Do you like your competition ‘high stakes’? Do you enjoy watching the suffering of others on youtube? Would you like to combine both of these concepts in Warhammer Underworlds? Allow me to introduce you to the concept of a Pink Slips Match.

For some context, it all started at the 2024 Las Vegas Open when Mike Prime/Sleeksbowl of the Underworlds Underground podcast challenged anybody of the What the Hex podcast to throw down in a winner-takes-all nemesis match. Both players would bring a Nemesis deck and a well-painted warband of their choice, to be kept secret until they were both live on camera. They would then complete a best of 3 match, and whoever won would take home their opponent’s warband, cards, and pride.

Brian accepted, and after the Grand Clash was over, 15 or so of us convened in his hotel room to watch the ‘real main event’. It was awesome to see in person and give commentary on, and had an electric energy to the whole thing. You can watch the video here if you’re interested, noting it was in First Edition and using old rules compared to today’s game.

Months later, Skyler of What the Hex and Thomas/Saxthom of Underworlds Underground played another one at the Alberta Classic as a vengeance match. Should the losing podcast team of the first match win, they’d retake the first lost warband and the one presented in this game. Should they lose, they’d be down two warbands and doubly in shame. You can watch that one here. Note it’s also from First Edition.

I won’t discuss either match in this article in the event you haven’t seen them and wanted to see the action without spoilers, so all I’ll say is at the end of these two matches, WtH and UWU were 1-1.

This past year at the 2025 World Championships of Warhammer, we decided to run it back. I was the last Underworlds Underground host who hadn’t stepped into the arena, and Brian was disappointed Davy and I hadn’t managed to play one while also being the event streamers at Worlds 2024. So, he challenged me, and I ain’t no coward, so I picked up the gauntlet and we set to preparations.

By that, I mean continued to prep for the actual World Championships and practice the Starblood Stalkers deck I eventually brought. While Pink Slips are, like, a really big deal or whatever, I had other priorities. I wasn’t going to play the Stalkers in our match because:

A) They were not my best paint job
B) I was doing super well with them in practice and I actually was worried they were too good and I wanted to be sporting about it,
C) Brian and I both being on Team USA and homies meant he knew what I was bringing to worlds and I didn’t want him to use that as advance info, and
D) The Pinks match would be the night before worlds started, and I didn’t want to be embarrassed twice after I lost and then had to ask if I could borrow ‘his new warband’ to play in the tournament with.

So, I decided to just take the Emberwatch and my Blazing/Wrack deck I qualified for Worlds with. I knew them relatively well and that meant I didn’t need to practice with them at all and could focus on Worlds prep instead. And hyper-confidence never hurt anybody, right? There’s no way Brian could possibly threaten my boy Ardorn, right?

Anyway, if you want to read about that deck and its prior performance, check out the deck review here and the Tacoma Open tournament report here. I had actually assumed Brian would be taking Gardeners ES/PP since he’s a new dad with zero free time and would just roll with the thing he has been playing recently and was already bringing to WCW. That matchup wasn’t perfect for me, but I’m all confidence all day so no worries. But what was he actually going to bring?!

I reached out to Brian for this article and he said this about his preparation:

Pink Slip Match III

To preface, I had already done my duty in the first Pink Slip Match. In the fabled Las Vegas hotel room, I battled Mike Sleeksbowl and established the tradition to thunderous applause. The bout was more harrowing than any match I played at Worlds ’25. Skyler and Thomas did their part in Alberta at the next opportunity for a Pink Slip match.

Worlds’24 was our 3rd rendezvous with the gangsters of the Underworlds Underground. The event came and went with no match occurring. This shamed me gravely. I couldn’t bear to have it claimed that the What The Hex!?! crew meekly avoided confrontation and wager. As Worlds’25 approached, I feared another occurrence of our two podcasts passing in the night without an exchange of dice over Pink Slips. Shamed as I was at Davy and Phil’s reluctance to accept the challenge, I could wait no longer, and threw my gauntlet once again.

Then. My mistakes began.

