Tournament Report link:-
http://www.cardgamedb.com/forums/index.php?/topic/32413-uk-nats-1st-place-tournament-report/
Notes on Choices:-
Possessed - When initially asked what my MVP was I said it was these guys and Sathariel. In truth, a lot of cards pulled their weight, but Possessed present a huge threat to enemy Warlords and Elites, and are much cheaper than a Heldrake. Sit them at a blue planet with a Teleportarium out and let your opponent deal with the headache of avoiding or removing them.
Heldrake - This is sometimes more useful, however. Liam started referring to it as 'my signature Heldrake' because it seemed to appear in all my games (that he watched). Whereas the Possessed might die to an off-initiative swing, when tapped, to other damage etc. the Heldrake can take a lot of punishment, whilst still being able to one-hit most Warlords. It's also the closest thing this deck has to a command unit ;)
Sathariel - Whilst not as critical to the deck as the Possessed or Heldrakes is an amazing card. Quite apart from the shenanigans you can do with Warp Rifts or the idea of recurring Fetid Haze, by far his most frequent use is simply bouncing shield cards (I did in fact recur a Haze so I could shield with it in one game). Recurring a 2-shield card, even twice can swing combats. Recurring it a half-dozen times or more is like drawing 6+ cards and guaranteeing 2-shields on all of them. Deep Strike is also nice, as he's so different from the other DS card (Prince's Might) that your opponent has to really consider which of the two you have going on. Note also DS happens after the GPB fires!
Bloodletter and GPB - Didn't see as much play for me, but they are both crucial answers to swarm (and Bloodletter is just amazing against most things, I simply didn't draw it a tonne over the weekend, but when I did it killed stuff). Being able to teleport the Bloodletter gives you a lot of control, and makes it hard for the opponent to prevent the swing, regardless of initiative etc.
Bloodthirster - I never played, and yes it's not a great card and probably shouldn't be in there, but I wanted to take a deck with a Bloodthirster, dammit :P It can theoretically cause space elves some problems with its immunity, besides I'm not allowed a 4th Heldrake... Would probably drop in future though.
Xavaes - Ended up much less useful than anticipated, as he was never a priority deploy. Would probably drop in future.
Corrupted Teleportarium - Obviously a key piece of this deck. It creates huge threat range, which due to the mix of Elites can sometimes be the threat of either 9 spike damage or AoE 3. Note if your opponent Khymera Dens before the combat phase begins, you can follow with your GPB! It also means you can use Elites as cappers, jump them in to swing at the right time etc. The catch is being wary of Support destruction, as you don't want them stranded.
Economy comes in the form of STC, Gut & Pillage, Promise of Stalling, and Xavaes (ish). Fall Back is also kind of like economy in a way. It's a card that I find really useful, but equally it doesn't help with that particular battle, so it was tough to work out how many to include. I'd strongly consider a 2nd in future, maybe even a 3rd.
The various economy combined with careful planet triggers, and using scary dudes + Ku'gath to bully planets, actually means you can do half-decently on command mid-game sometimes, and get a reasonable amount of tricks going after a turn or two. Knowing when to dump as many Elites as possible, and when to drop one and then save for events is the tough part, and depends on opposition, flop etc.
Warp Rift is amazing, maybe my favourite card right now. The fact that it is also 2 shields that Sathariel can recur so that he can solo Warlords without taking damage is just the icing on the cake. Switching up win conditions (or just switching who will have initiative by bringing it forward/backward), flipping colours - screwing with Worr, or bringing your Teleportarium back online after being forced to move to a non-Blue. All sorts of shenanigans. And everyone knows how satisfying a good shenanigan is.
As always feel free to critique, disagree, question, and offer improvements. It's far from perfect, and Power from Pain is a nightmare. Urien is the future. Legit.
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35 Comments
I find this list very interesting, at Gencon for North American champs there was a lot of kugath elites but every one i saw fit in more command units and took a turn or two to set up. Did you feel like you had any issues drawing into key cards since this list seems to omit those units and let your opponent dictate most of the command phase?
