Warstorm Factions

8/3/2019 Warstorm Factions

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Humans(by WayMaker)An often time underrated faction, the Humans have many good cards that many people either

forget about or dont know about. All players have this faction from novice packs when they firstjoin the game, so like the elves, many forget they are not just a race for newer players. We willtake a look at what makes the Humans so interesting to use.

Overview

Humans are very interesting due to their variety of abilities making them balanced in bothoffensive and defensive. They are usually considered one of the worst races when countering

flying due to their lack of archery units in the past. With the introduction of the Pegasus Rider,however, humans are starting to become a more formable opponent in the air. One of main

noticeable advantage humans are known for are their cavalry because all players have access tothem via novice packs. While they have no archers, they are by far one of the best anti-archer

factions, making them a very good counter to elves because if their large number of archers. Thesecond thing they are known for is the icebolt of theirWhite Drakes and White Dragons which

can essentially zap a unit with a chance to stop it from attacking for a turn. Their combination ofboth straightforward attack with their cavalry units and a few decent flying units allow them to

make a very solid stand on the battlefield against many different opponents and allows theHumans to be especially effective against archers because of the many trample units they have.

Primary Units Part 1


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Heavy Calvary and Aanglor Knight: With the useful block and trample abilities, both cavalry

units are able to counter most 2 attack archers with ease. The Aanglor knights main advantageover the Heavy Calvary is its better speed with the cost of 1 attack point. If you have the older

version of this Knight which comes in tier 5 forms in basic packs and T6 in core packs, you gainan extra 4 speed over the Heavy Calvary which is sometimes very worthwhile. In novice,

however, the aanglor knight tier 5 has only 2 less speed then then it, making the Heavy Calvaryan overall more effective choice. At 3 attack, the Heavy calvary can take down in archer unit,

except for the CHG, in one hit. When it comes to the Captured Hill Giant, you can take it downin 2 hits as long as you hit first. By using a combination of healing and calvary in your deck, you

can keep your knights long enough to take down even a CHG without too much trouble.

Basic Aanglor Knight: Novice Aanglor Knight:

Aanglor Squire: Many times in battle, the difference between winning or losing is based on howfast you can get on the field. The aanglor squire is the fastest rush unit in the game with a 2 turn

wait time (at tier 5), 1 attack, 3 health, and 2 rush. While it is a fairly fragile unit on its own,when used in combination with stronger units, it can help bring the big guns onto the field

quicker, allowing you to overwhelm your opponent in some situations. While its a unit notconsidered good enough on its own, it is an excellent support unit to any human squad when you

need a little extra speed. Since it can arrive on the field much quicker then slower units, it canoften times rush your units many times before it gets destroyed.

White Drake/Dragon: In a similar way as the Heavy Calvary and Aanglor knights, the white

drake (with 1 attack/3 health) and white dragon (1 attack/5 health) serve similar purposes in adeck and just have different stats allowing them to be useful in different situations. Both units

have the icebolt ability; the drake does 1 damage with it while the dragon does 2. The advantageto using the white drake over the dragon is a matter of speed. Since icebolt has a 50% chance to


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trap a unit, you can get a couple drakes on the field 4 turns faster then you can get the dragonsout. This can be useful when trying to overwhelm your opponent by stopping them from

attacking. In some situations waiting for a White Dragon allows your enemy to get enough anti-air units on the field to be able to hold up against it. The extra health and extra 1 attack, however,

still can make a white dragon well worth the extra time.

Horsebarn: Even though the Humans already have a good fast rush unit, they got a second goodrush unit in the mercenary expansion. Horsebarn does rush 4 cavalry making it a very useful

cavalry rush unit. Unfortunately it has no attack and has only 4 health, but the tier 6 version getson the field in 4 turns and when you are able to use rush 4 multiple times before it dies, the

benefits far outweigh its problem.


Pegasus Rider: This is perhaps one of the most interesting flying units in the game. Instead ofbeing a typical beast or dragon, this is actually a cavalry unit, allowing it to be used in

combination with other cavalry. Additional, it has the trample ability along with 2 attack, 6health, and a wait time of 8 when Tier 6. This trample ability, average attack, and high health

make this best unit at directly taking on archers. Even if it lands on the field second, it is able totake down any 4 health archer in one hit, often times allowing itself to move on in battle against

ground units giving you a big advantage. The biggest weakness to this unit is the 5 health orcarcher and the Captured Hill Giant because both can often times outlast it.

Arlen Silver Knight: Even though its a hero, the Silver Knight is the best anti archer card in the

game period. Its the one of only 2 cards with trample that has 3 attack by default. With 3 attack,8 health, a 10 wait time, trample AND command 1 for all cavalry units, it can be used for many

different kinds of decks. These stats make it even better then the Heavy Cavalry, the other 3attack trample unit. The most obvious thing to do with this unit is to make a deck with many

cavalry any it. Since the humans have a large number of them, its not that difficult to come up

with a number of cavalry units to go along with it. The other good use for this card is supportivetrampler in a non cavalry deck. Even when not taking advantage of its command 1 cavalryability, it is still the best trampling card.

Lord Darius: The secret to this unit is its spearhead ability; this it to gain +1 attack for every

other unit on the field. It already has a base attack of 2, so once you get a few units out, its veryeasy to get its offensive attack very high. At 8 turns, its a medium speed unit, so when used in


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combination with quicker units, you can make sure it almost never arrives on the field first,usually guaranteeing it will get an attack boost from its ability.

Cirrusaliosa: Known as Cirr because no one ever knows how to spell its name correctly, this

card is nearly as effective as a Human Mati in its tier 7 form, but is just as good because it is 8

turns faster. Cirr has 1 attack, 6 health, and 3 icebolt making it a fairly long lasting and very goodsupport card. The icebolt 3 takes a considerable chuck out of any units health. While somepeople prefer the extra 1 attack, 1 icebolt, and 2 health of the Human Mati, the 8 less turns gives

you a much greater chance to get one on the playing field with too much of a stat deduction incomparison.

