Last Dark Portal Previews

Today, our preview journey together comes to an end. We've gotten our last previews (now I'm just winning some Aussies get on the ball and get a spoiler up since they're almost a full day ahead of us over there). Our final previews are gigantic monsters who will end the game within a couple turns of entering it.

Ivus, The Forest Lord
Cost: 14
Alliance Ally-Unique
10/10

You pay (1) less to play Ivus for each non-token Alliance ally in your party.

Each opposing ability, ally, and equipment can't ready during its controller's ready step.

Lokholar, The Ice Lord
Cost: 14
Horde Ally-Unique
10/10

You pay (1) less to play Lokholar for each non-token Horde ally in your party.

At the start of each opponent's turn, Lokholar deals 2 frost damage to each hero and ally in that player's party. A character dealt damage this way can't attack this turn.

Well, these guys are quite huge. They're also very expensive to play. I think you can only count on being able to reduce their cost by maybe one or two with your own allies. Any more than that at that point in the game and you are probably winning anyway. Obviously these guys are going to end a game pretty quickly after they enter play, but I'm not so sure that they can end it faster than Magni. I would be pretty surprised to see these guys get any real serious play. They are quite fun though. Sorry for the short post today, but there's just not a whole lot for me to say about these cards, and we're so close now, I just can't wait until we get to see the whole set. I have a lot of things I want to say about the new set, and I'll start covering it in detail next week, when I talk about how I think the quest makeup of decks will change dramatically with the release of the new set.

Update: War Stomp and A New Plague

Yesterday, I mentioned two cards in my preview War Stomp and A New Plague. These cards were actually in Scrye and not in the FAQ. For anyone who doesn't know what they do, here they are.

War Stomp
Instant Ability
Cost:3
Tauren Hero Required

Exhaust all opposing heroes and allies.

This card will be good for mid-range and control decks to punch the last bit of damage through annoying protectors (I'm looking at you Magni). It can also act as a Fog in a pinch, but I don't see many decks being able to commit three resources to skipping combat early in the game, but you never know.

A New Plague
Horde Quest
Pay (4) to complete this quest.
Reward: Choose one: If you control an ally in your party you may destroy that ally and another target ally or draw a card. If your hero is an Undead, you may choose both.

One quick note on the you may choose quests for anyone who didn't read it in the FAQ. If you choose to do both, you do them in the printed order from the card. It's not that important with this quest, but with Solanian's Belongings it is important to know this ruling.

Dual Wield and the FAQ is up.

Today's preview card is Dual Wield which is a pretty exciting card. It allows Rogues, Warriors, and Hunters to carry 2 Melee weapons. An interesting note from the FAQ regarding Dual Wield. When Dual Wielding weapons that trigger off of an amount of damage being dealt such as Wraith Scythe or Sword of Zeal, they count all damage dealt in the combat. So if you swing with the two previously mentioned weapons you would heal 4 and untap 4 resources.

I want to take a quick look at how dual wielding will affect each of the classes able to do it. First, Hunters. Hunter rush could add a second cheap weapon to start dealing even more damage. Unfortunately, this would require making room both for a second weapon and Dual Wield. I just don't see a rush deck playing cards that aren't good on their own. Where I think this card will really impact the Hunter class is the new control decks that seem likely to spring up. Imagine this scenario. Your Hunter opponent has a Dual Wield in play with an Ancient Bone Bow, a Krol Blade, and a Sword of Zeal. Now he gets to attack and take out one of your allies without taking any damage back while saving enough weapons to take out two more of your allies on defense. When you run out of guys, he simply gets to start hammering on you. This will give Hunter control a great option for dealing with swarms while also being a very aggressive position when it needs to be.

Rogues are going to love them some Dual Wield. Judging by the cards we've seen, Rogues might finally have a chance to get some love. They are really getting some quality abilities in this set and Dual Wielding is going to allow them to do even more damage. Here's a scary thought. Imagine a Rogue with Krol Blade and Sword of Zeal. They swing in for 5 a turn and actually GAIN two resources from the deal assuming no weapon pumps. In case you haven't figured it out yet, Sword of Zeal + Dual Wielding = good. Don't be shocked at all to see Rogue decks sporting lots of Swords of Zeal to get their combat damage in for free then after their attacks get all their resources back to play their mean combo abilities.

Warriors will also enjoy Dual Wielding. DW greatly increases the power of some commonly played Warrior cards like Heroic Strike and Deathdealer Breastplate. Warriors will have their own mind boggling DW + Sword of Zeal combo with Twig of the World Tree. Zeal + Twig will be netting Warriors some serious resources late in a game or if they choose to go the Rak Skyfury combo route. It also gives them the power to combine Annihilator with another weapon to power through armor. Given the rulings on Dual Wielding weapons anything combined with an Annihilator should all be unpreventable and trigger anything the second weapon would do. Paladins are going to have nightmares about Dual Wielded Annihilators.

In addition to the daily preview, the Dark Portal FAQ also went up today and had about 50 or so new cards mentioned in it. There are some really good cards in there. I'm not going to go into a full review of every single card (but expect a set review on TCGPlayer.com in either next week or the week after) but I will quickly talk about some of the standouts, and where I think the game is headed with this set.

First to Fall seems like a very good sideboard card against decks that like to run big protectors, Ambush is really good especially with the fact that Vanish is so good, Brainwash seems very solid, Cannibalize is going to see a lot of play, Distract isn't as good as everyone thinks it is. It's not an instant so it essentially only negates one turn's worth of attacks which Vanish does a lot better and I don't see enough room in a Rogue deck for Distract and Vanish. If a Mage control deck ever actually does something, Evocation is going to be ridiculous. Eye of Kilrogg is one of the best cards in the game. The Haunted Mills is very good. Tim is probably the second best culture flavored card behind Leeroy Jenkins. I'm not sure about Outrider Zorg, but I know he doesn't like Draconian Deflector. Penelope's Rose is going to sway a lot of control mirrors. War Stomp is pretty good and A New Plague seems like it has a lot of promise forcing tough decisions regarding ability based removal since you can use it in response.

This set is starting to look more and more like it's geared toward control. The Undead Warlock in particular seems to be getting a lot of great cards. There are so many really good control cards and so far we haven't seen much in the way of really good aggro cards. As for the cards from the FAQ, really good control cards tend to need some clarifications whereas most really good aggro cards are more straightforward so they don't appear in the FAQ. I really feel like this set is going to shake up the metagame a lot. I know there are already at least 6 decks I want to build based solely on the cards we've already seen. Getting used to all the new cards will take a while, but it's going to be a fun ride.

Weekly Metagame breakdown

Today's preview card is going to be Thunder Clap, which makes me sad because we've already seen it. I'll skip my review of the preview and just start breaking down the metagame from this weekend. First up are this week's results. The first number after each hero is the amount of top 4's and the second number is top 8's.