I keep coming up with something similar when experimenting with Ku'gath Elites. Is the low amount of command units due to an intentional choice of "let's not bother with crappy command at all" or rather because there's just so many useful events that Ku'gath can make use of?
I had Power from Pain in my deck for facing this kind of foe, I completely agree its a thing right now.
Throwing out a 1/1 just to have it capped by a 2/2 seemed a waste of 1R 1C and a loss of momentum. In fact a 2/2 becomes an over costed 1/1 in my opponent's deck, and Promotion becomes a shield. Furthermore there's nothing for the enemy warlord to snipe, so I'm not losing the R/C of the doomed capper, whereas often Ku'Gath is costing the opponent R/C when he kills a capper.
A Heldrake at P1 early game usually takes command there, even a Possessed might remain uncontested. Ku'Gath wins elsewhere, I'm only down 2-3. Yes he probably gets a good pirate buff, but I probably also killed a capper, which means wasted R/C. Then I've probably triggered 2 battle abilities, he's triggered 1. Obviously this is just 1 example - sometimes I'll be under the pump, but Zku'gath has ways back, just like the old dirty dozen did.
Teleportarium indirectly helps command too. It allows those Elite hammers to do a bit of work. And whilst command will help the opponent long-term, in the immediate future it's not contesting the combats.
Then there's the alternate economy. STC, Gut & Pillage, Promise of Glory are all obvious. Split-tongue was pretty useless tbh. Fall Back a Heldrake and you've saved an 8 R investment though, trigger Sathariel 3 times and that's like drawing 3 cards, all of which are good, even if you're resource starved.
Finally, of course, against Command decks there's a chance of seeing planets that help, and again it's tough early game or the opponent to stop Ku'Gath from winning a fight at his desired trigger location.
Essentially it requires a completely different approach to the economic war. Part of which is remembering that it's not just about what comes off the planets during the command struggle, or even the aforementioned alternate economy, but also in what you/your opponent gain/lose in terms of units in fights and planet triggers etc. It's shout leveraging those. IMHO command cappers in this deck are just asking to be killed or over-capped, which is likely how your opponent gets mileage from some of his cards or his warlord anyway, so why enable it?
Also, in terms of the drawing key cards question from Drake. I originally did put in a bit of command and less elites, and the other issue was consistency. Whilst obviously drawing lots of my deck is important, I can usually get important stuff early with this build. Beforehand I had a couple of games where I got my economy bits and lots of cards, but all my elites were at the bottom of the deck. I'd rather have an extra one or two clogging my hand, than none at all. Turning threat into economic advantage is possible in thus game, just harder to put raw numbers to.
Thx for sharing the deck and your thoughts. As an avid SM Players I will try to incorparate some of these thoughts in my elite build. Sadly Sm does not have the kind of alternative economy chaos offers.
I used to run a Elite deck similar to this. Screw command and go alt econ. My feelings regarding the 1/1 Cappers remain much the same. They often and easily get countered by double hammers that are available.
Currently running orks in similar fashion. Telleyporters with ork elties, and fiends.
All of what you wrote makes a lot of sense to me, and mostly matches my experience.
I've been experimenting with command-light decks for a while, and they can hold their own surprisingly well in most situations if you can afford to snipe with your WL (that's the main point, IMO).
However, giving up command entirely (you don't have any 1-for-1s) make it very tough to stop strong openings against Eldorath or Kith (BTW, I'd be really curious to know how your game vs Eldorath went, since there's only the last few rounds recorded).
IME, most of it comes down to your opponent having or not that Terror or Klaivex (and if they do, you having Backlash or not). If your Elite deploy round 1 is met with a control effect and your opponent also has strong command, I have trouble figuring out how this deck (and those similiar to it) could come back.
