Love Letter: Countdown to Hammertide by Michael K/VintroV2

Today’s article continues our Love Letters Series, in which readers of the page submit an ode to their favorite warband. The Love Letter Series was kicked off by this post encouraging people to play the warbands they love and tell others about the experience, inviting readers to contribute their passion to this website – if you have something to say, by all means let me know wherever you found this posted or by emailing me at SpentGlory@Gmail.com.

This specific letter was penned by Michael K of the Staggerers Blog (discord handle VintroV2) who recently brought Cyreni’s Razors to the World Championships of Warhammer. I was lucky enough to be able to grab him for the live stream in his game against Mark of Path to Glory and his signature Kainan’s Reapers, which was a very cat and mouse positional match with lots of counterplay and speedy decisions from both players. I highly encourage you to give the video a watch and see this deck in action. He also wrote up a deck guide covering specific card choices in this article on the Staggerers blog.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in to the action and hear from Michael himself!

Who are you, and where are you from? How did you get into Underworlds? Do you have a local group you play with, and if so, do they have an online presence to help people find you?

Hello! I am Michael K, from the Staggerers blog. I am based in Vienna, Austria, where we have a pretty big and growing local scene that seems to be only increasing with the coming of Embergard. Our online presence is mainly in the form a local WhatsApp group but we are working to improve that! There isn’t really a special story on how I get into Underworlds. Back in the days of Beastgrave I went to game store and saw this interesting looking board game – after buying it and playing, it turned out quite cool! My first tournament was one of the online Straight out of Shadespire games hosted by Valentin back in May of 2021. In 2022 I found my local Viennese scene and the rest was history!

What’s the warband/deck/pairing you love, and how did you two sweethearts meet?

My favorite warband to play in this game is Cyreni’s Razors. I remember reading the articles on Warhammer Community where they revealed the fighter card for Cyreni – and praying that the Hammertide ability was correct, because the first video only showed Cyreni Inspired and Hammertide seemed too good to be on the uninspired side. Once the rest of the warband was revealed along with the rivals deck, I was a little worried that they wouldn’t live up to my expectations – after initial tests though, I was proven wrong and since their release I have been playing pretty much only the Razors! I managed to take 3rd place in my first tournament with this amazing warband, which was the Austrian Masters in January 2024, despite having only a week to practice the new rules drop. I have been having loads of success with them since!

In V1 I was a champ die-hard so can’t talk about deck pairings there – but here is the deck I ended the edition with. Closer to the end I built a Nem deck with each pairing – my favorites were Toxic Terrors, Paths to Prophecy, and the infamous Rimewyrm’s Bite.

In Embergard, for Worlds 2024 I paired these guys with Countdown to Cataclysm and Emberstone Sentinels.

What makes the deck so fun to play in your experience?

This deck was extremely fun to play – it rewards good positioning, denial, and outplaying your opponent, which are some of my favorite parts of Underworlds. You have lots of tools to help you force opponents into bad positions and punish their mistakes. I’d say the one thing lacking in this pairing is the ability to set up consistent good Hammertides – to do so, a lot of things have to go right (such as 2 objectives lining up in a single lane) – unfortunately that typically doesn’t happen in Game 2 of a Bo3. But don’t fret – Hammertide is always there! Just cause it’s not consistently in the best position doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Link to the Deck

The theory behind this deck is that you can play wherever on the board you want as long as you’re near tokens. You can play passive and apply ranged pressure from Hammertide and some cheeky charges with your thralls, or you can wait for the enemy to invade and then switch territories with them for some aggro holding. Also with a good upgrade hand you can become immortal which is quite funny and always nice.

(Editor’s Note: Michael also wrote up a deck guide covering specific card choices in this article on the Staggerers blog.)

How have you found success and/or fun with the deck?

As previously stated, this deck is extremely fun to play with. I found quite a bit of success with this deck, going 6-4 at worlds (and getting Best in Warband) with my only loses being twice to Dromm (where I took one game to 2-1 and the other was the closest win my opponent had) and once to George’s Headsmen and Mark’s Kainan. Cyreni does not play well into Dromm so I am waiting for nerfs to that warband with great interest. The deck works well into Hold as you have hold capabilities as well as Hammertide to force your opponent off of tokens. Against aggro it’s a little harder – you need to score your hold stuff early and then you can transition into fighting in late game.

What advice do you have for other players who might want to try your warband on for size?

