Hi! I'm a Monster Train vet and fanatic who's looking to share knowledge accumulated over hundreds of hours of runs both triumphant and nail-biting. The guide is targeted at new & established players of the game looking to expand on their knowledge and understanding of how to utilize the various MT2 clans. If you're already an expert, this won't have much for you!

Pyreborne Clan Strategy Guide
Banished Clan Strategy Guide
Luna Coven Clan Strategy Guide

These clans guide will not inherently make assumptions of Covenant levels when describing strategies, but because we play at Covenant 10 and fight the Titans regularly, some biases will work its way into this guide, as certain strategies that are "fine" at low levels may not work as well later on, and some Card/Strategies overcome steeper challenges at higher difficulties than others. Anywho, enjoy as we discuss the plentiful shrooms & spreaders of disease that make up the Underlegion!

Key reminder for card rarities: (C) = Common, (U) = Uncommon, (R) = Rare

The Funguys & Fungi of the Underlegion make up a clan designed around two key strategies: 1) Growing your team’s Health & Regenerative effects while blocking and countering enemy offense with ever-escalating stacks of Funguy Troops & their Rally triggers. and 2) Thoroughly debilitating the enemies with a powerful offensive debuff in Decay and the ability to wither their offenses away with Sap. If that isn’t enough, their unique effect in Propagate allows them to support any other clans’ array of status effects regardless if they’re buffs or debuffs, and they’re the MT2 clan with the most Card Draw effects as well.

The result is a clan that’s extremely good against bosses & Relentless phases of combat, and tends to excel early in the run when their effects are easy to proc and the enemies can rarely overcome their effects. Conversely, several of Underlegion’s effects are more difficult than usual to scale as the run progresses, which may result in challenges later in the run as the enemy’s power has outpaced your own. Luckily, you’ve got other clans to work with and plenty of ways to synergize your effects to leave your enemies deep in the soil, breathing only the stench of defeat.

Offensive strategies: Underlegion’s two strategies listed above play most chiefly into the way they choose to beat down the enemies. Decay is their unique offensive debuff that’s a very potent, damaging debuff akin to Frostbite (Poison in your typical RPG parlance); multiple units, numerous spells, and one of their Champions all revolve around this effect, and enough of it can completely decimate waves of enemies turn-over-turn. Otherwise, their unique Troop/Funguy stack mechanic tends to be their go-to mechanic, conjuring gradually-stronger stacks of Funguy to damage enemies, with multiple units, spell cards, and Champion paths dedicated to building up their potency.

Defensive strategies: Underlegion is a highly defensive clan, both directly and indirectly. Directly, the Underlegion comes with multiple ways to grant Regen, Health gains, and conjure Funguy stacks in front of any Floor (even if capacity is exceeded!) that can keep your team in the fight. Indirectly, their Sap debuff can wither enemies’ offense away, and all of their unique Room & Equipment cards in some way foster effects that increase your team’s overall survivability.

Stat-influencing strategies: Underlegion has a few of these available here! Some of these are unique to Funguy Troops themselves, with units like (U) Troop Leader increasing the Attack stats of Troops, while Executioner Bolete increases their Health potency. However, Underlegion also has an incredibly unique unit in (U) Amorous Enoki that increases the Health of all units on her floor (similar to Lunar Steward Ekka), and Bolete’s Hive Minder path sees him potentially gaining permanent Attack & Health throughout the run. Noteworthy then that Underlegion can potentially increase the Health of other clans’ units, but only the Attack of their own.

Support strategies: Underlegion is the first clan you’ll unlock that has a proclivity toward Card Draw effects, giving you some additional potential flexibility if you have the Ember to support this. Unusually there are some cards within the clan that also grant effects like Advance, Spikes, and an Ability that draws random Equipment, but these are limited to individual cards. Instead, the biggest Support element Underlegion brings is through Propagate, their unique effect that escalates any established stacks of buffs and/or debuffs established. Though Rare, Underlegion is the only clan that can make permanent duplicates of a unit card without Empyrean Wells/Lifemother Pyre. Finally, because Funguy Troops can be summoned even in full-capacity floors, Underlegion can uniquely support floor-overstacking strategies even without Movement or Capacity cards.

Sweep/Backliner Strategies: Underlegion technically has numerous ways to reach backline enemies despite the lack of any Sweep units. The Exiled Champion Madame Lionsmane is significantly better at this than Bolete. They also have a support unit (U) Cheery Deathcap who does significant AoE Decay on summon. There are a lot of targeted offensive Spells & pseudo-Sweep units in the deck, but outside of (U) Inhale, many are expensive or have odd caveats, such as…

• (U) Morel Mistress & (U) Spore Launcher can do AoE Decay, but only with Etch and Rally triggers respectively.
  
• (U) Prickly Puffball will put significant Decay on enemies as Revenge, but this means he won’t Decay enemies that don’t strike him like Healers or Sapped foes.
  
• (U) Pox blasts all enemies with damage and Decay!... but also your units.
  
• (U) Mushroom Cloud hits all enemies with damage and Decay, but requires at least one Funguy/Troop on the floor to sacrifice, and is a Consume effect.
  
• (C) Rot is the only attack card in Underlegion’s Common pool of cards to choose from, and it costs an overwhelming 3 Ember; not exactly meant for picking off low-Health backliners
  
• (U) Wracking Pain & (R) Deadly Variant only work if the enemy already has debuffs.

As a result, Underlegion is technically loaded with options, but particularly if this is your sub-clan or you’re using the standard Champion Bolete, you might not get a “simple” solution for backliners here.

Decay: We’ll start with the simplest effect first, Decay is a powerful offensive debuff akin to “poison” in most RPGs. Every stack of Decay is 3 Damage to a unit at the end of the turn; Decay also degrades gradually, and units will lose 1 stack after taking the damage. Because most Decay based effects apply at least 2 Decay, that means the average unit will be affected with this damage over multiple turns. Additionally, because the damage is separate from any Attack or Spell damage, this means the Decay damage is also very good against Reanimating enemies, who will be defeated/lose stacks of Reanimate as the Decay hit cuts through them. Not much else to say, Decay is extremely powerful, is Underlegion’s most consistently effective offensive trick, and is best applied liberally and frequently!

Etch: Currently this is unique only to (U) Morel Mistress and Everbloom Madame Lionsmane, but players of Monster Train 1 may remember this from the Wyrmkin clan. Quite simple, Etch is triggered when a card with Consume is played on that floor. This does not apply to Purge effects, but it does apply to any card that becomes Consume during a battle (e.g. through Underlegion’s Spell card (R) The Great Decay or Stygian’s (R) Gifts for a Guard) Beyond drafting cards with Consume effects, each Merchant of Magic shop will have one Consume option in each of its shop offerings and one upon rerolling as well if you’d like to gain more ways to proc this effect.

Merchant of Steel: Mossystone that gives +10 Health and +10 Regen. This is an excellent upgrade for tanks, or even just enough to give a slight boost of Health into units that might take incidental damage. If the unit tanking with this can survive enemy onslaughts, the +10 Regen will contribute significantly more Health/defense than the standard Heartstone of +25 Health.

Propagate: The most flexible effect in the game, each Propagate effect increases the total value of status effects on friendly units and enemies alike. It does not itself apply any new effects, it simply bolsters existing ones. It’s also designed to completely favor you as the Player, because Propagate only increases positive (Green-icon Status buffs) for friendly units, and only increases negative effects (Red-icon Status debuffs) for enemy units. All buffs & debuffs are valid with the sole exception of Daze.

