Sleek’s Bowl: I Am a Liar

Mr Bowl has spent the last few months in a grog-induced haze as he’s sailed the Underworlds’ seven seas with Captain Blackpowder. Ever since the Las Vegas Open the man simply hasn’t been the same, singing sea-shanties and talking about all his swag. He’s surfaced just long enough to leave us with this message in a bottle before hoisting anchor once more. He claims to be a liar because he never entered that tournament after all, but I prefer to say it was simply a whale of a tale. Let’s hear what the ole pirate Mike has to say about parts unknown – but beware me hearties; that way be Rimewyrms.

This post is part of the Sleek’s Bowl Series, where we cover off-meta and goofy pairings in an effort to bring the lesser-player warbands into the mix. To read more like this, click here!

So, I lied. All my faithful and loyal readers have by now noticed that I did not do what I said I was going to do, which is take one of the decks I was speculating in my article to a tournament and see how I do. The reason for this is because on the day of the tournament I had COVID. So I could have still played, but everyone else would have likely been sick.

However, Wintermaw has opened new possibilities with Blackpowder’s Buccaneers. Possibilities that I am still exploring but I do have some conclusions to help those of you who want to build decks with Blackpowder and his friends.

Before I come to those conclusions I want to start with some failed decks. I think we can agree that everything isn’t always as it seems on paper. Some people call this “Mathhammer” or “Theoryhammer”. Some folks just call them hot takes. But you really have to see things on the board sometimes before you know how powerful or lame it is. Therefore, I present to you Blackpowder’s failed pairings that I believe are non-hottakes.

Failed Pairing #1 – Beastbound Assault. Deck Name: Blackpowder’s Minions’ Minions

It’s not that the deck doesn’t play well with Blackpowder and his minions. They are all key worded appropriately for the deck. However, in this current Underworlds environment, one of the most difficult play styles for a warband like Blackpowder is invasion hold. Your two wound, one dodge minions hold nothing but their own death in their hand. And your animals don’t want to be holding, they want to attack with their stupid accurate, grievous attacks. Unfortunately this deck moves you in the invasion hold direction. There are cool cards in here and the theme is awesome. I am still going to play this for fun teaching or off meta matches. But it is underpowered particularly in the objective and upgrade category, two areas Blackpowder is desperate for some help.

Failed Pairing #2 – Voidcursed Thralls. Deck Name: Celestial Scurvy

This deck pairing didn’t last for one reason… Voidcurse felt bad on almost everyone but Peggz. The one shield on the animals is terrible and losing Kagey’s attack or Blackpowder’s Grunderbuss just stinks. The cards are good and scoreable, but your board state will suffer because you are taking already weak fighters and making them weaker. Hard pass.

Failed Pairing #3 – Rimewyrm’s Bite. Deck Name: Rise of The Leviathan
(Editor’s note: if you’d named it Release the Kraken like I’d asked maybe it would have been a success)

I did a metric ton of damage with this deck. But lost every game. The issue is the lack of overall synergy. It’s like the reverse of Beastbound Assault. Where Beastbound was synergistic but not powerful, Rimewyrm’s Bite was powerful but not synergistic. This was primarily due to the fact you have to run all the domains in RB even to get it to work. Gambits are not an area Blackpowder struggles in. It’s primarily Objectives and Upgrades. So, this didn’t have the synergy I was looking for.

Now onto the successes.

Successful Pairing #1 – Rimelocked Relics. Deck Name: ?
(Editor’s note: my vote is for some play on words for Shiver me Timbers)

One thing Blackpowder lacks is good upgrades (with the exception of Troggoth Grease and the ever salvageable Tiny Braggart). Rimelocked Relics solves that problem. It is primarily a hold deck so that can be challenging, but it’s hold is light depending on your selection. I don’t think this Nemesis pairing solves all of the problems, but it sure is fun and things stay around a lot longer. Special mention to Chillblain Armor on Blackpowder for 2 glorious shields. Also honorable mention to Rimewyrm skin boots for staying on that objective you want, and the Arctyc Crown for getting all of your minions that extra defense dice without throwing them away. Snowblind cloak is awesome for the little guys as well. So upgrade issues are pretty much solved.

When it comes to objectives, its not an easy fit, but it does work. The surges are great in Glacial Dominion, Frostbitten Strike and Defrosted. Add that to Blackpowders best surges of Broadside and Brutal Belaying and you have a pretty potent surge objective deck. However, the end phases feel “stretchy”. The link for the deck is here.

SIDENOTE: for some reason I have creative deck builders block and I can’t think of a good name for this deck. Feel free to comment and send feedback with some suggestions.

Successful Pairing #2- Hungering Parasite. Deck Name: Black Spot
(Editor’s note: 10/10 deck name, just perfection)

This deck has been great. I can hang with the best Nemesis decks and the best warbands out there using Hungering Parasite. Again, my goal from my previous article on Blackpowder is not to win a grand clash with him, but to make games against him competitive. To have opponents think twice about what is possible with him.

The key is your additional movement which can place your fighters exactly where you want them with a little power card support. This allows for placing the Bane of Heroes upgraded fighter in exactly the right spot at the right time. The upgrades are okay, obviously Rimelocked upgrades are better. But this deck scores glory well and leverages the best cards of both. The deck will be featured on a WTH?!? Podcast in the coming months (episode 141) for a more detailed analysis and to see it in action. Here is the link for the deck.

A couple of highlights for cards:

Sudden Swap and Tempting Lure are amazing when you stack your Monkey and Bird reaction pushes on top. The movement you can get with your warband is just insane. It reminds me a little of what I was looking for in Voidcurse, but without all the downside of voidcursing your fighters.

Instinctive Reprisal on Blackpowder is THE GOAT. If you play against a warband that can’t get past 1-2 damage and you get this upgrade out earlier, people pay dearly for taking out BP. Also, there are two heals in Malefic Siphon and Tenacious Resilience. Blackpowder healing 2 and dealing 1-2 damage per hit is an absolute monstrosity.

Enjoy the deck!

-Sleek

Thanks to Mike for coming through for us even without being able to attend the tournament. The Black Spot looks like a ton of fun and has me toying with some Hrothgorn builds to look for the same kind of thing. If you have a Blackpowder’s Buccaneers set collecting dust on the shelf, consider taking it back out for a test drive with one of these decks! If you’d like the read other entries in the Sleek’s Bowl series, click here, and until the next Sleek’s Bowl, get out there and spend some glory!

PS the sea shanty I linked in the intro was professionally produced and all that, but the origin came when a mail carrier sang an old song in his kitchen by himself for fun, and in some stroke of miracle it took off. The internet is a beautiful thing when it’s not ruining the world. Here’s the compilation that set me on to him years ago.