Shattered Peaks Guide

[maudlin27]

[Warning: The below guide is heavily out of date. Since I am no longer actively playing poxnora it is relying on SP community contributions to update it. If you have any such contributions, feel free to post in this thread]

Welcome to the Shattered Peaks Guide!

Note: This guide was last updated for the Path to Conquest expansion. (the one before Nora Surge and Dawn of Elements). There is a mini-guide relevant to Nora Surge on the 24th post of this thread. However this thread is heavily outdated, and so only some of what is here will still apply. Please feel free to contribute to this guide, and/or to update it - although I'm not an active player any more I do still occasionally check in on poxnora.

General Information: We currently have several guilds for Shattered Peaks, the Tribes of Eehiist and the Ministry of Moga! With the forum transition taking place I am not aware of official threads for either of these guilds yet, so please let me know if there are any so I can add them here.

(if there are any other SP guilds with a significant membership feel free to post here to ask to be added as well)

This guide is meant to provide a detailed overview of the various SP runes currently available, breaking down the champions into their four key categories (g'hern, moga, voil+cyclops, and other), provide a few general deck building ideas and tips, strategies for when combining SP with another faction, and also strategies for dealing with specific factions.

Knockback
Linque has posted a few pictures to illustrate knockback directions:
http://linque.pp.fi/Pox/knockbackdirection.jpg
http://linque.pp.fi/Pox/knockback2x2.jpg
http://linque.pp.fi/Pox/knockbackexample1.jpg

These should make it much easier to use SP's various knockback runes to greater effect!

Relocate
Also (it's mentioned in a later section) relocate users should bear in mind the square a champion is relocated to is top left, then proceeding clockwise in order of preference. So for example if you want your champ relocated to the bottom right of you instead of top left, move 2 champs up to the top left and top right squares before relocating. You also can't relocate champions onto cliffs etc., but can relocate onto magical terrain.

Faction Bonus
Meanwhile a chart for the refund provided on SP's bonus is given below (see the section dealing with upgrading). The formula is Champ Cost*0.12, rounded up (so 10.1 would mean a refund of 11 nora, while 10 would refund 10 nora)

Nora Surge
The guide has not yet been updated for the Nora Surge expansion. However Sammich has provided a great guide here as to how to utilise some new runes+strategies from the expansion. Please see post 24 of this thread for more information.

The guide can also be found here (thanks to Dacidd) - in the event that this one is out of date please refer to Dacidd's since it's likely he'll be able to keep it more up to date than me :p.
http://forums.poxnora.com/showthread.php?t=344

- - -
Structure of the guide (Note: To display more than 10 posts per page, click on your name, then User CP-Edit Options-Thread Display Options-No. of posts to display):
Section | | Post Number
Introduction - Post 1
Rune Guide: G'hern - Post 2
Moga - Post 3
Cyclops+Voil - Post 4
Beasts - Post 5
Spells - Post 6
Relics+Equipment - Post 7
Deck Building Advice - Post 8
Upgrading - Post 9
10/10 Options - Post 10
Enemy Faction Notes - Post 11
10/10 Enemy Decks - Post 12
Sammich's Nora Surge Guide - Post 24

[maudlin27]

Rune guide:

Champions: 4 catagories, 1) G'hern, 2) Moga, 3) Voil, 4) Cyclops, Beasts, and Other (with moga being g'hernbound moga only)

G'hern:

G'hern can have two key roles. The first is a supporting role, providing overseer to moga and also use of certain support abilities such as drive. The second is to benefit from surge and become hefty damage dealers mid-late game, although currently this is not a competitive strategy.


Dirge, Moga Lord - Well, technically this one is a moga, but he functions as a g'hern with overseer, no g'hernbound, and a variant on surge: moga. SP's hero is a bit underwhelming compared to other hero's. He's quite a nice champ, with good survivability against melees (he can upgrade to riposte, making block 3 very nice given his high damage). Upgrades such as leap aren't that great given g'hern throwers are available, gives you some options.
Basically he's quite nice, especially early on for moga-pup decks (where normal g'herns wouldn't have sufficient damage to be a threat in battle), and riposte along with block 3 gives him some potential synergy with SP/IS decks. Against a melee heavy deck he is fine, but expect him to die quickly to focus fire if your opponent has plenty of ranged champs.

Possible upgrades:
'Battle-hardened' - +6 health, Riposte [81]
'Moga-King' - +6 health, Riposte, 11 speed [90]


G'hern Birthmother - Although no longer as good as she used to be, the G'hern birthmother is still worth consideration due to her versatility. She's one of the cheapest providers of overseer (along with the punisher and tyrant), making her useful as a cheap mobile overseer champ. She also can create moga pups, which boost your g'hern and act as temporary meat-shields (although they don't benefit from the faction bonus). Finally, she can upgrade to become a decent ranged champ with magical damage, which in a physical damage dominated faction (if going for moga/g'hern) is invaluable at times if you face a vindrax or disturbed spirit for example. The g'hern isangoma can of course fulfill the ranged magical damage role better, but lacks the other advantages such as producing pups

Possible Upgrades:
'Overseer': 7 speed, +2 health [54]
'Attacker': 9 speed, surge, +6 health [77]
'Pup producer': No upgrades [49]


G'hern Isangoma - A very nice champion for surge decks, this can upgrade to gain surge 2, has a range 2-5 magical attack, and can also provide a bit of healing. Basically think of her as a specialised combat moga birthmother - much more powerful in combat, but at the loss of the spawn pup ability. An auto-include in moga-pup decks, and worth considering for other moga heavy decks (although given the high cost you might want to only include 1 in a non-surge moga deck)

Possible upgrades:
'Battle-Shaman' - 9 speed, Surge 2, +6 health [86]
'Isan, G'hern Queen' - 11 speed, surge 2, +6 health, heal mass 2* [100] (heal mass 2 is more optional depending on your own preferences)


G'hern Overlord - The main reason for the overlord are his relocate abilities. Relocate ally is great, in particular if you use 2x2 champs, want to use a hit+run strategy, and/or to allow you to support an aggressive rush on your opponent. Relocate foe suffers from a high cost and shared cooldown with ally, but still has it's uses, since it allows you to bring an enemy champ in melee range away from the rest of your opponent's army, often allowing you to take out an enemy champion in one turn without exposing yourself significantly to a counterattack. One problem is relocate doesn't work on planar bound champs. The space that your champ will be relocated to goes in this order of priority: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right (hence giving you a nice advantage if you start at the bottom of the map).

Possible upgrades:
'Champ puller' - 11 speed, relocate foe, +6 health [93]
'standard' - 9 speed, +6 health [75]


G'hern Punisher - IMO a fairly underrated g'hern; due to his cheap cost he can serve as a reasonable overseer provider without actually being made into a melee g'hern. Alternatively he's good in g'hern focused bgs, with upgrades to blood frenzy and speed allowing him to make good use of surge. Devour is a rarely used ability, but can prove useful in some situations, in particular if you have a nearby moga pup, and synergises nicely with blood frenzy, as you can attack while under blood frenzy before devouring to regain your health.
A sidenote on devour - you used to be able to devour illusions, although I haven't tested this in the latest expansion so it may no longer be the case. Unstoppable also makes the punisher good when facing KF (brambles), but is not usually worth the nora. The punisher can also upgrade to blood frenzy which can be useful especially with devour.

Possible upgrades:
'Overseer': 7 speed, overseer 2, Devour* [54]
'Frenzied G'hern': 9 speed, Blood Rage, +6 health, Devour* [74]
'Berserk G'hern': 11 speed, Blood Frenzy 3, +6 health, Blood Rage, Devour* [92]
(*Note: Upgrade to devour if you're likely to feature moga pups in your bg, or are only using a small number of overseers with a significant number of g'hernbound moga)


G'hern Sustainer - A slightly underrated (but still weak) g'hern. Although sustain isn't a great ability, his main use comes from being a tough and reasonably priced g'hern. Best used in a pup-producing deck due to his low base damage, he's a mid-late game g'hern who should be hard for your opponents to put down. Battle-harden meanwhile gives him a slightly more unique effect, but the effect wears off quickly, and the sustainer is quite pricey given what he does.

Possible upgrades:
'Moga Sustainer': 9 speed, +4 health, Devour, Battle-Harden, Overseer 2 [69]
'Surge-Powered': 11 speed, +6 health, +2 damage [80]


G'hern Taskmaster - A great champion mainly because of his use both early game and late-game. Early on you can use his drive ability on moga, typically to provide them with the required +1 ap to make 2 attacks (at boosted damage), as well as in a few cases for a slight boost to allow them to capture a font a turn earlier. Later on you can use him offensively, and a range of 1-2 helps allow you to adapt according to the enemy, attacking from range against champions with block, and engaging and using his melee attack against demon shields, pincussions, champions with dodge, etc.

Possible Upgrades:
'Standard': 9 speed, +6 health [66]
'Pup Whipmaster': 11 speed, +6 health [75]


G'hern Thrower - Although no where near as good as he used to be, the thrower can still carve out a niche, in particular with surge bgs. His throw ability is well suited to expensive champions who can deal a lot of damage. Meanwhile his range is also useful if you have enough moga out to boost his damage. Bear in mind only 1x1 champs can be thrown. Since he uses ap to throw champions, it's often more attractive to go with 11 speed (although for cost reasons 9 speed is still feasible)

Possible upgrades:
'Support': 9 speed, +6 health, overseer 3 [86]
'Hero': 11 speed, +6 health,overseer 2 [92]


G'hern Tyrant - Very cheap for what he does, the tyrant is a near-auto-include for any surge deck, and is also worth considering for a moga heavy deck. Look to upgrade him to surge 2 (to have a powerful hitter), although he can also carve out a niche as a cheap meat-shield with 9 speed and surge 1, since in such a role his nemesis is less of an issue anyway. Be careful of his nemesis on smaller maps, as it can cause serious damage to you, and also only deploy him if you're attacking if you have enough pups out for his damage to be high enough to deal with the nemesis.