Paladin of Light: This card has fairly solid stats with 6 speed, 2 attack, 4 health and block. In

pure human decks, this card is not as effective as an Aanglor Knight because it has essentiallythe same stats, but no trample. If you take advantage of its elf ally ability by builing a human/elf

deck, this unit gets 2 heal when an elf unit is on the field. When you add heal 2 with the otherstats, that makes this card a very solid support healer.

Spells and Artifacts

The Mithril Shield is often times forgotten about because its a human only artifact, the Mithril

Shield can make a unit a very tough physical defender. Adding 2 block to any unit it lands on, itespecially effective against direct attack units. Most cards have either 1-2 base attack power,

with few having 3, meaning if your card is equipped with this, the enemies only effective way toget past use is by using indirect zapping attacks that can get around the block.

Harry isAnother good but overlooked card. It does harass 2 to all of your enemy units causing

them all to take 2 turns longer to get onto the field. While this may seem small, when yourenemy has 4 or 5 cards in their waiting area, the damage done is suddenly multiplied many

times. Also Ball Lightning is a good offensive spell. It does zap 3 with reanimate, so it might

keep coming back on the field zapping your enemy many times in a row for 3 damage.

Strategy

To do well with humans, you need to take advantage of their strengths like trample, block, flyingand use them in combination with each other. The higher health and blocker units along with the

indirect attack abilities of the Human icebolt and zap attackers allows you to mix and match


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many different ways to make an effect deck. Also taking advantage of the command ability neverhurts when you have a Silver Knight, so make sure to keep all of your cards special abilities in

mind when trying to make combos.

One very important thing is to never over rely on the icebolt ofWhite Drakes and White

Dragons. While some players like to use many icebolt cards in one deck, theres always a luckfactor because they only have a 50% chance of freezing. Yes you may get a lot of luck hits andfreeze 5 cards in a row, but in other matches youll freeze very few cards making your icebolt

affect worthless. Icebolt does less damage overall then cards with zap abilities, so make sure toconsider the pros and cons of using icebolt instead of zap.

Deck Ideas

1. Flying Cavalry Command: By using Pegasus Riders, Silver Knights, and Horsebarns, you

are able to get both types of units on the field very quickly, allowing for you to have high attackflying calvary units which can easily mow down ground units that cant hit them. The high

health of the Pegasus Riders high makes for a very high survivability. If you include a healingartifact, like a cask, then you sometimes can get one to land on a horse barn. When your

Horsebarn heals itself, its able to do rush 4 sometimes 4+ times in a battle.

2. Regular Cavalry Command: Unlike the previous mentioned cavalry command deck, this onefocuses more on quick offense instead of taking advantage of the flying ability. Like before use

the Silver Knight for the hero, but this time use Aanglor Knights (basic/core, use Heavycalvary if you have novice ones), Aanglor Squires, and 1-2 White Drakes to help support the

rest of the units.

3. Speedy Spearhead: The goal of this deck is simple. Get as many units on the field beforeyourLord Darius gets out so it can have an insanely high attack. Ive seen this accomplished a

number of ways, but the most humorous is using all Aanglor Squires. Since they have rush 2,

they can quickly rush Lord Darius and each other onto the field, allowing him to start dealingvery high damage. Sometimes adding a Aanglor Legionnaire can help increase offensive powerwithout decreasing speed by too much. While this deck does not always win, it is fun to watch it

in action.

4. Anti-Spam: While I personally dont use spam (or recommend it), Cultists of Kulnar are a

very effective anti spam unit. They have 2 attack, 1 health, 0 speed (at tier 5), and 2 retaliate.


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What this means is that if it laid on the field after an enemy cultist, it will destroy the cultist, thenanother enemy cultist will appear and attack it, causing it to die but also killing a 2nd cultist.

Conclusion

While not always the most effective faction on its own, overall the Humans have one of the bestbalances of different types of units other then archers. Also, no other faction can match their anti-archer abilities especially when using cavalry command. Always keep in mind the strengths and

weakness of all cards plus their abilities. If youre not paying attention, its easy to make anineffective deck when you mismatch abilities, but by adding in a little brainpower, youll have

no trouble at all getting the hang of them. They may not have the best reputation as a faction, butwhen used correctly, they are able to out do many other types of cards. Never underestimate the

power of Human faction cards.

Elves(by Elrohir)All Warstorm players are familiar with the Elven faction since it is one of the two factions

initially available to players just beginning the game. As such, all players are likelyaware that theElves possess the greatest mastery of magic of any faction in Warstorm, just as all players should

be qually aware that Elven units are the quickest to die on the battlefield. The Elven faction,though, can be a deadly opponent and a powerful ally. Lets see how.

Overview


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Well start the analysis of the Elven faction by examining their biggest liability their smallhealth numbers. The Elven faction possesses no big tank units like the Orc and Demon factions.

The highest health of any non-dragon Elven hero is 6 (Aradaan Silverhair, Gwyn theLightbringer, andLysandri Axecaster), and the highest health of any Elven unit (besides

Treehold) is likewise 6 (Aanden Horsebow,Aanden Maceman, Green Dragon, and Shield

Rider). Compare that to the other factions (Matis excluded): Human (5 heroes with 8, 3 unitswith 6); Orc (12 heroes with 8, 1 unit with 10, 3 units with 8); Undead (1 hero with 8, 10 heroeswith 6, and 5 units and 4 barriers with 6); and Demons (6 heroes with 6, 2 units with 8 and 2

units with 6). Understanding that the Elves will die rather quickly on the battlefield means thatslugging it out with the enemy is not going to be a winning strategy!

The Elves as a faction also lack one of the major Warstorm abilities: flying. Except for the

Elven Mati, no Elven heroes or units fly! Likewise, no Elven units have animate, flaming, drain,or deathbolt

While the Elves can be called fragile they do have abilities that make them desireable and fun

to play. The Elven faction is characterized by speed, archery, magic, poison, and healing.Secondary abilities include sap and demoralize mixed in with some trapping, trampling, and

frenzying. Lets look at the primary abilities. Speed: As a whole, the Elven units and heroestend to have slightly lower ready times than other factions. Archery: The Elves have eight

different units with Archery, as well as two of the heroes. Magic: The Elves have one hero withZap, one hero with Blast, and one hero with Reclaim. They also have six units with zap, one

with Blast, and one with Icebolt. Poison: Three Elven heroes have poison, including the mostdeadly poison effect in the game held by the Elf Mati, Poison All 3. Six of the Elven units have

the poison ability. Healing: One hero (in two incarnations) has the heal ability while anotherhas regenerate. Five Elven units have the heal ability while five units have the regenerate ability.


