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Astra Militarum Orks
Control Experimental Tournament Quality
By Boocho316, taken from ð˜©ð˜µð˜µð˜±://ð˜¸ð˜¸ð˜¸.ð˜¤ð˜¢ð˜³ð˜¥ð˜¨ð˜¢ð˜®ð˜¦ð˜¥ð˜£.ð˜¤ð˜°ð˜®/ð˜§ð˜°ð˜³ð˜¶ð˜®ð˜´/ð˜ªð˜¯ð˜¥ð˜¦ð˜¹.ð˜±ð˜©ð˜±?/ð˜µð˜°ð˜±ð˜ªð˜¤/30786-ð˜´ð˜µð˜°ð˜¬ð˜¦-ð˜¨ð˜µð˜¨-ð˜´ð˜µð˜°ð˜³ð˜¦-ð˜¤ð˜©ð˜¢ð˜®ð˜±-ð˜µð˜°ð˜¶ð˜³ð˜¯ð˜¦ð˜º-ð˜µð˜©ð˜°ð˜¶ð˜¨ð˜©ð˜µð˜´-1ð˜´ð˜µ-ð˜±ð˜ð˜¢ð˜¤ð˜¦-ð˜¤ð˜°ð˜µð˜¦ð˜¢ð˜»/
1.1: Updated strategy text
1.2: Updated strategy text (correction by handsome guy Boocho316)
1.3 It's June! Updated with new expansions up to Necrons but can use some work.
1.4 -3 Augurs for 2x Sacaellum's Finest, 1x Bolster the Defense, -2 Bad Doks for +2 Snakebite Thugs, -1 Calamity and -1 Emperor's Warrant for 2x Bolster the Defense
1.5 Typo in TEASER section.
Coteaz doesn't have good command or control because of 0 ATK. His special power sacrifices units - Emperor Protects or the Formoson Blackship help mitigate this, but it's a big sacrifice.
Smasha Gun Batteries counter this. Firing the Smasha forces opponents to suffer for their command hammers/cards; either they turn card advantage into shields during Deploy Phase or take damage to their units. Most decks focus on winning command and gaining resources/cards; Smasha punishes this. If a player gets card advantage, you fire the Smasha. Alternatively, if they start shying away from cards, you can start winning command and NOT fire the Smasha. Remember, you decide when to pull that trigger.
In general, Astra Militarium has combat tricks, high HP, but low ATK. Smasha helps here, too - indirect damage tends towards both sides having armies with distributed damage, bringing everybody down to 1 HP. In this state, Coteaz has the advantage - more numbers and the ability to turn "going to die anyway" units into attack bonuses means the more numerous army wins (Coteaz eats healthy units just as well as unit on death's door).
Smasha hurts both sides, but it helps to level the playing field and pushes most decks out there out of their comfort zone. The most flattering quote I've heard to describe it: "No matter how well it's doing, this deck is stressful to play against."
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Specific tricks
Combos! Convert injured units into healthy tokens and follow up with a Calamity. You turn a wounded unit into two fresh guardsmen and fill your opponent's hand with cards. Smasha loves this. Bolster the Defense lets you put out supports, but a 3R Smasha for 0R1C is a steal, especially since you can start the next turn smashing without the opponent having any reaction time. Alternatively, two Troop Transports in one turn is nothing to sneeze at.
Assigning Indirect Damage has a specific process. Put all your damage on your units up to their total remaining HP (first you, then your opponent), dropping any excess damage. Starting with the player who initiated the damaging effect, take turns playing shields as if it were an action phase, with two players passing in a row ending the opportunity to put out more shields. You can do different tricks here. Specifically, an opponent might stick some damage on their Warlord and then shield it - play your No Mercy to bloody/assassinate a warlord.
No Mercy: Markis and Coteaz count as "unique" units, but so does the Coteaz's little eagle sidekick. Pull him off Coteaz for a unique target, then pull him back to your hand for a triple-shield or sacrifice him as a Coteaz buff (turn him into two Guardsmen or Emperor Protect him back to your hand for buffing Coteaz later.)
