Michael: Hello-hello folks! Today we are back with some Dexamples! In case you aren’t familiar with that those are, we basically go over a given rivals deck (today being Nexus of Power) with EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE deck pairing! We provide a small deck guide for the deck built and then all you do is blatantly plagiarise the deck for some enjoyment 🙂
Today, all three members of the Staggerers team will be writing the article, with each of us taking decks we ‘specialise’ in. Nexus of Power is a flex-y hold-y aggro-y mastery-y deck, which fits all three of our playstyles pretty well, even despite not having pings OR staggers! With this short into out of the way, i’ll let Ben take it away with our first Dexample highlight Blazing Assault with the new Thanatek’s Tithe.
Hope you enjoy 🙂
Blazing Assault – Thatatek’s Tithe
Ben: Thanatek’s Tithe should actually be able to exploit this pairing, as the accuracy of Blazing Assault should help with getting those Cadaver tokens and Nexus of Power does some very fun things with the Mortis Reapers being able to smack enemy fighters with 3 hammers, 2 damage with cleave/ensnare from 2 range instead of 1.
The Surges are quite good, with almost all of them being attack surges, except for Claimed, which can be quite easy to score with treasures placed close to starting hexes, especially due to the revive making the fighter brought back Covetous. The end phases are a bit rough though, as Skin of Their Teeth is very difficult to score with Lone Wolves in hand and getting three different covetous fighters to attack in a battle round is certainly doable, especially with the leader being able to attack from mostly anywhere while covetous, it is still not very easy. Close the Vice is very good with Keep Choppin’, as it is the mandatory 2 glory Keep Choppin’ reprint with a downside and Fields of Blood is still easy, even though with no pings scoring it in R1 might be tricky.
The ploys are incredibly busted. Dig in allow for surprise rerolls in defence, something very valuable considering the Mortis Reapers immediately Stand Fast if any success was rolled while helping stay on or next to treasures. Pilferer is a limited push, but most of the hexes where the objectives require you to be (on or adjacent treasure tokens) are reachable by it, while Move at the Opening allows for two of the retainers to become more active immediately or getting multiple fighters covetous quickly. The supporting BA ploys are also valuable, especially Sidestep, as a better version of Pilferer, and Lure of Battle, allowing some cheeky plays by pushing fighters adjacent to a retainer and then hitting them with Thanatek.
Upgrade wise Blazing Assault shines through with powerful cards such as Keen Eye, Duellist, Great Strength etc.. However the three upgrades from NoP are very powerful, especially on the Mortis Reapers. I Like Those Odds gives a fighter +1 defence when on an odd token, which when put on the Mortis Reapers allows them to stand fast over 50% of the time, while Cautious Denial allows them to attack from 4 hexes away with 3 hammers and cleave/ensnare for 2 damage. Meanwhile Spiteful Defenders is just worse Great Strength, but having any of your fighters (other than your leader because for some reason his attacks can’t be buffed) deal three damage can be a big deal.
This deck pairing seems to be quite good with Thanatek, as the Mortis Reapers can take advantage of the defence and range found in Nexus of Power while Thanatek himself can stay in the back and still generate glory.
Pros:
- Many ways to push and keep fighters on or around objectives
- Guard token cards and I Like Those Odds to increase likelihood of rolling successes for Mortis Reapers
- Extra range from the Plot card is very good for the Mortis Reapers, helping them to charge onto objectives
Cons:
- Has a pretty low glory ceiling of 15 while upgrades cost a total of 14 glory
- Thanatek himself can’t use most of the accuracy ploys and upgrades, nor benefit from the Plot Card
- Retainers dying early is a major issue, as the uninspired stats of these fighters leave a lot to be desired
Emberstone Sentinels – The Starblood Stalkers
Ben: The hold warband currently legal is Starblood Stalkers, so pairing it with both of the hold decks is a no brainer.
The objectives are pretty good, especially the end phases. Skin of their Teeth goes with Iron Grasp and Supremacy for “Hold 2 tokens” end phases, which is very strong. Close the Vice and Audacity both reward you for playing a bit more aggressive with your extra range on your fighters, being very good while Klaq-Trok is still alive with his attack now having range 2. The Surges are fine, with Seized and Calculated Strike and Aggressive Defender rewarding aggressively charging onto tokens. Claimed is a bit inconsistent during later rounds, where having three fighters alive is not guaranteed, but very good early.
