Ah, Boomkin, my old friend. I view Boomkin like an old friend from high school. You maybe haven't seen him in awhile but when you do, you realize how much of cool guy he was. You begin to think, why'd did we ever drift apart?
My love for Boomkin(both in the TCG and MMORPG) started early on. I had a version build after Dark Portal hit shelves over a year ago. The earliest version was more designed to abuse the +1 armor bonus that Moonkin Form provided. At that time, there were very few Balance Abilities to take advantage of the +1 hero damage. Wrath, Starfire, and Nature's Majesty where all cool cards, but they didn't make the deck very competitive.
Then Fires of Outlands set provided another key piece to the puzzle, Moonfire. I had wondered how UDE would represent this basic Druid ability on cardboard. Every Druid player has spammed Moonfire on someone whether they want to admit it or not. It's not the cheapest ability in game, but it's certainly one of the easier ways to score a PVP kill. I think the way UDE translated the ability to a card was great.
With Fires out, I made my first competitive version of Boomkin and it did well. Bulkas Cruelty was still pretty big in those days and the Cyclones coupled with being able to spam Moonfire made those Warrior matchups quick easy. It was rush that Boomkin had the problem with. I had tried Thorns out for awhile but it wasn't too effective and the deck was eventually scraped.
The next piece to fall into place was with the release of March of the Legion and Dreamstate. Dreamstate was previewed early on at the Gunslinging Area well in advance of the street day of March. That got me drooling. I anxiously awaited the release and scored a playset of eBay early on. I built a few different version, once focusing on a little armor and then Wrath/Moonfire for damage and then I build one strictly for damage output using Balance abilities and Moonkin Form/Chromatic Cloak. The more effective build was the ability heavy version, so I scrapped the other and concentrated my focus.
I tested it quite extensively and it became quite good. I experimented a bit, using things like Cloak of the Pit Stalker(all credit for that goes to Ron) and found some good results. The main reason I ended up not using the deck was its susceptibility to Bringer of Death. The deck had too much out on the field and The Bringer allowed for too many unfavorable trades. I moved one and turned my attention to other things.
DMF:Orlando came and Boomkin saw a resurgence. Taheo was the number 2 hero at DMF Orlando behind Halavar(to be honest though not all where Boomkin, some where Gift of the Wild builds). Watson's top finishing Boomkin took into account Bringer and thusly cut back on the equipment and ongoing abilities, leaving only the essentials: Moonkin Forms, Runesong Dagger, and Dreamstate.
I don't know why I never used the Runesong Dagger in Boomkin. It's such a natural fit. I was a bit too caught up in Braxis' Staff of Slumber and I overlooked a huge cornerstone of Boomkin. Obviously, Boomkin had been flying under the radar for awhile and I think it took a lot of people by surprise. At that same event, The Natural Order was previewed at the Gunslinging arena and I was able to catch an early match.
Servant's of the Betrayer at least opened up Alliance Boomkin as now blue has some Equipment/Ability removal, other than Chipper. I remember the Saturday a friend and I where opening packs and I saw my first Natural Order and I thought, "Wow, cool card. It's not as cool as Puncture, but almost." In that same pack I came on a rare that I had to do a double take on, Quagmirran's Eye.
The Eye as it'll be referred to now seems to mesh well into Boomkin. The deck was ability heavy already and the Eye gave me the opportunity to get those abilities out all that much cheaper. The first combo I naturally first through about was in Boomkin. How great a play would be to drop the Eye on turn 3, a Dreamstate on 4, and then just spam Moonfire for a giant hand and the win? That's maybe an over simplified version of what this deck hopes to achieve but I think everyone gets the picture. So here's what I've got built at the present:
HERO(1)
Taheo Skyspeaker
QUESTS(14)
4XCounterattack!
4XForces of Jaedenar
2XPoison Water
2XSolanian's Belongings
2XSwift Discipline
EQUIPMENT(10)
3XQuagmirran's Eye
3XStormrage Cover
4XRunesong Dagger
ALLIES(10)
3XVexmaster Nar'jo
3XGurzuk
2XSilea Dawnwalker
2XShadala
ABILITIES(26)
4XCyclone
4XThe Natural Order
4XMoonfire
4XDreamstate
4XWrath
2XZephyr
4XMoonkin Form
SIDEBOARD(10)
2XSilea Dawnwalker
2XShadala
2XBarkskin
2XForces of Nature
2XDoshura Risestrider
The deck can be incredibly fast now and I attribute that to all the Servant's goodness. The early game is going to be spent laying out an early Runesong Dagger(which is a mulligan condition if your sitting down facing ally rush) all the while trying to get out an Eye, Moonfire and Dreamstate. The card advantage from getting that combo together alone should win you games.
