Sneak Preview is coming up in just a few days. At the very worst, it's a great opportunity to pick up cards from the new set before their street date, get a cool EA and spend an early part of a day playing an awesome game with exciting new cards - and hey, you get exactly your money's worth in cards that you paid. At best, you're spending $25 and walking away with your deck packs plus prize packs and maybe that playmat at the end of the day.
We're seeing previews trickling in every day, and they've got me pacing past a computer with Internet access every chance I get around that time of the afternoon watching for what's going to be unveiled next. From a deck building perspective, Traitor heroes open up a whole new avenue of builds to make and we don't know yet how many Traitor specific cards each class is going to get (we know at least a common, an uncommon and a rare Traitor required ability for each) so playing with SotB might alter strategies in Limited to a much greater degree than Aldor/Scryer ever dreamed of doing.
So with that in mind and more cards coming in every day, let's take a look at some of the new heroes, faithful and traitor alike, seeing what new race/spec/talent combinations they open up and how they can be used to strike a new path through Constructed and Limited competitive play.
Warden Stormclaw
Tauren Druid - Feral
2, Flip Stormclaw, destroy a Form you control 
Destroy target ally. Use only on your turn.
Better than Telrander for a cat form deck? Possibly. If Chew Toy weren't an ability that all druids have access to I would say definitely because her flip allows you to tear that big protector out of the way, or dangerous targetable ally that threatened to thwart your gameplan, when a Claw or Shred isn't going to be big enough to get the job done. Chew Toy being Chew Toy, it's not as big of an advantage.
Nonetheless the Warden might be reason enough to switch your feral druid aggro over to red for a change. You gain Solanian's, Rak, Counterattack! and even War Stomp and Poison Water if you find decent ways to synergize them well.
The flip is also a Limited stick of beating. Less so in the Sneak because chance plays a stronger factor there, but more so in Draft play a two cost Vanquish is a boon, especially when you were just going to play another Form card that turn or next turn anyway.
Morn Salts-the-Land
Tauren Hunter - Traitor
3, Flip Morn You can play target ability card from an opponent's graveyard this turn.
Part of me wants to scream "best flip in the game" when I see this card. It's graveyard recursion Traitor style and it allows you to play abilities that Hunter player has no way of ever accessing. It allows you to throw parts of your opponent's gameplan back in their face with a flick of a hero and a few resources exhausted. From something as mundane as stealing any opposing Cruelty to taking Gift of the Wild. And it doesn't even say "use only on your turn," a restriction which a lot of other powerful flip power's have.
Upon further reflection, it's of course not the blow me out of the water flip that it seems to be. It's still a neat ability and will definitely be used frequently, but you're also relying on the fact that the cards in your opponent's GY synergize with your own or are useful against anything else the opponent's playing. You're also spending, for example, your turn 6 playing something they put on the table on their turn 3.
It's most probably a better Constructed flip than Limited, but if you find yourself going Horde Traitor hunter at the Sneak, just keep your little 3 cost graveyard robbing in mind as you watch you opponent's hand for any interesting looking abilities that you may just want to give a play yourself...
Obora the Wise
Draenei Mage - Arcane
4, Flip Obora When you play an ability this turn, draw a card.
Because Alliance and draenei needed more ways to out draw you like crazy. Seriously, with the new Arcane Focus and a mage deck full of cheap arcane abilities or allies this flip could be really cool. All of your abilities are suddenly cantrips and replacing themselves faster than you can play them, and if you have Arcane Focus and you're playing Arcane abilities you're readying resources and really make this flip a one turn explosion that can fill your hand or deal damage faster than your opponent can deal with them. It's pricey, but the potential is really there.
Commander Michael Goodchilde
Human Paladin - Retribution
2, Flip Michael If a friendly ally would deal combat damage while defending this turn, it deals that much +2 instead.
While his flip is certainly nothing to write home about (trying this with Donna Calister is just going to a: make your opponent just not attack anymore this turn or b: take Donna out with removal and plow into you anyway) Goodchilde is the first human retribution paladin in the game and he opens up the possibility of Sanctity Aura and Seraph the Exalted shenanigans.
