Experiment Nation

Looks fun to play, have you playtested it much?

Only a little so far I'm afraid. Hope to do more in future.

Internally it seems to run smoothly, and I actually feel like I'm using his ability and getting the most out of torture shenanigans.

Mandrake with Hypex is scary and I've found if the Oubliette comes out early it gives you a huge amount of control over the opponent's possible plays.

I fear that a smart opponent can play around stuff though as there's no major surprises or counters in there, and it tends not to create the kind of choke Kith is loved/hated for (unless you have the Oubliette, which creates it's own special kind of choke).

If you try it (or something similar), please let me know how it goes for you!

I think swarms will the biggest problem, bordering on autolose if you don't out punch the warlord.

Interesting that you choose chaos allies for only one card. Have you considered other stuff? Khorne Berserker, Posessed, Virulent Plague Squad?

All seem to be worthy Hypex targets, VPS requires some discard prep.

I was tempted to add a warpstorm or two myself.

I feel it's still worth it at 4, and Urien needs that crowd control. It's also a pseudo doom and lets you tickle the enemy warlord a bit more.

Not sure if it's a straight replacement for soul seizure, but I was very often in the situation that there was noting good to pull from the trash to justify the cost.

"When using Experimentations you should almost always say Event or Attachment to remove Shields (whichever is more likely to be a 2-shield depending on faction/hand knowledge). It's primarily an enabler of Wracks/Hypex/Seizure/Crucible unless you happen to be in position where hunting the enemy Warlord is viable."

Could you elaborate on this a bit more, cause I don't think that I follow. The opponent is not in any way obligated to discard what you name, he can simply take the 1 damage and discard whatever shield is convenient at the moment.

Ah yeah, you're right, that was a brain fade, he'll probably just use a 1 shield card > discarding a 2 shield card anyway (unless he really likes all his 1 shield cards). The general principle, however, is trying to get him to burn a shield (or take a damage on his warlord), as both +1 damage and -1 shield makes his warlord easier to bloody.

As also noted, more often it's played as the cheapest way of enabling other effects and the shield loss/damage is a bonus.

I'm not really a fan of playing even a single standard event in Urien (bar some kind of uber-synergy) since you have to play a lot of Torture events over the course of the game to feel like it was worth taking him over Kith anyway, so every normal event played is undermining that advantage. I do recognise the case for Warpstorm though.

Agree with the lack of AoE problem - Hypex on Mandrakes can help a bit with this (either by shooting the swarm or taking out the warlord), as can the 20 shield cards, and potentially the Wracks if the swarm doesn't kill them. Kith of course can swarm *and* rout Mandrake/Wrack. Depending on the nature of the swarm, Oubliette, Crucible, and Visions may also help keep it under control. Still, it is one of Urien's weaknesses at this time.

As for other Chaos cards - whilst in some match-ups SS does just become a shield (so sad it isn't 2 shields!), it can sometimes grab something that actually helps with some of the deck's weaknesses (e.g. swarm control) and usually there's something in the opponent's discard that I would rather have than a Possessed etc. (also being able to ambush it anywhere, especially if threatening the enemy warlord, is nice). It's worth noting, with more Uniques appearing soon and potentially more viability for Elites, good targets will increase in future.

With SS, Klaivex, Mandrake the cost curve is already a little higher than I run with many decks, so would struggle to pick what to drop to put in Chaos cards (sure some are nice with Hypex, but Mandrake will virtually always be the best target for it's Ranged kill-everything/warlord potential). The reason I went Chaos for Fanatics > Eldar for Destructor, was ultimately because command is really important to draw Torture/Janky combos and then be able to afford to play them.