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Overview
Isha are one of the most unique Secret League Elf rosters. At first Regeneration stands out as the team's unique selling point, however there are other aspects to the roster that gives them their own unique flavour.
This roster can feature up to 9 starting players with Side Step, including the big guy, which puts them on par with almost any team for positional control of the field. That said - even the non-Stunty Side Step players in this roster are squishy so they can’t base opposing players up as frequently as players like Water/Earth Elemental or Flesh Golems.
They’ve also got a passing game that comes from their Linemen, so you will be able to effectively move the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, re-living the days of old Elves where handing the ball off to a Lineman and have them perform a Pass action to another Elf is a valid tactic rather than a desperation play.
Finally they are the only elf team with a Stunty positional which opens up unique, screening and cage breaking options on defence, and the ability to penetrate opposing screens on offence.
But when it comes down to it, this is an Elf squad, and an expensive one at that, although you will have Blodge Side Steppers, you will also have plenty of deaths even though its only a 1 in 30 chance on the injury table now thanks to Regeneration.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Isha Strategy
Your team is expensive so learning to manage your treasury early is key to sustained success for the team. While Isha have good pitch control, the team don’t take hits well and at times rely on Regeneration working to stay in contention in the late game, or you will be forced to take big risks as your numbers dwindle.
Naiad
The Naiad will likely be the stars of your team. They are Elf Union Blitzers that trade Block for Regeneration and cost 10k cheaper. Dodge is going to generally be your best first skill choice to allow them to reposition and synergize with Side Step well. The next will depend on their role, and is typically selected based on your teams needs at the time.
Control Naiads look to set up screens and generally want to stay upright and limit opposition movement. So Block, Tackle and Diving Tackle all seek to limit opponent mobility. These are your cage corners, your front portion of your screens, and the ones tagging potential receivers or the ball carrier.
Sacker Naiad take the classic Wrackle combo to dramatically improve the likelihood of sacking the ball carrier. As a S3 team, you will often have to take a one die sack, so giving yourself a 50% chance of getting the ball free is important. Strip ball can be taken earlier if your league does not feature much Sure Hands. Jump up combines well with both Wrestle and the fact you will likely be hit on the following turn.
Scorer: The Naiad’s MA7 isn’t stellar but it does mean you can build to MA9 if they live long enough and become a reliable one turner (at least as reliable as possible). When you combine that with Juggernaut on the Great Sylph and the control playstyle of the Isha defence, you can steal some 2-1 wins with a turn 8 OTTD!
Spites
Spites are another Isha peculiarity. No other elf team has access to a Stunty positional. Even though they are ST1, Spites make solid low TV linemen. The enemy team will either need to commit players with skills (Block/Tackle) to hitting them or need to roll POWs on the line and it prevents your expensive players from taking those hits. At higher TV they can be used to tie up keep enemy players or harass the enemy ball carrier, until they inevitably die. They don’t have Regeneration, and you don’t have and Apothecary so I do not recommend making a super spite, but they can carry the ball decently well at MA6 AG3+ in a pinch. The two skills listed are the only ones worth keeping, if you randomly roll something else, I recommend firing and hiring a rookie, if you have the gold available.
Great Sylph
The Great Sylph is an interesting players. None of the official elf rosters have a mobile Big Guy so it certainly adds functionality as a blitzing players or a mobile Guard, but it is heavily held back from that second role by having a debilitating negatrait. Unchanneled Fury plus AV9+ means the Sylph will struggle to move around the field without using your precious Blitz and will equally struggle in sustained combat. Regeneration helps keep her coming back, but losing a 160k player for a drive is never fun. There are a few builds depending on the niche you want.
Blodgestep: This build aims to mitigate the Unchanneled Fury requirements and create a tough roadblock for your opponent to deal with. By taking Block and Dodge, at S5 the Sylph becomes a menace to try to take down. Follow that up with Grab and you have a player that can step around a target, then pull it out of the way to set up a Blitz in the following turn. Very expensive, but very good. Taking bonus armour is also worth considering to let her avoid the tragic KO+.
Guard: This build is a cheaper option that focuses around having a sticky (Side Step) Guard player that can continuously harass your opponent trying to break your screens. This build takes only primaries to skill up faster. Juggernaut is used to get her into position with her Blitz as well as provide OTTD support against Stand Firm Teams. Grab helps counteract Side Step and also sets up easy 2 die hits on a target when combined with Guard. Brawler makes the close range punches more reliable.
