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For this week’s deck clinic, I’d like to thank all the players that send me decklists. I literally received about 20+ lists this week, so it gave me a lot of things to look at. One decklist that I received which stood out was from Robert Hebert. For those that may have missed him, Robert is recording his testing gauntlet to share on DMG. Here’s Robert’s email:
I’m currently working on a [Gerwixicks] rush list with the three drop Empower Mage and the other usual suspects but I don’t know exactly where I want to go with it. I could do Warlock and go [Searing Pain] and have more draw power in [Life Tap]. There's also the Paladin route I'm looking at to abuse the bottles to keep bringing [Gerwixicks] back and give me access to [Grand Crusader]. I tested against the traditional Paladin list and it basically came down to who went first or if he didn’t turn 3 [Grand Crusader] then [Baxtan, Herald of Flame] would get in and do some work usually clearing two allies, sometimes three. Here's the list for the Paladin let me know what you think:
Hero: [Rohashu, Zealot of the Sun]
Allies: 36
4 [Firewarden Wyland Kaslinth]
4 [Onnekra Bloodfang]
4 [Waz'luk]
4 [Rosalyne von Erantor]
4 [Gerwixicks]
4 [Dagax the Butcher]
4 [Baxtan, Herald of the Flame]
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]
Abilities: 8
4 [Grand Crusader]
4 [Righteous Cleanse]
Equipment: 8
4 [Bottled Knowledge]
4 [Bottled Light]
Locations: 4
4 [Kor'kron Vanguard]
Quests: 4
4 [Seeds of Their Demise]
The first thing that grabs my attention with this decklist is the fact that it’s a fire Theme deck without using a Shaman or Warlock hero. Sure, Robert mentions thinking about going those routes but he chose to play Paladin, for access to both [Bottled Light] and [Grand Crusader].
I fire the deck up and honestly, I’m winning games with it right off the bat. Any fire deck that runs [Gerwixicks] has the ability to be explosive and when coupled with the huge pump that [Grand Crusader] provides, it makes for an aggressive deck with multiple plans of attack. Exactly what you’d want in a Core deck, right?
Not everything was coming up roses, however. There where games where my initial hand was quite clunky and I’d draw into multiple [Bottled Light]s but not have any good targets to recur with them. I seemed to draw [Dagax the Butcher] quite a bit. With [Grand Crusader] he’s a 7/3 Ferocity and Stealth but his attacking restriction really left a bad taste in my mouth. Decks are more aggressive these days and the outcome of a game is often times determined in the first five turns. While my opponent was growing his board with two and three drops, I was spinning my wheels playing [Dagax the Butcher] and then recurring him. Sure I was doing damage, but after he smacks in I was left with nothing to show for it but some damage. My board was not in any better shape and I often then got steamrolled by my opponent’s allies. Corey Burkhart wrote an article recently about the proper and improper uses of [Dagax the Butcher] and I feel that he’s a bit out of place in this particular deck.
The other issue with the deck was the sometimes spotty draw. Most of my past experience with the fire Theme decks consisted of decks that ran between 10 to 12 quests. The Fire Deck belches out its hand early and, if the opponent survives, it then uses its quests to refill and attack for a second round. While cards like [Fire the Cannon] and [A Fiery Reunion] certainly aren’t anything amazing, I found myself missing them when the games went long. To offset the low amount of draw, Robert included [Bottled Knowledge] which seemed like an odd choice on the surface. You’re not playing Mage, so my concern was the amount times that I’d be able to effectively use this bottle and I had doubts about how useful it would actually be. My doubts where dispelled after a few games of playing with the actual card. Robert was careful to include 12 Mages in the deck, not only so that [Baxtan, Herald of the Flame] is always coming in hot but also so that the deck is able to get maximum use out [Bottled Knowledge]. The ability to pitch a low cost ally (who can then be brought back via [Bottled Light]) or a situational card (such as [Righteous Cleanse]) for two fresh cards proved invaluable.
So I sat down and began to tool around with the deck and I came up with this:
Hero: [Rohashu, Zealot of the Sun]
Allies: 33
3 [Baxtan, Herald of the Flame]
3 [Obsidian Drudge]
3 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Firewarden Wyland Kaslinth]
4 [Waz'luk]
4 [Rosalyne von Erantor]
4 [Gerwixicks]
4 [Drax Felfuse]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]
Abilities: 7
3 [Righteous Cleanse]
4 [Grand Crusader]
Equipment: 13
4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]
3 [Corrupted Egg Shell]
3 [Bottled Knowledge]
3 [Bottled Light]
Locations: 4
4 [Twilight Citadel]
Quests: 4
4 [A Fiery Reunion]
I didn’t change that much because the deck really didn’t need much help. The changes I made were a direct result of the matches I was playing on MWS. While MWS isn’t sometimes the greatest indication of the current metagame, I felt it was at least more accurate than say, my local Battleground.
On the ally front, I ended up cutting [Onnekra Bloddfang] and [Dagax the Butcher] because their attack restriction was too limiting in this deck. [Onnekra Bloodfang] is typically a fine card and she fits right in with a fire theme but I don’t have cards like [Searing Pain] that reward me for flooding the board quickly. It also appears that [Bronze Warden] is seeing a fair amount of play and I was quite sick of losing my [Onnekra the Bloodfang]s to those guys. I decided that my one drops needed at least two health.
I added in [Obsidian Drudge] and [Drax Felfuse]. [Obsidian Drudge] sticks out like a very sore thumb but I felt I needed some equipment removal. The Drudge is slow and is a little disappointing in the stats department but I felt its a necessary evil. Between [Charmed Ancient Bone Bow]s and [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]s, I don’t feel aggressive decks have the luxury to run no equipment removal and simply hope that your speed will finish opponents off. [Drax Felfuse] was a little experiment that proved to be effective. The deck is now running more dragonkin and so [Drax Felfuse] has the potential to become quite large and difficult to deal with given that fact that he’s Elusive.
I also added in the [Etched Dragobone Girdle] and [Twilight Citadel] combo. It obviously does wonders for helping out the draw of the deck. The nicest part of the combo is the fact that I’ve got [Grand Crusader] as well so that my tokens come out the gate as 3/3. In addition to the combo, I swapped out [Seeds of Their Demise] for [A Fiery Reunion] for even more draw. [Seed of Their Demise] is a fine card but I’d prefer to actually draw cards and not just rearrange them.
Overall I was happy with the deck and I’m looking forward to testing it out further. I think there are quite a few different way to approach cards like [Grand Crusader] and I really like the direction that Robert took. If you’ve got a deck that you’d like to spotlight, please email it to me at aquestionofgluttony@gmail.com.
-Sean
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