This week:

Grennan 14-20
Sen'Zir 10-11
Gorebelly 6-9
Elendril 4-7
Dizdemona 3-7
Litori 2-2
Omedus 1-2
Varanis 1-2
Radak 1-1
Ta'Zo 1-1

And here are the new totals

Grennan 36-48
Sen'Zir 22-31
Elendril 16-22
Gorebelly 13-18
Dizdemona 10-20
Omedus 3-6
Varanis 3-4
Litori 3-4
Radak 2-3
Ta'Zo 2-2
Graccus 1-1
Thangal 1-1
Warrax 0-1

First let's take a look at just this week's results. Grennan remains out in front. He didn't quite dominate like he did last week, but he still posted more top 8's and top 4's than any other hero. One thing worth noting this week is that the majority of Grennan decks are migrating to the aggro side. This makes a lot of the bad matchups for the control deck much better. I played Aggro Shaman this past weekend, and went 3-0 vs. Dizzy control, beat Gorebelly in a not close at all match, and lost my one match vs. Sen'Zir. That match went to three games and all were very close. I was one damage short of killing him in Game 1 because of my own play mistake earlier in the game. One thing worth noting for any Lazy Peons out there, my decklist ran only 2 rares (2 copies of Chain Lightning), so Aggro Shaman is also a great choice for that format.

Sen'Zir has firmly asserted himself as the No. 2 deck in the game right now. His execellent matchups vs. the control decks are working in his favor. The sudden slip of Elendril will also help this deck. That is probably its least favorite matchup. It's still pretty close but not having it will mean more wins for Sen'Zir. I' a little torn as to where to classify this deck. Based on numbers it's still closer to the decks behind it than the deck ahead of it so for now, I'll leave it as the top of Tier 2.

For the first time, Elendril falls out of the top 3 in weekly results, supplanted this week by Gorebelly. Gorebelly is picking up more steam every week as he climbs the charts. If Elendril continues to fade this will be another deck that gets helped immensely, although I have seen several decklists that are being tuned to essentially set up a wall around their hero before they win and the rush decks can actually have a bit of a problem getting through all the Demo Shouts and Defensive Stances. I expect to see Gorebelly continue to do well over the next few weeks until Dark Portal becomes legal. Unfortunately, for some of Gorebelly's more vocal supporters, I'm going to continue to classify this as a Tier 2 deck on the rise. When I talk about a deck being Tier 1, Tier 2, etc., it has nothing to do with personal preference or the power of the deck. It has only to do with the numbers being put up and Gorebelly just isn't up there with Grennan right now, so he stays Tier 2.

Elendril had a quiet week. People might finally be moving away from the most consistent deck in the game. Given the abundance of Searing Totems running around, I think many Elendril players were just tired of their bad matchup with Shamans and are looking for decks that match up better with it than Elendril. Now that we have a better idea of what can beat the Shamans people are starting to play those decks with more frequency moving away from Elendril. Elendril will remain a Tier 2 deck, but it is definitely on the decline right now.

Dizdemona got off to a slow start but she's getting a little more consistent. She had another solid week, but the escalating numbers of Sen'Zir players combined with the movement of Shaman decks to aggro may pose some problems for the Warlock. But she will remain a solid choice for the next few weeks. Another solid, steady week keep her in Tier 2 and holding steady.

As for Tier 3, Litori took a couple of spots this week and Omedus and Varanis both made more than one top 8. Maybe this is the start of big things for the frost Mage. I think Varanis is pretty good because of the Horde Mages ability to play either aggro or control within the same deck, and Omedus' flip ability is brutal vs. Shaman and Hunter decks that empty their hands all the time. I hear dealing 7 for a flip is pretty good.

The biggest news this week is the continued rise of Gorebelly and the sudden decline of Elendril. There is only one Regionals scheduled for this weekend due to the Sneak Previews. Remember Dark Portal doesn't become legal until the last weekend in April so there will still be three weeks of Regionals events with just Heroes of Azeroth. I think most people will just take decks that are doing well now as there isn't much room left in one set for further innovation, but I'm really looking forward to that first few weeks of May when the metagame really gets blown up. It will be the first time in the life of this game that we have seen any real innovation in deckbuilding and I can't wait.

Hellfire

When I saw today's card, my first reaction was just wow. This may be as close to Wrath of God as this game ever gets. For anyone who hasn't seen it:

Hellfire
Warlock ability
Cost:6

Your hero deals 5 damage to all heroes and allies.

First of all, there are very few allies that are going to survive the Hellfire. In that sense it can certainly be good for a Warlock control deck looking for ways to clear the field of an early swarm. But then there's the drawback. It hits your own guys as well and more importantly, your hero takes 5 damage from this. This is a very significant drawback, especially considering the probability that you will have to face a Moko or Fury the turn after. Even facing those odds, this card is still very powerful.

If you put Hellfire into your deck, Nemesis Skullcap becomes an auto-include as you will definitely need to healing. Depending on how much damage you have taken Grayson Shadowbreaker could become a more popular pick for post Hellfire to pull you back from the brink. A quick side note regarding Grayson. I qualified for Nationals this past weekend with an aggro Shaman deck and I think of the Alliance Trinity the card I least like to see is Grayson. That may sound really weird, but for the most part, Jaina and Magni are far more beatable by the Shaman than Grayson. The reason is you have several turns where they don't really do anything but maintain the status quo while the Shaman player waits on a Karkas or Vanquish. Once they're bounced it's almost like they were never there. Grayson on the other hand, can actively pull the Warlock back from near death while the Shaman tries to draw into an answer. Carrying on....

From a design point of view I love this card. It has an incredibly powerful effect with a significant but playable drawback. Instead of taking a card, making it incredibly powerful, but then sticking a huge number in the top left corner to make it "balanced" the designers have given us a powerful effect with a manageable drawback. They have given us the opportunity to decide if the effect is worth the price you have to pay to get it as opposed to Legend of Mount Hyjal, where the resource cost basically dictates that the card never see play.

On the subject of the preview article though, there were a couple of mistakes in regards to cards mentioned in the article. The first was the author mentioning playing this card on turn 5 being too slow when the cost is clearly 6. The other was the author saying that Nemesis Skullcap can heal the damage that an Infernal deals to your hero, when Infernal only hits opposing heroes and allies. I realize that everyone makes mistakes, I did forget about Shield Bash being a "free" card after all, but this is the official preview from the makers of the game. If the author was unaware, at least an editor should have caught these errors. It was the second preview from UDE that had card errors in it as the preview for Spellsteal referenced stealing a From the Shadows. Someone in editing should really be catching these very basic miscues.

While I'm talking about editing I would like to apologize for any errors, spelling, grammatical, or game-related that appear in my blog posts. 99% of the posts here are written with only a little bit of forethought and I usually just type them up and hit publish. The only preparation is getting an idea of what I want to write about and gathering any required information (like with the metagame articles). My articles for TCGPlayer tend to be more thought-out and probably fit into a more cohesive overall idea as I generally work on those about a week or so before I send them in and go back and edit them in an attempt to make them work better as an article. I proofread all of those before I send them in and Chedy over at the site usually catches anything that I might have missed, so if it seems like my writing here is different than my writing there it's mostly because of preparation.

Tomorrow's preview unfortunately is Thunder Clap, which I have already talked about so tomorrow seems like a good day to cover this weekend's Regionals action. I'm still missing some results so anyone who attended an event this weekend please send those in so we can get a more detailed analysis.

Preview cards from the weekend plus the new Totem

For anyone who didn't already know, I was in Ft. Worth on Saturday for Regionals. I didn't get a chance to talk about the preview cards from the weekend, so I'll talk about those today along with today's preview, a Shaman Totem.