If you have Coteaz and nothing else on the field (ideally, with your opponent holding a stack of cards in their hand and either LOTS of units to beat up or just their warlord), you can swing the game back in your favor. Normally, Smasha hurts if you have a lot of cards, but since you can only do UP TO the remaining HP on Coteaz, a single shield will leave you with 1 HP remaining. If you only have 1 HP, you can hit yourself with a huge stack of damage, "drop" the excess so you only take one, and shield for 1 HP to keep yourself going. Your opponent still has to take full damage.
This is a nice comeback mechanic vs. big armies or full hands or when you have low HP and just Coteaz. Smash whenever it's most advantageous.
Opening with a Smasha is tempting. Coteaz has 8 HP and becomes a respectable 1/6, whereas quite a few enemy warlords "break" if they're bloodied or can't jump onto strategic planets. In many match-ups, bloodying an opponent (even if you are bloodied yourself) is your advantage.
Units in this deck are high on HP. They can take a Smasha, and you might sacrifice them anyway. A Psyker can take 3 damage and get converted into two healthy Guardsmen! Alternatively, Emperor Protects, Calamity, or just killing off something you planned on dying for an effect (Enginseer Augur, if he gets in this deck, is a good example) are good combos.
Mid- to late-game Smashas, sometimes in rapid succession or with a To Arms! can swing a game or just end it outright. This threat makes opponents keep their hand size down. They might make sub-par plays, shield unnecessary damage, or lose command struggles to avoid a bad smash.
Calamity followed by Smasha can fill an opponent's hand with cards that all convert into damage on his elites or warlords.
Alternate card thoughts:
I've dropped 1x Calamity, 1x Emperor's Warrant, all the Enginseer Augurs, and the 2x Bad Dok...
-1 Calamity
-1 Emperor's Warrant
+2 Bolster the Defense (three total)
-2 Bad Doks
+2 Snakebite Thugs (duh!)
-3 Augurs
+2 Saecellum's Finest
+1 Bolster the Defense
Snotling Attack is pretty good. Sometimes, 4 0/1/1s get around a much tougher unit. I didn't like it before, but I do now.
Tough Orc Units? Specifically thinking Snakeskin Thug or the new cross-faction Orc whose name I forgot.
Calamity, Emperor's Warrant, and No Mercy are now at 1x. I could go 3x on one or any distribution of them, but I probably want to mix it up somehow. Need to playtest these more. No Mercy for the deploy phase win is not an unusual win and lots of people overly rely on shields.
Death Korps Engineers? 3 Toughness makes them good fodder for Smasha'ing but still leaves them able to destroy a support (which can hard-counter some decks).
I *really* want Suppressive Fires. The Bolsters are essentially cost reducers for your supports. And with 13 legal targets, this seems great!
Suggestions?
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41 Comments
You are in to something with the addition of Smasha with coteaz. Let me piecemeal a deck together from what you have here and Jess and I will give you some feedback.
Otherwise at first inspection, because this list is different then when you put it together on Sunday, is that it is too light on units
What happens when you don't draw a Smasha on turn one or two?
What happens when someone plays an elite heavy deck with an alternate resource economy and has just as little command as you. I.E. Chaos Elites with cultist and warpsmith.or Eldar vehicles with bonesinger. Or even better. A similar deck where there warlords "golden hammer" does actually make a difference?
Just some quick thoughts.
Snakebite Thugs: 4 hp for 2 resource
Elysian Assault Team works with Calamity too: you take back a unit then drop the EAT on that planet so you can have the same number of cards (or fewev if you have more EAT in hand)
I like this kinda fun decks, I might give it a try
I used to love EAT but it's more a "combat trick" than something you want on a planet. But if you have enough soldiers or warriors around, it's essentially a 0-cost card that gets a free swing safely in combat. Throwing it out just to keep yourself from getting Smasha'd, though, might be worth it sometimes.