Considering you don't have Temptation nor Sowing Chaos (so no way of evening out the command game), no support removal (no way of removing Palace, Den, Barracks etc) it seems to me as soon as you lose momentum you're gone: it's not just the fact that you won't get much in terms of cards/resources (alternative economy surely helps a lot for that) it's mostly because your opponent will get tons of them - which means that, unless their deck has no options at all to deal with your units, they're going to have them.
Corrupted Teleportarium, Backlash, the newly released Disciple of Excess and the soon-to-come Ominous Wind might be enough to make this deckshape viable, but for now I still think that's not an optimal strategy.
You're likely to get substantial help from the flop in some games (Plannum, Tarrus, Y'varn) and when your opponent doesn't have a strong opening hand command-wise you're probably going to have an easy time, but it seems like it's not as consistent a strategy as the standard ones, when you consider the susceptibility of your deck to point removal (there are only 3 Backlashes in the whole deck, after all).
Still, kudos to you for winning the UK nats with this, since it surely takes some mental flexibility to approach the game in such a radically different way and still come out on top of it!
Great discussion in this comment thread.
The ability of a strong command deck to take complete control of a game and leave you feeling helpless by the end does exert a strong pressure on the mind of the deck builder. It creates that pressure to "at least compete" on command in the traditional sense.
I appreciate players who can show us other ways to fight the economic war. These other methods, I think, require a different skill set from spamming cappers, so it might be hard to learn. I know when I have tried to fight the war in other ways, I always run smack into capper decks that just crush me, which can discourage you from trying that approach.
Cheers to GKZhukov for encouraging others to continue that search.
I also was up against Den, Den & Barracks in those particular 3 games, and did have Inquisitorial Fortress, Emperor's Warrant, Archon's Terror, Klaivex, Markis used against me.
I didn't mind too much with early game Terror. I think the planet trigger was less useful to my opponent, and I was okay with losing the planet, so as far as I was concerned seeing 2 R and a Terror disappear was a price worth paying. My Heldrake of course came back with Ku'gath next round. With Inquisitorial Fortress, I remember trying to force it out in a situation where I didn't have other stuff that would die as a result of my elite getting routed. I can't remember exactly, but I think I sent a possessed or bloodletter off to threaten a bloody or army wipe or something. Part of the key to backlash is, even if you have it, save it for the right moment. In one game Kith took it from my hand with Barlus the turn after I took her Terror with Barlus lol
Also, it's not uncommon to quickly get a 2nd elite, or even a 3rd and 4th, so it's not like all my eggs are in one basket. With STC or PoG about, the elite might only have cost me 3 in the first place.
Palace is upsetting, but Den can be got around with careful use of Teleporter on a GPB or Bloodletters, or with a Warp Storm.
I would rather get more threats down than wipe a bit of command with Sowing Chaos. Just like Kith is willing to deny herself to deny others, Ku'Gath is willing to let others have toys if he can have toys too. I work on the principle that actually most decks will struggle for answers, or I will be able to play around those answers/create too many problems. As I say PfP is probably the exception to this, which is why I don't know how viable it would be to take it to another major tournament.
One thing worth noting about rout effects, is that Teleport is really helpful in setting them back up again the turn after. Also having two scary things, means even if one is routed you can still face-smash.
What I don't understand, is people always say something like "But with lite command you will have serious problems against Kith or Eldorath". You will always have command issues against those two, even if you "try" to go command heavy. There are not a lot of good 2 hammer units for cheap for a lot of factions still, they have to find other ways.
And I think there's something to be said for going "command-medium" being the worst choice, as then, in match-ups against the true heavyweights of command, you're wasting cards/resources and momentum in a lost cause. If I don't play a capper, there is nothing for Kith to snipe. If I don't drop a 1-for-1 then Iron Guard Recruits would be better off being a Ratling Deadeye, and you sure wouldn't want to waste a Promotion on it. So if I do go down the route of contesting command traditionally then I'd need to go hard in order to actually win some of those contests, and to make it worth the losses I'd take from sniping.
At that point the deck becomes diluted, and if you still lose command anyway there's no return on that investment, which is more of a problem than if I lose command here, where at least I will have been investing the resources and cards I do have into my plan for the game.
