Hello! Michael here. Today I will be talking about a very cool and underused mechanic in Underworlds – card combos!
We have all had the pleasure of pulling off a devious Canny Sapper + Sidestep combo to secure us a nice 5 glory Iron Grasp + Supremacy. And it feels great! This article aims to highlight some more of these fun combos but only within a specific deck. We do aim to get a Part 2 and even 3 out where we focus on actual Nemesis pairings but if we do that here the article will be about 2.7km long, which is hard to read.
So before I begin I want to say that I won’t put stuff like ‘Great Strength Keen Eye’ because those two cards undeniably have combo potential, it’s not really a cool wow you’re such a talented player combo. I think everyone has pulled this off at some point. Anyways, let’s dive in and hope you have a combo-eutiful time!
Blazing Assault
A lot of combos here are pretty boring but they do exist. Most combos fall under the ‘thats so obvious’ category, such as using Determined Effort to score Critical Effort easier or using Accurate to make Twist the Knife more accurate.
Sidestep + Lure of Battle: The age-old combo. This allows you to do a 3 hex lure of battle but also to Lure of Battle adjacent figthers! Obviously this combo works with Illusory Fighter and Commanding Stride to but Sidestep is the most common use case.
Tough + Scream of Anger: Guys this is the most busted combo in Underworlds ever. Basically, it involves first taking 3 damage in a turn then getting Tough on a fighter and then playing Scream of Anger to get a free charge token removal! Just like Get it Done! I’m still not too sure how this is unbanned. While Tough isn’t often played this could be a very funny interaction!
Lure of Battle + Denial: Since you want to invade anyway, you can run into enemy territory and tactically pull an enemy into their territory to score it.
Hidden Aid + Perfect Strike + Branching Fate: A boring combo but by using Hidden Aid it is possible to score both surges mentioned through a single attack assuming you have 3 Hammers.
Emberstone Sentinels
We all know the Guard + Unassailable combo, but do we know…
Switch Things Up + Hold Treasure X: Guys, I swear this isn’t a default combo. This is basically a guaranteed one glory combo which is very strong, so despite being ‘simple’ I still included it!
Shoulder Throw + Confusion: This can be used an alternate The Extra Mile. The line goes charge into enemy next to token, throw them onto a token, and then Confusion yourself on. A very expensive combo but if you really need that one treasure then it works!
Hidden Paths + Sidestep: By starting in an edge hex, you can reach ANY hex within one hex of an edge. Guess what lies there? Most Aqua Ghyranis! This makes it a pretty reliable way to generate one glory. This obviously works with Confusion as well but more reliable with Sidestep.
Pillage & Plunder
A lot of the power in this deck’s combo potential lies in our good friend Canny Sapper. Turns out teleports make great combo pieces!
Canny Sapper + Sidestep: THE combo of all time. Pulling this off lets you reach pretty much anywhere on the board, especially in your territory, and is very satisfying.
Canny Sapper + Commanding Stride: This is a very fun combo to allow you to technically teleport onto a starting hex in enemy territory by putting Canny Sapper on your leader and then teleporting to the enemy Stagger hex. Always a fun surprise factor.
Aggressive Claimant + Strip the Realm: A two objective combo which puts the enemy in a deadlock where they both have to and cannot stand on tokens. Having both of these at the same time can really mess with an opponent.
Swift Step + Prideful Duellist: This combo lets you charge into no-man’s land and then push into enemy territory to very cheekily heal yourself. I’m not 100% sure this combo works so any rules lawyers out there I’d love to hear from you.
Claim the Prize + Delving for Wealth: This combo is used to guarantee last place in a Nemesis tournament. Try this out for yourself!
Countdown to Cataclysm
No, the tracker advancing does not count as combo potential.
Tightening Grasp + The Perfect Cut: Against dodge warbands, this almost guarantees a free glory for hitting a succesful attack!
Desperate Rage + Collateral Damage: In the age of Cataclysm hitting 4 before Round 3, being able to kill your fighter off on top of dealing 3 damage to an enemy is very tempting. This surely would have been laughed at a couple months ago!
Desperate Rage + Bringer of Doom + Extinction’s Edge: Speaking of laughing at stuff, in case you were aiming to hit Cata 5, this combo lets you do so! A potential 3 cataclysm advanced in one turn, not always very useful, but very flashy if you pull it off.
