Greetings from Hawaii, the most superAwesome state not in the contiguous 48 (sorry Alaska). I'll be the second random forum poster to be offering myself up on the skillet here at DMG, with what I feel is a very potent deck from endless testing on MWS. I was not going to write this article for a few reasons, but apparently this deck has been copied by multiple people (I won't name publicly, and one I only know by MWS name anyway) with the intent on using it, so I'm asking Mike Rosenberg to post this after States / euro qualifiers, at the conclusion of which I'm sure it will be all over the net. As I live in Hawaii and am unlikely to go to DMF Philly, all you people who are using some variation of this deck are safe until after September 17th or thereabouts.

Bit of backstory, I started playing WOW TCG again around the time Worldbreaker came out, maining Horde Death Wish control, with a few edits. I really liked the list, especially against the popular Spider Solitaire decks which were rampant on MWS, but the only deck I could not beat was Jeremiah Karvok, or StuLock as it's known. It is a very tempo oriented deck with great hand and board control, and is widely seen as probably the best core deck in the format. The problem I continually ran into was a lack of draw: [Darkness Calling] just cannot compete against [Tuskarr Kite]. He would continually draw answers while I eventually ran out of cards and life, although occasionally [Kel'Thuzad] would save me (possibly Karvok's only weakness).

Enter Twilight of the Dragons and [Twilight Citadel]. Here was the answer to draw problems, with the now infamous Girdle / Citadel combo. Add in ability removal that warriors have famously lacked in core, and I figured Warriors might be dominant again in the competitive scene. Looking through the rest of the list, i noticed a lot more synergy there with destruction effects and Dragonkin, and my core list kept having more Twilight cards creep in.

Then Cryptozoic announced the Block format, and how Core would be reduced to two blocks instead of three. I liked this for a lot of reasons: I was pretty familiar with the more recent cards, and I didn't have a full playset of [Broderick Langforth]s. The day Block was announced, I set out to make a competitive Block deck based on Warrior, and after a few evolutions here is the current list; testing has proved it to be dominant against many of the currently popular decks, including Blue Warlock, Blue Hunter, Fire Rush, Nature Shaman, and the like. Against other Girdle decks the testing was a little unclear, since 90% of all Girdle matches are Girdle uptime and the timing of Drudge draws, but I'm confident that this deck can take any and all comers and come out on top.

With that said, I present the SuperAwesome Card Advantage Control Warrior deck (I have no shame). or more simply, the SUPERMAN DECK(tm):

Hero: [Gurzak of Orgrimmar]

Allies: 27

3 [Obsidian Drakonid]

4 [Obsidian Drudge]

4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]

4 [Timriv the Enforcer]

2 [Bronze Warden]

4 [Bronze Drake]

4 [Sinestra]

2 [Orkahn of Orgrimmar]

Abilities: 13

4 [Heroic Leap]

3 [Shockwave]

3 [Darkmoon Card: Hurricane]

3 [Chaotic Rush]

Equipment: 11

3 [Scimitar of the Sirocco]

4 [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]

4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]

Locations: 4

4 [Twilight Citadel]

Quests: 5

2 [The Grimtotem Weapon]

3 [The Last of her Kind]

A lot of this deck is somewhat self apparent, and is built around three key cards: Shalug'doom, Timriv, and Etched Girdle. The esteemed Stuart Wright (remember him? multiple top 8 finisher, 1st place DMF some city, none of which is in his damn forum signature) said once that "to build the best deck, find the best cards and build around those." Shalugdoom and Etched Girdle are, in my opinion, three of the best in Worldbreaker Block, and the synergy this deck has is frankly ridiculous. Avatar of the Wild, Dagax, and Magni/Cairne are the other "best cards", but you hardly build around those ... or do you? Stay tuned for my next deck article.

Shalug'doom is the earliest and best answer to rush of any type, and in block, it cannot be removed by any rush decks until at least turn 3, giving you time to gain board presence. It's also very important to note that since Shalug'doom is free to play and free to swing, early card disadvantage (the cards you sac to power it, or preferably tokens, heh heh) becomes very important tempo advantage, because you now have free damage every turn early in the game, and can spend your resources on board presence of your own, or leave open to respond to your opponent. [Sinestra] follows naturally from Shalug'doom as a potent finisher, and [Chaotic Rush] serves triple purpose as fuel for Sinestra, an answer to protectors, and a lock for Ferocity reliant decks (particularly other Scimitar and Sinestra decks).