My biggest piece of advice to Cyreni players is to learn when and when NOT to Hammertide. The threat of Hammertide alone is typically enough to force your opponent to reconsider some things. Here are some pieces of advice I can give:

It’s a little known fact, but you can actually use Hammertide in late game. Do not forget about Hammertide in Rounds 2-3. Your opponent might, which could end with them being in a lane. Take the shot!
Just because you have a Hammertide lined up doesn’t mean you need to go first in a round. Let’s say I won the roll off and have a Hammertide lined up. I can either just go first and take the shot for a damage, OR I can let my opponent start, force them to move away, and then get the last activation in a round. This basically subtracts an activation from your opponent!
Hammertide is potent before the game even begins. Many players will think about hammertide lanes during deployment. Take advantage of this! Don’t deploy Cyreni first – instead, place a Thrall or Cephanyr in a hex where there is no Hammertide lane. This forces your opponent to consider EVERY possible Hammertide lane until Cyreni comes on the board. You can also do this the other way – deploy Cyreni very first, in a lane onto the front-most starting hex. Now, your opponent has to do everything to avoid that hex, severely messing up their position!
TLDR: Don’t ignore Hammertide. It’s a key part of the warband!
Yes, this is basic advice. But it’s crucial to make the warband work!

What threats do you find most challenging to face? Are there any warbands or strategies that others can use to beat this warband or pairing?

Cyreni’s biggest counter is elite aggro warbands like Dromm. They are hard to kill and can deny you a lot of positioning stuff with their big attacks. To counter these elites, focus them down one at a time. A 2 fighter warband covers a lot less ground than a 3 fighter one! Another big issue is 4 damage warbands as they one shot all your Deepkin. Luckily, the only one in the game right now is The Headmen’s Curse: for them, there’s 2 strategies. Either avoid the wielder as much as possible or focus him down early. Your choice!
Cyreni is pretty difficult to counter as a non-elite warband. First of all, some absolute legend made them extremely tanky in V2, which is quite nice for the Razors, but not so nice for low damage warbands. Try to focus them down one at a time.
Some general tips to counter Cyreni:

Identify the fighter which is the biggest threat to your warband. Is it Cyreni, with her Hammertides? Is it the Thralls, who if you miss, can cut through your high defense with Deadly Riposte? Or is it the unhittable Squid, who can take space and hold it very well? The Razors have a tool for every situation – identify which of the tools is your biggest threat and remove it or avoid it!
Identify when Hammertide is a threat to you and when is it just a nuisance. Sure, your 4 Health Fighter may be in Hammertide lane. But can any of the others actually capitalize off of you going to 3 health? On the other hand, a 5 wound fighter getting Hammertide is a major issue – as now you are only 2 hits to kill instead of 3.
Let’s talk about their inspired sides. The Razors are some of the strongest fighters in the game when inspired, but they inspire really slowly early in the game. Uninspired, the fighters are quite tame. This means that early on, an inspired Razor can cut through most warbands but the uninspired Razors have to be really passive. There’s 2 strategies to counter this. One: avoid the inspired fighter. If they charge, chances are they won’t be able to reactivate and attack again, and then you can rush the uninspired ones Two: burst that fighter down. If you do, keep in mind that missing is a major problem as Deadly Riposte exists – so make sure odds of hitting are high. Overall, the best strategy is to avoid the inspired fighter unless you truly have to go somewhere where they are
Deadly Riposte and Phantasmal ink – these 2 abilities trigger when you miss a Razor. When attacking the Razors, always ask first – do I really need to attack them? Or are the consequences of missing greater than the rewards from hitting?

Anything else?

 One of the best ways to get better at playing the Razors is learning how your opponent’s warband plays and being not allowing them to do what they want! The Razors are all about denial – they punish mistakes, and can force your opponent to make them with Hammertides. All in all – if the Razors aren’t your cup of tea but you want to play them in the future, try to play a wide variety of warbands and decks to know what they want to do and don’t let them do it!

If you have any questions about Cyreni and the Razors please do know that I am always active on the Vassal Discord as well as the new Staggerers discord – so please do contact me there! I’m always happy to talk about them 🙂
I hope you enjoyed this letter, and hope to see you again soon!

That’s a wrap! Congratulations again to Michael for both qualifying for the World championships of Warhammer and performing so well there. If you’d like to watch him play on the world stage, he was on the livestream once which you can watch here. You can view his blog, Staggerers, here. If you’d like to get in contact with Michael directly, he also runs a Staggerers discord which you can join here, or find him on the other major discords as VintroV2.

While there are a few Love Letters in the works, there is always room for more. I’d love to hear your thoughts about an older or lesser or weird warband/pairing, what drove you to fall in love with it, and how you’ve piloted it to success – and especially piloting it to fun. If you have a warband you’d love to wax poetic about and serenade the wider community, let me know! I’m always accepting new submissions at SpentGlory@gmail.com. Until next time, grab the warband you love, a couple friends, and Spend some Glory!