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Once you read this, Worlds will have already passed, but I’m writing this the night before I travel out to Rotterdam. I know that we’ll be talking about this tournament for months to come, so I felt getting a jump on it would be for the best. This way, I begin by giving the back-story of my testing format by format, and that way everyone doesn’t have to read a four-part tournament report!
Today I want to talk about Classic format; it’s what I began writing about many months ago when I started out here at Daily Metagame, and it is still my favorite format to test silly ideas out in. The vast card pool and the access to thousands of cards can lead to some pretty crazy ideas, but the format has been mildly played. The format hinders creativity because most of the decks are stumped by the very powerful cards printed during the first few blocks like [Eye of Kilrogg], [Fizzle] and [Broderick Langforth] (whom is not in the first few blocks printed, but hinders deck creativity).
My classic testing began as soon as Throne of the Tides was spoiled. I loved [Commander Ulthok], and immediately wanted to try the new epic in a [Slow] Control deck. With [Lady Sira’kess], I knew [Slow] Control was a possible deck considering Brad Watson piloted the deck to a top 4 finish at last year’s World Championships, but I didn’t know if it would be good.
I tested this deck for weeks, but the deck couldn’t beat Horde Warlock. Warlock and its spree of, “The Best Cards Ever Printed,” crushed me game after game. [Signet of Manifested Pain], [Broderick Langforth], [Undercity], and [Dethvir the Malignant] are just too good for a dedicated control deck to exist. Therefore, I looked for a deck that could beat this deck, and the class I felt the most players would play, Mage.
I didn’t forget about other decks however. I knew that [Overkill] combo was still a very good deck, but beyond those three decks, I didn’t test against any decks that felt good enough to justify playing. [Zaritha] Control felt like the worst deck I had ever played, as it didn’t beat anything, but that helped me to realize that a certain part of the metagame was open to exploit, Aggro.
When the metagame partially defined, I wanted to go for the jugular, finding the deck to crush the know format. I found that in a deck I both love and hate, [Ringleader Kuma] Aggro. Kuma has been good to me before as a great tempo deck with [Squall Totem] and [Feral Spirit]s to beat the opponent on shear power level. In classic, this is not how the deck to operate though. I wanted to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, as I saw this as the best way to fight against most of the aggro-control decks, and [Overkill] control really struggles with all in aggro decks.
Those ideas lead me to this first draft of the deck:
Hero: [Ringleader Kuma]
Allies: 26
4 [Bloodsoul]
4 [Broderick Langforth]
4 [Offender Gora]
4 [Onnerka Bloodfang]
4 [Sava’gin the Reckless]
2 [Munkin Blackfist]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother’s Chosen]
Abilities: 26
4 [Storm Shock]
4 [Chain Purge]
4 [Wind Shear]
2 [Tremor Shock]
4 [Tuskarr Kite]
4 [Feral Spirits]
4 [Earthen Blast]
Equipment: 4
4 [Signet of Manifested Pain]
Quests: 4
4 [Orders From Lady Vashj]
The deck was insane against the combo decks like Eggerator and [PX-238 Winter Wondervolt] + [Crabbyfin] as it applied pressure quickly backed with interrupts, but it struggled finishing the game against Warlock especially. [Sardok] was a train wreck for the deck. The entire deck was designed to deal damage, that simple things like removal were foregone. Even though this initial draft didn’t have a side deck, it didn’t matter. Having ten cards to bring in against Warlock didn’t help the matchup enough, so it was back to the drawing board.
I hit up my testing partner, Jacob Holker, for some more help and his thoughts on the deck. We were able to beat everything but the aggro-control decks very easily, and I felt like I hit the theory of the deck right on the head. The deck rushes to get as many allies into play as soon as possible then flips for maximum damage. Along the way, the resources burn the opponent, something [Slow] Control Mages and [Overkill] Rogue decks were not expecting, but something was missing.
Jacob found the solution very quickly. He loved the theory of the deck, the resources killing the opponent along with the slew of a million one drops. He however corrected my lack of removal problem. [Dethvir the Malignant] was a one-man wrecking ball to the deck as was [Sardok] and Jacob found the best card ever [Shock of the Elements]. It was fantastic, exhausting a newly played [Bloodsoul] and a [Signet of Manifested Pain] token yielded results of a destroyed [Dethvir the Malignant], while a two-resource ability killed the deck’s worst nightmare, [Sardok]. We debated for a while on what to cut from the deck to make room for Shock, but eventually we determined [Storm Shock] wasn’t good enough because of [Dreadsteed]. [Dreadsteed] not only killed our allies for nearly no cost, but the Demon also absorbed a [Storm Shock] and lived to tell the tale. There were many other cases of [Storm Shock] being underwhelming (something very hard for me to believe after it was one of the quickest auto-includes in the initial decklist), but regardless it hit the bin of extra cards.
