Metagame Madness 5/31

It's everybody's favorite time of the week. Time for your weekly dose of metagame breakdown and analysis.

First let's look at the factions and see if the blue team was able to extend their lead or if the red team closed the gap.

Alliance-63 +19
Horde-50 +16

So the Alliance continues to lead and pulled away a little further, but the disparity for the new additions is close enough to say that this battle was pretty even this week.

Moving on to the class breakdown we've got:

Shaman-29/+8
Hunter-20/+5
Warlock-18/+7
Druid-18/+6
Warrior-14/+4
Paladin-8/+4
Mage-3/+0
Priest-2/+1
Rogue-1/+0

There are a couple of things of note here. First is the bounceback of Warlocks this week. After getting blanked in last week's breakdown, they came back with a vengeance this week finishing second only to Shaman (which should be no surprise if you've been reading this for more than two weeks). Shaman is still the most popular by a small margin for the week and continues to pull away overall. The other interesting note here is the 4 Paladin decks. Out of those 4, 3 of them were Nimaasus rush decks. The other was Savin Lightguard and I'm not sure whether it is rush or control. The lesson here is that Alliance rush is slowly taking over. When you look at the totals, we've got 113 decks. Phadalus, Telrander, Elendril, Dizdemona, and now Nimaasus are all Alliance rush decks. When you add it all up, over half of the decks are Alliance rush including the two most represented heroes, Phadalus and Telrander. So the foremost consideration when building or choosing a deck for Regionals should be, "How do I handle a blue rush?"

Now let's get to the specific heroes. Two quick notes on the stats here. There was a tournament in Brighton, MA where 2 Rogue decks made top 8, but I got no other information from that tournament, so I haven't included them yet. Also, in Jacksonville, a Telrander deck made top 8 and then dropped from the tournament which moved a Mojo Mender Ja'nah deck into the top 8. For these calculations, I have given the top 8 credit to the Telrander deck since I feel like that's a truer representation of the top 8, but there was a Mojo Mender Ja'nah deck right there too. So without further ado:

Phadalus-25/+6
Telrander-16/+5
Pagatha-9/+4
Bulkas-8/+3
Sen'Zir-7/+2
Gorebelly-6/+1
Azarak-6/+1
Dizdemona-6/+3
Elendril-6/+2
Grennan-4/+2
Nimaasus-4/+3
Aleyah-2/+0
Thangal-2/+1
Omedus-2/+1
Graccus-1/+0
Morganis-1/+0
Kayleitha-1/+0
Ta'Zo-1/+0
Ruby-1/+0
Grumpherys-1/+0
Radak-1/+0
Savin-1/+1

One thing that I find interesting about these numbers is the similarity in the Alliance decks vs. the diversity in the Horde decks. On the Alliance side, you have decks that are mostly going to run basically the same set of allies and just intermingle their own abilities. They all have the same basic plan, kill you with a ton of cheap, efficient allies. But the Horde decks are all very different. Pagatha tens to play a more pure control game, Bulkas is in the middle and makes great use of some powerful abilities and equipment, Sen'Zir tends to play giant dudes and try to overwhelm the opposition with them, Gorebelly is the closest the game has to a combo deck right now, and Azarak is a Hunter control deck. The Horde has a lot of depth and versatility, where the Alliance is really becoming a one trick pony.

Don't underestimate the power of that one trick pony though. Alliance rush decks continue to take up the most slots in top 8's with Phadalus once again being the most represented hero. His numbers would be even better if people hadn't started playing Nimaasus instead. After Phadalus, the second most represented hero is Telrander, also an Alliance rush deck. I already know there is going to be an outcry that this isn't a typical Alliance rush deck. But let's be honest, despite all the nifty Feral abilities this is still an Alliance deck that plays a bunch of cheap dudes and wants the game to end sooner rather than later. This deck lacks a little bit of consistency for more late game power. Where the other Alliance rush decks tend to run out of steam this one is just getting started. Of course, there will be games where you can't get into Form, or get your form card destroyed and won't have the resources open to save it and have even less gas than a typical deck. It's just a matter of deciding whether that trade off in consistency is worth the extra power later in the game.

Pagatha bounced back nicely this week to show she is still a solid option. Bulkas, Nimaasus, and Dizdemona all turned in solid weeks as well, with the two Alliance heroes riding the untargetable wave. I think the Bulkas deck is reverting to being a very solid choice as there is less and less hate for it since the Phadalus and Telrander decks are dominating and it is capable of handling weenie rushes very well. After the deck gets to add Drillborer Disk, Eskhandar's Right Claw, and stupid Warrior pants, I think it will become even better. Start saving up to get your Stronghold Gauntlets and MC loot because Warriors are going to be good.