Light Priestess Enyi/ Enyi on the Brink: One of the more familiar heroes since everyone willuse her during their early Warstorm days. Enyis powerful heal ability equals that of the Cask ofCelebration (Light Priestess)/Diadem of Light (on the Brink).

Gwyn Lightbringer: Her Reclaim 1 ability is quite useful in 1s and 2s matches, effectively

increasing the deck size of the player. Reclaim in matches with more than two squads is notquite as effective since these matches dont usually end by one player running out of cards.


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Blademaster Wilaren: A very effective leader since he deals out 4 points of damage each turn(3 from his attack and 1 from his retaliate.

Elven Matimilopeotryx: Considered second only to the Orc Mati, the Elf Mati can clear an

entire enemy line of units in two turns with its Poison All 3 ability. Also noteworthy since it is

the only Elven unit that can fly!

Aradaan Silverhair: Effective since he is one of two Elven heroes with 2 artifact slots, has

decent life, and has Command Archers 1. And who doesnt want their basic archers taking downGorm with one shot?

Lady of Shadows: This Elven achievement hero, while new to the game, has stolen manyplayers hearts, as well as their opponents rating points. Her Sap 2 ability means that most units

are not able to effectively counter-attack her once they have been hit. Two hits by her andalmost every unit in the game has its attack at zero or below. She can stand toe-to-toe with the

dreaded Captured Hill Giant.


Aanden Horsebow: Horsebows are unique in that they have the archery ability without having

the archer type. They have a relatively low ready time for being such an effective unit, whichexplains why they usually are in short supply in the Auction House. The Shield Rider is the

same unit, but with Block 1 and 2 more ready. Shield Riders, naturally, shot to over 100 CCs inthe Auction House immediately upon their release.

Aanden Stormcaller: One of the most effective zappers in the game. The Stormcaller is one ofthe few units that can potentially take out three units in one turn. Stormcallers have the same

ready times as most zappers in the game, but with 5 life, can survive a hit from archers with 2attack.

Sunsword Captain: The best demoralizer unit in the game (Skoreg Exiled being the best

demoralizer hero in the game). When there are no units to block it, Sunsword Captains aretaking 4 morale from the opponent, the only unit that can inflict that much morale loss per turn in

the game. Sunswords Captains also have 5 life, which means they get can survive two attacksfrom all but the most powerful archers.


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Silvintri Loremaster: One of the staples of the Elven arsenal, Loremasters both zap and heal atthe same time. Their big drawback is that one hit from almost all archers (and a good many

other units now) kills them.

Cultist of Araadan: Only two words are needed to describe why these units are notable: Cultist

Spam. A staple of 1s speed decks, these units with 0 ready time at T5 versions step right ontothe battlefield and can down 70% of the infantry units in the game with their first shot.Unfortunately, with only 2 life, that may be their only shot.

Aanden Burrower: The Burrower is one of the Elven achievement cards, and seldom seen in

battle. However, this little beast is the bane of the feared Captured Hill Giant. A Burrower goingtete-a-tete against the CHG stands a better than even chance of beating the CHG due to its trap

ability having a 75% chance of getting the giant. If my stats are correct, when the CHG hits first,the burrower wins 56.25% of the time. When the Burrower hits first, the burrower beats the

CHG 84.38% of the time!!


Each of the four Elven spells, Lightning Storm, Entangle, Beacon of Light, and ChokingCloud, has its application for theme decks constructed around the spells strength (Entangle is

particularly nasty when used by demoralize decks).

The two Elven artifacts are Dawnward Sextant and Aanden Longbow. Again, the Reclaimability of the Sextant is best used in smaller decks.

Strategy

Success with the Elven faction relies on combinations more than any other faction. While theElves have many units with great abilities, these units tend to die quickly unless supported by

other units. The drawback to adding supporting units is that the effectiveness of the deckstheme becomes diluted. Striking the right balance of healing or defending units to keep the

sappers, archers and demoralizers alive will require a lot of deck tuning.

The other major strategic element to keep in mind with the Elves is that they have a slight edgeoverall in ready times. Translated, this means that Elves as a faction tend to work better in

smaller decks when they can get into play faster, get enough hits in to drive the opponents


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morale to zero before collapsing like a house of cards. Doing a quick scan of the top 6s decks onthe Warlords page, it is uncommon to see any Elven squads being used, and you rarely see 2

Elven squads in any of the top-rated decks.

Deck Ideas

1. Archers, archers, archers This deck uses Icebow Archers augmented by Aradaan

Silverhair, to boost their attacks and Treeholds to boost their life. This deck extends well to alarger number of squads, and they sometimes show up in 6s auto matches. Each squad consists

of Aradaan, 2 Icebows, and 2 Treeholds. The artifacts are a combination of healing artifacts, likeCask of Celebration and Diadem of Light, or offensive, such as the Lich Kings Crown or

Treasure Chests.

2. Demoralize Deckthis deck centers on using demoralize units to win, and to make your

opponent yell at their monitor as they see their morale dropping despite having units on theboard. Going with 2 squads, the leader of choice for squad 1 is going to be Wildcaller

Bearsong, because the Sunsword Captains take so long to get into play. Wildcaller also allowsthe play of the Entangle spell. For the second hero use the 4-1-1 GrovekeeperDyrbral, which

allows you to play a Cask of Celebration or Sigil of Azuba, thereby keeping your Captains inplay longer a little longer. The Grovekeeper can get out fast and take up a blocking position

while your Captains meander onto the battlefield. Go with all Captains as your units, withperhaps a Battlefort mixed in to speed things up. Its always fun seeing your opponent down to

2 morale with one of your Captains ready to drop into play for the win. If you are willing to mixfactions, try a Human, Orc or Demon rush deck with your Sunswords. Bishop Dudley took his

Orc Taskmasters, led by Grymish and an all T7 Sunsword Captain deck to 2250. Remember, theCaptains are infantry so they get Grymishs Command +1 bonus too!

