Welcome back from break everyone! Hope everyone had wonderful holidays, and a great new year, but we have some work to do in preparation for the RCQs the next few weekends and the Darkmoon Faire!

Some friends and I were testing for the upcoming tournaments, tuning some decks we were planning to test out in the RCQs in these coming weeks and testing to see if any were sweet enough to play in the Darkmoon Faire, when we started looking through the 6-0 decklists from the World Championships and the top 8 decks from the Metamart 5k. This is something very important in testing even if the format was not 100% similar to what you will be playing in the next few weeks, but the format constantly evolves. Because the format hadn't changed, and it was only 1 week after the World Championships we didn't get to much information from the Metamart 5k decklists, but from the worlds 6-0 decks there was a Druid decklist that stood out to us. For reference here's the deck:

Hero: [Leisha of Darnassus]

Allies: 36
4 [Windspeaker Nuvu]
4 [Garet Vice]
4 [Burly Berta]
4 [Loriam Argos]
4 [Jarrod Gravon]
4 [Koeus]
4 [Stevrona Forgemender]
4 [Azure Skyrazor]
4 [Magni, the Mountain King]

Abilities: 20
4 [Mark of the Untamed]
4 [Mark of the Wild]
4 [Energize]
4 [Gift of the Earthmother]
4 [Avatar of the Wild]

Equipment: 4
4 [Bottled Life]

Soren Pedersen's deck was pretty far out there. No true resources, and an aggressive Alliance deck! “But I thought you said we shouldn't play Alliance.” It's true I've said Alliance is truly inferior to Horde right now, but this deck brought the group to reconsider that we were possibly missing something. We decided we wanted a deck that could compete with [Grand Crusader] as it is still the top dog, but also didn't just concede to [Devout Aurastone Hammer] decks. While this deck wasn't able to do that for us, it was a stepping-stone to a more midrange version on Soren's deck.

Kyle McGinty was the go to guy on this one. He went into depth about this deck before and changed it to a Horde fire damage theme. The deck was mediocre, but more importantly didn't do what we wanted. We both love [Azure Skyrazor] from drafting, and wanted to find the dragon a home, but we were determined to slow the deck down and turn it into a controlling deck to beat [Grand Crusader] while also being powerful enough to compete with [Devout Aurastone Hammer] and quick enough to beat [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] decks. The tokens had to go. Individually the cards aren't strong enough, and even together don't put the opponent crushingly behind. Kyle's idea was to turn the deck into an attachment theme deck with [King Genn Greymane] as the finisher and a giant wall that most decks cannot deal with. The deck ended up looking like this:

Hero: [Wildseer Varel]

Allies: 34
4 [Corin Stallnorth]
4 [Gardos Gravefang]
3 [Fenton Guardmont]
3 [Rufus Claybourne]
4 [Jarrod Gravon]
4 [Koeus]
4 [Magni, the Mountain King]
4 [Azure Skyrazor]
4 [King Genn Greymane]

Abilities: 18
4 [Mark of the Untamed]
4 [Mark of the Wild]
2 [Earth Mother's Blessing]
4 [Gift of the Earthmother]
4 [Avatar of the Wild]

Locations: 4
4 [Gilneas]

Quests: 4
4 [Seeds of Their Demise]

The deck was pretty poor honestly. [Mark of the Wild] was possibly the worst card ever because it didn't draw you a card, and didn't pump the ally enough in the face of a [Grand Crusader]. [Gardos Gravefang] was another underwhelming card, as one health is not good enough right now with almost every deck using either [Kor'kron Vanguard] or [Fordragon Hold]. All one health allies should not be played! Every card matters, and it was one of the biggest flaws we noticed in Soren's deck, that since the World Championship the number of these locations that pop up and pick off [Garet Vice] or [Gardos Gravefang] was three or four times greater.

[Azure Skyrazor], a card that if you've been reading my articles since I've started, is a card I love. Any chance I get, I try to make a deck around the Dragonkin, but this one was a failure. There were times where you would play [Azure Skyrazor] and have a number of attachments and [Avatar of the Wild]s to pump your party up for a fatal strike, but those hands were few and far between. This immediately lead to an inability to close the games out. Kyle and I knew we needed to either save time and scrap the deck or change up the end game.