That wraps things up for this week. Good luck to anyone attending Regionals this weekend, and if you do attend and can pass along results it truly helps me keep this going. The more results we get, the better picture we get of the metagame.

More Molten Core Previews

Today I'm going to catch up on the previews I missed last week and finish up this week's.







I'm sure you've already seen these cards, so I'm going to save myself the time of copying them here and just get straight to it.







Azuresong Mageblade.







This card seems really good to me in terms of pure ability. After the first draw, you will get at least one card every other turn, which seems like a bargain at 1 resource per card. When you combine it with other card draw, such as quests or the extremely powerful Evocation, the Mageblade becomes a card drawing machine. I could see this card ending up in Mage and Warlock control decks based on its sheer power.





Now the downside. Mages are pretty awful right now, and Warlock decks seem to be focused on the early and midgame. Control decks are dying right now because the game and the environment is just so fast. This is the type of card that is kind of like a freight train. It takes a little while to get it going, but once it gets going it's almost impossible to stop.





The fact that the card costs 4 and then you won't get the first card from it for at least one more turn if not 2 means this card will only chip in one or two cards in a typical game in the most popular current decks. One or two cards hardly seems worth this type of investment. It's when the Mageblade allows you to draw 6, 7, or more extra cards that the weapon starts to truly shine. Based on the current environment of pure aggro and mid-range aggro decks with games rarely going past turn 7 or 8, games just don't last long enough for the Mageblade to become powerful. We'll see if this card helps control decks at all in their fight to get back into the metagame.





Legplates of Ten Storms





This card seems pretty solid. If it cost any less, I am sure it would be incredible. At 6 it might take a while for this thing to kick in. But it does have a DEF value of 2, which is solid. The bigger question is, is this card better than Helmet of Ten Storms and is it viable to play both in the same deck?





This card does more damage than the Helmet for less resources. However, the Helmet also has the healing effect which seems like it would be important in the type of Shaman deck that would run these cards. There's no way a Shaman rush deck is going to be packing high-end armor, so these would only go into some kind of Shaman control deck. The Legplates will probably be easier on you resource wise than the Helmet, but they also run the problem of being an overcosted piece of armor when you run out of Shaman abilities. The Helmet can always be used at least once per turn, whereas the Legplates require an ability to be played before they can be used for anything other than their DEF. However, you can get the damage prevention AND the ability from the Legplates.





I could go on and on about which one is better, but the bottom line is they are both pretty good. The only question is, will some sort of Shaman control deck rise up that can take advantage of these good armor pieces.





Nemesis Leggings





I'm not going to spend much time talking about the Warlock leggings. I don't play the MMO. but Gary does (more like used to but I digress) and he told me that the Warlock leg armor was the best of the bunch so I was expecting big things from Nemesis Leggings. Sadly, they just don't do that much.





Right now, there are only three abilities that a Warlock can attach to their opponent, so the better application would be as a sideboard card against decks that like to attach things to their hero, I don't know, like perhaps Cat Form, Predatory Strikes, etc. That seems like the best function for this card right now, but even then taking your turn 5 against Telrander to basically do nothing doesn't seem like the best play.



Benediction



We all knew this one was coming. This card was referenced on the Dark Portal card Anathema. This card is essentially Anathema in a mirror universe. One potentially exciting little bit on these two staves is that they are far more difficult to get rid of when one is in the graveyard than most weapons. If your opponent tries to remove one from play, you can simply exhaust your hero and replace the target with its mirror cousin. A deck capable of using both Anathema and Benediction seems unlikely, and putting one in as a way to protect the other doesn't seem like it's really worth it, but it's an interesting application nonetheless.



As for what this card actually does, it definitely gives Priests a potent weapon. Benediction will present the possibility of Priests drawing two, three, or even more extra cards per turn. Now if someone can just find a viable Priest Healing deck. Benediction's biggest drawback is the fact that it can only be played by Priests, who are currently duking it out with Rogues for the title of least played class in the game.

Shadowstrike

There's no way this card is going to see any play before the release of Fires of Outland at the earliest. On its own, the weapon is rather bland. 3 cost and 3 ATK with a whopping 3 strike cost and two-handed to boot. Krol Blade is just infinitely better. The extra ability is what even gets this weapon into a playability discussion and right now the only hero that can wield the weapon and use the ability is Aleyah Dawnborn. Considering how she's not exactly setting the tournament world ablaze right now, I would say we'll need to wait until a different hero can use it.

