Michael: Hello! Today I will be doing a long awaited Thanatek’s Tithe deck guide, as they are the 2nd most OP warband in the game (Spiteclaw is naturally the first, being the greatest).
I took this deck to two tournaments and deemed no changes necessary except for hecking Careful Survey which was top deck every practice game and did it’s best to show up the moment I lost both Retainers in practice. But that’s spoiling the deck, so before I do that again let’s get right into it!
As usual, I will start by going over the cards.
Share the Load – This was very easy in most of my games as everyone knows, all I need is 2 fighters alive as they are quite hard to displace.
Hostile Takeover – Every time I showed this card people are like ‘ohhh cause of the dagger?’. Yeah, the dagger does help score it, but mainly it’s the Retainers actually scoring it due to their Range 2. Or Thanatek’s R3 Bolt as well. Improvised Attack is very clutch for this card, as it’s always a non-charge attack, so keep that in mind if you forget to track!
Careful Survey – This was the ‘pick your poison’ card, my choice was either this or Collateral Damage or Aggressive Claimant. Survey did the best in practice, but as I already spoiled it absolutely sucked in the tournament as I found myself wanting to sit in the back way more. You do have the bodies and move to score it, but if you want to switch a card, this is it.
Collateral Damage – This was much harder than usual to score, as my fighters are very tanky. Some games I lost it due to not actually losing a fighter till R3 and then having 4 Cata, making it unadvanceable. Despite all this it’s very consistent and Thanatek are one of the few warbands who can reliably meet the Underdog condition as well – I scored it 3 times via Underdog in my tourneys compared to 1 time in the past 3 months!
Shocking Assault – A ‘bad card’ which Thanatek make easy work off due to Elusive Mirages and the Retainer’s Two Shields. Wary Delver is super nice here, but so is Countecharge, Impossibly Quick, and Utter Conviction all for the Elusive Mirages Standfast. You have to not forget to deploy a middle token, I like to deploy it only once I see I can force it to be the only middle token. Shoutout to Lekkit for being the only player over my two tourneys to force two middle tokens – very well played!
The Perfect Cut – People hate this but with Sekhmor and Tukhar getting Ensnare and Cleave respectively I found this card trivial. It’s harder against people in Cover, obviously, but I was just ditching this card if I didn’t score it for too long. If you score it, perfect, if not, get rid of it!
Broken Prospects – Delve 3 times is very easy, delve once is even easier. In theory you can also score this with a double retainer push onto a token, however in practice it’s hard to pull off. Most of the time I was using a single Retainer push to get an ‘extra Sidestep’. One time I even had a moment where I could have Improv Attacked into a normal attack into Sidestep for a 2 hex push to reach the token I needed! All in all, just keep in mind how your possessor push can help score this.
Against the Odds – Delve an odd token. I genuinely don’t know what else to say.
Lost in the Depths – People say you have to be bunched together which just isn’t true, in fact, I love having spread my fighters out because then it’s impossible to focus them one at a time and then Necromantic Pulse and Cadaver generation and the interdimensional space dagger are all more effective.
Torn Landscape – Very easy, as with Broken Prospects, and it has superb synergy with the Stand Fast getting stronger while inside a cover hex. Overall, a great card! Just don’t score it if you hold no treasures and an opponent threatens Strip the Realm 🙂
Strip the Realm – Despite having no way to ‘force’ it outside of Violent Blast and Improv Attack I found that was enough. I was scoring this fairly consistently as the pressure my fighters put out was often enough to distract opponents from holding. Also it is very necessary to score if Thanatek does get dived, so make sure that a Thanatek dive is not possible if an opponent can also hold a treasure at the same time.
Spread Havoc – I love glory, and this card is very great for it. While a surge would be superb here I feel like the guaranteed two glory lets me play a lot safer in a lot of games.
Hounds of War – Despite my low damage I did take a lot of damage amp and pings so I very consistently scored this. In fact, one of the games I didn’t score it wasn’t due to no kills but due to not having a second damage guy! Overall very easy and consistent despite ‘low damage output’.
