High Elf Unitless in Warhammer. Better than you think.

Just some random musings this morning. I read the Warhammer forums daily, several times a day, and can't believe that people still think the Unitless deck is overrated or bad or whatever they think of it. First, let me tell you a few things about the deck that you probably already know but tend to store in the back of your head hoping that it's not true:

First, the deck is INCREDIBLY hard to play correctly. I would NOT recommend this deck to anyone who doesn't understand card game math or players who don't plan ahead several turns. If you like to play guys into the battle field and attack, this is NOT the deck for you.

Every single turn of every single game is a grind. You have to know what to play and where to place it at all times. If you make a single mistake, you open yourself up to certain death. I think it's for that reason that players think the deck is overrated.

Well, it isn't.

Second, the deck beats aggro decks. You can build the fastest Orc deck in the entire world and yes you can still lose to the slowest deck in the entire world. As soon as your BT opponent casts a Reap What Is Sown, you've lost the game (unless they draw 5-6 absolute blanks).

I played a game recently where my opponent had double scout by turn 3 and I still won. Multiple times. If you happen to draw a Reap and draw into Flames of the Phoenix and a Fog effect or something it's very difficult to lose the game.

All that said, the deck is an absolute grind fest. The only thing keeping me from playing the deck at worlds is because of the mental capacity required round after round after round. If worlds were tomorrow, I'd probably play Empire. I don't know what it is but I pretty much always have Will + Judgement to destroy 2/3 of my opponents board. I also pretty much always have Runefung of Solland w/ Peasant Militia. The deck is very good vs aggro decks and can actually beat the BT decks if you can Will them early enough to make Judgement crush them. Runefung goes a long way in doing that as you can cast a free Judgement early enough for it to matter.

So here's my testing results from the past weekend:

Dwarves (Clamatius' version) vs. Orc/Skaven (Standard list)

- Dwarves hung with them pretty good. The matchup is fairly even but when the Orcs go first they have a significant advantage. Being able to take turn 1 and play an Alliance and Contested Village instead of dudes is pretty huge. On the draw, the Orc deck would usually not have the luxury of building up their non-battlefield areas because the Dwarf deck would just turtle up and make it near impossible to do any real damage. It's amazing how much the tables turn just based on who goes first.

Lobber Crew is very, very good in this matchup assuming your opponent misses Defender of the Hold turn 1. If the Dwarf player plays Defender + Cannon Crew turn 1, you're in for a world of trouble. Ranger + Grudge Thrower is also VERY annoying in this match.

Overall, like I said, it was even. I think Dwarves won about 1o games to the Orcs 12 or so.

Bolt Thrower (Clamatius') vs. Orcs

- Not. Even. Close. Orcs won the first two games as I was trying to figure out how to play the deck properly. After that, none of the games were remotely close. I think one game he burned one section and had 6 damage on a 2nd before I was able to get double Keystone Forge out and Fogged for 2-3 turns in a row to eventually full heal that section back to 0 damage. That's what happens a lot of the time; you get a Forge or 2 out and Fog enough to heal a TON of damage. The matchup truly is a joke if you know what you're doing and assuming they don't draw Triple Spider Riders into Innovation + double Clan Master's Elite.

Yes. That happened one game. And no, there's no heroic story about how I won that game because I got my face punched in.

Overall, Bolt Thrower won 11, Orcs won 4.

That's all I have to say for now. Playing more again Tuesday so I'll have more then.

- SF