Possible Upgrades:
'Deadly meat-shield': 9 speed [35]
'Juggernaut': 11 speed, surge 2 [57]

[maudlin27]

Moga
Not as powerful as they used to be, Moga can still be quite effective especially at lower levels. Typically used with a more aggressive 'rush' style backed up by some support g'hern.

Buckethead - A great moga for sheer damage potential (it can upgrade to rend to increase this further), the buckethead is a fairly unconventional champ, but suffers from damage aura when used near other moga. Note that berserker only works with overseer, allowing you to store ap out of range (but also causing only +5 ap instead of +6 ap a turn).

Possible Upgrades:
'Reinforced Bucket' - +6 hp [33]
'Spiked Bucket' - +6 hp, Rend 2 [38]

Cavernkeeper - Some obvious synergy with voil decks, this champ can not only help heal them bit (without fear of being focused on), but doesn't have to rely on g'hern for overseer.
Note: More information requested from people using cavernkeepers for possible upgrades.

Moga Assault Team - A great all-round champ. Although expensive for a moga, they're very tough, have a brilliant range, and with multiattack can dish out damage at a decent rate (while also allowing you to deploy them at your font/shrine and launch an attack immediately). Disperse also gives them a useful situational use for boosting your g'herns damage, as well as destroying equipped equipment, and removing DoT and other effects. It also means if your MAT is 1 hit from being killed you can potentially quadruple the number of attacks your opponent has to make (since the dispersed shield moga gains block). Use these if you're worried about aoes or facing a large ranged force, and also to block enemy melee champs. With a range of 1-3 you'll also find them highly versatile (e.g. melee attack against champions with dodge, ranged attack against champions with block)

Possible Upgrades:
'Standard' - 9 speed [57]; There's not much need to boost them any more; the dispersed moga won't benefit, and with 9 speed you're getting enough ap for 2 attacks every round anyway. A damage boost is a slight possibility, but not that necessary.

Moga Creeper - SP gets a stealth moga! Stealth coupled with knockout gives this moga a number of useful roles that moga decks previously did not have available to them, helping to compensate for it's fairly low hp and high cost.

Possible upgrades:
'Survivor' - +6 hp [44]
'Ambusher' - 11 speed, +6 hp [52]

Moga Hunters - Decent as a detector and font contester, and also as a long term nora efficient method of gaining moga. For 77 nora you have a fast and reasonably tough champ who doesn't need overseer, and then you gain 2 more moga when it dies.

Possible upgrades:
'Lean Hunter' - 11 speed [77] (Makes most efficient use of the hunter's moga-on-death ability, since those moga don't benefit from any upgrades to the hunter)
'Font Contester' - 11 speed, +2 damage, +6 health [86] (powerful enough to take on most champions 1on1, and tough enough to tie up a font against several champions for a while. Main drawback is the cost prevents you deploying a second champion in the event that the fonts are on two separate paths)

Moga Netter - A cheap ranged moga, whose attack causing grounding. The grounding is especially useful when combined with knockback abilities/spells and cliffs, although the netter as a general combat champ isn't that efficient since the cost increase. Inferior to the slinger, but worth consideration for a moga deck.

Possible upgrades:
'Swarmer' - +6 hp [34]
'Upgraded Net' - +2 damage, +4 hp [39]

Moga Scout - A decent melee moga, with detection in case you face stealth champs, and dodge to help it survive a bit longer. Worth including at least 1 in your bg if you're short on anti-stealth runes. However if you have no need for a detection rune then there are other slightly more efficient options.

Possible upgrades:
'swarmer' - +4 health [34]
'Bounty Hunter' - +6 health, Detection 3 [39]

Moga Slinger - One of the best moga available, due to a combination of a good range (3-6), decent damage and health, and a very cheap cost. 2 of them are brilliant for providing ranged firepower, while if you want to run lev5 moga they're probably one of the better candidates to choose due to their range

Upgrades:
'Battle-hardened' - +6 hp [39]
'Moga Elite' - 11 speed, +2 damage, +6 hp [53]

Moga Trailblazer - with the new moga from various expansions post SP there's not much need to include one of these in your bg. Mobility is a weak rune on melees, and even more so on a light-weight moga who will often have a thrower nearby anyway. Exertion meanwhile is also hopeless given the trailblazers low hp, and weak damage. Basically only consider these if you are focusing on rushing. The one advantage the trailblazer is it's speed, meaning you can make a respectable font contester out of him (which also increases the use of mobility).

Possible upgrades:
'Cheap Font Contester' - 11 speed, +2 or +6 health [39-41]
'Archers Nemesis' - 11 speed, +6 health, Exertion 3 [45]

Moga Trapper - One of the cheapest melee moga available, although their fairly low damage and more expensive cost than before means they aren't usually the best choice for a melee moga. Use these if you're looking for some cheap cannon fodder that will have a chance of dealing some damage to the opponent. The trap ability is mostly worthless, although if you're efficient with your moving you can often use it to deal a bonus point of damage to the enemy. Upgrading it meanwhile is too expensive given the weak effect of the traps in question (even if you combined it with a SL 10/ deck with dragon skull). There is also some slight synergy with the moga trigger, but nothing too noteworthy.

Possible upgrades:
'Swarmer' - +4 hp [29]
'Trigger-friend' - Fire Trap 1 [29]
'Trapper' - Fire trap 3, Bouler trap 3, +4 hp [44]

Moga Trigger - Although overshadowed by the trapper (in turn overshadowed by some of the more recent melee moga), they're still an average melee champ, and have some mild synergy with cyclops nemesis and moga trappers. Given that traps can be set ontop of each other you can set a nice stash of traps, then eat them with your trigger and relocate him into the front lines.

Possible upgrades:
'Swarmer' - no upgrades [29]
'Trap Eater' - 11 speed, +6 health [40]

Moga Zealot - Given a big boost, so it is now playable in moga decks and surge decks (compared to neither before). A powerful hitter who can gain +1-2 bonus damage from your g'hern, although the zealot does suffer from poor survivability, as with other melee moga.

Possible upgrades:
'Battle-hardened' - +6 hp [37]
'True Zealot' - 11 speed, +6 hp [45]

Reckless Spellhack - Cheap, with a fast cooldown, reasonable health (compared to what it used to be), and the ability to deal some ranged damage to the opponent unlike other moga. The best ues for this champ is often as a cannon fodder type champ who can get to battle quickly, get off an attack, draw some enemy fire, and then come back again quickly.

Possible upgrades:
'cannon-fodder' - +2 hp [24]
'Battle Trained' - 9 speed, +6 hp [34]

[maudlin27]

Cyclops
Large, slow, and with a melee attack, most cyclopses will get cut to pieces by all the ranged champions around in poxnora. Using voil transporters can help, and they tend to have high amounts of hp and damage, but having a large base is a huge penalty.

Cyclops Chieften - A quick summary is that while his boost abilities are nice at improving cyclops decks, decks that are built around 2x2 melee champions suffer a huge mobility problem making them fairly poor overall. The chieften is a reasonable champ, but without support risks dying before he can do much damage, and he's too expensive to just sit back as a supporting boost champ (e.g. use transporters to get him in range of the enemy, and/or sauropods to keep him alive even longer).

Suggested upgrades:
Contributions needed
'Magic King' - 9 spd magic bomb 3 spellswallower [97] (note: Spellswallower will work well in campaigns)
'Rampaging Monarch' - 11 speed, +6 hp [94]

Cyclops Earthshaker - better than some of the cyclops available, but the problem is his tremor ability is just too much of a liability with moga and other champ heavy deck styles. A fun rune, but not that competitive with your typical SP build. You could try and combine him with an IS 10/ to get a bit more use out of knockback thanks to cliff generation, and of course use him to trigger rock traps, but eye belts and avalanches are usually better for such purposes anyway. The lumbering effect from tremor does open up a few more possibilities as well.

Possible upgrades:
'Unstable' - 9 speed, +6 hp, vulnerability: magical, resistance: physical 2 [57]

Cyclops Mauler - With berserker being recosted the mauler is slightly more worthy of inclusion. He can hit hard, and is fairly tough, but suffers the typical millstone of being a 2x2 melee champ. To be honest there are better options out there, but if you're pursuing a cyclops theme deck with the lord he's worth consideration. If you have transporters and/or sauropods then the more expensive build is worth considering since it will hit very hard, with it's main weakness being your opponent will look to take it down very quickly.

Possible upgrades:
'Mauler Cub' - 8 speed, +6 hp [57]
'Mountain Cyclops' - 11 speed, berserker 3, +6* health [78] *(if cp allows)

Cyclops Nemesis - Unfortunately a shadow of it's former self. The cyclops nemesis has it's uses, particularly in a defensive deck where you are looking for something to hold the opponent up, such as with a surge deck. The nemesis is a poor deploy if it's your first turn, or you are advancing on your opponent, since they will be able to get the earthmover out and attacking you quickly. However if you're defending your font/shrine, then it works out much better since chances are your opponent will be forced to kill it long before the earthmover reaches battle.