Lightwell
Priest Ability
Cost-3

Holy Hero Required

Ongoing: Friendly heroes and allies have exhaust-> this character heals 2 damage from itself.

Our buddy Boris Brightbeard gets access to this powerful ability along with the new Troll priest Mojo Mender Ja'nah. We all already know Boris is #1. No seriously, look at his set number. See I told you. But let's get back to the card.

This card actually seems pretty decent. Priests don't have much to be exhausting for anyway, so this seems like as good an effect as any. Combined with Hide of the Wild, this will heal 3 damage a turn. Mass healing has gotten a bit of a bad rap. I think this is because most people hear oh life gain is bad, it doesn't really do anything except delay the opponent. It has no real effect on the board. Many people seem to just repeat this because they've heard it so many times, but they don't really understand why it's true.

While it is true that the majority of life gain or healing is relatively ineffective, there are two times when this is not true. One is in the case of recursive healing. If this is in play for say, 6 turns, that's 12 extra damage your opponent has to deal. Suddenly Boris's health total is 38 instead of 26. The other time that healing can be effective is when it is mass amounts for cheap. Like, say, 14 health for 4 resource points. Let's say you have that 12 extra health from your Lightwell, and now you add in a Greater Heal. That's 14 more damage your opponent has to deal. Suddenly it takes 50 damage to kill a priest. I can see a very annoying Priest deck in the future that will require close to 100 damage to finish off. I personally believe there's a lot of potential here.

Sunday's cards were Rogue abilities Kick and Vanish

Kick
Rogue Instant Ability
Cost:3

Your hero deals 2 melee damage to target hero or ally. If you targeted a hero, you may interrupt an ability card played by its controller.

I'm going to say right off the bat, that I am just not a fan of interrupts in this game right now. The fact that they cannot counter allies just makes them too limited in scope to be anything more than sideboard cards unless the format shifts heavily toward combo decks, which I just don't foresee. Most of the time, Kick will just be a bad removal spell. I see this mainly being a sideboard card for to protect the Rogue's combo against decks that have a way to stop it. I don't think this does a lot to move Rogue away from being the worst class, though.

Vanish
Rogue Instant Ability
Cost:1
Your hero has elusive this turn. If it's defending, remove all attackers from combat.

Ongoing: Your hero has stealth.

When your hero deals damage, destroy Vanish.

This card is actually pretty good for Rogues, I think. IMO, for Rogues to be competitive they are going to need to be able to fire off their combo around turn 6 or so. Playing just one of these gets you through what can be an important turn around 4 or 5. The low cost means that you don't have to waste your turn using Vanish to nullify your opponent's turn. That means you can continue developing your board working toward a big Eviscerate combo, and essentially get a free turn out of it. I think as far as protecting the combo the 1-cost Purloin is far better than Kick. I think there's a little bit of potential here for the Rogue combo deck to be decent depending on what other cards it gets in the next set.

Finally, we come to the Shaman.

Mana Tide Totem
Shaman Ability-Water Totem

Restoration Hero Required

Totem
Ongoing: At the beginning of your turn, draw a card for each hero and ally in your party.

When I first looked at the card, I assumed it was an instant like the rest of its totemic brethren and the card seemed way too good. The fact that it has to survive a full turn before you get the benefit makes it much more balanced. The fact that it's talent spec'd means it will probably only be playable in an Alliance Shaman for the time being. It seems tailor made for a good Alliance control deck. If it stays in play for more than a turn or two, it will turn the Shaman's probable biggest weakness into a strength. Right now, about all the Shaman can't do is draw cards with everyone else. But a late game Mana-Tide Totem could be a game-breaking card in control matches. It will require immediate action, or the opponent will quickly be overwhelmed under the mountain of cards. Phadalus' flip ability means you'll always get two shots to keep one of these in play. I really like this card, and can't wait to try it out in an Alliance Shaman control deck.

I think the power level of these cards is a little higher than we were treated to last week, and judging from the two packs I got to see at Regionals, I'm actually really excited about this set. I'm actually concerned that there are too many ideas I want to try out, but I won't have enough time to go through them all before Darkmoon Faire-Austin at the end of April.

For those of you who are starting to doubt TTDP

EDIT:I POSTED THAT THERE IS AN UNTARGETABLE 6/4 ALLY THAT COSTS 4. THE COST ON THIS ALLY IS ACTUALLY 6. SORRY FOR ANY CONFUSION THIS CAUSED OR ANY PREMATURE EXCITEMENT ABOUT HOW RIDICULOUS THAT CARD WOULD HAVE BEEN.


I finally got to play in a Regionals yesterday. For anyone who doesn't know the story, in January I couldn't get to Regionals because of a brutal ice storm. This weekend was the first Regionals within 10 hours of me. I played Grennan rush and went 5-1 in the Swiss. I beat two Dizzy decks, 2 Elendril decks and 1 Gorebelly. I lost to a Sen'Zir deck in a very close 3 game match because of a play error on my part in game one. I then managed to beat a very good Dizdemona deck in the top 8 thanks to Karkas Deathhhowl and secured my spot at Nationals. But the possibly more important development of the day was our great TO was kind enough to open 2 packs of Through the Dark Portal cards so that we could get our first look. The two packs were incredible. Here's a quick list of some of the highlights.

Grennan's flip ability is now a 4-cost Shaman instant ability called Shock & Soothe, Druid has got an ability that deals 3 damage for 2 resources, Shamans also got an ability with cost X+2 that deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of allies, there's a Feral Druid whose flip ability readies himself in Cat Form, a Priest ability that deals 3 damage to a target for 2 resources, but if it doesn't kill it you take 3 too, untargetable is a new key word, there were alliance allies that were a 2/1 for 1 and a 6/4 for 4 that were untargetable, there was a 5/5 for 6 with Stealth and Protector, a 3-cost instant ability destroy target attacking ally, a 3-cost Warlock ability remove target ally from the game, a 3-cost warrior ability that was Cleave for 1 target, the field repair bot is a 0/2 that let's friendly heroes exhaust to return equipment from your graveyard to your hand, an Owl pet for Hunters that's a 2/2 for 2 with Demoralizing Shout built in, a 3/2 for 3 that says your opponent cannot complete quests, and a 3/2 for three that when it dies you destroy target ally.

Overall, I was very impressed with the two packs. They were far better than the cards we've actually seen previewed. I knew this set still had a lot of potential and this really restored some of my faith in it. I'll have more in the next couple days, just wanted to put some of these cards up.

Don't let me kill your buzz

I'm starting to feel like a real preview party pooper. I haven't had a lot of nice things to say about most of the preview cards. So today I'm going to make it a point to say something nice about the preview card, whatever it is.

Blessing of Sacrifice
Cost:5
Instant Ability

Attach to target ally in your party.

Ongoing: If attached ally would be dealt damage, that much damage is dealt to your hero instead.

Alright. Time to say some nice things about today's card. This card is easily one of the 5 most powerful abilities in the game......err....Paladin abilities......ummm.....Blessings. This card is easily one of the 5 most powerful blessings in the game. Yay for saying nice things.

Unfortunately, we got yet another card that is complete and utter crap. If the cost weren't so high, it might be considerable for a slot in a Paladin deck. But at five, there's simply no chance that this will ever see play in a tournament quality deck. Let's take a look at when this could be useful.

