This week I was going to talk about another Paladin deck, but let's face it, you don't want to hear about another silly Grand Crusader deck. So what I want to talk about this week is not a deck list, but numerous decks. With the Darkmoon Faire Los Angeles in just two short weeks, anyone who is going need to be testing by now, but what would a gauntlet look like? Here are my top 5 decks in order from least importance to most importance of decks you need to beat:

5) [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] Control decks:

These decks are pretty straight forward by now. The decks use the combination of [Twilight Citadel] and [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] in order to draw lots of cards, something that no other decks in the format can do efficiently. The most common versions of the deck do not include [Grand Crusader] like Team Ooga Booga's deck from the World Championships, but do include tons of Removal and widespread answers for their opposing cards. Cards like [Obsidian Drudge], [Obsidian Drakonid], and [“Fungus Face” McGillicutty] are used to eliminate opposing equipment and abilities, while depending on the class, the ally removal will vary. Something to note of these decks is that faction really doesn't matter, all three factions are playable, but the most common you will see is Horde because the difference between destroying abilities on turn three and four ([“Fungus Face” McGillicutty] versus [Obsidian Drakonid]) is a significant difference.

The two more common classes to see played are Death Knight, similar to what Dan Clark, Tim Rivera, their teams, and myself played at the World Championships last year, and Warrior similar to what Glenn Jones and Ben Isgur played. Cards like [Frozen Core], [Chains of Ice], and [Withering Decay] have proved time and time again that they are good enough to fight the other decks in the gauntlet. Another appealing factor to Death Knight is the additional healing from [Death Strike], whicht gives the pilot extra turns to “outplay” their opponent because of the extra cards they see. Warrior has much of the same awesome things going for it with awesome removal. Like Death Knight, Warrior has [Furious Strike], currently the best one cost ability in the format, and [Juggernaut], both of which are excellent at pulling ahead versus aggro decks. Unlike Death Knight however, Warrior has an awesome Stash ability, [Raging Shout], and it's proven that better resource quality is essential to winning a game.

When these decks don't draw [Etched Dragonbone Girdle], the hardest play is what cards to row. Warrior has it better off because it has an extra four resources from [Raging Shout], but Death Knight and to a lesser extent Paladin really struggle. The biggest thing is to know each opposing matchup. Against something like Hunter, you need to know that [Obsidian Drudge] is not useful, whereas against Devout Aurastone Hammer decks, [“Fungus Face” McGillicutty] and [Obsidian Drakonid] are nearly useless. There is no simple solution or basic set of cards to resource because it is dependent on the exact decks you are playing against, but with play testing one can find the best resource most of the time.

4) [Aspect of the Wild] Hunter Aggro:

This is the deck getting the least talk because it is pretty well defined what the best deck lists are. The deck doesn't do anything unfair, and is fairly straightforward to both play and build. Here's a very common list to see based on what I've seen from both decks I've played against and seen at recent Realm Qualifiers:

Hero: [Master Sniper Simon McKey]

Allies: 35

4 [Windspeaker Nuvu]

4 [Garet Vice]

4 [Boomer]

4 [Loriam Argos]

3 [Varandas Silverleaf]

4 [Bella Wilder]

4 [Grumdak, Herald of the Hunt]

4 [Tesla]

4 [Magni, the Mountain King]

Abilities: 12

4 [Avatar of the Wild]

4 [Aspect of the Wild]

4 [Convussive Barrage]

Quests:13

4 [The Essence of Enmity]

4 [Corrosion Perversion]

4 [Seeds of Their Demise]

1 [Crystals of Power]

This is just a sample deck, but many other versions exist. The biggest variation in the deck is how aggressive you want to be. Some decks will play [Gilneas], others will play [Fordragon Hold], and then decks like this playing [Varandas Silverleaf] will omit a location all together. I personally have not played enough with this deck, nor Hunter decks in general, but my preferred version of the deck plays [Vakus the Inferno] and [Fordragon Hold]. While the aggressive version is worse in the mirror match, Hunter has no way to fight opposing equipment and abilities unless you want to play some pretty unexciting cards like [Koeus] or [Gilblin Plunderer]. Therefore, I prefer to be more aggressive with my Hunter decks, as this limits my opponent's ability to see their powerful abilities like [Grand Crusader] or [Unleash the Swarm] and equipment like [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] and [Devout Aurastone Hammer].