Possible upgrades:
'Meat-shield': 9 speed [38]
'Killer': 11 speed [47]

Cyclops Seer - If you want detection go for the moga scout or hunter. If you want devour, go for the g'hern punisher. If you want non-physical damage, go for the g'hern birthmother. If you want poison, migrate to forglar swamp. Although the seer is certainly better than she used to be a long time ago, with the slag/afflict nerf she is much more of a niche option, for example if you want to cover all the above options in one rune, albeit not very well, and have afflict as an extra. If you're choosing her for afflict, make sure you upgrade it to rank 2 (much better than rank 1), since it allows the target champion to take lots of punishment whenever she is hit.

Possible upgrades:
'Assassin's Bane' - 9 speed, Poison 2, Detection 3, +6 hp [64]
'Cyclops Queen' - 9 speed poison 2 +6 hp afflict 2 sustain 10 dmg [80]

Cyclops Youth - It's damage aura will end up hurting you more than your opponent, although it no longer costs a fortune. The cave dragon is a better choice than this however, providing anti-equipment, decent damage and some staying power for a lower cost.

Possible upgrades:
Veteran: 9 speed, +6 hp [61]


Voil+Bats:
Although quite expensive, flight provides increased mobility options, and helps negate many negative terrain effects. As such although voil and bats are typically fragile and easily killed, they can often gain a strategic advantage over the opponent in terms of positioning which more than compensates for this.

Bat Swarm - The original swarm champ. Despite various buffs it's still inferior to the other swarm champs out there, but fortunately not by such a great distance. On the plus side, you get 9 base speed, decent damage, and flight. On the down side you're easily killed.

Possible upgrades:
'Bat Duo' - +6 hp [65]
'Bat Horde' - 11 speed, +2 damage, +6 hp [79]

Cavernspawn - Worth considering if you're going for a SP/UD deck, and also reasonable in a standard SP deck. Very hard hitting thanks to high base damage and rend, while kill frenzy offers some (admittedly situational) scope for further damage.
Possible upgrades:
'Standard' - 9 speed, +6 hp [72]

Firebomber - a nifty champ this. Comes with fire damage for physical resistant/immune champs, works as a decent aoe champ if you boost it's fire bomb ability, and is nice when coupled with SP's relocate ally and thrower abilities. On the downside the moga cannon provides a better fire damage option, and it costs a hefty amount of nora.

Possible upgrades:
'Standard' - +6 hp [76]
'Skirmisher' - 11 speed, Fire Bomb 3, +6 hp [88?]

Voil Bomber - an inferior version of the firebomber as a combat champ. It has a few advantages, such as the ability to destroy equipment (increasing their versatility), and the fact that their stone bomb ability will cause knockback (meaning if you combine it with avalanches and the knockback ability you can often get kills on maps with cliffs). It can also disengage an enemy champion without injuring your bomber, giving it further use. It's basically a more fragile version of the firebomber, but with improved better support abilities. Include this if you want a flying disarming champion, or like utilizing knockback.

Possible upgrades:
'Standard' - 9 speed, +6 health [77]
'Skirmisher' - 11 speed, +6 health [86]
'Heavy Bomber' - 9 speed, +6 health, Stone Bomb 3 [81]

Voil Courier - Arguably the weakest of the diplomats. With deflect being recosted the courier is at least better than it was, with decent survivability, and the much coveted range of 1-3. Devour provides some small synergy with moga/surge decks, although chances are you'll be using the courier in a voil deck.

Possible Upgrades:
'Standard' - 9 speed, +6 hp [72]

Voil Frenzy - The voil soldier. Basically a decent combat champ which isn't really fragile and deals a decent amount of damage. Whirlwind attack isn't all that special, and it's often killed before blood frenzy is active, but it still is a decent rune in a voil deck.

Possible upgrades:
'Battle-hardened' - +6 hp [65]

Voil Lancer - A cheaper alternative to the frenzy, with better range but worse damage, health, and no special abilities (other than mobility which you're not going to want to upgrade to).

Possible upgrades:
'Battle-hardened' - +6 hp [61]

Voil Lifestealer - To be honest I don't much care for this champ. Low health means you aren't likely to get a chance to heal it with life siphon, while mobility coupled with life siphon means it costs a lot for what it does. Go with the frenzy, cavernspawn or even the lancer before this IMO.

Possible upgrades:
'Vampire Bat' - +6 hp [66]
'Count Lifestealer' - 11 speed, +2 damage, +10 hp [84]

Voil Queen - A very deadly attack with surge, and the ability to create cheap cannon fodder that also help with surge. The bats aren't worth upgrading to be combat capable (they die too easily for the nora cost of the ability), but the queen herself is a very powerful voil.

Possible upgrades:
'Voil Batmother' - +6 hp [63]
'Sharpened Claws' - +6 hp, Surge voil [74]
'Queen Eehiist' - 11 speed, +6 hp, Surge voil [81]

Voil Screecher - gives a rare ranged option to the voil, but is outclassed by the sorcerer in terms of damage. Dodge gives it some basic survivability, but the screecher still goes down pretty fast. Shouldn't be dismissed outright though, since 10 damage on a ranged champ is decent.

Possible upgrades:
'Deafening Bat' - 9 speed, +6 hp [71]
'Sonic Lightning' - 11 speed, +6 hp [80]

Voil Sorcerer - Very expensive, and with a dangerous on-death ability (that will hurt you far more often than your opponent), the sorcerer is still made powerful both by it's decent range, and synergy with 2 other voil runes, the transporter and the queen. With the queen producing bats the sorcerer can quickly gain a high damage level, while the transporter can then help bring it into range to attack.

Possible upgrades:
'Arch-Sorcerer' - 11 speed, +6 hp [88]

Voil Transporter - A great champion for voil, cyclops and beast decks, due to the big boost it provides to mobility. Relocate ally is invaluable for 2x2 melee champs, while the transporter makes placing your relocated champs where you want much easier thanks to flight. The transporter also opens up hit and run tactics, and works well with champs such as the sorcerer.

Possible upgrades:
'AMC: Armoured Moga Carrier' - +6 hp [60]
'Harrier' - +6 hp, 11 speed [68]

[maudlin27]

Beasts:
Beasts are rarely the mainstay of a deck, and instead offer support to the other main races, typically by filling a particular role not covered effectively by the main race of the deck. In some cases they are more efficient than a champion filling the same role for one of the main races, which helps compensate for the decreased racial synergy typically found with them.

Cave Dragon - Works as both a cheap meatshield, a decent combat champ, and an anti-equipment champ, depending on what you want. Superior to the cyclops youth overall, it's main drawback is being a 2x2 melee champ.

Possible upgrades:
'Dragon Fodder' - No Upgrades
'Combat Dragon' - 9 speed, +4 hp [49]
'Versatile Dragon' - 9 speed, shatter, +2 hp [54]

Crowned Sauropod - Although unstoppable isn't great, this champs main use comes from it's upgrades (Voilbound and Bodyguard). Although slow and bulky, with 52 hp and decent defence it can soak up a fair amount of punishment, while voilbound helps ensure it's cost doesn't get too high.

Possible upgrades:
'Voilbound Chub' - 9 speed, Voilbound, Bodyguard [??]

Hyaenid Spearman - A nifty addition to most SP decks, the spearman has a number of useful abilities. It's range helps flesh out a typically weak part of SP, Cackle is very useful defensively not just for the spearman, but also for your other champions, while dead eater can provide a bit of extra nora.

Possible upgrades:
'Hardened Spear' - 9 speed, +6 hp [69]

Moga Cannon - although technically a moga, the moga cannon doesn't have g'hernbound and as such functions like most other beasts. With good damage, health, range, and a strong defensive ability, the moga cannon is a great all-round champ, while fire damage helps it fulfill yet another role (non-physical damage dealer). Typically included in both moga and voil decks alike, the cannon is an expensive but usually worthwhile choice of ranged unit.

Possible upgrades:
'Toughened Shell' - +6 hp [71]
'Skirmisher' - 11 speed, +6 hp [79]

Mountain Lion - the mountain lion has suffered both from the pounce nerfs and being a 2x2 melee champ with less survivability than your typical ranged champion. Low health, defence, and damage coupled with it's large base and melee range mean there's not much point putting this in a deck.

Possible upgrades:
'Hunter' - +6 hp, Detection 3 [54]

Mud Elemental - Very tough and with a useful mudsling ability, the mud elemental is often a key unit in voil/beast decks. Although trail mud and mudwalker are both useless ability upgrades, the elementals other upgrades provide a few different directions to go with him (from a efficient but more situational tank to a tougher but much more expensive one).

Possible upgrades:
'Muddy Ooze' - +6 hp, Vulnerability: Fire, Vulnerability: Frost, 9 speed [59]
'Clay Elemental' - +6 hp, Physical resist 3, Vulnerability: Fire, Vulnerability: Frost, 9 speed [64]
'Hardened Mud' - +6 hp, Physical Resist 3, 9 speed [76]

Oozing Slag - from shoebox to auto-include to shoebox, the slag has had quite a turbulent time of things. Although more useful now than when first released, the slag's suffers from being too easily killed once replicated. it's vulnerabilities mean aoes can make short work of it, while it's lack of decent healing means you're left only just above half health after replicating. Scry allows some trick deck use with them, and if you use them in a KF/SP deck with natures balance you can improve the survivability a bit, but the healing is still a problem even then.