First, you need an ally that is vital to keep around. Let's be generous and say it costs 5. So we have a 5 cost ally whose presence is vital to winning. If we managed to play that 5 cost ally, it would then need to survive until our next turn when we'll have our five resources handy to Bless it. This is the inherent flaw with this card. Rush and tempo decks will kill your guy before the next turn, so he will never get the Blessing anyway. Or Karkas Deathhowl him. Good times.

In the unlikely scenario that this vital ally does in fact survive the turn, you're probably already winning. But now instead of really pressing the advantage you seem to have, you need to leave five resources open in case they try to kill him next turn. You can then Bless him at the end of their turn, but since it doesn't seem like they're going to be able to kill it anytime soon anyway, that seems like a bit of a waste. A pre-emptive waste, but a waste none the less.

Or let's say you're playing against a control deck who let's the ally live for a turn so you can attach the blessing. It seems unlikely that a control deck, which plans on going into the late game, will have no answers for allies that can't be killed through damage. This brings us to a general theory from Magic which also applies here in WoW. Creature enchantments (now called Auras which I still don't like) or ongoing abilities attached to allies have to be incredibly powerful to see play. This is because of the card disadvantage they bring when the attached ally is destroyed. I just don't think this card is powerful enough to overcome the disadvantage that Vanquish brings.

The other problem is that this card is likely to stop possibly one attack/ability from killing an ally before they find another way to remove that ally. Blessing of Protection can do the same thing with two significantly better features. The lower cost on BoP makes it far less obvious and useful earlier than BoS (it's not a coincidence that this card can be abbreviated BS) and BoP can be used to preserve your own life in addition to the lives of your allies.

This card just isn't very good to me, and I would be shocked to see it in any tournament winning decks. Sorry for the downer on the previews, but if they would preview better cards I wouldn't have to do it.

Stealspell

Today's preview card is up. It's a new Mage ability

Stealspell
Cost:3

Gain control of target ability. If it's attached to a hero or ally, you may attach it to a different hero or ally.

This card doesn't excite in the way some of the other previewed cards have. There just don't seem to be that many abilities where stealing them could be considered game breaking. Stealing a Searing Totem is nice and getting a Curse of Agony would be great. If this card were an instant we'd have ourselves a winner for sure. As it stands, I'm not going to say it's bad. It could have uses, but at best, I think it's probably a sideboard card. It just seems like it will be dead too often vs. aggressive decks to warrant inclusion in the main. The other problem is the fact that it's a Mage ability which leads me to the next topic I want to talk about today, why Mage control doesn't work.

Mage decks have an inherent and significant drawback that no other class faces (actually Rogues have this problem too). They have a low health total, no good armor or damage prevention effects, and no healing. The other caster classes have good healing ability while the combat classes tend to have higher health and good armor. Take Grennan for example. He starts at 29. Has a built in 3 point heal with his flip ability and a lot use Draconian Deflector. If a Deflector gets used say 3 times in a game, you actually have to deal 44 damage to Grennan to finish him.

The Priest, which is the other class with a really low health total, can heal obscene amounts of damage and is getting the ability to heal 14 damage for 4 resources in Dark Portal. Healing Priests don't work for other reasons, but they can definitely heal some damage.

The Mage though had no inherent healing ability and no armor or prevention spells. This means to kill Litori (Ta'Zo and Varanis tend to be more aggressive decks so this isn't as important to them) you only need to do 25 damage. Compare this to the Warlock, which is the other main Alliance control deck. She starts at 28 so that's already 3 extra damage. Factor in Steal Essence which heals 2 and Nemesis Skullcap which can heal a lot, and suddenly you might have to deal 35 or more damage. That 10 extra damage is significant.

A lot of people have been predicting big things for Mages after Dark Portal, Blood Elf Mages in particular. Aside from the fact that's it's still way too early to try to predict how DP will affect the metagame, until Mages get something to help that low health total, I think they will only find success by killing their opponents before their opponents kill them.

2 for 1 Today. Cat Form + Metagame Madness

I was planning on combining two posts today since I don't like to make multiple posts in a day so that no one loses the first post in the update. UDE went ahead and made it a little easier on me by previewing an incredibly boring card about which I have very little to say for now.

Today's preview is Cat Form. I'm not going to post all the text because I'm sure everyone has already seen it. Let me just say that I think this was a bad card to preview for a couple of reasons. 1) Everyone already knew it was coming and most people had a pretty good idea of what it would do. 2) Without knowing about any of the other cards that reference it, seeing this card is almost worthless. In a vacuum, Cat Form is an unstackable Blessing of Might that destroys itself when you play either of the Druid's 2 best abilities, Innervate and Natural Selection. I'm not saying that Cat Form is bad, just that there's no way to know how good it is without seeing more of the cards that reference it. Predatory Strikes is stackable though and that card could be going up in value if the other cat form cards are high quality.

On to the weekly metagame analysis. I've added top 8 numbers this week where possible to get a little better look at the top decks. I didn't get all the results this week, but I got most of them. I've got a few different breakdowns of the decks. First is top 4 placements this week.

Grennan-14
Elendril-4
Dizdemona-4
Sen'Zir-3
Gorebelly-3
Varanis-1
Litori-1

There may have been one Omedus deck in there but one of the reports was a little unclear. It doesn't matter though, because the big winner this week is a shocker. Grennan has stormed out away from the rest of the field as the undisputed top deck. Dizdemona had a nice bounceback week tying Elendril for 2nd with Sen'Zir and Gorebelly coming in right behind them. Sen'Zir's pace has slowed dramatically. I think the surprise value is wearing off a little bit and people are more prepared for the deck. The dominane of Grennan could start to pose problems for Elendril, but nothing seems to really stop that deck so don't expect too much of a decline. I think Gorebelly is becoming a better and better choice each week the Shaman continues to dominate. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the Warrior combo decks making some more noise in the next few weeks. Dizdemona has returned somewhat, solidifying itself in that second tier. Based on these results the metagame looks to be shaping up like this for now.

Tier 1

Grennan

Tier 2

Elendril
Sen'Zir
Gorebelly
Dizdemona

I think Grennan is starting to assert himself as the unparalleled best hero. One thing worth noting here is the amount of variance in Grennan builds. It's not necessarily always the same deck or even the same type of deck qualifying all these Grennan players. There was a Grennan deck this weekend in Roanoke that was almost all equipment. The Horde version of Solo-din if you will. This also happens to be one of the advantages of playing Grennan. Unlike almost any other TCG, since your hero is revealed before the match starts, your opponent has valuable information about your deck before you start playing (please no rants about scouting, that's a different subject entirely). If your opponent has Elendril you have a pretty good idea that he's playing rush. This information can affect your early game and even game one mulligan decisions. But because of the variance in Grennan decks, your hero is less relevent for the early part of the match than any other hero. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else and IMO is one of the Shaman's biggest weapons.

Moving on to total numbers the breakdown now looks like this:

First number is Top 8's with Top 4's in parentheses.

