This is my ridiculous Anrakyr deck that's been doing surprisingly well for me. This deck really should have hit the Top cut in the Midlands (UK) regional as well, but a really silly misplay on my part in the last game of Swiss kept me out (my brain decided to turn itself off just when I needed it).
The aim is to use cycle through your deck as fast as possible in order to fish out the answers required for the match up in question, hence the large number of 1x and 2x. Additionally, the deck focuses strongly on both resource generation (Nabba, Trader) and churning the free unit engine (Monolith, Orb). The 4 cost units are almost never intended to be played conventionally, unless there’s either an abundance of resources or the situation demands it, with the exception being the Immortal Legion early game to provide pressure on their warlord and the Ancient late game when it can swing for 5 Amourbane. Their main use is to be fodder for the Monoliths and the orbs. Whilst the Monolith clearly has a lot more targets than the orb, the latter can be set up in many different ways. For example, the signature support, Cantopek Spyder and a Harbringer’d Recycle can force the targets from your hand into the top position slot of the discard pile, whilst the Weight of Aeons, Monolith, Flayed Skull Slavers and the signature attachment grab them from your deck.
Regarding the other units, resource generation is key. Rouge Traders and Skrap Nabbas help tremendously, especially since Anrakyr is quite happy command sniping or ensuring that a silly stack of + money cards actually trigger. The Void Pirates and Warrior of Gidrim are just extra command, with the latter simply acting as an additional target for the Orb and Monolith should it so be required. The rest are all counters to various potential threats: Land Raider + Immortal Legion for DE/Eldar/Worr, Wroth for hand size resets (given throwing cards can easily be beneficial), and the Devastators for those pesky supports. Finally, the Flayer Skull Slavers help fill the discard pile whilst also having the best 2 cost combat stats of all necron 2-costers.
Typically, my dial is set to that of my opponent except when I’m planned to play an Ork or SM, although sometimes I’ll change it to an irrelevant faction to throw my opponent. I prefer to play command units from my opponent’s discard pile so that the number of units in mine is kept high, but the high unit count in the deck means that almost every discard effect will help me play something. Additionally, I can afford to just have a few of just event since the Harbringer is happy to bring them back in when required. The deck typically does strongly against low-mid command decks (SM, Orks, Chaos), decently against Tyranids (with a stronger focus on your own discard pile), and starts to struggle against Eldar/DE choke
Anyway, onto the regional reports:
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GENEVA REGIONAL - 18 players
5 Swiss + Top 4 cut
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The regional happen a few weeks ago now, and as such my memory is terrible, but I at least remember who I played against. I do remember using 3x Mechanical Enhancement in one battle, which was hilarious
Round 1 - Old One Eye/Lictor (tournament winner)
I was able to keep a decent hold on command, but the slow planet layout meant that he was waiting for a later battle to dump all of his resources into his Y-Factor’d Ymarl Genestealer. Managed to scrape through in the end.
1-0
Round 2 - ….
I honestly can’t remember this game. I think it was against Gorzod? Regardless, I won it.
2-0
Round 3 – Nazdreg (4th in cut)
His elites were tough to get through, but mine were tougher. I think I had most of my deck on the table by the end.
3-0
Round 4 – Mavros
I was, surprisingly, able to rush a little to begin with, resulting in a 4th planet victory condition. The balance of forces was somewhat matched, highlighted by my Monolith whiffing, but a double Mech Enhancement trigger pulled me through.
4-0
Round 5 – Morn (2nd in cut)
He was able to block my command here and there, but not effectively enough for me to pull out some tricks. However a critical misplay meant I wasted a Backlash as a shield that I should have kept for later, meaning he just about snuck the win. Still, I got Morn down to 1hp Bloodied ….
4-1
Top 4 – Morn
Same Morn player as Round 5, however I just couldn’t play anything. First turn Archon’s Palace and loads of command units on his side, with an unfortunate unit-low mulliganed hand on my side meant there was little I could do, and a 3rd, 4th and 5th planet victory condition for him meant he could push for anywhere
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CARDIFF REGIONAL – 24 players
4 Swiss + Top 8 cut
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Round 1 – Zarathur (Top 8)
This was a really interesting game with a kid that has some serious Conquest talent (I think he was only 11, and he made the cut!). I let him take the first few planets so that I could build up, then crushed his army on 5th when we both sent our trains to his victory condition. Unfortunately, I had to think so much that we ran out of time, and his 3 planets against my 2 gave him a modified win. If it went just 1 more round it would have easily been a modified win for me, and a full win if it went to final.
