Deadly Synergy - Deck Review
Overview
Deadly Synergy is the fourth Mastery-style Rivals deck to be released for the second edition of Warhammer Underworlds: Embergard. It’s a deck that rewards precise positioning, careful planning, and timing.
The central idea here is simple: your fighters are more effective when they work together. The new United mechanic encourages you to position adjacent fighters to attack, defend, and score as a cohesive group. Instead of sprinting out for solo charges, this deck wants you to fight in formation, side by side, pressing the attack as a single, disciplined unit. I cannot help but think of Khainan's Reapers here.
It’s a refreshing twist on aggro play. Rather than brute force or reckless charging, Deadly Synergy asks you to think about your spacing and timing. It is a deck that can be devastating in the hands of a player who can control the flow of the game through positioning and planning.
Core Mechanic
The core of Deadly Synergy is its Plot card, introducing the United mechanic. When revealed at the start of the game, each friendly fighter becomes United if they are adjacent to another friendly fighter. This rule forms the backbone of the deck, as most of the Objectives, Ploys, and Upgrades rely on fighters staying close together and attacking as a team.
Instead of spreading out across the board, you will want to move in pairs or small groups, setting up attacks where one fighter supports another.
The United rule also brings the Flanked condition into play. Enemy fighters adjacent to a United fighter count as being Flanked. While initially this appears to be an aggressive boon, it is also a great defensive bonus.
Finally, if all but one of your fighters are taken out, your last fighter automatically counts as United. It is a small but important rule that keeps you in the game even when your numbers start to thin. I also think that elite warbands could exploit this fact somewhere down the line.
Objectives
The Objectives in Deadly Synergy reward being United while keeping the focus firmly on aggression and attack. These cards often require multiple scoring conditions, so they do not hand out free glory. Instead, they require good choices, precise positioning, and a bit of patience. When it all comes together, though, the deck feels incredibly satisfying to play. The more your fighters move and strike together, the faster the glory flows in.
Outmuscle (2 Glory, End Phase)
A brilliant 2-glory card that triggers once an enemy fighter is driven back by a United friendly fighter. This deck is all about making attacks with United fighters, so in theory this should be an easy score. The only catch is that late in the game, you may end up slaying fighters outright instead of driving them back.
Closed Down (2 Glory, End Phase)
Once an enemy fighter stands on a Treasure token, charge them, drive them off or kill them, then move up another fighter to occupy that token while remaining adjacent. Two activations for two glory — potentially efficient and satisfying. You just need to make sure your opponent actually wants to stand on tokens.
Aggressive Unity (1 Glory, End Phase)
Make three or more melee attacks with United fighters in a round. They do not even need to succeed, which makes this an easy mid-game score, though you will need to plan your activations carefully to keep everyone United. Remember, they need to be melee attacks.
Got Your Back! (1 Glory, Surge)
One of my favorite kinds of cards: you score when an opponent fails an attack against one of your United fighters. It is already frustrating for your opponent to whiff an attack. This card adds insult to injury by rewarding you for it.
Tandem Assault (1 Glory, Surge)
Bonus glory for slaying an enemy fighter, provided the attacking fighter is United or the target is Flanked or Surrounded. Perfect for that early-game kill that gets your glory train rolling.
Helping Hands (1 Glory, Surge)
Score if a successful attack roll from a United fighter contains any Flanked symbols. The chance of rolling one is roughly the same as rolling a Crit, so this card is like Critical Effort from Blazing Assault, just a touch harder to trigger as it requires the successful attack.
These Objectives create a clear plan: stay close, support each other, and pick apart the enemy line with overlapping attacks.
Ploys
The Ploys in Deadly Synergy are based around the idea of keeping your formation tight and your teamwork flowing. Many of these cards work with the United condition directly or allow you to gain its benefits temporarily.
Army of Two
A great card. Temporarily makes a fighter United for a turn. It lets you break ranks without losing your synergy, giving you one crucial, unpredictable strike that can completely alter your opponent’s expectations or score a surge from an unsupported position.
Brothers-in-Arms
Before picking a melee weapon, you can use the weapon of an adjacent friendly fighter instead. This feels very powerful, especially when you have one heavy hitter supporting a weaker minion. The Venomites suddenly get very scary with Kro-Jax's weapon.
Defiant Duo
Grants Guard to one fighter and Heal to another, provided both are United. Straightforward utility, and yes, you can heal a fighter that is already at full health to trigger the required Guard counter. This is a very good card as it grants two bonuses; the price is that they have to be used on United fighters. Still, well worth including.
Out of Nowhere
Change one die in your attack roll to a Flanked or Surrounded result. With so much of this deck built around adjacency, and with enemy fighters adjacent to United fighters being Flanked, you will often find yourself making attacks where this guarantees at least one success.