Possible upgrades:
'Trick Deck Slag' - Scry [51]
'Super Slag' - 11 speed, +6 hp, +2 damage, Scry [78]

Parasitic Fesh - a champion with lots of potential, but in reality little of worth. There are several problems preventing the fesh achieving it's true potential. Firstly, the damage caused is no longer as great due to powercreep (champions damage and hp have increased significantly since it was released). Secondly and more importantly, your opponent can easily kill the fesh once it's infested the target, with cleanse, and also spells like sacrifice. If the worst comes to the worst they can just use an aoe to finish off their champion and stop you feshing it too. Even if you get a kill with the fesh, if it spawns on your opponents turn then you're surrounded by their champions, and have very low hp, meaning 2 hits and you're dead most likely. All in all the fesh is a great shame, since it's a very fun mechanic.

Possible upgrades:
'Toughened Worm' - 9 speed, +6 hp [60]
'Immortal Fesh' - 9 speed, +12 hp [66]

Pit Wolf - A cheap melee champ who hits hard but dies easily. The pit wolf is efficient at first glance, but is stopped from being great by it's 2x2 size and low health, meaning chances are it'll die before doing much if any damage. Rabid allows some decent damage, but again isn't great on a melee champ since chances are you'll be hitting the same target several times rather than being able to spread out the disease damage.

Possible upgrades:
'Starved Wolf' - +6 hp [49]
'Rabid Wolf' - Rabid 3, +6 hp [56?]

Savage Boar - On first glance you might think there is some decent potential here for a hit+run tactic with a charging boar and a voil transporter. However the boar is a bit too costly for what it does for this to really work out. The boar is an ok champion, and charge certainly helps make it easier to get into combat, but it still struggles too much compared with other options out there.

Possible upgrades:
'Enraged Boar' - Charge 3, +6 hp [67]
'Manic Boar' - 11 speed, Berserker 3, Charge 3, +6 hp [80]

[maudlin27]

Spells
SP is a typically champion orientated faction. That said, they do have some nifty spells that work well.

Avalanche - one of the more popular SP spells, it's very useful on cliff maps if your opponent is careless enough to leave a champion near a cliff (and complements SP's other knockback sources such as stone bomb, cyclops belt, and in particular rock trap nicely). Also useful for damage purposes if you need just a little bit of extra damage to finish off an enemy; Knockback is also very powerful if you're using a trap focused bg, as even if your opponent manages to avoid traps you can always knockback their champs to trigger ones they've avoided
Note: Knockback from avalanche won't work on HoC champions (or other physical/damage immune champions)

Bad Blood - quite expensive, but it is quite useful given how many factions will feature one or two main races. A fairly versatile spell due to the high single-target damage coupled with a global effect.

Consume Resources - Allows for some interesting rush decks, both with SP20/ and also SP/FS decks (consume resources, nora drain, semi-aquatics and moga). It's situational in use, but can catch your opponent of guard and if used at the right time can help win you the game.

Crack the Earth - very tough to cast as you can't have any champions in the affected area. As such has a marginal use (it's best used with knockback to gain the 5 knockback damage reliably), and probably won't be seen in most decks.

Devour - although it has been boosted, it's still quite weak, as the damage is spread over all your moga, and g'hern are typically expensive champs to sacrifice. That said, its of use if you have a near-death g'hern, and also for protection against global damage such as festering wounds and blister.

Distract - a nice ability, but it costs far far too much for what it does. Unfortunately I just can't see a case where the 35 nora wouldn't be better spent elsewhere

Intimidation - A great niche rune, that works well when your opponent has quite a few champions, but obviously not as many as you. It basically gives your moga a large defensive boost for a significant amount of time, meaning if there's about to be a large battle, playing this can often swing it in your favour. It can also be useful as a counter to shrine rushes if you have nothing else available, as that little bit less damage can often slow your opponent down by just enough to allow you to destroy their shrine, or deal with their shrine rush. The spell is less useful against high damage champs such as UD's though, where the -3 damage won't have much of an impact. Also beware of playing this against ST or other aoe heavy factions if your moga are grouped together, as a couple of aoes later and you could end up suffering from the -3 damage. For 40 nora though this spell is definitely worth it if you expect to outnumber your opponent in champions.

Moga Decoy - these are for pup generation what marsh song is for nora generation; They're not great, but they can be useful for an early-game boost, and if you have some spare nora. A g'hern birthmother is far better for cost-efficiency later on, and it can't produce pups as fast or as cheaply as a moga den. The decoys are crippled by global damage, and due to deploying anywhere in your shrine it's often obvious that they're illusions. Ultimately although just about comparable with some of the other moga-surge runes like the den, surge decks themselves are hopeless because the den+decoy are both so weak.

Scatter - Another source of knockback, but I'd much rather have 2 avalanches than this.

Strength in Numbers - If surge decks were competitive this spell would probably be ok. As it is though it sucks, since the bonus doesn't really do that much, and costs a lot of nora.

Suicidal Attack - unfortunately this is just too weak to consider in almost every case. The situations where it can be effective are on a near-death moga who can launch 2 attacks. 2 suicidal attacks will also effectively lower the disadvantage compared with just 1 (that is, you get +20 attack and +10 damage, but still only have to sacrifice 1 champ), but even then it's still too weak. In fact the spell doesn't really have any redeeming features, unless you're using nemesis champs and expect the nemesis to cause huge problems for you, in which case you could spend 35 nora and sacrifice your champion just to get rid of the nemesis.

Swimming Lessons - if in the future FS gets boosted with it's water spells and abilities causing impeding, and other factions also gain impeding water runes, this just might be of some marginal use, in particular for a 10/10 FS/SP bg. Other than that, don't waste a rune slot on this feeble rune.

Tribe War - don't bother with this, unless you're using it for a trick deck (in which case you'll probably be playing circus rather than 10/10 or 20/, and even then would struggle due to the nerfs to the tribe wars trick deck). The cyclops maulers are very weak due to only gaining 5 ap and having berserker (meaning they can never launch 2 attacks). Bear in mind that against the majority of factions your opponents maulers will be more powerful than yours (SL, ST, KF, UD and to a lesser extent IS) due to the faction bonus, and that their maulers won't die when yours are destroyed.

Unstable Ground - Synergises nicely with knockback, and so creates a welcome alternative to crack the earth that is easier to use and doesn't require going 10/10 with your deck. Although as a spell it's not great, because it's in SP (the home of knockback) it ends up being much better.

[maudlin27]

Relics

G'hern Scarecrow - great for moga rush bgs, average to weak for normal SP bgs. Basically this is a cheap source of overseer, for when you don't have any g'herns nearby or when they've been killed. It's a useful situational rune as such, because if your moga are left without overseer support they'll be near-useless. The main application is with moga rush bgs however, where you'll be looking to play lots of cheap moga early on, charge towards your opponent, and rather than suffering the tempo loss that a g'hern deployment would cause you simply deploy the scarecrow when you need it.

Moga Den - with the SP faction bonus at just +5 for 20/ this is a sadly weak rune now. The main reason is because of it's very high initial cost, coupled with a significant running cost. It is still useful though for moga-pup (g'hern focused) bgs, where if you can hold off your opponent for long enough with your moga, the moga den can produce enough pups to allow your g'hern to become deadly in combat. Unfortunately the pups themselves are useless in combat, while moga are no longer as strong as they were, and so will struggle to hold off the opponent, especially if most of your nora has gone on the dens. All in all, surge decks are very weak because of this rune (and the decoy) being so expensive.

Rock Trap - works brilliantly with avalanche, so much so that it has attracted a number of complaints+nerf calls. It can be tricky to position optimally (you'll want to use Linque's knockback guide to help you), but once you've got the hang of it it can work out as an aoe stun for you when coupled with avalanche. Without avalanche it is still good, likely being able to stun 1+ enemy champions if placed correctly.

Skull Totem - of some use against bgs where their spells are their main strength, and in particular where those spells are likely to be played several times in one game, but even then these will only be useful if you're planning a long drawn out cooldown-based game (where you'll be relying on your moga cooling down faster than the spells they use to kill them). A bit weak for my taste, but is useful for covering one of SP's main vulnerabilities, and offers some basic protection against FW tomb+fester bgs.

Tribal Post - if you're one of the people lucky enough to have a premium account, and were loyal enough to choose SP as your prefered warbanner (or rich enough to craft one/buy one from the store), then congratulations, because this is brilliant for SP - SP are the most champ heavy of all factions, and as such the warbanners (which benefit champ heavy bgs the most) are best with SP. +5 hp on your moga is a big boost, even if the nora bonus, attack and defence boosts won't make as noticeable an impact as with other factions, and the boost is nice for the fragile voil too!

Equipment

Bag of Boulders - it's meant to have been fixed now so it gives siege, but tbh you don't really need this unless creating a bg dedicated more to a sneaky incursion into your enemies shrine's area to kill it. It's probably best used on a g'hern tyrant or similar high damage champion (siege in effect provides +43% + 1 damage boost against shrines, due to the fact that siege will negate a shrines defence, so this is obviously going to be best on a massive damage champ)

Ball and Chain - great for crippling an expensive enemy champ, in particular if they're a melee champ, and for fighting retreats/combined with knockback (basically it's good if the champ isn't about to engage with your champ, and not so good if that champ can attack fine even with the +1 ap cost to movement)

Cyclops Eye Belt - a fun rune, and now at a reasonable cost (it used to be 50). It's useful on maps with cliffs, especially combined with stone bomb and avalanche, and if you knockback a champion and it's got no-where to go it results in a bit of bonus damage. Ultimately it's qutie a situational rune, but if used right can have devastating effects (e.g. +10 damage on a champion - stick it on a jakei shardmaster, cast crack the earth behind the enemy champion, and chances are it'll be enough to kill the champ in one turn!)

