Eldorath Star(cannon)bane

unfortunately wildriders lack the mobile keyword, so DFA wont work on them.
giving wildriders armorbane is pretty nasty though

Oops - experiment failed already :-/

You can wait untill the next War Pack comes along and try again using the DE Bloodied Reavers. Now a 4 streangth attack with armorbane is fearsome. It doesn;t quite abuse Death from Above but you can't have it all !

Unfortunately Starcannon can be attached only to Eldar vehicles.

Sit tight guys: once we see Baharroth I think there'll be a very strong case for including 2 x DFA, though not Starcannon. Till then, DFA is something of a dead card.

To be honest, I played a game with this deck last night. I took out the 3xDFA and dropped in 1 extra Spiritseer Erathal (to use Nullify) and 2 Rogue Traders.

It was pretty damn strong. I had armourbane everywhere, and won with a Warlord Kill.

Can't argue with that - the remainder of the deck is all pretty solid. However, the Starcannon is only really applicable as an attachment on the Wildriders: the Wraithfighter is too expensive to be reliable, and the Falcon isn't fighty enough. Net result is that if you can collide the Wildrider and the Starcannon, it will look great, but the way the numbers pan out, you're looking at an 11% chance of collision in the first 7 cards, and only a 2/3 chance in the first 25 cards. Thats not terribly reliable.

High variance isn't a dealbreaker if a combo is powerful enough, of course, and Starcannon / Wildrider is pretty damn good. However, the deck would likely be even stronger with 3 Superiority or 3 Promotions in place of those Starcannon.

I've just updated this after recent games. I still look for 1 copy of Wild Riders in my opening hand and will happily mulligan for it - it's become hands down my favourite card in the game so I can't bring myself to take out Starcannon from this deck. I took out some of the more expensive units and subbed in cheaper ones, including 3xSwordwind Farseer to give me some limited form of tutoring. So far it's preforming admirably but I'm tweaking it on a weekly basis.

I added in a single copy of Craftworld Gate because the amount of times I'm playing Gift of Isha on Wraithguard is providing too good an opportunity to miss. I've also thrown in a single copy of Banshee Power Sword. I know this isn't a popular card, but I seem to be ending games with a huge hand of cards, so this is a means to utilise it, and it doesn't really matter if it doesn't show up.

Generally speaking, if you have a large number of cards unplayed by game's end, then you're playing your economy with suboptimal efficiency.

I'd recommend left shifting your resource curve. Keep the Starcannon and Wild Riders, by all means, as that is one of the nicer combos around.

However, I'd strongly consider going:

-3 Farseers

-3 Warp Spiders

-3 Wraithguard (this being the most controversial call, so disregard this if you wish)

-1 Foresight, -1 Empower, -1 No Mercy.

then adding:

+3 Void Pirates

+3 Rogue Traders

+3 Incubus Warriors

+3 Promotion

This gives you a lower curve generally, more command presence for a given amount of resources, and also gives you six units who appreciate the presence of the Craftworld Gate.

I would also hesitate to use Survivalists unless in the presence of Superiority.

Thanks Asklepios, you make very valid points. I would really struggle to let go of the Wraithguard, they're always my target of choice for Isha because of the surprise factor. 2 resources for an ambushed 4 armourbane is so satisfying

Some of my choices are nostalgia based. I used to play Eldar back in the day and I always loved Warp Spiders. I admit the card was....disappointing. For similar reasons I can see Promotion is a great card but I hate the art. This is why my deck building skills are limited :-)

I completely see your arguments regarding resource curve. I uhmmmed and ahhed over Survivalists for a good while, thinking I'd be better with RT's. I'll try out your suggestions at our FLGS next Thursday

PS - regarding excess cards... I had several games in a row where the planet flop was card heavy. With Survalists and Guardians across the board I was drawing ridiculous amounts of cards

That can totally happen, but even so you should be able to have your resources come close to keeping up with your card draw, no matter the draw.

Thats pretty hard to achieve if you have a 3-cost signature unit generally, and some factions have it easier than others in that card draw can fix resource problems. Chaos is the prime example, as drawing Promise to Glory and SPA means that its hard to outdraw your ability to play cards. Nazdreg similarly, with Bigga is Betta can also fix resource shortages through draw.

For Eldar its tougher: Death From Above is the only way at present to directly convert card draw into virtual resources. This is partly why I think Baharroth is going to be the king of this sort of deck!

Anyroads, if you are attached to the Wraithguard then keep them, and don't add the Incubus Warriors. Both have their pros and cons anyway! Still replace the Spiders and Farseers with the neutral cards though, and you'll be 15 resources lower in cost across the deck!

Another potential play is to run Black Guardians in place of Survivalists: this weakens your draw and resource speed overall, but never forget that card draw and resource collection is a means to a means to an end. That is, you get cards and resources so you can pose threats and find answers, and you do that so you can win battles and kill warlords. The direct substitution there would cut out the middle man, going straight from 2R spend to getting a fighting unit, rather than getting a unit that lets you draw and afford fighting units. Its less powerful in the long run, but more immediate.

Essentially Survivalist because it is 2R for 1 command is quite easy for most decks to shut down by playing 2 command icons opposite it. Thats why its such a natural partner for Superiority, as players will rarely Warlord snipe at a planet where they are already winning command, and Superiority + Survivalist is normally 3R2C to win a command of 2R2C (or thereabouts) while denying the opponent 1R1C (or thereabouts) and negating the investment of his 2 command icons (1C2R, or 2C1R, typically). Note that overall, there's no card advantage generated in that one off move (which is why Kingsley doesn't favour the card) but I believe its still a strong play because of the tempo control elements.