Snakebite Thugs definitely are tempters, plus are super-strong choices as-is, but bring the number of potential Pre-emptive Barrage targets down. Still, they're strength without that are hard to ignore.
Is it? It has 26 units. Don't forget to count in "Snotling Attack", which is an event that works like a Deploy Action, and the Troop Transports, which are "Supports" but essentially function as 1x or 2x 0/1/2 units that can be dropped during combat.
That's alright. It's still a Coteaz Weenie/Ammo Depot deck. Smashas can still hurt after a turn or two, especially if your opponent takes the command lead and draws up some cards. Cards like Calamity, Troop Transport, and Ammo Depot give you different options for how to play these early turns - spend hard and hope for struggles, win planets, and Ammo Depot some cards... or maybe hold on, drop some Troop Transports and supports with the intention of a late game play after an opponent commits lots of units before an unexpected Calamity comes out.
Two things.
1) It'll be nice to see more elite-heavy decks out there.
2) Switch gears and accept a bit of a struggle. More realistically, go for winning the command game and hope the additional costs gives you some breathing room. With lots of bodies, Markis gives you a way to exhaust any troublesome creatures, and there's always Pre-emptive Barrage if ganging up on the troublemaker unit is a real solution. Coteaz battles tend to go best when they're all-in pushes, so this might be the "best case scenario" of elite fighting. Mobile vehicles and 'elite but not super-elite affordable vehicles' are always trouble - in this case, rely on the Emperor!
Specifically, The Emperor's Warrant and The Emperor Protects.
Coteaz's Golden Hammer is always going to be inferior to other Generals if you don't rely on combat tricks (Staging Grounds, ambushing units, Troop Transports, Catachan Outposts, etc.). It's a legitimate weakness until he gets bloodied (which is bad for all sorts of reasons), but it's just something you have to work around. I'm of the opinion that if you insist on playing Coteaz, you've just come to accept that as a weakness and hope that his lackluster Golden Hammering is more than made up for with his big smashy hammer in combat.
Just a heads up - the enginseer/smasha/emperor protects combo won't work, as Coteaz has to be at the planet with the units to use the emperor protects, and you can only fire the smasha gun in deploy. Not a huge issue, as it still kinda works with Coteaz's ability.
I also hear that the guy who made this deck is exceptionally handsome.
Good point. I should have implied the Augur can take a free hit if you intend to make him into Coteaz-fodder right after.
I'll also contribute to this handsome rumor.
The words "experimental" and "tournament quality" together have always made me think of Boochoo ever since he revealed to me the joy of the AGOT1 Gates of Winterfell deck.
I love the madness of this: 20 units in a Coteaz deck. Smasha Kannon in a deck that has an eight card hand.
It. should. not. work.
I really like this deck.
But honestly, I put "tournament quality" up more often than I'm confident of, if only to get more commentary. Specifically, from the snarkers (i.e. "Tournament quality? This deck is crap, because of X, Y, and Z!", while I quietly sit there and take notes). If that doesn't work, I just post, "THIS IS THE BEST DECK EVAR!" and wait for people to come and prove me wrong.
More seriously: played two quick games today. Eked out a win to Ragnar-with-warcamp nonsense. Opening move was deploy Smasha and then activate it, then spam the healing planet to leave Ragnar nearly dead vs. a totally healthy Coteaz. Space Marines refused to win command on cards with a Smasha Battery showing. Eventually, I dropped another and forced my opponent to play 4 damage twice (indicating he ran out of shields, which gave me leeway to be very exacting with my combat math), while my eight damage was divvied up between a Bad Dok and Coteaz Henchmen who were destined to be Pre-emptive/sac'd for the win.