Grennan-29 (22)
Elendril-15 (12)
Sen'Zir-15 (12)
Dizdemona-14 (7)
Gorebelly-9 (7)
Omedus-4 (2)
Varanis-2 (2)
Litori-2 (2)
Radak-1 (1)
Graccus-1 (1)
Thangal-1 (1)
Ta'Zo-1 (1)
Warrax-1 (0)

These totals pretty much mirror this week's top 4 results. Grennan is a distant first followed by a closely packed group of Elendril, Sen'Zir, Dizdemona, and Gorebelly. I'm going to give the Tier 3 nod to Omedus, Varanis, and Litori since they're the only other heroes with a number bigger than 1 anywhere. Warrax is the only newcomer to the big board with a lone top 8 this week.

A couple of quick notes. Grennan is number one and pulling away. With more than 3 times as many top 4's as the next closest hero this week, the uber-cow seems to be the surest ticket to Indy until Dark Portal comes out. Even a shift toward lots of Shaman hate may take a week or 2 and Grennan's adaptability makes even that difficult.

The 2 Hunters had been neck and neck with Grennan for the first few weeks, but seem to be losing a little bit of steam. Dizdemona has bounced back this week and Gorebelly is becoming a more consistent deck. After that, there' not much else to talk about right now. Dark Portal is coming out soon, and I think Darkmoon Faire-Austin is going to a time of innovation. I think there will be some people who fall back on the tried and true Elendril and Grennan decks until the metagame becomes more defined, but I think a lot of people will be looking to be the ones doing the defining.

Frost Trap

Thankfully, UDE gave us a good card today. I take that back, UDE gave us a great card today. I said when I saw Chops, that I thought a Hunter control deck that uses pets exclusively (or almost exclusively) could be a viable strategy when Dark Portal releases. Today's card makes it seem even more likely.

Frost Trap
Cost:4
Hunter ability

Trap (you may exhaust your defending hero rather than pay this card's cost).

Remove all attackers from combat, and opposing heroes and allies can't attack this turn.

First let's just talk about the card itself. This card is really good. It's WoW's first "free" card. Free cards are usually either really good or really bad. Despite seeming like a purely defensive card, this card actually is very versatile. Assuming there is a Blood Elf Hunter, he will be able to recycle traps with Solanian's Belongings which seems good.

First, let's look at how this card could help current Hunter decks. In the mirror, this is like a Time Walk. When both players are just swinging away, stopping one turn's worth of attacks without using any resources can be a pretty big deal. The other place this can come in handy is against Gorebelly. In the Gorebelly vs. Hunter matchup Gorebelly is occasionally forced to attack on the kill turn. Setting the Frost Trap when they think they're going to Rak you can mean the difference between winning and losing. So Frost Trap can help rush decks in a few ways, but let's look at what I think will be an emerging archetype based on the 20 cards we've seen so far (yes, I realize it's kind of dumb to predict an emerging archetype from the set when we haven't even seen 10% of the set yet, but humor me).

I think Hunter control will be a deck that makes some noise around Darkmoon Faire time. Using traps to stall to Old Bones and Multi-Shot and Ancient Bone Bow to take over in the mid-game. We may even see Elendril get flipped. The pets are all incredibly efficient and Bestial Wrath is well, beastly.

One thing that is a little worrisome is all the "free" cards. Traps, the Paladin healing ability, Aspect of the Viper. Free cards are historically overpowered, and while these three seem to be tame enough (actually the two that aren't traps are not that good) the fact that they have introduced the mechanic means to watch out for broken cards in the near future.

I'm still compiling results from this weekend, but I'm going to try to get the metagame update out tomorrow, so anyone who has tournaments this weekend has the information with some time to make use of it.

Daily Previews Have Started

Today marked the first daily preview leading up to the Through the Dark Portal expansion. When I saw the art for the preview Friday, I thought, cool, we're getting an awesome new weapon. Well, we got a new weapon.

For anyone who hasn't seen it:
Zin'rkh, Destroyer of Worlds
Cost: 7
Atk:5
Strike:8
Usable by:Hunter, Paladin, Warrior

When your hero deals damage with Zin'rokh, destroy all other abilities, allies, equipment, and resources.

When I read the title of the card, I thought we were getting something good. Instead, we got this. Looking past the fact that this isn't even an original idea (it's almost a pure port of Magic's Worldslayer) this card is just bad.

It's only usable by three class, so let's quickly look at how each class might use this destroyer of worlds. First up, Hunter.

I guess, a Hunter rush could run a couple of these so that when the control decks finally establish control, they could play this and reset the game with lower health totals. That doesn't seem terrible. Except that I have to take out good cards to fit this in. Then I have to spend 7 resources putting this thing into play. Then I have to spend 8 resources swing with it (assuming it survives that turn). Then we get to start over while I have probably no cards in hand. That sounds super.

Okay, but a Paladin could spend the early game equipping himself in a full armor suit then healing off what damage got dealt to him, then when he's all armored up he....could.....start over? That's terrible.

Okay, but this thing is so awesome the Warrior will definitely have a use for it. Yep, the Warrior will definitely move away from the incredible Heroic Strike-Mortal Strike combo in favor of starting the game over once they've established control. Wait, no, that sucks too.

Finally, for anyone out there crazy enough to try (I know someone will pull it off) Zin'rokh + Undead allies + Sylvanas = GG.

Overall, a pretty unexciting card. I'm glad it's epic so don't have to worry about opening very many. Let's hope tomorrow's preview is a little better.

Several Previews

Well, today is Friday and that means an official preview at the main Upper Deck site. Next week will start daily previews as the sneak peek draws closer. Today we get the bonus of several previews from the latest Inquest. First up is the official preview:

High Overlord Saurfang
Cost: 8
ATK/Health: 9/4

Protector

When an ally enters combat with High Overlord Saurfang, destroy that ally.

I can think of some ways to make this guy better. Take away Protector and give him Sarmoth. Bump than 4 to a 7. That's much better. Wait, that may actually be too good. I think it's actually quite important to put a low health on allies like this and Jaina Proudmoore that essentially can't be killed through combat. Otherwise it makes Vanquish too important for control decks.

So, what can I say about Saurfang that hasn't already been said. He's a great big sissy girl. That probably hasn't been said. Only problem is, he's not a sissy girl. Someone apparently got the memo that the Horde was tired of being outclassed in the endgame allies department. Let's compare him to his Alliance counterpart Jaina Proudmoore.

He doesn't offer quite the same defensive presence as Jaina as she completely shuts off all attacking. He does however, kill their best ally every turn. Unlike most protectors, who get generally trade with the allies the opponent chooses, you get to decide who is worthy of entering combat with Saurfang.

Offensively Jaina only wishes she could be Saurfang. While a couple of Parvinks have the ability to trade with Jaina, no one trades with Saurfang in combat. If your opponent isn't kind enough to swing into you so Saurfang can protect, he can essentially exhaust to kill any ally. Just attack them and they die as soon as combat starts. The 9 attack is also a ridiculous amount when Saurfang starts attacks the opposing hero.

One of the ironies of Saurfang is that he may put an extra premium on Shamans as they have Lightning Bolt, which is one of the few class specific spells that 1-for-1's Saurfang.

On to the IQ previews.