Even then, it hardly seems worth it. The strike cost is simply too high to warrant this as a main weapon. In the early game you'll have to choose between swinging with it and developing your board. The right pick here is almost always developing your board. This means that Shadowstrike will only be worth the investment very late in the game when you have enough resources to strike with it and still play other cards. Even then, it's not necessarily worth the invest so much as it's not a total disaster to swing with it.

Even if there were more Enchanters who could use the sword, there are better ways to draw two cards than paying a total of 4 and saccing a weapon that you probably never swung with. The only reason I could see playing this is if you are really scared of getting your weapons destroyed and want something to do with them in case your opponent goes to blow them up. Even then, I would say you are probably paranoid and should just fork over the cash for some Stronghold Gauntlets.

Metagame Madness 5/24

Sadly, I was only able to get results from 3 of the regionals held this past weekend. If you have results for Lafayette, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Saint John, Pompano, Valley Park, or Tulsa from last weekend please send them in so I can get them added for next week. If you are attending Regionals this weekend in Kansas City, Portland, Rockville, Brighton, Marietta, Rochester, Houston, or Jacksonville please send those in as well.

On to the numbers. From now on, each hero will have two numbers. The first is total top 8's, the second is top 8's this week. This will help give us an idea of what is being played right now while not losing sight of which decks have done well in the past.

Alliance- 44/15
Horde- 34/8

Shaman- 21/7
Hunter- 15/5
Druid- 12/6
Warlock- 11/0
Warrior- 10/4
Paladin- 4/1
Mage- 3/0
Rogue- 1/0
Priest- 1/0

Phadalus- 19/6
Telrander- 11/6
Pagatha- 5/0
Sen'Zir- 5/1
Bulkas- 5/2
Gorebelly- 5/2
Azarak- 5/2
Elendril- 4/2
Dizdemona- 3/0
Aleyah- 2/0
Zenith- 2/0
Grennan- 2/1
Graccus- 1/0
Morganis- 1/0
Thangal- 1/0
Kayleitha- 1/0
Omedus- 1/0
Ta'Zo- 1/0
Ruby Gem.- 1/0
Grumpherys- 1/0
Radak- 1/0
Nimaasus- 1/1

This week the Alliance extends its lead over the Horde based on the popularity of Phadalus and Telrander rush decks. The Horde has more variety in hero selection, but the Alliance is holding down the top two spots. One quick note as I'm about to start classifying these decks into tiers. When I say a deck is Tier 1 or Tier 2, etc., I'm not talking at all about how GOOD that deck is. The only thing I'm referencing when I put a deck into a certain class is how many times that deck has made top 8. You may think the Bulkas Cruelty deck is an unbeatable force of nature and is definitely a Tier 1 deck. You may or may not be right about the unbeatable part, but all that matters when I say a deck is Tier X is how many times it has finished at the top. Whew, let's get back to the important stuff.

I feel like there's enough separation now to distinctively give Phadalus and Telrander the Tier 1 tag, while Pagatha, Sen'Zir, Bulkas, Gorebelly, Azarak, and Elendril will get the Tier 2. I'm going to drop Dizdemona to Tier 3 for now since she got blanked this week.

The interesting thing of note here is that both Tier 1 decks are Alliance and 5 of the 6 Tier 2 decks are Horde. One thing to note about the Tier 2 decks is the presence of both Sen'Zir and Azarak. The Sen'Zir decks are almost always mid-range decks like we came to expect before Dark Portal. Azarak, however, is a different monster. There are two equally viable Azarak based builds. One is the solo Rapid Fire Azarak, and the other is a mid-range similar to Sen'Zir but that plays Warmaster Hork and gets the full effect from Hidden Enemies. I know for a fact that three of the five Azarak decks here are the Rapid Fire deck. The other two I do not know which they are. It could be reasoned though, that if they are similar to the Sen'Zir decks that mid-range Horde Hunter could be considered a low Tier 1, high Tier 2 archetype instead of two similar middle of Tier 2 decks.

It will be interesting in the coming weeks leading up to Darkmoon Faire: Chicago if any of the Tier 2 decks can rise up to fight off the Alliance based aggro decks.

Taking a look now at how each class is faring, Shaman continues to hold down the top spot and actually was once again the most represented class in top 8's beating Druids by one. Hunters have become the second most popular choice mainly based on the fact that three different heroes all have solid representation in top 8's. Hunter decks easily offer the most versatility in design from one hero to the next while still maintaining the ability to win. Druid has now moved into the top 3 and was second for the week based on the Telrander Cat Form deck. The deck continues to do well this week which is a sign that maybe it can stand up to some of the hate being thrown its way.