Sisters of the Thorn
Because of the presence of the Spites to use as line fodder and the Passing skill access on the Sisters, there are very few elves in the game that can be as flexible as the Isha linemen. There are 3 general skills that do not fit into one of the builds above, Dauntless, Pro, Shadowing. Pro is just generally solid and generally worth keeping as a random, Dauntless can be built into a sacker if you have a league where some high strength players need sacking. Only Shadowing is bad out of the general list so I highly recommend rolling randoms with these players unless you have a particular build in mind. The builds below are roughly in the order I would consider as important to have.
Elves benefit greatly from having a source of Kick on the team and Isha even more so with their high amount of Side Step allowing them to set up brutal screens early in a drive. Block and Dodge help keep it alive, but if you have multiple random kicks, you can look to blend this role with another role. Build this role if you randomly hit Kick or Block.
At 60k, Isha have expensive rerolls for an elf team. Leader is a 40k discount on that and can be pretty easily achieved by doing some vanity passes between linemen early in a season. Blodge is to protect the Leader skill. You will probably build this role intentionally, but it goes well with random Block.
Having 2+ Passing linemen was what drew me originally to the team. If you are playing your offense correctly, you shouldn’t really need Pass as you will have rerolls available for the attempt, but it can be extremely useful on defence after a frantic scramble for the ball, having a line elf that can toss the ball to safety is pretty useful. Cannoneer lets you attempt the riskier passes more reliably. Build this direction if you randomly hit Sure Hands.
If you don’t want to use a Naiad for this role, a Sister works perfectly fine with some skills. Wrackle with strip ball virtually ensures that ball is coming out. Build this way if you randomly hit strip ball, wrestle or tackle or if you don’t want to use your Naiads for this position.
Once your Spites have laid their lives down as line fodder, you will start to have to put some Sisters in there to take their place. They are also viable options if you are looking for something slightly more durable to take the hit but just recognize they aren’t cheap. Build this way if you believe Spites deserve respect or if you randomly hit Wrestle or Fend.
This is a rather expensive player to be fouling with but any elf team appreciates some ability to remove enemy players so if you randomly roll dirty player you can build to sneaky get and have a 105k fouling player.
BUILDS
Game 1 Sacrifice
This strategy is adapted from the Norse pig strategy. You take the 4 Spites then fire them after game 1 and play with the 4 Loner Sisters until you have the funds to start hiring the ones that get skills. 3 Rerolls is solid, especially for a team with plenty of P access. You can get 4 if you drop the Slyph for another sister and add some fans.
Faster Start
A better start if you want to be more competitive out of the gate. This gives you Naiads, 2 rerolls and a bench
Faster Start +Big
Same concept as above but you sacrifice the bench to get the Slyph. Big guys are always risky but easy access to Guard is always worth considering for an elf team.
Defensive and Offensive Strategies for Isha
Isha aren’t tough, and they aren’t particularly fast, they don’t have a great variety in their stats and lack widespread strength access. That means they have to lean into their unique aspects to play the game slightly differently than most other teams. More than nearly any other team, Isha wants to play defence first.
Defence
Look to use the classic 2 deep elf screen in the middle of the field to force the opponent to a sideline. Once you have them there leave a pair of screens in front of the formation to keep them in place and use the rest of the team to start applying pressure to the cage/screen. If you can get 2 sidestep bases on one for those key players, Side Step will apply significant passive pressure as any push could lead to an easy sack. Try to look to do this around turn 5-6 as it will be especially difficult for your opponent to both deal with that pressure and find time to score. After about turn 3 or 4 try to leave someone within scoring range, even if it is a Spite, in case you manage to get the sack.
Offence
The other play is similar to the Dark Elf running game where you typically have 3 groups of players. First is your ball carrying group of 5-6 players down one sideline. Next is your centralized group of 1-2 players that has a good throwing player and can have a solid Blitzer to help spring the ball carrier. This group is usually 2-3 squares behind the main group. if the enemy commits to basing them up, and you outspeed them, you can use those players to tie them down as you advance the main effort. The final group is a receiving group similar to the main group on the other sideline with the remaining players. Similarly, if the opponent overcommits to guarding them, they can dodge out and screen off the opposing players to advance the main group. If your opponent overcommits to the main group, you can hand the ball off to one of the line Elves, preferably in the 2nd group and pass it to the other sideline for an easy score. This style of offense gives the opponent many opportunities to make a mistake.
Playbook by Carthage