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This week’s email comes from Brian Wilson. He was pondering a Solo Warrior build and his list looked interesting. Here’s his initial email:
Here is the deck list.
Hero: [Jak the Bilgewater Bruiser]
Locations (4)
4 [Twilight Citadel]
Allies (8)
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]
Equipment (39)
3 [Polished Breastplate of Valor]
1 [Red Rider Air Rifle]
2 [Polished Spaulders of Valor]
3 [The Horseman's Horrific Helm]
4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]
4 [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]
4 [Triton Legplates]
4 [Rock Furrow Boots]
3 [Scarlet Kris]
3 [Perdition's Blade]
1 [Dog Whistle]
4 [Bottled Life]
3 [Bottled Cunning]
Abilities (9)
4 [Enraged Regeneration]
2 [Twisted Rampage]
3 [Chaotic Rush]
I have always enjoyed playing Warriors and solo style decks. This is a pretty raw version of the deck. The idea is pretty simple. Get a weapon and make it big with [Rock Furrow Boots] and any other armor you have. While you are doing that, just smash away while you go. The game can end rather quickly when you use Jak's flip or [Twisted Rampage] to get multiple attacks in with your hero to close the game out. There are some pretty interesting avenues to play with this deck. For example, it is possible on turn 1 to have a 3 attack [Shalug'doom, Axe of Unmaking] on the board (with a stashed [Cairne, Earthmother’s Chosen] and a [Bottled Life]).
There are all kinds of questions I have and was hoping you would be interested in taking a look at.
1. I am struggling to find the most effective version of this deck because I don't have a card like keys to help my find armor and equipment, I'm not sure which pieces are 4-of’s, 3-of’s, and singletons. I also don't have a good answer to drawing multiples of the same equipment.
2. This is built as a control deck. I'm not into a spec. After reading Ben I's write up about his Worlds deck, should [Shockwave] be included?
3. Would this deck work better in a different class? All of the three plate wearing classes seem very good. I would put Pally on the bottom of the 3 just because I can't think of ways to ready the hero and weapon. Death Knight can with [Sanguine Presence]. The additional health is fantastic as well.
4. As I'm sure you noticed there is no ability or equipment hate in this deck. I know I need it (particularly against other [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]) but I wasn't sure where to fit it in.
Well, first things first, I really liked Brian’s list but he did leave me scratching my head in certain areas. Four copies of [Bottled Life] and three copies of [Bottled Cunning] with nary a way to even trigger those bottles more than once in the entire deck? Sure, [Bottled Life] is going to get you a 1/1 Treant when it comes into play but it costs 1, right? I know he’s trying to combo the bottles off a [Shalug’doom, Axe of Unmaking] but that just seems really loose. I really didn’t understand the [Bottled Cunning] simply because Warrior has much better options at pumping their attack such as the underused [Furious Strike] (though maybe the Stealth was important). This certainly isn’t an attack on the deck because there are times where I didn’t understand a card being in a certain list but it was revealed to me after catching a few games.
I first fired up the exact deck that Brian had sent against the 800 lb gorilla in the room, [Grand Crusader] Paladin. There’s a bunch of differing [Grand Crusader] builds but for testing purposes, I chose Team Ooga Booga’s version that included [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]/[Twilight Citadel]. The game started out pretty close, as I matched him tit for tat, armor to opposing dude. That strategy worked well until he landed his first copy of [Grand Crusader] and then, suddenly, I found myself very, very far behind. The game ended rather quickly after that so I decided to shuffle up and try my luck again. This time the story was a little different (he missed a 1-drop but did have the turn three [Grand Crusader]) but it ended the same way. I played another couple of random decks, thinking I had found the major issues to fix with the deck.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock since Scourgewar Block, current Core is an ally driven format. Wins are largely decided by who can a) get the most guys into play the quickest or b) who can get the biggest guy into play the quickest. The best decks in the format, [Grand Crusader] Paladin, [Devout Aurastone Hammer] Shaman, and [Aspect of the Wild]/[Breathstone-Infused Longbow] Hunter all strive to not only make their small allies bigger via boosting their power/toughness, but also want to land a 6/6 with Ferocity on the fourth turn. I left the popular Death Knight deck off this list because, as Dan Clark said in his WoWTCG.com article, “everything that this deck is doing is completely fair.”