Warlocks drop down to fourth this week with no top 8's in the Regionals we know of. Keep in mind this was an unusually small sample this week, but it's still telling that there wasn't a single Warlock in the mix after they came out of the gate so well.

Warriors have dropped now to 5th. The Bulkas deck continues with moderate success. It's not nearly as dominating as people on message boards would have you believe, but it's still a solid choice. Gorebelly solo seems to be being held in check by all the Alliance rush at the top of the standings. Rush has always been Gorebelly's weakness and when they pack Chipper and recursion it tends to make a bad matchup worse.

There's still a definite gap from the cool kids to everyone else. Paladins got one this week to make them the coolest of the not cool. Mages, Rogues, and Priests continue to struggle. When you look at this week's results by class, there is a definite dividing line in the classes. Four classes combined to take 22 of 23 reported decklists while the other 5 classes managed just one spot between them.

That's all for this week's metagame breakdown. Hopefully next week we'll have more results to go on.

More Molten Core Previews

We've got two more Molten Core cards in the last two days, Blastershot Launcher and Obsidian Edged Blade. The first is a very good card for one class and the second is probably not as good as other options currently available.

The Blastershot Launcher seems like it will probably find its way into the Hunter mid-range and control decks. It's probably a little too expensive to get into Hunter rush. This card is solid as a drop on 5, but is even better on 7 when you can play it and swing in the same turn, probably killing off two allies while taking no damage yourself.

This card also carries with it something that we saw with Halberd of Smiting and that is a comes into play effect. The CIP effect on the Launcher is pretty good as it will kill all but the highest end allies in the game as soon as it comes in. There are very few who can survive the CIP plus one swing and those few are seeing less and less play as the game becomes more aggressive.

The Launcher is also anoher ranged weapon avaible to the Warrior and Rogue classes but in those decks, I don't think this is appreciably better than Gurubashi Dwarf Destroyer. The Dwarf Destroyer's effect is becoming less relevent as its main targets, Medoc and Magni, are starting to phase out of play, but the one less resource to play it is not insignificant. And although the Dwarf Destroyer's effect will rarely impact a game these days, its bonus will come up more often than Blastershot's in a Warrior deck. When you factor in that the Warrior decks that run a Ranged weapon will also be running Stronghold Gauntlets, Cruelty, and Deathdealer Breastplate, the 1 extra ATK becomes even less of a factor.

Now, I didn't say all that because I don't like Blastershot Launcher. Quite the contrary, I think it's a very good weapon. It just might as well have been Hunter only. But it's still good in any Hunter deck that plans on playing past turn 6.

Today's preview was Obsidian Edged Blade. At first glance, this card seems pretty good. A 4-cost 4-ATK weapon that only costs one to swing is very solid. One thing that you have to do when evaluating a card though, is compare it to your other options at the same slot. Let's take a quick look and compare the OEB to the other weapons likely to make it into a Paladin or Warrior deck to see how it stacks up.

The first thing worthy of note here, before we even get to other weapons, is that OEB is a two-handed weapon. This means that you cannot Dual Wield (which isn't too big of a problem honestly) or use a shield. Obviously a lot of Warrior and Paladin decks will want to use a shield. If you want to use a Draconian Deflector, Skullflame Shield, or Argent Defender, OEB is out as your weapon of choice.

Now let's take a look at some of the weapons that are taking up slots in Warrior and Paladin decks these days. I'm just going to look at the most popular choices quickly and see how they stack up.

Wraith Scythe. Wraith Scythe doesn't swing as big as OEB, but can arguably have a bigger impact on the game. The fact that Wraith Scythe triggers off of all combat damage your hero deals, means that the Scythe effects the game by just being in play. With a Ranged weapon or Cruelty, the Scythe will trigger multiple times and the healing effects can all but cripple rush based decks. The OEB won't have that effects on rush decks. In fact, against swarms of allies the extra ATK value of the OEB will often go to waste as the allies you are striking against will rarely have 4 health.

Deathbringer. This weapon isn't used in all Warrior/Paladin builds, but many use it as a means to get through protectors. In these cases, the Deathbringer's stats are all but irrelevent, it's simply the fact that all your damage gets through to the hero that gets the card played. Since, OEB can't do anything to help against protectors, it is unlikely to replace Deathbringer in builds that still run it.

Annihilator. Much like Deathbringer is used to get through allies, Annihilators are added to get through pesky armor. Again, strike costs and ATK values are largely irrelevent in comparison to the inability to be prevented. No room for OEB here.