G'hern Helm - weaker than the scarecrow for overseer purposes in SP20/ (as it won't provide overseer to the equiped champion), it's better in 10/ bgs where you can equip it to a non-moga champion to provide overseer. It might also cause your opponents heroes to take 15 damage whenever they play a non-SP rune, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. Sadly it's currently bugged in that the equiped champ won't actually be classed as a g'hern (that is, I don't think it provides a boost to the moga zealot, or works as a g'hern for example for bad blood/superiority)

Idol of Elements - this costs much for what it does. Useless in SP 20/ bgs, it has some marginal use with Dark Knights for FW-SP bgs, but even then the 40 nora cost is usually too much. The fact that this is an exotic further enforces the view that SP isn't allowed good exotics (which in a way is actually a good thing because it makes it cheaper for us to put together the best SP decks!)

Mammoth Club - weak for what it does, and the speed reduction is a real killer. It might have a few very narrow applications, but ultimately there are better runes to have

[maudlin27]

General deck building ideas and tips:
With SP more so than most factions, you'll benefit from a champ heavy bg. This is because with moga's cheap costs you can often deploy 2 or even 3 a turn, while with the g'hern-moga synergy and the faction bonus you also have a clear incentive to have more champions. Meanwhile voil decks benefit from surge, which again favours more champions over fewer. Of course there is still a place for their spells, relics and equipment, but these will typically take up far fewer slots in a bg than for other factions.

In terms of tactics, the biggest split is usually to decide on what deck type you want. There are probably 4 rough groups for these: Moga, Surge, Voil, and Cyclops+Beasts.

The most popular at the moment is a voil battlegroup. This is one made up predominently by voil, and utilises their superior mobility to try and win against the opponent. The key runes for such a deck are voil queens, sorcerers, and transporters, while mud elementals also frequently feature. The sorcerers and queens are the damage dealers, while the transporters help ensure a strategically superior position + open up various tactics for defeating your opponent. The mud elementals meanwhile typically soak up a lot of damage and disrupt the enemy with mudsling.

The second most popular deck type is probably moga. Here the favoured approach is to swarm the opponent with moga quickly, releasing an unrelenting tide of moga to overrun them. Moga's cooldowns are fairly low, so you can often re-deploy the same champion several times over in a battle. Meanwhile g'herns such as the taskmaster provide much needed support with abilities like drive, and later on can deal a reasonable amount of damage in combat too. Spells like intimidate further support the swarm approach, while the warbanner can have a massive impact on your deck. Ultimately moga decks aren't seen to be as powerful as voil decks due in part to all the aoes out there (which typically slaughter moga). However moga decks are fairly cheap to obtain, and don't need much upgrading. Extreme versions of the rush style feature no g'hern at all, using the scarecrow and g'hern helms instead to ensure you can charge your opponent straight away without needing to wait for a g'hern to be revealed.


Nora Surge Addition: Sammich has posted a guide with updated tactics in particular for moga+surge decks. It won't fit in here (post character limit) but you can see it in full in post 24 of this thread.



Cyclops/Beast decks are a third option, and if you have a cyclops lord then it is certainly a possibility (albeit not that great of one). Such decks are weighed down by the fact that most of the champions are 2x2 melee's however, meaning that voil transporters are essential, and even then you will struggle. Ultimately cyclops+beasts tend to work well with just one or two included in a normal deck, as opposed to an entire deck being built around them though.

(Moga) Surge decks are a final option for a SP deck, and although fun, they're hopelessly uncompetitive. They basically rely on pup producing runes such as the g'hern birthmother, moga den, and moga decoy, to produce a large number of moga for surge purposes. The decks also include g'hern such as isangomas and tyrants who can deal massive damage if enough pups are out, to destroy their opponents in a single attack. Unfortunately such decks take a long time to get going, are very weak early on, and are devastated by global spells. In particular they suffer from the high costs of the moga den+decoy, and you're best off just going for a moga/g'hern hybrid where you have a few more g'hern than a typical moga rush deck, and focus on the moga all being cheap so you can get enough out for surge to be meaningful.


A 'standard' SP bg that I'd recommend for newer players would be such a hybrid, that combines several support g'hern with moga, and maybe one of the surge runes (such as a moga den) to allow you to get accustomed to the various different strategies. Such a deck wouldn't be very competitive, but it would help you learn what works best, and what style suits you the most.

For more advanced SP/poxnora players, Linque came up with a nice deck utilising SP's mobility a while ago, with runes such as voil transporters and firebombers to harrass your opponent, which was particularly nice as it went against typical conventional wisdom as to what works and what doesn't for SP. Although the deck itself has probably been made partially obsolete it shows that it always pays to experiment with SP and see what works and what doesn't, since the decks/runes used most at the moment aren't necessarily going to be the best.

For relocate, the champion will be relocated to the top left square of the relocating champion, unless this is invalid in which case it will proceed clockwise (would appreciate someone else being able to confirm this is accurate in case my memory is faulty). You can relocate champions into harmful terrain effects, but not harmful terrain. For knockback, if a champion is knocked back into impassable terrain, both it and the obstacle take 5 damage (so if you knock one champion back into another, they both take 5 knockback damage per knockback space).


In terms of general runes to include in a deck, you want to try and make sure some of the basics are covered. You'll want a mixture of range and melee champions (for a moga deck slingers are a great ranged champion, voil decks meanwhile have the sorcerer). You'll also ideally want a variety of damage types, since an all-physical deck is highly vulnerable to physical resist champions. Meanwhile you should try and aim to include at least one damage spell such as avalanche, which allows you to finish off a near-dead enemy champion (stopping it attacking again), as well as being useful in various other situations.

Try and pick runes that synergise well with each other - a few examples would be the g'hern taskmaster and moga, or the voil transporter and 2x2 melee champions. Such synergies can make two otherwise average runes good, or two already good runes great.

Also be sure to consider some of the more niche counter runes, such as ball and chain, or cyclops eye belt. They're not going to be useful in every game, and so you shouldn't include many of them, but having one or two can add a lot of versatility to your deck

[maudlin27]

For upgrades, with moga the favoured approach is to use no upgrades, or minimal ones. There are a number of reasons of this, firstly the faction bonus (+5 nora in 20/ per champion played, so 2 cheap champs will net more nora than 1 champion twice their cost), warbanners if you have them (+5 hp for 2 champs is a greater bonus than +5 hp for 1 champ), the fact that the more moga you have the better your g'hern become, and also the ability to rush your opponent's font and contest it while simultaneously heading for your own font due to cheap champions. Finally, g'hernbound is a greater penalty for more expensive champs, as not only are the attack and defence penalties going to have a greater impact on a champion with 15 damage than 8, or 40 health than 30, but the loss of range+ability will also effectively cripple ranged moga, which may not be such a problem if it's only a 30 nora moga, but if it's a 60 nora moga it's much more significant. Finally, in terms of the overseer benefit, the cost you pay for your g'hern if it's simply used to provide overseer is going to be much less when spread over 5 g'hernbound moga than over just 1. Cheaper champions also have lower cooldown, meaning if you get into a war of cooldown attrition with your opponent having low cooldown champions can often mean the difference between winning and losing.

Of course there are advantages to upgrading your moga as well. For a start, there's the surprise factor - alot of players won't actually check your moga slinger when it's deployed for example, so won't notice it's had it's damage and speed boosted dramatically, so might make a sub-optimal move as a result. Furthermore several tough champs are less vulnerable to aoes and global damage (SP's main weakness) than lots of weaker champs. Also, if you can get overseer cheaply, your expensive upgraded moga are still going to be quite a bit cheaper than similar powered champs. The fewer champions you have the easier it is to choose the optimal moves each turn as well; One major disadvantage of relying on a swarm of champions is you only have 1 min 45 to make your moves in, and with the poxnora game often forcing you to wait several seconds between each move (e.g. while moving, while waiting for ap gains, while checking for RD on a ranged attack, etc.). With fewer champions, you don't have that problem.

One variation on the cheap moga, without going all-out to the lev5 moga is to run them at 11 speed instead of 9. This yields slightly better rushing abilities, at the general cost of making your moga slightly less efficient.

With g'hern, with the exception of the birthmother (who you may want to use as a pup producer/overseer), you'll want to boost your g'hern to 9 speed. 11 speed is also an option, but probably only for g'hern focused bgs or heavy hitters such as the tyrant, as in more traditional moga-g'hern or moga-rush ones 11 speed g'hern will cost alot more, without adding that much (due to their weak combat capabilities early on). Overseer 2 typically isn't needed for melee g'hern (unless they're going to be hanging at the back of your army), although it's more appropriate for ranged g'hern such as the thrower, as with a range of 6 if he's your sole overseer provider you might well end up with your melee moga moving out of his range.

For other champions, it depends partly on the deck you are going for, but 9 speed is usually a good standard to work for. You should also generally always upgrade your champions with +6 health since at 3 nora it's a bargain, although similarly almost never upgrade beyond +6 health. Exceptions are with champions with a low nora cost (the +1 cooldown from a hp boost can make a difference), or low hp and a high cost (where boosting beyond +6 can become more efficient). 11 speed on your champions is another option to consider, increasing your speed+movement options, at the cost of making your champions more expensive.

