It’s been a minute since I have composed something for the blog. But I am still here putting together decks for Stormcast like a mad scientist gleefully blowing things up in his laboratory. I consider this article an evolution of what I previously created for Truth and Claw, the Xandire’s deck build.
Why Ironsoul’s?
Honestly, I got tired of missing attacks with Dhoraz. Ironsoul’s gives me two fighters that start on three hammers and one that has the same attack profile as Dhoraz. That extra hammer on two of the Ironsoul’s means they both hit like Xandire and are upgradeable. Plus, the fact that they inspire on a crit means I have three chances per attack to inspire. I like those odds.
Why Not Ironsoul’s?
Well let’s face it, they are unpopular for a reason. If one of them gets taken out of action you lose a significant amount of choices. If two go down you really have to work to be efficient. And while 4 wounds will save them at times, they can simply go down in two activations. In fact, this is why I originally didn’t play them. I had a few games where they were just removed from the board by mid round two. It is an awful feeling and caused me to store them in the foam for a while. Punishing them like Alexei Navalny. Also, they are very slow. There are times I can’t get across the center line. And if someone throws freezing venom on my fighter I am in trouble.
So… Why Ironsoul’s?
Really it comes down to three things. 1. I like making dismissed warbands sing. 2. Their rivals card suite is actually pretty good! 3. The reverse of the above paragraph is true, IE when they are rolling hot and their defense tech kicks-in they can be almost unkillable. It is a big risk, big reward style of play. This means I can get tabled to the same opponent I can table the following game. It’s exciting! It maximizes the effect of crits (or lack thereof). This was initially off-putting to me, but now I really enjoy it.
What is my expectation of success?
I think they can surprise people who think they are just another lame Stormcast warband, giving me early victories. I think they will typically lose to the powerhouse warbands captained by powerhouse players even with the tech in this deck. So, I wouldn’t say they are inherently better than GSP, Ephilim’s or Headman’s Curse. But I will say that Ironsoul’s can beat them if I get the right dice rolls and the right card draw.
Meta Choices
In a way they are counter-meta. Hold play is back and back big (I’m looking at you Ephilim, Myari, Grymwatch, Domitan, even Blackpowder). Therefore, the ability land attacks and knock people off objectives is very important (and knockback attacks keep them away). However, the best warbands to do that are fast aggro warbands. Ironsoul’s Condemnors are not fast. I do buff out their speed with my Nemesis deck picks, but now I am relying heavily on my card draw to make them work. When they work though, it’s pretty spectacular.
Deck List
Here is the deck list. However, I have had multiple iterations of a few upgrades. I keep getting hung up on Spirit Flask, Soul-hardened Shield and Consecrated Pendant. Allow me to explain why.
Spirit Flask
A heal 2 or a ping damage to an adjacent fighter??? This is incredible, oh, except, it takes an action…. A WHOLE FREAKING ACTION. This card should be a reaction. It’s not. So now it limits it’s use. But I have still found it useful. One of it’s uses is that at the end of the game I will sometimes find my remaining fighter out of reach of my enemies and subject to their ranged attacks. It’s just a matter of time until he is removed from the board. Healing 2 could keep him alive until the end of the game potentially scoring me some of my objectives. So that’s good. The second use that I have discovered is once my fighters are hitting they are often doing 3 damage. Many enemies have 4 wounds. Not having to roll and attack and just pinging for one when no other ping is available is a life saver. So, it has it’s uses, but they are more limited than at first glance.
Consecrated Pendant
The large fighter tax when I only give up 3 glory in kills is brutal. But if I can put one of my fighters out of kill range for just a turn it could completely change the game. So it is clutch at times but not something I am looking for early.
Soul-hardened Shield
Useless if I am going to charge. Phenomenal if I am going to use Spirit Flask, swing with my hammer, or just move. This is a great card. But again, useless on the charge and when will I be moving without charging? Only early game when I have no glory.
These are the dilemmas for me. For this tournament I am going with Soul-hardened shield.
Objectives
Forceful Banishment
If I am going up against heavy monsters like Mollog or Gorechosen this gives me a way to score glory without taking them out of action. If I am going up against more easily killed fighters, I may not score this. But it’s a nice surge hedge for my deck. I score this maybe 50% of the time. Not great for a surge but the hedge effect is nice.