First up is the new Hunter Pet Chops. He's a 3/4 for 3 who can exhaust an ally when he attacks. The first thing of note is his 4 health for only three resources. This puts him above most removal spells in the game. Voss's ability is gravy. A 3/4 for 3 is a very good card. I'm thinking it might be fun to try a Hunter control deck with lots of Pets, MotH, and Bestial Wrath. Use a Bone Bow to pick off allies on offense, equip a Krol Blade for hitting back when you get attacked, perhaps Dual Wielding something with the new set, keeping giant pets around as long as possible. The pets will probably just get in each other's way but it might be fun to try out.

Trophy Kill is a Hunter ability that is supposed to be somewhere between Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot. Seems good, but without knowing exactly what it does it's hard to say.

Arcane Missiles is a Mage ability with cost X. Deal X damage. Spend no more than 5 resources to play this. This card is ridiculous. Doing X damage for X resources is the bare minimum you want to get, so 4 damage for 4 resources may not seem great. But it's the fact that it can be any amount up to 5 that makes it ridiculous. Versatility is a winner as Grennan has proven so far. Playing 4 of these is like squeezing 20 cards into 4 slots and that's a good thing.

Deep Freeze is another Mage ability. 2 damage for 2 resources with the ongoing ability that ally can't attack. It will take some play before I decide whether this is better than Polymorph. My initial thought is that Polymorph is better. Sure, Deep Freeze actually kills small allies, but Polymorph shuts off abilities and Protector in addition to not allowing them to attack which just seems better. Deep Freeze's saving grace may be Cold Snap (not the last set of Ice Age Block). Some Frost Mages may run DF over Polymorph since it is retrievable with Cold Snap. Of course, I think everyone knows how I feel about Frost Mages in this game.

The next card is Thunder Clap, which may help move Gorebelly closer to the top. Picture Frost Nova. Now change the can't attack this turn to gets -1 ATK this turn. Now put it in a better class and Voila! Thunder Clap. This card is going to help solo Warrior deck handle the weenie rushes that seem to be the only thing holding them down. And anything that does manage to survive the Thunder Clap will just get uber-Executed next turn.

Killing Spree is costs three and is Execute for everyone. Thunder Clap on 4 followed by a Killing Spree on 5 may be the closest we get to Wrath of God. It's also a brutal combo with Skullflame Shield. First attack of the turn after Shield hits everyone for one, go ahead and finish them off. This card falls in the realm of incrediby powerful in combination with other cards but relatively weak on its own. In most cases cards like that don't see play, but this one might get there.

Well, we've got a lot of Regionals coming up this weeked. Good luck to anyone who'll be attending and don't forget that even though Dark Portal is getting close we still have a month left with just Heroes of Azeroth before DP comes in. Anyone attending Regionals please send in results here or email me blyonsmagic@yahoo.com.

Anyone wanna raid with me?

The schedule is up for Darkmoon Faire-Austin. Friday afternoon will have Onyxia raids. I've decided I want to do some raiding with anyone who reads my blog that wants to raid with me. I'll do as many raids as time and UDE allow, but I'll try to raid with anyone who wants to. My only rule is no Cruel Hands of Timmy. I know that's the easiest way to beat the dragon, but we're only playing for a few packs and I would rather have fun than win because my opponent has no resources. If you want to raid with me leave a comment here or send me an email at blyonsmagic@yahoo.com

Metagame Madness

First, I want to say thanks to anyone who helped get results in to me. There were 7 Regionals this past weekend which means 28 top 4 decks, and we got 26 of them. Unfortunately, I didn't get any results from Europe so I won't be able to include those here.

Ok, now let's get right into the good stuff, results. First, the numbers from this week.

Sen'Zir-5
Grennan-5
Gorebelly-4
Elendril-4
Dizdemona-3
Radak-1
Thangal-1
Ta'Zo-1
Litori-1
Omedus-1

Graccus and Varanis were the only heroes who are on the board who didn't get a spot this week. Kayleitha, Timmo, Moonshadow, Nimaasus, Warrax, and Boris have yet to take a top 4.

Looking just at the numbers for this week, the new top three of Sen'Zir, Elendril, an Grennan continued to post strong numbers with Sen'Zir and Grennan tying for the most spots and Elendril right behind them.

Gorebelly had a big week as well. I think a lot of people are starting to realize it's pretty good against Grennan and are coming up with better ways to stop the deck's nemesis Elendril. I said a couple weeks ago in a TCGPlayer article I thought this deck was a good choice given the environment and I expect Gorebelly to continue posting solid numbers. Right now, he's right at the top of Tier 2, but pushing to move up into that top tier.

Dizdemona bounced back after getting blanked last week taking 3 spots this week. There was troubling news for Dizdemona in Greensboro though. At a 57 player tournament, 10 players used the Alliance Warlock. That's a little more than 1 in 6. Not only did Dizzy fail to qualify any of those players for Nationals, none of them even made the top 8. I think the presence of the tempo-hungry Horde decks with Karkas Deathhowls running rampant has really turned the metagame against Dizdemona. Right now, I would say Dizdemona will continue to hover near the top of Tier 2, but her 15 minutes might be up.

After that, we saw several one-shot qualifiers. Litori Frostburn finally gets on the board but the metagame just isn't right for her to rise up to the top. Ta'Zo got on the board this week. That's the one deck that is surprising to me. I've tested a tempo-based Ta'Zo deck with good results, but the Fire Mage isn't doing a whole lot either.

I want to talk for just a minute about the resiliency and the sheer power of Elendril. Everyone knows how the hunter dominated GenCon last year. Then when everyone knew Elendril was the deck to beat in January it still posted better numbers than all but 2 decks, and it wasn't far behind those. In the layoff from January to now, many people said Elendril was dead. A result of just too much hate. But there he still is, right out at the front of the race. It should come as no surprise that Elendril happens to be the MMO character of Brian Kibler, who happens to be the lead designer of the World of Warcraft TCG :)

So why has Elendril been able to persevere? The raw power of the deck has a lot to do with that. It has a great early game with efficient undercosted allies that are also hard to remove. Then in the late game it gets a big creature with Ferocity and the game's only X-Spell. Its worst matchup (Shaman) isn't as bad as most people seem to think, especially on the play. It also has beatdown's biggest built-in advantage. The ability to punish a slow start before the opponent can recover from it. All these things will keep Elendril near the top at least until the release of Through the Dark Portal.

Now let's take a quick look at the total numbers for the past three weeks.

Sen'Zir-9
Grennan-8
Elendril-8
Gorebelly-4
Dizdemona-3
Omedus-2
Varanis-1
Radak-1
Graccus-1
Thangal-1
Ta'Zo-1
Litori-1

It looks like we have a clean break here. Sen'Zir, Grennan, and Elendril have established themselves as the new Tier 1. Gorebelly and Dizdemona seem to be the Tier 2. I feel this deserves a distinction though. Gorebelly is Tier 2 and on the rise. Dizdemona is Tier 2 and falling. Omedus got a second invite which separates him from the rest of the heroes by one so he's a little further up the list, but I'm still going to call everything but the top 5 Tier 3 for now.

Regionals will really kick into high gear this weekend with 11 Regionals across North America. The Tier lines should become even clearer this weekend.

Legend of Mount Hyjal

The Dark Portal Sneak Preview page went live today and we got to see the EA participation card, Legand of Mount Hyjal. Many players looked at this card and said, "Wow! Wrath of God!"