Because Propagate itself is not a buff/debuff effect, that also means that you cannot increase the value of this on your cards. For example, a card like (C) Rot that does 15 Decay can be given Doublestack to increase this to 30, because Decay is a debuff. That same Doublestack cannot be applied to a card like (C) Proliferate that does Propagate 2 – because this is not a buff, it can’t become Propagate 4. Instead, only the Spellchain upgrade on Spell cards will allow you to multiply the effects of a Propagate effect.

In practice, Propagate benefits every single clan, because all of them have buffs & debuffs they like to apply. Crucially though, Propagate values are intentionally quite low and are difficult to increase, so the value of their effect is much higher when used with buffs & debuffs that are more difficult to apply in great numbers, and on units that will have multiple buffs/debuffs Propagated simultaneously. As an example, we’ll pretend we’re using the excellent (C) Glow Up, which costs 1 Ember for Propagate 2.

• You’re playing with Banished, and have used (C) Divinity to add 10 Valor to a unit for 3 Ember. Then with another 1 Ember, you Propagate it to 12 Valor instead. You got much less of the value of your Ember on this Valor, which is an easy effect to gain large numbers of… you can even Doublestack Divinity to have been 20 Valor for your 3 Ember!
  
• You’re playing with Lazarus League, and after use of a (C) Secret Ingredient for 1 Ember, you apply the Elixir to get 4 Regen. Then after another 1 Ember, you Propagate it to be 6 Regen instead. Again, you got less than half of the value of the original card here. If you’d waited to get more buffs going, this would have been much better.

• Back to Banished, instead you play (C) Selfless Sacrifice, dropping 2 Ember to give a unit 2 Damage Shields. Then with another 1 Ember, you Propagate it to be 4 Damage Shields! Note that here, you actually increased the value of this by double for half the Ember cost. That’s because unlike Valor which gets applied liberally & in huge values, Damage Shields are hard to come by!
  
• Back to Lazarus League, instead of playing 1 (C) Secret Ingredient, you instead play three of them, and for 3 Ember you’ve applied an Elixir that gives 4 Regen, 3 Spikes, and 1 Reanimate. You then spend 1 Ember to Propagate that, and now your unit has 6 Regen, 5 Spikes, and 2 Reanimate! For one third of the Ember cost, you’ve nearly doubled the value of your previous 3 Ember, both because you boosted multiple effects simultaneously, and because an effect like Reanimate is harder to apply.

Hopefully that gives you the idea – it’s a great effect overall, but the game doesn’t allow you do to high numbers of Propagation with the sole exception of the powerful spell (R) Spike of the Legion (otherwise 4 is the max you'll see), so it’s crucial to focus on what you Propagate. Propagating 2 on a Boss with 40 Decay doesn’t do much; Propagating 2 on a Boss with 1 Melee Weakness, 3 Sap, 10 Decay etc. does quite a bit more!

Troop/Spawn (Funguy): Underlegion’s adorable claim to fame just happens to be an extremely unique mechanic with about a hundred caveats & unique aspects to describe, so let’s do an overview and then we’ll get to the unique properties.

A single Funguy Troop “stack” can exist on each Floor of the train, and although Troops are Cardless ‘units’ that exist as a green status buff, both their creation (Spawn) or being defeated for any reason (e.g. enemy attacks, Corruption damage, or sacrificing one with (U) Mushroom Cloud) trigger Rally and Harvest effects respectively. This is unique in both fronts: a) Rally can only be typically triggered by placing unit card onto the train, and b) Harvest typically requires the complete defeat of a unit, not simply a reduction in the Troop buff. Each stack of Troop grows the stats of the Troop by +3 Attack & +4 Health, resulting in a situation where the Funguy stack, as it grows, becomes significantly more powerful and harder for enemies to defeat. A small stack might be destroyed by a single wave of enemies, whereas a huge stack may be able to tank multiple waves with minimal troop loss.

Several Underlegion cards & units are dedicated to the Spawn mechanic, and the result is this clan has its own unique type of unit it can conjure & grow throughout the battle, both potentially as a big meatshield of Health for enemies to try to fight through, or an offensive threat to do gradually more damage as the Troop count grows. There are numerous complexities and unique components to understand with the application of Funguy Troops, so I’ll try to list them here:

• A Funguy Troop is only 1 Size on the train, regardless of how large the Troop stack grows. Additionally, you may Spawn Funguy Troop units even when a Floor is completely full.
  
• There can only be one Funguy Troop per floor: if there is any existing amount of a Funguy Troop on a floor, Spawning new Funguy will only increase the value of the existing stack. Likewise, if a Troop is Ascended/Descended to a floor with any other Troops, they will simply merge their Troop values.
  
• If there is no Funguy Troop on a floor, Spawning any will always put the Troop in front of your floor. This means the only way to not have your Funguys in front of your floor is to either place units after a Troop is established, or to use Advance/Retreat cards to reposition them.
  
• Because Funguy Troops are Cardless, you cannot use effects like Endless or Reform on them to reestablish their ranks. If there are no Troops on a floor, only Spawn can reestablish them. Conversely, this also means they’re immune to Purge effects, making the Clanless (R) Void Armament equipment quite useful on them since there’s no risk of losing a unit.
  
• To that point, Funguy Troops are still able to be affected by other status effects, given Equipment, moved with Advance/Ascend/Retreat/Descend etc… all of the usual effects you’d expect out of a unit card.
  
• Because Troop is a status buff, their numbers can also increase through Propagate, not just Spawn. This is a key aspect of synergy in Underlegion’s cards.
  
• There are two units that directly impact the effectiveness of the Troop stack, (U) Squad Leader & Executioner Bolete, which increase the Attack & Health of Troops respectively. In both cases, this only applies to Troops on their floor, not all floors.

Underlegion Banner units are quite interesting in how varied they are, and how they largely eschew the traditional Tank & Damage Dealer roles. The majority of their units specifically interact with other Underlegion units, resulting in strategies that become significantly more powerful if they’re teamed up with one another. For example, (U) Cluster Colonel provides direct, powerful synergy bonuses to three other Underlegion Banner Units, and works well in tandem with a fourth.

My personal take then is that it’s much better to grab an Underlegion Banner early to ensure you can make use of that unit and their potential synergies, then depending on the Champion/path you’re playing, you may want to repeatedly grab Banners to increase the chance of getting a unit that supports their specific build. But because only a couple of their Banner Units are in the realm of “universally helpful to any run” – I’d be a bit wary about grabbing an Underlegion Banner as the run progresses and you’ve settled into a strategy.

Also as a breakdown of the variety (and to illustrate just how volatile these options are), there are:

• Three units whose functionality is based on Rally (i.e. intended for use with Spawn strategies)
  
• One that increases Rally/Spawn potential.
  
• One Tank that functions “normally” without other Underlegion mechanics.
  
• One Damage Dealer that requires Consuming cards on her floor through Etch triggers to function properly.
  
• One Support unit who bolsters the power of Funguy Troop stacks only.

So yeah, quite the variety of options that may be offered! Keep these considerations in mind as we discuss Underlegion units!

Amorous Enoki: A very strong support unit, Amorous Enoki seeks to bolster both the Health stats and provided some added survivability with the Regen buff through Rally triggers, which Underlegion is particularly adept at providing. It’s rare enough to find a Banner unit that increases the stats of a floor of allies (the only one we’ve discussed in these guides so far is Banished’s (R) Death’s Dancer, and Lazarus League has none), and it’s especially nice that this is an Uncommon unit rather than a Rare pull. Although Spawn mechanics are plentiful throughout Underlegion’s cards, if you eschew these entirely, Enoki’s effects may not be triggered often enough to be warranted. Outside of that specific case, this is a very useful unit that is a great ally to any clan, particularly if facing foes like Seraph the Dominant, and one that does not need any special upgrades to be effective.

