Hey gang – today’s post was written up by Andrew, a member of the Seattle scene who has been playing with me for several years now. We just yesterday published the Underworlds Underground podcast about a very similar topic of how to choose a good Nemesis pairing for your warband (or choose a warband for your Rivals deck). This of course was recorded prior to the big Embergard announcement, but it still has plenty of relevance for anybody playing First Edition (which we all will for some weeks anyway) and many of the theoretical points will still apply to choosing which two Second Edition decks to slap together – if that’s how Nemesis still works anyway. Andrew cooked up this companion piece discussing the existing Rivals decks in Wintermaw and some suggestions for which to use when for newer players. Check out other New Player content here!

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Hello everyone!

It is I, Drex (Andrew) from the most recent Underworlds Underground podcast!

We talked about how to build a Nemesis deck using the given rivals decks and noticed there wasn’t an updated TLDR on what the different rivals did. So here is my take on what the decks do so you know which of your warbands will work best with them! Avoid using warbands with lots of beasts.

Daring Delvers – Can be used in multiple ways

1) Exploration – Focus on holding objectives in enemy territory. Also a warband that can place feature tokens will be able to succeed in this way.

Good Warbands: Sepulchral Guard, Zondara’s Gravebreakers, Myari’s Purifiers

Bad Warbands: Mollog’s Mob, Exiled Dead

2) Full Aggro – Delvers has lots of good cards for just focusing on killing the enemy warband. It comes with good tricks to move your characters and ping the enemy.

Good Warbands: Lady Harrow’s Mournflight, The Shadeborn, The Dread Pageant, Rippa’s Snarlfangs

Tooth and Claw – Best used with warbands who do not care about strategy or objectives. Your goal is to charge the enemy and kill them all. This deck works with almost every warband available.

Good Warbands: Gnarlspirit Pack, Drepur’s Wraithcreepers, Rippa’s Snarlfangs, Skaeth’s Wild Hunt

Bad Warbands: ?

3) Fearsome Fortress – You know the half-hexes that meet with your opponent’s side of the board? That’s called No-man’s territory! It is your goal to get all your fighters within 1 hex of that zone on feature tokens and hold the line! This deck requires skill before the game even starts – Line up your board evenly with your opponents to make No-mans land as big as possible and/or get as many objectives in that zone as you can. You also get an extra feature hex after all the objectives are down to put in the middle!

Good Warbands: Kainan’s Reapers, Da Kunnin’ Krew, Ephilim’s Pandaemonium, Storm of Celestus

Bad Warbands: Khagra’s Ravagers

4)  Beastbound Assault – Warbands with lots of minions or beasts are required for this deck to work. Not recommended for newer players as this one takes a lot to get used to and never really excelled. However, it is a very fun deck to super-power your normally weak characters into powerhousers.

Good Warbands: Exiled Dead, Blackpowder’s Buccaneers, Mollog’s Mob

Bad Warbands: Every warband that doesn’t have multiple beasts or minions.

5) Seismic Shock – Wizards! You want to get your casters on objectives and hold them there! Lots of fun objective moving tricks and pings! Having multiple wizards is the best way to play the deck!

Good Warbands: Domitan’s Stormcoven, Ephilim’s Pandaemonium, The Crimson Court, Zarbag’s Gitz

Bad Warbands: Any warband that does not have a wizard.

6) Toxic Terrors – This deck is unique in that it relies on your warband having “poison” upgrades and using “poison gambits” to debuff your enemy. Works very well with 2 range fighters and warbands who do not come with good upgrades. Try to get your 2 range fighter (preferably your leader) on an objective in enemy territory and protect them while. Use your upgraded fighter to kill off weakened targets.

Good warbands: Skabbik’s Plaguepack, Drepur’s Wraithcreepers, Elathain’s Soulraid, Daggok’s Stab-ladz

Bad warbands: Storm of Celestus, Zondara’s Gravebreakers, Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers

7) Voidcursed Thralls – Spread the curse! You want to focus on getting stuff on the board Voidcursed to shut down their abilities and to score your cards! Great for warbands who can move multiple times so you can get your Voidcursed fighter where they need to be! Avoid using warbands that rely on action abilities and range 3+ attacks UNLESS they have lots of other fighters to have the curse before them.