For myself, when looking at health and damage upgrades I tend to work on the basis that a 50% boost to a champs damage isn't worth more than a 25% boost to it's nora cost, and the same with health. As such if the champs health is below it's nora cost it's typically worth considering boosting it. This 50% is only a rough guideline of course, and will vary according to the role you want your champ to perform - a slow melee champ whose purpose is as a meatshield is going to want health more than damage, while a long-ranged champ may want damage more than health. However it helps give a starting point to work out how valuable an upgrade might or might not be.

With the SP faction bonus however this general rule has some exceptions,since upgrading your champ by 1 more nora for example may increase the amount of nora from the bonus by 1, thus making it worth conidering. Anastase has the following chart to allow you to see how much nora you obtain for a champ with upgrades:
full faction:

1 nora to 33 nora : 4 nora
34 to 41 : 5
42 to 50 : 6
51 to 58 : 7
59 to 66 : 8
67 to 75 : 9
76 to 83 : 10
84 to 91 : 11
92 to 100 : 12
101 to 108 : 13
109 to 116 : 14
117 to 125 : 15
126 to 133 : 16

10/10

1 to 16 : 1
17 to 33 :2
34 to 50 : 3
51 to 66 : 4
67 to 83 : 5
84 to 100 : 6
101 to 116 : 7
117 to 133 : 8

Full faction with banner:

0 - 9 :4
10 - 19 : 5
20 - 29 : 6
30 - 33 : 7
34 - 39 : 8
40 - 41 : 9
42 - 49 : 10
50 : 11
51 - 58 : 12
59 : 13
60 - 66 : 14
67 - 69 : 15
70 - 75 : 16
76 - 79 : 17
80 - 83 : 18
84 - 89 : 19
90 - 91 : 20
92 - 99 : 21
100 : 22
101 - 108 : 23
109 : 24
110 - 116 : 25
117 - 119 : 26
120 - 125 : 27

[maudlin27]

Typical Strengths and Weaknesses of SP (will vary depending on the type of deck used):
Lots of cheap champs with a low cooldown
Strong early-game
Mid to late game potential (both with low cooldowns for attrition and also surge)
Great mobility (Voil, relocate ally)
Knockback+Knockback synergy
Lots of melee champs

Weaknesses:
Vulnerable to aoes and global damage
Champions predominately deal physical damage (weak vs physical resist)
Often won't be able to make full use of nora mid to late game
Weaker late-game unless have a significant focus on surge
Moga weak against high defence champs (moga typically have low attack)
No decent healing (devour and sustain are almost never seen, while the isangoma is very expensive as a healer)
Few ranged champions


10/10 Faction combinations: Although SP is one of the few factions which strongly encourages full-faction anyway due to the natural g'hern-moga synergy, 10/10 combos can still be very powerful. Typically 10/10 decks which focus on moga for the 10/ SP part will want to include ~3-4 overseer runes, depending on the strength of the other 10/ faction's champions used. Meanwhile knockback provides some other 10/10 options, and voil are less restricted to a 20/ framework than moga+g'hern.

Forsaken Wastes - Mobilization works best with more champions and hence works well with moga, although you have to be able to move very quickly with moga+mobilization. Meanwhile FW also has access to a number of cheap champions, making a swarm deck type possible. The cooldown faction bonus is also of some use, although since it's % based it doesn't have much impact on moga. Idol of Elements meanwhile works well on dark knights, and tome of hate can generate heavy shrine healing with moga in play.

Savage Tundra - the +5 hp boost is nice for moga to make them even tougher, while ST's aoes give a nice use for any spare nora, and also have higher damage potential than avalanche. Other than the faction bonus there are no major benefits to this though.

Forglar Swamp - no obvious synergies here, except for the moga cannon with turtle shell (perma-invulnability!). FS does provide an instant-kill with drown which helps cover one of SP's weaknesses, and their good champ mobility and terrain control spells also complement SP's already good mobility nicely. They also have access to very good healing, something SP is again short on, and of course have cleanse.

Ironfist Stronghold - Has healing, and SP's mobility with throwers helps benefit IS's powerful melee champs, although the dwarven catapult fills this role better. IS also provides heavy nora gen, although late-game this isn't really needed by SP. The defence boost also provides an option for boosting your g'hern, for example with the tyrant, but IS is a typically mid-late game faction anyway, so such a combination would be very weak early on and so likely to struggle even more than a normal SP surge deck. That said, with the massive boost to aoes seen with SR, the -3 spell damage from IS is very attractive for mogas, by helping protect them from aoes.

IS lends itself most for combination with SP for knockback decks, as the ability to create chasms on any map makes SP's abundance of knockback runes much deadlier. However such builds are probably more for fun than competitive (with some exceptions of course).

K'thir Forest - Initiative champs and a speed bonus coupled with SP's mobility and cheap moga, along with champ control from KF allows for a very specialised rush deck, especially if the SP shrine bonus could be retained (although this is unlikely given that KF's initiative champs tend to be expensive, and SP's moga cheap). Also offers good healing and long ranged champions, and cleanse.

Underdepths - The faction bonus is probably one of the best ones for SP, turning moga into lethal champions. SP's mobility also works nicely with some of UD's champions (e.g. voil transporters+pit dragons). UD also has a few nice spells which have been boosted, and can amplify fire damage allowing for some combos with SP's fire runes (although this is barely noticeable now since the amplify change).

Sundered Lands - Firestorm provides powerful aoe, dragon skull and skeezick trapper work nicely if building a trap deck (as SP has quite a few fire trap champs), Dragonic Benediction is brilliant for moga, and while the faction bonus is quite weak due to mogas low base defence, it does help improve their survivability slightly. Also allows for a rush focused bg with SL's initiative champs and SP's cheap moga, although lacks the champ control of KF. With the boost to skeezick, you could run a 10/10 swarm bg with both skeezick and moga, but typically you'll be better off running a 20/ SL or 20/ moga bg instead.

[maudlin27]

Specific faction tips:
SL - one of the factions well equiped to deal with a SP bg, they're going to be tough to beat with moga, although voil should fare better. Your best chance (with moga) is to try and rush them straight away before they can get going. The skeezick rioter is near-impossible to counter for moga however, as with all of SL's ap gaining abilities+spells, coupled with high damage aoes like firestorm, your opponent will be able to swarm with ease. Fortunately skeezick decks aren't as tough as they used to be, but then neither are moga. Voil should have an easier time however, with their improved mobility making it easier to prevent a rioter swarm, while sorcerers and queens will have the damage and attack to quickly kill any threats. Meanwhile vindrax is far easier to deal with if you've got sorcerers than if you're relying on reckless spellhacks!

The draksar decks should be easier to beat as a general rule - focus fire on one champ at a time (since with regeneration a bit of damage to lots of champs doesn't do that much), and try to rush them quickly before they can get many champions out. If you can heavily outnumber their few champions, as tough as they may be they should still fall. Watch out for firestorm though, as it can be lethal if you're closely grouped together.

FW - Unholy tomb+festering wounds coupled with the reduced cooldowns means that long-term a FW bg will have a very good chance against a SP bg, while festering wounds will slaughter surge decks. Traditionally the tactic against FW has been to rush them with everything you have straight away, but they also have a number of cheap defensive champions such as their skeletal berserkers and blood fiends, which will make such an attack risky. Also be careful with focusing on their shrine instead of their champions - they can deploy a tome of hate to heal back a hefty amount of damage, and if you weren't expecting it, it can turn a sure victory into a crushing defeat. Also make sure to factor in mobilization when facing them.

Some FW bgs will also be skeleton focused, relying heavily on tomb lords (with boost skeleton, as well as surge+inspire which can be used to turn lich kings into lethal enemies), so if you can kill these then the rest of the army should die fairly easily. Watch out for sacrificial altars being used with the cheap summoned skeletons, as well as the cheap but powerful skeleton beserkers. It's also worth bearing in mind that a near-dead tomb-lord can still be deadly since they can then just fall back out of combat and inspire other champs. Also watch out for the soul siren+necromancer(+mobilization) combo that can take your most expensive champion and turn it into nora for your opponent!

ST - Another faction with some very nice options against SP, due to their heavy aoe focus. Ideally try to open up two fronts against your opponent to prevent them wiping out your entire army in the space of a turn (although this can be hard to do with moga as opposed to voil depending on the map). If possible also spread out your champs a bit so they can't all be hit by an ice storm, and remember the -1 speed loss (and therefore typically 1 ap loss) caused by an ice storm that could mess with your plans for getting 2 attacks from a champ. Frostbite is lethal both against moga and moga pups, but few ST bgs seem to run it. Frost cone is much more frequent and will cause problems especially when dealing with lev3 frost cones, but isn't unstoppable. Fortunately when facing ST they tend to be fairly weak early on, so an early attack is often a good idea, as if they use their aoes to stop you they'll typically then be starved of nora for champions.

Typically although the ST players aoes are very powerful against SP, SP's swarm can still often win through with lower cooldowns, and spread out champions. With the typical ST bg featuring probably 3+ aoes (as a rough guide you can probably expect several ice storms and deep freezes) if running moga make sure you prepare yourself for losing a lot of moga at any time, and never deploy all your moga at once in the same place. Keeping some champions unplayed or near the back of your army is often better than bringing them to the front line against ST. G'hern throwers and voil transporters are invaluable for helping you get past any snow created from abilities/spells, while ranged champs will also help prevent you being stranded and taking fire without being able to retaliate.