It's also worth noting that on the turn you actually play Command units they tend to break even, not profit - Void Pirate on a 1/1 planet makes +1 card, Incubus on a 1/1 planet is -1 resource. On that particular turn, my stuff will hopefully be doing something useful. In fact, given one is probably being sniped, and some planets are 0/1, they might even have an initial deficit. Of course in the long run it adds up, that's the whole point of it, but there is a window where the initiative (in the non-Conquest sense) is with the other player.
I realize all this discussion is about command being worthless, but I'm still sad to not see Soul Grinder. He's such a solid way to force your opponent into two poor assignment choices.
Given that Split-Tongue sucked for you, might you change that slot over to Splintered Path Acolyte? Or what else are you thinking for that and Bloodthirster's slots?
Good job sir.
Cheers
SPA is an option instead of Xavaes. It does, however, fall into the same problematic category of not being much use as a capper most of the time. But it can be a cheap thing to throw when the opponent has to focus more on stopping you at planet X and can't afford to go sniping or crack out more command units. 1 R does occasionally make a difference, and it can at least make an opponent work for Power from Pain I guess.
Even though it takes unit count further down, Promotion might work better and I'd also be tempted to fit another Fall Back in. It's a big economy swing if one of your Elites takes out something big, gets killed in retaliation, reappears at HQ. There were a couple of games where if I'd had my Fall Back it would have been pretty high impact.
Bloodthirster would probably be a 3rd GPB, though a 3rd Sathariel is extremely tempting, he's that good.
Another option, instead of Xavaes, is the Elite groupie, but I'm unsure if it would be worth it or not.
@Ulrig
RE: Kith and Eldorath, it would take a lenghty reply to be accurate. To make it short, it is not just that they have good command, it also is that they have the means to leverage those command wins really well and that their game plan in general is really solid.
@GKZhukov
If your opponent played a Terror when it wasn't necessary then it's *their* mistake.
I'm not saying playing against Kith and Eldorath is an auto-loss (it used to be so for Elite decks, but that's not true anymore), but rather that, if played as well as you play your deck, I think they will prevail more often than not.
What Elites have going for them right now is that they're difficult to take down before they swing, some of them are very efficient (Chaos elites in particular) and they have access to amazing movement via Corrupted Teleportarium - of which, by the way, I was a fan since it was spoiled giving it 5/5 in my review - so I'm not bandwagoning
.
Is this enough to give up on command and solid midrange units? I'm not sure at all, right now.
What perplexes me in your reasoning is that you're assuming your opponent losing 2 resources and a card to win a battle is an efficient trade for you, but if they're winning 3 or 4 command struggles chances are that they can afford a 2:1 exchange ratio in your favor. Even Ku'gath sniping on his own is not immune to Gift of Isha and other ambush tricks, while with your low card draw you can't really assume you're going to draw a Backlash for every Terror/Klaivex/Fotress/whatever they draw, not to mention Eldorath's ability is already a big deal for you to overcome.
Now the Heldrake surely is a huge pain to deal with if you don't have a control answer, but most of the others can be destroyed relatively easy.
This in particular:
"I work on the principle that actually most decks will struggle for answers, or I will be able to play around those answers/create too many problems."
is not accurate, IMO.
RE: the efficiency thing, two Warlock Destructors are able to beat every one of your Elites with the exception of the Heldrake.
RE: Teleportarium, most competitive decks pack Location removal anyway nowadays, so it's just a matter of them finding it - it's one of your strong suits (removes one the Elites' main weaknesses: namely, that you can play around them rather easily) but it's not unanswerable for them.
RE: troublesome triggers, Foretell has always been a very powerful card and sees quite some play.
When Ominous Wind comes out, I think this particular deckshape will become truly frightening (draws 8 with Heldrake and can be recurred via Sathariel.. ouch!) so it's not like I'm dismissing it - it's going to add what this deck is really lacking, that is additional card draw.