3. Cultist Spam the classic get-the-cards-on-the-table-faster-than-the-other-guy deck. Try

Landen Hawkeye (use the version with 6 unit slots) and 6 Cultists and hope that the opponent

isnt playing cavalry! This deck can win 1s matches in 7 turns.

4. Zap Spam not recommended for competitive play, but certainly a lot of fun to watch when

it works. The idea is that the deck should kill every unit of the opponents as it comes into play.This means, of course, that you need to get your units into play, and keep them in play, first. Use

Firestarter Arfalas as the hero (use the version with 6 unit slots). Each of the two squadswould consist of 2 Loremasters, 2 Stormcallers, a Silvintri Mage, and a Battlefort. Of course,

if the opponent is playing immune Shadowtails or Tomb Stalkers, youre toast!


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Conclusion

Elves can be the most fun of the factions to play: wins with Elves tend to be more elegant and

victories tend to be narrower. When going for the Elven Gold and Platinum achievements,youll find that it is more effective to use 2s or 3s deck sizes. With Elves particularly, you are

racing to get your units into play, so that extra 2 ready time saved by tiering-up your units ismore important than for any of the other factions. Fortunately, that shouldnt cost you a bundlesince most players arent looking to the Elves to form the core of their army (nor should they be

looking to the Elves for advice, if one is to heed Gandalf).

Orcs(by Bishop Dudley)You either love them, or hate them. Many players remark that Orcs are their favorite faction toplay (myself included) while others detest Orcs, finding them difficult to win with. Lets take alook at this faction and discuss how to win with them, and beat them.

Overview

Orcs are the bruisers of Warstorm. They are generally tough, deadly and slow. Once they get intoplay they take over the fieldif you are still alive by the time they can get out in force. They are

heavily populated by infantry units, though they do have their share of Beasts, Barriers andSieges. Their main method of attack is brute force: you stack your unit against your opponents

unit and pound them into submission. Orcs typically have enough health to survive at least oneattack. There are specialty Orc units with every ability you find in each faction: poison, archery,

blast, berserk, frenzy and rush. They are underrepresented with healing, flying, trapping and


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sapping units, as well as anything with bolt. There are no Orc units with animate. Orcs do haveone very valuable unit, Vistav Shaman, which removes the flying ability of a single unit each

turn. That effect works even if flight was granted by an artifact or spell.


Captured Hill Giant: As it is known in chat as CHG, the Captured Hill Giant is among the five

most feared cards in the game. When it shows up in the staging area your opponent will sigh andstart counting the turns until it comes into play. It is so strong you will likely hear players

(those that dont have one) complain that it is overpowered. The CHG is slow, with T4s having aready cost of 14. But it can be worth itthey have an attack of 3, with a health of 10 (this is

commonly referred to as 14-3-10). And they are Archers, which means they do double damage toflyers and infantry. Few units can withstand CHGs attack. And if they do, your CHG remains

alive to do it again! Beware opponents with multiple CHGs in their deck. They are very popularin 6 squad (6s) matches as you generally have enough morale to let them get into play. The T7

CHG is perhaps the most prized card, and the most expensive card in the Auction House. Eventhe T4 version can be expensive. The CHG originally appeared in the demon set.

Red Tide Taskmaster: Due to the Orcs high ready time, Taskmasters, or TMs as they arereferred to in chat, are a staple of Orc decks. These 6-2-4 units have Rush 2, which decreases the

ready time of a random unit each turn. Rush even works when the TM is affected by Death Aura.Warstorm is all about squad balance: having the right combination of speed, damage and health.

The TM is critical to giving the Orc squads speed. Multiple TMs in play are brutal. If you arefaced with such a deck, just hit Battlegrounds and move on to your next match because the result

is often a loss. TMs are prized possessions if you have one do not let it go cheaply and withoutconsideration. The T6 Taskmaster (4-2-4) can be very expensive to obtain. A close alternative to

TMs is the Vistav Yeti Trainer. The trainer gives the same Rush 2 benefit while also whippingone beast per turn, which increases the beasts attack +1 and decreases the health -1.

Battle Wagon: This siege unit is designed to die. But it rarely dies alone as it has Explode 3which deals 3 damage to the unit in front of it and to each unit on either side. Battle Wagonswere part of the Core set. The T5 version (4-0-3) is fairly quick, especially in combination with

TMs. As such it is expensive and held in very high regard. In the early days of WS entire squadsof Battle Wagons would be seen.



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Matimilopeotryx: While each faction has a T7 Mati, as they are known, the Orc version has

held its original value while the others have become much cheaper to obtain. The Orc Mati, a 20-2-8 Dragon, not only flies but has Blast 2. Blast does damage to each opposing unit each turn. If

a Mati gets into play its often Game Over.

Grymish The Mad: Grymish is an Orc Hero (12-3-8) with Command 1. It is an Infantry unit aswell, which is its only drawback as it is susceptible to archers. But giving +1 attack to each other

infantry unit makes Grymish a popular Orc hero.

Skarg Bonesmasher: When you complete the Orc faction achievement you are rewarded with

Skarg. This card alone makes it worth it to undertake this achievement. Skarg is an 8-3-8 Herothat can join the fray quickly enough for a hero. And it has the Explode 3 ability so it mirrors the

Battle Wagon. Skarg commands six units, sometimes a preferred number, especially with TMsand Battle Wagons.

Slavedriver Gargul: A Hero with Rush 2 is a wonderful thing. Gargul is preferred by high level

players in 4s 6s. The T7 version is 6-2-8 and has sold for as high as 300cc. if you get one ofthese, use it.