0-1 (mod loss)
Round 2 – Nazdreg
Youngest player of the tournament this time (9 years old). She played quite well, but got a little distracted during the game and as such took a little longer for each move than I would have hoped. So whilst the first game went to time because I was too slow, this went to time because she was, but it was an interesting game regardless. I still managed to scrape the modified win, but if the game went on 1 minute longer and started the following round I would have gotten a full win.
1-1 (mod win + mod loss = 1 full win (5 points))
Round 3 – Gorzod
This was an interesting game, since I knew that triggereing Y’varn could haunt me, especially when he dropped Leman Russ Conquerors. However, my Immortal Legions really went to work in this game and prevented his warlord from winning the battle abilities when command sniping, especially since leaving my dial set to Orks allowed me to play my Scrap Nabbas anyway. By the end my Orbs and Monolith were churning out too many big things to deal with.
2-1
Round 4 – Omega/Lictor
My opening hand had 1 of each elite, an STC and a bunch of shields. The planet flop had Iridial at 1st and Y’varn at 4th, meaning quick wins were possible but also there wasn’t a huge amount of command available. As such, I played the STC + Monolith to 1 and passed. He, naturally, steered clear of 1 completely and played 2 command units and passed. Given 3 was Barlus he made sure I couldn’t commit to it, but it was mostly ineffectual since my Monolith dropped in an Immortal Legion, whilst also discarding another Immortal Legion. The following round I played the Harbringer + Orb to 1 (which grabbed the second Legion), whilst the Monolith hit a Lynchguard. By the time we hit my victory condition on 4th I had generated too many things for him to deal with that he just conceded.
3-1
Top 8 – Mavros (tournament winner)
I normally consider Necrons as favoured against Space Marines, if only because Extermination is particularly good against their abundance of 3hp units. However, this guy was playing Firedrakes (to counter Worr) and Sword Brethren Dreadnaughts, meaning when I did play Extermination it wasn’t quite as effective as I would have liked (but still got through about 10-14 resources worth of units). It stopped him winning at his first attempt on his victory condition, but the Sword Brethen helped him trigger Atrox Prime 3 times on my HQ, which hurt my army considerably. Given as well that he got rid on my Orb’d Harbringer and my Monolith in the round before my deck suffered to bring in enough units, and whilst my resource generation was great, it slowed down after the first big battle due to the lack of planets left. Close tough game, but very enjoyable nonetheless
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25 Comments
I've looked at it....and looked at it....then looked at it some more and can't for the life of me figure out how this deck would actually work. Guess I'll have to give it a go
It's pretty far removed from anything I've built with Anrakyr, but then again I've won less than half my Anrakyr games so I'm probably doing it wrong
Perfect!
Same feeling for me.
I'm curiuos why only 1 Eternity Gate?! It is very important card for Anrakyr. What do you do if it is discarded?
Don't worry guys, everyone who sees this deck gives me the same response
. This is not a standard deck and conventional wisdom simply doesn't apply. The rules of commitment, deployment and general gameplay are thrown out of the window because the deck doesn't care for them. I lost a lot of my initial games due to just being confused as to what the best move was, until I finally started putting the pieces together and realising how to use the deck optimally. I remember that in one of my first games I spent 15 mins on a single action because its ramifications dictated what would occur for the entire next round, so I had to know for sure that all possible outcomes would be accounted for so that the desired result could occur.
Regarding the Eternity Gate, it is indeed a very important card, however I'm discarding so many units, along with what my opponent discards, that I'm able to order them at the point of discard to be useful for me. As such, the main use for the Eternity Gate is usually to set up a Resurrection Orb, and when I have gotten it before I've ready to use an Orb I've generally found it to be lackluster. As such, I'm not too pained if it does get discarded
I knew those card protectors were a mistake!
To be honest the Monolith hitting anything that costs 4+ is ideal for me, which is ~20% of the deck, but even the Pyrrihans are decent targets late game as well as the Flayed Ones early game, due to their high attack value. All in all there are 19 targets in total for the Monolith, which is ~40% of the deck, so I'm always quite likely to hit ​something each activation. It's part of the reason why I've taken the Immortal Loyalists instead of the Vostroyans (along with Orb synergy), and why I've got the 1x Gidrim instead of 3x Void Pirate. Think of it as like being why some Space Marine decks will take the 10th Company Scouts as command units, or Eager Recruits instead of Elysians, just to maximise the number of targets for Drop Pod Assault, only with Space Zombies instead
An extra note: A Monolith in the HQ can still be triggered, but just can't put anything into play. This is useful to initiate more discarding should it be required
Best deck I've tried so far!
Yes, totally unconventional and really worked my brains the first time I used, but the deck became clearer to use as I played.