The ploys are very strong, with Pilferer being a Sidestep 98% of the time and Move at the Opening being able to put two fighters onto tokens in the first activation, giving you 4 powerful mobility cards with Confusion and Sidestep. Dig In and Into the Deepwoods both give the lizards more surviving power while standing on treasures. Organised Efforts is very cool with the Stalkers, as it can be used to teleport Klaq-Trok into attacking position, set up a ping with the leader or escaping a dangerous position with one of your 2 bounty fighters, leaving Tok to die instead.
The upgrades are pretty good, however this is mostly because the Emberstone upgrades are very powerful. Cautious Attitudes is very strong, as hitting with Klaq-Trok at range 4 for 3/4 hammers with cleave is very good, even if the damage is capped at 2. Spiteful Defender is situational grievous that is better with the range increase from the warscroll benefiting Xepic and Huatchi, however not being able to charge is a minor downside.
Pros:
- Many ways to get a R2 inspiration
- Almost every fighter in the warband benefits from the range increase
- Many ways to increase the survivability of the Skinks
Cons:
- The surges are a bit questionable, especially Unassailable and Stand Firm
- Lower Glory ceiling and mostly weaker upgrades than ES/PnP
- Needing to delve up the cover token round 1 makes them a bit easy to kill
Pillage & Plunder – Zarbag’s Gitz
Michael: The PnP merchants, Gitz are fine with Nexus but Nexus is VERY fine with Gitz!
In the objectives, we take a bit of both regarding delving and treasures. Surprisingly we don’t take Seized, which is a NoP staple. Instead, we take Claimed (cause it’s super easy) and Calculated Strike which is arguably easier due to the attack not needing to hit (Gitz tend to roll more crits than hit attacks from experience). The PnP stuff is the usual for Gitz. In the end phases, Close the Vice is very easy with Volley, but also easy with your high fighter counts. Skin of their Teeth is controversial cause most Gitz are dead or full health but with Snirk it’s possible to run through him to take a damage for an easy two glory! Once again, no eyebrows raised at the PnP end phases.
For the ploys, I would like to highlight the epic Crumbling Mine / Unearthed Treasure combo. It definitely has reasoning behind it – I just don’t want to provide it. Pilfer is a push, which is very strong. Move at the Opening has some CRAZY synergy with Scurry. You can move 3 gitz a turn with it! Defiance is an extra attack dice, which is always nice. While Guard doesn’t scale super well with the epic 1 Save die, Into the Deepwoods works very well with Zarbag himself and is fine with the rest of the ‘band. Finally, Dig In is a save reroll which as with Guard doesn’t scale tooo well but at least it works with Snirk.
In the upgrades, which Nexus is apparently infamous for, we start with Wily Prospector is very worth it with PnP which delves a lot of tokens. Cautious Attitude is devious on the stormcast-esque Squigs, making them a force to be reckoned with anywhere on the board. Mirror Shield is always nice to have in any warband, but especially one with low save. Overreach is mainly here for the epic 5 Range Volley. Finally, I Like Those Odds is very worth on a warband who peaks at 3 Save 2 Save 1 Save on most fighters.
Overall, while not benefiting. much from the covetous buff, the Gitz score PnP and Nexus like there’s no tomorrow, making them a great pair.
Strengths:
- Despite anti synergy in the decks, somehow this deck is one of the more synergetic ones.
- You have very nice tools to manipulate which side of tokens are face up, making playing into PnP very easy.
- Very early glory allows for very easy inspiration.
Weaknesses:
- Your fighters dying early could lead to some issues with bad card draw.
- No accuracy buffs outside of 1 +Dice ploy makes this deck not very good at attacking.
- More of an ‘early game’ than a ‘late game’ deck – can crumble if you don’t have a good Round 1.
Countdown to Cataclysm – Daggok’s Stab-ladz
Michael: I haven’t seen Daggok played in a while, despite seemingly being strong. Nexus is a perfect time to revisit them and what better deck to pair with then the ‘everything’ deck, CtC!