Upgrades/Pairings: I’ll reiterate that there’s not much in the Merchant of Steel that improves her performance – Dualism really isn’t worth the cost here, and her Attack isn’t high enough to justify Speedstone or Multistrike. Smidgestone can be beneficial if you’d like to cram her in with as many units as possible during the early stages of a fight, but otherwise, generic Attack or Health upgrades are fine depending on where you’d like to position her. Far more important is to pair her with Spawn cards & Propagate effects to keep the Rally triggers coming. (U) Cluster Colonel or (C) Green Recruit are easy pairings, giving everyone 4 Health & 4 Regen, but later stages of Everbloom Lady Lionsmane, and Executioner/Headsman Bolete can even outdo these at times. The Room cards (C) Infectory & (U) Grow Room are fantastic on a floor with her. Beyond that, since more units than her can benefit from Rallying, try to pair her with other allies that like Rally triggers like (U) Spore Launcher, (R) Enchantrelle and (R) Deathcapped Prophet.

Morel Mistress: Underlegion’s strongly-scented ally here is a powerful damage dealer, but also one whose performance is strongly tied to the amount of Consume cards in your deck. Fortunately, with 15/15 stats and only 1 Ember cost, she’ll outperform a Spear Steward regardless, so she’s an okay unit from the start. Additionally, even if your run isn’t flush with Consume cards, trips to the Merchant of Magic always allow up to two cards to be given the Consume effect each time after a reroll, so you can try to force the issue even if you’ve had some bad luck on drafts. Because this Etch trigger hits all enemies on the floor with a substantial amount of Decay, she can really wreak havoc on her floor, which is notable since Underlegion units aren't exactly loaded with strong offensive presences. However, if you’re not Consuming cards at all, there are better options to seek out. Personally, I think the effect is strong enough that she’s worth consideration even if your deck lacks some Consume cards at the time of being offered her as a draft choice.

Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism is the upgrade for her, as 16 Decay is a huge amount of damage to be given out to entire floors of enemies. Because multiple copies of her can proc the same effect repeatedly with single Consume cards, a Smidgestone is a reasonable choice to try to get multiple copies of her deployed on a floor. Her stats are fine as is otherwise, so feel free to throw spare Strengthstones on her for a bit more attack. She doesn’t require any Underlegion pairings like many of their Banner units, though she gets Synergy with both Sporesinger & Everbloom Madame Lionsmane. Instead, you should see out to create many Consume cards in your deck, and be particularly gleeful at Spellchain upgrades to allow you to repeatedly trigger Etch on your turn. If you have some Intrinsic+Spellchain Consume cards to open a fight with, flying bosses can be defeated in short order simply by loading them up with huge amounts of Dualism-boosted Decay triggers.

Prickly Puffball: Underlegion’s one pure Uncommon Tank option is a pretty good one, with a serviceable starting Health value, and regular size/Ember costs. If placed on the bottom floor, any unit who triggers his Revenge will ultimately take a minimum of +15>+12>+9 (total of 36) damage before reaching the Pyre chamber, which is a solid amount of damage, particularly considering it will destroy the Reanimate stacks of units like Undying Wretches & Deformed Duos along the way. Conversely, note that he won’t ultimately hit all backliners, as any non-attacking unit like Healers or Sapped attackers won’t strike to trigger Revenge. He also has a bit of anti-synergy if Troop stacks are spawned in front of him, negating any chance that he’ll trigger Revenge unless the Troop dies or is moved. Still, caveats aside, he’s an easy, low-maintenance tank that’s pretty easy to fit into just about any build.

Upgrades/Pairings: Many solid options are available here. From an offensive standpoint, Dualism is a nice potential upgrade, upping that up to 10 Decay per trigger, which is a brutal amount to inflict, particularly on Multistriking enemies. However, 35 Health won’t last very long in this game, so beyond that, any upgrades to help sustain him are key. Largestone is a substantial Health increase if you can still fit him afterward, but even without that, Healthstone, Mossystone, and Titanite can work to varying degrees. I’m also a fan of Endless, since he might gradually be overwhelmed by Corruption, and you can just drop a fresh version of him down afterward (particularly nice if he gained Health from a (U) Amorous Enoki teammate). Finally, because he creates Decay stacks, he has bonus synergy with Sporesinger Madame Lionsmane.

Squad Leader: A fairly weak unit with one simple purpose, to sit in the back line of your floor and significantly bolster the offense of your Funguy Troop stacks. On the early end of a run, it’s often possible to spawn large Funguy stacks that will have enough offense to clear through lines of enemies, so having Trample and a +2 Attack boost per Stack is quite helpful, and can result in a single-floor solution for Offense. Because he’s 1 Ember & 1 Space, it’s easy to cram him or multiple copies of him onto a floor. Because their offense is tied to the amount of Troops they have, this is generally not a strategy to use if you’re also letting your Troops be your front-line tanks, as taking damage will weaken them. It’s also important to understand that this effect’s potency significantly diminishes throughout a run – Underlegion makes it fairly easy to get a big Troop stack going, but while that can mow down entire waves early on, when enemies like Avowed Gladiator show up with 375-500 Health, this won’t work anymore, and this Trample-stack instead becomes best to clean up exposed backliners instead.

Upgrades/Pairings: There’s no way to increase the potency of Squad Leader on his own through Merchant of Steel upgrades, so feel free to throw spare Strengthstones, Mossystones, or Healthstones on him, because his stats and effects aren’t worth investing in. Instead, what you want is to pair him with lots of Spawn effects, and potentially allies that also Rally off those effects. Spawns can come from Spell cards, Room cards like (C) Infectory, units like (U) Cluster Colonel, and champions like Executioner Bolete & Everbloom Madame Lionsmane. Because he’s small, you can easily copy him and get multiple +2 Attack boosts. But again, I must stress that particularly at higher difficulty levels, going “all-in” on a big Funguy stack will not be enough offense later in a run, even with this fella, so ensure you have other tricks up your sleeve before assuming this is an auto-win combo based on how strong it is early in a run. Finally, if offered the clanless Equipment (U) Iron Tongue, this is fantastic to put on him so he can contribute some actual offense to a floor as well.

Cluster Colonel: A very simple, easy to use unit with some very potent effects when paired with the right allies & setup, with the only slight downside being his 2 Ember cost that makes it tricky to deploy too many of him. At the end of every turn, a Cluster Colonel triggers 4 Rally while either creating a Funguy Troop stack, or boosting the potency of an existing one. He’s your absolute best friend with Rally-trigger units like (U) Amorous Enoki, (U) Spore Launcher, (R) Deathcapped Prophet, (R) Enchantrelle, and Hive Minder Bolete. If you don’t care about Rallying, then you can also use him to create a meatshield of a Funguy Troop every round to help support a team that’s weak on defense. Or, place multiple of him down and try to Spawn bigger Troop stacks. Although (U) Squad Leader’s effect is diminished over time, despite that Cluster Colonel can never spawn more than 4 per turn, triggering 4 Rally each turn is still a strong enough effect to get good use out of him throughout an entire run.

