How do I make the Alpha Legion work?

[Enigma]

I relied quite heavily on Secret orders untill the nerf and am having a hard time adjusting. I managed to fight may way up to Terra with my deck, but now I'm strugling to stay on Mars.
Does anyone have some tips for getting the Alpha Legion to work? I do love their play style, but the way I play with orders they are quite easily countered with vehicles, daemons, stealth, return to hand or simply by destroying the afflicted unit... and that was before the nerf!
Any help would be appreciated :)

[[*GRS*] Darkhar]

Traps and Secret Orders have been left behind for the turly fearsome playstile: Alpharius mill. You gotta use Pale Spear and Sleeper Operative to do points of damage one at a time, and also keep the opponent threats blocked with stun. Then, when the enemy has an almost full hand you drop Harrowing, and finish with Orbital Base to do samage as big as your hand.

[Enigma]

I was afraid of that. I Guess it's time to save up on gems for the Pale spear then. :(

[Vindictus]

Orbital Base? I dont see it listed anywhere even on the official site

[[*GRS*] Darkhar]

Orbital Base.[www.horusheresylegions.com] One of the neutral cards of the Extermination expansion. There are neutral cards on every expansion crate

[Vindictus]

Thanks!

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

Originally posted by Enigma:

I was afraid of that. I Guess it's time to save up on gems for the Pale spear then. :(

Pale Spear doesn't make it into any of the top ranked deck lists. The force-draw playstyle really doesn't cut it against good removal decks or aggro decks that will just kill you. Alpharius does well by just being an annoying ♥♥♥♥ with 2x One Of Many and outlasting everything thrown at him. Play him as a control deck and whittle people down with your overpowered 5/10/15 hp heal for 4 mana.

Exodus is a ton of fun too, and you can make it to 3k+ with him pretty easily. Play him as a removal/direct damage deck and don't reveal yourself until the enemy is at 19 hp. Drop Autilon Skorr, reveal Exodus and prime his ability. Next turn attack with Skorr and nuke them for 10 damage.

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

Also if we're being real Secret Orders got better with the changes BUT you can't just rely on them for your sole strategy. 2 mana for 3 damage and a stun on the enemy warlord with Delta Order is amazing and Alpha Order (2 mana to swap minions on attack) ACTUALLY WORKS NOW! Play it on a high damage minion and they will assume it's Gamma Order (makes you attack yourself instead of the enemy). They will then use that troop to clear your troops, which lets you steal it.

tl;dr
They didn't nerf Secrets, they made them work the way they should.

[Enigma]

They did nerf secrets.
They worked ok before but were easily countered. Now they are nerfed and extremly hard to use as they are just as easily countered and don't even last. There are lots of really powerful abilities out there like Sacrifice on survivor Salamanders and Sentencing from stealthed Raven Guards. I used to be able to hold my own against them by ballanceing them out with orders. Now I can't and need to find a new play style. I still want to use the Alpha Legion as it's a fun and interesting legion. I just don't see how to do it.
I've tried Exodus, but haven't managed to build a good deck around him....

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

Originally posted by Enigma:

They did nerf secrets.
They worked ok before but were easily countered. Now they are nerfed and extremly hard to use as they are just as easily countered and don't even last. There are lots of really powerful abilities out there like Sacrifice on survivor Salamanders and Sentencing from stealthed Raven Guards. I used to be able to hold my own against them by ballanceing them out with orders. Now I can't and need to find a new play style. I still want to use the Alpha Legion as it's a fun and interesting legion. I just don't see how to do it.
I've tried Exodus, but haven't managed to build a good deck around him....

Again, it sounds like you're trying to rely solely on orders and that isn't a viable strategy. It wasn't before the "nerf", and it isn't now.

Salamanders are a pain in the ass for everything, but they're slow to build damage so a trap deck would probably work fine. Use Gamma Order on high damage minions to ensure you outlast the other guy. Spam traps and work your way up to Hurtado Bronzi. 2x One Of Many is far and away the most cost efficient heal and stall in the game, use that to continue outlasting him while your traps build up. Use 2x Harrowing and Autilon Skorr as a finisher for when he doesn't die to traps.

Raven Guard is the primary deck I play right now and it is strong against Alpha Legion. Alpha Legion plays just slow enough to let you get out Mor Deythan and start whomping out snipe damage. If you're repeatedly running up against RG decks then start including the 2/2 robot that reveals stealth or the 1 mana 1/2 that reveals stealth. Informant Network (3 mana, 1 damage to all and reveal stealth) is also very good. Joker Squad can be good, but the 3 damage isn't enough to kill the biggest threats (Mor Deythan/Stealthed Helios Mortar/Dark Fury) so I would question how effective it is. As an RG player, if someone drops Joker Squad I'm able to just kill it next round and keep my stealthy bois. The big thing to remember against RG is that they're a combo deck. An RG player is building towards a massive damage spike that will kill you, but that combo requires specific cards. If you can remove his 2x Numas Squad, 2x Mor Deythan, and 2x Dark Fury then he basically can't kill you. Artillery strike is also really good against RG, it counters the 4/2 Speeder Bike and the 1/2 Numas Squad very effectively.