Second game was against Strakken w/ orcs. Lost to lockdown from two Frontline 'Ard Boyz, a Chimera, a three point shield, and a two point shield - couldn't get both of the boyz dead despite having 4 Catachans (To Arms!'d!) and Coteaz swinging for 14 total. The lockdown blocked something like 6 Snotlings and 4 Imperial Guardsmen from taking the planet or killing Strakken and instead lost the important planet. Honestly, I SHOULD have mulliganed, but I had the opportunity to start with all Ammo Depots and Catachan Outposts and Troop Transports.
Topdecking a Smasha would have forced my opponent to place 14 indirect damage (and then To Arms! to do it again with at least 10+ more after shieldings) thanks to a strong Calamity, taking the game, but I just didn't draw into any Smashas. Still, a close game.
I had a lot of fun yesterday and this was one of my hardest (and most fun) match ups all day. Even though I won, this deck really forced me to completely change my play style. Against many opponents this can be a nasty surprise that they will have a hard time adjusting too.
I played this on the weekend and it was a load of fun. The Calamity->Smasha Gun combo is hilarious. I had taken out Catachan Outposts, which I think was a mistake. I'm going to swap out Emperor's Warrant for Suppressive Fire. Emperor's Warrant is very powerful but most of the time didn't help me in the key warlord vs warlord battles.
Suppressing Fire is nice, although it's only a single shield. I really want it!
It could kick out No Mercy, but the possibility of Smasha Gun -> No Mercy is even more hilarious than with Calamity. To Arms! has too many happy targets to switch out. I "feel" the Suppressive Fire is the 'always useful' card in your hand, while the Calamity is sometimes just a game winner and sometimes just a 1-shield card. It's hard to pick.
I've had good luck pushing warlords off by pushing hard against warlords and hitting with Warrant the moment they flee, as many warlords are quite happy to "leave it to the troops".
Either way, Markis can 'fake it'.
Went 7 out of 10 these last two weeks.
Of the wins, one was clearly a perfect storm, with two easy planet wins followed by five green planets and all the Troop Transports, Sacaellum Shrine Guards, and Catachan Outposts I could shake a stick at.
Of the losses, some were clear misplays (+8 from Catachans with a Pre-Emptive Barrage or some ridiculous amount of two dozen damage from Smashas that I didn't play because I forgot I could shield a whole batch of damage on Coteaz with a few 1-shield cards from my hand) and others were close games that hindsight (or me getting better knowledge of the meta/being a better player) could have tipped the scales.
Another was my opponent making a single ambushing chaos marine card whose name I forgot misplay that might have turned the game around (or at least extended the war for another turn), but that's the record I got so far. Need to practice more.
Calamity to Smasha remains cringe-worthy.
Formoson Smasha eats up Eldorath, Bar'Zhul, and Zarathur, didn't seem too bad against Mavros (in one game). While lots of Unstoppable effects (Or a stupid Sword Dreadnaught on a healing planet) helped to mitigate damage, being able to ping those units before battles and prevent them from 'going off' when it counted helped to stop a lot of the Mavros tricks that make me angry.
With only seven targets for the Enginseer Augurs, I feel like another unit to replace them might be in order. Iron Guard Recruits for for more command hammers, maybe the Taurox APCs for more swings?
That made me so mad. Fighting for two or three planets and just insta-winning would have made my dark heart smile.
If I hadn't played against it since Smasha was added, I would be a little lost on how to deal with the cogs of the AM machine.
Been on a bit of a losing streak.
Deck is competent, but beatable. A little support destruction or anything to counter events really kills it (although that's a little hatey). Needs a lot more fine-tuning to be competitive, but it's fun.
Gonna add Bolster the Defense?
Edit: Also, is the Enginseer really worth it with only 7 targets?
Edit: (err, nvm, see you brought that up... I missed it)
I love when extreme originality becomes effective. It can really throw off many players when they are expecting more mainstream plays.