I remark on this, honestly, because as my blogs attest I've always been a bit of a Sanctity Aura fan and although the deck's never made Tier 1 it's competitive enough and fun, and Seraph may make it a neat little control deck to play around with. Seraph's power is instant, so it gets around the liability of having holy allies around on the table for a turn before they can attack, not benefiting from that nifty +2 damage that you're trying to give them.
Lelora the Dawnslayer
Blood Elf Paladin - Traitor
1, Flip Lelora If combat damage would be dealt to or dealt by target opposing ally this turn, double it instead.
Cool art. Really cool. Props JonBoy, props.
Lelora's got a very respectable flip for Limited. You can suddenly make a 2/1 trade up with a 4/4 for a single extra resource, which when you're rushing allies at each other trying to gain some tempo, can be a very handy thing. There's also the access to Seal of Betrayal that the alternate universe evil twin version of Lelora gives you.
If you happen to pull a weapon in your Limited games, then you're in luck and you may just have yourself a very significant advantage if you can keep that weapon in the game for a few turns and start swinging away. Otherwise it's a Twist of Faith for six resources, and one that can't be dispelled. Not bad. Lelora's a Blood Elf too, so if you want to give this a try in Constructed you're in luck because you can Solanian's back up to your hand and pseudo Twist of Faith again to take another ally from your opponent's side and put it to work as a betrayer.
Runetusk
Troll Priest - Shadow
2, Flip Runetusk Target opponent discards a card. Use only on your turn.
Runetusk is the second Shadow hero Horde gets to play, and the first Shadow troll. This card is meant to be a proverbial elbow nodge from UDE to play a Horde discard priest with Root and Thwarting Kolkar Aggression quest hate. I think a lot of people will take the hint and try this out.
He comes with a very respectable flip: decent in Limited and pretty damn good in Constructed in a discard deck as well. If you're playing Runetusk in Limited, say, at the Sneak Preview in 4 days, don't feel compelled to pay the 2 and flip on your second turn for a discard... even if you don't have any other good plays. On turn 2, you're given your opponent the option to choose what he doesn't want to keep, and he's probably got a card or two he could live without.
Play the flip rather on turn 5 or 6, when the opponent's hand's down to one card that he's saving. Might be a Weeble or a Gabble, and for two resources you'll see it in the gy and your opponent won't have much they can say.
Bloodtusk
Troll Priest - Traitor
5, Flip Bloodtusk Discard your hand. Each opponent discards a card for each card you discarded this way. Use only on your turn.
I spent some time mulling over this one. He's, of course, the Horde Traitor priest so if you want to go red and priestly and you're looking to use Spiritual Domination he's your one-tusked troll. A good number of discard decks went red in the past to amp their discard through Mias the Putrid and Finkle recursion, but Hypnotic Blade is an equally potent card for the two-slot. It's not as fast, but it can potentially go much farther.
His flip is kind of a chin scratcher at first. It's obvious multiplayer utility is, well, obvious, but uninteresting so it's not really worth talking about. Bloodtusk's flip power has the potential to shine in situations where you're playing against an opponent with a combo deck, or an opponent who's collecting combo pieces in his hand waiting to combo out against you on the appropriate turn. It sends those Mortal Strikes and extra Twigs to the graveyard and the opposing player back to completing quests and top-decking in order to rebuild the proper combo hand that he needs.
Rather than fast discard or a discard rush, Bloodtusk as a hero points you towards a slower, control discard deck type. With 4 of Spiritual Dominations, you're just daring an opponent to put big game winning allies into their deck, so you can play them. Throw in Root of All Evils and Thwarting Kolkar to lock down their quest-based ally recursion and discard might just see it's big day.
Granted, the flip is still not great, but it's certainly a hero power to simply ignore and not learn how to recognize the occasional situation where it might be used to good effect.
(to be continued...)
Tags: Warcraft
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