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

For Exodus, include as many stuns and direct damage cards as you can. Remember, you're looking to just lock down the enemy until you get him to 19 health for your Autilon + Snipe combo. The 4 damage + splash stun nuke is a ridiculous card for this. That's 8 damage on it's own and stunning the warlord plus the two minions near him prevents him from retaliating. Counting the 8 damage, now your target is just 27 hp. Think about that, if you draw every card in your combo you only have to get Loken down 3 hp to stun lock him into oblivion and shoot him in the head.

Easy damage minions help too. Throw a couple high damage stealth neutrals in. Most people don't have the removal to get rid of them.

And as always, 2x One Of Many for when you aren't drawing well and you need to stall.

[Enigma]

Originally posted by DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA:

Originally posted by Enigma:

They did nerf secrets.
They worked ok before but were easily countered. Now they are nerfed and extremly hard to use as they are just as easily countered and don't even last. There are lots of really powerful abilities out there like Sacrifice on survivor Salamanders and Sentencing from stealthed Raven Guards. I used to be able to hold my own against them by ballanceing them out with orders. Now I can't and need to find a new play style. I still want to use the Alpha Legion as it's a fun and interesting legion. I just don't see how to do it.
I've tried Exodus, but haven't managed to build a good deck around him....

Again, it sounds like you're trying to rely solely on orders and that isn't a viable strategy. It wasn't before the "nerf", and it isn't now.

Salamanders are a pain in the ass for everything, but they're slow to build damage so a trap deck would probably work fine. Use Gamma Order on high damage minions to ensure you outlast the other guy. Spam traps and work your way up to Hurtado Bronzi. 2x One Of Many is far and away the most cost efficient heal and stall in the game, use that to continue outlasting him while your traps build up. Use 2x Harrowing and Autilon Skorr as a finisher for when he doesn't die to traps.

Raven Guard is the primary deck I play right now and it is strong against Alpha Legion. Alpha Legion plays just slow enough to let you get out Mor Deythan and start whomping out snipe damage. If you're repeatedly running up against RG decks then start including the 2/2 robot that reveals stealth or the 1 mana 1/2 that reveals stealth. Informant Network (3 mana, 1 damage to all and reveal stealth) is also very good. Joker Squad can be good, but the 3 damage isn't enough to kill the biggest threats (Mor Deythan/Stealthed Helios Mortar/Dark Fury) so I would question how effective it is. As an RG player, if someone drops Joker Squad I'm able to just kill it next round and keep my stealthy bois. The big thing to remember against RG is that they're a combo deck. An RG player is building towards a massive damage spike that will kill you, but that combo requires specific cards. If you can remove his 2x Numas Squad, 2x Mor Deythan, and 2x Dark Fury then he basically can't kill you. Artillery strike is also really good against RG, it counters the 4/2 Speeder Bike and the 1/2 Numas Squad very effectively.

Oh, yes I did rely heavily on the orders. Of course it didn't work alway (far from) but I enjoyed it immensly and that's probably why I'm having a hard time addapting as my key element of the deck got hit VERY hard.

As it is now I'm strugling against aggresive, quick decks where my stun means nothing (I can't stun them when they arrive and attack at once, and my suppressor squad is far to expensive to help against most of them) or heavy damage dealing tactics decks. Raven guard is a pain, I've only recently started using the Jokers, but as you said. They hurt them, but the stealth remain and then the Joker's gone. What they do have over the 2/2 Robot is the ability to soak artillery strike and Defensive missiles though.

It feels like I miss too many key cards to make a viable Alpha Legion Deck at the moment though... I miss both Skorr, the Pale spear and Bronzi... (Though I have, and use 2x One of many and Harrowing)

Awesome comments and tips mate, I'm really thankful!

[Vindictus]

Originally posted by DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA:

Originally posted by Enigma:

I was afraid of that. I Guess it's time to save up on gems for the Pale spear then. :(

Pale Spear doesn't make it into any of the top ranked deck lists. The force-draw playstyle really doesn't cut it against good removal decks or aggro decks that will just kill you. Alpharius does well by just being an annoying ♥♥♥♥ with 2x One Of Many and outlasting everything thrown at him. Play him as a control deck and whittle people down with your overpowered 5/10/15 hp heal for 4 mana.

Exodus is a ton of fun too, and you can make it to 3k+ with him pretty easily. Play him as a removal/direct damage deck and don't reveal yourself until the enemy is at 19 hp. Drop Autilon Skorr, reveal Exodus and prime his ability. Next turn attack with Skorr and nuke them for 10 damage.

Heal?

[Disnag Burnazog]

Originally posted by XIII Vindictus Vorn:

Heal?

One of Many heals your warlord, makes him Alpha Legionary and gives you a random secret identity. If new identity is Alpharius, you heal extra 5 primarch hp.

[DEOVONTAY MCSLANGA]

Originally posted by Disnag Burnazog:

Originally posted by XIII Vindictus Vorn:

Heal?

One of Many heals your warlord, makes him Alpha Legionary and gives you a random secret identity. If new identity is Alpharius, you heal extra 5 primarch hp.

And then another 5 if you get to Omegon!

[Enigma]

I've gotten a few good ideas of how to build an Alpha Legion deck by using stunlock and milling, but how would you build around the different warlords? Would you use the same deck for Exodus as for Dynant or Pech?