The general trend of the objectives is that it’s either a reliable two glory or very reliable one glory. As with most of my recent decks it’s the surges that suck, and I would love to be able to play some more. Some people may find my lack of Set Explosives concerning but I found playing three one glory cards to be WAYYY stronger. More details on this later!
Sidestep – Use this to get on tokens, get out of danger, get cadaver, or all of the above. Very flexible card as always!
Wary Delver – SUPER busted on the Mortis Reapers for their Stand Fast but insanely good in general, as all your warband is either two save or benefits from Elusive Mirages. Then there’s Thanatek. Use this card very aggresively as once it’s out odds are your opponents are not taking your fighter away from where they are – ideally a token.
Trapped Cache – This helps compensate my low damage. Also, if you can use this to get a kill, do it – even if it means losing a cadaver. Glory is more important than cadaver in about 90% of cases, so make sure to go for the kills with this even it means that you lose out on some inspires.
Savage Blow – Accuracy is a must-have and Savage Blow is one of the best accuracy cards out there (better than Determined Effort according to my good friends whudice.com and Ben). Use this very aggressively to generate cadaver, or to go in for a vital kill with a Mortis Reaper.
Total Collapse – A kill ping to help with damage. A cool use for this I found is another Strip the Realm forcer, as chances are opponents with a fighter on a treasure don’t worry about getting a second one on. Thus you can use this to kill their only holder! Also, you can use it kill your own guys (not Thanatek though) because some games like against RF or Realmstone Raiders it’s better to give them the one bounty than to let your opponent raid/charge.
Violent Blast – Very nice displacement, I didn’t actually use it on my opponent much but it helped a lot with getting onto tokens and out of danger. Being able to save multiple fighters with this is great! It’s also a pseudo Confusion if used properly as you can get an enemy off a token and yourself on!
Sunder the Realm – BEST PING OF ALL TIME EVER (except maybe Shardgale) THAT IS SO STRONG AND EPIC. Use this as a kill ping. There are also some crazy creative uses, for example in my game against Grymwatch I made all fighters vulnerable while shoving them into no man’s land and then Sunder the Realmed to prevent my opponent from Raising them. Did it work? No comment, but there was a vision, that’s for sure.
Raging Tremors – Once again, accuracy is huge for this warband and unlike Savage Blow this accuracy is round-long. Use this on key kill pieces, for early cadaver generation, or just on someone you plan on whittling throughout a round.
Counter-charge – Very good for cadaver generation but also for Elusive Mirages procs. It comboes very nicely with the 2 Shield retainers as well. Overall, one of the best cards in the game for the Tithe because of how it enables about 75% of your warscroll.
Improvised Attack – Another best card in the game for the Tithe – it gives you a kill ping, an accuracy buff, a cadaver generator (as you make an attack!), a possessor push (as you damage with an attack), and a Strip the Realm forcer. This card is genuinely about 7 cards rolled into one and all of the cards are good. Use this card to it’s maximum benefit – there are so many crazy things you can do with it and the warscroll that sometimes the best option isn’t to use it as a 1 Hammer-maybe-Deintalos-dies (but sometimes it is).
Swift Step – This card helps nicely with Cadaver generation as you can cadaver then push or the other way around. Obviously it also helps with getting on tokens. Use it as you will!
Canny Sapper – super strong, I like to put it on Thanatek to get him out of danger (sometimes the safest place is the Stagger in enemy territory btw) but also on an overextended Mortis Reaper or Retainer. I had a game where I used it aggressively as well to force Strip the Realm. And the combo you can do with Violent Blast to basically steal a token for yourself is very cool!
Impossibly Quick – Save is great for the Mortis Reapers and for Thanatek but for the 2 Shielders as well. Use it on whoever is dying. If Thanatek doesn’t have Utter Conviction already it’s very good on him, cause Thanatek dying is often a loss.
Gloryseeker – Damage is very nice. I like to give this to the Mortis Reaper who doesn’t have the necessary runemark for the game, as it keeps them accurate while making them a threat as well as the other Reaper. Keep in mind this DOES NOT affect Thanatek’s attacks!
