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Warhammer 40,000 Warpforge: Meta decks

Warhammer 40,000 Warpforge: Meta decks

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Warhammer 40,000 Warpforge is an exciting new card game from Everguild that challenges players to battle it out with others in the grimdark future of the 41st millennium. But like any card game, it can be difficult to get started; where do you build a deck? What should you include? Well, we’re here to help you get started!

Here are our recommended beginner decks for each faction in Warhammer 40,000 Warpforge based on what the current meta picks are and how they play to each faction’s strengths and weaknesses. Many of these decks feature rarer cards, but should also feature readily available ones that any player has already accrued.

Before we start, we recommend checking out some of our other guides explaining the basic mechanics, card effects and how they function.

Base decks

Of course, you don’t always need to create your own deck - if you select a faction and gain campaign points over time, you’ll unlock set decks. For example, progressing on the first part of the Ultramarines campaign unlocks the 4th Company deck, which contains the Uriel Ventris warlord card and a host of new cards that support his playstyle - damage using ranged and stratagem cards.

Unlocking base decks can lead to acquiring a lot of cards quickly, and means that you can then use these base decks to practise. After which, you can use them as a template for building and customising your own deck.

But, without further ado, let’s get started with the best Warpforge decks that you can build.

Click Here To View The List »

1
Ultramarines deck

Recommended Deck: Varro Tigurius, Tactical Insight x2, Scout x2, Octavio Infiltrator x2, Sheltered location x1, Firstborn x2, Primaris Reiver x2, Humanity’s Shield x1, Point-Blank Shot x2, 7th Company Bike x2, Firstborn x2, Primaris Inceptor x2, Death from Above x2, Stormraven x2, Inceptor Sergeant x2, Lieutenant Calsius x1, Angels of Death x2.

The simple reasoning for this deck is that it does constant damage to the enemy warlord. And while we do mention in our tips that solely concentrating on the warlord can often mean you’re overwhelmed by the other player’s cards, you’ll note that there are plenty of cards - such as Death from Above & Stormraven - which concentrate on dealing large amounts of damage to the field as a whole.

Humanity’s Shield is also a key pick as it makes your warlord invulnerable for a turn, which means that if your opponent is in a position to do massive damage on their turn, you can negate their attack. The mana curve - the cost of energy and how you use it per-turn - is also more focused across the entire breadth, whereas other meta deck builds for warlords like Marneus Calgar are heavily focused on a consistent gameplan which risks being upset if your opponent bucks it.

2
Orks deck

Recommended Deck: Grukk Face-Rippa, Grot x2, Attack Squig x2, Makari the Grot x1, Ard as Nails x2, Slugga Boy x2, Stormboy x2, Shoota Boy x2, Gretchin Mob x2, Da Green Horde x2, Hornhelmz’ Boyz x2, No Mukkin’ About x2, Skarboy Nob x2, Banner Nob x2, Boomdakka Snazzwagon x2, Deff Dread x2, Will of Gork x1. While decks in other CCGs that use a lot of low-tier, low-cost cards are often joke decks, the Ork strategy in Warpforge focuses heavily on the use of tide. Cards such as Da Green Horde drastically reduce energy cost for cards, and coupled with the number of cards that use the Tide effect - allowing you to play multiple of the same card for additional energy - it means that you can very easily overwhelm the opposing player if you play your cards right (pun intended).

Meanwhile, cards such as No Mukkin About or Will of Gork are the equivalent of drastically upsetting the opposing player’s game plan. The randomness and looming threat of these cards means that either a player that’s knowledgeable about your deck will be overly cautious, or better yet, that you can catch them out with a hugely destructive - even to you - play.

3
Necrons deck

Recommended Deck: Imotekh the Stormlord, Reconstitution Protocol x2, Protection Protocol x1, Triarch Praetorian x2, Technomancer x2, Tomb Blade x2, Psychomancer x1, Skorpekh Destroyer x2, Curse of the Phaeron x2, Doom Scythe x2, Lychguard x2, Scythe Assault x2, Hexmark Destroyer x2, Plasmancer x1, Conquering Tyrant x2, Necron Lord x1, Methodical Destruction x2, Tomb World x1. Unsurprisingly, the meta build for the Necrons at the moment focuses strongly on their slow, methodical and eventually highly destructive strategy. Cards like Tomb World are amazing game-ending plays which means that even if you lose a great deal of units, you can bring back up to six of them even without Remnants on the field.