In the surges, we start off strong with Seized requiring us to hit an attack. Claimed is a little questionable with 4 fighters but isn’t too shabby in early game, and with your tankiness it’s very good. Calculated Strike is perfect for this warband’s high dice counts. In the end phases, Close the Vice is in a similar case to Claimed, but at least you can have a fighter attack and then die. Skin of their Teeth is pretty easy with your high health and medium fighter count. A note on Wreckers – it’s cuttable here, but with the amount of stabbing and pinging you do it should be scorable.
In the ploys, we take mostly CtC stuff (who’s surprised) but we can’t skip on Pilfer for another push to get us into stabbing range. Move at the Opening shares a similair use case. Into the Deepwoods is great on the 2 Save fighters, but also on Grakk. Finally, Dig In makes your 2 Shields guys technically go to 3 Shields, which is very strong! The CtC pings get a mention (of course) for being able to finish off your stabbed targets.
In the upgrades, we take Cautious Attitude mainly so Daggok can do a Range 3 3 Hammers 3 Damage attack. Which only does 2 damage. Mirror Shield is fantastic for people staying away from your stabs trying to shoot you. Driven By Pain is a weird pick but it does help a lot with people trying to push you away to stop your stabbing, you also have many hold cards. Finally, Starmaw is here just to give the warband some ranged capabilities which it sorely needs.
Not a bad deck!
Strengths:
- Pretty fluid objective package, requiring a couple fighters on tokens to score the whole thing.
- Insane damage output with a very strong Range through pings and covetous.
- Warscroll push, Nexus ploys, and CtC pushes allow for insane stab potential.
Weaknesses:
- Losing 2 fighters early locks you out of 3 glory permanently and hinders the rest of the deck.
- As usual, missing some early stabs can lead to an early warband death. Deck does nothing too help with this.
- Weird objective combos require both attacking but holding, which can be denied by some canny opponents and weird card draw.
Reckless Fury – Jaws of Itzl
Quint: Earlier this year I made an article about playing Jaws with Reckless Fury. My main pairing was RF/ES, but the problem was that you didn’t have enough range to consistently charge onto treasure tokens. Now that issue is fixed! You still have most of the tools that made RF/ES so good, with two out of the three no driveback cards (you only miss Brute Momentum). This means we can quite easily force objectives with Obstinate/Hold the Line/Into the Deepwoods!
Our objectives focus mostly on getting into enemy territory with a charge token. The plot card makes this easier, as well as Cautious Attitude being pretty nice. Since we want to be damaged for Savage Mauling anyway, Skin of their Teeth becomes pretty easy, as enemies won’t want to approach your damaged fighters (unless they have a charge token, so be careful!)
The ploys are a nice mix of tricks and efficient cards. Effects like Into the Deepwoods, Defiance and Hold the Line allow us to aggressively hold objectives, whilst cards like Move at the Opening, Braced or Reckless Attitudes give us the tools to get charged out and score the important objectives.
One of the best upgrades we have is Starmaw. The ability to get a charge off at range four is incredibly potent, especially late-game, when there aren’t as many fighters on the board. We have a lot of nice defensive and aggro boosts in I Like those Odds (Which also boosts the chance of triggering Predatory Fighters), Keen Eye and Mirrorshield, with some nice statfilling other upgrades.
Pros:
- Great upgrades and plot card that lend itself well to the Jaws’s stats.
- Great control pieces with Reckless, forcing your opponent into precarious positions.
- Simple and straightforward gameplan for you but difficulty for your opponents.
Cons:
- As with all Jaws Reckless decks, you have to make sure to get Headcase or Braced early, so you can actually get charged out.
- Though forcing, your objectives are pretty easy to deny by savvy opponents.
- Objectives that can force you into weird situations where you have to choose between charging and moving onto tokens.
- No real accuracy tools or ways to get real damage out.
Overall a great deck package, and a nice alternative to RF/ES. However, the deck has some clear weaknesses, as with all Reckless + Hold decks.
Wrack & Ruin – The Exiled Dead
Michael: When someone says ‘Wrack’, the first warband to come to mind is Exiled Dead for their insane synergy with the deck. Nexus would have been BUSTED for the warband if they got the Range buff from just being on the token. Unfortunately, they actually have to hold it. Shame. Still, not a bad pairing!
