Warstorm is a fantasy-themed collectible card game. Collect, build and command squads of knights, elves, dragons, demons, and other mystical creatures.

DEMON FACTION

Demons are one of the most used factions, along with orcs and either can royally suck if used with horrible cards, or do really well, if used correctly. Demons have a large variety of abilities and are excellent all around. Demons aren’t easy to be used at first because the powerful cards are quite expensive and rare for beginners.

Let’s start with talking about the strengths and weakness of the Demon faction. One of the Demons weaknesses is lack of brute strength, rather relying on abilities to back them up. They don’t have as much power as the Orcs, but are still rather strong. The variety of abilities they have enable them to survive longer, like: Drainbolt, Ice Armor, and Immune, along with a few Hero/Units with Death Aura, while the other variety of abilities are made for offense, like: Firebolt, Icebolt, Flaming, and Firebreathing. Another weakness of the Demons is archers. They have 8 flying units that are very commonly used and only have 3 units with trample, making archers very powerful again the Demons. The only good thing about this is that Demons have no infantries, but instead mostly consisting of fiends and imps, and a few others.

Important Cards

Yauba Ascendant: Probably one of the most used Demon hero since his release. His “command all 1” makes every other unit on the field more powerful and deadly. Along with his flying, it would be hard to kill him unless using archers, bolts, and other flying units.

Agmog the Firelord: With Agmog, it is a gamble. With Firebolt 4, Agmog can dish out a lot of damage BUT at the same time, could hit a measly 1 that a forest crawler could do. His Flaming 1 can also be useful at times to get rid of life low enemy units. Agmog will die quickly against an Immune enemy.

Raganash: Raganash is potentially one of the most deadly Hero/Unit among the Demon Faction. With his Firebreath 3, and his normal attack, he can do 4 damage, along with the burn, for a total of 5 damage. The bad thing is that Raganash has many flaws. Immune makes him very weak and it takes 14 turns to get him out…and we’re talking about the T7 version. Also, against a CHG, Raganash gets shot down like a measly bird from a musket.

Bevus And Badial: These two hero cards give bonus attack to all imps on the field. Since both imps and these heros are fast, you are able to combine them to create quick and hard hitting decks. The rush 2 from badial is useful for quick decks, the bevus has harass 2 which helps slow down enemy decks. Either way, these heroes are a must for any imp deck.

Strategy

Some people make decks around the type of card, for Example: Imps with Bevus/Badial, Faraz the Summoner with other summoners, etc. The more powerful units have a high turn required to come out, like Red Dragon and the Behemoths, so using a few Red Summoners help. They are advised for the higher squad numbers (4-6). Summoners and Imps are best used with the higher tiers, as they come out faster to help allies out (especially Summoners). Imps and Summoners are advised for lowed Squads (1-3) and are better used mono.

Conclusion

Demons are very fun to use because of how easily they can be customized and how their weaknesses aren’t too major. Mixing them up with Orcs is probably best because of all the Demon/Orc Ally abilities. The 500 wins are worth it for the Hound of Yauba but will probably make your rating plummet on your quest to complete the 500 wins.

UNDEAD FACTION

Make your enemies despair with the power of disease! The Undead have many tools at their disposal.  I might even go so far as to call them a jack of all trades.  Their units have many of the special abilities available in the game like Blast, Zap, Heal, Flying, status effects like Death Aura, and all of the 2x damage traits – Trample, Archery and Pikeman.  As such they have the tools to succeed with almost any strategy.

Undead stand out from every other faction primarily because of one ability.  Animated.  Any unit with animated has a 50% chance to come back to the player’s hand whenever that unit goes to the graveyard.  One of the interesting things about Animated is that when an animated unit is killed on your opponent’s turn and then animated to your hand, it’s wait time countdown is offset, causing the unit to come into play on your opponent’s turn.  Case in point is a card from the latest set, the Crackbone Golem.  This little animated unit has been a thorn in many a player’s side as of late.  It has a wait time of 1, which means it initially comes into play on your opponents turn and when killed then animated, comes into play on your turn.  This creates a very powerful mechanic where animated reinforcements attack immediately after they come into play.  But more on that later. Another ability that is almost exclusively available to undead is Disease.  This ability is often underused and/or underestimated.  A unit with Disease causes a unit attacked by it to lose 1 attack value (permanently, like sap) and 1 health (until healed).  And as an additional benefit, if this initial attack kills it’s target, many of the reactive abilities like flaming and retaliate do not trigger; protecting your unit from it’s harmful effects. As far as unit statistics, attack and health values are entirely average.  Undead units are not as vulnerable as Elves nor are they as tough as Orcs.  But there are exceptions.  Let’s take a look at a few key units and heroes from the Undead faction.