I'm also curious to know what you think about the Disciple of Excess.
RE: the delay between playing your command and getting a return back, that's true but IME if you completely cede command it'll take a single round before the snowball gets real - which is where the tempo gain from Terror/fortress etc. becomes important.
As for the fact you're sniping a unit and winning two battles while they're just winning 3 commands, that's a very optimistic scenario.
I think the whole "high command > medium command > low command" idea (posted here http://www.cardgamed...e-fundamentals/) makes a lot of sense though.
The above being said, I am looking forward to playing both with and against this deck and similiar ones, and, once again, kudos for your idea, torunament win, and posting your thoughts here!
He seems to do very well for me in my no-command elite build (which I honestly haven't tested properly yet). The only real drawback is that he doesn't work with Promise of Glory, but I found having another unit with nearly untrumpable command worked very well for me, and dealing damage to 2 units can be helpful against swarm and midrange decks.
I feel like it would be a great fit.
The dodgy version I took to the Midlands Regional in June (based on a handful of games) had Warpsmith and SPA in it and so focused on Daemons. In between Midlands and NATs I only had a chance to play the game at all for one session, and only 2 games with Ku'gath, so I totally overhauled it on the basis of my memory of what had/hadn't worked in Midlands and those 2 games.
I think the Elites I've picked (Bloodthirster excepting) fit nicely, each with pretty crucial roles, but I have thought about Prodigal Sons since coming back, since without Warpsmith/SPA, only PoG and Prince's Might care about Daemons. I think it is a viable option for putting in to replace the Thirster. It'd be a tough shout between that and an extra GPB or Sathariel, but I'm encouraged to hear it's working for you so I might well give it a go!
@Eulich
- Regarding the Terror, if he hadn't played it he would have lost the planet and a unit, small one, but still, it would have evened out his Command gains a lot, so I would have been fine with that too.
- You mention a lot of solutions, but over different decks and to different problems. Even with heavy (and I don't believe it has to be heavy) command losses they aren't actually going to draw all of that, or the right bit (e.g. Foretell in the game Tarrus flops, Pods in the game with the round 1 Teleportarium). If I manage to get any kind of economy and drop a couple of cheap Elites, then even a Klaivex isn't necessarily catastrophic.
- Eldorath/Tau has Missile Pods which are annoying, but the only actual Control of Elites themselves is Eldorath. And that's against a single Elite, commitment dependent and can still be Backlashed (yes Foresight, Nullify etc. but I'm not proposing he draw his entire deck
) Eldorath actually takes a while to munch through a Heldrake. In my Eldorath game he got an early Council on Bike, 2 Wraithguard, Wildriders, Wraithknight at the end, so there were hitters there.
- Kith has the Elite control, but lacks the Support Destruction. Klaivex is risky, and my deck has a plethora of Khymera killing options, including the guaranteed one of Ku'gath himself. If there's no Power from Pain, then early Palace is the next most problematic thing, and it's definitely a tough matchup, but I don't think it's actually a deck full of answers (PfP withstanding). There are 3 high-risk Klaivex and 3 temporary-solution Terrors. I have 3 Backlash and 1 Fallback, and am not relying on just a single Elite. Also I've spoken many, many times about shielding out at crucial moments to disable Klaivex.
- 2 Destructors don't really win against a single Elite. Firstly it depends on initiative. Secondly I can shield a Destructor hit, good luck shielding a Possessed hit
Thirdly if there are 2 Destructors sitting on P1 with my Elite, I am allowed to send Ku'gath there and use my many events still. Or just pull the Elite out if it's blue and let them decide if they want to pay upkeep. Eldar are likely to use Eldorath and Gift, but that's pretty much it. I realise this doesn't fit into the efficiency debate, but the point is, it's more complex than X beats Y. Destructors are also kind of a cheeky choice, since we know they are extremely efficient if you never pay their upkeep.