Untargetables are still a problem and I've split the difference, adding in 3 Vexmasters and 3 Gurzuks. I would have dropped Gurzuk all together but I feel if you don't hit the Vexmasters early on, they aren't much help. I've had situation where I just couldn't get him out quick enough and he's a lot weaker when he's running into sideways allies. Vexmaster can still always one-shot a Merry and so he stays for that reason, where as Gurzuk will always trade with a Jeleane. For Lowdown Luppo, I'd swing my Runesong Dagger at him. It's not the most cost efficient dagger, paying 2 to hit for 1, but at least it gets the job done.
Between Shadala,Silea Dawnwaler,and The Natural Order, there's plenty of maindecked hate. I've got extra Shadala/Sileas in the side if you've got a hard time finding them.
Speaking of sidedecks, mine is pretty weak at the present. A sidedeck should be representative of your local meta-game and so I've hodge-podged some good utility stuff in there. I'd add more Forces of Nature if untargetable rush is still popular, Barkskins is you fear a lot of opponents picking up mage, and Doshura for Serpent or Horde Rush decks.
A word of warning in regards to Dreamstate. One copy of Dreamstate on the table should be all that you'll need. If you're really having trouble finding those Moonfires, then by all means drop out 2 copies of Dreamstate but make very sure you've got a copy of Poison Water on the table and face up. The Eye makes spamming Moonfire criminally cheap and the draw just becomes ridiculous. If you add into the equation another Dreamstate, you're going to find yourself with a very full hand. A bad thing if you're playing a Discard Priest but also bad if you can't Poison Water your graveyard. In the games where I've had out 2 Dreamstates, I've come dangerously close to decking myself, so be warned.
Anyone who's played Boomkin knows it's a very reactive deck(vs. something like Form of the Serpent which is pretty proactive). You'll want to play cards only when forced. You'll want to get out a Runesong Dagger, Dreamstate, The Eye, and Moonkin Form every game. You have to know on what turn to play those cards and which one is more important to have in play. There is no set order, rather the order should be decided by your opponent's deck. The other cards of the deck should sit in hand until the time comes that they are needed. It's not uncommon for a Boomkin player's turn to be short, essentially drawing a card, possibly laying a resource and then passing the turn.
The end of the opponent's turn can consist on spamming Moonfire and also cycling through the deck via Stormrage Cover. Stormrage Cover is a huge draw engine for the deck, and the discarding effect the helm has is rarely every a hindrance because certain cards are not needed in certain situations. They aren't necessarily dead cards, but for instance if your opponent isn't playing many weapons, by all means feel free to discard Sileas.
The deck has weaknesses. Mage control with a lot of counters would be an unfavorable matchup. You've have to rely on a lucky Barkskin hitting the table. If you're expecting a lot of Mage, I'd recommend main decking a few copies of Barkskin. Another weakness is a very fast rush. The situation you may face is not having enough answers to rush, and I've tried to balance things as best as I could. I'm sure they'll be a Serpent deck out that just hits their curve of Wazluk, Kagella, Serpent Form, Twig and then Rak for the win. There aren't very many decks that would be able to stop that, but I feel I've included enough hate to keep Twig/Form of the Serpent of the table(doing the math that's 8 cards in their deck you need to avoid and you've got 6 maindecked answers between The Natural Order and the Shadalas). I use Serpent decks as an example but one can substitute any rush there.
Boomkin's main strength is against control. Boomkin is the bane of many control decks, such as Warrior(see last weeks blog). Though I haven't tested it much, I can't see Discard Priest being a huge problem, as long as you can keep Dreamstate on the table. The biggest threat you face from the caster classes is The Bringer of Death. That's why it's important to leave your resources open to react. If they Bringer on 8, you'd want to get the last Moonfire spams in to replenish your hand.
Overall I think Boomkin has a lot of life left in it. I don't think it'll be the deck that everyone is gunning to beat, but I think it's a threat that lurks in the background. It takes a great deal of skill to pilot a Boomkin deck, so novices need not apply. Once you've practiced with it, you begin to see intricacies that maybe didn't jump out at you on paper. I've always like Boomkin and I think Servants of the Betrayer will only make this deck even more of a contender(if only they'd give Druid a counterspell of some sort). As always, if you've got a great addition you think I may have missed or maybe you think I'm just full of hot air, drop me a line below or via email at borbwab@gmail.com
Related to:
World of Warcraft TCG
