in your next Hunting Grounds deck. Trust me – your local Reckless Fury player will thank you!
With that, thanks for reading! If you have any feedback or just want to chat, as always do find me on the Staggerers discord server. Happy new year once again to anyone reading, and I hope to see you again soon! 🙂
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