Darkmoon Faire Los Angeles has come and gone and unfortunately I did not finish very well. After finishing second at DMF Las Vegas last year, without seeing a single Scourgewar card prior to the tournament, I figured I could do just as well in Los Angeles with Worldbreaker as everyone would be on the same level playing field. Figuring out a format in a couple of hours is very difficult to do and I commend those players who managed to do quite well in the DMF.

Here is the card pool I registered for the DMF: 

In limited formats, having an ally to play on turn 2 is very crucial and it turned out to be no different in Worldbreaker sealed with the format even faster than previous sets. Horde only had two 2-cost allies but it also had an extra 1-drop which would help in trading with opposing allies in the early game. After allies are determined I look for which class to play and after reviewing the class cards over and over again, hoping they would change, nothing jumped out at me. None of the classes seemed to have more than two great cards in them which may present the problem of not having enough playable cards for our deck.

It took me the full 40 minutes to build my deck and I didn't like any kind of faction/class combinations that I put together. I switched back and forth through different builds after looking at Hunter with Alliance, since it would give me a 4-cost ally in [Tesla], a ranged weapon and a couple of cheap damage cards that I was not too thrilled about. Next I looked at Druid, giving the deck two very good ally removal abilities in [Wrath] and [Entangling Growth]. [Savage Bear Form] is also quite playable and with the new form rules it becomes a much better card. [Rejuvenation] at the time of deck building I did not like, but now after seeing it played I think the card is quite good and works well with the alliance Druid Hero's flip by granting a guaranteed heal every turn. After Druid and Hunter the only other class that I really took a look at was Paladin. It gave me six not great, but limited playable cards and since my ally count was kind of shallow, I felt forced to play Paladin. I chose my faction and class at the very last second of deck construction, in which it mainly came down to having enough cards to make a 30 card deck.

Here is what I came up with:

Hero: [Rekwa Proudhorn]

Allies: 18

[Emerald Tree Warder]

[Emerald Acidspewer]

[Emerald Captain]

[Jezziki Shinebog]

2 [Zulbraka]

[Raosalyne von Erantor]

[Kerzok Plixboom]

[Zulanji]

[Huruk Lightvow]

[Grazzle Grubhook]

[Mahna Lightsky]

[Traxel Emberkilk]

[Frek Snipelix]

2 [Guardian Steelhoof]

[Telor Sunsurge]

[Toz'jun]

Abilities: 6

[Holy Light]

[Sacred Shield]

[Blessing of the Kindred]

[Blessing of Virtue]

[Blessing of Defense]

[Censure]

Quests: 6

[The Torch of Retribution]

[The Mighty U'cha]

[Cleansing Witch Hill]

2 [The Essence of Enmity]

[Corrosion Prevention]

I am usually not a big fan of going with Paladin, as they have not been a strong limited class in the past. Since my card pool did not seem very good, I thought I would need to be tricky and use cards like [Blessing of the Kindred], [Blessing of Virtue], [Blessing of Defense], and [Censure] for combat tricks. I even got to play [Censure] against an opposing 8/8 attacking Tiger token from [Avatar of the Wild] (nice epic buddy). I decided to play the Horde over the Alliance. My idea was to hold up the ground with [Guardian Steelhoof] and win in the late game with my 5 and 6-cost allies. I did not play the one decent weapon I had [Citadel Enforcer's Claymore]. My thinking at the time was that people would play any kind of weapon removal they opened in there sealed since weapons are quite powerful in limited, and not having any targets for their equipment removal would make it a dead card in their hand.

After playing a few rounds with Worldbreaker I found out that there was not very many cards in the environment that destroyed weapons. So I sided in the [Citadel Enforcer's Claymore] almost every round because of the lack of equipment removal I saw from my opponents. The weapon was not all that great, being kind of expensive to get out and strike with but was not the worst option to have.

Things did not go as well as I had hoped for, but I also did not think I would do well with the card pool I cracked open. I went 3-2 and dropped to play in an IPod draft after I learned that I was out of contention for Top 8. My matches were not very eventful, losing one match to an opposing [Charmed Ancient Bone Bow] with multiple equipments Stashed, growing it with heirloom counters. The other match I lost was due to my plans of stalling the ground with my [Guardian Steelhoof]'s being foiled by a [Ruby Stalker]. I did not think much of the [Ruby Stalker] at first, but after playing a couple of games against him I think that this Dragonkin is almost an auto-include in any draft deck.

Overall I like Worldbreaker, and it certainly will take some time getting used to. Since it's a new format, it will take playing it a lot to get a hang of. One thing I did not like was how expensive the quests were in Worldbreaker. They seemed too costly to use and it feels like it gives players fewer decisions to make in a game, meaning that they must rely mostly on the cards they draw normally throughout the game. It feels like this is putting a shade more luck into limited, taking away some of the consistency I'm used to. This may certainly not be a bad thing, just something that makes you adjust your strategy and not put as much stake into drafting quests so high or playing as many as before. Worldbreaker is a whole different kind of animal and unlike any other set I have played.

Enjoy playing with Worldbreaker and I hope to see you all at DMF Orlando.

Later!

-BillyP


William “BillyP” Postlethwait is a professional gamer who has been winning high-level gaming events for years. His successful finishes did not stop in the WoW TCG, which he proved by winning the 2009 World Championship in Texas. He followed this up with a top 2 finish at DMF Las Vegas in 2009, as well as a top 2 finish in the 2010 North American Continental Championship.