There are several other good Orc cards: Jorja kills Dragons in one hit; Skoreg Exiled has

Demoralize 2 though you suffer -2 to your morale when he comes into play; Captive SnowTroll is an 10-3-6 monster with regenerate tough to kill; Enraged Yeti a 12-2-8 Beast with

Bezerk 1 can truly become a beast; Orcish Firecracker from the Mercenary set (T5 is 0-0-1) hasExplode 3 which occurs the turn it comes into play (take that Estian Saboteurs!); and, Rebellious

Drake is one of those non-flying Dragons with Blast 2, though its Lose Morale 3 cost makes itsomewhat risky to play. But get two of those out and you can start looking for a bump in your

rating. Three other popular Orcs are: Vistav Mutant, an achievement 6-1-5 Infantry unit withBlast 1. Many top players use both the T4 and T7 versions in their Orc squads; Warwolfisvery

popular in 1s and 2s as they are fast (2-1-4) and with Demoralize 1. Additionally, they are

Undead Allies which means you will often see them regenerating when with their UDCounterpart, the Orc Ally, Animating Skeleton Warrior; Red Tide Ambushers have Retaliate 3,a powerful ability not to be overlooked. They are like a scorpion. Small but with a nasty sting.



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There are only two Orcish artifacts, neither of which see play much so they wont be mentioned

here. There are four Orcish spells, two of note: Atrocity has Demoralize 2 and is animated, witha 50% chance of being able to hit your opponent for -2 Morale again and again. Bloodlust boosts

all your attacks +2. It has a long ready cost at 12 for the T7 version but if it gets out,Cowabunga!

Strategy

As noted above, Orcs are slow but tough, and can pack a wallop. So if you are playing Orcs, be

sure and have a few Taskmasters or Trainers with you. Due to their long ready costs, Orcs arerarely seen in effective 1s matches. Save your Orcs for 2s at a minimum and they are really most

effective in 4s 6s. Cross your fingers that you will get enough out to overwhelm your opponentbefore you die.

If you are facing Orcs, consider archers and fast, small units. Hit their infantry with x2 attacksand beat them to the draw. If you can get flyers out do so as there are only two Orc units with

archery, one being the dreaded CHG. If you are in 4s 6s try Festering Trolls against the CHGs.The Festering Troll can stand toe-to-toe with the CHG and win without help, even if the CHG

attacks first, due to their disease and regen ability. For that matter consider any unit with Sap. Ifyou hit the Orcs first you can drop their attack, survive their hit, and Sap them again. And again.

Sap is one of the few abilities that stack.

Deck Ideas

Orcs are pretty straightforward grab a hero, any hero, and put big, nasty units with TMs and

Trainers to rush them into the line. As with any faction, the more you can tier up your deck, thefaster it is. This is perhaps more important with Orcs than any other faction. You can play Orcs


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with only T3s and T4s but you will see a notable improvement in your winning percentage if youcan gather T6s and T7s. The decks below may give you something to consider. Given the nature

and simplicity of Orcs they can be classified as Spam decks. It is hard to be creative with thelimited number and varieties of Orcs. Keep in mind that you could justify putting Vistav

Shamans in every Orc deck due to the prevalence of flyers.

Orc Rush: Grymish the Mad, 5 TMs and any spell will work nicely. Grymish will give all yourTMs +1 Attack. This is sometimes seen in 1s if it is tiered up. A variant is to use Gargul with

TMs rush, rush, rush.

Orc Rush + CHG: Skarg, 3 TMs and 3 CHGs. Rush plus power. Gargul can be substituted forSkarg if that is your preference. I run a version of this in all my decks, including in 1s. I use T7

Skarg, 3 T6 TMs and 3 T7 CHGs. I wont suggest you try and mirror this deck as it has beenvalued at nearly 2000cc.

Orc Demo: Skored Exiled with 5 Catapult Crews. If your crews can survive the first hit by

your opponent units then you have done 4 damage to their morale for each of your units. Fewcan survive that. Substitute Warwolfs if you are going to play 1s or 2s.

Orc Blast: Any hero with a ready time of 8 or less with both your Vistav Mutants (obtained as areward for the Dreadnought Achievement for 6s victories) and the often maligned Dreshir

Drake. Each has a Blast 1 ability, a great way to clear the field.

Battle Wagons: any Orc hero with all battle wagons, if you can find them. BOOM! Swap outone battle wagon for a CHG, Snow Troll or Yeti for damage and survivability if you like.

When combining Orcs with other squads, consider any healing or rush effects from those other

factions. Let your Orcs take and deal damage, just get them on the field and keep them alive.They will do the rest. If you are using Grymish as your Orc hero, consider using infantry unitsfrom your other faction. Why shouldnt they benefit from Grymishs bonus as well?

Conclusion

Orcs can be fun and successful. Invest in the time to obtain high-tier Orcs before attempting your

Orcs or 6s achievement and you will very happy that you did. Without doing that, it will be along, slow effort that will see your rating plummet as you work towards 500 victories.

Undead (by Anna Falaxis)Make your enemies despair with the power of disease!


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The Undead have many tools at their disposal. I might even go so far as to call them a jack of alltrades. Their units have many of the special abilities available in the game like Blast, Zap, Heal,

Flying, status effects like Death Aura, and all of the 2x damage traits - Trample, Archery andPikeman. As such they have the tools to succeed with almost any strategy.

Overview

Undead stand out from every other faction primarily because of one ability. Animated. Any unitwith animated has a 50% chance to come back to the players hand whenever that unit goes to

the graveyard. One of the interesting things about Animated is that when an animated unit is

killed on your opponents turn and then animated to your hand, its wait time countdown isoffset, causing the unit to come into play on your opponents turn. Case in point is a card fromthe latest set, the Crackbone Golem. This little animated unit has been a thorn in many a

players side as of late. It has a wait time of 1, which means it initially comes into play on youropponents turn and when killed then animated, comes into play on your turn. This creates a very

powerful mechanic where animated reinforcements attack immediately after they come intoplay. But more on that later.