Upgrades/Pairings: Though usually I prefer Smidgestone to knock down the size of huge units, like Amorous Enoki, a Smidgestone really isn’t bad here to help deploy him on a tightly-packed floor meant to make use of Rally triggers (particularly since his best buddy Hive Minder Bolete is 3 Space). Dualism isn’t worth it on him for another 10 Armor (unless Dualism triggers another boosted status effect, because it cannot influence his Spawns), so outside of some Health upgrades to avoid him getting Swept/Corrupted, upgrades don’t matter much for him. Like I mentioned for (U) Squad Leader, the Clanless equipment (U) Iron Tongue is amazing to give him some additional use in the backline. If you can afford the Ember to get him out, multiple copies of him are quite useful to keep increasing the amount of Spawns you get per wave.

Spore Launcher: Underlegion’s resident chungus is a strong, big unit with a powerful Rally trigger that can really help define a run. Every Rally does 2 Decay to all units on the floor, and while this is inferior to Morel Mistress’ 8 Decay, it’s significantly easier overall to repeatedly Trigger Rally compared to Etch. At 30/30 stats he’s the highest-stat (U) Banner unit of all Underlegion, allowing you some flexibility if you just need some tanking or offense as well. With the potency of Decay and the many ways the game gives you to trigger Rally with Underlegion, Spore Launcher is a very strong option for runs.

Upgrades/Pairings: Two upgrades immediately call out for use on him – a) Dualism, upping that Rally trigger to an impressive 4 Decay per Rally, and b) Smidgestone, to help overcome that onerous 3 Size he starts with. However, as mentioned above, your run might need some traditional offense or tanking, so his 30/30 stats could also be bolstered with upgrades like Multistrike, Largestone (note the 4 size though!), Healthstone, or Mossystone to help patch up some offense or tanking. Otherwise all you want is Spawn-friendly buddies. Both Sporesinger & Everbloom Madame Lionsmane are incredibly allies for him, and Executioner Bolete is very strong if you can fit these two behemoths together on a floor. The Room card (C) Infectory is a great early pull here, as Decays that kill backline enemies will trigger additional Rallying to further-Decay anyone left alive. (U) Cluster Colonel is an awesome ally here for a unleashing tons of Rally+Decay at the end of a turn, and Spore Launcher is more than happy to be paired with other Rally-friendly units like (U) Amorous Enoki, (R) Deathcapped Prophet and (R) Enchantrelle.

Deathcapped Prophet: There’s a lot less to say about this than the average Rare unit… Deathcapped Prophet has atrocious stats and is fortunately cheap & small, because his only real benefit is to give you lots of Card draws. It’s very easy to Rally with Underlegion, so if you want to cycle through your deck faster and avoid “my best card is at the bottom of my deck again!”, he’s here to solve that problem for you. Depending on what’s offered though, this is far from a mandatory pick… Draws can be very important, but this alone won’t define a run the way even some of the Uncommon units above can.

Upgrades/Pairings: Merchant of Steel upgrades are worthless outside of Healthstone/Mossystone to keep him alive, or possibly Endless for the same reason. Instead, everything I said above about other Rally pairings applies, with some important caveats… The default card draw is 5 and max is 10; if you don’t take +1 Draws from Boss artifacts, 5 Rally triggers alone will cap your Draws, and that’s ignoring any Frozen cards and other artifact/unit interactions that add cards to your hands. Pairing with a single (U) Cluster Colonel is a safe bet here as a result. Be careful about interactions like the Large Mystery Box from Wondrous Boxes event that will not work if you draw to 10 cards, and other Units or Artifacts that give you cards each turn.

Balmabello: An absolutely crazy unit that comes totally out of left field compared to the average Underlegion unit. Balma here has an incredible Health stat of 50 and is fortunately only 2 Size, which may be cold comfort given his 3 Ember cost. His Extinguish Trigger is unlike any other unit in the game, buffing the entire floor around him on defeat with all of his existing buff stacks. The idea here is that before he dies, you’ve loaded him up with Buffs so he passes on his array of effects, allowing the remaining allies to finish the job. Plus with 50 Health and an inherent 6 Spikes, he’s the only Underlegion unit outside of (U) Prickly Puffball designed around tanking and counterattacks. I’d note that whether Balmabello is “worth it” or not may depend on your sub-clan, as his value increases significantly with a clan like Lazarus League that’s loaded with Buff effects, and decreases with something like Stygian Guard or Pyreborne that provide zero-to-weak Buff options.

Upgrades/Pairings: If you’re just using him as a Tank, Balmabello can easily take a Largestone to massively increase his Health. Smidgestone can be useful, particularly if you intend to make multiple copies of Balma who will pass their benefits onto each other for ever-escalating effects. Dualism can be very powerful on him not just for the Regen & Spikes at 12, but so any other Buff-granting effects are doubled as well. Beyond Tanking, you have two key ways you can use him, either a) leave him down to eventually be defeated, and grant Spikes+Regen+other bonuses to everyone else on the floor to help survive Relentless bosses. Or b) Load him up with Buffs and deliberately try to get him destroyed so an entire floor benefits from these instead of one unit. Propagate effects are huge here, so look for Spell cards with that effect, Room cards like (U) Grow Room, and Headsman Bolete. Playing with clans that give lots of Buffs can result in some impressive boosts to an entire Floor, and is especially crazy with clans like Lazarus League (become essentially Immortal with Reanimate stacks) or Melting Remnant (burn him out and Reform him to keep triggering Extinguish).

Enchantrelle: Debatably, this is currently one of the absolute strongest units in the entire game. When applied liberally, Sap is a strong enough effect to completely neuter every single enemy in the game, affording you the opportunity to simply allow feeble enemies to march to your Pyre to be defeated. Enough Sap can make any boss (including the Titans) into a weak husk of a punching bag for your units. Underlegion is loaded with ways to potentially Rally her, so if you get even a few of these going, you can get to the point of completely ignoring any enemies outside of those that add Scourges to your deck. Pair her up with some nice Rally triggers and you can now pretty much do anything you want with the rest of your run, as nothing but the most buffed/enraged enemies around will have anything left in the tank to even hit you with.

Upgrades/Pairings: Dualism is once again the big winner here, as Sap 2 is incredibly strong if applied multiple times… compare this to the Spell (C) Gooey Flask, and consider a single pairing with a (U) Cluster Colonel would mean 4X this effect at a minimum every turn. Outside of Cluster Colonel, Everbloom Madame Lionsmane is an insane combo, as is Executioner Bolete if you have a way to get some kills on the floor. Propagate effects are incredible here, both for Rally triggers with Funguy Troops, or for increasing the amount of Sap on enemies. Even with her expensive 3 Ember cost, it can still be worth it to potentially Smidgestone her just to fit more things on her floor. Enchantrelle is insanely powerful, and to me is a must-pick if she shows up in a draft.

Every clan has some version of these non-Banner card units, and for the Underlegion it’s some 1-space Shrooms with a variety of different effects and tricks for supporting your run.

Green Recruit (C): Yet another way to Spawn & Rally on your run, Green Recruit’s helpful 0 Ember cost and Small size make it easy to drop him down to take a hit and bolster your Funguy Troops & trigger Rally four times. Not bad early on for picking off weak enemies as well.













Cheery Deathcap (U): Decays for days, a summon of Cheery Deathcap puts a whopping 7 Decay on all enemy units, with that value reaching a crazy +14 with Dualism.













Truffles (U): Has Ability “Fetch” – Cooldown 3 to put a completely random Ephemeral Equipment card in your hand, reducing the Ember cost by 1. The most “wildcard” unit in the game currently, as he can draw any piece of equipment from any clan, granting you options that range from dangerously useless to unbelievably amazing. Which will you get?!











