|
7 months ago ::
Nov 23, 2012 - 2:17PM
#11
|
Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2012
|
I have finally made a warband with the faction sets that I have and I have used order cards and creatures from each box.
Commander
Delthrin Everet
His ability: Gain 1 leadership for each enemy creature destroyed during your turn.
Creatures
Undead: Vampire Stalker, Skeletal Lancer, Hypnotic Spirit, Skeletal Tomb Guardian, Warrior Skeleton
Goblins: Horned Devil, Goblin Wolf Rider, Bugbear Berserker, Goblin Champion, Hobgoblin Soldier
Lolth: Shadow Mastiff
Cormyr: Elf Archer
Order Cards
Undead: Magic Short Sword, Defensive Advantage 2, Unbreakable 2, Call to Battle, Hypnotic Gaze, Warning Shout 2, Regenerate, and Terrifying Revelation
Goblins: Acrobatics 2, Loping Stride 2, Feral Vitality, Undaunted Surge 2, Death Sentence 2, Strength in Numbers 2, and Mortal Wound
Lolth: Piercing Strike 2, Quick Jab 2, Fire Trap, Parry 2, and Near Miss 2
Cormyr: Healing Potion, and Into the Fray
Strategy Options
Call to Battle is potentially the worst choice of the order cards since it requires a magic circle to operate optimally and none of my other order cards or creatures make any use of magic circles. If I were to substitute the Hobgoblin Sorcerer for the Hypnotic Spirit then perhaps this could be resolved. Otherwise perhaps Call to Battle should be replaced by Portal Stone or Saving Throw.
Inspiration
The vampire is an amazing character and I wanted to include some of each faction in my set.
Ability Restriction on the Order Cards
Dexterity: 13
Constititution: 10
Charisma: 10
Any: 3
Abilities of the Creatures
Dexterity: 6
Constitution:7
Charisma: 5
Weaknesses of the Order Cards
I only have seven cards out of thirty-six that give me extra mobility. Ony one card, Into the Fray, gives one of my pieces an extra move as a minor action. Hypnotic Gaze, which I have two of, allows me to move one enemy three squares. Acrobatics and Loping Stride are the main order cards I am counting on to increase my mobility. Having two of each, I should be able to use them on either my bugbear or vampire who I hope will become tough, mobile killers.
Main Plan
I have inclueded a lot of attach cards that ought to enhance either my bugbear or my vampire. In total I have nine; they make up 25% of my deck. In addition to the four mobility cards I mentioned in the paragraph above I have three that will enhance my attacks and two that will help my characters survive. The offensive cards are magic short sword, which requires creatures to absorb the melee damage they are dealt, and undaunted surge, which adds ten melee damage to the creature it is attacked to. These work particularly well with the bugbear since whenever an adjacent creature is destroyed he is untapped. The vampire's slightly less awesome ability is the that he gains ten health every time he does melee damage to an opponent. The two defense oriented cards are tough as nails and regenerate. I only have one of each though so I cannot count on gaining them during a game. Conceptually, either the vampire or the bugbear can be come very impressive creatures as I add attach more and more order cards to them. I have another attach card not mentioned as part of the 25% since it dosesn't work on the bugbear. Although I did mention Call to Battle earlier. Unfortunately Call to Battle isn't a great card to play on a creature that already has a lot of order cards attached.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 1:08AM
#12
|
Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2003
|
My current deck that has been treating me very well (background info being that I own two of every set, no more, no less):
Commander
Delthrin Everet
Creatures (12)
Warrior Skeleton x4
Skeletal Tomb Guardian x2
Disciple of Kyuss x2
Lich Necromancer x2
Dracolich x2
Orders (32, because I can't decide which 2 to ditch):
Patch Up x3
Hulking Attack x4
Defensive Advantage x4
Reckless Attack x2
Feral Vitality x2
Warning Shout x3
Death Sentence x3
Unending Horde x2
Arcane Ritual x2
Fireball x2
Vampiric Touch x2
Gout of Fire x3
Lich Necromancer is by far the preferred card for opening hand, preferably along with a skeleton bodyguard. Failing that a Dracolich will do. Once you get a few kills in the Leadership bonus for commander kicks in and that's why this deck consists of higher average level than most decks I've played so far (if not all). I might have problems against a very defensive enemy like a turtle adventurer deck (haven't faced that with this deck yet). A couple of Strength in Numbers might help. These are wonderful if you draw them in opening hand, but completely useless further on in the game. Just about every card is more useful being drawn in the end game than Strength in Numbers so I left them out (for now, if I feel I am consistently struggling with Leadership in early game I might still add them).
As for the rest of the Order deck, it's a healthy mix of Con and Int/Cha. Half the deck consists of Con Orders that will protect my 6 skeletons or help them hit harder (with added advantages of drawing cards or gaining morale). The other half of the deck consists of Cha and Int cards that are all usable by my 6 Int/Cha ranged creatures. Basically my Int/Cha creatures lead from the back and aid the Skeletons (Unending Horde, Death Sentence, Warning Shout) while occasionaly laying down some fire themselves (Gout of Fire, Fireball). Vampiric Touch is there to make sure that my Leaders survice direct contact with enemies a bit longer, should any get to them.