[Bronze Drake] and [Bronze Warden] are excellent anti rush cards which are eminently Girdle-able next turn if they survive. You might question why I value Bronze Drake over Bronze Warden, and I can answer in two words: [Windspeaker Nuvu]. Nuvu is on very short list of early cards that must be removed as early as possible, the others being [Rosalyne von Erantor], [Exxi the Windshaper], and [Boomer]. Removal is king over stall simply because small threats, particularly nature ones, have the annoying tendency to become very large OMG-mah-face threats around turn three. The real genius of Shalug'doom is Bronze Drake + Shalug'doom = dead Nuvu, and the next turn you can flip Gurzak and kill Boomer or Exxi as well. That's two cards for their one, and although you are down some life, you are down way less then if they had survived all the way up until [Aspect of the Wild], [Primal Strike] plus Crul'corak, or, god forbid, [Gift of the Earthmother]. Repeat after me: Nuvu bad. No Nuvu, good.

Etched Girdle is obviously the draw engine, and Citadel is an automatic inclusion with it. Obsidian Drakonid and Drudge are equipment and ability removal, and are also obvious inclusions with Citadel (free Twilight tokens) and Girdle (absurd draw). Nothing generates card advantage like destroying a token to destroy an equipment or ability AND draw two cards. Orkahn fits nicely into this as well: pay four, get a 3/4 protector, and draw an equipment from your graveyard, probably Girdle. Orkahn is also useful for baiting out opposing Drudges: play a girdle, kill their drudge, and return your girdle to play. Not much else to say about girdle that hasn't been beaten to death already.

You will notice almost every card in the deck is catered towards card advantage in one way or another. This card advantage is so potent that I have won games without drawing a single card more than my opponent (sometimes by up to 6 cards less). That leads up to the last key part of this, Timriv. Timriv allows all my undercurve allies to trade up, and turns cards like [Darkmoon Card: Hurricane] and [Heroic Leap] into huge SuperAwesomeCardAdvantage board wipers. Many players will be very leery of Citadel tokens lounging about, since they can interact with a freshly played Obsidian, doubling up on their usefulness. Timriv gleefully punishes people who like to remove your tokens with their own allies. Its doubly bad for them, because even if they do not, the token can just run themselves into big fatties (King Genn, Al'akir, that 12/12 Jhuunash your opponent just played, /cackle). I'm not gonna lie, my shorts get tight when I have tokens alive and Timriv in hand.

The other magical thing about Timriv is that he can get around the keyword Untargetable. For many decks, beefy untargetable allies like Al'akir, Malfurion Stormrage, and Loque mean gg / Player Lost. Not so for this deck. Timriv, his gaze cast heroically to the heavens, will stoically remove those nasty threats from their board so long as they have even one point of damage on them. Darkmoon Card: Hurricane is obviously tops for this, but those pesky Aberration allies will need some in the face loving from tokens on your own side, or even a 1 counter Shalug'doom. Yes, having to run face first into a large ally like Al'akir or Genn, or even that 12/12 Jhuunash from before will sting, but removing that threat from your board is almost always preferable in the long run. Sinestra will let you convert any of your permanents into multiple dead opposing allies with Timriv. Even worse, if the opponent has no direct damage or removal, you can virtually lock them out of playing allies with Timriv, Chaotic Rush, and Citadel. Anything they play will be pinged once by a suicidal whelp and then wiped off the board by Timmy's goblin fury. At the worst, he's a 3/3 body you have to run into the opponent 8-10 times for victory.

The last card to talk about is Scimitar. It's a card I included after testing against one particular deck I lost twice in a row to, namely Ayaka Herpes. I did not have the early rush to kill her before a mountain of diseases and self healing did me in. Scimitar adds much needed punch to the deck, and allows your Obsidians to do double duty as ferocious damage dealers. Its particularly nasty with Timriv and Citadel: remove 2 allies from the board for 3 resources. While not as good as it is with Zin'sul, I felt that Scimitar was the best way to speed up the deck, although I would be open to suggestions.