Another ability that is almost exclusively available to undead is Disease. This ability is often

underused and/or underestimated. A unit with Disease causes a unit attacked by it to lose 1attack value (permanently, like sap) and 1 health (until healed). And as an additional benefit, if

this initial attack kills its target, many of the reactive abilities like flaming and retaliate do nottrigger; protecting your unit from its harmful effects.

As far as unit statistics, attack and health values are entirely average. Undead units are not as

vulnerable as Elves nor are they as tough as Orcs. But there are exceptions. Lets take a look ata few key units and heroes from the Undead faction.



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Festering Troll and Dirty Rotten Zombie: There are many Undead units and heroes that

deserve mention, but perhaps one of the more well-known is the Festering Troll. This Beast(figuratively and literally) with an attack of 3 - plus Disease 1 - is capable of taking down 4

health units in one hit. This is significant because he does this without the use of a 2x damageeffect. The Captured Hill Giant may do more to Flying and Infantry units, but against everything

else the Troll hits harder. Its powerful attack is complemented by a higher than average healthvalue at 6 and a second ability Regenerate 1, making it very difficult to kill. The Dirty Rotten

Zombie is a slightly smaller and cheaper version of the Festering Troll, but is powerful for manyof the same reasons. Its only significant drawback is the Infantry trait, making it highly

vulnerable to archery, which has caused many players to stop using it entirely. But in a pinch, Ibelieve it to be a reasonable substitute for, or compliment to, the Festering Troll.

Black Dragon and Gormihaagos: Of the Dragons from each faction, the Black Dragon is

certainly my favorite. The White and Red Dragons may be more popular as they do moredamage from their abilities, but I prefer more attack value. Coupled with a built in Drainbolt 1

and Drainbolt 2 respectively, the Black Dragon and Gormihaagos not only deal a decent amountof damage, but become much more difficult to kill.

Bone Archer/Skeletal Marksman and Decayed Knight: You would be hard-pressed to findan Undead deck without 1 or more of these units. Attack 2 and health 4 is nothing special by

itself, but add Animated and Archery or Animated and Trample and suddenly these units becomeextremely effective. The Tier 7 Bone Archer and Tier 5 Decayed Knight are of particular note

here with a very short wait time of 4.

Swamp Witch: This achievement reward is 1 of only 2 Undead units with the Heal ability. Andas such should be heavily considered in every Undead deck, if not automatically included. With

Drain and Heal 2, she is already very difficult to kill. Add a Sword of Prowess or ConquerersAxe and she becomes a proverbial killing machine.



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Mirror Contraption: This barrier doesnt do any damage on its own, but is extremely effective

against any unit with a magic attack. With the Immune and Reflect 3 abilities; Zap, Icebolt, andespecially Blast all have something to fear from this little device.

Vostag the Diseased: Only rivaled by the Elves, the Undead have the lowest wait time heroes in

the game. With a wait time of only 4 or 6 (depending on tier), Natu the Embalmer, Yorlii theTraitor and Vostag the Diseased are all excellent in their own right. But I think Vostag

deserves special mention here as he is one of only two heroes in the game with Animated. Theother being Argol the Risen, which also deserves mention. With one spell slot, Vostag

becomes the perfect choice for an Animated/Cataclysm deck. See below for more details onthat.

Catii the Reanimator: Catii is one of only two Undead units with the Heal ability, the otherbeing the Swamp Witch (see above). This makes her especially important in most Undead deck

builds. With two spell slots she is one of the best choices for undead heroes.

Ririk, Dark Champion: This hero is as big as a Festering Troll and harder to kill. WithRegeneration 2 your opponent will find they have to step it up to get him off the table. And with

an artifact and spell slot, he has quite a few choices to empower his units and himself. Cask ofCelebration anyone?

Arugi the Digger: Often overlooked (myself included), this hero has an ability that is very hard

to come by. Reclaim retrieves cards from your graveyard and puts them back in your deck.Now you might say that Animate is better because the card goes to your hand, and you would be

right for the most part, except that Reclaim works 100% of the time and retrieves ANY cardfrom your graveyard. This could be powerful spells like Sabotage or Necromancy, or artifacts

like Cask of Celebration or Sigil of Azuba. Not to mention units that fail to trigger theirAnimated ability. Arugi is excellent for all these reasons and should not be overlooked.

Other Undead worth mentioning are: Spellbinder Batu, with Reflect 2 and Zap 2 he is certainlycapable of dishing out damage. Though he does have lower health than most other Undead

heroes and youll find it difficult keeping him alive for very long. The Unnamed One has greatnumbers if nothing else. An 8/10 wait time for 3 attack and 8 health is nothing to sneeze at. He

also has Command 1 apparitions, which can really boost your armys overall attack power.Armor Golem is a great example of Undeads staying power. At 2 attack and 5 health, this

Animated unit with Block 1 will certainly hamper your opponents ability to break your ranks.Bone Dragon is a relatively low wait time(8/10) for its stats, high attack(3), and high health(6)


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Animated unit that is becoming harder to find since it went out of print. Tracking these downmay not be worth your while, as players will expect entirely too much in trade for them. But if

you find yourself in possession of one, it is definitely worth playing.


Necromancy: Just like the neutral spell Reanimate, Necromancy puts into play a random unit

from your graveyard. And because it has Animated, this spell becomes a must have for everyUndead player. This not only helps your deck with unit recursion, but is also an excellent

counter to Sabotage. Also, because of the recent change to how spells resolve(they go back toyour hand if they dont have a target), this will become even more effective in any deck. Again,a must have.

Cataclysm: Not exclusive to Undead, but more effective with Undead than any other faction,

this spell is the focus of an entire Undead deck design. With the use of Animated units, theability to wipe the board clean becomes extremely significant. See below for deck design

details.

The other three Undead spells are worth mentioning as well, they all offer a blanket effect onyour opponents units in play. Contagion and Plague, the former with Animate, cause Disease

on all enemy units in play. Curse does likewise with the Curse status effect. And probably themost significant of the three is Weaken, causing Sap 2 to all enemies. An effect that was so

powerful they had to increase its wait time during beta testing and add a morale loss to the card.

Of the two artifacts exclusive to Undead, I couldnt find a good reason to run either. With

Undeads significant ability to recover lost units, you may find that artifacts wont be all thathelpful overall.