Important Cards

Gormihaagos: Of the Dragons from each faction, the Black Dragon is certainly my favorite.  The White and Red Dragons may be more popular as they do more damage from their abilities, but I prefer more attack value.  Coupled with a built in Drainbolt 2 respectively, Gormihaagos not only deal a decent amount of damage, but become much more difficult to kill.

Ririk, Dark Champion: This hero is as big as a Festering Troll and harder to kill.  With Regeneration 2 your opponent will find they have to step it up to get him off the table.  And with an artifact and spell slot, he has quite a few choices to empower his units and himself.  Cask of Celebration anyone?

Festering Troll: There are many Undead units and heroes that deserve mention, but perhaps one of the more well-known is the Festering Troll.  This Beast (figuratively and literally) with an attack of 3 – plus Disease 1 – is capable of taking down 4 health units in one hit.  This is significant because he does this without the use of a 2x damage effect.  The Captured Hill Giant may do more to Flying and Infantry units, but against everything else the Troll hits harder.  It’s powerful attack is complemented by a higher than average health value at 6 and a second ability Regenerate 1, making it very difficult to kill

Strategy

Undead have a higher ability for unit recursion than any other faction.  Animate is significant.  There may be times when it doesn’t work for you at all, but more often than not, it will quickly help you overwhelm your opponent.  This combined with status effects that lessen your enemy’s effectiveness like Curse, Sap and Disease will enable you to take decisive control over the battlefield.  Undead also has a much larger number of immune units available than any other faction, don’t overlook these when making your deck.

Conclusion

Undead are a fun and unique faction with a distinction all their own.  They are versatile to a degree not seen in many of the other factions and yet they are also capable of specializing very well.  As such they are also a very good supplement to any of the other factions.  If you find you enjoy the Undead faction half as much as I do, you should have a lot of fun.  See you in auto matches.

ORC FACTION

You either love them, or hate them. Many players remark that Orcs are their favorite faction to play (myself included) while others detest Orcs, finding them difficult to win with. Orcs are the bruisers of Warstorm. They are generally tough, deadly and slow. Once they get into play they take over the field  if you are still alive by the time they can get out in force. Let’s take a look at this faction and discuss how to win with them, and beat them.

Orcs are heavily populated by infantry units, though they do have their share of Beasts, Barriers and Sieges. Their main method of attack is brute force: you stack your unit against your opponent’s unit and pound them into submission. Orcs typically have enough health to survive at least one attack. There are specialty Orc units with every ability you find in each faction: poison, archery, blast, berserk, frenzy and rush. They are underrepresented with healing, flying, trapping and sapping units, as well as anything with bolt. There are no Orc units with animate. Orcs do have one very valuable unit, Vistav Shaman, which removes the flying ability of a single unit each turn. That effect works even if flight was granted by an artifact or spell.

Important Cards

Captured Hill Giant: As it is known in chat as CHG, the Captured Hill Giant is among the five most feared cards in the game. When it shows up in the staging area your opponent will sigh and start counting the turns until it comes into play. It is so strong you will likely hear players (those that don’t have one) complain that it is overpowered. The CHG is slow, with T4s having a ready cost of 14. But it can be worth it…they have an attack of 3, with a health of 10 (this is commonly referred to as 14-3-10). And they are Archers, which means they do double damage to flyers and infantry. Few units can withstand CHG’s attack. And if they do, your CHG remains alive to do it again! Beware opponents with multiple CHGs in their deck. They are very popular in 6 squad (6s) matches as you generally have enough morale to let them get into play. The T7 CHG is perhaps the most prized card, and the most expensive card in the Auction House. Even the T4 version can be expensive. The CHG originally appeared in the demon set.

Grymish The Mad: Grymish is an Orc Hero (12-3-8) with Command 1. It is an Infantry unit as well, which is its only drawback as it is susceptible to archers. But giving +1 attack to each other infantry unit makes Grymish a popular Orc hero.

