Elathain’s Soulraid by Jesse/Fundough

Welcome back to the Love Letters Series, where readers discuss the warbands and pairings that they enjoy the most. Today we have a celebrity guest: Jesse, who goes by Fundough on Discord, is here to discuss Elathain’s Soulraid and his deck that he took to the World Championships of Warhammer in Atlanta this year. The article deals almost exclusively with the card choices, so if you’re unfamiliar with Soulraid and are looking for a primer on the warband, head on over to this review article.

This was written prior to his run, so he didn’t yet know that he would be

Making the top 16 cut
Spending much of the event as the number 1 ranked American
End up winning the BATTLEMASTER award for most glory scored across the event.

A post-event recap will be forthcoming from Jesse about that heroic run. Without further ado, let’s plumb the depths of this aquatic mind and read about Jesse’s BA/PP Soulraid and his deck, along with thoughts as he prepared for the event.

UnderWORLDS is here. Or…was here, by the time I release this blurb. Today’s date is November 4, just one day before my flight to Atlanta from Washington, DC. In light of this major event and the new shake up to the meta due to Spitewood, I’ve decided to compile my thoughts in this love letter to Elathain’s Soulraid, one of my favorite warbands from 1st edition, and (potentially) 2nd edition depending on how well I fair with them this coming weekend.

First, an introduction: My name is Jesse (or Fundough in discord). I’m currently living in DC, so I’ll be representing the US Capitol in a few days. A long time boardgame fan, I got into UW just after Gnarlwood about 3 years ago with a handful of friends after the decline of Star Wars Xwing. We were looking for another small-scale game playable in an hour or so that had enough strategic depth to encourage creativity in list-building and actual gameplay. Enter: Underworlds.

With that out of the way, what is it I love about this 5-unit team? Well the crab, obviously, but I’ll spare any further bubbling over the miniatures and instead dive straight into their gameplay/mechanics and why they make waves for me. Ok I’m done. For now…

First and foremost is their overall flexibility. Why do I believe they deserve this tag? Well…for one, they’re packing a diverse set of fighters. Their “Swiss army knife” of units lets me feel like I have something of an answer to whatever my opponent is doing. Do I need to sit tight on a key objective vs Starblood or Khagra? Furainn is perfectly capable of that. Do I need accurate attacks with cleave to pick off key targets? Elathain is my man. Need a Voltron-ed up range 2 fighter to kite horde warbands? Tammael can fill that role. Do I need mass damage to take down Mollog or Wurmspat? Uh…well I hope I draw into Great Strength. I guess every warband has its weakness, and Soulraid’s greatest strength of being so flexible is also perhaps their greatest weakness. As a “jack of all trades, master of none,” they DO hurt for outright damage, but I’m hoping to leverage everything else they offer to get a competitive advantage otherwise.

Adding to the flexibility is a varied (and powerful) warscroll. This warscroll is packing it all: stagger tech, defense and damage mitigation, extra movement, additional attack dice, a resurrection mechanic, and even grapple! Actually boo grapple since it can’t work unless the enemy can already be pushed. Whatever. Anyway…obviously these are all situational, but even without any active abilities, Soulraid feels like they’ve got a tool for whatever job they need done.

My second loving reason for picking the sea elves, is their access to maneuverability:

I like movement and being able to leverage positioning as a strategy in most any game. In Star Wars Xwing I preferred the highly maneuverable Aces ( Soontir). In Apex Legends I played Valkyrie for her map presence and rotations. In WoW I played a feral druid and my arena partner played a rogue; we were able to leverage our positioning and movement more than any other pairing and used that to our advantage. If any character has a ‘blink’ type ability or a maxed-out speed stat, they’re the first ones I consider. Soulraid fits the bill due to their relatively high movement stats and the free push. Maneuverability was also a big reason for my selected Soulraid pairing of BA/PP due to the myriad of movement-enhancing power cards and the play-pattern of being able to delve then move to a new position afterwards instead of holding like ES or CC may require, as an overall concept. Am I trying to brute-force some other game mechanics into Underworlds? Perhaps…but in this new Spitewood frontier, I’ve found that extra movement helps with claiming/denying the new aqua ghyranis tokens and being able to snipe a key target that may normally be out of range. Looking at you, Deintalos, Crackmarrow, even other (evil) Elathains!

