BB2020 Dark Elf Starting Rosters

Dark Elf Starting Rosters Overview

Dark Elves have only changed slightly under the second season rules and their Assassin’s are now 5k cheaper than they used to be. This hasn’t really altered how most coaches start their teams, especially as it was fairly common for Assassins to be left out entirely to start with.

High Armour Dark Elves

This is probably the most common way to start Dark Elves. Your players are all expensive, so teams like to start with all their Blitzers. They have the best armour available for Dark Elf teams , along with Block for both protection and hitting all those Block-less starting players on other teams.

Whilst Runners do have low armour they are the easiest route to getting another reroll in the form of the Leader skill. Trying to save up for a reroll whilst you also want to get an Apothecary and your very expensive Witch Elves means that any shortcuts will help. The Apothecary is the first purchase as the Witch Elves, like the Runners, have quite low armour.

An alternative option is to swap the Runner and one of your Blitzers for another Lineman and a Witch Elf if you want the added threat that Frenzy can bring to the team. The Witch Elf having Dodge also gives you some slightly more reliable manoeuvrability when you only have a couple of rerolls. Giving up the Runner does mean it’s harder or will take longer to get a Leader reroll and it will hurt more if the Witch Elf dies before you can get the Apothecary.

Three Reroll Dark Elves

If you do want to get three rerolls from the outset, then the trade off is quite steep, forcing you to drop down from four to only two Blitzers. This halves the number of players you have with Block so does require some careful consideration. The Runner is perhaps slightly less desirable as you have the third reroll already, so you can save a further 10k dropping to another Lineman. On the flipside you have 10k banked which you could upgrade a Lineman to a second Runner. I think that money is better of being banked, or for getting some more Dedicated Fans.

There is a throwback roster option where you used to have to spend a big chunk of your money on Fan Factor so all Dark Elf teams used to just go 11 Linemen and 3 rerolls. Thankfully you now have more money to actually spend on players and rerolls. Starting with ten Linemen and either just a Blitzer or a Runner you can fit four rerolls in your starting roster. As big of a fan as I am of going reroll heavy, I think that’s just too extreme a trade off.

All Positions Dark Elves

A different trade off for two of your Blitzers and you can get in a Witch Elf and an Assassin. They are both more fragile than Blitzers but give you some more options. The Witch Elf having Frenzy gives you more of a sideline threat and the Assassin can go after some low armour Block and or Dodge players.

Single Reroll Dark Elves

Dropping down to a single reroll can leave you in trouble, though it does mean you can afford two Witch Elves who have their built in Dodge reroll. Two Runners can work in tandem with their improved Dump Off skill to keep hold of the ball. Whilst you can now do Dump Off before the opponent is right next to them, their passing ability is slightly worse than under the previous rules. This roster does have a lot more low armoured players on it though so attrition could be more of an issue, especially with only one reroll as a safety net!

To counter that you could drop the Assassin and maybe a Runner down to Linemen. That would then free up a bit more money to go straight towards getting the Apothecary after game one.

Dark Elf Starting Rosters Summary

I feel the prudent option would be the high armour option and to load up on all the Blitzers and just go down to two rerolls at the start. With expensive players there is always going to be a trade off with what you start with, you just have to decide where your compromise is going to be. You have the Runner there to try and get Leader asap, potentially after game 1 if not 2 unless things go badly. It’s also the most resilient group of players you can start with without swapping the Runner for an extra Lineman.

Giving up some Block players to start with is a hard choice to make as it’s probably at it’s most potent when playing among other starting teams and Block is at it’s least prevalent. If you’re doing that to get a Witch Elf, then Dodge is also at it’s best when there isn’t much Tackle around to negate it. Just be mindful if you have a lot of Dwarf and or Chaos Dwarf teams in your meta.