The most powerful reason to play a deck similar to this one that is slightly slower than most is that it plays a lot of resources. Playing an excessive amount of resources in a format like this can be a drawback, but in this deck is just adds to the power of your [Avatar of the Wild]s, clearly the best card in the deck. I wouldn't go out of my way to make my Avatar Token an 8/8, but the difference between a 7/7 in this deck, and a 5/5 in most other versions of the deck is a serious advantage to this deck when the games draw out.

3) [Devout Aurastone Hammer]:

More commonly known as “Hordestone” and “AllianceStone,” these decks aim to accelerate giant allies into play. These decks are the ones talked about the most the past couple of months because there are tons of different ways to build these decks. Among the four classes, only Druid is truly weak, and Paladin, Shaman, and Priest are all very powerful. The thought of playing a turn 3 [Dulvar, Hand of the Light], [King Genn Greymane], [Saurfang, the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord], and the variety of Horde Empower allies is fascinating, and in this deck is a reality. Usually, this deck aims to stall the game out and win through card advantage from its epic ally suite, but it can also win by applying pressure to the opponent. For example, the Shaman version of the deck has the ability to play [Spiritual Return] to resurrect any discarded threats to [Gispax the Mixologist] thus presenting two or more threats each turn.

The best part about this deck is not the ability to play turn three epic allies, but the fact that it doesn't need [Devout Aurastone Hammer] to win. As I write this, my dad just finished winning a Realm Championship Qualifier with nearly the exact Priest “Hordestone” deck I wrote about weeks ago. He beat both Kyle Mcginty and me on the way to the win without drawing the deck's namesake equipment, but instead by simply curving out. [Jex'ali], likely the card with the least synergy in the deck, into [Gispax the Mixologist] or [Edwin VanCleef] is enough alone to pile on significant pressure on the opponent. In both matches he lacked a turn 2 play but because of the time Kyle and I gave him, he punished us in the middle turns by playing significant threats and representing the ability to play a large number of [Thrall, Warchief of the Horde] and [Mazu'kon]s.

These decks take a ton of time to get right, and the actual “optimal” decks are constantly changing. You have access to allies like [Al'Akir the Windlord], [Archmage Argual], and [Ozumat], but there is not room for all these allies in the deck. Even fitting a number of [Edwin VanCleef] and [Vanessa VanCleef]s into the deck is a struggle because there are so many amazing five and six cost allies in both factions. Therefore, if you have not yet started to prepare for the Darkmoon Faire, or heaven forbid, the rest of the Realm Championship Qualifier season, there is room to play around in these decks, but nothing is set in stone other than four [Devout Aurastone Hammer]s and four [Seeds of Their Demise].

2) “Tip and Flip” Murloc Combo:

These last two decks you absolutely must be able to beat if you are going to show up to an RCQ or the Darkmoon Faire. Kyle Mcginty wrote an article on what he and I believed at the time was the best deck for this very website, but as we know things change as the format evolves. Here are the most recent deck's I've seen:

Hero: [Grglmrgl]

Allies: 40

32 [Murloc Coastrunner]

4 [Slippyfist]

4 [Swarmtooth]

Abilities: 16

4 [Rwlrwlrwlrwl!]