Side note: I’d like to give a special shoutout to Shadeborn and their teleport. If I had more time to understand the strengths of that warband, they would have been a contender for my World’s selection as well. Alas.

As part 2 of this love letter novel, and in preparation for Worlds I wanted to make like the fish and deep dive into my deck and reasoning behind each decision. This will also act as a pre-tourney benchmark to which I can compare my final results and evaluate my decisions.

Pairing:

I think Soulraid’s flexibility allows for multiple deck combos to fit whatever you’d like to do. As noted, they have accurate attacks for aggro, they have good defense for hold, and it’s because of this toolkit that I personally wanted to dip a bit into each playstyle and choose one aggressive deck paired with one more passive one. Enter my selection of Blazing Assault / Pillage & Plunder. No, it’s not an original pairing, and that is precisely why I picked it. I had been running this pairing recently with Borgit’s (also a contender for my Worlds warband), and I felt it easier to learn a new warband if I had some consistency with a familiar deck pairing. I’d love to have had the time to try multiple other combinations of ES, CC, W&R, DS, etc… but given that I qualified for Worlds at what I believe to have been the last available US ticket at the New York Open in October, I just didn’t have time to diverge too much from what I knew. And still…I believe BA/PP is *perfectly* fine for how I envision piloting the Soulraid this weekend.

Back to the show!

Here’s the deck in full

Surge Objectives

Branching Fate – A decent surge that has the best chance of hitting with exactly three dice. Without rerolls, odds are about 44% that this hits and it gets worse with wanting more dice via Keen Eye or Determined Effort. But, similar to Critical Effort below, it can be scored with only one fighter and doesn’t need any special positioning, always a plus.

Critical Effort – This pairing with Soulraid means they’ll be making attacks. This will hopefully land sooner rather than later. With three dice for most of their attacks, that’s a 42% chance each time to get this. And it gets better with modifiers. Not bad.

Get Stuck In – Probably the easiest surge this deck pairing has to offer. Unless you draw it round 3 and there’s no one left in enemy territory, of course. Just grapple them back! But this is super solid and one you’re always happy to see out the gate at the game start. Easy pickings.

Share the Load – Pretty easy to achieve after two activations (or one with sidestep). I’ve actually found it a little awkward since I often tend to be sitting on three tokens with Furainn and the Sea Monsters (way cooler than Hootie and the Blowfish) and will sometimes have to intentionally push off a token or run to a 4th token with Tammael that I otherwise wouldn’t have needed. Still solid, however.

Hostile Takeover – with a couple of ranged fighters and a nearly un-pushable Furainn, getting two standing attacks throughout the entire game is quite feasible. Also a reason for at least one of my selected upgrades. More on that later…

Careful Survey – Another objective that is easy enough to score with the free minion pushes and Furainn’s ability. Occupying three territories happens pretty organically, and this is scorable early. Solid.

Other notable Surges:

Perfect Strike – oof. While tempting at first, a 3H attack only has a 12% chance at meeting this requirement. 2H has a 25% chance. Swords attacks are even worse, of course. I dislike this since Soulraid doesn’t tend to get flanked/surrounded often enough (pour one out for the first edition support fish). Yes, it gets better with modifiers, but given that we want surges early and this has the least chance of succeeding when compared to the other BA surges, this one gets left at home.
Delving for Wealth – Sooo tempting, but at the cost of Illusory Fighter, I can’t make myself take this. Illusory can be game winning and with the other surges being very feasible for Soulraid, I find immense value in using my restricted slot on the power card.
Claim the Prize – See above.
Strong Start – I’ve come around a bit on this surge in general for aggressive warbands, but the fish is too much a liability here. Not for Soulraid.
Aggressive Claimant – The last PP option, and one to consider in general. I feel this one is ok, but more dependent on my opponent doing something rather than my own execution of my gameplan. In other pairings where I’m forced to take this one, I feel fine as it tends to happen often enough, but still there seem to be better options here for Soulraid.

End Phase Objectives

Jesse was putting the hurt on people in Beyblades as well this week

Keep Choppin’ – Great. Making three attacks is easy most any round.

Fields of Blood – Seems like a near auto-score in rounds 2/3. Only round one is iffy, but still manageable. Solid one-pointer.