- The same kind of goes for the Terror 2 Resources thing. I meant there are situations where ceding the planet really is worth that, of course there are times when it's not, but the opponent has still lost that 2R and nice card, whilst your Elite is still alive.
I'll test Disciple (if I get a chance to play), but I'm on the fence. More protection is good and Xavaes' spot is up for grabs, but with Backlash already in there, and the fact that he can be killed first (though risky if opponent banks on that, plus sometimes there's no window) means I'm unsure there aren't simply better options.
Another thing, is, despite it operating at the opposite end of the command spectrum, like my Kith deck this is a deck that likes both cards and resources, but at times can operate with a slight deficit of one, in order to buff the other, or to deny the opponent in the other. So, whilst I may only win 2 command struggles and have no pirates/traders, it may be that in terms of one out of C/R I am even or better with my opponent. If the one I do better on is something my opponent has a shortage of, well then their strong command showing just means they have cards that are "only" shields, or resources that will never be spent on anything. So part of it is playing the flop, not just in terms of planet triggers, but in terms of card/resource advantage.
That said, there's definitely room for improvement, but I don't think the inferior command is quite as problematic as you say.
I agree, I would have gone into more detail but I was at work posting in a forum lol.
Varun thanks for all the insight of your deck. It changed the way of my conquest deck-building!
Added link to Tournament Report. So many ways to distract myself from packing up a house.
@GKZhukov
- One of the most things to learn when playing against elites is when to leave them alone and when to try and go for the kill. It's hard to dispute the specifcs without knowing the whole situation, what I'm saying is that either one can reliably win against the elite or they are better leaving that alone - especially in the first two rounds of the game.
- There will surely be those times when one would give an arm for a Terror or a Backlash, and not everytime one will have their wish granted. However, a deck that's drawing more is more likely to get them in time, which means *on average* they have the advantage - by the way, this is why I usually say playing against Elites decks make the game swingy: there can be wildly different results depending on who draws better; recovering from a disadvantaged start in a deck involving two command-focused decks is usually easier, unless the disadvantage is severe.
- The Heldrake is the only unit which is troublesome for Eldorath and which he would be better leaving alone until later on, when he may have the stuff he needs to defeat it. Heldrake aside, both the Possessed and the Bloodletter (and the GPB, which only hurts swarms) are not that scary when exhausted in front of a Council or a Wraithguard. Besides, if we'll see Elite decks taking over it's possible some Eldorath player will go back to the DE alliance to gain Terror (it's not that Eldorath/DE is weak right now, by the way).
- Agree on what you say, but I think it's still plenty to cause you trouble - in fact you said it's a tough matchup, so I think we agree here, exact numbers aside maybe.
- Two destructors is not too common I agree, but as far as efficiency goes that's what one has to contend with. That, and the rest of the very efficient stuff in the 2-3 cost range (2-cost Groupies, Councils, Wraithguards etc.). It surely depends on initiative, as is usual in small fights in Conquest - I'm just saying midrange units are a legitimate threat to your elites.
- Again specifics. As you say, the key to playing Backlash is knowing when to use it - same goes for Terror, Klaivex (as you too said in the past) etc.
RE: the inferior command, if to compete against a command heavy deck you just need to play one big elite each round and have Ku'gath (or Zogowrt, both one-man-armies) as your warlord then why there has never been someone having significant competitive success with that?
It's not like no one has tried 'no' or 'low'-command decks, quite the opposite.
The first 'no command' deck I've ever seen was used by Prezi back in last september in a game I spectated on OCTGN: he played against Eldorath piloted by Kingsley (he was playing - Edit: of course he was playing - he was playing Ragnar was what I wanted to say
). The 'include no command since you'll lose command anyway' is not a new concept.
Let's assume you're right and that you can compete with the top decks while packing (almost) full elites and no command. So what has changed since then to make it a winning strategy now?
Backlash alone wouldn't seem enough of a reason.
Just to make my claim clear, I'll repeat it here: I'm not saying you *can't* win against Eldorath if both of you play well, I'm saying on average you're at a disadvantage - how big that disadvantage exactly is remains to be seen, but from my experiences there is no doubt that the disadvantage is there.
