Rescue the Survivors! and The Perfect Stout.

Today's preview cards were more dealing with defining the races in the World of Warcraft TCG. They are both quests, so there's not a whole lot exciting going on with them. I'l talk quickly about the cards themselves, but today I also want to talk about how I'm hoping the next set affects deckbuilding.

To see the preview cards go here.

These two quests are pretty similar. Rescue the Survivors is pretty good. If you could complete it during your opponent's turn, I think it would be the best quest in the game as you would almost be assured of always getting two cards out of it. As is, you will always get one card and then have an ally left over. Your opponent will usually get to decide whether that extra dude becomes another card in your hand or soaks up an attack. Either one is not bad. One of the nice things about this card is it gives your opponent another opportunity to make a mistake. Does he need all of his attacks to go through at the expense of giving you an extra card or does he attack your ally and lose tempo to deny you the extra card. In control matchups, this card will almost always mean your opponent will try to kill the extra ally, but because most control decks will play defensively through the early and midgame they may not be in a position to kill that extra ally. I really like this quest. Of course, it depends on what Draenei heroes we get, but I think this card is pretty solid.

The second quest previewed today was The Perfect Stout. This card will make Your Fortune Awaits You completely obsolete in Alliance decks unless players want them in addition to The Perfect Stouts. If you're not playing a Dwarf hero, this card is still strictly superior to YFAY. Most of the time they will have the exact same function, pay 3 to draw a card. But the simple fact that this card has another power to use if you need it for no extra cost means there is simply no reason to put Fortune in an Alliance deck before it maxes out its Perfect Stouts. If you're playing a Dwarf, you get Litori's flip ability with a card tacked on for good measure. Another solid card.

Judging by these two cards, I think that Through the Dark Portal is going to be a good thing for World of Warcraft constructed play. One of the things that is a little bothersome for tournament players right now is the fact that most of the decks are really defined by the allies that they use. There is essentially a rush set of allies for Alliance and Horde, the Horde mid-range allies, and the Alliance control allies. You can also play solo. Each set of allies generally has a hero that plays that set the best. For instance, the mid-range Horde allies are best utilized by the Shaman. Right now, when you build a deck you basically pick which set of allies you want and then pick your hero based on just a few abilities. I'm hoping that Dark Portal will make hero selection more important and allow some more creativity among the deck types. Right now a lot of the constricted feeling of deckbuilding is because of the small amount of available cards. That is why I'm pretty happy the next set is another big set. It should give us a nice cardpool to build from. After Dark Portal, I would like to see the set sizes drop down a little, but the game will be more settled in then and can stand smaller sets. Overall, I'm starting to get excited for Through the Dark Portal and it's still 2 months away.