Good Warbands: Gorechosen of Dromm, Sons of Velmorn, Morgok’s Krushas, Hexbane’s Hunters

Bad Warbands: Thundrik’s Profiteers, Storm of Celestus, The Farstriders

8) Paths of Prophecy – Hold objectives! One of the very few decks that cares about the objective markers, to the point where lots of your cards lets you switch them around and change the numbers! You almost won’t care what the enemy is doing as long as they don’t get in the way of your token camping!

Good Warbands – Ephilim’s Pandaemonium, Sepulchral Guard, Grinkrak’s Looncourt, The Starblood Stalkers

Bad Warbands – The Chosen Axes, Gorechosen of Dromm, Blackpowder’s Buccaneers, The Exiled Dead

9) Force of Frost – Agroo with a caster! Kill things with wakey tools and abilities! Collect ice counters to power up your fighters! Although not necessary, warbands with good wizards will be able to take a strong advantage of this deck’s spells. (LOTS of FAQs for this deck, so make sure to look them up before you play with your friends so you don’t cheat!)

Good Warbands: The Thricefold Discord, The Crimson Court, Hedkrakka’s Madmob, Cyreni’s Razors

10) Breakneck Slaughter – Two ways to play this deck, either have slow fighters that need a speed upgrade to get to the other side of the board ASAP, or use already fast fighters to make them use LOTS of movement tricks to avoid damage. Either way you choose, you want your whole warband on the enemy side of the board. Much like Tooth and Claw, pretty much every warband can use this deck to success.

Good Warbands: Godsworn Hunt, Headsmen’s Curse, Hedkrakka’s Madmob, Xandire’s Truthseekers

Bad Warbands: ?

11) Malevolent Masks: Another deck where you can focus on 2 slightly different play styles.

First is to use mask upgrades on resurrectable fighters and focus on them doing different tasks like holding objectives, getting inspired, occasionally killing enemies. The 2nd is focusing on getting masks on super fighters (most 3 member warbands) and having them become power houses. Both work very well.

Good Warbands: The Grymwatch, Morgok’s Krushas, The Headsmen’s Curse, Gorechosen of Dromm

Bad Warbands: Any warband with easy to kill fighters that you cannot get back.

12) Rimelocked Relics – Much like Malevolent Masks and Toxic Terrors, this deck is focused on you getting an Rimelocked upgrade on a fighter and having your fighter do things. However, this deck focuses MUCH heavier on said fighters holding objectives, preferably in enemy territory!

Good Warbands: Sepulchral Guard, Blackpowder’s Buccaneers, The Wurmspat, The Starblood Stalkers

Bad Warbands: Skittershank’s Clawpack, Mollog’s Mob, Lady Harrow’s Mournflight,

13) Rimewyrm’s Bite – Pings and domains! This deck can be used by almost anyone as it mostly focuses on killing the enemy team with gambits and lethal hexes! Your main focus is to kill almost every enemy fighter but to leave one or two wounded at the end of the game. Feed those Rimewyrms!

Good Warbands: The Farstriders, Thricefold Discord, Hedkrakka’s Madmob, The Exiled Dead

14) The Hungering Parasite – This one is a bit strange and has a high skill cap. Basically you will be passing around a parasite upgrade trying to use it to weaken enemies for kills or have it in certain locations. I’ve found this deck played best to try and give the parasite to fighters you want dead or uninspired, then after you get a character juiced up with upgrades, have them get the parasite to make them an invincible killing machine. Works best with warbands that don’t care too much about being inspired or can inspire easily after losing the parasite.

Good Warbands: Gnarlspirit Pack, Headsmen’s Curse, Skittershank’s Clawpack, Gryselle’s Arenai


I hope this helps you on your quest to master this wonderful game! You can reach me via discord as “Drex Starbreaker” on the Seattle Underworlds discord for comment or questions.

Also if you’re in the area, I do painting commissions. Check out my pricing and stuff at https://sites.google.com/view/battlereadypainting/

Last here’s my instagram were I post pictures of my games and models: https://www.instagram.com/drex_waaagh/

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Thanks to Andrew for putting this all together for us! While I disagree on the Paths of Prophecy – Dromm is totally valid man – this should be a good jumping off point for you if you’re less sure about what pairings might work and why. Again, you can check out other New player content here, or you can listen to this Underworlds Underground podcast episode for a much deeper dive on the topic, and it’s also pretty funny, since Andrew is a laugh and a half compared to boring old Thomas and myself.

Until next time, and while the rules allow it, don’t forget to spend your glory!