(This article is a few hours late as we have all been pretty busy with the new Worldbreaker set and the Darkmoon Faire that took place in Los Angeles this weekend. Sorry folks! We'll be back onto our regular schedule with the Tuesday article! -Mike)


Coming out of worlds there was one deck that my team and I was really surprised by, and that was the cat form deck played by Bryan Lyons. Bryan is known for playing overlooked archetypes at events, and preys off of the unprepared opponents for his strategies. My team and I respect this game strategy a lot and decided to work on a kitty of our own. If you've ever had the privilege of meeting the people in the Southern California play group, you know we love our midrange decks. However this time I don't have a mid-range deck for you. Instead I have one of the super aggressive decks in our gauntlet, and it's one tough putty tat:

Hero: [Warden Stormclaw]

Allies (16):

3 [Saurfang the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord]

3 [Johnny Rotten]

3 [Nathanos Blightcaller]

3 [Vuz'din]

4 [Broderick Langforth]

Abilities (25):

4 [Predatory Strikes]

4 [Nature of the Beast]

4 [Ursoc's Fury]

4 [Feline Grace]

3 [Ravage]

3 [Chew Toy]

3 [Shred]

Equipment (5):

2 [Journey's End]

3 [Cover of Silence]

Locations (3):

3 [Kor'kron Vanguard]

Quests (11):

4 [Orders From Lady Vashj]

4 [Waton Warlord]

3 [Force of Jadenar]

Side deck (10):

4 [Talisman of the Horde]

1 [Nathanos Blightcaller]

1 [Chew Toy]

1 [Cover of Silence]

3 [Munkin Blackfist]

The kitty is very quick, and has the power to kill consistently on turn six. The use of powerful Horde allies such as [Broderick Langforth] and [Saurfang the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord] are known to have the power to pile on damage. These allies are used as utility to answer a wide variety of issues while also beating down when the opportunity presents itself.

The deck has the uncanny ability to drop ten or more damage with just the hero. While not surprising, Cat Form has always been a deck that can shred face out of nowhere. The abilities that Feral Druids have access to allow the hero to attack while a form is on the board. With 17 cards in the deck that can boost the hero's attack, attacking with just the hero can put the opponent on an efficient enough clock to make them react to what is attacking them. Combine this with allies that have great enter play effects like [Johnny Rotten] and [Nathanos Blightcaller], and the deck gains the ability to pile on to much pressure to quickly.

The deck has 11 forms, eight of which allow the druid to attack multiple times. For just a couple of resources, attacking a second time each turn from makes the deck just slightly unfair. While seemingly unconventional, [Ursoc's Fury] is actually the best form in the deck. It enters play for just one resource at instant speed, and can ready the hero to protect an ally twice for one resource, or attack a second time for a second resource. While losing the one point of damage from Cat Form can be significant, the deck could care less about what form it is in. Instead, it cares more about how much damage is on the opposing hero.

The deck has some flaws in dealing damage when its abilities are turned off by [Spell Suppression]s. Thankfully, the deck has access to [Vuz'din] to turn off opposing ongoings like [Aftermath] or [Spell Suppression]. To deal with the problem of [Vuz'din] on the opponent's side of the field, Bryan Lyons diversified his threats by running some of the Horde's efficient allies. Cards such as [Johnny Rotten] and [Saurfang the Younger, Kor'kron Warlord] serve to help deal with the 3-drop Mage ally.

More consistent ally answers come in the form of [Ravage] and [Chew Toy]. I was at first skeptical of how this deck could race something like [Ringleader Kuma] or ["Black Ice" Fizzlefreeze], but the two can quickly lay down the law with the ally issue. Once the allies are eliminated at instant speed and possibly behind the protection from interrupts or [Squall Totem] thanks to [Cover of Silence], the deck does what it does best. Last but not least, the deck always carries a backup plan to annoying allies with the hero flip, allowing you to dump a duplicate form for an annoying ally at instant speed.

One of the cards that has been added to this deck [Journey's End], but it is unsurprisingly ridiculous. Anything that forces the controller of the card to sacrifice one of their own resources better have a powerful effect, and the staff delivers. Adding two damage per attack in the form of assault for the sacrificing of a resource usually adds four damage per turn thanks to [Ursoc's Fury] and [Feline Grace]. Yet the more powerful effect in the staff lays in the second keyword on the card: stealth. When the deck does not have multiple forms to sacrifice to the hero flip, or one of the six removal spells for allies, the [Journey's End] lets you walk right by unsuspecting protectors.

The deck does struggle with armor, especially the [Guardian's Plate Bracers] that Warriors and [Askalti Darksteel] have access to. Therefore the sideboard contains seven quick answers to armor and other equipment in the form of the [Talisman of the Horde] and [Munkin Blackfist]. [Talisman of the Horde] is quite powerful despite having the potential drawback of destroying the Druid's own abilities. The power to blow up a [Banish to the Nether], armor, and [Tuskarr Kite] can blow the game out of proportion.

The rest of the side deck is seemingly random, but each of the singletons serves a specific purpose. The [Nathanos Blightcaller] is for opposing ally based decks, and decks that struggle at removing multiple threats. Decks that lack mass removal spells can lose around 6-8 health and upwards of three turns dealing with the blighthouds, which buys [Warden Stormclaw] enough time to dig through the deck for more ways to finish the opponent off. The [Cover of Silence] is best suited against Mages and Warriors and their suite of interrupts, and against decks containing [Weldon Barov] where you lack the time to draw a removal spell to kill the protector producer. I have also found uses for the card against [Blizzard] and [Water Elemental], but the card is already going to be brought into the main deck for those match-ups to battle the [Fizzle]s, [The Taste of Arcana]s, and [Nether Fracture]s the Mages have. Lastly, the [Chew Toy] is to deal with annoying things like [Water Elemental], [Vuz'din], and [Weldon Barov].

If you haven't already built your own pet cat then I would get to digging up your old kitty rares. In six battleground tournaments locally, [Warden Stormclaw] has taken down five, and the only one it lost was to unfortunate draws and a slight misplay in a game three versus [Askalti Darksteel]. The deck has the ability to take both the control role, using it's life as a resource to destroy creatures by attacking them, or the aggressive role by bashing the opposing hero and ignoring most allies the opponent plays. This deck will be a definite contender even after we add Worldbreaker to the card pool, and I would expect this deck to see some slight changes making it even stronger.

I am writing this prior to DMF Los Angeles, but I hope that I can see and meet some new people who are a fan of Daily Metagame and possibly my column here at the event, so come out and have a blast even if you cannot make the main event like me. Until next time, keep looking for those innovative decks and if you ever have one you think I should feature, then let me know about it via email (corey91 at charter dot net).

~Corey Burkhart


Corey Burkhart is one of the most recognizable faces from the Southern California WoW TCG community. He has placed high in multiple large-scale events, and his consistent play earned him a win at the 2009 North American Continental Championship event. He went on to place in the top 8 again in the 2010 NACC. Corey and his play group from 4-Color Fantasies holds both the season 4 and season 5 titles for the Tanaris Realm Championship.