4 [Poison Tipped]

4 [Unleash the Swarm]
4 [Concussive Barrage]

Quests: 4

4 [Seeds of Their Demise]

Again this is my own version of the deck, it is not necessarily the best, but it is what I have used recently to test against. Like [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] and [Devout Aurastone Hammer] the key card of this deck comes out on turn 2. [Poison Tipped] allows this deck to simply win the game on turn 4 by just playing out an [Unleash the Swarm] because the hero flip grants Ferocity. There's not much room in the deck to innovate, and in my mind only 12 cards can be messed with or changed:

4 [Rwlrwlrwlrwl!]: Your hero flip already gives you ferocity, and if they use something like a [Rufus Claybourne] to give their hero Aberration, preventing the damage from [Poison Tipped], you probably aren't going to win anyways.

4 [Concussive Barrage]: It's nice to have something you can draw into if you get half of your deck hit by [Commander Ulthok], and it serves as early removal so that you can survive later. But some lists can omit it, and of course if you move away from the Monster Hunter then you can't play it.

4 [Murloc Coastrunner]: There are 32 of them in the deck. I have seen decks playing only 28 of them and playing a number of [Chumly]s and [Nibbler]s, but I haven't played them enough to know if they are the correct cards to be playing.

There's not really much to say about this deck except, how do you beat it? The best plan is to kill the [Poison Tipped]. [Poison Tipped] is absolutely the key to this deck, and using any form of ability removal before turn four is essential to winning. The deck can win without [Poison Tipped], but seldom can it win without [Unleash the Swarm]. The second order of business is killing the Murloc army that enters play. Cards like [Malar Stonefist], [Bottled Spite], [Fel Blaze], and [Ripple] are great at this, but most classes don't have access to an ability that does it for them. If this is the case, the best bet is to play as aggressively as possible, and make your party very large, and featuring many protectors, this way when the fishes come to play your party can catch them and send them back to sea.

1) [Grand Crusader] Paladin Aggro:

I think no one can argue at this point that [Grand Crusader] is still the deck to beat. Both versions from the World Championships (Hans Hoh's winning deck and Team Ooga Booga's deck) are very good, and even decks playing [Devout Aurastone Hammer] with [Grand Crusader] have been seen. If you want to prepare well for any upcoming tournaments you need to test against both of those versions at a minimum, but I would also look into testing against versions playing [Edwin VanCleef]. I've said before that I would only play Edwin in a deck for value if his daughter was part of the package, but in [Grand Crusader] Edwin is the real deal on his own. He's basically [Nathanos Blightcaller] with two better effects and his “protectors” will very likely be pumped up by the ongoing ability, making him an 11/9 spread out among three allies.

The reason [Grand Crusader] is so good is that it can play almost every “unfair” card on this list. [Etched Dragonbone Girdle] was in Team Ooga Booga's deck that put nearly everyone on the team into Day 2, and then into the Top 16, and is still a solid choice if you want to go to [Edwin VanCleef] and higher up in the ally department. [Devout Aurastone Hammer] is something I've seen just recently, but is something I'm going to explore a little more and likely write an article on it before we analyze the results from the Darkmoon Faire. I feel that to play [Devout Aurastone Hammer] in addition to [Grand Crusader], the deck needs more token creating allies.

[Lord Godfrey], [Edwin VanCleef], [Jessa the Lifebound] or [Mazu'kon] are good, but don't seem to synergize as well with [Grand Crusader] like [Trade Prince Gallywix] and the miniature goblin armies from Hans Hoh's deck do. Heck if [Grand Crusader] wanted to it could play 30 Rogue allies with [Poison Tipped] and [Bottled Light], and would likely be good enough to still kill its opponents, it's that strong. Honestly, to beat this deck, your deck must be able to kill on turn 4 like the Murloc deck, or better have at least four pieces of ability removal. Even killing [Grand Crusader] doesn't guarantee a victory, as cards like [Dagax the Butcher], [Faceless Sapper], and [Bottled Light] are exceptionally good at turning a winning game quickly into a lost one.

I hope this helps everyone get start if you still haven't for the Darkmoon Faire, or for the current Realm Championship Qualifiers. If you feel that I've missed a deck/card that is making a huge statement in your area be sure to let everyone know about it in the forums.

-Corey Burkhart