Jacob and I spent all of October perfecting the deck eventually getting it to this list about two weeks before World Championships:
Hero: [Ringleader Kuma]
Allies: 24
4 [Bloodsoul]
4 [Broderick Langforth]
4 [Offender Gora]
4 [Onnerka Bloodfang]
4 [Sava’gin the Reckless]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother’s Chosen]
Abilities: 23
4 [Shock of the Elements]
4 [Chain Purge]
4 [Wind Shear]
3 [Tuskarr Kite]
4 [Feral Spirits]
4 [Earthen Blast]
Equipment: 9
4 [Signest of Manifested Pain]
3 [Edge of Oblivion]
2 [Talisman of the Horde]
Quests: 4
4 [Orders From Lady Vashj]
Side deck: 10
2 [Talisman of the Horde]
3 [Aegis of the Vindicator]
3 [Element’s Fury]
2 [Vuz’din]
We now had cards to cover all our bases from equipment and ability removal that were relatively efficient to play, and the deck was still blazingly fast. Jacob also pointed out [Edge of Oblivion], a card that escaped me for five weeks, and was the new game plan against [Dethvir the Malignant]. I really liked this list, and it was testing favorable against every deck we expected to see at the World Championship, despite still looking like a deck that is awfully weak to [Undercity]. The worst matchup was still the Warlock one, [Sardok] still posed a threat, and now, the deck was slow enough that [Eye of Kilrogg] was a legitimate turn two play against the deck, something that would lead to certain death beforehand.
Jacob and I didn’t really have an answer for this, we tested the matchup as often as we could on MWS, trying to get the numbers right, but nothing seemed to crush the Warlock. I eventually got to a point where I was worried that I had spent so much time testing Classic Constructed, and my work was for naught. I began seeing Facebook posts from various groups saying, “Just playing good Warlock cards for Classic.”
Honestly, I now hated my deck. Before side decking, the deck is favorable against Warlock, but after side decking, this is a whole different story. Most of the Warlock decks play a pair of [Hesriana]s main deck and a pair in the side deck, which were good against us but not insane. The insane card was [Ebonweave Robe], as paired with [Dethvir the Malignant], it left us to just 11 ways to kill the undead champion. [Ebonweave Robe] was also amazing at clearing our board, and oddly enough, the one armor value was enough that even if I had flipped on the prior turn, I knew I couldn’t burn them out without getting lucky. The deck burns its hand so quickly, that card draw was needed, and early speed bumps were costing us efficient damage out of each of our cards.
That’s when the RIW squad came to the rescue. I initially asked if they wanted to work together for the World Championships, but I didn’t get a response. Luckily, Dan Clark hit me up a week ago, and we began discussing deck ideas. He already solidly had his decks chosen, but he and Steven Lynn were kind enough to give me their core deck and feedback for my classic deck. We discovered that a fourth [Tuskarr Kite] was essential for the decks slow draws, and against opposing Mages and Warlocks. The other major change was the fact that [Talisman of the Horde] didn’t help in the matchups we needed it to be good, and the deck already loses to [Voice of Reason]/[Aegis of the Vindicator], so why bother wasting a couple slots. Dan suggested just removing them in place of the best core one cost ally [Rosalyne von Erantor]. She does die to [Mikael the Blunt] and [Broderick Langforth] without dealing enough damage to the opposing hero, but when the opponent lacks those key early drops, Rosalyne delivers the beats. The other big key was the Rosalyne could attack and trade for [Sardok], something that [Bloodsoul] and [Onnekra Bloodfang] could not.
That lead to the final deck, which as of writing this my dad, Steve Lynn, and I all plan to play:
Hero: [Ringleader Kuma]
Allies: 26
3 [Bloodsoul]
3 [Rosalyne von Erantor]
4 [Broderick Langforth]
4 [Offender Gora]
4 [Onnerka Bloodfang]
4 [Sava’gin the Reckless]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother’s Chosen]
Abilities: 23
4 [Shock of the Elements]
4 [Chain Purge]
3 [Wind Shear]
4 [Tuskarr Kite]
4 [Feral Spirits]
4 [Earthen Blast]
Equipment: 7
4 [Signest of Manifested Pain]
3 [Edge of Oblivion]
Quests: 4
4 [Orders From Lady Vashj]
Side deck: 10
3 [Talisman of the Horde]
3 [Aegis of the Vindicator]
2 [Vuz’din]
2 [Open Slots]
The main deck is so solid right now that we don’t even have the last two side deck slots determined. I want two cards against various [Overkill] decks, but I don’t want interrupts. Interrupts take to much effort and a solid draw to give up the tempo for them to be good that I don’t like them in a deck operating on four resources. One other idea for the last couple of slots in the side deck is to play another Aegis and Talisman, but both of those are unnecessary, as I doubt many people will play aggro or solo decks.
I really love this deck, I’ve put so much work into it that while we’re still two days from the beginning of the World Championships, I doubt I’d hear of anything beating this beast consistently. I’m really looking to get a 4-0 out of this deck as I expended much more time than anyone I know working on a Classic deck, that going 3-1 would feel like ending up 3-3 in Core. Let me know your thoughts on my timeline approach to the making of my classic deck, and give me feedback about my deck I played at worlds! I’ll be sure to update the last two slots in the side deck as I know for sure we’ll be scrambling last minute to find the perfect card.
-Corey Burkhart
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