This card is not Wrath of God. Wrath of God is far more powerful. As I've talked about with some of the other preview cards, LoMH has a very powerful effect but a very high cost. For comparison, WoG costs 4 (as does Damnation which does the exact same thing). LoMH costs 10. The irony here is that Wrath gets used as an answer to aggressive decks helping keep them in check. But in World of Warcraft, Legend will serve as a way to keep control decks from playing giant allies. Of course, even in that case it will most often serve as a 10-cost Vanquish that takes out a few extra less meaningful allies.

This illustrates something that mildly annoys me about the design of this game. The designers seem to be terrified of making the cards too good. There have been several previewed cards that would have had the opportunity to be very good (not great and certainly not broken) if their cost were simply lower. This is a prime example. At 6 resources to play, this card would be far from broken. It certainly would not kill Hunter rush as a decktype since they can still kill you before you even play it.

This may just be my personal preference, but I like playing with powerful cards. Not broken, mind you, although I must say that is actually quite fun too. One of the things that this game is sorely missing is metagame-defining cards. Let me quickly define this. A metagame-defining card is one that is a very powerful but not format-breaking card. Wrath of God is a perfect example of this. Wrath's effect is a very powerful one, but it does not bend the format around itself. For any Magic playing readers out there, Time Spiral was a format-breaking card. Format-defining cards make you think about them when you design a deck. They don't disallow the existence of certain decks. IMO, the only format defining card we currently have is Fury. Medoc Spiritwarden in close but not quite there.

Many people will disagree with me. There are a lot of people who don't think powerful cards are good for the game. While I agree that cards should be balanced, I still love me some power cards. I think at 6, this card would have been fairly costed. It obviously wouldn't have hated Elendril completely out of the environment (it probably wouldn't even have done this at 4). At 10, it's an uber-Vanquish for control on control.

Here's hoping that UDE let's some of the costs drop with some of the other potential power cards in this set.

Preview Day

Well, it's Friday again and that means more Dark Portal Previews. Today we get a couple of allies that may be indicative of a few more allies in the set. Here are the cards for anyone who hasn't seen them.

Bubula del Kissel

Cost: 2
ATK/Health: 2/2

Stealth

Activate->Target hero or ally has stealth this turn.

First up are his stats. He's a 2/2 for 2 which is about in line with the cost. There are more efficient allies out there, but Bubula's ability can become relevent in many games considering how controlling the environment has become. Magni's dork tokens keeping your Tewa at bay? Have no fear, Bubula is here. Plus, who doesn't like saying Bubula? Say it, Bubula. See, that was fun. Of course, now you're just going to be saying Bubula, Bubula, Bubula over and over for the next three hours, but I'll press on anyway.

Apparently, UDE doesn't think Stealth is as good as long-ranged, since they made this guy with stealth and stealth-enabling and still gave him reasonable stats. This guy may see play in some rush decks to make sure the big guys like Fury and Leeroy find their targets. Before anyone says you can't use this guy with Leeroy, you can chain Leeroy's ability and then give him stealth before it resolves. As we'll see with long-range, its power is apparently too much to not overcost and understat anyone who has it.

For our long-range allies we have our official preview Tanwa the Marksman

Cost: 6
ATK/Health: 4/3

Long-Range

Anything that costs 6 needs to have a bigger butt than this. Anything that's going to cost 6 and then only have 3 health better be really good or serve its purpose when it comes in (a la Zygore). Tanwa might be an adequate 6-drop in Dark Portal limited, we haven't seen enough cards yet to know, but in Constructed, I just can't see any time I'm going to want to play this guy. You would have to have a great wall of protection set up to let him survive even one turn. At 3/4 Tanwa at least gets into the discussion, but when you look at the slots it's looking to take, it's just not on the same level as Moko, Tewa, or Zygore. When you consider that the 2 of those already share a race with Tanwa and Moko shares race and class, there's just not much reason to think Tanwa will see much action in Constructed.

A lot of the cards to me seem like they wanted to make more powerful cards, but were afraid of them becoming degenerate so they added some resources to the cost to keep them in check. The other long-range ally that has been spoiled, Kallipsa, is a 2/2 for 4 that let's you draw a card when she damages an ally. This is another example of a card that doesn't really seem worthy of costing 4 and wouldn't have been significantly better than Parvink (if better at all) as a 3-drop. But instead we get her at 4 where she will probably get a lot of time in common boxes since no one will play her.

Good luck to anyone playing in Regionals this weekend. There are 7 tournaments in the U.S. and 10 in Europe. I will try my best to get the results in from European Regionals if I can. As always, any help from anyone who attends an event this weekend or just knows how one turned out is always greatly appreciated.

Is anyone else ready for Dark Portal?

For me personally, one of the funnest things about card games is deck design. I love trying to stay one step ahead of the metagame and designing decks meant as a foil to those sitting on top. I love having the option to play something that might not be lighting the world on fire results-wise but gives me the element of surprise while still being a powerful deck choice.

I think we're approaching critical mass with the current metagame. Sure, Sen'Zir decks are starting to show up in response to the migration toward control. But to anyone who read my TCGPlayer article here, you could have seen the move to mid-range Hunters coming in response to all the rush hate they had to face. Seeing Shaman decks also start packing bigger mid-game allies to beat Alliance control decks before they get into their powerful end game makes me think that Dizdemona's time in the spotlight is just about over (unless she gets help in TDP, obv.).

Now we seem to be in a spot with 2 very good mid-range decks. One (Grennan) is very good vs. the Hunter rush decks while the right build is also pretty good vs. the Warlock control decks. (The version I'm talking about here is very aggressive in the mid-game with Hippos, Moko, Tewa, and the Warlock-hating Karkas). Sen'Zir on the other hand is very good vs. the Warlock control and pretty good vs. Hunter rush.

Now we're facing a strange situation. Most of the time a metagame will go through cycles. Deck A rises to the top. Deck B surfaces and hates out Deck A. Then when Deck B gets to the top Deck C shows up that can beat it. As Deck C starts to hate out Deck B, Deck A returns to the scene since Deck B has fallen on hard times. It's not always this simple, but metagames are usually rather cyclical.

In World of Warcraft right now, Grennan seems to be too good to get hated out, especially since the Sen'Zir decks dominate Grennan's toughest matchup. Elendril rush decks will get a little help from the fact that they can sometimes race the Sen'Zir decks, but still have to face down the mad cow. As long as Grennan remains prominent, I just don't see Elendril returning to the top of the heap. So we're stuck in a rut.

Enter, Dark Portal. This set will almost double the available card pool which should really help out a lot of decks. It's going to introduce a whole set of new heroes and seemingly powerful racial abilities. Choosing which hero goes in your deck will be more difficult since Alliance Warlock won't mean Dizdemona by default. I think the new set will be a shot in the arm for deckbuilders and it happens to become legal the week of Darkmoon Faire-Austin, which I will be lucky enough to attend.

The early results are starting to roll in

Before I get going, thanks to savagedpuck and Ome for sending in the results for their Regionals. For anyone who doesn't check very often, you can use the UDE tournament locator to find Regionals tournaments near you. I checked it this morning and found there are already events scheduled all the way into August.