United Front
All United fighters gain +1 Defence (to a max of 3) for a turn. This could be a game changer, especially in round one against aggressive opponents, and helps you survive long enough to counterattack. Also excellent for setting up Got Your Back!
Sidestep
An old favorite, and here it is essential. Use it to line up adjacency, get into position for a United charge, or simply maintain formation when your opponent tries to disrupt your setup.
These ploys help to keep your fighters United, ensuring they act at peak efficiency in both offence and defence.
Upgrades
The Upgrades provide the persistent power to ensure you can keep scoring the Objectives in Deadly Synergy.
Titan of Combat
This is the upgrade you may want to see in your opening hand. It makes a fighter permanently United, ensuring they can always contribute to your Objective and Ploy triggers. Absolutely worth a mulligan if you do not see it, especially if you are running this in a more elite warband.
Battering Ram
An interesting upgrade that improves Drive Back and Overrun potential by counting extra Crits in your attack roll. This makes it perfect for clearing enemies off tokens and is excellent for scoring Outmuscle or Closed Down.
Rush to Aid
Similar to Duelist, but with a more restrictive endpoint for the push. It is still a strong tool for keeping your formation together and ensuring fighters remain United after charges.
Coordinated Deathblow
A nice 3-sword, 2-damage weapon that jumps to 3 damage if the fighter is United. Straightforward and deadly. Add Keen Eye and it becomes a real threat.
Duelist
A returning classic from Blazing Assault and Emberstone Sentinel. Great for keeping your fighters in formation or repositioning after a kill.
Keen Eye
Always useful. More dice means more successful attacks, and more successful attacks mean more Objectives scored.
These upgrades are all practical, no-nonsense tools that reward players who value formation and timing. Once equipped, your warband becomes an unstoppable wall of blades.
Strengths
-
Excellent synergy between Objectives, Ploys, and Upgrades
-
Rewards tactical discipline and coordinated attacks
-
Solid defensive and offensive balance through United bonuses
-
High skill ceiling. Players who master positioning will thrive
-
Requires tight positioning to maintain United status
-
Struggles against high-mobility or disruption-heavy warbands
-
Objectives can stall if your formation breaks early
Deadly Synergy works best as a primary deck, as its Plot card pushes you to lean fully into the United mechanic, which in turn powers most of its Objective scoring. The inclusion of a Plot card does mean it is locked out of pairing with several other decks that also use one. When choosing a secondary deck, look for something that lets you score glory outside of the United mechanic, but without pulling you away from the deck’s natural Strike-style flow of play.
Deadly Assault (Blazing Assault with Deadly Synergy)
When you combine Blazing Assault and Deadly Synergy, you get a deck that really leans into what both do best, hitting hard and hitting often. Together they form a fast, aggressive pairing that rewards fighters who like to stay in the thick of it. The ploys and upgrades from both decks stack neatly, improving your accuracy and helping to land those all-important hits that drive your scoring. Blazing Assault brings in Objectives that can be scored outside of the United keyword, giving you some flexibility, while Deadly Synergy adds in valuable two-glory End Phase cards to lift your overall glory ceiling. It is a solid combination that feels aggressive but still has some tactical depth.
Deadly Hunters (Hunting Ground with Deadly Synergy)
This pairing is all about control and counterattack. With Hunting Ground you can lure your opponent into your territory, then punish them with a wave of unified strikes. The deck provides tools to keep your fighters together and attacking more often, while also offering defensive boosts to help them survive the return fire. Cards like Keep at Bay and Hidden Aid help maintain positioning, while Goading Defender and Paths Unknown let you hold the line until you are ready to strike back. The end result is a deck that rewards patience and planning. Once your fighters are in sync, the hits just keep coming.
Warband Pairings
Deadly Synergy works best with larger warbands that can stay close together or use pushes and teleports to maintain adjacency.
-
Zarbag’s Gitz
-
Kainan’s Reapers
-
Sons of Velmorn
-
Hexbane’s Hunters
Deadly Synergy is a deck that rewards foresight, coordination, and precision. It is not a deck for reckless players or those who rely on lucky crits; it is for tacticians who see three moves ahead.
There is a certain finesse to how this deck plays. Every move matters, every fighter’s position matters, and every attack contributes to a greater whole.
If Blazing Assault was all about furious individual attacks and Reckless Fury was about glorious charges, Deadly Synergy is about working together. Players who master this high-skill Mastery deck will have a reliable and rewarding toolkit to draw upon.
If planning your activations carefully, controlling the board state, and coordinating your fighters is your preferred method of play, Deadly Synergy might just be your new favourite deck.
Checkout my Warhammer Underworlds for more articles.
Comments
Post a Comment