Skarg Bonesmasher: When you complete the Orc faction achievement you are rewarded with Skarg. This card alone makes it worth it to undertake this achievement. Skarg is an 8-3-8 Hero that can join the fray quickly enough for a hero. And it has the Explode 3 ability so it mirrors the Battle Wagon. Skarg commands six units, sometimes a preferred number, especially with TMs and Battle Wagons.

Slavedriver Gargul: A Hero with Rush 2 is a wonderful thing. Gargul is preferred by high level players in 4s – 6s. The T7 version is 6-2-8 and has sold for as high as 300cc. if you get one of these, use it.

Skoreg, Exiled: Similar to a Hero with Rush, a Hero with Demoralize 2 is a card worth your cc. While Skoreg, Exiled is very popular in spam decks, he can make a difference in many balanced decks as well. Skoreg is a very nice card in a war of attrition. Just be careful he doesn’t demoralizes his allies.

Rebellious Drake: Blast 2 means it’s a game breaker, as long as it does not kill you itself.

Strategy

As noted above, Orcs are slow but tough, and can pack a wallop. So if you are playing Orcs, be sure and have a few Taskmasters or Trainers with you. Due to their long ready costs, Orcs are rarely seen in effective 1s matches. Save your Orcs for 2s at a minimum and they are really most effective in 4s – 6s. Cross your fingers that you will get enough out to overwhelm your opponent before you die.

If you are facing Orcs, consider archers and fast, small units. Hit their infantry with x2 attacks and beat them to the draw. If you can get flyers out do so as there are only two Orc units with archery, one being the dreaded CHG. If you are in 4s – 6s try Festering Trolls against the CHGs. The Festering Troll can stand toe-to-toe with the CHG and win without help, even if the CHG attacks first, due to their disease and regen ability. For that matter consider any unit with Sap. If you hit the Orcs first you can drop their attack, survive their hit, and Sap them again. And again.  Sap is one of the few abilities that stack.

Conclusion

Orcs can be fun and successful. Invest in the time to obtain high-tier Orcs before attempting your Orcs or 6s achievement and you will very happy that you did. Without doing that, it will be a long, slow effort that will see your rating plummet as you work towards 500 victories.

ELF FACTION

All Warstorm players are familiar with the Elven faction since it is one of the two factions initially available to players just beginning the game. As such, all players are likelyaware that the Elves possess the greatest mastery of magic of any faction in Warstorm, just as all players should be qually aware that Elven units are the quickest to die on the battlefield.  The Elven faction, though, can be a deadly opponent and a powerful ally.

While the Elves can be called “fragile” they do have abilities that make them desireable and fun to play.  The Elven faction is characterized by speed, archery, magic,poison, and healing.  Secondary abilities include sap and demoralize mixed in with some trapping, trampling, and frenzying.  Let’s look at the primary abilities.  Speed:As a whole, the Elven units and heroes tend to have slightly lower ready times than other factions.  Archery: The Elves have eight different units with Archery, as well as two of the heroes.  Magic: The Elves have one hero with Zap, one hero with Blast, and one hero with Reclaim.  They also have six units with zap, one with Blast, and one with Icebolt.  Poison: Three Elven heroes have poison, including the most deadly poison effect in the game held by the Elf Mati, Poison All 3.  Six of the Elven units have the poison ability.  Healing:  One hero (in two incarnations) has the heal ability while another has regenerate.  Five Elven units have the heal ability while five units have the regenerate ability.

Important Cards

Light Priestess Enyi/ Enyi on the Brink: One of the more familiar heroes since everyone will use her during their early Warstorm days.  Enyi’s powerful heal ability equals that of the Cask of Celebration (Light Priestess)/Diadem of Light (on the Brink).

Gwyn Lightbringer: Her Reclaim 1 ability is quite useful in 1s and 2s matches, effectively increasing the deck size of the player.  Reclaim in matches with more than two squads is not quite as effective since these matches don’t usually end by one player running out of cards.

Lady of Shadows: This Elven achievement hero, while new to the game, has stolen many player’s hearts, as well as their opponent’s rating points.  Her Sap 2 ability means that most units are not able to effectively counter-attack her once they have been hit.  Two hits by her and almost every unit in the game has its attack at zero or below. She can stand toe-to-toe with the dreaded Captured Hill Giant.