Enginseer is hard to quantify. Not enough targets. I've been thinking about Rockcrete Bunkers specifically because of the Indirect Damage trick: have a ton of cards in both players hands, be facing off against a bunch of units with only a nearly bloodied Coteaz, smash away, two or three times in a row. Your opponent has to face some ridiculous number of damage across all of his units and then start chucking shields or taking damage, whereas you only put an amount equal to what is remaining on Coteaz (and the rest get dropped). It's pretty neat to go into a turn knowing you don't need any of your units and can sacrifice them as you please, then use a shield (and maybe a Rockcrete) to deal 15+ damage to your card-advantaged opponent.
Don't like Rockcrete, but Bolster the Defense makes all the supports suddenly sneaky. Sneaking in a 3 cost Smasha is the main play, but Bolster is a combat action and Smasha is a deploy action, so it's always a "the next turn" consideration. It's definitely a consideration, but I don't know.
The Sacaellum's Finest is tempting, since Coteaz might just be jumping onto green planets and smashing, and it's 4 HP, so it's worth thinking about, as is that new cross-faction orc card with a meaty 3 HP.
Hard choices to make coming up.
Good streak again vs. Salaine Morn, Zarathur, and Mavros.
Salaine locked me down until the second-to-last planet. Couldn't lock them down, they started doing Kabalite movement tricks to keep their money and card count growing, and started stacking up units for the win. Eventually, doubling down on Smashas followed by a Calamity helped to smash for 15 and 10 with a No Mercy to seal the deal. Very close, and only milling through the deck allowed that to work. Salaine is neat to play against because she's powerful but also tricky. More thoughtful games.
Zarathur was Smasha-less, but combat tricks and two/three Catachan Outposts allowed for Zarathur to be bloodied early or not deploy anywhere to help swing combats his way. It was also a second-to-last planet combat, but Preemptive with double Coteaz's Henchman, the double-faced eagle, 3 Preemptives and To Arms! helped to win the fight outright.
Lost to Mavros. Got a good flop and an interesting opening hand: Catachan Outpost, 2x Emperor's Mercy, 2x To Arms!, an Enginseer Augur, a Sacaellum Shrine Guard, a Snotling Attack, with a nice pro-green but average-blue planet spread. I felt like this was a Mulligan hand... but being able to take the first (blue) planet and ensure myself three rounds of support hunting with Mercied Augurs told me it was risky but had the potential for incredible savings. Alas, it was not to be - I spread myself a little too wide and even throwing everything as shields, Mavros with combat tricks snuck by with a bloodied Coteaz and the first planet. Technically, I still had a chance, but after milling 18 cards, not a single AM support came out. Did manage to get some Ammo Depots to start drawing back up, but it was a quick game and big loss. Worth noting that chucking 18 cards let me know what strategies I couldn't rely on and how I would have to go about winning, so there's some utility to that if you can remember your cards.
Good games.
Switched out -3x Enginseer Augurs for 2x Sacaellum's Finest and a 1x Bolster the Defense.
Played this in a tourney.
Sacaellum's is pretty neat. Never regretted seeing it and almost always had an opportunity to 'play it for free', although I played it straight for cost one time. Definitely did strong.
Lost three games. A hard Doom pretty much ended my day when I tried to cluster up instead of going wide on command to avoid slowly being sniped to death from Eldorath. A Cato deck that went heavy on Elites that got a perfect planet flop followed by perfect play thereafter - his between the healing planet, the trigger planet, and Fall Backs, his Firedrakes, Death Wing Guards, and Cato took ~30 damage over the course of the game before clustering up on a planet, nearly perfectly healthy.
Lost to a clever Ba'al Zul the Hate-Bound who started fights on a trigger planet to constantly attack my cards in hand. I was ready to scoop but played out one more planet - picked some ammo depots but nothing to beat a few chaos units, but tried anyway. Realized I needed two Snotling Attacks and a Pre-emptive Barrage to win - managed to top-deck all three cards!
A player on the side commented while I was smiling to myself, "Ouch, 8 snotlings. You need to top-deck a Blood for the Blood God," during the command phase. Draws one card and flips it to reveal that card. GG.
All good games, though. Fun people.