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You really have no idea how close you were to not reading this.
Pip texts me Thursday afternoon with a friendly “What’s up?”
Me: “Hey, about to board my flight to Orlando, you?”
Pip: “That’s great, but where the hell is your article?”
Me: “I thought it was due every other week?”
Pip: “It is you idiot, last Friday was Billy's, and now it’s you again. Unless you want to be eating ketchup and crackers for the rest of the week, you better send me something.”
Well there it is. I figure I’m getting some encouraging “good luck” wishes from a former cellmate but it turns out Pip is all work and no play. Thanks, why no, I didn’t want to read my Twighlight: New Moon book on the airplane.
So I’m drawing a blank. There isn’t really much going on in the World of Warcraft at present. I suppose there’s a Darkmoon Faire on the horizon, so we might as well talk about that.
I had an above average amount of time to prepare for this event. I was able to relax a bit as I also had my deck ready in advance (normally I pick a deck Friday at midnight before kickoff so “in advance” is used loosely). The Blizzard monster came to town Tuesday night and gave about 20 inches of free snow to everyone in the Midwest and Eastern regions. The good news is, that after three hours of intensive shoveling, I was able to drive to Matt’s house for some unexpected and last-minute playtesting.
To my utter disbelief, we actually tried a different deck and had so much success that we decided to audible. I will do a deck analysis of what I chose to play for the next column as this article will go up before the Saturday of the main event in Orlando.
The key point I’m making above is that I feel Core has a fair amount of depth to it. With the recent rotation of March of the Legion block and the addition of Worldbreaker it feels like there are quite a few decks available to choose from. Furthermore, I think set rotation is good to avoid staleness. Without Core, I think it’s plausible that the main question to be asked when a new set releases is “what does this add for / provide to beat Slow Mage / Death Wish / (Other Tier One Deck)?”
Without an inherently new powerful deck archetype (such as Death Wish out of Scourgewar) the metagame stagnates too quickly and for too long a period. Core has some rules to help mitigate this through set rotation.
With that, there are a fair amount of concepts that I am constantly bothered by regarding Core. I will discuss fairly common concepts but hopefully in a slightly new manner.
The first issue is somewhat difficult for me to describe and is somewhat of a paradox. I feel that there are many different viable decks in Core but the decks don’t feel very different. With roughly 2.3 blocks worth of cards to choose from, I concede that there is a limited ally pool. Compounding that, most of the allies in a set like Worldbreaker suck and won’t show up in constructed play. My issue, regardless, is that nearly every ally base feels the same.
I believe that virtually any competitive deck will be playing [Mikael the Blunt] and [Adam Eternum] for blue followed by [Broderick Langforth] and [Vuz’din] for red. In my gauntlet, these lists are even bigger, but these four allies are certainly the most ubiquitous. [Broderick Langforth] is simply stellar on both offense and defense so if you’re red, you’re playing him. Mikael and Adam seem to serve the same role. These kinds of cards bore me, and I simply wish there were more diversity when choosing a deck.
This is a difficult argument to make. Certainly there are decks that won’t play some of those cards. I’m purely speaking (and almost always writing) to the competitive player base. If the goal is simply to have fun, the argument becomes nebulous or even impossible to define. Therefore, if your goal is to win I have found it quite difficult to explain why those named allies aren’t being played.
There will always be “the best cards / allies / quests.” I’ve heard this plenty of times, so often have the bad guys in my nightmares bellow it out right before I get pushed off the cliff. Maybe the answer is as simple as that? I don’t think so, and I think a reality is possible where the first 16 cards of the deck aren’t pre-determined.
A developer might say this sort of problem is inevitable, especially when a brand new block rotates in. I would require a bit more conversation and brainstorming before deciding if that is true or not. Right now, it’s just me, an airplane, and a small child, playing with a fire truck in the seat next to me, for a think-tank. Some existing examples of cards that stand out to me are [Rysa the Earthcaller] or [Lord Jorach Ravenholdt]. These allies are more niche, and help a specific strategy. Jorach is playable in any sort of deck, but he really shines and becomes abusive in Zorks.
A better balancing of the racial allies might help as well. So far [Dethvir the Malignant] leads the charge for team red while [Dimzer the Prestidigitator] holds down the blue fort. Unless I’m having a brain fart on the plane, no other racial allies are even remotely close in power. Virtually the only acceptable reason not to play Dethvir, in a deck that runs allies, is that an Undead hero simply wasn’t available.
So what happened to all the glory days of yesteryear where you could play rush, midrange, control, solo, or some whacky deck in left field like a [Martiana the Mindwrench] that plays aggressive cards to try and get a fast lock with [Voidfire Wand]?
The simple answer is the transition to Core. The current card base and metagame doesn’t lend itself to those out of the box decks. In almost every sort of big-picture analysis I’ve done, it seems like the safest and most consistent strategy is a sort of semi-aggressive midrange deck. This sort of deck deals with the blitzkrieg aggro the best, and can win easily once stabilized. It also packs enough pressure and answers to deal with whatever control decks one might face. Lastly, and certainly not surprisingly, this sort of deck lends itself to the best card in the format: [Tuskarr Kite]. And after all, [Tuskarr Kite] forces you to play a plethora of allies, which ties in to the very first issue that was addressed: the common “good allies” shared by every deck.
[Tuskarr Kite] provides some of the best card draw available for a relatively cheap cost. This is nothing new, and I’m sure the last thing readers want is another Kite discussion. I feel the card is so powerful, however, that when solo decks like Death Wish lost [Vindicator’s Brand] and [Pummel], they also lost a lot ways to mitigate the Kite flying out-of-control-high.
The direction I want to take now is more one of inquisition. I am not set in stone on my beliefs here, but I wonder if [Tuskarr Kite] may be a
necessary evil. Typically successful classes have stellar card draw. Some classes like Hunter are just poorly designed and don’t really do anything worthwhile. Other classes like Druid, Priest, or Death Knight (other classes may belong here as well) fail, lacking the card draw available to Warlock, Mage, and Warrior (perhaps Rogue as well?). Without Kite, quite a few decks would fall off the radar and we would trade a common ally base and ubiquitous generic ability but interchangeable class heroes for maybe 2-3 decks that dominate the format.
Perhaps the best solution is to ban the Kite and reprint some more game friendly version only available as a dual class ability to some combination of Druid / Hunter / Death Knight / whoever else can’t draw cards worth a damn.
To slightly shift gears, and forgive the irony, but I think the best sort of deck for Orlando would be something relatively allyless. A powerful deck that has some great answers for both rush and control, that leaves opposing ally control cards useless and has a fine and expedient finisher would likely be a good call for the meta. Perhaps this is exactly the sort of deck I stumbled onto Wednesday night during our impromptu testing session?
This is all food for thought, and something I’ve enjoyed writing about. It was brought to you from someone who has largely enjoyed their time preparing for the Core event in Orlando this weekend. In a couple weeks we’ll take a look at what I ended up playing and why.
Until then…
Brad Watson
Brad Watson is one of the most consistent players in the WoW TCG's tournament circuit. He is a former player of the year and National champion, has won multiple DMF main events, and has seen Sunday play at multiple World Championship events. His latest finishes include top 16 at the 2010 North American Continental Championship and a top 4 finish at the 2010 World Championship
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