Broken Prospects – Since Soulraid can cover three tokens with one activation, I look for this early. And later rounds, the second qualification usually comes online. Solid two-pointer.

Desolate Homeland – Easy. Next.

Torn Landscape – Pairs well with Broken Prospects for both qualifications. And again with Soulraid’s ability to command three tokens, it’s usually pretty feasible.

Strip the Realm – Once again, claiming three tokens in one activation means Soulraid only needs to protect two more. One of those is usually a bit out of the fight and would force aggressive warbands to give up a fighter/turn to stop this objective. Blazing Assault also helps this with Lure of Battle. Lots has been said about this card and there is also value in A) having it in your deck to make your opponent play around it and B) leaving it at home and having your opponent STILL play around it (until they see your whole objective deck). I’m under the impression that the correct move is A, as Soulraid can take this pretty comfortably.

Ultimately I chose to go with 6 to smooth out my surge scoring. I’ve teetered back and forth with taking 13 objectives, but (at least with this pairing) tended to need a couple “extra” activations to score my surges from either not meeting the dice result requirements (Critical Effort / Branching Fate) or needing multiple turns (Careful Survey / Hostile Takeover / Share the Load). A warband like Gitz or Hexbane can achieve those latter three in one activation, churning through their deck just a tiny bit quicker. For these reasons, I have found I like 12 cards with Soulraid.

Other notable End Phases:

Against the Odds – This was my 7th objective. Or…6th really. You can make the argument to sub it for any of the other 1-glory objectives and I wouldn’t fault you. It was splitting hairs here, but ultimately I decided to again, leverage positioning. If I draw this in rounds two or three, needing to find an odd objective was sometimes too constraining to whatever overall gameplan I needed to execute at that very moment. Thus my decision to leave this one at home.
Lost in the Depths – Similar reasoning on all accounts for leaving Against the Odds at home. This is a bit at odds with the crab/fish push that must end closer to an elf, though.
Go All Out – Since Soulraid doesn’t have extra moves like Kainan and Gitz they rely on their opponent to contribute to this. Boo that. This also directly opposes Hostile Takeover, which I didn’t like.
Annihilation – No. Soulraid doesn’t have the damage output (or this deck pairing) to make this work.

Ploys

As has been stated, ploys are here to help score Objectives. With that in mind, here are the ten I’ve chosen:

Determined Effort – Solid ploy. Helps to land attacks and score Critical Effort, Branching Fate, Fields of Blood. There is particular synergy with Soulraid here that works if Tammael is dead, likely granting underdog, meaning Elathain can attack with this for a much better chance at resurrection. Neat!

Twist the Knife – A known powerhouse of a ploy since it can be played at “instant” speed (referencing Magic the Gathering). Soulraid lacks in damage. It’s essentially a ‘ping’ that can kill. Booyah.

Lure of Battle – Pairs well with Strip the Realm. Also helps Elathain and Furainn attack without charging. Manipulating your opponent’s fighters is great. And can be used on friendly fighters for added flexibility.

Sidestep – Yes.

Commanding Stride – Helps with the survivability of our precious leader by keeping him out of harm’s way. Also let’s him reposition offensively to avoid being charged out. A solid card, but one I considered leaving at home. More on those decisions later…

Illusory Fighter – I touched on this earlier, but my guiding light for decisions in this current edition and tournament was maneuverability. And this is king.

Wings of War – More move tech. How much is too much? A legit question, buuut I’ve found that by having this card in my deck, I can deploy Elathain at a safer distance in round one knowing I can launch him out of his hiding spot vs not having this at all. It also helps with surprise activations from one of the minions that may have seemed out of range. And in my testing, it has grabbed me at least one Aqua Ghyranis token that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten, and that’s cool. Props again for ‘instant’ speed.

Shields Up! – Just a solid flexible card that helps secure tokens, and up my survivability. If it causes even one attack to miss or one token to be held, it’s worth the slot.

Healing Potion – More survivability please. I should note that not only do these cards prevent bounty glory for my opponent, they also keep more scoring options on the table for my own objectives. I need three fighters for Careful Survey, and I need multiple activations to move onto tokens for other objectives. These types of cards work double duty on those ends. It’s not just “one health point”, it’s an extra activation. Or more…

Trapped Cache – Again, Soulraid lacks damage and this is a solid way to help shore up attacks vs odd-health fighters in particular. It also directly helps Fields of Blood.