Fel Iron Hatchet. This card isn't seeing much play in Warrior builds, but I'm playing it as the main weapon in my Paladin deck right now. The free swings it enables are invaluable against rush decks. It can kill most of their allies in one shot and more importantly allows me to continue to develop my board without concerning myself with leaving resources open to swing my weapon. While the extra ATK is nice, here again it will be wasted the majority of the time when my Hatchet is doing what I want it to (killing weenies). OEB also forces me to leave a resource up to swing with which is unfavorable when trying to hold off the initial onslaught.

Scarlet Kris. This card sees a lot of play in Cruelty based decks especially, because it turns on Cruelty on turn 3. The 0 strike cost doesn't suck either. OEB doesn't do anywhere near the same things that Kris does and it's a little like comparing apples and oranges.

Not one to be negative all the time, I will contribute something positive here and tell you where I think the card could shine. If an aggressive Warrior or Paladin deck becomes viable, I think this would be a great weapon choice for that deck. That type of deck is unlikely to want a shield so the two-handed drawback is nullified. You'll generally wait until you're out of dudes to play it so the one extra resource over Krol Blade is a minimal disadvantage while the one extra ATK will rarely go to waste since it will be swinging to the face more often than not. But why this may be the best weapon for a beatdown Warrior or Paladin is the bonus that you get when you draw more than one in the same game. With Krol Blade, every copy after the first is either a face down resource or just insurance for your first one. Well now, you can pitch extra copies to bump up the attack on your first one, making extra copies not dead where they generally would be with other weapons.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting this week's results from Regionals. There's not much new to report at the top, but it looks like we have a new No. 2 and it may surprise some of you.

Molten Core Previews

The Molten Core Previews started on Friday, so I'll chip in what I think of the two new cards that we've seen so far. First up is Friday's preview:

Eskandar's Right Claw
Instant Weapon-Rogue, Hunter, Warrior, Shaman
Cost:3
ATK:0
Strike Cost:1

You may remove an equipment in your hand from the game rather than pay Eskhandar's Right Claw's cost.

This card may seem relatively innocuous at first glance, but I think this card is going to do more to bring Gorebelly solo to the forefront. It's still a good weapon for the other classes as well, but I think solo Warrior will benefit the most from it.

Don't be deceived by the 3 in the top left corner. You will rarely pay the resource cost for this weapon. More often than not, you'll just pitch a spare equipment to drop this baby into play on turn one. Getting a weapon you can swing with on turn one is going to do a lot to help with solo Warriors weakest matchup, rush. Suddenly that turn 1 Merry or Teep isn't so daunting.

The free strike cost also means that you can use all of your early turns developing your board instead of using your important early resources to play and then strike with a weapon (unless of course you're using Kris or Fel Iron Hatchet, but you've still got to play those).

The fact that the weapon is also an instant helps to shore up another weakness in the Gorebelly solo deck. When you go for the Mortal Strike turn, if they remove your weapon to reduce the effectiveness (or should I say brutalness) of Mortal Strike, you can still drop one of these into play before the Strike resolves to go ahead and finish them off.

I expect this card to fetch a nice price when this Raid deck gets released.

Today's card was a little less exciting to me.

Core Hound Tooth
Cost:2 Shaman, Warrior, Hunter, Warrior
ATK:0
Strike:1

At the start of your turn, put a +1 ATK counter on CHT.

When your hero deals damage with CHT, remove all +1 ATK counters from CHT.

The only class that can really make any use of this card is Rogue because of how much they love their daggers. Even then, there are at least three daggers that are just better. Barman Shanker, Felstriker, and Scarlet Kris should all see play above this. The one use for this would be to let it build up counters until you have 5 or 6 and then unleash a flurry of Backstabs and Ambushes. Even then though, you've gone to a lot of trouble to get one more ATK than you would have with a Barman Shanker.

I think trying to make this huge for one turn is just being too greedy, but I bet a lot of people will still try.