In the objectives, Seized is kind of easy cause your actually isn’t too bad when you factor in Stagger/supports. Break Out is literally ‘gain 1 glory’ with the unholy amount of fighters you have, and same exact thing with Claimed! (I definitely did not mix these two up btw). Since we can’t hold tokens, we have to play Audacity. Which isn’t a bad card but it is only one glory, so it’s inherently weird to play (for me). Close the Vice is quite easy when you can strike several times a turn with different fighters. Domination is also very easy, the main caveat is that you can’t delve the two tokens initially turned face down by your plot card, which I guess isn’t too bad except in a mirror match… Finally, since we can’t hold, how do we not play Lone Wolves? The 3 Wrack cards may raise some eyebrows but Exiled Dead score them very easily!
In the ploys, we only have 3 Nexus ploys – Pilfer, for a push (which ED love to setup a nice Danse), Move at the Opening for some epic Danse synergy (again), and Dig In, which gives us some nice rerolls, potentially even saving Deintalos. The reason we don’t play the guard ploy here is the only beneficiary is really Marcov and Deintalos inspired. In addition, the WnR stuff is just SO GOOD for Exiled. Plus, the save reroll is really helpful for saves anyway. Maybe i’m wrong, who knows!
Finally, for upgrades we play several NoP stuff. Cautious Attitude is fantastic when dansing as you don’t need to be holding the token – just be covetous! Mirror Shield is great as it prevents killing Deintalos from afar. Spiteful Defender usually is situational but in a warband that shouldn’t be charging it’s quite good. I Like Those Odds is a little quistionable in a warband that cannot hold, but I believe it’s cheap cost makes it valuable simply for Deintalos uninspired. Also, Regulus can use it too, should Deintalos inspire early. Finally, Starmaw is amazing for this warband due to Danse allowing you to use it from anywhere on the board!
With a decent objective package, strong ploy package, and an upgrade package that probably shouldn’t be talked about, WnR/Nexus Exiled Dead is more alive than the minions in the warband.
Strengths:
- Simple objectives, scored for ‘playing the game’.
- Extremely powerful ploy package allows for combo plays that snowball out of control.
- Several upgrades make Danse an incredibly potent attacking tool.
Weaknesses:
- Glory ceiling a little lower than hoped for for the amount of glory you bleed.
- Being unable to delve on 4/7 fighters makes turning the pre-game covers into treasures very difficult.
- Deintalos dying still punishes the warband, arguably more than in most deck pairings.
Edge of the Knife – Hexbane’s Hunters
Michael: Hexbane was recently buffed and he is quite strong with EotK, so why not try bring him to his Wintermaw glory days?
EotK has some strong surges, so I instead opted to run as usual Claimed (because 6 fighters make it easy) and Calculated Strike for some crit action, and finally some Seized because with your perma supports on the dogs it shouldn’t be too hard. The end phases see us run Close the Vice for making 3 different attacks, which is a little questionable as we do have the dogs make up a third of the warband. Audacity is here because it’s fairly simple to hit an attack in enemy territory. Finally, Lone Wolves is scorable off of a single move, so it’s obviously taken. It also has synergy with Calm Before the Storm, both hating adjacency.
I feel like I take the same 5 Nexus ploys in every deck but still, here goes: Pilfer is great cause it’s a push. Move at the Opening has a nice combo piece with the warband, where you can move a hunter, move a dog, Move at the Opening, move a hunter, and then move a dog again. FOUR MOVES? Even Zarbag is in shambles. Defiance is great cause we actually do need to hit and kill stuff to Temper. Into the Deepwoods is mainly for the dogs and Brydget, but works well on Pock too. Finally, Dig In is a nice surprise Save reroll and encourages deploying Pock next to a treasure early on.
The upgrades in EotK are very good, so we only have 3 Nexus upgrades. Cautious Attitude sounds very fun on Aemos, so we have it for him. Mirror Shield is very not shabby for a warband that can compete at range! Finally, I Like Those Odds is very strong for a warband who has 4 bounty concentrated behind 1 Shield each. At least make it 2 Shields and 1 Shield…
Some people (Spinnerite) have already claimed success with this deck pairing so it’s not purely theoretical, which I love to hear! It does still have some Edge weaknesses but should be a strong pairing for sure.