The combination of Technomancer, a card that resurrects remnants, and Reconstitution Protocol, which brings a destroyed card back into play means that even if you lose the vital artifice effect that brings back remnants, you can then bring that card back into play too. All in all, it represents a satisfyingly lore-accurate and deadly combination for steamrolling other players after grinding them down.

4
Tyranids deck

Recommended Deck: Tervigon, Ripper Swarm x2, Encircle the Prey x2, Predator Instincts x2, Neurogaunt Nodebeast x2, Mucolid Spore x2, Termagant x2, Overwhelming Swarm x2, Pyrovore x2, Tyranid Warrior x2, Biovore x2, Venomthrope x2, Tyranid Prime x1, Tyrant Guard x2, Rapacious Hunger x2, Hive Crone x2, Hive Fleet Leviathan x1. The focus of this deck, as with others, is to build on the synergy between cards in the Tyranid deck. Specifically, you’ll note plenty with the swarm attribute that causes cards to merge together and add their attack value and health into one card. Combining the Hive Fleet Leviathan Card and Overwhelming Swarm Card also ensures you can quickly deploy numerous units in the late game.

The fact is that, while Orks concentrate on buffing lacklustre units with stratagems, by combining the swarm mechanic with cheap units and tide, you can effectively deploy cards like Termagants for free. With the tide mechanic, this means you can then deploy a nearly limitless number, merging them with other cards to produce cheap but immensely powerful units.

Small wonder that this deck comes highly recommended for proving the validity of the ‘nid faction in multiplayer.

5
Aeldari deck

Recommended Deck: Eliaz Zephyrblade, Guardian Defender x2, Weapons Platform x2, Veteran Guardian x2, Windrider x2, Shroud Runner x2, Striking Scorpion x2, Banshee Mask x1, Sudden Assault x2, Nuadhu ‘Fireheart’ x1, Vyper x2, Bladestorm x2, Eldritch Storm x2, Dance of Death x1, Striking Scorpion Exarch x1, Crimson Hunter x2, Falcon x2, Fire Prism x2. This deck is focused squarely on speed and exploiting attributes such as Shuriken. By ensuring that you can use a number of cards with the flank and shuriken attribute, playing cards like sudden Assault then allows you to deal even more damage, while the shuriken attribute itself ensures that low-tier cards with low health can’t wear you down with chip damage.

Even then, cards like Eldritch Storm mean that even if you do lose a few units, then their spirit stones will still actively contribute to doing free damage against an enemy. Effectively, this means that using this with the Aeldar faction can steamroll opponents before they get a chance to resist.

6
Chaos deck

Recommended Deck: Abaddon the Despoiler, Dark Disciple x2, Abaddon’s Chosen x2, Hideous Mutation x1, Chaos Spawn x1, Hound of Abaddon x2, Dark Oratory x1, Traitor’s Hate x2, Rubric Marine x2, Possessed Marine x2, Plague Marine x2, Veteran Legionary x2, Disgustingly Resilient x1, Daemonic Frenzy x2, Spawndom x2, Skeins of Fate x2, Hosts of Chaos x1, Bringer of Decay x2, Heldrake Strike x1. The most unique part of the Chaos playstyle is the heavy reliance on stratagems. Most of these are representative of the spells and dark pacts that are used in the lore, and almost half the cards in this deck are composed of stratagems.
This deck is encouraged to experiment with, and the Chaos playstyle is very different from other factions due to the focus on dark packs. However, cards such as Plague Marines are noted for their resilience, and cards with the pact of Nurgle can effectively build a huge amount of staying power on the field that lets you outlast and build pacts. Add in those such as Spawndom and you can even match up numbers with your opponent when needed.

7
Final Thoughts

These decks are all experimental, of course, but are at the moment coming fairly well-recommended from the community. When the game finally makes its way to mobile later this month, it may very well be that we see a surge of new players and new metas arise. For now, these are the best decks in Warpforge to aim towards - and also offer an overview of how to capitalise on the strengths and cover the weaknesses of your faction.

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Iwan Morris
Iwan Morris
Iwan is a Cardiff-based freelance writer, who joined the Pocket Gamer Biz site fresh-faced from University before moving to the Pocketgamer.com editorial team in November of 2023.