Martial Prowess
For two glory and with the accuracy of the attacks I am throwing out, this is worth it. I also have accuracy support and vengeful strike and improvised blow to help score this. This is one of my key objectives.
Wrathful Blow
When you are in there mixing it up and with the amount of healing tech I have, I can usually keep people alive and swinging even with wound tokens. Its a kill surge, but killing is usually not a problem for them.
Embraced Savagery
With Ironsoul’s this is particularly powerful because it’s a surge I can score in round one before the end of the round guaranteed. This will allow me to cycle through my objective deck. If I lose a fighter I am scoring this midround usually. With internal surrender I can score it even quicker. Or if I heal with Savage Season I score this instantly.
Paragon of Ferocity
One of my few kill surges. But I will be killing people in their territory, so I am not worried about scoring it.
Toyed With
This is again allowing me to score glory swinging at big fighters. If my attack isn’t enough to take them down, I am still scoring glory. A 3 damage attack from Brodus or Ironsoul on a four wound fighter scores this. Then I pop dark command and get the kill anyways. It’s a great card.
Strength in Unity
Just a super reliable end phase score to keep the train moving. Nothing fancy on this and a good card from the Rival’s deck.
Vengence Satisfied
I score this a lot actually. It’s greedy and I love it. There are only a few warbands that have the defensive tech to deny this, or the resurrection mechanic. In those games I just discard it and farm glory off the minions.
Vindicated Arrogance
Again, with the heal tech, this is scoring quite a bit. Another reliable end phase score. Ironsoul has to be alive. So I could lock myself out of this. Something to be aware of but not overly concerned about. This is only 1 glory after all.
Focal Point
I am looking for an early draw on this. But with Ironsoul’s ability to heal and stick around and get rerolls on defense, she tends to be where she wants to be after the 8th activation to score this. Sometimes I lose her and I can’t score this. But at this point it’s scored about 75% of the time.
Hurricane Force
I have never not scored this. This is an anti-hold meta pick. The trickiest thing about this so far is keeping my Stormcast in an opponents zone.
Move or Die
Same scoring conditions as embraced savagery and strength in unity. Another super reliable endphase to keep the glory coming.
All in all it’s a 17 glory deck with some greedy cards. It is a very reasonable objective scoring deck.
Gambits
Fulminating Blast
Enemy pushes are getting more and more rare. This is simple, effective and can bring my opponent in range when they think they are safe. I love it. One of the best cards in their deck.
Improvised Blow
This will help me score martial prowess. But also, with a three fighter warband and this card, they can function at times like a four fighter warband. And the extra attack really catches people out. Great card.
Outflank
At move 3 I will take all the pushes I can get. This is an easy push 2. There is some set up here, but it’s not hard at all. Another great card from their rivals deck.
Unyielding Resolve
Heal 2 on a warband where your opponent really has to work to do damage. This card can be absolutely devastating for your opponent.
Vengeful Strike
A chance to attack back. Not great, but another out of activation attack. For that reason I included it.
Call to Heel
The master of all pushes. Yes, there are some qualifications, but none that I have found overly prohibitive. I can always stagger a fighter before their activiation if I need them savage. Even with this card in circulation people don’t anticipate a four hex push, or an enemy push off of a token.
Dark Command
Ping.
Internal Surrender
I really wrestled with this card as I rely on my two shields to keep me fighting. However, in practice giving this to Brodus is just too dang good. It makes him savage and swing three hammers for three damage.
Reckless Haste
More extra movement to offset my move three. Who cares if I am staggered if I just removed an opponent’s model from the table deep in their lines. This card is awesome.
Savage Season
Heal one for everyone to stack on top of the other defense and healing in the deck. It’s a great card for this deck, not so great for others.
Upgrades
Aetherically Charged Weapon
Reroll on an upgrade. Not a bad use of glory. Especially in a hammer swinging warband.
Soul Hardened Shield
Activating and getting a free guard token is great. But very situational in it’s use.
Hallowed Aura
A chance at a heal. I find this is more about discouraging the attack on a particular fighter. I can’t even remember when the heal has worked.
Sanctified Armour
A classic reduce damage upgrade. This has saved me multiple times and made my opponent inefficient. This is one of the best upgrades I have.
Feral Instincts
+1 damage on a warband that already deals big damage. This upgrade puts many enemy fighters in one shot territory. And with Ironsoul’s already great accuracy, it’s a real problem for your opponent.