Strengths:
- Nexus allows for the mainly Range 1 warband to get much better range.
- With the dogs, it’s easy to do any positional stuff but also to undelve the two predelved tokens.
- Very smooth flowing objectives don’t require much effort to score – just focus on Trial as usual.
Weaknesses:
- No tools to alleviate the opponent outrunning your attempts to temper them.
- Most of Nexus’s defensives are situational and thus without proper positioning you are the most fragile warband in the game.
- No way to alleviate early rushes into your warband (no control tools).
Realmstone Raiders – Elathain’s Soulraid
Michael: I really enjoy Soulraid personally as some may know, and they are pretty strong with RR due to their native accuracy being insane. Their main issue is lack of Range 2 and guess what Nexus provides!
In the objectives, Seized is pretty simple due to your high accuracy. It also has good synergy with your three RR surges all requiring a hit. Next, Break Out is in here because we are planning on being a little aggressive, which means that this card becomes fairly easy. Finally, Calculated Strike is very simple and is also scorable at the same time as Critical Risk making it doubly appealing. In the end phases we see Close the Vice which is perfect for a warband with three-four main attackers. We have Skin of their Teeth mainly cause Furiann is very hard to one shot, making her perfect for the ‘damaged’ part. While Lone Wolves has anti-synergy with Hoarder’s Hovel AND Skin of their Teeth, I do think it’s worth taking cause you are only running 12 objectives, meaning you can keep some in between rounds. And it’s quite simple ignoring the anti-synergy!
The ploys see us take only 4 Emberstone Ploys which could be a little low but it’s fine. We than take the ‘Nexus 5’ which include Pilfer cause Pushes are good and Move at the Opening for the same reason. Organised Efforts is actually not a member of the Nexus 5, but it’s great for a ‘get out of jail’ card because you often will have a fish or crab on a treasure. Think of it as an Illusory Fighter clone! Defiance is for more dice, which means more raids, which means more glory. Into the Deepwoods is amazing in R2 when you inspire but just generally good especially on Furiann.
Next, in the upgrades, we have Cautious Attitude for the usual +2 Range. As a ‘nice bonus’, you don’t do 3 damage ever so you have no downside! Mirror Shield has Furiann on the card art so it’s an auto include. But it also does punish Ranged attackers. Spiteful Defender is here so we can do 3 Damage. We will be charging but maybe not as often as we would think. Finally, I Like Those Odds is here for some mandatory Save increase on Elathain and Tammael uninspired. Or Spinefin.
So, you can have fun stealing your opponent’s souls from Range 2 now while ALSO stealing their loot through Raiding!
Strengths:
- Very high native accuracy allows for fairly easy raids.
- Much needed range buffs are given through being covetous.
- High glory ceiling while also having consistent objective numbers and Raider’s Premonition means you can reliably score your whole deck for high glory.
Weaknesses:
- Some anti-synergy in objectives can lead to stalled moments.
- 4/6 surges need attacks.
- You don’t have nearly as many Emberstone cards as you would like for the 4 cards that require them.
Raging Slayers – Ironsoul’s Condemnors
Quint: We use Nexus of Power mostly for the plot card here, abusing the extra range to pull of some devious charges. It’s complemented by Raging Slayers. The new and improved (?) version lends itself extremely well to the Condemnors. You can basically guarantee an inspire on a charge with these guys now, and because of the change to making fighters Enraged, the objectives aren’t even that bad!
The objectives aren’t ideal, with some positional play, mostly requiring you to be in enemy territory whilst enraged and be around treasure tokens. Since we have Supreme Slayer, we have to preserve our leader and try and strike at the end of rounds, to finish off enemies and keep her safe. Since we have two kill surges, try and get the kill for Blinded by Rage with your leader. There is sadly no way to force enemies to charge for Unrelenting Massacre, but running straight at them and focussing on the fighters without any charge tokens should do the trick. If you manage to get a fighter onto a treasure token at the end of the round, they can camp there the entire next round using Bulwark against the Dark. Note that this doesn’t work if you have a rage token. We take Into the Fire since our leader is already so important. No Escape and Audacity round out our end phases, rewarding us for driving our opponents back into their territory and staying Covetous whilst doing so.
