Happy with the Horde, pt 1

Ok... the name sounds... 'funny'. Meh, it's the best I can come up with at the moment, I'm not too good with titles.

So anyway... basically, to sum this article up into one sentence: Horde allies rock.

A few weeks ago I never would have found myself saying that. The first two decks I had were Warrax (from the starter) and then Graccus (with some borrowed cards). These decks were the first of many that followed a simple trend. I never touched the Horde. In fact, I didn't even consider playing them, didn't even look over the cards.

Wow... that was dumb.

It took playing against Dr. Device's Horde Priest deck that showed me the error of my ways. The allies were so well put together, complementing eachother defensively while providing a far superior offense than anything I had been able to muster on the Alliance side. And so, I began to look closer at the Horde.

Early game, the Horde allies jump out of the gates with a, dare I say it, Ferocity unmatched by the Alliance. Take these two, for instance. 1 resource cost for some darn good units. Kagra helps you get started on the right foot by coming out and instantly being able to attack. Not only that, but she has a higher survival rate of the lower costed Alliance allies (Like Warden Tonarin for instance...) because of her health. 2 May not seem too great, but early in the game, it's the difference between life and death.

Our other early game lead-card is Ka'tali Stonetusk. You want to talk about putting the meatshield, Warden Tonarin to shame, this is it. 1 cost for a 1/2 Protector is decent in and of itself, but it's his ability to heal himself that makes him useful early on. This is great early on, though after turn 3, his healing ability becomes practically useless, as most of the time things will be able to do 2 damage...

Our next two early game cards are primarily utility, boosting the attack power of your units. This means that while you may not want to play a Ka'Tali Stonetusk on turn 6, you would still want to consider these guys.

Elder Moorf is one that makes it into most of my horde decks. At first glance, his ability is pretty nice, but when looking at it closer, it just gets better and better. The first thing to note here is that his ability does not cause him to tap, meaning he can still attack and use the ability. (This also means that he can use the ability on the turn he came out) The second thing to notice is that he can use his ability on himself. So, if he's the only one out, he's not entirely useless.

Zorm Stonefury's text makes him an absolute must for rush decks. 2 cost for a static +1 Atk for all your allies. He doesn't tap for this, doesn't pay any cost, it's just there. Put this guy behind a few of your protectors and watch him shine. Now, to the muscle...

These guys are the beginning of the backbone of your deck. Their relatively low cost allows you to play them fairly early on in the game, while their mid-range atk keeps them viable even to the end of the game.

Vesh'ral is a great card for rush decks. Sure, he may not have a lot of health, but throw him out there and pump him up with Elder Moorf and he can do some serious damage before your opponent takes him out. Also, if you have some decent protectors out, you won't have a problem keeping him alive.

Benethor at first doesn't seem very appealing. No printed text, just stats, typically makes cards pretty lackluster-seeming to some. However, Benethor can be quite powerful. 3 resources for a 4/2 is not something to sneer at, especially if you have cards like Moorf and Stonefury to pump him up.

I hope this has been informative. Look for the second part of this article soon, where we'll take a closer look at those mid-late game cards that provide you with more of a defensive option, while leaving offensive capability relatively unharmed.

Medic!

Last time, we mentioned some protectors who can be very useful. Unfortunately, when a protector does what it's supposed to do, it dies. The only question now is how do you make the most of your protectors and keep your opponent busy while using your other allies to cause some real damage.

Medoc Spiritwarden is a protector's friend. Actually, he's friends with any ally in your deck, but protectors are especially useful with the dwarven priest. By using his ability, you can keep using the same protectors over and over again without having to worry about whether you'll draw a new one. In fact, with two or more Medoc Spiritwardens in play, your opponent will have to have a huge number of allies in position to attack before you'll have to worry about losing your regenerative priest(s).

Parvink is one of the most popular protectors, and for good reason. The little gnome comes with a free card for your hand, protector, and decent stats to boot. When you combine her with Medoc Spiritwarden, your opponent can be effectively locked in combat with the same little gnome over and over again, drawing you a card each time you recycle her from your graveyard and play her. Warden Tonarin, on the other hand, isn't as immediately beneficial as Parvink. However, the night elf warrior is perfect for blocking an opponent when you can't afford to spend the resources on Parvink or some other protector every turn. In fact, you can play him on the first turn of the game and generally count on him lasting long enough to be useful, however a well played ability from your opponent could send Tonarin to the graveyard quite easily.

When the Spiritwarden is absent or even when he himself is killed, Chasing A-Me 01 and Call the Spirit both come in handy. They can both recycle your recursive healer as well as the allies that Medoc may not have been able to revive. A deck bent on using these three cards, especially in concert, is sure to bring your opponents a lot of pain. Not to mention keep you in the running even when your deck stops giving you the allies you need.

With all this recycling of allies, you can guarantee that your opponent will be seriously frustrated. Besides... while your opponent is busy wiping out the endless stream of allies, you can be focusing on the bigger picture.

Keep 'Em Down

Now that we've seen a couple heroes and their strengths, let's take a look at some allies who can turn the tables on your opponents.

Lhurg Venomblade has a very obvious strength. His ability to knock out any exhausted opposing ally means that, with him on the table, your opponent has to be very careful about when they propose combat or even use the activated abilities of some of their own allies. However, on his own, Lhurg won't be able to do much damage before he gets taken out. Granted, it would take two opposing allies to kill him off after he's able to use his ability, but with only two health, it doesn't take a very heavy hitter to put Lhurg in the graveyard. More often than not, Lhurg will probably be marked for death before he's even been on the table a full turn. That said, let's look at a few tricks that not only improve his longevity, but also help him to reach his full potential.

