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Tripp Allen

Greetings to you, my fellow denizens of death, decay, and Dairy Queen Dual Wielding (See Dan Clark's Deep South Adventure Blog for more on this new Keyword he's championing for inclusion in an upcoming set).

This week, I want to bring some focus on how Death Knight will fare in the shift from Core Constructed to Block Constructed. It is not for the faint of heart. The class loses the vast majority of abilities, equipment, and location that has kept the class strong for quite a while. Twilight Citadel and Etched Dragonbone Girdle can no longer provide a never-ending supply of card draw to a class that is otherwise reliant on quests in order to fill up your hand. Gone are the days of including silver-bullet diseases as one-ofs in the deck and using Chains of Ice to search them out. Both Chains, and the diseases we would want to play, are all gone. With Girdle going out, it takes Obsidian Drudge, Obsidian Drakonid, and Bronze Warden with it to be relegated to stories of "Back in my day, Death Knight had card draw and efficient equipment/ability removal all at once."

The Horseman's Horrific Helm also takes a vacation when considering Block format.

Does this make Death Knight a non-contender when it comes to the upcoming Block Constructed events at Darkmoon Faire: Indianapolis and State Championships? No. I wasn't willing to dismiss this death-dealing class completely out of hand without at least seeing what might have been gained as strengths at the same time.

I think that the biggest thing to note in Block is that Death Knight is now the ONLY class capable of making a 3/3 ally on turn 2. Boomer is no more and the lack of Cairne and Magni being Stashed for a guaranteed Shadowfang Keep acceleration leaves Death Knight as the sole contender for setting the tempo of how allies might trade into one another. Raise the Dead and Ghoulmaster Kalisa's flip are now the only two ways of getting a 3/3 ally on the board this early. While many other allies come close or have an ability that makes their shortcomings well-worth it, they all have restrictions like Fossilized Hatchling or Jadefire Scout, or work well only in a certain class such as Warlock's Bazul, Herald of the Fel. For pure versatility, Death Knight's 3/3 Ghoul on turn 2 is going to be a star player.

Our pals Obsidian Drudge and Obsidian Drakonid are both a bane and blessing all at once. Equipment has suddenly become harder to kill within Block format. Jeishal and Gilblin Plunderer will see some play, but the mirror match of "never-ending Obsidian destruction" has ended. Death Knight may have lost the Horseman's Helm, but I think there are other bits and pieces that can pick up the slack.

The format has slowed down just a bit due to Grand Crusader losing Dagax the Butcher, Babagahnoosh the Grumpy, and Rosalyne von Erantor. Hunter is still more than capable of running all over an unprepared opponent, but they won't be doing so on the backs of weedy Nature allies like Garet Vice, Loriam Argos, Boomer, and a timely Aspect of the Wild. With this in mind, I think it is safe to try and build a deck that seems to ignore some of the initial threats in order to build into a stronger mid and late game.

Another reason to try Death Knight in an equipment-based deck is Thieving Little Pluckers for (relatively) efficient card draw along with Nadina the Red's ability to net an extra card or two as you sit behind a wall of armor.

Here's an initial starting point to get you thinking about what might be possible with a new generation of Death Knight decks. It will certainly be heading in a far different direction than the Monster Death Knight control of Core. I wanted to start out as Horde simply due to the Hero flip. Rather than having to look for a Raise the Dead in the opening hand, as long as we have an ally in hand to discard, our turn 2 play is a guaranteed 3/3 ally. That not only frees up 4 slots in the deck by not including Raise the Dead, but lets me build around the idea of knowing in advance what I'll be doing on turn 2 and building around that area of the curve.

Hero: Ghoulmaster Kalisa

Master Hero: 2
2 Thrall the Earth-Warder

Allies: 18
4 Alethia Brightsong
3 Deathguard Ashleigh
3 Farseer Nobundo
4 Jex'ali|
4 Nadina the Red

Abilities: 4
4 Blood Parasite

Equipment: 23
2 Belt of Absolute Zero
4 Gravitational Pull
1 Phantom Armor
2 Rock Furrow Boots
3 Bottled Death
3 Winter Veil Disguise Kit
4 Blackout Truncheon
4 Sorrow's End

Locations: 2
2 Throne of the Tides

Quests: 11
2 As Hyjal Burns
4 Seeds of Their Demise
1 Signed in Blood
4 Thieving Little Pluckers

Now, for some discussion on a few of these picks.

The one-ofs look very odd, but one of the most important things I learned from the NACC this year was that there are times where one is all you ever want to see during a game...even for some very powerful cards. This held true in the Vegas Crew build of Viewless Hunter that played a single copy of both Fordragon Hold and Aspect of the Wild. Ben "Chitter" Isgur also has had some success recently with his one-of inclusions in the deck he piloted at the EUCC.

In this particular DK build, I wanted to include Signed in Blood, but never wanted to be in top-deck mode and draw into it when I really needed something else. Being able to throw someone off their plan by flipping a quest or location after their hand is expended can be of great benefit. If I draw it early, it might make them think twice about what they row for the turn, as they may assume that I'm running upwards of three copies in the deck rather than just one. If I draw it late, I should already have gained a little bit of extra card draw and/or delve so that it won't be the dire make-or-break situation.

Same goes for Phantom Armor. This allows you to stave off Edwin VanCleef, some of the big swings that Solo Rogue is capable of, General Husam, Lockmaw, and a few other sources of Melee damage that I expect to see quite often in Block...but because there are so many other threats that deal Shadow and Nature damage, I don't want to draw into multiple copies of what might be a completely dead card.

I'm wanting to win through swinging for the fences with a buffed-up Sorrow's End. To help enable this, I'm packing 16 three cost cards and enough Delve to dig deep whenever I hit an awkward situation. With all that Delve, as well as playing with the top card revealed, Farseer Nobundo goes from being a 50/50 shot at drawing an extra card to a guarantee.

Adding to the theme of making our equipment the centerpiece of the deck, I'm including the vanity card Deathguard Ashleigh. Cost-reduction along with the other perks of having 7 health make her an interesting choice for this deck. 

If the game goes long enough to get to ten resources, I'm using my ability to turn any hero into my favorite class of Shaman, Thrall the Earth-Warder. The tokens he can generate give our late game a little more survivability with Blood Parasite healing.

Winter Veil Disguise Kit is a gamble. With so much equipment, an opponent might be tempted to play a Miniature Voodoo Mask too early and name an armor or weapon. The ability to use armor to keep damage off our hero and simultaneously make Nadina the Red or Farseer Nobundo immune to most opposing allies seems like a good way to gain card advantage. I'm certainly wanting to try it out and see if the reality lives up to the theory.

Finally, and probably the most glaring omission: Daedak the Graveborne is not in the deck. Should he be? Yes, more than likely he should. Every once in a while though, I feel like you've gotta step away from the cards that seem like an auto-include and try out some new ideas. In this case, "Gimmeback Daedak" was swapped out to see if Deathguard Ashleigh might actually be better in this sort of deck.

The same can be said for Edwin VanCleef. The tokens he generates have synergy with Blood Parasite and he's arguably one of the best four drops available. The reason I haven't included him: he doesn't survive a turn 4 Boundless Hellfire. All of my four drop allies can. Whether this is a relevant decision or not has yet to be seen...but I, like most of you who have turned your sights on building a Block deck, probably have a wicked little Warlock build tucked away for your Gauntlet testing.

If you have suggestions on tweaks, or happen to sleeve this up and give it a spin, please let me know how you fare by discussing it in the forums!

- Tripp Allen

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