Strategy

Undead have a higher ability for unit recursion than any other faction. Animate is significant.

There may be times when it doesnt work for you at all, but more often than not, it will quicklyhelp you overwhelm your opponent. This combined with status effects that lessen your enemys

effectiveness like Curse, Sap and Disease will enable you to take decisive control over the


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battlefield. Undead also has a much larger number of immune units available than any otherfaction, dont overlook these when making your deck.

Deck Ideas

1. Large and in Charge: Utilizing big units with various healing abilities, you simplyoverpower your opponent. Key cards could include: Ririk Dark Champion, The Unnamed One,

Festering Troll, Bone Dragon, Black Dragon, Catii the Reanimator, Swamp Witch, ArmorGolem, Weaken, Windstorm and Necromancy. Cards included will vary depending on how

many squads you include. I do not recommend making this deck with less than 4 squads as itwill come out entirely too slow.

2. Catamate: Using all units and heroes with Animated and the Cataclysm spell you gaintremendous advantage over your enemy by killing off all his units and recovering most of yours.

Key cards could include: Vostag the Diseased, Argol the Risen, Bone Archer, SkeletalMarksman, Decayed Knight, Crackbone Golem, etc. There are dozens of animated units at your

disposal. The key here is to overwhelm your enemy with your units that will be seeminglyendless. One thing people dont catch about recursion is how it increases the number of cards in

your hand. A player is usually relegated to only one from the top of his/her deck per turn. Cardadvantage is the goal here.

3. Apparitions: This deck is entirely based around The Unnamed One and as many other

apparitions that you can get into play. There are many different ways to build this deck. Youcan focus entirely on small fast units like Wall of Souls, Wailing Ghost and Bog Wisp. Or units

with status effects like Wailing Ghost, Tattered Wraith and Whispering Ghost. You could focuson units that have Immune like Tomb Stalker and Mist Stalker. Or you could choose a mix of all

or some of the above. In the end, feel free to mix it up. Theres no one way to skin a cat. Goodspell choices include: Necromancy, Battle Preparations, Sabotage and Curse.

Conclusion

Undead are a fun and unique faction with a distinction all their own. They are versatile to a

degree not seen in many of the other factions and yet they are also capable of specializing verywell. As such they are also a very good supplement to any of the other factions. If you find you

enjoy the Undead faction half as much as I do, you should have a lot of fun. See you in automatches.


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Demon (by Wereragon)Fire, ice, death, they are but illusions. The only truth is power.

Demons are one of the most used factions, along with orcs and either can royally suck if usedwith horrible cards, or do really well, if used correctly. Demons have a large variety of abilities

and are excellent all around. Demons arent easy to be used at first because the powerful cardsare quite expensive and rare for beginners.

Overview

Lets start with talking about the strengths and weakness of the Demon faction. One of theDemons weaknesses is lack of brute strength, rather relying on abilities to back them up. They

dont have as much power as the Orcs, but are still rather strong. The variety of abilities theyhave enable them to survive longer, like: Drainbolt, Ice Armor, and Immune, along with a few

Hero/Units with Death Aura, while the other variety of abilities are made for offense, like:Firebolt, Icebolt, Flaming, and Firebreathing.

Another weakness of the Demons is archers. They have 8 flying units that are very commonly

used and only have 3 units with trample, making archers very powerful again the Demons. Theonly good thing about this is that Demons have no infantries, but instead mostly consisting offiends and imps, and a few others.



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Yauba Ascendant: Probably one of the most used Demon hero since his release. His command

all 1 makes every other unit on the field more powerful and deadly. Along with his flying, itwould be hard to kill him unless using archers, bolts, and other flying units.

Raganash: Raganash is potentially one of the most deadly Hero/Unit among the Demon Faction.

With his Firebreath 3, and his normal attack, he can do 4 damage, along with the burn, for a totalof 5 damage. The bad thing is that Raganash has many flaws. Immune makes him very weak and

it takes 14 turns to get him outand were talking about the T7 version. Also, against a CHG,Raganash gets shot down like a measly bird from a musket.

Agmog the Firelord: With Agmog, it is a gamble. With Firebolt 4, Agmog can dish out a lot ofdamage BUT at the same time, could hit a measly 1 that a forest crawler could do. His Flaming 1

can also be useful at times to get rid of life low enemy units. Agmog will die quickly against anImmune enemy.

Azuba the Deathlord: Azuba is very hard to kill because of his Drainbolt, he regains life and

Death Aura makes the enemy miss half the time, but like Agmog, facing an Immune enemy willdie.

Gishagul the Icelord: As the only Hero with Ice Armour, brute strength means nothing against

Gishagul, but Bolts and magic are his main weakness. The Icebolt 2 is also very useful againstpowerful enemies.


Red Dragon: The Red Dragon is like a lesser/weaker version of Raganash. The Firebreath and

its life are lower by 1 and its weaknesses are the same.


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Nightmare: Recently released, and already being used a lot by many players. The Nightmaresnotable, extraordinary ability is the ability Burn All. It is the only unit with the ability and

pretty much makes every enemy unit suffer 1 damage until the unit is dead. Its flying also makesit survive quite a while before being killed.

Red Summoner: Being the only Demon faction unit with rush, it is very popular. Plus, archerscant kill summoners as fast as they kill Taskmasters. Having a lot of T6 Red Summoner helpsget out the big units quickly, but they do lack damage.

Hellfire Warrior: Hellfire Warrior is deadlyperiod. With an orc squad, HFW (abbreviation)

can hit 5 damage, and then flaming comes in, hitting 6 damage total after the enemy unitattacksif its still even alive.

Decaying Behemoth: Because the behemoths are the only Tramples in the Demon faction, thismakes them very powerful and useful. His Death Aura makes it harder for enemies to hit it,

along with ally units.

Frozen Behemoth: Frozen Behemoth is an excellent unit because it only takes 1 damage fromnormal attack, along with his trample. His weakness though, would be flying and Bolts/magic.