FS - A decent sp bg should have a decent chance against FS, depending on the bg setup. True, fs has nice mobility, some movement restriction, nora generation and healing, coupled with some reasonable spells, but they're usually no match for a swarm of moga, while voil can ignore some of the movement restrictions such as bog traps. Try to kill their champions in 1 turn to prevent them being healed, and try and keep yourself ontop of them before their nora advantage can take too much of a toll. Voil sorcerers will be prime targets for drowning/feeding frenzy, although if you keep several champs close together you can restrict feeding frenzy's use and make it harder to get an instant-kill with it. Meanwhile voil will have to be monsooned before being drowned, which at least means some FS decks will struggle more than others. For moga, try not to rely too much on just one g'hern providing overseer as a result of this.

Overall forglar swamp have consistently been one of the strongest factions in poxnora, so certainly don't underestimate them. However they are at least one of the factions that doesn't seem to have runes tailor-made for SP destruction (well, assuming they're not running g'hern traitors with snaptooth helms)!

IS - don't let them get a heavily armoured champ and you should be ok. Hammerstrikes will cause slight problems for some of your expensive/essential champions, in particular for voil decks, but are much less of an issue for moga/g'hern decks. The lack of ranged champs for IS also means you have a strong advantage already since you have decent ranged options and good melee meat shields for holding them up. For heavily armoured champs, moga pup/g'hern focused bgs will also be able to deal high enough damage with boosted attack over time, although be wary of an early attack if using a surge deck. In the worst case scenario you can simply ignore the armoured champ and kill the shrine without too much trouble - a couple of moga will be able to tie up the (often melee) champion, while the rest swarm over your opponent (or a transporter with relocate taking your high damage voil past their lines).
Their biggest danger rune is the dwarven king, thanks to warcry being able to turn a group of average champs into lethal multi-attacking enemies. Meanwhile if IS gets a vial of holy water on their armoured champ and you're lacking an anti-equipment rune, expect a very tough time trying to kill it.

KF - KF have some powerful aoes, in particular thorn collection and brambles, which can make life tough for a champion heavy faction like SP. They also have some nice ranged champs, and some tough melee ones. With cleanse and healing coupled with long range+teleport they can be very hard to tie down and kill, so make sure you finish off their champs when you get the chance, and focus on killing them 1 by 1 rather than spreading out your damage. KF is also good at rushing thanks to a number of initiative champs and some good champion control spells. On the wrong map, and with them going first, this can often spell doom, although moga are better placed than most to withstand such a rush. If you're having trouble reaching their ranged champions try making fuller use of knockback to bring them in range of your troops, or alternatively to allow you to hit their ranged champions without having to deal with the melee ones first.

UD - They can hit very hard, and now have decent aoes, but can often be tied up quite easily by moga. A big threat UD can offer is a Helm of Chaos rush, although with the boosts to their ranged champs, along with imp summons and nora generation and boosted aoes they pose a much stronger all-round threat than before. It's in this situation (a HoC rush) that anti-equipment runes like the cave dragon, and niche runes like the parasitic fesh, become more valuable. A meat-shield can also work as a temporary barrier. Moga scouts are also good for such a situation if you've boosted their detection ability (as if you can reveal the imp early on you can either kill it or force early deployment of the helm). The typical combo to watch out for is a DE priestess being played, advancing, then relocating a pit dragon near her, and the pit dragon advancing near your shrine before gaining a HoC. A variant is simply the deployment of an imp, with that imp then not appearing in the initial battle between your forces.

Other than that, look to avoid any big blows from UD's melee champions, and try and pick off the biggest threats. If using moga you should usually be able to throw a couple of cheap moga at their pit dragons to soak up damage while the rest of your forces focus-fire to destroy them. Try not to leave an UD champ nearly dead, since not only can it hit to deal a lot of damage, but your opponent can then sacrifice it to regain all of that nora. Anti-equipment is also vital to deal with demon shields, which can make pit dragons and K'lzik a nightmare prospect to deal with. You're more likely to see Grimlic than K'lzik however, and so should make sure you have the ranged champions to take him out quickly.

SP - faction matchups are never much fun, but if you're lucky one person will be running moga and the other voil, to make things more interesting. With 2 moga decks the person running the cheapest moga will probably do best (due to the lower cooldowns and more efficient champions), while with voil a lot will probably depend more on each players skill at utilizing voil

[maudlin27]

10/10 Decks to look out for:

SL/UD - these decks can feature several nasty combinations. Firstly, you have 2 dragon leaches and banish to have two instant-kills that are both cheap and end up refunding some of their cost. The leeches themselves are fragile, but deal alot of damage so can often be upgraded to be decent combat champs. A range of 2-3 does make it easy to engage them or outrange them though. The other powerful combo that this 10/10 can offer is a Deepelf Summoner with Invigorate 2 - you can summon an imp, equip a forbidden fruit to it, invigorate it, and get an instant-kill against any enemy nearby (with the range increasing even further if you have a DEP that can summon the imp). This is mainly a concern for your g'hern, since it's inefficient to use instant-kills on moga.

FW/UD - the most powerful combo this matchup can unleash against you is cursed temple x2 coupled with use of banish and domination+sacrifice. 2 Cursed temples reduce the nora from banish and sacrifice by 75%, so it works out almost as good as an instant-kill. Your best protection against this would be maybe having a scarecrow and some cheap overseer g'hern, since your moga will be naturally resistant to instant-kills.

FS/UD - this combination suggests either a BBND deck or a psychic deck (or both!). A BBND deck means they will cast banish twice before casting a nora drain, typically resulting in 2 instant-kills for 75 nora each. Psychic decks meanwhile will feature 2 firk masks, firk sensorates+mindbreakers (often with assassinate 2), along with UD psychic runes such as the summoners and ritualists. Superiority is a very powerful aoe given that it is boosted by the firk masks, and generally speaking you can expect to face alot of damage from this sort of deck. Moga scouts will be useful for revealing the mindbreakers, while a general rush by moga will work fairly well since bringing out 2 firk masks early on will cost alot in terms of initial tempo+champ deployment. Often players will put the masks on summoned imps and move them somewhere safe so you can't kill them. Other times they'll put them on normal champs - if they do this, focus on those champs and try to kill them to severely hurt the rest of the deck.

FW/UD or FW/SL: On a few rare occassions this might suggest your opponent is going for a DR shrine rush deck. That is, where they send one champion up to your shrine, and once within spell casting range cast dark rising along with other spells to destroy your shrine within a single turn. This can usually be spotted if your opponent plays a champion like an imp, and little else (i.e. is hoarding nora), or seems desperate to get one of their champions past yours even if it doesn't make tactical sense. There are several counters to this. The first is to find the 'postman' before it gets within casting range of your shrine, and to kill it. This requires upgraded detection champions, and/or large aoes, and/or global damage spells. The second alternative is to position champs adjacent to your shrine, preferably with low damage (since they can be dominated and used against you). This is to prevent the dark rising skeletons being able to move adjacent to your shrine to get the attack off. The third option is just to charge for their shrine and try and destroy it in time. Of course other counters work fine, such as nora drain or backfire.

A variation on this uses sundered lands, with the broodguard+hatching season spells. However this is a much slower process and therefore easier to counter (since you can for example destroy the eggs before they hatch, or heal your shrine).

As a general note, SP is much better against alot of the instant-kill decks mentioned above that use banish, since the most expensive champ typically used is the g'hern thrower who has planar bound! Other g'hern tend to be run fairly decently, while moga of course are so cheap that it's just not worth banishing them.

Please add any other 10/10 decks that feature prominently or might catch someone off-guard if not expecting them!

Feel free to add comments, corrections, and suggestions below :)

[e1ric]

Great posts, maudlin27! Really helps SP players! :)

[dacidd]

Awwww I wouldn't of gone through all the trouble if I knew you were going to do this =P

I made sure to tell everyone it was yours because I wasn't even sure if you were still around or not ^.^

[fireball94]

Wherever the Relocate section is, add that you are able to Relocate your champs and your opponents champs into harmful terrain effects, but not harmful terrain.

[maudlin27]

Awwww I wouldn't of gone through all the trouble if I knew you were going to do this =P


Sorry, I would've told you if I'd known you were going to all that trouble, but I didn't want to give a definite commitment in the old guide (on old forums) in case I was dragged away again and didn't manage to complete it, or if I ended up giving up part way through (as I have in the past). I also didn't expect anyone to have been as efficient as you were with bringing old archives up to the new forums so quickly! On the plus side it means that if I do leave pox/go inactive the guides already up (for you to edit) so it wouldn't have to be done again.

Edit: Updated cyclops section with some of the comments/builds from demonmarch

[maudlin27]

Made relocate+knockback sections bolded so they're more obvious, added in additional build option for mud elemental based on the thread discussion of it, and moving this away from the ill-fated (and titled) copy :p.

[demonmarch]

thanks for adding my stuff in i wasn't sure you would

good **** for writing this stuff up

[ForestQueen]

SCREW EVERYTHING BUT VOIL, the rest just sucks.

[dacidd]

BUMP!!!


....Dang character limit..

[Sammich]

Gimme a day, I'll type up a modern guide for sacrificial moga. I've been thinking about SP tactics with the new stuff since I saw it, so I've got a decent grasp of how the new, shorter-lived moga can make an impact. Plus, I'm bored.

[maudlin27]

Gimme a day, I'll type up a modern guide for sacrificial moga.

