Everybody loves tier lists; they provide a snapshot of the competitive scene from the writer’s perspective and fuel lots of debate and speculation. But tier lists don’t exclusively have to be about competitive power! Today, let’s work together as a community to make a tier list of what Nemesis Decks are the most fun to play. Since, you know, it’s a game, and games should be fun.

+++LINK TO SUBMISSION FORM HERE+++

We did a similar community effort for ranking the most fun warbands, and you can see the results here. Notably this was prior to Spitewood, so surely lots has changed.

This article is a part of the ‘avin a Good Time series, and you can see other entries here

There’s going to be some degree of overlap with competitive strength and fun, of course. Most people prefer to win, and it’s rare to find somebody who is having fun playing a combo that is very difficult to succeed with, especially if your objectives feel impossible to score, or your power cards are rarely helpful for scoring objectives on the other of your two decks.

In the in-between, however, are dozens of deck combos that are enjoyable to varying degrees for a handful of reasons. I decided not to simply compose my own personal Tier List (just yet, anyway) of the most fun decks, but rather to open the floor to the readers to help compile a community Tiers of Joy. We all like different things, and that’s OK! Maybe I’m not into your favorite combo. Maybe I have only played your favorite deck once or twice and just don’t ‘get it’. A subjective tier list from the perspective of one silly boi isn’t as valuable as one we build together.

So let’s set some ground rules! The ultimate guide is ‘how much do you enjoy playing with combo X’, though it can be influenced by your opponents’ fun as well. Maybe you love playing PP/CtC, but your opponents hate that they basically can’t stop your scoring. If part of the experience for you is a shared enjoyment across the table (it is for me), some combos might take a hit that way.

Since there’s now 55 possible nemesis combinations, that’s way too many to have people vote on each and provide S-F rankings. Instead, I’ll make things a little more freeform. The voting sheet will have five spots for you to give your favorite pairings a shout-out. You can write about your five favorites, or fewer if you’d rather just talk about your top three. At the end, I’ll tally together people’s responses and come up with something akin to a top-10.

I’m looking forward to hearing what you think! While I’m sure there will be plenty of representation for the ‘traditionally strong’ stuff like BARF or ES/PP, I’d love to hear if you’ve had fun with something off the wall. I enjoyed ES/RS way more than I thought I would, and have had loads of fun with other ‘bad’ pairings like BA/Wrack in the past as well. Maybe you’re big into something crazy like Edge/Realmstone!

If you have specific reasoning for a nemesis pairing, I’ll have a space for comments as well. Reading that you gave the Blazing/Edge an A or thought it was your second favorite is cool, but it’s even cooler if I can also read how much you love the mental image of a bloodied elite laying about in a final stand. Maybe you put ES/RR as only your fifth favorite, which is fine, but I’d be interested to hear if it’s more ‘I wish the word Emberstone didn’t feature so heavily in both decks’ vs. ‘I wish the Emberstone cards helped me score Hold treasure, rather than just raid with more melee attacks’.

+++LINK TO SUBMISSION FORM HERE+++

In a couple weeks I’ll roll out the community’s votes and commentary! Tell your friends and let’s find out just what’s bringing y’all the most entertainment, why it floats your boat, and maybe give you suggestions on what decks you might have overlooked and will enjoy giving a test drive. Who knows, you might just find a new favorite at the end of it all!

Until next time, I hope you enjoy spending glory with your favorite deck combos!