Waxcap (U): Currently the second strongest Sapper (no one can touch Enchantrelle), Waxcap throws out a respectable 3 Sap to all enemies on summon, which can become a very powerful 6 Sap with Dualism.














Interestingly, these are all Endless-friendly support units. Waxcap & Cheery Deathcap will get multiple uses if you can throw them out, have them be defeated and resummon again, and if combined with Dualism, both are powerful enough in their own right to seriously define a run. For example, a Dualism Cheery Deathcap doing 14 Decay to a bottom-floor enemy will do 42+39+36 (total of 117) damage before a unit gets to the Pyre! And a mere two summons of a Dualism Waxcap would be enough to massively weaken every boss in the game, including the Titans. Do note that Waxcap might Sap enemies so much that they can’t defeat his 5 Health, so you may not be able to always do this each turn.

Likewise, an Endless Green Recruit is another way, similar to (U) Cluster Colonel, to grant you 4 Rally/Spawn triggers in a round, provided you have room to place him in the line of fire. Nowhere near as strong as Waxcap/Cheery Deathcap on his own, but combined with Rally-hungry units like (U) Spore Launcher & (R) Enchantrelle, this can be incredible.

Finally, Truffles is… a wild card. I mean it when I say that he can pull amazing pieces of equipment for your situation… say, you have a giant Funguy Troop stack and Truffles grabs you the Banished Equipment (U) Shield of Wyngh. Or, the clanless (R) Void Armament to give your Troops a Multistrike without fear of Purging. Buuuuut he can also give you things that range from worthless, say a (R) Luna Cyclestaff when not playing with Luna Coven, or actively bad options like a (U) Glass Cannon when your units all have Corruption. Because he only gets to use his Ability every three turns by default, making him Endless so he can chump-block and try again to get you relevant equipment each turn is a valid option.

But I’ll continue to insist – he’s the ultimate wild card. I’ve had his Equipment cards get me out of a bad situation, and I’ve had runs where he never once gave me anything of value. However, we can agree that regardless, he’s still a good boy?

Starting card:
Eager Recruit: Bolete’s signature card is a basic Spawn card, meant to either conjure up some Troop stacks early on for some defense & attack, or crucially to help trigger Rally for other units (particularly important for Hive Minder Bolete). Spawn 1 can’t be increased in any way without Spellchain, so certainly this card will weaken in potency over time. However, many of the stronger Spawn Spell cards are Consumes, so this can still have value in your deck to easily trigger Rally on your units.


Headsman:
Strategies: This is Bolete’s only path with Trample, a very noteworthy benefit since it allows him to potentially get multiple Slay triggers in a single strike, which parlays into his bonus of Propagating all friendly units on Slay. Bolete works as a bit of hybrid offense & support here, having some decent Attack strength, and the ability to proliferate the Buffs of his allies on kills, including Troop-stack Rallying on his floor. Headsman III’s Propagate 4 is the most you can typically ever get in a single effect, allowing some very powerful escalations if Bolete can continually bolster the buffs on your units. Crucially, his Attack on this path is good, but not overwhelming. Even his buff to 160 Attack at level III barely puts a dent in Avowed Gladiators & Terrifying Amalgams, meaning you’ll have to find an alternate method through the strongest of tanks if you want to make the most of his Propagating bonuses.


Executioner:
Strategies: Where a (U) Squad Leader boosts up the offense of a Troop stack, here Executioner Bolete increases their Health instead, granting more tanking prowess & meatshieldery to Funguy Troops, gaining you more Health-per Spawn than any other build. Additionally, Bolete gains the ability to Spawn more troops upon the death of enemies on his floor using the Siphon trigger. The idea here is to destroy enemies on the floor, growing an increasingly huge & defensive stack of Funguy Troops to protect your backliners and more easily win Relentless boss fights. However, in most cases, you must lean on your sub-clan to support this build, as Bolete himself is far too weak to get those Siphon triggers reliably, his (C) Eager Conscript doesn’t help him pick off weaker enemies, and the “best” unit to support this path, (U) Spore Launcher, is too big to fit on a floor with Bolete without a Smidgestone or Capacity increase. This really only leaves (U) Morel Mistress from the Underlegion clan to use with this early on, so as implied above, you may need units from your sub-clan to help get those Siphon triggers. Because of this oddity, this path is commonly flexed in with Hive Minder, providing additional Rally trigger potential.


Hive Minder:
Strategies: Bolete’s most aggressive path sees him gaining the potential to be an absolutely brutal offensive, and even defensive powerhouse if you can invest enough in him throughout the run. There’s a lot less to explain on this one… get Bolete paired up with anything that can Rally him, chiefly (U) Cluster Colonel, (C) Infectory, and any spell cards with Spawn on them (spellchain them for even more fun). His baseline Attack can easily get into multiple-hundreds on this path, and ditto his Health if you continue with the path, making him potentially one of the Healthiest Champions in the game on top of a terrifyingly high Attack stat.

Flex potential: Bolete is probably among the most-flexed champions at higher levels of play, simply because the benefits of permanent stat boosts, Rally triggers on Siphon, and giving Trample to his kit are all great options depending on how your run is going. Hive Minder is often flexed into either path: if Headsman, now his escalating Attack also has Trample & Propagate effects. If Executioner, now kills on his floor result in yet-more Rally triggers to permanently escalate his stats. Executioner does have some benefit in going to level III as Bolete has an impressive 100 Health, and Headsman’s Propagate 4 at level III is a quite-strong benefit if you can reliably trigger it.

Starting card: Sporetouch Frequently my preferred card when using Underlegion as a sub-clan, because this allows you to apply Decay to any unit, which is a big benefit to picking off backliners early in the game, and remains strong enough to destroy Collectors even near the end of the run. The Sporesinger path for Madame Lionsmane boosts the effectiveness of this card, giving some additional potential endgame use as well.


Everbloom:
Strategies: Despite lacking Eager Conscript cards to Spawn Funguy Troops and trigger Rallying, this version of Madame Lionsmane does it herself, growing the army with each Incant. This path has extremely low stats, which hopefully makes it clear how crucial the Spawn & Rallying is to this strategy. Interestingly, the Incant trigger is completely unchanged from levels I to III, meaning the only way to get more out of this path at higher levels is to seek out and/or create Consume cards for her to trigger Etch. This path is very good if combined with Rally-triggering allies like (U) Spore Launcher, (U) Amorous Enoki, and (R) Enchantrelle, or paired with the Etch-triggering (U) Morel Mistress. Without these, this path only really offers you a big Funguy Troop stack, which isn’t as useful as the other two paths.


Maneater:
Madame Lionsmane gains Ability: Maneating > Maneating II > Maneating III. Cooldown 1 to:
Maneating: Sap 2 & Decay 5 to a unit.
Maneating II: Sap 3, Decay 10, and Mute 1 to a unit.
Maneating III: Sap 4, Decay 15, and Mute 2 to a unit.
Strategies: A fun and interactive path for Madame Lionsmane, she gains some modest Attack boosts in this path and gains the ability to weaken one unit every turn with her Maneating Ability. The combination of Sap & Decay alone is pretty interesting as it can be used to strategically weaken a dangerous backline attacker, or start establishing some Decay stacks to weaken higher-Health enemies instead. Maneating II & III add the Mute effect, which is very powerful and is enough to stop several onerous effects from enemies like the Resolves of Supplicants and the Incants of Ardents, or completely nullify the effects of bosses, shutting down their more obnoxious effects. Combined with the abundance of Propagate effects in this clan, Maneater Madame Lionsmane can completely shut down the effects of bosses for an entire fight! Unlike her other two paths, this one has no direct synergy with other Underlegion units, so it’s a very “safe” choice if your run doesn’t seem like it will be leaning on Underlegion Banner units.