Gifted Ferocity
Reaction activated upgrade for +1 dice. This takes the Condemnors over the edge into ridiculous accuracy.
Natural Hunter
A late addition to my deck I added as both an anti-meta pick and some extra speed. The anti-meta is that the most popular warbands right now have dodge as their defense characteristic (think Ephilim, Arenai, Clawpack, Headsman’s Curse, etc etc). It also combos nicely with punishing blow giving me a cleave and ensnare attack for four damage. Who cares if people are on guard?
Stubborn to the Bone
Rerolling a defense die looking for a crit or to keep me survivable is a great use of an upgrade. The no push is just a bonus.
Aetherically Charged Shield
See above.
Punishing Blow
This is the card of cards. Who cares that it is only one attack. Slap internal surrender and Natural Hunter on here and you have one of the most accurate and devastating attacks in the game.
Boards
I have landed on Ultimatum Engines and Chamber of Genesis. If my opponent picks his board first and I line them up, I choose Chamber of Genesis for the 3 forward thrusted starting hexes. If my opponent make sme place first I choose Ultimatum Engines. No matter how they align, longboard or wide, there are plenty of starting hexes available for my warband to be front and center. This is at the slight cost of risking being knocked into a lethal. That is a risk I will take if I have to.
General Comments
You can almost count on going first in most games. With the exception of a few other three fighter warbands, you will be finishing your deployment first. This is a tactical advantage and allows me to risk my fighters assuming I am going first.
Don’t play passive at all. These Stormcast need to be hitting and getting hit. Reach out and hit someone and if that doesn’t work, reach out and get hit. You have to be mixing it up.
I have played approximately 15-20 test matches with them. I have only lost once but I need to take them to tournament to know what I have for sure. I can tell you my opponents hate playing against them, which is usually a good sign!
The Tournament
Game 1 vs Gorechosen of Dromm and Tooth and Claw
Game 1 Round 1 vs Gorechosen and Tooth and Claw
My opponent, Dustin, deployed back with the Gorechosen and on power phase 2 played Goreswamp, slowing me down to movement 2 since I was out of charge range. This was a canny ploy and allowed him to get the first charge off on his terms. Charge he did, smacking into Ironsoul with the Gorehulk and doing 3 damage. I retaliated with Ironsoul and Tavian got some licks into the Gorehulk. I spent 2 activations just moving Brodus. At the end of the round he removed Ironsoul. The score after one round was tight. I had four glory and he had three. But his board state was better.
Game 1 Round 2 vs Gorechosen
I won the roll to go first and Tavian attacked taking down the Gorehulk. This netted me two glory and changed the board state. He retaliated and attacked with Drom but missed Tavian, allowing Tavian to attack again and do two damage on Drom. My opponent attacked again on Brodus this time, who inspired (which you will see in a moment was fortuitous). This turn Tavian charged and did two damage onto Herax. Herax attacked back doing 2 damage to Brodus and we were set for the final activation of the round. I used Outflank and pushed Brodus two forward. Then activated Brodus, brought him around to the backside of Dromm and Herax and Scythed killing both Dromm and Herax in one activation. This was the effective end of the game.
Game 1 Round 3 Gorechosen
We just cycled objectives until we had none left. Final score 14-4 for Ironsoul’s
Game 2 vs Drepur’s and Tooth and Claw
Game 2 Round 1 vs. Drepur’s Wraithcreepers and Tooth and Claw
My opponent Austin deployed with his ghosts in the midline. The boards were squared up so I chose Chamber of Genesis. Therefore, my deployment was forward. Even with that, I could only reach one of his ghosts (Godrik the Lance I believe). I came in swinging with Tavian and scored a clean hit, inspiring and dealing 2 damage, leaving Godrik on life support. Then at the end of my powerphase he pushed some fighters around and inspired them since I was sitting in his lines. He attacked with Drepur, and had support on the attack, scoring a quick two damage on Tavian. Ironsoul countered and charged, but missed Drepur, leaving her hanging in the breeze. In a very savvy move, my opponent pushed his cleave fighter forward. With no charge tokens and sitting my lines, he began swinging. The first attack hit Tavian removing him from play. I put Internal Surrender on Brodus and charged that fighter in response, killing him in one hit. Relatively inconsequential actions to the round end, though I did score both Hurricane Force and Focal Point for a 5 glory end phase. At this point I was up approximately 7 to 3.