If there is any failing, it is that the quest base included is too small. Several top players have commented that the quest base feels lacking, and I am inclined to agree, but I dont have the balls to cut anything. Quests are a necessary evil of not having a Girdle, but the ones I picked are among the most useful. The Grimtotem Weapon will let you hunt for that key piece of equipment (they're all pretty much key), and Last of her Kind is pretty much pay 3 to draw for a Dragonkin-centric deck like this one.

Some cards that were in previous iterations include:

[Polished Breastplate of Valor] - more fun interaction with Shalug'doom on turn 1, armor is useful.

[Eranikus] - An upcurve Dragonkin with a very useful pseudo draw effect, unfortunately seeing Girdles being rowed eventually broke my heart.

[The Essence of Enmity] - search for that particular Dragonkin you need, or Timriv.

[Sava'gin the Reckless] - more anti rush, possibly a huge kick to the scrotum with Scimitar.

[Perdition's Blade] - good, but interfered with Shalug'doom more than it helped.

[Juggernaut] - good, but more often I played it turn one or two to kill an ally, or it got rowed later.

[Intercept] - also good, but Heroic Leap is better. I did find it odd that Heroic Leap will not damage exhausted characters, but Intercept will.

[Colossus Smash] - was in for about 2 seconds until I realized I didnt have very many ... ANY other 5 ATK allies.

[Crushing Blow] - pretty important for giving you an advantage against other plate decks and Nature Shaman, but ultimately cut. Possibly include it depending on your meta.

[Azami'tal the Flamebender] - another possible inclusion, mostly against other plate classes (bye-bye Scimitar), but given the huge amount of Death Rattle type effects in play might be worth it. Mostly used to punish early drudges.

[Challenge to the Black Flight] - a great quest, but often in testing I found I either didn't need it or couldn't use it.

[Bronze Guardian] - the other possible in there, most times i felt the draw was just not necessary and my resources were better spent being more proactive.

[Blackout] - card advantage and deals with Citadel, but the problem is Girdle, so eventually this got cut.

[Akirus the Worm-breaker] - obvious synergy with Girdle, but often it put too many of your eggs in one basket. Hammer of Justice followed by Drudge is a rather painful setback after you destroyed all your own dragonkin to power it.

Any deck that revolves around turning allies sideways will hate this deck, and that is the overwhelming majority of decks in the format. A Polish player with a Blue Hunter decklist came back with an edited copy of the Superman deck after losing to it twice in a row. He also cheerfully agreed to slap Stu in the face for me in payment (jokingly, I'm sure, I love you now stu 8D, we coo). Decks I have run into that gave me serious problems during testing were mostly other plate classes due to randomness of draws, and the odd Rogue with anti-plate. I had several very fun games against a member of Team Rampage (whose name and forum name I can't remember) who was playing an anti-plate Rogue. The games were very close: Steal Steel is very annoying. Other than decks that overwhelmingly outdraw you, you have the advantage.

By far the hardest thing about playing this deck is figuring out what to row. The card I row most often is Obsidian Drakonid, simply because there aren't as many threatening abilities out there. Late game Bronze Drakes frequently get rowed (the one thing Bronze Wardens have over them is late game viability), as do extra Girdles against most aggro decks. Other than obvious rows like extra Scimitars, every turn you are questless is like Sophie's choice: which answer goes up the stack? Because of the reduced quest count, a lot of the skill in this deck is keeping what is absolutely essential (usually Girdle, Timriv, and Shalug'doom) and rowing what is less essential or situational.

Picking correctly is almost solely based on your knowledge of the opponents deck, knowing what threats they might play. Not so many huge allies? You might want to row Heroic Leap or Chaotic Rush. Not an equipment class? Row Drudges. Some of the hardest choices are hands with a perfect curve, like DMC: Hurricane / Timriv / Chaotic Rush / Sinestra / Shalugdoom; you will not have enough cards to resource every turn without Girdle, so you just have to bite the bullet and pick whatever you feel has the best chance of reappearing. Luckily, this is not a toolbox deck; there are usually multiple answers to every threat, and if you can survive long enough usually one of those answers will present itself. If a deck is unfamiliar, you can follow this rule of thumb: if its plate, keep Drudges and Girdles, otherwise, keep anti-rush cards.

That's about all I have to say about the SuperMan deck. Hope you had fun reading, and we'll see if Throne of the Tides improves this deck any for whatever major tourney is next that I probably can't attend. I love to hear stories of victory and defeat, or comments of any kind, which you can leave here on these forums.

-SuperAwesomeMan