A lot of people seemed to be interested in my explanation of the Horde so I am including some of the resources I used to build mine: the videos that got me thinking about how to construct it.
First off is a recent video from Star City Games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18FphWLLuQ
In this video you see how the Horde can spiral out of control if unchecked. They played with the “Blood in the Water” rule which dictates that the Horde tries to single out players and eliminate them one by one by targeting the lowest life total. One of the main things to note here is that the Star City crew is using low power human theme decks. They lacked the interaction to actually deal with the building forces of he Horde. They also were playing against each other in a way which meant they were not cooperating which is a crucial component to good Horde gameplay. The rules I use only dictate that the Horde is your enemy and other players are allies.
This next video is the first time I was introduced to this game mode over 2 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8cgHnPkmOk
Clonehead really overestimated the horde and as you can see the players simply stabilized and anticlimactically destroyed it. This early set of rules they used proved to be very weak as sharing a lifetotal and allowing for everyone to block meant that the horde’s creatures were widely just not not carrying any impact. This game shows how an under-powered horde just isn’t satisfying to defeat.
Clonehead continued to make videos with a lot of variations of the Horde but in the end the dorky creature based strategies proved to be too easy. So then comes their more recent iteration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbjyQOORVvw
An Eldrazi horde similar to mine with the idea that for the horde to have a chance against real decks it needed to interact in ways other than combat. You can see cards like Sundering Titan and creatures with Annihilator demanding that they have to answer the threats instead of just brush them off like the Zombie Horde. In the end though the Horde did not interact with Combo and thus the game was ended abruptly.
I looked at this gameplay and took pieces from each. The ruleset from the Star City Games video was my favorite as the 4 turn grace period gave players resources to answer cards on the Horde’s first turn and the ramping up and multiple turns made it hard to contain. The “Blood in the Water” rule and separate lifetotals combined with the Horde becoming more difficult as players fell creates a great dynamic which punishes selfish play. The other players being considered opponents was counter-intuitive however so I did throw that out. The Clonehead videos showed me the weaknesses of the horde so I loaded mine up with Hand Disruption, Land Destruction, and lots of ways for the Horde to turn the tables and fight against multiple strategies. The Horde is the final boss, you shouldn’t be able to cheese it. There is something key to take from these videos even though the gameplay was kind of flawed though. Since cards are milled you can take advantage of graveyard effects like Eldrazi Titans shuffling back in or Flashback like Army of the Damned.
I also wanted there to be an aspect of cooperation so I gave the Horde tools that requires opponents to need to use the strengths of many decks to overcome. A hefty lifetotal in 250 cards allowing Red to shine in damage, High Power creatures needing Green’s fatties to contend with them in combat, Artifacts and Enchantments that can overtake the game needing the aide of White to contain, large masses of creatures requiring Black’s expertise in causing death, and massive game changing spells needing Blue to Counter.
My Horde is a ton of fun but would probably just stomp most players. It successfully takes down our competitive decks and even shuts down combo, but when we did get a win the feeling was amazing. You really do have to consider your playgroup for the construction of your own Horde. It is a fun game mode but at its base it is quite flawed and you have to really think about how to patch it up. When you do make a well functioning Horde though it will provide a lot of fun and create some great stories.
For more information about my Horde, The Worldender, you can check out my earlier article here:
