What are the best Magic Lores for Warhammer 8th Edition?

Probably should differentiate between High (Lizardmen) and High (High Elves) as the Lore attribute is very idfferent between the two.

Death and Shadow are my #1 and #2 respectively.

Death simply because Purple Sun exists; it's the sole spell that people use to justify how "broken" the magic system is in 8th edition. I'm partially inclined to agree with them, however I think that if people are going to take a low I army and play it the same way they would if that spell didn't exist (death star basically) then they deserve what's coming to them. They'll counter that if a single spell makes you change up your list and play differently then that spell is too OP. I say that they need to git gud.

Shadow because it has a lot of good general use spells that work across a large variety of armies.

I also chose life HOWEVER it's only good for a lvl 4 as they can get access to enough spells that they're almost guaranteed throne of vines which is needed to make that lore REALLY shine. Dwellers is another spell that people use to claim how OP magic is in this game. Their gripes are largely countered if you just allow for a LoS! against the hit and/or magic resistance against the damage.

Those are the big 3; my other choices were Dark Magic and High Magic. Both of those lores have some truly nasty combinations with either their lore attribute (ward saves for the unit the mage is bunkered in is nasty) or combination of spells/augments available to them. Dark Magic has some nasty nasty hexes in it and being on the receving end of either of those magic lores when you either have no lvl4 or have burned all your DD and they have 6-8 dice left is a truly hopeless feeling.

As my knowledge is so far insufficient and only consist of a few lores, my thoughts might lack bearing . I liked life with my Wood Elves. Have not tried anything else there yet and dont think I have even managed a single dwellers... Struggling with Tzeentch with WoC to make it count but have potential but veeeeeery random. I like fireball on a level one as it's such a flexible no matter numbering of dice you get. And of course, spamming purple sun is pretty good with death . Nurgle I am a little bit mixed about so far need to try it more.

Don't know the name of the Skaven lores and OnG but they both feel pretty strong. But it might be my opponents knowledge of his lores always been higher than my understanding of the lore I bring.

I just put life, death and shadow. Shadow as it’s the one I love to use (and for that reason am now refusing to take it to force myself to use something else). I’ve had death and life used against me loads and have learnt to loath them. Although, honestly, Life isn’t too bad to face as long as you always dispel ToV.

I think it depends on role in a particular list and the army it is supporting. Shadow is very good with ASF dark elves and their ability to roll as many dice as they wish to ensure they get off the mindrazor. With say witch elves or spear elves you can easily delete entire units (most other Big six spells cause massive damage but won’t take the unit off the table.). The lack of direct damage by and large wasn’t an issue in a list with lots of missive weapons and mobile units.

On the other hand for my chaos warriors I found death and fire most useful as they gave the list some ability to project force.

Life with a cold blooded stubborn templeguard unit was good.

I did include a "Other" option for something that I might have missed like the Lore of Hashut. You can vote for it there if you want.

Lore of the Little Waaagh and overpowering......not to words/phrases that are often seen in the same sentence. Lol!