Growing Concerns + Violent Blast: Playing this into a Range 1 charged out enemy while at Cata 4 can potentially steal an activation from them. The combo works by first separating you and the enemy and then playing Growing Concerns to say ‘no’ to a charge into you! This also works albeit less consistently with Improvised Attack.
Burnt Out + The End is Nigh: A very devious combo with rarely played cards. However, this can allow you to alleviate the downside of the End is Nigh by drawing wayyy more power cards than your opponent!
Wrack & Ruin
Some people have referred to this as the ‘combo deck’, such as Team Austria’s Gitz player, Tristan. How true is this?
Desperate Defense + Unstoppable: By putting Desperate Defense on a Vulnerable fighter, you become immune to 2 damage, increased to 3 with Stand Fast. Pretty cool, and very flashy and effective if you pull it off.
Fireproof + Unstoppable: Similar to the above combo, but you can make a fighter completely immune to damage for a turn, by putting Fireproof down whilst having a vulnerable fighter with Unstoppable!
Fiery Temper + Unstoppable: Become immune to pushes completely if you are vulnerable and Unstoppable. This works because Unstoppable reduces damage taken to 0 so you can do yourself one damage, proccing Fiery Temper.
Barge + Alone in the Dark: If you have a clumped group of fighters, one Barge can be used to separate them out and score Alone in the Dark. The also works with Wary Tread if only one fighter is adjacent to you.
Fault Lines + Bloody and Bruised: This combo lets you score Bloody and Bruised in one activation by just damaging an already undamaged enemy. While you can’t attack the enemy you ping, this does trivialize Bloody and Bruised.
Reckless Fury
There isn’t much combos here other than tricking your opponent into giving you Unrelenting Massacre.
Braced + Sally Forth: This really works with Headcase too. This combo works by very inconspicuously moving onto a treasure and Bracing yourself. Why we chose to highlight this one is because Sally Forth is most likely of the RF cards to be unscorable to due no targets to charge!
Catch Weapon + Unrelenting Massacre: An example of ‘trap cards’, this combo catches your opponent by surprise and not only locks their fighter but also scores you three glory. Pretty good for a two card combo!
Reckless Attitudes + Unrelenting Massacre: This combo forces decisions from your opponent. Either they charge, and give you three glory, or your opponent passes their turn/focuses. This also isn’t very far fetched and is very annoying to play around.
Edge of the Knife
A lot of the combo stuff in EotK arise from Dark Horse/The Uprising/Running Riot, because the entire deck forces you to be tempered. I will touch on these cards but only for truly cool combos.
The Uprising + Final Stand: A combo consisting of the arguably two worst cards in the deck, this allows you to have an entire activation where you won’t budge. While situational it can be potentially useful.
Dark Horse + Trial of the Tempered: I cannot not mention this despite it being very obvious, but playing this card combo forces your opponent to not only ignore one fighter but ignore TWO fighters. Which is very annoying. Usually the counterplay to Trial is to just make one fighter to be untempered but with Dark Horse this does not work.
Spiteful Traps + Synchronized Effort: This combo can go one of two ways – lockdown + teleport away, or teleport into someone + lockdown. Both of these have a huge impact. The lockdown into TP allows for your leader to guarantee safety after getting close to an enemy to lock them down. The other variation makes Spiteful Traps have a potential 6 hex range, which is quite cool.
Pesky Nuisance + Parting Shot/Lash Out: This combo makes Pesky Nuisance actually very Pesky. Forcing an opponent to target a fighter who will ping them or lock them down when killed is definitely a Nuisance!
Raging Slayers
Most of the combos here rely on never played cards but we will ignore that for the time being cause combo is combo!
Slayer’s Aid + United in Anger + Overwhelming Presence: This combo can be used to fake an opponent out and trick them into not denying Overwhelming Presence. You can have two whole fighters on treasures, and then play United in Anger and Slayer’s Aid to get both of them off. Definitely a costly a risky combo but the payoff is a decent two glory!
Slayer’s Arena + Adrenaline Rush: Adrenaline Rush can be used to mitigate the downside of Slayer’s Arena. This allows us to effectively play Slayer’s Arena with no downside!
Into the Fire + Slayer’s Aid: Another weird combo, we can use Slayer’s Aid to set up Into the Fire if we are lacking one necessary fighter. Not very expensive or flashy but definitely reliable.