Visions of Ruin – Shoutout to Grzegor for Worlds for teaching me how absolutely busted this card is. +1 move is great, +2 move is no joke, and +4 move = win. The amount of games I won cause I was impossible to catch up to or my assassin could reach the Crackmarrow hiding in a corner is genuinely uncountable, so don’t take this card unseriously.
Inescapable Grasp – As stated before accuracy is great and even though I did have Ensnare already this card never hurt to have! It basically let me have two threats against what I thought was my worst matchup , swarms.
Utter Conviction – Despite actually shutting down any uninspired fighter, as they lose their Crit Griev/Stagger, this card is single handedly the reason you play Cata. Even if the accuracy, pings, and Spread Havoc didn’t exist, you would still take it. Having this card on Thanatek, I literally never lost a game. You win con is Thanatek staying alive – the moment he is, you are winning! And Utter Conviction is by far the best way to do so. Heck, I even kept a 4 upgrade hand just cause it had Conviction in it. While I rarely aggressively mulligan for it, I would never switch a hand with it. TLDR: PUT THIS ON THANATEK.
Great Fortitude – Obviously it’s great on the Mortis Reapers but it’s super good on Thanatek too. Just use it on whoever is dying or important (Thanatek).
Hurled Weapon – Extra range is great, but I didn’t use this card a lot often times cause it was always the last card in my deck. In the games I had it I used it to great effect as it let me attack from tokens, triggering possessor and also managing to occasionally get cadaver/driveback.
Desperate Rage – In a warband with low damage, this card is epic. I won several games off of it connecting (and lost several due to the opposite) so it’s reallly good as a Hail Mary. It has potential to bring you back from the grave but try not to rely on it too much, as it isn’t the most accurate around. I love putting it on the assassin without the proper runemark for the matchup but it goes well on retainers too.
DECK OVERVIEW
The goal of this deck is to score stuff as much as possible without attacking as you might have guessed. You don’t want to interact with the opponent. The less you do the better.
The surges are not necessary to the core gameplan. I tried to make most of them very passive but seemingly failed. 4 of them are indeed very passive but if you keep messing up on Shocking Assault or Careful Survey just ditch them and carry on with your life, they do put your fighters in a risky position.
The rest of the end phases are all very smooth-flowing, and can be scored very easily by just moving, delving, and stabbing things when appropriate.
The ploys fit in many categories – accuracy, Save buffs, pushes/mobility, and most importantly, PINGS. They serve to help you be up in kill bounty – whether by getting more of it or denying your opponent chances to get it.
Finally, the upgrades come in two forms – Utter Conviction and everything else. The main purpose of the upgrades is also to maintain a kill glory advantage, in a similar manner to ploys.
With all this talk about kill bounty you might be very confused as to why I am not playing an aggro deck or something of that sort. Well, simply put, this deck very very very consistently pumps out 16 or so glory. My lowest scoring game were everything went wrong was still a solid 13 glory. Heck, getting tabled by mid round 2 I managed to score 14. 16 glory is the average of most decks, which makes kill bounty super important here. And what advantage do Thanatek’s have here? Well, they have one of the best bounty distributions in the game. I hate to reveal this secret, but if Thanatek dies, it’s GG, and if he doesn’t I win. The entire rest of the warband only gives up 4 glory which is something only Thanatek and Zikkit can do amongst 5 fighter bands. And Thanatek is considerably more tanky per fighter. This makes it very difficult for your opponent to efficiently extract bounty from you, so your goal is to capitalize off that!
A quick word on cadaver tokens. For the love of Nagash, please stop leaving people either alive, on a token, or adjacent to Thanatek because ‘it yields a cadaver’. You only really need 1 Cadaver each game to inspire Tukhar or Sekhmor depending on the matchup. Some warbands or decks do want more, for example Starblood Stalkers want 2 because of access to double dodge and shields. Edge of the Knife and Reckless Fury both want as much as possible because of the Raise.