The Return of Metagame Madness

I've got enough results from Regionals around the world to start doing some metagame breakdowns again. I've got results from 7 Regionals so far. A couple of quick notes.....I didn't include Dream Machine Championships in this list.....I'm going to have separate breakdowns for hero, faction, and class.......I don't have actual lists for most of these decks, but I will try to give you an idea of what each hero is trying to do at the end of the numbers......and I don't have complete results for each event so that's why the totals don't add up to a factor of 8. So without further ado, here is your metagame breakdown:

Alliance-29
Horde-24

Shaman-14
Warlock-11
Hunter-10
Warrior-6
Druid-6
Paladin-3
Mage-3
Rogue-1
Priest-1

Phadalus the Enlightened-13
Pagatha Soulbinder-5
Telrander-5
Sen'Zir Beastwalker-4
Bulkas Wildhorn-3
Gorebelly-3
Azarak Wolfsblood-3
Dizdemona-3
Aleyah Dawnbringer-2
Zenith Shadowforce-2
Elendril-2
Graccus-1
Grennan-1
Morganis-1
Thangal-1
Kayleitha-1
Omedus the Punisher-1
Ta'Zo-1
Ruby Gemsparkle-1
Grumpherys-1
Radak Doombringer-1

A lot of these numbers may come as a shock to a lot of you. I know I was surprised as I started seeing it all come together. The first thing of note is that the Alliance is now slightly outperforming the Horde. Before TtDP it really wasn't close as the Horde was running away with it. I think two major things have contributed to the Blue team closing the gap. Untargetable allies which are much harder to deal with (especially for control decks) and access to better equipment and to a lesser extent ability removal. Especially in the aftermath of the TAWC Warrior deck, I think a lot of people went to Chipper and Moira to help hate the deck out, which is a factor in rising Alliance numbers. It will be interesting to see if the Alliance maintains these numbers now that the Bulkas deck appears to be fading.

Moving on to the class breakdown, there's not a lot of change here. Shaman stays on top but unlike the other top classes, Shaman numbers are made up almost exclusively of one hero. It does say a lot about the power of the Shaman class that it's still on top, though.

Next in line is Warlock, which is a class that got a lot of good stuff in the new set. One thing of note to show the power of the class as opposed to the power of one deck is that Warlock is represented by three different heroes, each with at least two appearances. Pagatha is growing in popularity, and I think Warlocks will start to close in on Shamans as the weeks go on.

Hunter remains near the top. Like Warlocks, there are three heroes represented here, again with at least two appearances each. I think that Elendril is starting to be bypassed as the default choice for Alliance beatdown, so his numbers will slip. However, I think mid-range Sen'Zir is still a very solid deck which might be less played right now because of the "new car smell" that a lot of the other decks have. As the new wears off, I think Sen'Zir will come back. There is also a Hunter solo deck that has a lot of ammunition that could become popular.

Warrior hold onto fourth, but in a tie with the new kid. This is where the Warrior was before Dark Portal, behind Shaman, Warlock and Hunter but ahead of everyone else. It's a little surprising Warrior didn't post a little better numbers after DF:Austin. I didn't think at the time that the TAWC Bulkas deck was strong enough to withstand the amount of hate that would be thrown at it, but I thought it would last longer than it did. On a sidenote, I'm not saying that the deck is bad, it was an excellent metagame choice for one event and was played by very good players. I just don't think it has the ability to survive when everyone knows about it. It's also very difficult to play which lends itself to lower numbers.

The surprise on the list is the Druid class. I would expect to see even more Druid decks now that Pierre Malherbaud has won a Darkmoon Faire with Telrander. The difference is that this deck is more fun to play, and it's a class that a lot of people wanted to see rise up because they just weren't that good before. Expect to see Druid move up to at least number four on this list in the next few weeks.

After that, there's a drop off to the Paladin and Mage followed by the Rogue and Priest bringing up the rear. The only surprise down here at the bottom of the barrel to me is the Priest. Omedus was gaining in popularity before theset release, but apparently all those players have abandoned him for the new guys.

Moving on to the specific heroes. Anything with less than 3 appearances I'm going to leave alone for now, classifying it as rogue (not the class).

Shaman rush is still king, but now it's for the other team. Phadalus has channeled Grennan and stormed out to a commanding early lead. All but one of the Phadalus decks were listed as Shaman rush, so we're just going to say that Phadalus is Shaman rush unless otherwise specified. Players likely made the switch to Alliance to get the untouchables and better equipment removal. Getting Chain Lightning really helps against other decks packing untargetables which is one of the reasons Shaman has taken over as the Alliance beatdown deck. Based on past history, I would expect to continue to see a lot of Shaman rush for the foreseeable future.

After Phadalus, there's a big drop to what I'm going to classify as the Tier 2 decks. First up is Pagatha Soulbinder. The Pagatha decks want to play a control game. Some of them still want to use the Spirit Healer/Lok'holar combo as the win condition. The deck has a lot of good answers to rush with Infernal and Cannibalize plus Rain of Fire out of the board. Pagatha seems to be a popular hero around message boards, so I think she will maintain a good level of success.