Most of the ploys focus on keeping our fighters alive and slaying. Honed reflexes, Dig In, Into the Deepwoods and What Pain? allow us to be reckless with our charges. Venting Strike, Defiance and Murderlust give us simple boosts to accuracy whilst both Pilfer and Slayer’s Aid give us some positional tools. Nothing special, just general strong effects here. The new way Raging Slayers works allow us to use cards that remove our Enraged tokens more effectively, since we can give the rage token back later.
Though they are expensive, the upgrades are very good. Agile and Mirror Shield give us some nice tools to keep our fighters alive, with Cautious Attitude and Murderous Instincts giving us a source of Grievous, and Haymaker allowing us to reach that important 4 damage threshold. Inviolate allows us to be more reckless with our charges onto objectives and also serves as a nice counter to Deadly Synergy. Starmaw once again allows us to get some devious charges off to get onto tokens with a rage token (Or just a charge token). Finally, Stubborn to the bone gives us an insane amount of staying power. Be careful that you don’t charge enraged onto a cover token, as you can’t delve them anymore! In general, try and get your aggro upgrades out first to get some kill bounty, then finishing the game out with strong defensive upgrades
Pros:
- Great stats and easy inspire
- Extra range and a lot of aggro tools.
- Great ploys that compliment your goals.
Cons:
- Difficult positional Objectives. Some of the objectives require certain gamestates that are made harder by the Rage tokens.
- Low glory ceiling unless you manage to score No Escape
- Lack of aggro upgrades. This deck has no real source of Grievous, with Haymaker being the only source of extra damage.
- Expensive upgrades. The deck sits at a total of 16 objective cost, whilst the glory ceiling is the same. This means that unless you get rolling with some kill-bounty early on, you might have a hard time getting upgrades on your fighters.
Deadly Synergy – Thorns of the Briar Queen
Michael: Thorns and DS is like a match made in heaven. Mainly cause everyone’s dead. Nexus gives Thorns some much needed Range buff as well, which is nice!
From the objectives, Break Out is pretty easy with your aggro teleports. Just tp next to tokens and easy glory. You can even get your second fighter in during the opponent’s turn, making counterplay impossible! Claimed is literally free in Rounds 1 and 2 for Thorn’s 7 fighters. And Calculated Strike, despite having 0 calculation behind it, is also very easy with your 3 dice. Tandem Assault is interchangable with Tag Team here, so keep that in mind if you dislike Kill Surges. Audacity is a glory bump and pairs very nicely with the aggro tps of the Thorns. Close the Vice is a bit of a stretch, but should be relatively simple, assuming you can still score the card after fighters die. Domination is also very easy as as stated previously, you have 7 fighters – odds are they will be in the right place at the right time! Finally, Lone Wolves is here cause if you carefully read the deck you don’t ever have to hold a token for anything other than Closed Down. And to be fair, the condition is SUPER easy if you don’t want to hold. The Deadly Synergy end phase package is pretty default. Closed Down is the hardest but still scorable!
Pilfer is a free Sidestep basically, and Thorns love pushes to setup Wave of Terror. Move at the Opening is great even without much holding stuff simply for setting up supports! Organized Efforts is here mainly for fun but also to save key fighters/get key fighters into good positions to inspire. Defiance is +dice, always nice. Guard scales very well with Thorns, being all on two dodge, and Into the Deepwoods provides just that. Finally, Dig In is great survivability tech! The main issue with the Nexus ploys is they all require you to be on treasures, but outside of Closed Down you don’t really need to be on them. In fact, Lone Wolves encourages the opposite. Still, the ploys are quite strong even with the restriction and suit the Thorn’s needs very well. As usual, the DS ploys are really what you’d expect.
Upgrades-wise, Nexus is a little weak but DS brings the punch here. Wily Prospector is here cause… why not. I’m not too sure what I was thinking with it. It does make some objectives easier early game but the glory cost is a little high. Cautious Attitudes has mixed opinions in the community, some saying it’s not good and some saying ‘restrict it on release’. For Thorns, it’s probably the latter, as the main issue with the ghosts is their low range (outside of their low health, which DS helps with). Mirror Shield is a card I love and while no Range attacks can kill the Thorns in one attack outside of Blackpowder, it doesn’t hurt to make them harder to hit! Spiteful Defender provides some much needed Grievous and with the tps it’s much easier to set up without a charge token. Finally, Starmaw is here for some extra Range because well, Range is nice. Also it’s accurate as heck!