It's almost been a week now! :p

[Sammich]

I know, I'm terrible. New job, new apartment... little hectic. I swear, by Friday.

[Sammich]

Moga have been down a long and winding road. I'll leave the rest of the guide to describe where they've been and what they've done, but with a few new runes, they have evolved (along with a decent portion of the rest of the faction) into something *new*.

One of the longest-standing powerhouse spells in the game is Sacrifice. The ability to turn an almost-dead or disabled champ into something else has proven infinitely useful for anyone willing to play Underdepths, and older players will swear by its use. Moga (and SP in general) have always suffered from a lack of staying power, and have always tried to recycle units where they could. Until now, there has been no real means to do so, aside from running moga at low cost for low cooldowns. This has been somewhat inefectual, as they were never really potent enough to stand up to the serious beaters, especially not as a stream of "meh" fighters.

Now, however, there are the Battlefiend and Implant. Everything's different. The ability to spot-recycle, and every 6 turns, along with ditching for profit, has created a method for SP to farm moga in a way never before conceived. Following is an exploration of these new tactics - enjoy.

Utilizing Implant
This spell has some obvious uses, and some not-so-obvious uses. The first and foremost is the ability to get some extra use out of a dying or disabled unit. A few HP left after a painful round, a stunned champ on the front lines, whatever, can be turned into an extra 30ish HP and 12 damage. It's not a Cleanse, but it certainly takes the sting out of what has traditionally been a lockdown for SP.

Facing a long-range threat gives Implant some extra use, as well. Moga are usually fairly speedy, and between Taskmasters, Overlords and Throwers can end up in some fairly unusual places. Sadly, they often arrive without enough AP to do anything. Getting a cheap moga up close and personal with an LK is great, but it's even better when you can then Implant and start thwacking that undead bastard right away.

Implant has also brought Birthmothers and Dens (to a lesser degree, as Dens are still pretty terrible) back from the shoebox; Moga Pups make great Implant targets, as you don't have to waste a decent champ for the free Fesh. It's a bit contrary to the Surging G'hern, but people will often ignore Pups in favor of other champs, and you can make them regret it.

Lastly, there's a line of text that people sometimes miss - "All Fesh in play gain 3 AP". You can use this to give your Parasitic Fesh extra, unexpected threat range. A simpler use is the double-Implant; get two cheap champs next to a good target (Teleporting champs, Shrines, lynchpin champs, etc.), and Implant both (using whatever AP on the champs first, of course). The first Implant with create a Fesh with 5 AP, and the second will do the same, while giving the first an extra 3, for the magic 8 AP. That means 3 12 damage attacks that they didn't expect (24 shrine damage!). Used next to a shrine, this puts them on a three turn timer, as the two Fesh can get in 10 attacks for 8 damage a piece (and you only need 9, anyway).

Utilizing Battlefiends
Battlefiends have a lot of obvious application, and have been used excessively in both FF and 10/10 play. I'll focus on FF, but touch on 10/10.

Before I get in to builds, I'm going to explain his general functionality. It's pretty obvious, actually - stuff you control dies, and he gets better. If he gets better enough, he gets way better. However, there's a lot of little details to mention. Warmonger will trigger off of moga pup deaths, but no other summoned units, and no illusions. If you artificially inflate his Damage stat (say, with Drive) and his damage modifier after the inflation wears off is less than the trigger, he will revert to his old form. All artificial means of inflating his damage stat will trigger him, including Inspire, Drive, Boost, or anything else. If he is Devolved and his damage modifier goes negative (or just less than his trigger), he will revert until Devolve wears off.

Now, that out of the way. Battlefiends can be built around, and make for nice lynchpins. Pumping out pups and low-cost moga (Spellhacks, Trappers, etc.) and applying liberal use of Devour and Implant will quickly trigger them. Devour makes for an HP burst on top of increased Damage and Attack, so that tends to be a great way to go, especially with pups. With decent speed, these guys can get in plenty of hits, and make excellent bombs when used with either the Overlord or the Transporter's Relocate.

His upgrades open a lot of options, as well. Unstoppable prevents the AP loss from Berzerker, effectively eliminating the downside while gifting him immunity to Stun, AP loss, Ensnaring, etc. Devour, as stated, creates a lot of healing options that also improve him (don't forget that, when low on HP, things like Mogahern Destroyers, Moga Hunters, and Moga Assault Teams can provide an almost full heal!). Blood Rage is an interesting option, as while it can be a bad idea, it can also let you get in three attacks for a scant 7 AP.

The downsides to these guys are that they are Banishable, Drownable, and generally pretty killable, if your opponent decides to focus fire. You have to be careful, and liberal use of Relocate can go a long way towards keeping them alive. After all, when he can start one-turning anything on the board, you'd rather not start back at square one.

10/10 use makes these fellows a lot of fun, as well. Sunderpedes make excellent Warmonger engines. Other factions protecting your Slags let you Replicate more readily. FS, KF, and ST will provide single-target spell protection, and any Protectorate will help with Cleansing issues.

Battlefiends can be built to cater to a bunch of different playstyles, but generally they work best at/around the 70 nora mark. 72 nora nets you 7 base speed (11 once triggered), Unstoppable, and Devour. Blood Rage bumps the build to 80 even. The standard +6 HP can be applied readily in either case. 75 and less builds net you 9 nora off the faction bonus (66 and less drop to 8), and anything from 76 and up will get you 10. You probably don't want to go over that, as the loss of momentum do to his setup time will be increasingly detrimental.

Putting it all Together
Implant and Battlefiends open up a new field for SP, full of dead corpses and a LOT of crazy tricks. Using Implant as a sac outlet provides extreme threat range to bring SP in line with factions like KF or FS. It also lets you get around a lot of the power of the FW attrition engine, as you can counter the grind with fresh Fesh rather steadily. Keeping moga cooldowns low lets you recycle some faster than you can Implant them! Of course, all of these work well with Battlefiends, letting them take advantage of each and every death you arrange for. Make sure you're careful with Implant against FS and ST - it can hurt to have it Backfire, or worse, hit a Battlefiend or G'hern instead!

Both of these new runes works well in most any SP deck you build. Moga benefit in the extreme, switching from slow surge tactics to fast recycling and deliberate pseudo-attrition/rush. Voil get a bit less use, but Implant can still prevent a stunned or paralyzed unit from being nothing more than a pincushion. Mixed SP (as rare as it is) gets to play with all sorts of different tricks, and ends up much cleaner with these options added in there.

All in all, Implant is almost an auto-include, and Battlefiends are a distinct and powerful option. Both will help you refine any build into a more effective opening and a more powerful late-game. Use them carefully, but keep an open mind - you have a lot of options!

[Giovachino]

Utilizing Battlefiends
Battlefiends have a lot of obvious application, and have been used excessively in both FF and 10/10 play. I'll focus on FF, but touch on 10/10.

Before I get in to builds, I'm going to explain his general functionality. It's pretty obvious, actually - stuff you control dies, and he gets better. If he gets better enough, he gets way better. However, there's a lot of little details to mention. Warmonger will trigger off of moga pup deaths, but no other summoned units, and no illusions.

This may be because they don't count as summoned units, but it also triggers of the deaths of your Crested Fesh.

[maudlin27]

Thanks for the guide/tips Sammich! I want to put them in the main section but stupidly I didn't reserve an additional post and the 10k character limit means I can't fit it in easily :(. I'll include several mentions of your post in the guide though so people can find it quickly.

[Sammich]

That's cool, I don't mind. We'll roll with it ^.^

[demonmarch]

go go sticky.

[Ddaydevice]

this really helped me, thank u o so vry much. STICKY PLZ

[demonmarch]

finally sticky ftw!

[EvilRaja]

all u did was bash most of the runes...try not to be so biased :/

[Sammich]

*edit* Tired.

[maudlin27]

all u did was bash most of the runes...try not to be so biased :/

How am I being biased? And how am I bashing most of the runes? For example just going through the g'hern section, I was probably largely negative about only 1 rune (sustainer), with good things to say about all of them.

- - - - - - - - -

Just back from a 3 month training session so hopefully I'll start to have a bit of time to play poxnora again (and hence may be able to try and update this guide). As always I'm open to other players posting their own suggestions and additions for the guide!

[Coppercell]

Guide needs to be updated, and have less posts. Mostly I'd like to see less posts and have it just be a guide (not a community discussion lol). New players don't want to wade through all of this. :P

[hashinshin]

unstickying this for intense out of date action, somebody else needs to write up a new one.

[fireball94]

unstickying this for intense out of date action, somebody else needs to write up a new one.

You were kind of made mod for a reason.

[MageSeth]

You were kind of made mod for a reason.

Good point =p.

I could make a simple "How to build a Moga deck" guide. I could probably do one for Voil/Beasts, too, unless Hash is planning something.

[fireball94]

Moga Guide:

Reveal runes.
Mogas? Check. Deploy Mogas.
Reveal runes.
G'hern? Check. Deploy G'hern.
Reveal more runes.
AoE's? Check. 100+ nora? Check. Proceed with spam.
Enemy champions? Nom nom nom, rinse, and repeat.

[hashinshin]

Good point =p.

I could make a simple "How to build a Moga deck" guide. I could probably do one for Voil/Beasts, too, unless Hash is planning something.

I'm not planning anything.

[Poxbuster]

Bumping for the sake of making a new one (not me :p).

i dont have the exp to do it, but maybe someone else with a little extra time could do it?
Could be in parts you know, say a post everyday or something