Krusk’s Sand Goblins are a stronger faction then their cave goblin cousins. One thing they share though is that both are best when used offensively. The main reason the Sand Goblins are much stronger is that Krusk his events and summoner power can move (enemy) units. This guide will go into more detail on how to play him well. It will not include mercenaries for now. Those will probably be added in an update to this post once I have had experience with them. Summoner Wars is a game by Plaid Hat Games. It’s available on android / iOS / Vassal.
Basic idea
Krusk has no direct ways to gain an economic advantage, so against most factions you need to be sufficiently aggressive or you will lose economically. Luckily Krusk has a number of tools to carry out that. These are Sandstorm, Taunt, Mirage and Silts. The whole idea is to use these to either gain an economic advantage (Taunt / Sandstorm their units to kill them efficiently) or to assassinate (all four can be used for this). Key in all this is that you need Krusk near the action and enough units close to their commons to be able to Taunt (and probably to protect Krusk). For this goal it’s ok to lose some commons as you need to apply enough pressure to force your opponent to react and thereby provide openings.
Playing him defensively is not necessarily bad, but only if necessary / you can afford it in the match-up. All in all I think his deck is above average in terms of strength. This is because he has an answer to both heavy common and heavy champion play and is able to push the opponent into a corner with Sandstorm / Silts. I wouldn’t call him top-tier as five of his event cards are pretty weak, he is weak to catch up events and his commons in general aren’t very strong by themselves (and sadly you get a bunch of Scavengers in his starting position).
Basic tactic and combo suggestions:
– Use Krusk and Silts. Sandstorm is crucial in getting things set up exactly the way you want it to be. And Silts can do insane things; like swap with an enemy summoner trapping him behind enemy lines. Silts also combo’s well with some of the champions.
– Use Krusk in combination with Mirage and Taunt. Taunt for instance to remove a few defenders, Mirage to summon a new unit from an unexpected position and Sandstorm to put the enemy summoner in a position that he can be attacked from all sides.
– Wall crowding / take down is a situational strategy with the Sand Goblins. It can be effective against an opponent with one wall as you can use Sandstorm and Mirage to block off summoning spots. If the enemy gets an early wall though it’s not that effective as you lack ways to quickly take out walls.
Deck build (17 / 18 magic for the champions / commons)
– 1 Silts
– 1 Biter
– 1 Sand Wyrm
– 2 Scavenger (2 initially)
– 6 Javelineer (2 initially)
– 5 Shaman (1 initially) (I’d remove a Jav & Scav for 2 more Shaman in the app)
– 5 Slayer
Two out of the three champions were a pretty easy choice. The first champion I want is Biter as I really like his value for his cost (and I don’t mind his negative ability). Secondly I’ve put in Silts as there are so many ways to make creative use of him and he works very well with both Biter and all the Sand Goblin abilities. Do remember that he is pretty darn expensive and doesn’t work that well in a one on one match up. The last spot is pretty hard. Kreep is pretty interesting as he’s very cheap and a natural fit with Silts. However, I dislike his ability to get discarded just a bit too much. Tark I also like especially since if the opponent tries to summon a lot of units to counter him as they can get taunted. Still, he has low health and doesn’t pack that much of a punch. And even Stink is interesting, although I feel his ability is too weak for his cost. So I ended up including Sand Wyrm. He also works well with Silts and I like being able to choose how much dice he will roll with. If I end up replacing one I’ll probably try replacing Sand Wyrm with Tark (for a stronger end game).
Common wise it’s a lot easier. As I dislike both Bombers and Scavengers there are only three other commons to use: Javelineer, Shaman and Slayer. I’ve included the most Shaman as those are in my opinion the most powerful (note that there are only 5 included in the master set). I’ve included a lot of slayers to at least have the option of using them if I want to go more common heavy. In general I’ll probably build them most of the time as they only seem really useful in either defense or to take out a wounded champion. It may be better to include even more Shaman’s and take out 1 Javelineer. The Shaman is just that good.
Playing the faction
In general you’ll want to go second unless you can (try to) kill 1-2 commons with your Shaman / Javelineer (or safe 1-2 of your own units). Using a Taunt early can be very powerful as many factions kill their commons off quickly (as long as you can actually kill the taunted units). Killing your own Scavenger’s is not a bad idea, but you might want them to apply pressure first / use them as bait / Taunt beacons. Against ranged factions the Javelineers will be invaluable and they tend to entice the enemy to come fight you. Your first Shaman and Krusk should be kept safe, but pretty close to the front lines so you can use them to kill Taunted units / threaten to Sandstorm the enemy summoner. Also build magic quickly, as you want to be aggressive and you need to be able to use Sandstorm where necessary and threaten to use Silts. Finally watch out for early assassination options, with the right events it’s very practical against the lower health summoners.
This is not a faction that can very easily swarm walls. So focus on killing commons and building up enough magic to be able to summon a champion. You should always have at least two magic so the enemy has to take Sandstorm into account. Ideally you’ll be applying so much pressure that your opponent will summon more commons (or a champion or even overextend his summoner). That will give you more Taunt targets or you can Sand storm his champion / summoner into a position in which you can assassinate it. In this stage you should be watching out for all kinds of crazy combinations with Silts / Mirage / Taunt / Sandstorm. Taunt basically means only champions are reliable blockers for your opponent.
One thing to watch out for is that will all these options, you will use your abilities / events too much or at too early a time and that might cause you to lose the economic war. Understanding in which order you need to use these and how you can use them to re-position the board is what needs to be learned to perform an assassination effectively. Keeping for instance Mirage and a Taunt in your hand for just the right time can be crucial. If you are being attacked yourself your champions (Sand Wyrm especially), Sandstorm, Taunt and possibly a Slayer should be able to defend your position. Against ranged factions you might end up using Duck & Cover as it can be used to cover an advance (Shiny is pretty much always useless though).
If you managed to make sufficiently efficient trades during the game then the end game can be highly favorable as killing multiple commons for free is generally a huge magic swing. How good your end game will be, is dependent on which units you have left / how much magic you have to work with. Silts, Sandstorm and Shaman’s especially are excellent in the end game.
Match up analysis
I might do a faction by faction analysis eventually, but I’ll start this off with a few general observations. Factions that can assassinate you back are very dangerous as you are pretty reliant on Krusk participating in the ‘relative’ front lines. Another faction to watch out for are for instance the Deep Dwarves and the Filth with their huge economic advantage.
First summoner specific cards
Generic cards
References
– All Sand Goblins cards (especially strategy section and comments are useful)
– Mythacle Battleplan for Summoner Wars (deck builder)
good analysis. I just recently picked up summoner wars myself; I have the master set only atm. Your recommendation be alliances or original for my next acquisition?
Hmmm, tough call. The first few factions are easier to play, but less well balanced. Alliances is more complex mechanics wise, but more balanced. If you are not daunted by that I’d probably go for Alliances. Especially as it has a nice big box to store all factions in and a new, better, board.