Speaking of the Raise, let’s talk how important denial is! Since your deck is super flow-y, you can dedicate a lot of time to making your opponent’s deck flow like hardened cement. And Thanatek conveniently has the best denial tool in the game: Endless Duty (the raise). It makes about half the current 3 Glory objectives in the game unscorable. It shuts down WnR as an objective deck. Half fun playing RF into it. I like to dedicate my spare cadavers into saving dice up for the Raise to throw a very bony wrench into my opponent’s game plan, which often leads to some questionable plays which work well in the long term. Always think of how the Raise interacts with your opponents deck.
If you are playing into Mr. 2024 and his Emberwatch Blazing/Cata, then you don’t need the Raise for denial (it doesn’t deny Denial unfortunately). What do you use your 2nd and subsequent Cadavers for then? Well, as I like to say, it depends on the situation. A good use is always to inspire your second Reaper – +1 Dice and Damage is huge. Inspiring the Retainers is often weak but does have the niche of bumping them to 3 dmg with Gloryseeker. Inspiring Thanatek is a huge stretch and I never prioritise it. In my 20-30 games I literally inspired him once with cadaver ever as a joke (unrelated but it won me the game). He gains a TON so if you somehow find yourself floating in cadaver then sure, inspire Thanatek. My favorite ‘cadaver dump’ is Necromantic Pulse, as it’s a ping, which means more glory. Finally, just plain Raising without the intent of denial is always strong as well so look for opportunities to do so when you have a bajillion cadaver (3 cadaver).
I guess since I started talking about the warscroll then we can’t skip over the Interdimensional Space Dagger. It’s strong and helps score Hostile Takeover and it conveniently never misses, but my favorite use for it is to get an ‘extra action’ by charging with Thanatek onto a token rather than moving. That’s about as much as I have to say for it in this pairing, it’s not very crucial here despite being objectively the best ability.
Now for a fun one – Unwilling Donors. The intention here is to use it as a cadaver generator. But that’s boring, so instead we are using it as a ‘scuttle’ – or Elathain’s Push. What makes Elathain BA/PnP so strong? Tammael? Well you’re not wrong but I wanted you to say the crab and fish being pushable after every turn. With proper usage of possessor, you can get away with the same in Thanatek, and it’s very important to always watch for opportunities like this. It makes Torn Landscape and Broken Prospects absolutely trivial. Also allows for some funny Shocking Assault scoring. Finally, it’s just straight up a Sidestep with Improvised Attack. Overall, treat this ability as a SIDESTEP ONE STEP AHEAD – not just a ‘cadaver generator’.
And finally, Elusive Mirages. Most people think ‘just roll successes’ which is definitely the proper way to do this but I have some tips to maximize this. I’ve seen people (myself) play DS to make more symbols a success on defense but I think the person in question forgot that Cover Hexes also do the same, if not easier to access. And PnP loves cover hexes. Try to leverage going on Guard, Cover Hexes, supports, and all of the above to make your Elusive Mirages success rate 100%. Also make sure to throw a party every time it lands even if Mollog just bonked your vulnerable Tukhar with 3 damage.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot of niches that come with so much abilities and such an interesting stat spread but I don’t really know half of it myself and then the article will be about 2309230 words long which is quite a bit. The last thing I want to say is this warband is very good for conditioning but I haven’t quite figured this out myself yet, but the mind game opportunity is definitely there.
PASSED CARDS
Aggressive Claimant – “If your surges suck then why not play different ones?” I genuinely might try this out but I hate this card since the First Flames of Emberguard tourney and have PTSD. Still it could be a viable alternative to Careful Survey.
Delving For Wealth – “If your surges suck then why not play different ones?” CAUSE THEN I LOSE SPREAD HAVOC??? I love Spread Havoc as a card because it makes the game seem so much more winnable so I wouldn’t change a 1 glory bump over a 2 glory bump.
Commanding Stride – I see the vision here to protect Thanatek but to be honest it’s not getting him out of much in Round 1 when he is most vulnerable, as if an enemy dives you there isn’t much you can push away too.
Brash Scout – This is very nice for accuracy but the other accuracy ploys I already have are better despite my very consistent ability to be underdog.
Great Speed – If I need this card it means I misplayed positioning wise because I need both this and Visions of Ruin, which I like a lot more personally.
