If you're a regular DailyMetagame.com reader, chances are, this isn't the first article you're reading where I contributed in some way. After all, I did the translation of Christian Pfeiffer's article Thoughts on Playgroups as well as the video content for an iPod Draft Feature of one of my draft decks. Still, I would like to take a minute and introduce myself as I'll have the honor of providing you with some content in a more regular fashion from now on!

My name's Oliver Gehrmann, I tend to call myself "soulwarrior" on message boards around the world and as you might have guessed by now, I'm also a member of Germany's most famous WoW TCG team, the Bootcamp L.E. I had been working for Upper Deck while they still owned the WoW TCG license and did quite a bit of volunteer and promotional work for the game, e.g. doing coverage for some of the bigger events as well as writing weekly columns for Germany's biggest fansite: Warcraft TCG.de. Ever since I left Upper Deck, I focused on playing where I was lucky enough to advance to the Top 8 of 3 bigger tournaments (2 Realm Championships as well as the Darkmoon Faire Amsterdam). This is certainly not the most impressive record (especially compared to those of some of the other guys writing for this site), but considering the various roles I filled in already, I'm hopeful that I can provide you with a rather unique perspective on the WoW TCG every now and then. Alright, enough about me, let's talk about WoW!

When Heroes of Azeroth, the very first expansion of the WoW TCG, was announced more than 5 years ago, quite a few "experts of the TCG industry" thought it might finally be time for Magic to pass on the torch of "The King of TCGs" (depending on how you look at it, Pokémon, which has been the best sold TCG in retail for several months during the past few years and which seems like it's indestructable; or Yu-Gi-Oh!, which has been the best sold TCG overall more often than not and which survived almost a full year without any sort of high level OP in this part of the world might also hold that torch). After several print runs of Heroes of Azeroth had been sold out completely, everything looked like those predictions would come true after all. Then Through The Dark Portal happened and ever since, all you heard from experts was something along the lines of "it's only a matter of time until the WoW TCG will stop being distributed." Well, things didn't turn out that bad, after all. This game survived a switch in distribution as well. In fact, it's going stronger than ever in quite a few countries (this includes the US) ever since Cryptzoic took over! But I digress...

The reason for the early positive predictions lies in the fact that the game is based on the most successful MMO of our time: World of Warcraft. Looking at things from Cryptozoic's perspective, there are 12 million (!) possible customers out there; all that needs to be done is to convert them to the Dark Side of the... err... the Trading Card Game.

However, things turned out to be a little less easy than expected. There are WoW players out there who think of the TCG only as a "rip-off", as yet another way of milking the big cow that is World of Warcraft. As we all know, those guys are wrong. The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game is a very nice addition to the MMO and it's full of the same flavor, featuring all of the lore, the iconic characters as well as stunning artwork! To convince "MMO only players" of the advantages of the TCG, in my humble opinion, we have to show them all the love that was put into this product!

The easiest way of introducing MMO players to the TCG is demoing the game to them. To accomplish that, we have to make them attend exciting events like Darkmoon Faires, Trade Shows or visit TCG stores full of helpful players to show them firsthand how much fun the TCG can be.

We'll be holding an amazing community event in Leipzig from the 3rd until the 5th of June (yes, you heard that right – we'll be having 3 full days of fun! If you're in the area, check out our Player Package and learn a little more about the event). Here's our very own take of proving to MMO players how much flavor made its way into the TCG: We promoted 5 of our members to Roaming Minions. They're a little like "Bounty Players", so if they (ever) get beaten, they'll drop some cool prizes.

Anyway, each of them will represent a different Dragon Aspect that was introduced with the Cataclysm block. This means one of them will represent [Kalecgos], another one [Alexstrasza the Life-Binder], and so on. Maybe this doesn't sound that appealing to you, but believe me when I say there are quite a few MMO players out there really digging this kind of stuff. And we're simply trying to cater to them.

So our first goal is getting MMO players hooked on the idea that the TCG stays true to World of Warcraft's roots. The next step is showing them some examples of the transition of elements from the MMO that they are familiar with to the TCG. This is where it finally gets interesting for all you "TCG only players" out there, as we'll be talking decks now! Without further ado (about time after more than 900 words for an introduction), here's our take on a deck revolving around [Ysera the Dreamer] as well as some of the Green Dragonkin:

Hero: [Shaii, Strategist Supreme]

Master Heroes: 2

2 [Ysera the Dreamer]

Allies: 33

4 [Swift Nightsaber]

3 [Mikael the Blunt]

4 [Hemet Nesingwary]

3 [Koeus]

4 [Emerald Tree Warden]

3 [Emerald Lifewarden]

4 [Emerald Emissary]

4 [Gromble the Apt]

2 [Buzz]

2 [Eranikus]

Spells: 11

4 [Tuskarr Kite]

4 [Aspect of the Wild]

3 [Avatar of the Wild]

Resources: 14

4 [Corruption of Earth and Seed]

4 [Proving Grounds]

2 [Darkness Calling]

4 [Rise and Be Recognized]

The Green Dragonkin are the keepers of the Emerald Dream and the protectors of nature. Just like everything in nature needs some ground to grow, you need your resource row in the TCG to play cards. Not surprinsingly, the Green Dragonkin are also rather fond of Druids who try to accomplish the same thing, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that they trigger off you placing cards there.

To showcase the concept of a "typical Green deck", we picked a Hunter deck (instead of picking the easy way of running a Druid deck that ramps all the way up to [Ysera the Dreamer] with the help of [No Mere Dream]). With [Gromble the Apt] as well as [Hemet Nesingwary], we can turn our hero or hunters ([Hemet Nesingwary] and [Gromble the Apt]) into additional resources in order to bring out some of the more expensive a little earlier than usual.

Additionally, both hunters work well together with the Green Dragonkin in our deck. If you have [Swift Nightsaber] as well as [Hemet Nesingwary] on the field, you can pull of quite a big turn 4: Exhaust your hero, [Hemet Nesingwary] and one of your resources to invite [Emerald Tree Warden] into your party. Stash [Emerald Lifewarden] to draw a card off [Emerald Tree Warden], ready your hero (your mount's power) and use your hero together with your 3 remaining resources to bring out [Emerald Emissary]. Now, all your quests will be 3times cheaper than usual, so you can complete most of them for free and refill your hand thanks to [Emerald Tree Warden].

This could allow you to play a second copy of [Emerald Lifewarden] and place one of the many cards in your hand as an additional resource. Alternatively, you can bring out [Eranikus] so he will net you some extra resources. Or simply play [Aspect of the Wild] and start to beatdown your opponent with gigantic dragons!

I know the deck might not be considered Tier 1, however, it nicely showcases that there is quite some room for flavor in the Trading Card Game. I hope some of you got the hang of converting MMO players to the TCG and feel like running some cool tournaments in your local store as well. If you have some cool ideas of your own, let us know in the feedback thread so we can increase the playerbase in all participating communities!

We also built some creative decks revolving around the Red, Blue and Bronze Dragonkin which I'll introduce to you next time! Until then, take care and maybe see you at the Triple Play V in Leipzig!

- Oliver Gehrmann - soulwarrior@soulwarrior.net