Flaming Behemoth: The offensive one of the Behemoths, doing more damage than the other

two, but has a higher chance of dying first.


The demons only have 2 artifacts, the Crown of Flames, and the Burning Orb. They are bothrarely used so I wont talk about them. The demons have 4 spells:

Blizzard: Blizzard has no T7 version but does have a T6. It does Icebolt 2 and is animated, only

taking 2 turns before being used (T6 version). Because of its animate ability, it can come backagain and again doing 2 damage, and being able to freeze.

Icestorm: This spell is just like blizzard, except it hits all enemies, doesnt have animate, andtakes more turns.

Ignite does the same as the new Nightmare unit, it burns all enemy units, making them suffer 1

damage every turn. The demons last spell is Magma Blast, and like Blizzard has animate and


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has no T7 version, only a T6. It does blast 1, and can come back over and over, eventually doingheavy damage to all enemy units.

Strategy

Some people make decks around the type of card, for Example: Imps with Bevus/Badial, Farazthe Summoner with other summoners, etc.

The more powerful units have a high turn required to come out, like Red Dragon and theBehemoths, so using a few Red Summoners help. They are advised for the higher squad numbers

(4-6).

Summoners and Imps are best used with the higher tiers, as they come out faster to help allies

out (especially Summoners). Imps and Summoners are advised for lowed Squads (1-3) and arebetter used mono.

Deck Ideas

1. Imps: Badial and Bevus work with all imps, and are better with the higher tier version. Theimps could range from Engorged Imps to Distracting Imps (Credit to Blazes idea)

2. Summoners:Two Faraz, with Green, Grey, and Red Summoners, and maybe 1 Bluesummoner with any spells of your liking.

3. Hellfire Warrior/Taskmaster: This deck works with Red Tide Taskmasters greatly, but must

be used in at least 2s with orcs. Any decent demon hero is good enough.

4. Do-what-ever-you-want: A good demon hero like Yauba Ascendant or Raganash, with RedDragons/Behemoths, and red summoners. The dragons are weak against archers, so the

Behemoths are useful then, and the red summoners arent in major danger from archers becausethey arent infantry.

Conclusion

Demons are very fun to use because of how easily they can be customized and how theirweaknesses arent too major. Mixing them up with Orcs is probably best because of all the


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Demon/Orc Ally abilities. The 500 wins are worth it for the Hound of Yauba but will probablymake your rating plummet on your quest to complete the 500 wins

Neutral (by King Settra)The neutral faction of Warstorm is a catch-all for units, spells, and artifacts that any factioncan use. When Warstorm was first launched back in October 2008, spells and artifacts were all

neutral. This meant that any hero with the availability to use a spell or artifact could usewhichever ones they wanted. Now, neutrals have become much more specialized since the other

factions now have many spells and artifacts that are isolated to their own faction. Thisintroduction not only makes for specialized cards within each faction, but also helps enhance the

attractiveness of the neutral cards.

Overview

The Mercenary expansion brought many great additions to the Warstorm universe, especiallyally units. While this was a great bonus to the game mechanics, the Merc expansion also broughtanother enhancement that veteran Warstorm players have been asking about for a very long time,

neutral units. The units are great additions to the game because they allow for some interestingunit combinations and help eliminate some of the weaknesses a particular faction may have. For

instance, Demons dont have any archer units, but with the new neutral units, a general could addin some Hired Archers if they wanted to get some archery into their deck.


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Primary Units

Mercenary Captain: This is a staple card for some really powerful decks, such as the Blade

Mage/Paladin of Light deck. It has mediocre stats, but with command 1 for infantry he canreally boost up the attack of your infantry units. Considering that most infantry command decks

utilize Earthworks, his low health should be manageable.

Hired Archer: Good archers are an important defense against all of the powerful flying units inthe Warstorm universe. Hired Archers are a fast and easy way to squeeze some good archery

into a deck. You only lose 1 morale when they enter play, so that isnt much of a deterrent andthey can be formidable in the proper deck.

Hired Pit Fighter: Hired Pit Fighters can be a very scary card in the proper deck. The 2 attackand 4 defense isnt huge, but retaliate 3 makes sure that whatever is attacking you is getting the

favor returned. Alongside some Earthworks and a healer or two, Hired Pit Fighters become ahuge problem.


It would take forever to go through the countless numbers of spells and artifacts that areneutral. Like I stated earlier, every spell and artifact was neutral before some recent

expansions started introducing faction specific spells and artifacts. That being said, there are afew that we can point out and take a look at:

Sabotage: The most popular and reliable spell is arguably Sabotage. Sabotage eliminates thecard in your opponents staging area that has the highest timer. This spell is very reliable

because unless your opponent is spamming 0 timer cultists or has mass amounts of rush cards in


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play, your sabotages should hit their target every time they enter play. This card can single-handedly stop your opponents combinations and strategies.

Cask of Celebration: The be all, end all of artifacts. +2 defense and heal 2 is enough to make

any unit quite formidable. On the right card it becomes unstoppable.

Sigil of Azuba: This artifact has become quite popular after the release of the Mercenarycampaign. It grants its user drainbolt 2 which makes most cards very difficult to destroy, while

also giving the unit an additional 2 damage each turn.

Deck Ideas

While the neutral faction has its own units now, the pool of available cards is still very small andthey dont currently have any neutral leaders that can lead a squad. For this reason, decks

including neutral units normally only have a few sprinkled in to help with a particular strategy.Some examples of this are:

1.The Paladin of Light/Blade Mage deck: Utilizes Mercenary Captains to bump up the attack

of the blade mages for maximum whirlwind carnage.

2.Infantry command deck: Will utilize Mercenary Captains along with powerful infantry units

from other various factions. Might also utilize some Hired Pit Fighters.

Conclusion

While neutral units are not a stand-alone faction able to fight on their own, they can prove to bea vital asset when included alongside the other factions. The many powerful spells and artifacts

make this sub-faction a very important part of the Warstorm universe. Many players are hopingthis trend continues with future expansions and that many new and exciting neutral cards will be

released to enhance an already invaluable aspect of the game.

Documents

Warstorm Factions