Knowing that the board is going to be filled with opposing allies, you as the solo deck are faced with a problem; ally control. Playing a weapon and swinging it into opposing allies all the while having armor to block the incoming damage is a fine idea, but it’s not realistic to get both a weapon and a good armor online until turn 4 or 5. It’s also not realistic that your opponent is only ever going to play 1 ally a turn, on curve. Knowing that I couldn’t keep up with a deck that plans on playing two or more allies a turn, I needed to find some sort of cheap anti-ally cards as well as a board wiping ability. Luckily, Warrior has access to both. Here’s my revision of Brian’s Solo Warrior:
Hero: [Jak the Bilgewater Bruiser]
Locations (4)
4 [Twilight Citadel]
ALLIES (13)
4 [Sava'gin the Reckless]
4 [Fungus Face McGillicutty]
1 [Obsidian Drakonid]
4 [Cairne, Earthmother's Chosen]
Equipment (28)
4 [Sorrow's End]
3 [Polished Breastplate of Valor]
3 [The Horseman's Horrific Helm]
4 [Etched Dragonbone Girdle]
4 [Shalug'doom, the Axe of Unmaking]
4 [Triton Legplates]
4 [Rock Furrow Boots]
2 [Scarlet Kris]
Abilities (16)
4 [Furious Strike]
4 [Whirlwind]
4 [Crushing Strike]
4 [Enraged Regeneration]
Well first thing you’ll notice is that it’s no longer a solo deck. In a recent conversation I had with WoW TCG Lead Developer Patrick Sullivan, he mentioned how some classes are designed to just not do some things well. Warrior is good at attacking with weapons and destroying equipment but have very few answers for opposing ongoing abilities. Enter both [Fungus Face McGillicutty] and [Obsidian Drakonid]. I ran both allies in the deck for even more answers. Typically, the abilities you’re mainly concerned with destroying cost 3 resources, making Fungus Face the preferred ally, hence he’s a 4-of. Beyond the ability destruction, I kept in the go-to resources of [Cairne, Earthmother’s Chosen] and [Sava’gin the Reckless] because all the other cool kids are doing it, so why not us?
I listened to Brian’s suggestion of possibly going a spec for the Warrior, eyeing [Shockwave] as a good answer card to allies but ultimately decided against it. I think [Shockwave] is a great cardbut I simply don’t have room in this deck for a card that doesn’t kill opposing problems. Sure, it delays them and creates a huge tempo boost when used at the correct time, but a [Mazu’kon] is still going to come into play the next turn and hit you then as well (albeit you are hitting your opponent for damage each time you bounce an ally). Isn’t [The Horseman’s Horrific Helm] just a better [Mazu’kon] answer in a deck whose whole point is to prevent damage via armor so that your weapons get bigger?
The first thing that I tinkered and changed was the option of possibly going a spec for the Warrior, eyeing [Shockwave] as a good answer card to allies but ultimately decided against it. I think [Shockwave] is a great card but I simply don’t have room in this utility suite. I really found [Furious Strike] to be a great card whether I drew it on the first turn or the 8th. It’s instant so it makes for a strong answer to opposing [Edwin VanCleef]s, [Boomer]s, and [Rosalyn von Erantor]s all the while giving you the ability to Delve for the cards you’re looking for.
[Enraged Regeneration] is a card I’d argue that this deck can’t afford to not play. Damage tends to pile up pretty quick in the early turns and the ability to heal it all back off with multiple copies gives the deck a good long game. [Crushing Strike] just seemed like a cheap and efficient answer to opposing [Devout Aurastone Hammer]s when they come out on the second turn. The bonus over a card such as [Obsidian Drudge] is that you’re dealing the damage to your opponent and can destroy the equipment immediately, instead of having to wait. Sure, there’s an argument that [Obsidian Drudge] combos better with [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] but that comes down to a personal preference and I think either card is acceptable.
Finally, answering my need for a board sweeper I added a play-set of [Whirlwind]. Let me be clear that I don’t like [Whirlwind] as I feel it’s a horribly inefficient card for what it does. It requires another card to be in play (in this case, a weapon) and it’s costly so right there are two strikes against it. Why include it? Once this deck armors up, you still run the chance of losing if your opponent hits a critical mass of small allies and can hit you with lots of small packets of damage in a single turn. [Whirlwind] gives you a way to deal a good amount of damage to lots of different targets.
I did change the equipment up a well, though not too drastically. The big players in this armor deck are the combination of [The Horseman’s Horrific Helm], [Polished Breastplate of Valor], [Triton Leggings], and the [Rock Furrow Boots], with the boots being the most important of the lot. Once you land any armor and the [Rock Furrow Boots], attacking suddenly becomes a question of value for your opponent. If he doesn’t have enough allies to punch through the armor, he’s really only going to make you angry (i.e. make your weapons really huge).
The weapons are also a large component of the deck. I left in [Shalug’doom, Axe of Unmaking] as it costs zero and it can quickly accumulate +1counters even if you don’t sacrifice anything when it comes into play. [Sorrow’s End] is a card that I actually laughed at when I first saw it but after playing with it, I assure you it’s nothing to laugh at. In this particular deck, I run 19 3-drops so I’m going to be maxing out the value on this weapon roughly a third of the time. Even when I don’t have a 3-drop on top, you’re typically going to get to swing the weapon for free. Feeling that I still didn’t have enough weapons, I left in a couple copies of [The Scarlet Kris], largely because of its cost (2) and its cheap swing (0). It’s more to turn on an early [Enraged Regeneration] than anything else, but I did once play a game where I got 8 counters on a [Scarlet Kris].
I removed the multiple attack aspect of the deck (by removing the [Twisted Wraith]s but I do appreciate that [Jak the Bilgewater Bruiser]’s flip is a game-ender on its own. Do you agree with my changes? Should I gone Alliance with the deck to include the awesome draw power that is [Vandos, Herald of War]? Good question. If you have any questions or possibly a deck you’d like me to look at, shoot me an email to aquestionofgluttony@gmail.com.
-Sean
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