Also, I'm not rooting for the old decks: I'm sick and tired of having to deal with Starbane's absurdly strong reaction, with Klaivex insta-killing stuff with relative impunity (sure, not against Elites now, but good ol' midrange decks are still in a tough spot) and massive command into removal to win the tempo *and* the control game.
I'm all for a change in the meta, and I think a shift has already been happening: the new movement effects for Elite are great, the Elite groupies make lategame battles that much tougher for control to manage and there are new powerful effects like Ominous Wind and Clearcut Refuge that will have a huge impact on the game as we know it.
I'm just debating the potential of this particular deckshape in this particular moment of the game (even disregarding Power from Pain), and if you end being proven right I'll be all the happier for it since it means the big shift is already here - I'm hoping it's just a matter of time anyway.
In terms of what is different now, well I'd say the alternate economy of Gut & Pillage and STC (in addition to the good old PoG) are both new and significant additions to the game.
Teleportarium is also significant as the other way of dealing with Elites is to play around them, fight them when they are exhausted, don't send your warlord into the face of a Possessed etc.
I also think Sathariel and Warp Rift help a lot.
Just briefly, regarding Eldorath, if you have 2 Elites, he can't exhaust them both (bar Foresight) and if the 2nd one bloodies him, or wrecks his low HP units, that's not insignificant. He's definitely strong, but I don't think it's as one-sided as you suggest. He also can't exhaust Sathariel on the turn he Deep Strikers, and must decide if going to your Blue staging planet is worth sacrificing committing his train to Planet X, if he wants to exhaust the a Elite there (if Teleportarium is out and hasn't been nuked).
I'm also not sure what you want me to do to prove it works
Epic.
I appreciate all your discussion, interaction, and sharing of ideas.
At what point did you decide you wanted to try to figure out Ku'gath? Were there other warlords in serious contention for your Nats deck before you settled on him?
Hang out some time on OCTGN one day and show me how it plays? ^^
My opinion, that comes from what I gathered in this discussion, is that what really makes your deck tick is the Teleportarium - the rest surely helps but it's nothing of a kind we haven't seen before, even if having more surely amplifies the impact and improves the consistency.
Not being a Chaos lover much, and having had a couple of months recently in which I played very little I've yet to try the Chaos Elite decks I've built. I'm looking forward to playing your deck and see what I can get from it (I'll surely add in another 2x Fallback! to mitigate the risks of all those PfP and Exterminatus we're going to see veryquite soon
).
I still have my doubts as far as the Eldorath (more) and the Kith (less) matchups are concerned, but after this discussion I know what I have to 'look for'. Cheers!
So, +1 To what Walloon said. I really appreciate you sharing your ideas, thoughts, strategy etc. it's helping me to learn new things about the game.
I would probably add another Fall Back anyway, but it won't save you from PfP as that's a sacrifice effect...
As for picking Ku'Gath. I wanted to try Elites and my feeling is you need a Warlord who can hold his own for this type of Elite deck as in the early game especially it's hard to contest more than 1 planet otherwise, and also sniping command is important when you can't generally get much otherwise. Chaos is also the best faction to play Elites out of imho, because of the Teleportarium, but also the threat Chaos Elites present - if you're paying that much for a card it has to do something serious. One-shotting a Warlord and AoE 3 are as serious as it gets, and helpfully, cover two different bases. Finally, I cannot say enough good things about Warp Rift, another reason to pick Chaos over the alternatives.
As for picking him specifically for NATs, I haven't had a chance to play a lot in the past few months, and this was the only deck I'd run in the recent past (although I changed it quite significantly a couple of days before NATs and didn't get a chance to test those changes). My alternative was my janky version of Eldorath Bonesinger that I hadn't used for a while. I did my usual writing out of both lists and on this occasion, I think it was Ryan, who TO'd, picked one of the pieces of paper randomly from me!