Game 2 Round 2 vs. Drepur’s
I won the roll off to go first and I wasted no time attacking with Ironsoul on his already wounded 3 wound fighter, taking him down. This left Drepur and the Patrician. Drepur charged Ironsoul, dealing another two damage. I then gave Brodus punishing blow, gifted ferocity and natural hunter. This gave him +1 move and four dice, four damage, ensnare attack. I charged Drepur and one shotted him. This left only the Patrician. The Patrician did some ping damage on Ironsoul who swung back and missed twice in a row. I then healed Ironsoul for two with Unyielding Resolve. Onto round 3. The score was around 10-4.
Game 2 Round 3 vs. Drepur’s
Austin won the roll to go first and swung with the Patrician. He scored a clean hit on the recently healed Ironsoul for two damage. Ironsoul swung back and hit, sending the Patrician over to Brodus and scoring my Wrathful Blow and Forceful Banishment. The Patrician swung back and missed and Brodus finished him off. Final score was 16-4.
Game 3 vs Myari’s and Seismic Shock
Game 3 Round 1 vs. Myari’s Purifiers with Seismic Shock
My opponent Hunter won the roll to go first, and since he was playing a very hold based deck (he has 13 objectives and a total of 20 glory in his deck!) chose to place his board first. I again placed Chamber of Genesis and deployed forward. He set up the objectives to give him the most flexibility and off we went. I went first and charged Aileen with Tavian, scoring a hit and dealing two damage. Aileen struck back and Tavian critted, inspiring and rejecting the damage. Brodus charged Aileen and wiffed, leaving Brodus uninspired in enemy lines with Ironsoul out of charge reach of anything. Myari’s capitalized and moved their fighters around to score some good objectives. I moved Ironsoul twice just to get her within Focal point scoring. I scored Focal Point and Move or Die leaving the score at 5-3 Myari was up.
Game 3 Round 2
Hunter won the roll off and attacked Tavian with Bahanar. But Tavian critted out of the attack. Brodus then charged Myari and hit scoring 3 damage. But Myari had a -1 damage on her. This allowed my to then kill her in the powerphase with Dark Command. I then healed Tavian for 2 with Unyielding Resolve. My opponent then changed tactics and attacked Ironsoul with Bahanar dealing two damage. I played the damage reduction upgrade on Ironsoul and swung back, missing and not inspiring on Bahanar. Bahanar swung again hitting Ironsoul and bringing her down to 1 wounds. At this point I changed tactics and attacked Aileen with Tavian, taking Aileen out of action. Bahanar turned around and wacked Ironsoul again, taking her out.
Game 3 Round 3
Hunter won the roll again and put Bahanar on guard in a cover hex. I pushed him out of the cover hex and Hunter promptly pushed him back in. We both had some ineffectual attacks next turn. So, I changed plans and charged Sinela with Tavian, using Reckless Haste. Tavian went clear across the board, souped up with Feral Instincts and one shotted Sinela. Bahanar then charged the back of Tavian, missing the attack. I then played Call to Heal sending Brodus in with a 5 dice 4 damage attack on Bahanar… and I completely missed. That’s where the game ended. Once the dust settled the final score was 16-14 in favor of Ironsoul’s!
Victory
This clenched the tournament for me and I received the ever coveted acrylic glory tokens!
Summary
My dice were good, not great and my card draw was very good. My opponents were all extremely skilled and experienced. Hunter in fact blew me out when I was playing Xandire’s last tournament. I think it was a very good test of what Ironsoul’s Condemners are capable of and I really enjoyed the games. As an aside, because I was playing a 3 fighter aggro warband, our best of 1 series ended in half the time we had scheduled!
I don’t think I would make any changes to the deck right now. I think it was the right call to omit consecrated pendant and include Soul Hardened Shield. It helped slightly in one of my games. I also have to say Brodus surprised me. He was hitting and hitting hard all tourney long. The board decisions were perfect and I only used Ultimatum Engines one time. No one longboarded me so I still need to get that experience and see how much it hurts. But I did get Goreswamp played on me in activation 2 and I was already out of charge range and had no pushes. So that’s pretty bad.
I hope you enjoyed the Iron Claw series and I would love to hear how your games go with Ironsoul’s Condemnors!
Spent Glory 
Leave a comment