Let me know what you think...
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 11:49AM
#13
|
Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
|
I will suppose that some of your card choices are due to being limited to 2x of them. IMO you will likely find Death Sentence to be a bit underwhelming in this warband due to the lack of heavy hitters on your frontline, so I'd cut those and add 1x copy of something else. Patch Up, Warning Shout or Gout of Fire are all excellent choices. An extra Gout of Fire would be a good idea. IIRC Death Sentence is melee, which means Gout of Fire is +30 damage but Death Sentence will at most be worth +20, even if you were to use it on a Dracolich. It's the sort of card you want to use on a Feral Troll, Bugbear or Horned Devil (maybe a Goblin Champion with Flanking active), not level 1s or 2s.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 12:45PM
#14
|
Date Joined:
Jun 20, 2003
|
I will suppose that some of your card choices are due to being limited to 2x of them. IMO you will likely find Death Sentence to be a bit underwhelming in this warband due to the lack of heavy hitters on your frontline, so I'd cut those and add 1x copy of something else. Patch Up, Warning Shout or Gout of Fire are all excellent choices. An extra Gout of Fire would be a good idea. IIRC Death Sentence is melee, which means Gout of Fire is +30 damage but Death Sentence will at most be worth +20, even if you were to use it on a Dracolich. It's the sort of card you want to use on a Feral Troll, Bugbear or Horned Devil (maybe a Goblin Champion with Flanking active), not level 1s or 2s.
You forget that the Skeletal Tomb Guardian has a very nice side effect when adjacent to multiple enemies (which you would first maneuver him into before using Death Sentence of course). Also, the nice thing about Death Sentence is that you can either draw out Immediates and follow up with the extra damage cards which then go through unopposed or do it the other way around (granted, without the extra damage). Gout of Fire, while being very good (there's a reason I've included 3) is one attack, which can be prevented. I'd rather have a little versatility and keep it in there.
I will admit that Death Sentence was already on the list of cards to go if I decide I need others, like Strength in Numbers if I feel I need them, or maybe Call to Battle.....or more Reckless Attack, or Tough as Nails or Faerie Fire, or Web...there are tons of cards which could be good. The difficulty with Deck Building isn't what to put in, but what to leave out 
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 8:55PM
#15
|
Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2012
|
An extra Gout of Fire would be a good idea.
"Gout of Fire: Level 3 INT, Standard - Requires Ranged, Make a ranged attack that deals Weapon + 20 damage" Maybe one of us is mistaken about the effects of Gout of Fire. But unless this order card can used in conjunction with the Dracolich's special ability, I think Gout of Fire is lacking a niche.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 25, 2012 - 10:29PM
#16
|
Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2010
|
Why am I seeing so many decks running Delthrin Everet? Does everyone else play in a metagame full of level 1 dudes? You have to kill 4 enemy creatures (with only 3 starting orders!) before he has a single stat better than Kalteros, at which point the game should be almost over. What gives?
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 8:47AM
#17
|
Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2012
|
I have only played with Delthrin Everet twice. During the first battle I didn't destroy enough creatures to make him effective. Although the second battle went a lot better. Maybe you are right. I might be over estimating him. Probably the reason people are likely to build with him right now is because he is the only new commander that is useful to living warbands (as opposed to undead warbands).
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 8:57AM
#18
|
Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2002
|
Why am I seeing so many decks running Delthrin Everet? Does everyone else play in a metagame full of level 1 dudes? You have to kill 4 enemy creatures (with only 3 starting orders!) before he has a single stat better than Kalteros, at which point the game should be almost over. What gives?
Delthrin Everet heavily incentivizes your opponent to cower, and every time your opponent cowers instead of taking damage or just letting his creature finally die, you're winning a bit more. That's also why I hate 'cannot prevent damage' cards... cowering is damage prevention so Magic Shortsword and such does not give your opponent the rope to hang himself with.
The fact he's also stellar against what was the best warband before Curse came out (Goblin swarm) is gravy.
However, since it appears I'm the only player locally who realized the power of swarm and everyone is now packing 3 Fireballs and extra stuff just to deal with me, I'm switching over to the other Undead commander.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 9:48AM
#19
|
Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2010
|
I mean, I guess he's good against people who haven't done the math and so are terrified of letting you get more leadership, but you start so far behind I'm confident the correct play is to ignore the trigger and play as usual. Cowering is a fair point I guess but I'm also pretty sure if I'm playing against people who are super cower happy I'm going to win regardless so I'd rather play a leader that does something against people who know what they're doing.
|
|
|
|
7 months ago ::
Nov 26, 2012 - 10:07AM
#20
|
Date Joined:
Oct 26, 2012
|
It seems to me that the danger of playing Delthrin Everet is mostly that your opponent will only bring out his high level characters. And you will be left only killing a few of them before the game ends. However, it is the low level characters that are most effective. Perhaps the point of this commander is to incentivize higher level creatures.
|
|
|