Overall, Nexus helps alleviate the Ranged issues Thorns have while Deadly Synergy helps with their survivability issues.
Strengths:
- Makes the ghosts have a much higher threat range out of tps
- Despite being a hold deck, few positional requirements in objectives.
- Lots of mobility options makes United and Wave of Terror very easy to set up.
Weaknesses:
- Power cards care about treasure tokens but you aren’t rewarded glory-wise for being on them.
- No health buff makes a few unlucky rolls early on really bad, as the less fighters you have the harder everything becomes to score (unity wise and covetous wise).
- Unlike in EotK, there is no deterrence to attacking Queen and Varclav, making them more likely to die (again).
Hunting Grounds – The Grymwatch
Michael: As Quint and I discovered in our Delusional Debates, Grymwatch are very talented Hunting Grounders! Nexus also gives them some much needed Range.
Right, so the best part of Nexus is it’s insane surges (in this pairing). Seized is free, hit an attack into an enemy next to a token. Break Out is free, with your Raise making it even easier. It can only happen on your turn as well making the scoring condition fine. Claimed is free, you have 7 raisable fighters for easy covetion. Calculated Strike is free, being basically Critical Effort. To spotlight Home Advantage it’s quite easy with GWatch’s high save. The end phases are a little worse and glory ceiling is a little low, but oh well. Audacity is pretty easy if you plan on leaving your territory, which Grymwatch are fine with their raise. Close the Vice might be difficult but it’s nice to work for, I guess. The annoying part is being unable to Gristlewel attack 3 times. Domination is also pretty easy with your 7 fighters. Finally, Lone Wolves is a little difficult due to your many fighters but is easy for the same reasons!
For the ploys, I love Pilfer as an extra Sidestep which you can’t use for the duke to escape. Oh well. Move at the Opening is beyond busted and always nice to have, especially in a swarm. Defiance is always nice, who hates more dice? Into the Deepwoods is GREAT with the Grymwatch’s 2 Save and with their save reroll. Finally, Dig In makes the Grymwatch save even better with a surprise save buff.
Upgrades-wise, Nexus is fine but HG is very fine too. From Nexus, we only take Cautious Attitudes for RANGE THREE GRISTLEWEL CUE THE BOSS MUSIC!!! Mirror Shield is taken for the card art for the annoyance of your opponent trying to kill you from their territory. Spiteful Defender is REALLY good with your Raise removing charge tokens – a surprise one damage! Finally, Starmaw is necessary as Grymwatch have no Ranged attacks of their own. The HG stuff is fairly normal, but I do want to highlight the massive amounts of weapon upgrades increasing your accuracy from ‘low unless delusional’ to ‘very good’.
As usual, Nexus helps alleviate Range issues for GWatch without putting much a focus on hold, while HG gives some nice tools to help inspire but also to score stuff and kill.
Strengths:
- Raising makes invasion possible even in HG
- Nexus provides some much needed threat range to the warband
- Genuinely some of the best mobility in the game
Weaknesses:
- Low glory total makes passive or greedy decks a hard matchup
- Outside of weapon upgrades and 2 dice ploys accuracy is still pretty questionable.
- Nexus provides no tools for preventing a R1A1 wings of war + twist the knife into the duke.
Michael: Yeah, overall I find Nexus an interesting deck. It seems very fun to play, despite having literally the same 5 ploys played every single time. Personally, I love the tricksy shenanigans you can do with the ploys (and some upgrades!) and love the Spread Havoc-esque ease of some objectives – mainly Claimed – which just need fighters on the board to score.
Btw – if you enjoyed Dexamples feel free to check out the other articles in this series! Some of them are slightly outdated but who cares, most of them are still perfectly legal!
I hope you enjoyed the article! If you have any feedback for either of us or just want to chat about Nexus or Underworlds in general, feel free to join the Staggerers Discord server where we have an active community always discussing the next iteration of pacifist skaven and other craziness. With that, I hope to see you again soon 🙂
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