Tough Enough – This genuinely could be such a strong card but while it does help the Retainers and Reapers it doesn’t help Thanatek much, who is the main guy to protect.
Do or Die – Guys, if you have space, put this in – it’s insane on Thanatek. Unfortunately, I do not have aforementioned ‘Space’ except in place of Trapped Cache or something.
Growing Concerns – This is also very insane because it prevents early dives and I would love to fit it in but as stated it doesn’t help as well as the others, and it gets less useful as the game goes on.
Loaded for Bear – This is a very good flex card but I prefer Hounds of War personally. Still, it does work here so it’s a personal choice.
Wreckers – I would love to play this tbh but I found going the less risky route with this deck is better. Still, it’s probably first in if Broken Prospects or Torn Landscape get restricted.
Set Explosives – The main reason this deck works is cause I don’t have Set Explosives. Despite it being ‘good’ and Thantek being ‘good with it’, it’s a huge trap here as it forces you to dedicate so much fighters to positioning that you lose out on denial potential, cadaver generation, and kill pressure, on top of Torn Landscape glory.
IDEAL GAME
If you ask me for the best board, i’ll punch you and then show you this one after saying ‘it depends’ but you keep insisting for 4 minutes straight:
The reason this board is so strong is because of that one hex in the far right which is undivable unless your opponent is Emberwatch. I have lost one game on this board, coincidentally to Emberwatch, but that’s unrelated. It’s the best in a vacuum cause it’s hardest to lose Thanatek on this board.
Token placement is very important. I like to always have one ‘safe’ token for a Thanatek chare+interdimensional space dagger stab but you must put one in the middle for Shocking Assault. I like to do it at the very end to prevent an opponent putting a second (or Nagash forbid third) token there. Just make sure the token placement suits your style – if you prefer midboard play, place them there, but if you are like me and a scaredy-cat then put them near the back.
Fighter deployment – Thanatek is always as far away from danger as possible. On the board above this means he gets deployed first as it gives more time for the other fighters to be placed reactively. I like to deploy the others in units of two, a Retainer + Reaper. This doesn’t always work but a general rule is the Retainers should be on opposite ends of the board to prevent early killing of both of them. I like to put the matchup-better Reaper near the back, so he doesn’t die too early, while putting the matchup-worse Reaper closer to the front to draw blows. There is an argument for the inverse so you can Raise + Inspire the stronger Reaper but then again you can just guarantee an inspire too for one Cadaver.
My favorite starting hands DO NOT INCLUDE SPREAD HAVOC. It’s my only ‘auto-mulligan’ other than Strip the Realm which I sometimes keep, because it’s auto-score at any time. Broken Prospects or Torn Landscape are great to see early to get them out of the way. Obviously Surges are great to have, especially Careful Survey or Shocking Assault as those get harder with less fighters on the board.
Power cards wise, if you see Utter Conviction then do not mulligan. Like even if you have 5 upgrades. Otherwise, I don’t aggressively mulligan for it but I am more likely to do so when I see a hand without it. I like to get rid of Cata Ploys early on because they are stronger in the late game as well. Basically the mulligan is thinking more of the late game rather than the early game, which is a weird way to do so.
I won’t do the usual Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 thing cause it’s so card dependent but the general idea is:
Round 1 – get a cadaver, score some glory, set a nice foundation.
Round 2 – start capitalising off that foundation with an inspired Reaper + some kill pings and upgrades
Round 3 – Sunder the Realm + finish off stragglers with pings OR run like the wind cause Thanatek is last on the board but is 4 shields 7 move.
That’s actually it! Thanks a lot for reading, hope this was helpful and if not at least enjoyable to read. Ideally it’s both. I am by no means done with Thanatek, I really want to make CtC HG work for them but we’ll see how that goes. If you have any questions on Thanatek ever please do ask me on the Staggerers Discord server (or any discord in general but like the Staggerers one is very cool and has nice people). With that, thanks a lot for reading, and I hope to see you again soon! 🙂
Staggerers - A Warhammer Underworlds Blog 