Anyways, thanks for the share! I'm testing out Chaos instead of the SMs in my next game.
Thanks
. It certainly is not easy on the brain, and I don't think I've ever finished a game with this deck in a tournament that hasn't gone down to the last 10 mins (with 2 games going to time). However, once it gets going there's really little the opponent can do against it without significant removal
​Let me know how it goes with Chaos instead. I'm guessing that you're switching out the Land Raider + Devastators for 2x Fiends?
Did I miss something :
is it legal for the 3x limit card ??
Yes, still thinking between 2x Venomous Fiends or 1x Venomous Fiends and 1x Khorne Berzerker.
I do understand that the Devastators are there to bring out opponent's supports and sometimes act as capper, and Land Raider are usually to protect your Elites, eg. Lychguard and Monoliths, on a planet. My choice for Chaos is for the combat, mobile, and damage splash.
I'll post up the results here after testing them out!
Yes, still thinking between 2x Venomous Fiends or 1x Venomous Fiends and 1x Khorne Berzerker.
I'll post up the results here after testing them out!
Given how the deck looks to work I'm surprised you aren't describing it as Combo in addition to tournament quality. Looks like it requires a lot of player skill but can be devastating.
Haha the combos comes out as you play the deck!
Anyways, I tested with Chaos slaves instead of SM last night. The changes are:
-1 Imperial Fists Devastators
-1 Land Raider
+1 Khorne Berserker
+1 Venomous Fiends
Test 1: VS. Slick's Straken
-Forfeited first 2 planets to build up forces on the Planet 3 and 4. Threw down a Dreaded Monolith on Turn 4 on the first planet and a Venomous Fiend on Turn 5 via Anrakyr's Deploy Action. Win the match by green planets. MVP this round was Lychguard Sentinel + Dreaded Monolith.
Test 2: VS. Eldorath Bonesinger
-I was a bit blur on how the match went. Anyways, Anrakyr was almost bloodied (down with 6 damage) by Turn 2 but luckily I managed to pull out Harbinger and Lychguard Sentinel on Turn 3 at Planet 1, Tarrus. Used Reanimation Protocol from hand to heal Anrakyr and sent him to snipe Eldorath's cappers on last 2 planets. Monolith came out late but I remembered I won the game via red planets and Resurrection Orb on Harbinger and a lil help from Eternity Gate. I don't remember pulling out any Chaos in this match.
More test plays later this week!
I haven't had a chance to playtest this deck in a while, but the last time I used it I switched out the Land Raider and the Devastators for 2x Shrieking Exarch to help with pseudo AoE and card draw. I'd be tempted to squeeze in a Follow of Gork or a Defensive Protocols, but otherwise there's not else I'd change
For those interested, I used a slightly modified version of this deck in the final for the Alignment League. I'll post the updated decklist either here or in the tournament report after the recorded game goes live
Tournament report for the Alignment Wheel league is up: http://www.cardgamed...-battle-report/
I used this deck for the final with the following changes (given that I knew I'd be against an Eldar player):
-3 Scrab Nabba
-1 Land Raider
-1 Imperial Fist Devastators
-2 Weight of Aeons
-1 Warriors of Gidrim
+2 Shrieking Exarch
+2 Saim Hann Kinsmen
+1 Drudgery
+2 Freebooter Kaptain
+1 Shroud Crusier
Given the Exarchs the discard from the Weight of Aeons isn't really needed anymore, whilst the Shroud Cruiser is a "nice to have" rather than a necessity for the deck. The Kinsmen are a nice cheaper replacement for the Nabbas, given the lesser dependency on changing the dial, but I'd also be tempted to switch them out for an extra Drudgery/Freebooter since that combo is quite easy to pull off (given the complete dial indepence, allowing more freedom for the Immortal Legions, and the discard effects effectively allowing it to occur in the first place) and so effective for both command and combat
Would you keep these changes going forward or move back to SM/Orks?
I'd definitely keep the Exarchs instead of the SM units, and as a result I'd definitely remove the Weight of Aeons. The only thing I'm not sure on is whether I'd prefer to go all out on the Drudgery combo and take 2x Drudgery + 3x Freebooter (which also helps eliminate the need for any alliances) or take more Kinsmen/Void Pirates and more Shroud Cruisers (which are nice but too expensive). A second Immortal Loyalist or even 1x Ardent Outcast aren't terrible ideas either, but are lower down the list.
I'd need to do more testing to be sure, but even then the deck is in a good spot as it is.
Hi there.
Sorry I only just saw this. This is what I'd keep as my decklist given the state of how the game ended:
If you had to remove a card to hit the 50-card deck, what would you remove?
I was thinking in taking out a one-shield event.