Welcome back to Spent Glory’s Love Letters Series, where readers discuss the warbands and pairings that they enjoy the most. This one is a special installment, as Ruben, Australian hero, describes his recent tournament victory with none other than the Thorns of the Briar Queen. Ruben overcame a lot of challenges with a diminished Australian playerbase in the wake of Covid-19, found a Dark Horse (pun intended) pairing with his favorite warband, and took a flight all the way to Canada to grab a Golden Ticket and an invite to the World Championships after cutting through a murderer’s row of top talent competition.
While Edge of the Knife has been relatively underrepresented in the competitive scene, it had some decent success when paired with elite aggro. Ruben’s first place finish represents the first time the deck has won at such a high level while paired with a swarm/horde warband, as well as one of the better finishes anybody has managed with Thorns of the Briar queen in second edition. Let’s get to reading some background on the man himself, his prep for the event, and the tournament report!
Background
Hi, my name is Ruben and I am from Australia. I have been playing Warhammer Underworlds since Nightvault came out and have never looked back. We had a fairly large local community at this time however after the first deck rotation and then Covid I was pretty much the only person playing Underworlds. If it had not been for Vassal and Valentin’s Webcam tournaments I am sure I would have stopped playing as well.
With the introduction of the Nemesis format in version one I heard about a local group of people that started playing Underworlds again. I immediately joined and started playing, however not long after the group started playing a new Age of Sigmar update dropped and the majority of the group went back to playing AoS leaving 3 of us playing Underworlds locally. Over time and with the Introduction of Version 2 we have grown this to a reasonable size group with an ongoing league and regular Underworlds tournaments.
Similar to many others, we have attempted to acquire Golden tickets locally however we have been unsuccessful so far. Common GW 😀
Why Thorns?
Honestly, I wasn’t sold on Thorns at first. When I looked at them in the early days of Underworlds Version 2, they seemed like a downgrade from V1—fewer wounds and damage reduction. I had played Thorns toward the end of V1, so I had them on hand for my first few games in V2. After some early losses, I shelved them, assuming they just weren’t that strong.
A few months later, I brought them back out—mainly to have a warband that wouldn’t overwhelm newer players in our community. After a few casual Rivals games and getting reacquainted with their mechanics, I decided to test them in a Nemesis format match during our local league finals. My opponent was one of our top players, running Mollog, who was on a significant unbeaten streak. The game was incredibly close—but Thorns came through with a win.
That single Nemesis game showed me that Thorns had more potential than I had given them credit for. Even with minimal practice in the format, I liked their playstyle and saw enough tools to make them work. 2 dodge all round is also pretty amazing!
I decided to register for the Canadian Tabletop Championship about a week before the event. I brought Thorns, despite having only played three more Nemesis games with them since the league final. I also chose a deck pairing I figured others would be less familiar with: Pillage and Plunder with Edge of the Knife. The deck was nearly unchanged since I first built it—if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Deck
My deck choices (Edge of the Knife and Pillage and Plunder) were made around doing as little as possible for the most gain. Really, if I can position correctly, I can score really quickly with minimal effort and focus on the side game of trying to achieve the requirements to meet Trial of the Tempered. Of course, I don’t always score this but it also makes the opponent think about their positioning in an attempt to deny me rather than focusing on the best play on hand. On the other hand if they leave me to my side game (and unless they are Gardeners) then there is a good chance I can meet the requirements and score Trial by round 3, assuming I don’t pick up the card too early in which case it will be binned.
CTC 2025 Event
Round 1: vs. Graham Mann (Grymwatch – Pillage/Cata pairing)
This match was a tough mental battle. Graham’s ghouls kept popping up near my treasure tokens, forcing me to juggle board control and deny his scoring. He took Game 1 by a razor-thin 22–21 after a glory recount.
In Game 2, he long-boarded me and placed Crackmarrow deep in his territory. I needed to wound Crackmarrow to score Trial of the Tempered to ensure I could outscore him, which was no easy feat—he didn’t move Crackmarrow until his final activation. But in his final activation he charged onto a neutral treasure token allowing the Briar Queen to Commanding Stride, enabling an inspired attack combo with Mobbed and Gloryseeker to seal the kill, as a ping had previously dropped Crackmarrow’s wounds to 3. Dice played a big part in this game however—Graham’s ghouls missed nearly every attack until the final round. It was a still a very close game and we ended the match 1–1 as we ran out of time for a third game.
Despite how mentally taxing these games were, I thoroughly enjoyed playing against Graham. His tactical discipline and creative positioning with Grymwatch made every decision feel critical. I genuinely appreciated his focus and the high level of challenge he brought to the table. A brilliant opponent I hope to face again however annoying his ghouls may be!
Round 2: vs. Alexx (WTH) (Khagra’s Ravagers – Wrack & Ruin/Cata)
Having used Khagra’s in my early Nemesis games, I knew what they wanted to do—and more importantly, what they hated (not inspiring). My game plan was simple: deny the inspire as long as I could whilst attempting to deny his scoring as well. I succeeded both games, keeping them stuck at one shield defence until round 3. Both games were fairly tight, but Thorns took the wins.
Despite the score Alexx gave me a good run for my money and made me work. I feel games could have gone either way each game and just a single play altered the outcome. For example, Game 1 Alexx had set himself on 2 objectives one in his territory and 1 in mine. He had a guard token in my territory and with my final activation there was no way I could get him off of the objective. I did however have canny sapper or tunnelling terror which he did not expect to teleport me right next to his fighter on a treasure token in his territory and managed to overrun onto the treasure token to deny his inspiration.