This weekend, we had 4 events not counting Sydney. There were Regionals in Colorado, San Diego, New York, and Alabama. I've got the results from all but the Alabama event. I've still only managed to get the winning decks from the previous weekend in St. Louis. By the schedule at UDE's site, it looks like there won't be waves of Regionals anymore, just constant events until Nationals. As a result, I'm planning on breaking down the numbers in a little different way than before. I'll keep a total tally, but I'll also break down the past 4 weeks, past 2 weeks, and the past weekend. This is really only the first week, but here are the numbers from this weekend.

Elendril-4
Sen'Zir-4
Grennan-3
Varanis-1
Graccus-1
Omedus-1

Worth noting is that in San Diego, three Sen'Zir decks made the top 8 but none made top 4, so that would have added some numbers there. We still haven't seen either Rogue (again not counting Sydney) Boris, or Moonshadow.

The first thing of note here is not one Dizdemona deck. Keep in mind this is only three events, but what was being touted as the best deck in the format by many is conspicuously absent from week 1's results. Sen'Zir seems to be pushing for Tier 1 status for the time being. Grennan and Elendril at the top are no surprise. We have our first new hero represented with Varanis Bitterstar.

The lack of Alliance control could be a good sign for any Graccus players out there. The fewer Medocs out there, the better the chances are for the Paladin. I've been tinkering with a Paladin build a little bit recently, but I'm still unsure of whether I want to try it or not. I thought the deck was very good before Regionals, but the amount of Alliance control decks coupled with Graccus' inability to handle Medoc lock made it a difficult choice. If the environment continues to shy away from Alliance control it will become much more Paladin-friendly, much to the dismay of many.

Karkas Deathhowl also seems to be moving up the chain of powerful allies. In an environment where everyone wants to play control, this tempo beast is like a Time Walk with a 2/3 as a bonus. Almost all of the tempo-based mid-range Horde decks are running this guy.

It would also seem that Elendril isn't dead yet. Many players were ready to write off Elendril. Too much hate they said. That's the thing about decks like Hunter rush. As soon as you forget about them, they jump right back to the forefront. Some of this can be attributed to the explosive power of the deck, and many players choosing to focus their hate on the Shaman and Warlock matchups probably helped as well. We'll see if the Hunters can maintain the lead.

Litori still hasn't arrived, and with the shift toward mid-range Horde decks with giant allies the outlook remains bleak for this much-hyped hero.

We've got 7 events on tap for this weekend: Lafayette, LA, Indianapolis, IN, Las Vegas, NV, Nashville, TN, Garden City, MI, Montreal, QB, and Greensboro, NC. If you attend any of these events or know the results, please pass them along to me here or you can email me blyonsmagic@yahoo.com.

Preview Day

Before we get to the preview cards, in a shocking turn of events in Sydney, 2 Grennan decks, a Dizdemona control, and an Elendril rush deck made top 4 in the first Regionals at the premiere event weekend. Am I the only one who can't wait for Dark Portal to inject some new life into the metagame?

Today we get two racial leaders in the vein of Magni and Thrall. The first is High Princess Tyrande Whisperwind. For those of you who haven't seen her yet:

Cost: 5
Atk/Health: 3/4

When a Night Elf in your party is destroyed, put a Wisp ally token with 0 ATK and 1 Health into play.

1, Destroy a Wisp in your party-> That Wisp deals 1 nature damage to each opposing hero and ally.

I'm not really sure what to think here. Most of the good Night Elves right now are aggressive elusive allies like Latro. With 3 ATK for 5 resources, this card doesn't really fit into an aggressive deck. The 4 Health makes a big difference here. This card could become popular in some Alliance control decks depending on what type of Night Elf controlling allies we see in the rest of the Dark Portal. She seems like she'll be a giant pain to rush decks. A reliable way to sac your own allies for some effect would make her better as it would give you more control over when you can use her ability. Mezzik Darkspark for example. The ability to throw an ally at something to gain a Wisp token will make this card more powerful. It has a lot of potential but is somewhat dependant on how good some of the support cards are in Dark Portal.

The second preview today may finally give the Horde an ally who can go toe-to-toe with Magni Bronzebeard.

Queen Sylvanas Windrunner

Cost: 9
ATK/Health: 5/7
Other Undead heroes and allies in your party can't be destroyed.


I would like to quickly point out how utterly ridiculous this card will be if not killed immediately. Assuming you play her on 9, a Wormwood on 10 seals things up. Infi-Fear ftw. There are only a couple other really good current interactions with her. Valthak Spiritdrinker is nice. If we see an Undead Warlock in the next set, she will make him/her unkillable. She also makes playing a Doomguard the next turn a little safer. Using Omedus in a control deck to Ressurect her on turn 9 would allow you to play Wormwood immediately and put the lockdown on while also making your hero unkillable. I think she has a lot of potential here and will give the Horde a better chance to play pure control decks that can hang with Alliance in the end game.

Good luck to anyone going to Regionals this weekend, and if you do please send me the results if you can.

Setting the Record Straight-Grennan vs. Dizzy

Lately it seems like there is a myth circulating around the web that Dizdemona control has an amazing matchup vs. Grennan decks. That is simply not the case, and I don't want anyone here assuming it is. I'm not saying that Grennan has a great matchup either, it's actually a pretty close one. There are a lot of factors that determine who wins when these two decks play, and I'll try to shed a little light on this matchup.

First, I'm going to state a fact that when any amount of logic is applied plainly shows that Dizzy control simply cannot have the good matchup vs. Grennan that everyone claims. As anyone who has read my blog knows, I did a good amount of research into what decks did well at Regionals in January. I managed to compile 148 qualifying decks from 37 different Regionals. Just looking at the top three showed this:

Grennan-40
Dizdemona-31
Elendril-30

There is simply no way the Dizdemona could have such good matchups vs. Grennan and Elendril when the 2 of them together account for almost half of the invitations. According to most accounts Dizdemona was one of the top 3 represented in terms of total number of players, so if that many people played the deck and the matchups are as good as some people would have you believe, Dizdemona should have taken a lot more spots. Don't take this to mean I think Dizzy control is a bad deck, far from it. I just don't think it's as good as some people are saying it is.

So what are the key factors in this matchup? I think the most important is playskill. Neither deck is easy to play and the Shaman is particularly difficult given the multitude of options it presents. If one player has a better understanding of the matchup it will probably be the deciding factor in the match.

One of the main problems with trying to put a specific number such as 70-30 on this matchup is the huge amount of variance in Shaman deck builds. Simply changing one slot in the Shaman deck can have huge implications in this matchup. For example, expect the relatively dead in the matchup Ghost Wolf to be gone from main decks in favor of more cards to help against the control decks.

I think the biggest reason not to assume this matchup is heavily in favor of Dizzy is the Shaman's ability to adapt. Last time, Shaman decks were focused on beating Hunters. This time with a more diverse metagame with more control decks, Shaman decks will evolve somewhat to combat these new decks. It's ironic that I always hear that the Druids biggest strength is their flexibility, but it seems like in the game Shamans are much better at that than Druids.

My advice is to test the matchup for yourself before taking someone else's word at who it favors, this includes taking my word for it, but if you're going to take anyone's word it should be mine :) This will also allow you to not only know who is favored in the matchup, but more importantly why they are favored. This also may give you a chance to strengthen a weakness to change the nature of the matchup. Gathering your own knowledge of the matchups is a valuable piece in the metagame puzzle.