Sporesinger:
Strategies: How do I love thee? Let me count Decays. Sporesinger is Madame Lionsmane’s most passive path, allowing her to simply sit in the back of a Floor (usually the first Floor), amplify the effect of any Decay applied, and then drown all enemies in a wave of Decay. This path tends to easily deal with backline enemies as long as she’s kept alive, and helps you establish some Decay on higher-Health enemies as well. If you can apply Decay on her floor before her Action trigger, Propagate effects will also add extra Decay, which is a fun bonus! Much like some other Underlegion strategies, it’s important to note that the ease & simplicity of this path will struggle late in the run without additional support. Her effects in Sporesinger I and II are so strong that it can almost single-handedly win you fights as long as someone’s tanking for her… the same is not true for Sporesinger III, where the effect alone won’t even defeat 20 Health backliners, much less put a dent in dangerous meatshields like Avowed Gladiators & Terrifying Amalgams. This doesn’t mean Sporesinger III is weak – it’s not, but ensure you’re supporting her with other Decay effects, and don’t expect her to solo-carry you through to the end. Great potential partners are (U) Morel Mistress, (U) Cheery Deathcap, and (U) Spore Launcher.

Flex potential: Because her stats are mostly low in each path (sans Maneater’s okay Attack) and the potential of different Underlegion units dictating how your run may progress, Madame Lionsmane is a pretty good candidate for flexing if your starting path isn’t working at its best. Flexing Maneater is nice since it gives her an Ability to use each turn, particularly because Maneater II’s Mute 1 is enough to still solve a lot of potential problems. If you find yourself flush with Rally units, flexing Everbloom is a great idea, even if it’s a single level to get Incant Rally triggers. Finally, adding Sporesinger is an easy way to passively clear backliners, and is a good idea if you’ve gradually added Decay effects to your run you’d like to bolster.

(C) Glow Up is an extremely good early Common card to seek out. It’s the only Underlegion card with Advance, which can allow you to reshuffle your Funguy Troops, yank a Collector to the front, or simply use its Propagate effect to continually weaken enemies or empower your own troops. Though you can’t Doublestack Propagate, you can always Spellchain it!

Like many Underlegion cards, (C) Infectory will be very strong early in the run, and can even lead to some surprise boss wins as Troops get extra hits or allow extra Decay procs. Although it will remain a useful tool for Rally triggers, beware that the potency of a single Spawn/Rally later in the game diminishes, and as a result you may get more use out of chump-blocking with Funguy instead.

(C) Loamcoat only provides a single Regen after a turn to Propagate, and thus is meant for going on units that either have a good Buff to Propagate, or Funguy Troop stacks to keep building them up. Without this, the 2 Ember cost might be a bit wasted beyond the 20 Health increase.

(U) Pox hits all units, including your own! Meaning it should only typically be used on an Empty floor.

(U) Inhale triggers Spawn on any Slay, including your own units. So using this on a (C) Green Recruit for instance would result in Spawn 6 total. This also makes it a decent option for destroying an Endless Dualism (U) Waxcap, who might not otherwise be defeated due to his Sap effects.

Because Sap decreases each turn, (U) Mushy Room’s location is very important. If you’d like to Sap any enemies that make it to the Pyre chamber, the Top Floor is best for this, though it won’t help your units along the way. If you want the enemies weaker when facing your own team, the other two floors are better. During the Titans fight, because Entropy doesn’t move, a Mushy Room will eventually sap him to zero Attack.

(R) Spike of the Legion is one of the most powerful Spike cards in the game, as it’s the only effect that can reach more than 4 Propagate. This is an extremely good choice for almost any clan combo, as it could easily Propagate enough say, Sap/Mute to completely neuter a boss, Propagate enough Lifesteal/Reanimate to make a unit virtually immortal, or Propagate a Funguy Troop stack for a ridiculous amount of Rally triggers.

You don’t have to apply the effects of Evergrowth to your own units with the (R) Tome of Evergrowth… the Sap 3 is a far more potent debuff to put on enemies than 3 Regen gained is. Want more fun? Put this on a Dualism unit to add an insane 6 Sap each turn to a unit of choice… enough to weaken just about any enemy down to nothing.

Want a copy of your unit without Lifemother’s Pyre or an Empyrean Well? Well, Underlegion is the only clan that can do this with the amazing (R) Mitosis Cap… a real gift to duplicating your better units. However, remember that maximum hand size is 10, so if you copy too many Banner units, you’ll get “Hand Full” at the start and might not draw all units & deployable Room/Equipment cards.

A Spell card cannot be both Consume & Holdover at the same time, so if your strategy relies on Holdover effects, (R) The Great Decay will take away that option. That said, if you’re heavily utilizing Etch triggers, an Intrinsic copy of this card is incredible. Though you’ll eventually run out of Spell cards, (R) Unearth Treasure can be used to claw a few more back!

Speaking of (R) The Great Decay, both (U) Pandemic and (R) Contagious are unusual in that they’ll replicate themselves even when Consumed. This also makes for some potential powerful effects if you winnow your deck down enough and remove Consume with an Eternalstone.

Spawn can’t be affected by Doublestack, but because the card also has Armor gains, (R) Funguy in a Suit actually can get Doublestack effects, making the Armor gain 8x the Troop value instead. This is a pretty insane brick wall if you’ve built up even a modest Funguy Troop stack.

Troop Stacks deplete rather than ‘just’ lose Health, so Wyngh’s Spirit is not terribly useful to this clan. The one caveat is Hive Minder Bolete, who could eventually reach insane multi-hundred Health stats and be healed back to full even then.

Pyre of Savagery is a potentially quite-bad choice for this clan, because Troop kills don’t count toward permanent Slays, Decay kills don’t, and those are two of the ways Underlegion tends to get kills early on. Again, Bolete is an exception, as Headsman Bolete in particular would love this benefit with Trample.

Aquath’s Reservation’s +3 Ember can help pay for some painful early expenses like (C) Rot or (C) Loamcoat, or later ones like (R) Funguy in a Suit.

The existence of the (R) Mitosis Cap means that Underlegion has an extra way to copy units, meaning Lifemother’s Pyre can become potentially unnecessary. However, it still gives the option to copy non-unit cards, and Mitosis Cap is a Rare card, so this really isn’t worth making a decision over. Instead, I’d argue it has some strong usage with copying Spellchain Consume cards that can really empower your run.

Given the early utility and power of 2 Ember Uncommon units like (U) Cluster Colonel & (U) Spore Launcher, Herzal’s Hoard is a pretty solid option for this clan. Deployable Equipment can add a lot of extra flexibility to their units as well.

Though it's one of my least favorite pyres due to its randomness, Underlegion has some big units like Bolete & Spore Launcher, plus lots of 2-size units that synergize with each other, meaning Bogwurm's Growth can help build up big enough floors to group all your allies together.

Fhyra’s Greed is a pretty helpful pyre for generating some extra cash. Hive Minder Bolete in particularly would much rather get a permanent boost from a Spawn card rather than save 1 Pyre Health from a Vengeful Shard. Naturally, this is more relevant at higher Covenants.

If you’re hoping to continually trigger Etch effects turn over turn, Echoes of Time Father is an okay option to freeze your Consume cards in case you pull too many on a single turn.

Many of Underlegion’s units do not need specific upgrades to function properly, and their preponderance of Consume effects might give you helpful Ember reductions or upgrades like Eternalstones or Freezestones if you utilize Malicka’s Shifting Pyre. Potentially risky, but I think this clan benefits more from it than most.