Tied with Pagatha is a real shock, Telrander. These are Cat Form beatdown decks. Considering that DF:Frankfurt was won by one of these decks, I expect to see a huge surge in popularity in the coming weeks. Whether it can keep going now that people no it's a real deck and not a gimmcky idea will determine its long-term fate.

Next on the list in a familiar spot is Sen'Zir. He continues to quietly post numbers solid numbers while not being talked about very much. Like I said before, I think his numbers will get better as the new wears off of the set, but one thing that is alarming for Sen'Zir players is that the matchup with Shaman rush isn't that good.

Now we get down to a deck that actually has caused a lot of panic over on the UDE boards as people seem to think it's the end of the game, Bulkas Wildhorn. This deck doesn't like a full complement of Chippers with quests to get them back. Thankfully, the game will go on. Bulkas is beatable. It's still a solid deck, but I would wait to play it until some of the hate dies down.

Next up is the guy who's been waiting to break out for almost six months now, Gorebelly. When we were testing for Austin, we had a Gorebelly list that we really liked (and still do) but we thought there would be a lot of it there and didn't want to play mirror matches all day. Gorebelly faces the dilemma of being pretty bad against a Shaman rush deck maindecking its Chippers, but incredible against the Pagatha decks as the Spirit Healer/Zygore is generally too slow to stop it. As long as Phadalus rush stays at the top, Gorebelly will face an uphill battle.

Next, we have a newcomer to the list, Azarak Wolfsblood. While I haven't seen the lists for these, I'm going to assume they are the Rapid Fire based control decks since Sen'Zir is a better hero for aggressive decks with the better talent and better flip. This was another deck that we really liked in testing. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the deck, it relies on the same premise the Bulkas deck does of using a Ranged Weapon and Wraith Scythe for a ton of healing and double swings. It lacks Cruelty and heavy armor but gets Rapid Fire, Lightning Reflexes and pets. Our version used Blackcrow (because it's free to swing with Edgemaster's Handguards) and pumped it with a few things like Eye of Rend and Deathdealer Breastplate. It would win a lot of games through Rapid Fire. It's a solid deck that is a lot of fun to play and is actually very good against beatdown as long as Chipper doesn't destroy you.

Last in what I'm going to call Tier 2 for now is Dizdemona. Everyone's favorite gnome has taken on a more aggressive stance since we last saw her. A lot of players have gone to Dizdemona as their beatdown hero of choice for her excellent flip ability and the opportunity to play Lowdown Luppo. Lowdown Luppo is one of the hardest allies in the game to get rid of. They also get access to a very underrated quest in Operation Recombobulation. This card can be deadly on the draw when you are forced to try to seize the tempo away from your opponent. With an even board you can complete operation and swing your team into theirs just making one for one trades and getting all of your dudes back in the process. In the end though, I think Shaman is a better beatdown choice at the moment because of Chain Lightning, so Dizzy will probably hang out here near the bottom of the second tier for a while.

The rest of the decks I'm not going to cover today because this post is already getting long and they haven't yet proven that they are something that needs to be prepared for when preparing for your next Regionals.

Lack of updates

Hey everyone,

It's been a little over a week since I last updated here. It's been a really hectic week for me. I'm getting married in Vegas next month and this has been the week that I had to nail down all the details of the trip from booking a flight and hotel to paying for everything that needs to be paid. Things are settling down a little bit and I will start with regular updates again next week.

I would like to bring back my metagame breakdowns now that the new set is seeing widespread play and they will be relevant again but it's suddenly very hard to get any information on decks. I have results for Niles, IL and Anaheim from last week (4/28) and Taylor, MI from this week (5/5). If you know results from any other events that from the past two weeks or play in an event this weekend, please pass the results along so we can get a better idea how the metagame is shaping up. Having said that, of the 24 decks I do have, 8 of them are Phadalus rush. Looks like Shaman rush is still king.

Finally, for anyone who read my TCGPlayer article this week, what would the interest be like in seeing a once a week simulated draft with explanation of picks. If people liked that and want to see more, I could make it a weekly thing here, but if everyone thought it was just a waste of time I won't bother because it's a lot of typing for no reason if no one wants to read it. Let me know what you think, or if there's something else you want to see here send me an email blyonsmagic@yahoo.com

Darkmoon Faire-The Deck

I'm back today to talk about the Darkmoon Faire and the deck I played in it. I'll give you the decklist, what changes should me made, and how I fared with the deck.

