Articles

 

It is precisely one of these interesting puzzles that I wanted to present everyone with today. When you open a sealed pool, you generally have 2 primary choices to make: what faction will this deck be, and what class. Sometimes, the cards in front of you make the choice for you, either because one faction or another has serious holes in the curve or because you opened a bomb of a specific class/faction that you are dead set on wanting to play. When you open King Genn, you should play Alliance.

 

While it is exciting to open a bomb since having one increases your chances of finishing well in your tournament, the deck building phase really loses out on a lot of its fun. Accordingly, when picking a pool for this article, I chose not to write about the first set of 6 packs that I cracked, which contained, among other things, King Genn, Aileen the Thunderblessed, Abracadaver, Lockjaw, a suite of other Druid abilities, and a solid of curve of playable Alliance allies. Fearsome though he may be, no one wants to read about Arturius Hathrow week in and week out.

 

So without further ado, this is the sorted result of the second set of 6 packs. I have organized the cards by type (ally, ability, equipment, quest) and then further sorted them by cost and class, to make assessing the pool easier.

 

 

The Sealed Pool

 

 

 

Initial Observations

 

The first thing I look for while sorting a sealed pool is whether it has any true bombs. Alas (or perhaps excitingly!), this pool lacks any outright game changers. The cards that stand out to me are Abracadaver, The Venerable Mass of McGowan, and Ysera the Dreamer, with honorable mentions to Chains of Ice (assuming that the pool also has a playable disease) and Lockjaw.

 

Next, let’s take a look at the ally curves by faction, to see how things are panning out. Looking just at the curves in abstention, the Alliance looks more front loaded with lots of early drops and practically no large men, while the Horde looks a bit sluggish early with a higher top end. The neutral allies help to fill in some of these gaps, though, so we have to dig deeper to assess the relative power and synergy of the allies themselves before making a faction decision.

 

Generally, I start by looking at the Alliance because prefer them in Worldbreaker limited by a pretty strong margin, though the details of why are too extensive to go into here (and also the subject of a forthcoming article!). The low drops are solid enough, with the foundations of a reasonable rush deck present. The three-drop spot is a bit light, though those that exist are strong, but the pool tapers off a bit from here. Andrew Ulric, Aresha Thorncaller, and Marius Jator are all good, but the rest of the allies are a bit sub par. None of the Alliance allies can remove opposing abilities or equipment, either, which means that this capability would have to come from any chosen class, or simply be a gap in the deck’s capabilities. As I generally prefer to have the capacity to destroy at least one if not both of such troublesome card types, this is a strike against this blue team.

 

On the Horde side, things seem to be shaping up for a more controlling strategy, with a variety of protectors and a higher concentration of more expensive drops. Their early game is light, but what is there is good. Telor Sunsurge is a great one drop, as he both survives early 2-1s as well as comes down to shield important allies late game on the cheap. Kloxx Dedrix is also a little fellow that has gotten some press (notably from Scott Landis in an article on this side a few weeks ago), as his ability to come down in the mid game to thrown off combat plans is noteworthy. At the three- to four-drop slot, though, is where this Horde pool picks up steam. Guardian Steelhoof and Mahna Lightsky are some of the Horde’s best protectors, with solid cost-to-stats ratios and the ever-powerful Nature Resistance, respectively. Having doubles of both is enticing. The Horde ally suite also has both Cadon Thundershade and Drizzie Steelslam, their ally-based answers to abilities and equipment. Right now, I am leaning red.

 

Lastly, I take a look through the quests, and thankfully this pool seems to have a solid set. There are at least 4-5 quests that I would happily play in any deck, with A Matter of Time, Challenge to the Black Flight, and The Essence of Enmity leading the pack. This deck is unlikely to be starved for cards. I also make note of the fact that the pool has The Torch of Retribution, as I always like to run at least one reshuffling effect to guard against decking myself if the game goes long.

 

 

Breaking It Down and Building It Out

 

A common mantra in limited formats is “play your power cards.” Accordingly, I would like to include at least some of this pool’s headliners, so I look for classes that can use multiples of them. Death Knights can play both the Mass and Chains of Ice. Druids and Priests can both use Abracadaver and Lockjaw, and anyone could use Ysera.

 

The Mass is a very efficient weapon by itself, and with a single stashed Heirloom, it becomes a force that mandates an answer. A quick scan of the pool turns up one Heirloom, the Dread Pirate Ring, which is passably playable in its own right and the perfect Stash combo with the Mass, as it returns to your hand when you use it, allowing you to play it without fear if you have not drawn your mace yet. While it does not add Heirloom counters, the Polished Breastplate of Valor can also stash to make the Mass bigger (in general, as well, not just versus allies), so playing a Death Knight that can make use of all 3 cards is looking attractive.

