Master of Evil

Welcome to the first of our Overlord strategy article for Terrors of London!

Terrors of London is a competitive deck building game with a Victorian Horror theme. You will take on the role of an Overlord that has its own unique abilities and influence cards, and use the monsters of evil to claim victory over your opponent. The cards you’ll play fall into one of four factions, Undead, Mortals, Spirits, or Beasts and each Overlord has a special affinity with one of these factions.

With Terrors of London on its way to backers and its retail release coming this summer we’ve planned a series of strategy and matchup articles to cover each of the Overlords that you can choose from to claim dominion over the night!

These articles will cover the matchup strengths and weaknesses of each Overlord. For an introduction to the rules of Terrors of London, you can check out a How to Play video HERE!

When Moses unleashed the Angel of Death on the firstborn of Egypt, the great plague lured Azazael the demon to the land. But a priest named Lufenamun fought Azazael for seven days and imprisoned the demon in a canopic jar. A small group of priests corrupted by Azazael’s evil, fashioned a spell key to unlock the prison. Lufenamun learned of this and quickly laid waste to the corrupt priests and hid the key. In 1847, an English explorer discovered the key, and along with many other Egyptian relics, brought it back to London for investigation.

When you choose to play as Azazael your primary strategy will be to focus on the long game. Azazael is patient, ancient, and understands that sacrificing a killing stroke for an early lead is a waste of his time. Starting with 50 health, more than any other Overlord, you can sustain some early damage to set up your stronger plays for later in the game. A well-played Azazael game that goes on long enough assures that you’ll become virtually unbeatable!

Over the course of the game, you’ll want to thin out your deck using Azazael’s SACRIFICE ability to make each of your turns more efficient by drawing the best cards, more often. If you can set up a continuous combination of powerful HORDE combos turn after turn, there will be little to stand in your way.

To acquire the most powerful monster cards you’ll also need to focus on your economy, making sure you have a strong, regular income of coins to purchase the higher cost cards from the streets. A combination of powerful offensive and defensive monsters, coin income, and the right survival relics will set you up nicely for the late game.

You won’t be the only Overlord vying for control of the dark streets of Victorian London. Your opponent will also have their own strengths and weaknesses to exploit.

Lilith, the Relentless Champion and Overlord of the Mortal Faction is not the most aggressive opponent that Azazael will face. However, her CLAIM ability will allow her to focus on a high damage monster early on in the game, continuing to put it on the top of her deck for a massive beatdown each turn.

You’ll want to play defensive, and be selective with what you buy each turn. Try not to leave any 5 or 6 cost monsters in the street for her to acquire. Even if it isn’t the most optimal for your deck’s strategy you can always use your SACRIFICE ability to keep it out of the game and out of your face! Wear her down and defend so you can win in the late game.

Fenris, the Alpha Wolf, Overlord of the Beasts Faction can be a very dangerous matchup for you! A Fenris player will focus on getting several cheaper monsters in the early game and try to start forming Hordes. This rushing strategy is in direct conflict with Azazael’s long game plans and without carefully thought out turns Fenris will be able to use these powerful Horde ability combos to quickly overwhelm you!

You’ll want to keep an eye on the factions of the monsters being added to the Fenris player’s deck and whenever possible snatch one of these horde compatible monsters from the street. Disrupting their plans and keeping their purchasing options suboptimal will be a necessary part of your strategy. Defensive monsters and relics will be even more important against a Fenris player so that you can continue to disrupt, and wear him down.

Don’t let the lowest starting health total of the Overlords fool you, Methuselah can be insanely aggressive! The Chancellor of Death, and Overlord of the Undead Faction, Methuselah is able to cycle the cards of his deck with an additional draw and discard each turn. In addition to a strong choice of influence cards to choose from, a cunning Methuselah player can ramp their deck’s speed to threatening levels.

An Azazael player will want to shift gears and take advantage of Methuselah’s low health total. Rather than trying to outlast in this matchup, which is difficult against the aggressive nature of the Undead Overlord, go on the offensive. Leverage your starting health advantage to win a quick and brutal slug match. You’ll want to focus less on thinning your deck for a strong late game and instead try to bring the maximum offensive power you can each turn.

Claim the Night!

Terrors of London will be hitting gaming tables everywhere later this spring as our Kickstarter backers receive their games, and it will be widely available at retail this summer!

You can Pre-Order your copy and either of the expansions directly from our shop, or contact your local retailer and ask them to bring the Victorian Horror to their shelves.