  

Galahandra is Lhurg's best friend when it comes to wreaking havoc. Once both of them are out on the field, you can choose any opposing ally to eliminate every turn at a cost of one resource. Also, it's important to realize that Galahandra can come out a turn or two before Lhurg and exhaust one of the opposing allies before her poisonous friend comes into play, helping keep the dwarf alive long enough to use his power. Exhaustion works very similarly to Galahandra, but has the drawback of only working once before it's discarded. For class-specific decks, you might consider
Bash, Entangling Roots, Hammer of Justice, Crippling Poison, Gouge, Waylay, or Charge as other methods to exhaust the opposition.

  

Lhurg should also employ some protection, just in case the opposition has a vast army in play. Donna Calister is ideal as a protector, as she can protect against each attack until she dies, unfortunately she doesn't deal much damage in return, but her seven health means she should manage to cover at least three attacks for Lhurg. Meanwhile, Tristan Rapidstrike's real strength only shows when you have the resources ready to drop him at the crucial moment for his protection. However, even protector's can die eventually... but we'll worry about that issue next time.

Graccus the Protector

Paladins are notorious for their overly righteous attitude and their desire to save the world from evil using their holy powers. Graccus is no different. While he isn't much to look at by himself, with a little help the Human Paladin becomes a force to be reckoned with.

While Graccus doesn't instantly come with the ability to protect his allies, his class gives him a couple ways to add the ability. Moreover, these additions also make him a little harder to kill, which means your opponent will not only be wasting their attacks on the valiant hero, but they'll be doing it on your terms and to your benefit. The Draconian Deflector, a card found in the pre-constructed Graccus deck, is a natural inclusion when trying to make the hero the ultimate meat-shield. Also, Sacred Duty fits the bill when the deflector is absent and it gives you a little more incentive to protect with Graccus whenever you can.

The only problem now is how do you keep Graccus readied in order to protect at every possible assault. While there are currently very few abilities that allow you to keep your hero readied for any occasion, Galway Steamwhistle and the Thrash Blade allow you to protect while still getting your punches in.

The combination of Thrash Blade and Galway Steamwhistle means that you can attack on your turn and protect a total of five times on your opponent's turn. While Thrash Blade doesn't help you on your opponent's turn, the fact that you can use Galway's ability any time you have priority means that, with four copies of him on the board, you can have Graccus ready to rumble four more times than normal.

Of course, now that it's been shown that Graccus is a protector, it's up to you to figure out how best to build a deck that abuses his strength. However, keep checking back. There might be a decklist featured here in the near future.

Omedus the Punisher

Being a priest in the World of Warcraft MMO game always seemed like a poor choice to me. Personally, the idea of 'melting faces' seemed weak relative to the burst damage of a mage or the longevity of warriors. However, the same is not true in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game.
While priests are typically assumed to be passive healers who camp out behind a bigger fighter, they do have their offensive side. In fact, the priests in the TCG have just as much offensive ability as healing. This can be especially seen in Omedus the Punisher.


The real advantages Omedus has over his Alliance counterpart, Boris Brightbeard, is that his flip ability allows him to deal up to seven damage to an opposing hero all by himself. Boris, on the other hand, can heal any amount of damage (provided you can pay that many resources) from any hero or ally. Technically, Boris can heal more than Omedus can dish out, but Omedus, being the only Shadow priest in the pair, also has access to Shadowform. That, coupled with Chromatic Cloak, can give your opponent nightmares for weeks to come.

Shadowform isn't particularly spectacular on its own or even in combination with Odemus' flip ability. But mixed with Chromatic cloak, it makes every ability a heavy blow to the opposition. While Chromatic Cloak only affects abilities and Shadowform only works with Shadow damage, the fact that there are some good priest abilities which deal shadow damages makes both cards worth every resource. The key abilities for Odemus to take full advantage of his Shadowform and Cloak are Shadow Word: Pain and Mind Spike. While Mind Blast is also a potent ability (essentially working as two Mind Spikes) the cost is more than twice a single Mind Spike and when using the cloak and form, it's better to play as many individual abilities as possible.

Now we get into the real benefit to the priest over other characters. Shadow Word: Pain will slowly work on an opponent's health until either the attached character is destroyed or the ability is. Even more importantly, it's instant and can be played during your opponent's turn, provided he or she plays something that would be start the chain. Once attached, with Shadowform and Chromatic Cloak, the Pain will triple. Two Pains on a single hero would deal 6 shadow damage at the beginning of each of your turns. Over the course of just a few turns, that can easily overwhelm an opponent.
While there are other cards that force a discard, Mind Spike lets you do damage at the same time. On top of that, when it's coupled with Shadowform and Chromatic Cloak, it does three damage and causes your target's controller to discard three cards. The similar card, Mind Blast, would only gain you one more damage and card for an additional three resources, so it wasn't quite worth the cost.

The real trick to making this combo click is in timing the discards you throw at your opponent. If you can hold on to a discard ability until your opponent forgets (or can't) play the card they draw, you're practically guaranteed to get it out of their hand. No cards in their hand means that you can see all of their options on the table and stop them from using any real strategy. That is what control is all about.