 

Abracadaver is a bit of a quirky card. It has an incremental effect, providing a small advantage every turn that takes a while to pay off the initial resource investment. It can have a potent impact on a game, but given that you have to spend 1 resource to keep every token around past the first turn, it generally seems better than it plays, in my experience. It is not possible to play the Mass and Abracadaver, and as the Mass has good support, I am leaning away from casters for this pool.

 

While the power of the Mass is apparent, Ysera is a bit more of a situational card. On the surface, she has sincere game winning potential, granting 10-15 bonus health (depending on your class), a static 3 ATK damage, a recurrent Mend 3, and an extra card draw per turn to boot. She also costs a fortune, does not ostensibly win the game outright like Kel’Thuzad. As getting to turn 10 can be a feat in its own right in limited, let alone getting there while rowing every turn, Ysera is a bit of a mixed bag; powerful but hard to use.

 

In short, Ysera can be good, but only in the right deck. Let’s see if this pool has what it takes to support her. First and foremost, Ysera needs to have a reshuffle effect, preferably 2. Just making it to turn 10 or 11, while rowing regularly, will take a fair amount of card draw, you are likely to be behind your opponent in cards remaining by the time she and her draw 2 power come online. The last thing you want to have happen is to survive to turn 10, take control of the game with your master hero, and then lose because you cannot draw any more cards. Fortunately, this pool has The Torch of Retribution, so it should be covered there. Ideally, I would like a second copy, or a similar effect such as Emerald Acidspewer, but one is enough.

 

With the bare minimum requirements covered, Ysera will also need a more controlling deck to ensure that it will regularly make it to the late game with enough cards to both row and not be overrun, while still ensuring that you can draw Ysera to play her. Controlling limited builds need 3 things to be effective in my mind: protectors, ways to remove opposing abilities and equipment, and sufficient efficient card draw (removal goes without saying, as all decks want it). A means to heal is also plus. This pool was already leaning towards Horde, which had a more controlling suite of allies, complete with multiple protectors and ways to handle abilities and equipment. Playing Death Knight would give the deck access to both a reasonable suite of removal in Black Blood, Grip of the Damned, and Withering Shout, as well as both prevention via armor and some healing through Ayaka Winterhoof’s flip. Ysera seems like a go.

 

 

The Final Build

 

With all this in mind, this is the build as I made it:

 

Hero: Ayaka Winterhoof

 

1 Kloxx Dedrix

1 Telor Sunsurge

1 Grazzle Grubhook

2 Emerald Soldier

2 Guardian Steelhoof

1 Oruk Starstorm

1 Emerald Tree Warder

2 Mahna Lightsky

1 Cadon Thundershade

1 Jezziki Shinebog

1 Drizzie Steelslam

1 Vala Carville

1 Ruby Blazewing

 

1 Chains of Ice

1 Grip of the Damned

1 Withering Decay

1 Black Blood

1 Dread Pirate Ring

1 Venerable Mass of McGowan

1 Polished Breastplate of Valor

 

1 Ysera the Dreamer

 

1 What’s Haunting Witch Hill?

1 Challenge to the Black Flight

1 The Grimtotem Weapon

1 The Essence of Enmity

1 A Matter of Time

1 The Torch of Retribution

 

There were a few tricky choices and cuts to make, notably not including Blood Chill, Zerzu, Traxel Emberklik and Zulbraka. Blood Chill would have been another disease to both search out with Chains of Ice if Withering Decay is already in your hand or in play (even if you just row it), and the potential additional healing from the flip every turn would have been nice. The other allies are all playable, but simply overshadowed by others at their slot for the most part in this build.

 

One last wrinkle would have been to try the deck as Druid, in Alliance, as the Druid abilities are solid, and they can use both Abracadaver and Lockjaw, with that beautiful beautiful flip. I felt that this ignored too many powerful Death Knight playable cards, though, as well as the superior ally suite. I would welcome any feedback any comments on the forums. I found this build to be a bit tricky, and I am sure that it could be improved. I love discussing builds with others, to try to arrive on what the “right” build should be. Until next week!

 

David Bodimer is an avid player of both the WoW TCG and the MMO.  When not traveling for work  or to compete in Darkmoon Faires, he can often be found raiding with his guild from his Chicago condo.

 

Discuss this article on the WoWTCG.com Forums!