TaKtiX: Laurence J Sinclair

Laurence J Sinclair has been playing the Warlord CCG since the release of the game - mainly thanks to that killer Rathe art. He even stuck with it through that dark time involving Campaign Rathe art. Now he is a playtester and a member of the Warlord Story Team - guiding the armies of the Accordlands into an uncertain future.

18.6.09

Deverenians?

Looking through my box, I see that I've currently got four 4E Deverenian decks assembled, more than any other individual faction. That alone must make them favourites to give up the selected deck for next week's UK Conquest event.

They're hogging quite a few good rares, as well.

COMMANDER KAITEN has been assembled using the prudent method of simply throwing in every rare Deverenian paladin I could find, and a stable-load of steeds to properly outfit them - nothing wrong with noble knights charging forwards on sharks as much as verdatha, says I.

Of course, there are also cleric tricks like Kor's Patience (I like to think of it as THE STORM'S patience) and Final Blessing, the By Your Word-lite Ardent and even a minor combo with Sir Edgard and Scimitar (more of a nombo, really).

A little testing last week did show that it chain together a healthy stream of attacks before taking the first action of a turn, but a starting line-up featuring Caleb the Shifter and Inquisitor Slayne may not be for the best. A little experimentation may be needed still.

The biggest point in this deck's favour is that the warlord wears an eyepatch, automatically making him cooler than Maxt Stormcrow on ice.

***

BRYMIN OF THE MARCHES suffers from having her bigger character options pre-poached by the two Deverenian cavalry decks, but that's really more of an opportunity for her to dip a toe in the shallower end of the character pool. That's right; Dev blitz!

With exceptions made for Mother Deiane and Cardinal Scelus (the church often wangles free passes denied to the gentry), everyone is here to run up and smash the enemy pretty quickly, allowing the duchess to do her thing - draw cards and take names. The simple joy of a Squire Arrigan switch-start is one that I've missed for too long, and the other Deverenians don't really have the room to accomodate her.

Of course, the ugly 4E art for Brymin has been replaced by a photoshop of her original I-can't-believe-William-o'Conner-painted-something-so-good portrait. Wouldn't feel right, otherwise.

***

INQUISITOR DMITIR is the other cavalry deck that I mentioned, looking similar to Commander Eye-patch's. Only difference being, the fighter got first dibs on paladins, leaving the Inquisition to make use of Mariah Blackthorn and a false claim that the deck is designed purposefully around level 3 characters.

Still, the deck balances fewer steeds with more healing, a much better Initiative bonus and the ability for the warlord tolive vicariously through his minions with Speed of the Falcon. The times where it manages to lose initiative and not get a heads-up on the terrible hands forthcoming would be a minor impediment, but any warlord that can 'take 10' on a die roll is OK by me. Unless it happened to be a dwarf.

***

YAVLO THE KINDLED has all my Incinerates. He denies them to my other wizard decks with feeble excuses about bonuses to Fire spells. It's kept him alive (sleeved and part of a deck) for the time being, but he'salso been aided by the fact that his character base is composed of wizards, whom my other Devs want nothing to do with. If it can't ride a Griffon, it's not worth playing.

To be fair, Yavlo is a fun deck to play, if nothing special. There areother blasty wizards (that I'll get to in later posts) that are just waiting for him to fall in favour so that they can pry the Incinerate scrolls from his finally cold and dead hands...

***

Of these four decks,I may be erring towards Kaiten, if only due to the thrillof the new and the promise of an eye-patch. Dmitir covers much the same ground, and Brymin's front-rank antics are too risky to reliably win. Yavlo is nothing terribly special over sorcerers of other factions.

Another minor prompt for me to play a Deverenian deck is the current malaise that has settled over the Temple of Lore, with the Dev players complaining about how they're the weakest faction. Not that I'm a good enough player to truly prove 'em wrong, but I'm tempted to give it a shot...

Next time, I'll take a deep breath and seriously consider Dwarfs. Eeg.

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