Wow, Blazing Assault’s ploys are good. Who knew?

Ploys to have considered:

Prideful Duelist – While this does offer that enhanced survivability I noted earlier, the timing of this just didn’t line up in the couple of games I had tested. A fighter needs to be damaged BEFORE I activate that fighter, then the optimal target must be in enemy territory. Compared to Healing Potion, this is just worse. I think either Shield’s Up or Commanding Stride could also work defensively and don’t require such specifics on my part.
Brash Scout – Ooo this was my hardest cut. And is such a good card since it’s reactive. Ultimately, I decided to go with Wings of War over this card for the overarching maneuverability reasoning. That said, I know I’ll draw Wings at one point when I just need to land an attack instead. But of course, the inverse would be true if I had included Brash Scout, so I chose to go with (and hinge my gameplan around) movement. I like hitting attacks. This was my toughest call…
Crumbling Mine – It directly helps me score Torn Landscape, which is nice, and at one point I was running this in my Borgit’s deck. Soulraid tends to have just enough extra movement that I could usually afford to throw a body 5+ hexes away for that token wayyy in the back if needed, something the base move three Borgit’s couldn’t quite do. I’m also aware of its benefits vs other token warbands since it throws off some specifics of either delving and needing treasure tokens specifically. But those were just a bit too niche for taking to a large tourney where I’d prefer my cards be more universally useful across all games.
Explosive Charges – An apt substitute for Wings of War that can trigger Canny Sapper while Wings cannot. This isn’t nothing, as it has done exactly that for my Borgit’s deck more than I’d have expected. Ultimately I went with the instant-speed Wings here, but both could work. I suppose there’s the added benefit (or curse) of being able to contend with opponent’s Domains, but those are also pretty niche.
Wary Delver – With Shields Up! already in the deck, this wasn’t the redundancy I was looking for in a Blazing Assault pairing and I’d have rather had more accuracy before I’d consider this one, despite its merits.

Upgrades

Brawler – When you need to dive a key target in the thick of the scrum, this is perfect. Also Deadly Synergy players hate this one trick! And I expect a lot of united fighters this weekend.

Hidden Aid – Soulraid doesn’t quite get supported attacks as organically as I thought they would. At least not with the PP pairing. This card is a very welcome boon to range one fighters for both offense and defense.

Accurate – This is a strike deck. I need attacks to hit. This card does that.

Great Strength – Soulraid needs damage.

Duelist – Ensure we can grab a token after a successful attack even without overrun. Also put onto a round two Tammael and have him kill four Gitz with four ensnared attacks while he skates around the board. Dude. Sweet.

Great Fortitude – Survivability. Check.

Keen Eye – Hit more attacks. Great.

Burrowing Strike – OK this one. This slot was my “open” slot and was between this card and Gloryseeker. Obviously Soulraid likes damage, but adding a range two attack opens up so many options for (again the theme) positioning that I otherwise wouldn’t have. Give Furainn some reach while she stands fast on a central token. Ensure you can make an extra standing attack to secure Hostile Takeover. Grab an aqua ghyranis token without sacrificing Keep Choppin’. The openings this card provides in a warband with four viable targets is awesome. It was my last pick, but I’m confident it was the right one. That said, when I lose a match to something that lives with one health and Great Strength is on the bottom of my deck, I’ll reconsider this entire article…

Canny Sapper – Maneuverability. Both better and worse than Illusory. Game-winning potential.

Impossibly Quick – Survivability for Elathain. Sold.

Whew. Well, that does it for the card selections. I’ve now finished this section on November 5th at the airport awaiting my flight to Atlanta. Since my flight is about to be called to line up, this seems like a good point to stop and figure out some board strategies in the next few hours while in the air. Thanks for reading so far! To be continued…

Spoiler: lots of victory fists across his week

Wrap

Thanks to Jesse for putting this guide together! Elathain and friends were very popular at the World Championships, especially when paired with BA/PP, and it’s not hard to see why. Tune in next time to hear just how he put together his hugely successful campaign with this deck, and in the meantime feel free to give it a spin for yourself. It looks like loads of fun!

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!