Round 3: vs. Sam (Mollog – BARF pairing)
I felt confident here considering I had plenty of practice against Mollog in my local community. But that confidence didn’t last. Sam’s Nasty Critters ability was brutally efficient, deleting ghost after ghost. Game 1 ended quickly in his favour.
Game 2 flipped the script. I scored over half my deck in Round 1, and the game was essentially locked from there. Game 3 echoed the first—too many ghosts lost early, and I couldn’t deny enough of his scoring. A well-fought match, but a loss. Despite the loss I really enjoyed playing against Sam who was a great opponent. I may be scared from Mollog for a little while though…
Round 4: vs. Josh (Morgok’s Krushas – BARF pairing)
Game 4 was against a newer player Josh who was running Morgoks Krushas also with the BARF pairing. At this point I was pretty scared considering what happened with Mollog however in both these game dice again played a major role and Josh managed to send a decent amount of wet noodles my way allowing me to outscore him. My win over Josh took me to top cut and entering day 2 in the top 4.
Top 4: vs. Bobby (Beastgrabbas – Emberstone Sentinels & Pillage)
My first match on day 2 was against Bobby from WTH who had been on a tear in day 1 only just losing to Brian in the last match of the day. Bobby was playing Beastgrabbas with Emberstone Sentinels and Pillage pairing. This was for sure the most tactical match played so far and I thoroughly enjoyed the competition and mind games during this match. I feel all our first two games were super tight all the way to the end with each of us making it extremely difficult to score anything. Game three started fairly close however Thorns started inching ahead as too many Beastgrabbas died. Entering round 3 it became clear that it was going to be difficult for Bobby to catch up and I was going into the final. I genuinely appreciated the respect and intensity we brought out in each other in our match. A true strategist and a great competitor.
Final: vs. Brian (Gardener’s – Emberstone Sentinels & Pillage)
This was one match I was afraid of as there was no way I could score Trial of the tempered so I would be immediately discarding or focusing to get rid of this card if the opportunity came up. I went into this match with the mindset of “pressure is off we can now just have some fun” at which point Brian decided to buy us each a beer.
I think it hit him much quicker than it hit me as first game he let me get Strip the Realm and denied himself Supremacy with mistimed delves. The first game surely would have been much closer had these considerable blunders not occurred.
Second match Brian was on point, he controlled 4 treasure tokens which I struggled to get him off of. This just allowed him to score his objectives while denying my scoring and inevitably I could not catch up.
Game 3 was a banger, it was close from round 1 and we both kept within a couple of glory of each other at all times right until the final activation. The final activation we both knew each other had Torn Landscape however I was sitting on treasure token 5 meaning there was no way Brian could win whether we scored torn landscape or not. I really appreciated my games with Brian and am happy the final 2 games did not turn out to be like the first. Hats off to Brian for being an outstanding finalist and a joy to play against and bringing that heat back after some large blunders in our first game.
Final Thoughts
I’m incredibly glad I went to this event—not just for the games, but for the people. I met some fantastic Underworlds players and was reminded how strong and welcoming this community is. I have to say there was some incredible opponents at this tournament and I feel anyone could have taken the gold, I just happened to get incredibly lucky this time.
Wrap
That was a pretty buckwild finish! Congratulations again to Ruben for pulling this off. I have personally played Edge of the Knife into Grandfather’s Gardeners and know the despair of a nearly guaranteed bricking from Trial of the Tempered. Good on him for persevering into a rough matchup.
I wanted to take a hot minute to discuss the deck and my thoughts about it, and how you might go about using it yourself in this new post-Balance-Update meta.
This first thing to note is that Ruben brought both of the now-Restricted cards from this pairing; if you’re going to take this deck for a spin yourself you will have to decide whether you keep Delving for Wealth or if you keep Mobbed! since you can’t take both. Potentially the easiest thing to do is drop Mobbed! – Ruben brought 11 Upgrades and only 10 Ploys, so this would bring you down to only 10/10 and optimize your efficiency in the power deck. The upgrade is great, especially considering the fact you’ll have so many bodies to trigger it, but the fighters who will benefit most are still somewhat fragile, and the Wave of Terror ability gives you a similar effect on your warscroll. If you’d rather not take Delving for Wealth, suitable Surge replacements might be Careful Survey or Hostile Takeover.
I particularly like a few cards in here for Thorns specifically. Power in Numbers is great for Thorns considering the Soul Warden push, even with the changes to Underdog making that a little harder (notably hordes benefit the most from the new Underdog mechanic rules). Immovable is great for this warband with two dodge across the board and 5 Tempered fighters – they will eventually mis you. For the same reason, It’s a no brainer to be bringing Power from Death. Tunneling Terror is nice for anybody, but particularly so given the fact you drop a charge token on the tunneled fighter and therefore can make use of Wave of Terror. Spiteful Traps has great synergy with the warscroll ability Stare of Death. I also think that the Wave of Terror and Throttle abilities go quite well with Burrowing Strike, as they allow for a relatively inaccurate attack to be a reliable source of range 2, damage 2 to dish out the Tempering you need to secure Trial of the Tempered.
I was somewhat surprised not to see Edge cards Risky Position and Two-Pronged Assault as they’ve been pretty reliable for me in horde Edge pairings, though with the great Pillage and Plunder offerings I can see not taking them.
Let me know if you bring a variant of this deck out for a spin! I’m excited to see how it performs in more people’s hands, especially in this new meta after the Balance Update which might have given a bit more juice to dodgy hordes who are taking something other than CtC.
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!
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