End of Cycle Kith Choke

Dark Eldar Chaos

This is my take on where Kith is, at the end of the cycle.

Nothing here in this deck that is radical, but I'm presenting my end-of-cycle approach to a top tier warlord as I perceive as optimal. Advice here is mostly for beginners, but experts please feel free to criticise.

There's a lot of obvious includes here, and some choices as well that I believe are optimal.

First off: why Chaos and not Eldar? Simply for me, its because while Warlock Destructors are better than Fanatics for most decks, Kith is all about the command squeeze, and an extra three 2-for-2 cappers tightens the choke notably.
I don't rate the Superiority / Survivalist combo highly enough to give away deck slots to it.

Second: Why no other Chaos Cards? Great though Warpstorm is, I feel that the deck is tighter with the DE events, with a higher chance of 2-shields when you need it. Also, while I love Berzerkers as an affordable fighting unit, I'd rather focus on command, keep the game small as possible (to keep away from the swarm situation that Kith hates, and to minimise the chance of spike damage at Kith).

Third thing: Why no Razorwings? This used to be an autoinclude for me at 3x, but I feel that they are more or less card for a card, albeit slightly in kith's favour. That's good, but ultimately I'd rather have command icons.

Fourth: why no Twisted Lab? Make no mistake, this is a great card for shutting down Cardinis, Librarian and so on. However, I find that the choices available for Kith are so strong, there's no room.

Now onto the odd choices I did run:

Searing Brand isn't widely rated, but it brings the 2-shield total to 9 cards, which is a big advantage in emergent play, and synergises with a deck that aims to command lock a game. Also, once a choke is in, its almost impossible to counter combat control.

Six limited cards? Well, yes. While the chance of drawing 2x limited on one turn is pretty high (19% on turn 1, as opposed to 4.7% with just three Limited) the fact that both cards have shields on them stops collision being dead cards, and actually odds of keeping drawing limited cards every turn is pretty low, so a Limited card saved from last turn can be played the next a lot of the time.

3 Palaces? Well, I gotta admit, others were right, I was wrong. This is a card thats worth drawing dead occasionally for maximising the chance of getting them in opening hand. I used to think 2, but I bow to the wisdom of the community: 3 is right.

So, how do you play this deck?

The key here is denial. Its good to win command struggles, but its more important to deny opponent wins of command struggles. With three promotions, six 2-for-2s, and five 1-for-1s, there's a good chance this can be done. With a low cost curve, Ssylth Mercs have a high likelihood of being playable, and meta fear of Raid tends to have opponents making bigger spends early.

Good early deploys: Syren (as first deploy ideally), 1 costers and 1-for-2s. Good late deploys: 2-for-2s, and Mercs, and Promotions.

Good units for first planet: Hellion Gangs, Bloodied Reavers (with initiative), Khymeramasters.

Tarrus counter is as follows: don't slow down your deploys, but look to win command at Tarrus and commit there if you can.

Planets you'll want to keep an eye on:
Plannum: Really useful for shifting Syren uphill after you win planet 1.
Barlus: Win command to draw towards Khymera Den, win battle to tighten the choke.

Choke strategy:
Depends mostly on planet spread and cards, but generally speaking:
Choke Cato on Resources.
Choke everyone else on cards. However, also try to choke resources as secondary goal to keep opponents from being able to play favourite events.
Exception to choke game is Eldorath: choke becomes a subtheme, first planet bullying is a better goal.


Conclusion:

This deck runs high on command (48 icons, mostly efficient ones), high on shields (29, with nine 2-shielders) and medium on deploy actions (more than SM or Eldar, less than AM or Chaosswarm).