Realmstone Raiders
A lot of the combos here revolve around RR’s insane raiding mechanics.
Reforged Aid + Forgotten Fortune + ploy of choice: You can cast the same ploy THREE TIMES in one game through playing it, calling it back by Forgotten Fortune, calling Fortune back by Reforged Aid, and calling the ploy back again. It’s truly devious with Raider’s Premonition, A Step Ahead, and my personal favorite, Forbidden Knowledge for a triple lockdown.
Fortune Faded + Brighstone Vigour: A budget Great Strength can be acquired in these two cards. By playing the ping first, you can instantly heal the damage up through Brightstone Vigour allowing you a free +1 Damage!
Raider’s Rapture + Hoarder’s Hovel: It is possible to score Hoarder’s Hovel by making one Raptured attack into a 3+ bounty fighter allowing you to raid a whopping 6 times. This is basically free glory! While Rapture works with about half the RR stuff, I highlighted Hovel for its absolute trivialization and high reward.
Angered Focus + Emberstone Edge: Angered Focus is hopeless due to the card not actually counting towards most objectives. BUT, the Raids do count towards Emberstone Edge, allowing for a very funny 3 Hammer 1 Damage attack. Niche but a combo for sure!
Deadly Synergy
Lets see if the ‘synergy’ deck has got synergy between the cards!
Battering Ram + Outmuscle: Driving back an enemy has never been easier and now you can get rewarded for it with a solid 2 glory! Throw in Titan of Combat or Army of Two for the unity part guaranteed as well.
Battering Ram + Closed Down + Defiant Duo: This can be used guarantee Closed Down by first getting an automatic drive back, courtesy of Battering Ram, overrunning the token, then popping Defiant Duo for a Guard Token to secure the easy two glory.
Helping Hand + Out of Nowhere: Assuming the attack with a guaranteed success connects, then you get to instantly score Helping Hand for free!
Take One for the Team + Selfless Parry: Imagine you are getting a very important fighter attacked. First, you switch the target of the attack to a weak minion. Next, you set the minion’s save to the important guy’s save. Thus you are able to use the better save of the important fighter without actually risking the important fighter getting hit.
Brother-in-Arms + Coordinated Deathblow: Brother in Arms works for a lot of strong fighters but it also has epic in-deck synergy with Coordinated Deathblow being a 3 Damage attack, which can actually pose a significant threat. Shame on your opponent for assuming that the charged-out fighter is no longer going to be attacking!
Hunting Grounds
Despite being considered a not very good deck, it sure does have a lot of fun combo tools!
Audacious Denial + Crippling Blow: Well the number one combo of all time that inspired this whole article (series) is this epic two card combo. This can lockdown not one but TWO enemy fighters! Throw in Sidestep and you can guarantee an easy escape against any warband in the game.
Lead by Example + Audacious Denial: You can score Lead By Example with one attack from your leader by then playing Audacious Denial and making a second attack for a very easy two glory.
Mind Your Step + Pinned!: You can use Mind your Step to toss an enemy into neutral territory adjacent to an edge hex on your territory, allowing you to get an easy drive back to score a nice three glory.
Paths Unknown + Blocked!: The major downside of Blocked is that often times the fighter Blocking will be getting charged instead of someone else. With Paths Unknown it is possible to mitigate that downside very easily by simply making your Blocker disappear!
Hands Off/Usurped/Back Off! + Mind Your Step: A very simple combo where you push your enemy onto a feature token/into no man’s land and then drive them off. Not much more to say.
Hidden Aid + No Business Here: By playing Hidden Aid, No Business Here literally reads ‘make an attack against an enemy in your territory’. Think inverse Get Stuck In.
Audacious Denial + Hidden Traps: You can make a 2 Damage attack in a power step with Hidden Traps as the Grievous is not counted to the ‘1 Damage base’ as per the Brightstone Vigour FAQ. This also works nicely with Killing Blow!
Audacious Denial + Deny Invaders: You can amplify the Audacious Denial attack with Deny Invaders as the +1 dice persists for a whole turn!
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed these combos and it inspires you to give one of these decks a spin. We are currently working on the next article in this combo series where we will focus on inter-deck combos, so look out for that! With that, I hope you enjoyed, and hope to see you again soon! 🙂
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