Having intentions to play my beloved Grandfather’s Gardeners at Worlds’25, I choose a warband that I could bare to lose. I had already put it all on the line for Slaanesh and country in Las Vegas. This time, like Lord Farquaad, the Headsman’s Curse would be the sacrifice I was willing to make. I thought they would prove a curveball to any counter intended for my Gardeners. And then I choose a deck combination of Deadly Synergy with Pillage and Plunder. I wanted to play with one of the new decks and thought this would be another curveball. I’ll accept your admonitions at this time. One practice game was all I had time for among Worlds preparations.

When Fish revealed his Emberwatch, I knew I should’ve just taken my Gardeners. But that potential loss would’ve been far worse. What happened next, I have suppressed.

“So that was at least the premeditation, but then it all burned down lol” – Brian.

With that out of the way, here’s the video clip if you want to watch the match live. Then I’ll follow with a short summary of the games from my perspective.

Game 1:

Facing into Headsmen was a little scary considering their whole thing is “counterpunching” and “anti-elite”, and I was playing, well, an invading elite. I also have very little experience against Headsmen, so I was more than a little worried I would make some error and end up beheaded. Pillage is obviously a super strong deck, and Deadly Synergy is too, though the combination was pretty untested at the time. I knew already I needed to separate his fighters for Alone in the Dark, but would need to do so even more to prevent him being United. It will help him score cards and boost his defense, both things I need to avoid.

The good news is I drew into a beautiful opening hand that included Sidestep on a board that allowed me to push Farasa into enemy territory before I activated with her, allowing me to kill the sharpener with Vicious Intent, break unity, inspire, score Get Stuck In and Strong Start, and teleport Ardorn over before using Fireproof to keep him safe. Then I was able to activate Ardorn and have both of my fighters who can get to two shields inspired to that excellent defense profile after activation 2 and I was sitting pretty. I healed up Farasa, continued to chip away through round 1, claim a token to block Strip the Realm, and whittle down the Bearer of the Block while scoring Bloody and Bruised, then end the round having scored Ploymaster. Going into Round 2, I was in a great state and ahead 5 Glory to 1.

For round 2, I rolled a crit for priority and got to press my advantage with a double turn. I immediately shot the Bearer down to vulnerable and used Raptors of Sigmar to remove him from the board. I then used Illusory Fighter to take Farasa out of danger since she had 3 damage counters, and get her safely to the edge of my board. I do want to be totally open and honest here and spell out that I inadvertently cheated by placing her in an edge hex rather than a starting hex – I had confused the placement with the Emberwatch’s Vanguard Dash teleport, it was late at night, and I had just flown in from Seattle to play. I don’t know that it affected the game’s outcome necessarily – though potentially Brian could have used Canny Sapper to get the wielder in range to finish her off (and resurrect the Bearer) so I do feel kind of bad. If it makes you feel better, I actually didn’t want her in an Edge Hex since I was working toward scoring Stay Close, but I do regret making an advantageous error in an honor match on live TV.

For fun, the auto-captioning on YouTube thinks it’s called Kenny’s Zapper which is what I will be calling it from now on. Another choice quote was “He’s really reaching hard for Branching Fate, but he’s rolling too many successes. It’s a tough life Fish leads. His fate is not branching, it seems fixed… on crits”

The dice were kind (and helped by the two shields) and my hand was pretty awesome, and as a result I was pretty quickly able to put Brian in a position where he felt he needed to concede so we could finish the best of three in time. Emberwatch took game 1 with a score of 7-1.

Game 2:

Opening this game, Brian had the opportunity to choose the board and he picked the Spitewood board with 4 Waystone hexes. This likely was because it gave him more adjacent starting hexes to deploy into for getting United, and the wielder doesn’t mind getting some rerolls either, plus his teleport could put him on an Aqua Ghyranis (which he can also delve for scoring). All of these are reasons I chose an Embergard board to play with in Game 1.

Brian won the priority roll and immediately charged a Condemned Farasa, hit her to inspire the Scriptor, and delved to score Claim the Prize. I played Damned if you Do and Brian chose to accept a point of damage on the Wielder rather than allow me to push and break unity – these kind of hard choices are part of why I love Wrack and Ruin! I shot at the Wielder with Yurik but whiffed, and Brian then moved the sharpener onto another token to score Share the Load, and he’s up 2-0. Fortunately I have ole’ reliable in my pocket and charge with Farasa using Vicious Intent to hit the wielder for 2 more and teleport Ardorn into the mix while scoring Bloody and Bruised, then drop Hidden Aid on him. Brian closes in on Farasa with Commanding Stride, regaining Unity as well as an opportunity to ssmack Farasa and inspire the Wielder, so I play Confusion to break the unity (though Farasa is still flanked).

