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Tripp Allen

"Vylokx, I banish you back to whence you came! Begone, demon! The power of Clamps compels you! The power of Clamps compels you!"

Sounds of tortured screams, cracking whips, and auto-tuned Rebecca Black "Friday" blaring from Hell's PA system assault my ears as a gateway to a fiery dimension is ripped from the fabric of reality in front of me. I can smell the sulfurous fumes and slight hint of rotting banana as I chant. I have to concentrate, as one slip of the tongue, and my exorcism will go awry.

"The power of Clamps compels you! The clower of Plamps com...pel...aww, shucks."

And just like that, the horrific sounds of Rebecca Black turned into the rhythmic beat of a Salsa. The smell of sulfur turned to one of ocean breeze and delectable scents of spicy food. Wait, this wasn't Purgatory...this was Puerto Rico! Vylokx smiled at me, stepped through the portal, and turned to face me.

"I'll be back, Tripp. I'll be back...but since you 'banished' me to Puerto Rico, I might as well enjoy myself for a while. Yes, I think a vacation is definitely in order. Toodles, Hasta La Vista, and Viva Los Demonios!"

With a final wave goodbye, the gateway closed and Vylokx/Jaron Tomsky was "banished" for a month's vacation to the fiery pit of Puerto Rico.

I blundered pretty badly on that particular exorcism and as my penance, Father Rosenberg has tasked me to take over the Tier Fun column until Vylokx sees fit to return from my botched banishment of him to a Puerto Rican Paradise. It...it might be a while. In the meantime, welcome. Welcome to another edition of Tier Fun.

In case you happened to miss it, sneak previews for the new Battle of the Aspects Raid treasure packs are finding their way onto the site. The herald of great things to come began with a look at Thrall the World-Shaman in Drew Walker's article.

I can't remember the last time I was so excited about a card that came out of a treasure pack. Oh, wait, yes I do. It was a gold-bordered ally just like this one. It had a bunch of text on it just like this one. It had a pretty awesome enters-play ability. I am, of course, talking about Windshear Totem.

What? You seem surprised.

Being a Shaman fanboy, the new Thrall ally that Drew previewed really got my adrenaline flowing for building a Core Constructed deck. He seems like a shoe-in for a Shaman deck combined with Force of Earth and Bottled Elements, but I bet you've already thought of that yourself. It'd be a pretty boring article to go with the most obvious cards, so instead I'm going to take this in a slightly different direction: Druid. If Force of Earth is good, then Gift of the Earthmother is even more gooderister. Making him a 9/10 on turn 4 is just bonkers. I also like Druid because it has plenty of instant-speed answers to everyone's favorite Hunter pet, Boomer. Nature's Focus and Wild Wrath can both stop the sonic screecher from killing off our turn 3 Thrall.

Innervate is an automatic four-of in any Druid deck I build these days. For Druid, it's like the Tuskarr Kite once was...an automatic four-of before the rest of the list is even hashed out. With card draw being at a premium for pretty much every class but Mage, it's hard to turn down.

I wanted some other cards that would work well on their own, but would also compliment the overall strategy. To this end, I added in Darkstalker Soran and Aggra. Both have the capability of being hard to kill due to Elusive, as well as get even scarier if Gift of the Earthmother is attached to them.

It's hard to play Druid and not want to try and accelerate resources. Davius, Herald of Nature and Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage help bring the end-game a turn or two closer. Acceleration needs a reason to exist and I can think of no better reason than to create the very surreal situation of having our hero become Thrall the Earth-Warder, looking at the Thrall the World-Shaman ally version of himself on the board and high-fiving one another. An accelerated Avatar of the Wild can single-handedly end a game as well.

As crazy as it seems, the Snobocop combo of Crime Scene Alarm-O-Bot and Winter Veil Disguise Kit seems to fit in nicely. With so many great allies that we want to keep alive, even if the Bot isn't on the table, the disguise kit can keep allies from trading into our Thrall before he has a chance to do some serious damage.

Resources have been chosen with the idea of versatility in mind. I want ways to keep my opponent off their game, so Signed in Blood is a three-of for flipping Shadowfang Keep, Twilight Citadel, or Leader of the Pack. As Hyjal Burns is one of my favorite quests as of late. It's also a three-of, as I won't want to complete it until mid-game when I'm ready to dig for whichever card is needed. Nordrassil, the World Tree finishes off the resource count and acts as a versatile way of healing a hero or ally, accelerating resources, or just spending that one extra resource in order to make Bronze Drakonid trigger its comes into play effect to give Thrall the World-Shaman another chance to ready and attack again, or ready one of our other "Gifted" allies to clobber an opponent.

With all that in mind, here's the decklist in its entirety.

Hero: Wildseer Varel

Master Hero: 2
2 Thrall the Earth-Warder

Allies: 25
3 Aggra
3 Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage
3 Bronze Drakonid
4 Crime Scene Alarm-O-Bot
4 Darkstalker Soran
4 Davius, Herald of Nature
4 Thrall the World-Shaman

Abilities: 19
4 Avatar of the Wild
4 Gift of the Earthmother
4 Innervate
4 Nature's Focus
3 Wild Wrath

Equipment: 4
4 Winter Veil Disguise Kit

Locations: 4
4 Nordrassil, the World Tree

Quests: 6
3 As Hyjal Burns
3 Signed in Blood

What do you think? Can Druid safely go without equipment and ability destruction in a deck such as this, or are there reasons to cut some of the offensive capabilities in order to play it a bit safer? Share your thoughts on the forums and brew along with me.

-Tripp Allen

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