This week marks a significant moment for Warhammer Underworlds enthusiasts, as the second major Rules Update has been released, officially kicking off the Spring 2025 meta. These changes are quite comprehensive, touching upon core rules, individual warbands, and, crucially, the Nemesis format, including the introduction of the first six restricted cards.
Before we dive headfirst into what the new meta might bring, I want to take a moment to reflect on the meta we’re leaving behind. This report builds upon my last analysis, extending the data collection to include April and most of May, offering a comprehensive look at the recent competitive landscape.
What follows are detailed tables providing insights into warband & deck performance, successful warband-deck combinations, and podium placements for both warbands and decks.
I’ll conclude with a short reflection on how the game might develop from here, based on these new rules and the trends that can be observed.
A few words on this project: This data is powered by community-submitted game and tournament results, which are then compiled into an accessible dashboard and spreadsheet format. A huge thank you to all our contributors! This report is based on a sample of 735 games and 11 tournaments – your participation makes this possible!
An important note for tournament organizers: While the data entry process is largely manual and requires work by you as the organizers yourself, you can also offload most of the work to me. The condition is to have a BCP event with all players checked in with deck lists – preferably as UnderworldsDB link, or if that’s not possible, as a simple text string (e.g. Blazing Assault + Countdown to Cataclysm). If you got this sorted, you can write me a short mail and I can do the data entry myself.
Warband Stats
Deck Stats
Warband-Deck Stats
Podium Placement: Warbands
Podium Placement: Decks
Predictions on the next meta
Approaching the upcoming meta, my focus is primarily on decks and their combinations. While warbands are certainly not irrelevant, I believe the interplay of Rivals decks has become the more decisive factor in competitive play.
Two main changes stand out in the new update:
- Firstly, the Cataclysm tracker of Countdown to Cataclysm (CC) is no longer optional; you must move it when the opportunity arises. This means the tracker will advance faster, potentially making Wreckers harder to score consistently in both early and late game.
- Secondly, we now have three restricted objectives: Delving for Wealth (Pillage and Plunder), Spread Havoc (Countdown to Cataclysm), and Supremacy (Emberstone Sentinels). In Nemesis, you can only include a maximum of one restricted card across your entire Objective and Power deck.
I really dislike that we moved down from being able to take three restricted cards to only one. The concept of this balancing tool harks back to the Championship format of the first edition, where you had 1-2 pages of cards being restricted. That allowed for a lot of granularity and forced you to make real choices. Being limited to only one, and having very, very few cards on that list almost defeats the purpose – it makes certain combinations attractive or unattractive in principal, with very little room for player choice.
As just explained, the restrictions in their current form immediately put any deck combination that includes two decks with restricted objectives at a principal disadvantage. Looking at the data from the previous meta:
- Pillage and Plunder (PP) + Emberstone Sentinels (ES) had a 55% win rate but wasn’t highly prominent.
- Emberstone Sentinels (ES) + Countdown to Cataclysm (CC) was prominent but suffered from a low 44% win rate. In this pairing, players are forced to make a brutal choice between a 3-glory and a 2-glory end phase objective, which will probably rule out this combo entirely.
- Pillage and Plunder (PP) + Countdown to Cataclysm (CC) boasted a 53% win rate and was the second most prominent combination. This pairing will certainly take a hit.
Despite the change to CC’s Plot card, Wreckers and Spread Havoc remain very strong objectives. The restriction on Spread Havoc only truly impacts specific deck combinations, so I don’t foresee the overall prevalence of CC + X going down significantly anytime soon. However, CC is strictly worse now due to the mandatory tracker movement, which reduces control over scoring and power card effects.
Notably, the most prominent combination, Blazing Assault (BA) + Countdown to Cataclysm (CC), remains largely untouched. While Illusory Fighter, a BA power card, is now restricted, its loss is manageable for most players. This is a strange oversight regarding a very powerful and popular combo, and might even lead to a further rise on prominence.
Pillage and Plunder (PP) + Countdown to Cataclysm (CC) was exceptionally successful with warbands like Zarbag’s Gitz or The Grymwatch (though Grymwatch’s sample size was smaller). With Zarbag receiving a nerf, Grymwatch’s stock might rise. Zarbag’s squigs can no longer interact with tokens, and their Inspire condition is slightly harder. This will undoubtedly have an impact, but will it pull Zarbag PP + CC’s impressive 70% win rate below 55%? I doubt it. However, I do anticipate they’ll see less play simply because they’ve been directly targeted by a nerf.
So, what about Wrack and Ruin (WR), Edge of the Knife (EK), and Realmstone Raiders (RR)? Edge of the Knife can be successful with certain warbands, and in my opinion, Wrack and Ruin is generally undervalued. CC + WR is already a part of the current meta and might gain even more popularity. Realmstone Raiders remains a wild card, though I personally see little potential for it to significantly impact the top tier.
And what about Blazing Assault (BA) + Reckless Fury (RF)? This combination has been meta-defining, and it just got better. With Thricefold Discord receiving a hefty nerf, aggressive warbands like the Gorechosen of Dromm and Morgok’s Krushas are poised to rejoice.
Where does all this leave us? As I pointed out in my review of Warhammer Underworlds Embergard, the Core Set decks (BA, PP, ES, CC) have been a persistent issue, with the meta largely revolving around CC paired with one of the others. I don’t believe this balancing update fundamentally changes that principle. ES + CC is effectively out, and PP + CC is less attractive, but that’s about the extent of the shake-up. Still, the extreme win rates will likely come down, and newer deck releases should see more play. To me, this update seems rather conservative, aiming to bring everything closer together instead of truly revolutionizing the game.