Strategy

Success with the Elven faction relies on combinations more than any other faction. While the Elves have many units with great abilities, these units tend to die quickly unless supported by other units.  The drawback to adding supporting units is that the effectiveness of the deck’s theme becomes diluted.  Striking the right balance of healing or defending units to keep the sappers, archers and demoralizers alive will require a lot of deck tuning.

The other major strategic element to keep in mind with the Elves is that they have a slight edge overall in ready times. Translated, this means that Elves as a faction tend to work better in smaller decks when they can get into play faster, get enough hits in to drive the opponent’s morale to zero before collapsing like a house of cards.  Doing a quick scan of the top 6s decks on the Warlords page, it is uncommon to see any Elven squads being used, and you rarely see 2 Elven squads in any of the top-rated decks.

Conclusion

Elves can be the most fun of the factions to play, wins with Elves tend to be more elegant and victories tend to be narrower.  When going for the Elven Gold and Platinum achievements, you’ll find that it is more effective to use 2s or 3s deck sizes.  With Elves particularly, you are racing to get your units into play, so that extra 2 ready time saved by tiering-up your units is more important than for any of the other factions.  Fortunately, that shouldn’t cost you a bundle since most players aren’t looking to the Elves to form the core of their army.

HUMAN FACTION

An often time underrated faction, the Humans have many good cards that many people either forget about or don’t know about. All players have this faction from novice packs when they first join the game, so like the elves, many forget they are not just a race for newer players. Nevertheless, humans are very interesting due to their variety of abilities making them balanced in both offensive and defensive. In this article, we will take a closer look at what makes the Humans so interesting and fun to use.

The human faction is usually considered one of the worst factions when countering flying due to their lack of archery units in the past. With the introduction of the Pegasus Rider, however, humans are starting to become a more formable opponent in the air. One of main noticeable advantage humans are known for are their cavalry because all players have access to them via novice packs. While they have no archers, they are by far one of the best anti-archer factions, making them a very good counter to elves because if their large number of archers. The second thing they are known for is the icebolt of their White Drakes and White Dragons which can essentially zap a unit with a chance to stop it from attacking for a turn. Their combination of both straightforward attack with their cavalry units and a few decent flying units allow them to make a very solid stand on the battlefield against many different opponents and allows the Humans to be especially effective against archers because of the many trample units they have.

Important Cards

Heavy Calvary and Aanglor Knight: With the useful block and trample abilities, both cavalry units are able to counter most 2 attack archers with ease. The Aanglor knights’ main advantage over the Heavy Calvary is its better speed with the cost of 1 attack point. If you have the older version of this Knight which comes in tier 5 forms in basic packs and T6 in core packs, you gain an extra 4 speed over the Heavy Calvary which is sometimes very worthwhile. In novice, however, the aanglor knight tier 5 has only 2 less speed then then it, making the Heavy Calvary an overall more effective choice. At 3 attack, the Heavy calvary can take down in archer unit, except for the CHG, in one hit. When it comes to the Captured Hill Giant, you can take it down in 2 hits as long as you hit first. By using a combination of healing and calvary in your deck, you can keep your knights long enough to take down even a CHG without too much trouble.

Aanglor Squire: Many times in battle, the difference between winning or losing is based on how fast you can get on the field. The aanglor squire is the fastest rush unit in the game with a 2 turn wait time (at tier 5), 1 attack, 3 health, and 2 rush. While it is a fairly fragile unit on its own, when used in combination with stronger units, it can help bring the big guns onto the field quicker, allowing you to overwhelm your opponent in some situations. While it’s a unit not considered good enough on its own, it is an excellent support unit to any human squad when you need a little extra speed. Since it can arrive on the field much quicker then slower units, it can often times rush your units many times before it gets destroyed.

Arlen Silver Knight: Even though it’s a hero, the Silver Knight is the best anti archer card in the game period. It’s the one of only 2 cards with trample that has 3 attack by default. With 3 attack, 8 health, a 10 wait time, trample AND command 1 for all cavalry units, it can be used for many different kinds of decks. These stats make it even better then the Heavy Cavalry, the other 3 attack trample unit. The most obvious thing to do with this unit is to make a deck with many cavalry any it. Since the humans have a large number of them, its not that difficult to come up with a number of cavalry units to go along with it. The other good use for this card is supportive trampler in a non cavalry deck. Even when not taking advantage of its command 1 cavalry ability, it is still the best trampling card.