The deck had its strengths despite a weak end game and some underwhelming cards. [Corin Stallnorth] is the best one out there, and with any attachment I called it building my own battle cruiser. He trumps almost all opposing deck's aggressive plays, and helps protect the true powerhouse of the deck, [Jarrod Gravon]. [Jarrod Gravon] completed everything we wanted the deck to do: a giant body, a protector, and with the help of some attachments, it single-handedly beat both “Hordestone” and [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] decks. Both of those decks relied on nature damage allies like [Mazu'kon], [Al'Akir the Windlord], [Gargoyle], and even [Carine, Earthmother's Chosen] to press their advantage on their opponents. With a [Mark of the Untamed], [Jarrod Gravon] trumped every threat these decks had because of his ability to ready and protect again, and because you were already going to hold up resources to ready him and protect, you also have enough resources at the ready to pump him up with a [Gift of the Earthmother]. The change in hero helped to complement this plan. While Varel's flip gave away the element of surprise because you have to use it on your turn, searching up a clutch [Mark of the Untamed] could win games facing down a possible [Mazu'kon].

Knowing I didn't want to give up on the deck I took responsibility to try and make the deck better. I knew I needed to improve the finishers for the deck while not weakening its already sketchy matchup versus [Grand Crusader]. Here's where I ended up with the [Wildseer Varel] deck:

Hero: [Wildseer Varel]

Allies: 34
4 [Corin Stallnorth]
2 [Fenton Guardmont]
4 [Rufus Claybourne]
4 [Jarrod Gravon]
4 [Koeus]
4 [Magni, the Mountain King]
3 [Edwin VanCleef]
4 [King Genn Greymane]
4 [Vanessa VanCleef]

Abilities: 19
4 [Mark of the Untamed]
4 [Nature's Focus]
3 [Earth Mother's Blessing]
4 [Gift of the Earthmother]
4 [Avatar of the Wild]

Locations: 4
4 [Gilneas]

Quests: 4
4 [Seeds of Their Demise]

I considered tossing in [Braeo Darkpaw], but without [Mark of the Wild], he isn't powerful enough. The deck is less focused on the attachment theme, but is more well rounded and has the ability to close a game out without having to draw multiple [Avatar of the Wild]s, which is what I was aiming for!

Initially I wasn't a fan of adding [Edwin VanCleef] and [Vanessa VanCleef] to the deck because they are Untargetable but both serve the deck quite well. [Edwin VanCleef] is a threat on his own, but the best of the allies are actually the tokens. Generally, the control decks will have to expend time and resources to deal with Edwin, building a board presence ahead of time or needing multiple card combinations to kill him. Most of the time, they will kill the tokens first then finish off Edwin after taking some damage, but the times they do not and the tokens live a turn is where they shine. You can attack with one token each turn and leave one back to protect him from oncoming ferocious attacks or hero pumps, and that one you leave back can be suited up with one of the many attachments in the deck. This often leads to awesome scenarios that take up the opponent's entire turn, kills their threat, and leaves you with a giant Thug token ally and most scary of all an [Edwin VanCleef] waiting to summon his daughter to slaughter his foes.

[Vanessa VanCleef] is still my favorite of the two allies. She's basically a [Doshura Risestrider] which, I cannot stress enough, is so powerful in this format. The best thing is that she can be free off of [Edwin VanCleef] which is already difficult enough to deal with, and very few decks can deal with Edwin and anticipate a 4/5 Stealth and Untargetable ally joining the fray killing their last threat. Again, being Untargetable means you cannot toss an attachment on them, but they help eliminate threats and create more which is exactly what this deck needed.

I also added [Nature's Focus] to improve the mediocre at best [Grand Crusader] matchup. I tend to use it on turn two to kill of a [Trade Prince Gallywix] but it is great late game for fighting off impending doom from [Dagax the Butcher] assaults. Another great thing that [Nature's Focus] brings to the deck is the ability to heal the hero. Unlike the Girdle decks and the Shaman and Priest “Hordestone” decks, there's no way to preserve your life or heal your hero that also benefits the game-plan. [Nature's Focus] is the closest thing to a [Power Word: Barrier] or [Riptide] for Druid, and accomplishes many of the same goals of preserving your life total throughout the game.

I've been playing this deck over the short hiatus we've had from tournaments in my local area, and the deck is improving. It still needs some work, but I can honestly say Alliance is not dead! It doesn't have the late game like Horde does with [Mazu'kon] and [Saurfang the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord] but the midgame can definitely compete. Turn two which I initially felt like would be Alliance's best turn because of [Burly Berta] is not good enough anymore, yet with the help of some giant attachments from [Gift of the Earthmother] and [Earth Mother's Blessing] the faction's high health allies can compete. I would definitely play the deck yourself before taking it to a Realm Championship Qualifier in the coming weeks because setting up a way to kill [Grand Crusader] with [Koeus] is still something I've been struggling to do. Let me know of what you think of the deck and good luck at your Realm Qualifiers!


-Corey Burkhart