Pyre of Dominion is a real wildcard option for this clan, as there are numerous Consume cards that will eventually empty your smaller starting deck. Being offered two (U) Squad Leaders is also a vastly different impact than say, two (U) Prickly Puffballs. Conversely, something like (C) Spawning Pods is superior to Bolete’s Eager Conscripts, and this is a Capacity-hungry clan that may not be making use of (C) Shield Stewards anyway? I’d only recommend this if you’re very well-versed in the pros & cons of this clan.

I strongly dislike this Pyre for almost any clan, but Pyre of Entropy is a particularly bad choice for both Awoken & Underlegion, as both have enough potential Draw effects to not even enjoy the bonus effect from this.

Banished:
Just Cause (++): Always pick this over Inspire. It has a lot of utility and certain Banished units are very weak without access to this.
Inspire (--): Never choose this. It’s the worst clan starting card and locks away certain strategies.

Your angel buddies can help significantly with survivability given their preponderance of Valor and Damage Shield, particularly because Damage Shield is a very potent effect to Propagate. Their ability to move units up & down floors can have powerful effects for overstacking floors, shuffling around your Funguy Troop stacks, and getting multiple Rally-triggering units on the same floor together. Banished also has a significant number of Health-based spells & Equipment, and considering how Health-conscious Underlegion can be between Troop stacks and Hive Minder Bolete, this clan combo can be extremely powerful when paired together.

Pyreborne:
Firestarter: A simple card that will be modestly useful throughout the run, either to clear backliners early, or to apply Pyregel, which can be quite powerful with Decay.
Bloated Whelp(+): Though I usually prefer Firestarter, for Underlegion, these guys are great since they can both trigger Rally and destroy themselves to avoid clogging up a floor.

Pyreborne tend to offer the same benefits two benefits to any clan, that being a) Pyregel, a simple debuff for increasing your damage output, and b) Money & Artifact gain. Underlegion can sometimes struggle to get offense going, so Pyregel is a nice gift for upping your damage. Underlegion is already very survivable on their own, so Pyreborne’s almost complete lack of mitigation isn’t much of a concern here. This is more of a case of separately using both of their strengths… letting Underlegion be your mitigation and Pyreborne cranking your damage numbers upward. Or barring that, enjoy the sheer carnage that is Pyregel + Decay stacking.

Luna Coven:
Witchweave: Not particularly good without Conduit to strengthen the Heals, but at least it costs 0 and is a good +20 Consume option.
Moon Ritual(+): A little better than usual here since Propagate effects can escalate Conduit gain. It’s also important to several Luna Coven units if you intend to grab some.

I think this is more a situation where Underlegion helps Luna Coven more than the bugs help your shrooms. Conduit doesn’t bring a ton to the table for Underlegion, as they don’t have many spells that will strictly see benefits from this. (C) Moon Pixies & the (U) Planetarium cards get some nice benefit from adding Troop stacks to floors, but again that benefits Luna Coven more than Underlegion. As a result, this is more about playing to each clan’s strengths, like letting Luna Coven help patch up Underlegion’s offense with damaging spells, having Underlegion Propagate effects like Conduit/Spell Weakness, and using Troop stacks to keep some of the squishier bugs alive.

Lazarus League:
Secret Ingredient(++): My preferred option as Mixes offer you a wide variety of effects to Propagate, and Everbloom Madame Lionsmane can get many Incants off the use of these.
Erratic Assistant: Their damage, utility, and ease of triggering Rally are perfectly fine such that you needn’t avoid these necessarily, but Secret Ingredient offers more flexibility overall.

Lazarus’ sheer versatility is a gift to any clan, and Underlegion are no exception. One of the biggest gifts Lazarus offers to your Shrooms is Equipment, because adding effects like Trample, Multistrike, Spikes, Reanimate etc. are huge boosts to multiple Underlegion units. Further, they’re the absolute best clan to Propagate in the game, simply because they can apply such a wide variety of buffs & debuffs, many of which are only applied in small values by default. (C) Green Recruit gets some added tricks here with Reanimate where he can Extinguish multiple times. Decay can help enemies reach Unstable thresholds... there’s tons of combos here; this is a very good pairing.

Hellhorned:
Torch: An intentionally weak starting spell normally meant to clear weak backliners. It can be used to defeat your own Imps, but not a Green Recruit or Waxcap by default, so bleh.
Queen’s Impling(+): Does a lot more damage than Torch, but only to the front unit, and takes up 1 Space. Good enough for some early burst damage and as a Rally trigger option.

Armor isn’t quite as important to Underlegion as it is to some other clans, but a legion of disposable Imps with powerful Summon effects to trigger Rally is quite nice! Hellhorned’s gift of Rage can be very helpful for escalating the offense of your units, some of which can be very potent if the Attack grows fast enough (e.g. a Squad Leader-empowered Funguy Troop or Headsman Bolete). Hellhorned also brings some Ascend effects that can be really useful for getting your Rally units together or to free up some space for more Summon-triggering Support units from both clans.

Awoken:
Restore: A solid option to help overcome early survivability concerns. Underlegion has plenty of survivability, but this can help keep Regen from degrading over time. If you think you may grab Awoken banner units, three of them interact with Heals/Regen from cards like this.
Rootseeds: One of MT1’s best starting clan cards is now more just ‘fine’ as +2 Atk doesn’t mean as much and Draws are easier to come by. Still, it’s generally useful.

Your plantborne buddies tend to offer the same benefit to all clans, that being Card Draws, Healing, and Regen. Underlegion uh… kind of has all three of those to some extent though, huh? Instead we should focus on the fact that Awoken has numerous options for dealing with backline enemies, which Underlegion is a bit inconsistent with, including Health & Spikes that are quite good for Underlegion tanks. This clan comes with many cheap, spammable card options that can help get you lots of Incants with Everbloom Madame Lionsmane. Finally, Awoken has a fair amount of stat-increasing cards that can help offset some of the lower-stat values of Underlegion units.

Stygian Guard:
Frozen Lance : One of MT1’s worst starting clan cards is… still bad unfortunately. However, it’s okay for some early offense and to put +20 Consume on for Etch triggers.
Forgone Power (+): My preferred choice. 0 cost is easier to play, it can trigger Discard functionality with Stygian Offering cards, or crucially discard Scourge & Blight cards to avoid their Reserve effects.

Stygian has quite a bit of overlap with Underlegion, as Frostbite is a similar debuff to Decay, they’re the only MT1 clan with Sap effects, and many of their Rarer cards lean heavily on Consume. This makes Stygian a particularly strong combo with Etch triggers and Incants for Everbloom Madame Lionsmane, including the option of pairing her with Stygian units that like to Incant. Their ability to Freeze cards can also be very beneficial for making the optimal timing of spell cards for Rally & Etch triggers. Finally, Stygian has numerous ways to help you clear backline enemies, so they do a good job of patching up one of Underlegion’s more inconsistent elements.

Umbra:
Shadesplitter: An okay card that guarantees a Morsel, which is better than usual here as it’s a guaranteed Rally trigger.
Plink: Normally I prefer Plink, but if you’re looking for Rally triggers, this is a bit more inconsistent. However, it gives the option for +20 Damage Consume and might help clear out some backline enemies.