Here's the list:

4 Apprentice Teep
4 Apprentice Merry
3 Scaramanga
4 Latro Abiectus
4 Jeleane Nightbreeze
4 Chipper Ironbane
3 Moira Darkheart
3 Ka'lai the Uplifting
3 Searing Totem
4 Frost Shock
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Annihilator
4 The Defias Brotherhood
4 Finkle Einhorn At Your Service
3 Rescue the Survivors
3 Battle of Darrowshire
2 The Missing Diplomat

It's a pretty straightforward Alliance Shaman rush deck. We were expecting a field of heavy solo equipment decks and rush decks. We felt like we were solid vs. the equipment decks with 4 Chipper, 3 Moira, and 4 Finkle Einhorn. The biggest mistake I made in this list is the Searing Totems. They really should have been Chain Lightnings for the ability to remove Untargetables. We didn't do anything fancy with the deck, it was just the brute force build.

We chose Scaramanga over Kryton because late in the game Scaramanga's draw was better and we weren't playing Earth Elemental Totems so Kryton couldn't bounce those for a free guy. We maindecked the 4 Chippers because like I said we were expecting a lot of solo decks. There was also shockingly few things that could deal one damage that didn't deal 2 so his 1 health rarely mattered. He almost always had a target and any matchup where he didn't he was still a 3-ATK ally for only 2.

We put Moira in the main for the same reason as the 4 Chippers. We expected a lot of equipment. We skipped Parvink because while the card is nice, I just don't like a 2-ATK 3 resource ally in a deck that wants to end the game by turn 6.

For anyone who hasn't seen him in action, Ka'lai is a monster. There are many situations where he is better than Fury. He doesn't have Ferocity, but the bonus he gives your other allies gets around this somewhat in the sense that he "deals" that extra damage the turn he comes in. He also spreads the bonus out over your other allies making it more effective many times. He saved a lot of my allies from death over the weekend with the one-health bonus he gives, and he combos well with Rescue the Survivors. Two places where he really outdoes Fury though are his 4 health, which doesn't seem like much but makes him significantly harder to remove, and the opportunity to have more than one in play at a time. To summarize, Ka'lai is really good.

For our quest selection we went with 4 Defias Brotherhoods because we had 4 allies in play a lot of the time. Putting tokens in from Rescue the Survivors helped a lot as well. We ran 4 Finkle Einhorn for Chipper recycling and because it's almost like drawing an extra ally. We ran Battle of Darrowshire as cheap card draw that also helped fight off Cannibalize. We only ran three of these because we didn't want to draw too many since completing one is easy, two can be a stretch and three is almost impossible. We ran 2 Missing Diplomats, honestly, because Ka'lai is just that good. Occasionally, it would grab a Chipper or Moira, but for the most part it was extra Ka'lais.

We felt pretty good that we could beat the solo decks and outrun the other rush decks, so we felt like we had a reasonable shot at success. My brother-in-law Gary played the exact same decklist. I ended up a somewhat disappointing 4-3.

In round 1, I played against a basic (from what I saw) Shaman control deck. I won in 2 somewhat close games. Round 2, I got my first taste of the Tauren Fury Warrior, but all the removal was too much for him. Round 3, I got a Ruby Gemsparkle Untargetable rush deck. He won game 1 and in game 2 completed all 4 Defias Brotherhoods, played Parvink 4 times, and used Ruby's flip. I died under a mountain of cards. Round 4 was a Troll Priest with lots of healing and lots of protectors, but the untargetable allies were too much for him. Round 5 I got another Ruby Gemsparkle deck. He didn't get to complete all his Brotherhoods and actually had some pretty bad draws, so I won that one and moved to 4-1.

At this point, Gary was also 4-1 with his only loss at the hands of eventual winner Tim Batow. Rounds 6 was not kind as Gary got paired up against Chris McMurry who ended the Swiss rounds undefeated, and I got a Dizdemona deck. Rain of Fire and Infernal are both really bad cards for this deck, and we both lost. Round 7 came up, we both needed a win to have a shot at the top 8 and a win for Gary would all but guarantee him a Nationals invite as the bulk of the top players in the standings were all already qualified. Much to my dismay, I got another Dizdemona deck. I won game 1 quickly and decisively and hoped to pull out one of the other two, but Rain of Fire and Infernal proved to be too much to overcome. Gary also dropped his last match to an Alliance Shaman deck, so we both ended the day at 4-3 and placed in the 20's.

I liked this deck a lot. The only change I would have made is the Searing Totems would be Chain Lightnings. I would wait to see how popular Warlock decks are before I play this deck again as the 1 damage at end of turn cards are just too strong against a deck with no Ferocity.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the top decks from the event and where the metagame looks to be moving.