While he still managed to set things up for a hyper accurate Grievous to slay Farasa and inspire, and then heal thei Wielder to have 3 health left, I did make him blow many of his resources and likely still came out ahead there – I knew when I charged her in she wasn’t long for this world uninspired and without Healing Potion or Illusory Fighter – her job was to hit the wielder (check) and give Ardorn the opportunity to inspire himself (check). Let us now honor Twice-Risen’s noble sacrifice, which also relevantly makes me the Underdog.

Ardorn makes the most of the opportunity and blitzes in with Determined effort, getting me 4 dice on hammers and flanked with Hidden Aid. That goes through and lets me slap Raptors of Sigmar to finish the Wielder off before striding over to the AG token at the end of round 1. Brian grabs Torn Landscape but I get Alone in the Dark and Keep Choppin’, so we head into round 2 with the Emberwatch leading 8-6.

I get to go first and take a potshot at the Bearer to take him off a token and score Critical Effort while preventing the Scriptor from being able to Condemn any of my fighters. Brian does manage to play some good cards in sequence to charge back at Yurik and take his treasure token, then drop Wary Delver to put the Bearer on guard. My assumption is he’s trying to score Closed Down, and so I know the Bearer has to go. I play Sidestip to get Ardorn within 2 hexes, then apply Keen Eye and Accurate along with Flanking from Yurik to really up my odds. Extending my melee attack range with the warscroll, I play Twist the Knife. This is 4 hammers flanked with a reroll for 3 damage and that’s goodbye Bearer. I’m feeling pretty good. Neither of my fighters have even charged yet and his two best pieces are off the board while I’m ahead 12-6.

“While all of the Warscroll tricks have been used, I’d say they were well used.”

“I have to agree with you Phil – nothing feels better than to have used your abilities and then be looking at a board state that Fish is currently looking at right now”

“A Dominant Position you might say”

Brian does his best to claw something back, but a crit defense from Yurik allows me to again tank his attacks, then teleport Ardorn into striking range with Illusory Fighter and Brian repays me with a crit defense of his own. The sharpener flies over to the token and hits Yurik for 1 more. After I get the Scriptor vulnerable, he uses the warscroll teleport to jump to an edge hex in his territory to keep him alive and block Stay Close, which was a wise move since I did have it in hand. What he didn’t know is that I also had On the Edge and would score 1 for him being vulnerable regardless. Alone I Stand gets Ardorn onto another treasure to block Strip the Realm, and then I also score Fields of Blood. heading into round 2, I;m winning 14-6 Everything’s coming up Milhouse.

As we dive into round 3, I win the roll off, charge Yurik (who fantastically has a 4-hex ranged attack) to kill the Scriptor AND score Get Stuck In (thanks for the board position, Brian) and then drop Great Fortitude to him so that he has 3 health remaining in the event the sharpener draws some plus damage or a weapon upgrade. Brian does of course drop Coordinated Deqathblow, which is the one thing that could still maybe kill Yurik (as his last fighter is always united)… so I play Fireproof.

Shortly thereafter Ardorn tables him and we draw cards, score our stuff, and I win 20-10.

Game, Blouses.

Wrap

I want to give a huge thanks to Brian for being willing to step into the cage with me and pushing to make sure this match happened. There’s a different level of adrenaline that hits when you orient the board for a pink slips match I wasn’t quite prepared for! I also want to give props to Brian for doing the original one of these with Mike Prime back in the day and allowing this awesome tradition to be born in the first place. Big shout out to Phil and Jerod for running the live stream with awesome commentary and camera work and being willing to stay up late with us before the big show got underway for the weekend. Finally, thanks to Thomas for taking the warband back home since I couldn’t fit the pink slip box in my suitcase. It’s not like I planned to win or anything!

While playing for keeps isn’t for everybody, I think it was a thrill that’s worth the risk for those who can stomach it. If you ever do a pink slip of your own, or if you just like to watch our dumb podcasts do it, I hope you enjoy spending your glory!