Morsels are some of the best friends a Rally-hungry clan could ask for, allowing you to both trigger Rally and have them eaten to make space for more next turn. Umbra’s ability to add more Space is another great way to get multiple Rally & Etch-triggering units together. Propagation is also extremely good with Umbra’s proclivity toward Damage Shield & Lifesteal effects that are often applied in small numbers. Umbra also has multiple ways to increase Ember gains, helpful since Underlegion has a particular fondness for 2+ Ember cards & Units. There’s a lot of great synergy here, just be cautious that both of these clans have limited options for consistently stopping dangerous sweepers like Ragewing Assassins.

Melting Remnant:
Dreg: Cheap chaff units that can help do a bit of damage, doubly able to be Harvest-fodder for some Melting Remnant units or Rally fodder for Underlegion.
Primitive Mold(+): Even though Dregs can trigger Rally, they’re not as useful as Morsels/Imps etc., and Reforming a unit with 1 Burnout can also trigger Rally. Because of that and the fact that multiple Melting Remnant units are better if Reformed, this is my preferred option.

Defeat isn’t the end of your units with your waxen buddies, which is a nice bonus if you’d like to get multiple Rally triggers out of otherwise-disposable units. Those returned units will by default return with only 1 Burnout stack, meaning they’ll clear up the space they took up a turn later. Or, Reforming can be a reasonable option to keep a tank like Prickly Puffball coming back repeatedly even after it goes down. Melting Remnant was MT1’s clan focused on Gold gain, so like Pyreborne, they can help a bit to increase your coffers for the expensive upgrades you want. Propagation adds another option for extending Burnout which is great for units like Draffs & Lady of the House that need help staying lit. Your waxer buddies give can give a variety of other options beyond Reform with rare effects like Endless, Daze (reminder this cannot be Propagated), Stealth, and Debuff-clearing effects that are incredible for removing pesky Sap/Corruption/Melee Weakness.

Mr. Savagery loves melting through even modestly-beefy units by Enraging floors of attacks and sweepers, and any tank on Floors 2 or 3 at the outset will have to contend with 60 or 90 damage (Titan trial) first turn if you don’t have a way to block that hit. If you’ve been counting on Funguy Troops to tank for you, these Enraged enemies can cut them down in moments, so ensure you have more than a few Spawns available. Ragewing Assassins can be a huge problem for Underlegion early on, as many of Underlegion’s backline units can’t take that hit, and Underlegion isn’t loaded with options for stopping them. This and the Melee Weakness effects makes Sap a particularly powerful antidote to The Savage. Savage also brings out some massive Health-pools on enemies like pairs of Avowed Gladiators, so be ready with some serious offense as well. This is Underlegion’s toughest fight in my opinion, so prepare ahead of time!

Mr. Entropy loves weakening your forces down to nothing with combinations of Sap & Silence, hoping to stop them from getting their offense going. This is a pretty big bummer for Underlegion’s plethora of Trigger effects, and for Maneater Madame Lionsmane who won’t be able to use her ability. You’ll want to come up with a solution to Deafening Heralds, as they can take away common strategies like Prickly Puffball’s revenge-Decay, and the many Rally-based triggers of this clan. If you can work your way around this, Underlegion doesn’t need high Attack values to function, so the Sap effects, while annoying, aren’t devastating to this clan. Additionally, this is the only Seraph option where a Squad Leader + average-size Funguy Troop strategy can still do good work, as it can potentially mow through waves of Purified Souls.

After two early clans that struggle with The Dominant (Banished & Luna Coven), fortunately, Underlegion are pretty strong against him! A unit like Amorous Enoki alone can completely negate any concerns of escalating Corruption, your Funguy Troops can be disposable heroes to stop the double-Corruption effects, and Decay is great for repeatedly destroying the Reanimation stacks of Deformed Duos. You’ll want to be prepared to stop some of their backliners from filling your deck with Scourges, and ensure your lower-stat units have some Health support so they don’t winnow away from Corruption. Still, Underlegion has many answers to Mr. Dominion, which is nice!

The Underlegion are very swingy when it comes to the Titans. On the one hand, Sap-heavy strategies can make a joke of Savagery & Entropy, enough Decay applied early and often can result in some fairly quick kills, and champion paths like Maneater Madame Lionsmane and Hive Minder Bolete are very powerful here. Conversely, Funguy Troop strategies will struggle greatly against them, as Savagery’s escalating offense, Entropy’s continuous damage, and an array of powerful enemy waves will make it very difficult to keep Troops healthy & plentiful without major Spawn & defensive investments. Unless the result is Rally-Decay, having a single floor of offense/Rally can make defeating Savagery take some time as you wait for him to loop between floors. If you’re not leaning on Sap & Decay, ensure your sub-clan offers you some other way to build up offense, or you’ll have a long, protracted battle against these foes.

If you’ve read enough of this guide, hopefully you’ve been seeing a theme I’ve been expressing. Underlegion is a very swingy clan, with strategies that are so simple & mindless early on that you can coast through a great deal of the game with minimal input. Putting a (U) Squad Leader & (U) Cluster Colonel on a floor together can make enough of an impact to breeze through early enemy encounters, ditto for Sporesinger Madame Lionsmane, who can just completely wash enemies away without even needing additional Decay. Underlegion tends to breeze through early bosses with their outsized ability to survive Relentless battles, such that it can lead to a real false sense of security as to how strong your run actually is.

The crucial caveat here is that many of Underlegion’s effects do not escalate as time goes on. A Squad Leader will never actually help your Funguy Troops build up or do more than +2 Attack, Cluster Colonel will never Spawn more than 4, and Sporesinger Madame Lionsmane’s 4 Decay means a lot more against 60-100 Health enemies than it does to 500 Health ones. With both Spawn effects & Propagate effects being exempted from effects like Doublestack & Dualism, escalating these enough to tackle endgame threats just isn’t as simple as it is for other clans. This is also partly why the section on Propagate was so long, to try to illustrate that since you can’t Doublestack those effects, Propagating effects like Damage Shield, Melee Weakness, Sap, Lifesteal, Reanimate etc. are just superior options to things like Valor, Pyregel, Decay, Frostbite, Rage etc… ideally you Propagate something that has numerous buffs/debuffs, but that may not be clear to players trying to develop strategies with this clan.

As a result, I’ve tried to continually highlight the things that do work consistently at endgame levels: Rally, Sap, and Decay. So for instance, Cluster Colonel’s Spawn 4 is not enough to put any real dent in the enemies late game, and the Troop won’t be strong enough to tank everything the game throws at you either. However, 4 guaranteed Rally triggers and chump-blocking 30+ damage can still be fantastic! As a result, I recommended him much more strongly than Squad Leader. Sporesinger Madame Lionsmane’s own Decay applied may not win the day, but it absolutely can be if paired with Dualism (U) Spore Launcher, (U) Morel Mistress, or (U) Cheery Deathcap. And Sap, if applied liberally or Propagated enough, can weaken any enemy in the game into nothingness in a way that (almost) no other clan is capable of.

So, be ready for some potential growing pains as you spend some time with the Underlegion. They’re not necessarily underpowered, but they have a uniquely strong early-game presence with many units that can easily fail to get similar endgame results. Good luck!

This is clan guide #4 for me on Steam! X) I think I spent a lot of time covering various important aspects about playing a clan in detail... I don't personally think it would help to go over every single card or sub-boss. But if I'm wrong, this guide is useful to you, and you'd like to see some other point of discussion, please let me know!

We've got enough practice and wins under our belts that I'm ready to write up guides for each clan, but this takes more than a bit of time to do, so (hopefully?) stay tuned for future installments as I chip away at this. Underlegion are both complex and swingy so this one took a bit more time to write than the others so far.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your runs with these mulch-munching morels! =)