Cirrusaliosa: Known as Cirr because no one ever knows how to spell its name correctly, this card is nearly as effective as a Human Mati in its tier 7 form, but is just as good because it is 8 turns faster. Cirr has 1 attack, 6 health, and 3 icebolt making it a fairly long lasting and very good support card. The icebolt 3 takes a considerable chuck out of any units health. While some people prefer the extra 1 attack, 1 icebolt, and 2 health of the Human Mati, the 8 less turns gives you a much greater chance to get one on the playing field with too much of a stat deduction in comparison.

Lord Darius: The secret to this unit is its spearhead ability; this it to gain +1 attack for every other unit on the field. It already has a base attack of 2, so once you get a few units out, its very easy to get its offensive attack very high. At 8 turns, it’s a medium speed unit, so when used in combination with quicker units, you can make sure it almost never arrives on the field first, usually guaranteeing it will get an attack boost from its ability.

Strategy

To do well with humans, you need to take advantage of their strengths like trample, block, flying and use them in combination with each other. The higher health and blocker units along with the indirect attack abilities of the Human icebolt and zap attackers allows you to mix and match many different ways to make an effect deck. Also taking advantage of the command ability never hurts when you have a Silver Knight, so make sure to keep all of your cards special abilities in mind when trying to make combos.

One very important thing is to never over rely on the icebolt of White Drakes and White Dragons. While some players like to use many icebolt cards in one deck, there’s always a luck factor because they only have a 50% chance of freezing. Yes you may get a lot of luck hits and freeze 5 cards in a row, but in other matches you’ll freeze very few cards making your icebolt affect worthless. Icebolt does less damage overall then cards with zap abilities, so make sure to consider the pros and cons of using icebolt instead of zap.

Conclusion

While not always the most effective faction on its own, overall the Humans have one of the best balances of different types of units other then archers. Also, no other faction can match their anti-archer abilities especially when using cavalry command. Always keep in mind the strengths and weakness of all cards plus their abilities. If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to make an ineffective deck when you mismatch abilities, but by adding in a little brainpower, you’ll have no trouble at all getting the hang of them. They may not have the best reputation as a faction, but when used correctly, they are able to out do many other types of cards. Never underestimate the power of Human faction cards.

NEUTRAL FACTION

The neutral faction of Warstorm is a “catch-all” for units, spells, and artifacts that any faction can use.  When Warstorm was first launched back in October 2008, spells and artifacts were all neutral.  This meant that any hero with the availability to use a spell or artifact could use whichever ones they wanted.  Now, neutrals have become much more specialized since the other factions now have many spells and artifacts that are isolated to their own faction.  This introduction not only makes for specialized cards within each faction, but also helps enhance the attractiveness of the neutral cards.

The Mercenary expansion brought many great additions to the Warstorm universe, especially ally units. While this was a great bonus to the game mechanics, the Merc expansion also brought another enhancement that veteran Warstorm players have been asking about for a very long time, neutral units.  The units are great additions to the game because they allow for some interesting unit combinations and help eliminate some of the weaknesses a particular faction may have.  For instance, Demons don’t have any archer units, but with the new neutral units, a general could add in some Hired Archers if they wanted to get some archery into their deck.

Important Cards

Hired Archer: Good archers are an important defense against all of the powerful flying units in the Warstorm universe.  Hired Archers are a fast and easy way to squeeze some good archery into a deck.  You only lose 1 morale when they enter play, so that isn’t much of a deterrent and they can be formidable in the proper deck.

Hired Pit Fighter: Hired Pit Fighters can be a very scary card in the proper deck.  The 2 attack and 4 defense isn’t huge, but retaliate 3 makes sure that whatever is attacking you is getting the favor returned.  Alongside some Earthworks and a healer or two, Hired Pit Fighters become a huge problem.

Mercenary Captain: This is a staple card for some really powerful decks, such as the Blade Mage/Paladin of Light deck.  It has mediocre stats, but with command 1 for infantry he can really boost up the attack of your infantry units.  Considering that most infantry command decks utilize Earthworks, his low health should be manageable.

Conclusion

While neutral units are not a stand-alone faction able to fight on their own, they can prove to be a vital asset when included alongside the other factions.  The many powerful spells and artifacts make this sub-faction a very important part of the Warstorm universe.  Many players are hoping this trend continues with future expansions and that many new and exciting neutral cards will be released to enhance an already invaluable aspect of the game.